There was once a time in high schools all across America that you could go to a football game with your sweetheart and not have to worry about someone trying to take your high school sweetheart away from you. Sadly, that time had passed long ago. Now you can hardly walk down the halls without someone trying to call your girlfriend or boyfriend a babe or hunk. It’s just the way it is now. Theres nothing else to say about it. It was a sad time where cheating, one night stands, and date rapes became a regular activity in high schools.

Lincoln High School was no exception of these activities. Lincoln High used to be a very respectable high school. LHS was not only number one in the state for most sports but was also number one in education. Sadly, those respectable standards have dropped drastically. As it first appeared the changes seemed to not make any sense at all until the administration did some studies. According to the information gathered by the administration, as the amount of drugs, alcohol, and sexual activities increased, the academic and athletic numbers dropped. Now the administration had to find out a plan to get the bad numbers down and the good numbers up. They had weekly meetings on new ideas to help their school become more respectable. They came up with the usual answers like more sex ed classes, stricter drug tests for sports, and drug and alcohol classes.

One example on why they would need these is James Tyler. Measuring in at 155 pounds and six foot five inches, James was no scrawny kid. James, also, was not only number three in his class but was number one on the basketball court. James was basically the high school example of where hard work gets you in life. James’ family life was normal down to the dot. His dad supported him in every game and his mother, well, she did the same. The only difference was that his mom awarded him with cake and his dad awarded him with a nice protein shake. In school, James did, against popular belief, not have a girlfriend. Why did he not have a girlfriend? Well, he never really found anyone he had a lot of interest in. Although, he would find that his non interest would change.

Her name was Stephanie Frost and she was beautiful. To James, he realized that he wanted to date this girl. The only problem with that, his friend Troy liked her too. Although, who wouldn’t want to? She seemed perfect. James had noticed Troy talking to her and it seemed like she was really interested in Troy, until she noticed James watching and waved. James blushed and waved back. Yep, he thought, she’s cute.

Later on in the day, James did his attempt to talk to Stephanie. The conversation was basically just the usual exchange of words one might find in a school hallway. James did his best to get her to maybe fall for him instead of Troy, and so far it was working. By the end of the conversation, he had gotten Stephanie’s number and was going to call her tonight. James felt a slight sensation of success. All of that changed later when he got a text from Troy. The message read, “Hey. You want to hang out tonight?”. James replied with a yes and eventually they had gotten together at Troy’s house around 8:00. Something felt odd to James though, as if he had felt a sense of regret.

Not after long, Stephanie texted James. “Hey, weren’t you going to call me?”. Oh crap, James thought. I can’t call her now that I’m with Troy.

“Who’s that?” Troy asked.

“Oh, no one. Just a friend, “ James lied. “Don’t worry about it.”

“You’re lying. Give me that phone!” Troy exclaimed as he tackled James taking the cell phone. “Stephanie? Why were you going to call Stephanie?”

“I was going to ask her questions about the English assignment.” James said trying to avoid the truth.
“Oh, I thought you liked her or something,” Troy chuckled. “You know I like her right?”

“Yeah. I wouldn’t try and double cross you, bro.” James said still trying to do his best on lying.
“Good. It’s getting late. You should probably get home.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow at school.” James said as he took his phone back and left the house. James had went home and finally was able to call Stephanie. “Hey, I’m sorry I didn’t reply to your text.”

“It’s okay.” Stephanie giggled. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing. Hey, do you want to go see a movie on Friday or something?” James said trying to convince her.
“What movie? What about that new chick-flick?”
“Sure. Any movie you want, really.”

“Cool! Anyway, I better get to bed.” She said through a yawn.

“Alright, goodnight beautiful,” James said and immediately covering his mouth.

“Goodnight handsome,” Stephanie said giggling, and then hung up the phone. James chuckled and then went to lay in his bed. Well on one side I’ve got a date with the hottest girl in school and then on the other I’ve betrayed my friend, James thought. I hate myself sometimes. I’m sorry Troy. Please don’t hate me man. I love you Stephanie..

The next day came, just as days do. Although today, to James, felt off. He saw Stephanie at breakfast and she waved at him and he waved back. It felt good, but something just felt wrong with the atmosphere. He went to first block and tried to figure out why it felt so weird at school. James walked into the classroom to find everyone sitting in their assigned desks-except Troy. He must be late, James thought to himself. The bell rang and James sat in his seat and prepared his desk. Fifteen minutes into the class, there was still no sign of Troy. Must have forgot to set his alarm. Thirty minutes go by and there is still an empty seat where Troy should be sitting. The bell rings and James leaves the class. He sees Stephanie in the hallway and stops her to talk. “Hey, do you know where Troy’s at?”

“Oh yeah, I was talking to him this morning and he said he didn’t want to come to school today. Something about having his heart broken, I don’t know,” Stephanie said.

“What? How could his heart be broken?”

“I have no idea, but I have to get going to class or Mrs. Kratz is going to kill me.”

“Okay, I’ll try and text him,” James said.

“Alright, tell him I said hi. I love you,” Stephanie said as she kissed his cheek.

“I love you too.”

Hours later, there was still no response from Troy. At lunch, James tried to call Troy’s cell phone. There was no answer. James began to worry and didn’t eat lunch out of stress. Finally, the end of the day had come and James still had heard nothing from Troy. James has kept checking his phone every minute waiting for a response from Troy but there was still no word from him. James had found Stephanie and asked if she had heard anything yet, and she declined.

After worrying about his friend the entire way home, James could not concentrate on anything else. He had arrived at his house and something felt entirely wrong about walking into the empty house. He dropped his book bag and went down the stairs to his basement room. In his room, sitting on the couch, was Troy.

“Dude, where were you today?” James said exclaiming.

“I didn’t want to go to school. I didn’t want to have to look at you and Stephanie being all lovey dovey.”
“What do you mean? I’m not dating Stephanie.”

“Oh save it, I know you were lying,” Troy said as he stood up. “I saw you look at Stephanie with those puppy dog eyes. I know you were lying to me about this last night.” James had no response. “What? Are you scared? Come on, you’re stronger than me. Fight me. What do you have to lose? Come on, don’t be a wimp,” Troy said to James as he picked James up and threw him onto the bed.

“Come on, I don’t want to fight. Let’s just talk it out.”

“I’m not talking to you until you fight me.” Troy picked James up off the bed and punched him in the gut, knocking the wind out of his former friend. James fell to the ground gasping for air. “You want to talk now? Hard to talk with no air in your lungs, huh?” Troy kicked James in the side. “I thought we were friends, James. You told me that you were just asking her about an english assignment. You knew I liked her! Why did you ruin this for me? You can get any girl you want and you pick the one I wanted?” Troy had gotten onto James’ body and began to pummel his ex-best friend’s stomach.

“Stop,” James said in a wheezing voice. “Please just stop.”

“No, you hurt me, now I’m going to hurt you!” Troy had slammed his fist into the side of James’ head and James was knocked out cold. Troy had gotten up and walked away muttering angrily to himself on the way out.
James’ mother and father would not be home for another five hours and James’ lay on the floor unconscious. The phone in his pocket was vibrating rapidly from incoming calls and texts from Stephanie. Stephanie had become so worried she had taken her parents’ car to James’ house to see if he was okay. She entered the empty house and started calling out for James. “James! Where are you?!” She continued searching the house until she got down the stairway to his room. She gasped and ran towards his body. “James! James, wake up! Oh no!” Stephanie looked at his pale, bruised, unconscious body. She picked up his phone and began to call 911.

After only five minutes the ambulance had rushed to the house and a team of the finest EMT’s had taken James and Stephanie into the ambulance. The ambulance rushed to the hospital with the paramedics doing all they could do to get James’ awake. In a nerve-wrecking seven minutes the ambulance had made it to the hospital and brought James in. They had taken him into the ER and were furiously working on him to wake him up. Stephanie had called his parents and they immediately left their jobs and rushed to the hospital.

Finally after an excruciating two hours, James had opened his eyes, but only slightly, and saw Stephanie. He couldn’t talk as his jaw was too sore. He motioned for a piece of paper and pencil and began to write slowly on the paper. Finally, he had finished and folded the piece of paper and laid it on the table. Stephanie picked up the note and on it were four simple words written in big, bold letters;.

I LOVE YOU STEPHANIE.