Seen Chapter 1

Did you know that everything that is important you can’t see? Air, we need it to breathe but we can’t see it. Knowledge, we can’t thrive without knowledge, we can’t do anything without knowledge. But we can’t see it. Memories, memories can be the things we hold the closest to your hearts. Except we can’t see them. I guess that means you can’t count out the things you can’t see. Except no one ever sees me and no one thinks I’m important. I’m Claire and I am the most invisible girl at our school.

Not literally of course. It's just that no one ever sees me. I’m pretty sure they don’t even know I exist sometimes. I never get invited to parties, or called on in class, no one even sits by me during lunch so I eat my lunch in the bathroom. I know it sounds weird, but it's less embarrassing than sitting by myself.

Everyday it's the same old routine. I wake up before my alarm goes off at 6:00, get dressed, shower, brush my teeth, and eat my favorite breakfast, a fruit parfait with granola, then try to catch the bus. I say try because no matter what time I get to the bus stop, the bus always leaves without me. I always end up having to ask my mom for a ride to school. She doesn’t like that. She thinks that I am just being lazy and still makes me run down to the bus stop everyday at 7:00.

When I finally get to school no one pays attention to me either. Everyone is slamming me into lockers as they pass, not even acknowledging that I’m there. But at least I don’t get bullied. Sometimes being invisible has its perks. To be honest I don’t really pay attention to anyone at school either. I barely even know 5 people in my senior class. And this is my 4th year at this school. Well there might be one person who’s name I know. One person I pay attention to. Caleb Marquette. He’s the most popular guy in our school. He was also my first crush. But like everyone else, he doesn’t even know I exist. I’ve known him for a while. We even went to kindergarten together. Even that doesn’t make him know me. I’d like to say that I don’t have a crush on him anymore. I’d like to say I got over that crush in 7th grade but the truth is, I never did. He may be the most popular guy in school and he may have the most beautiful girlfriend but he is extremely kind and never bullies anyone. Unlike the other popular guys who give kids swirlies regularly.

Most of the popular guys are rich and on the football team and don’t have to work for anything. Spoiled kids are rarely nice to kids who aren’t popular because they blindly assume that everyone has the same privileges that they do. Caleb’s not like that. He’s nice to everyone. He says hi to people in the hallways and actually does the work when you have a group project. He’s pretty smart too. Sometimes he just doesn’t always showcase it that well. Taking all of that into consideration you can see why I like him but you can also see why he would never even give me a second thought. It doesn’t matter how nice he is. Nobody ever sees me. So you can imagine my surprise when today while I’m at my locker, he comes up to me.