To the Love of My Life

From that time on, the childhood sweethearts started spending more time together.

Primary school was unlike kindergarten, with more time spent on play than on learning.

By the second semester of their first school year, Steve Burton had crossed the line into his second decade of life, officially turning eleven.

At that time, Steve started refusing rides from the family driver to and from school. Mountain bikes were in fashion then, and he, along with Rusell Henris, Howard Coleman, and Edward Woods, rode their mountain bikes in an attempt to look cool. Dressed in white shirts carrying backpacks, they would speed past the school forest, under the towering Paulownia trees.

This was a daily spectacle at the school.

Ruby Gregory and Madeleine, on the other hand, were still being chauffeured by their respective family drivers.

Despite her young age, Ruby was prone to procrastination. She would watch cartoons the moment she got home from school, sometimes until eight or nine at night, at which point she’d realize that she hadn’t done her homework. She would then, under her mother’s nagging, pick up her pen and start writing about “Mountains, Woods, Water, Earth,” while struggling to stay awake.

One weekend, Ruby was so engaged in playtime that she completely forgot about her homework. Only when she was dropped off at the school gates by the family driver on Monday morning did she realize that she had not written even a single word of her homework.

For a primary school student, criticism from one’s teachers was a matter of great shame. Afraid that she’d be made to stand in front of the whole class as punishment, much like a student at the back of her row who habitually failed to complete his homework, she hung around the school gates, unable to muster the courage to enter the school. Finally deciding against it, she slipped into the school’s bicycle shed and began diving into her backlog of work.

As Ruby wrote, she kept checking the time. There was half an hour left till the start of school, and she had barely covered a third of her homework.

If she finished her homework, she would be late for class.

If she wasn’t late, she would be unable to complete her homework. It seemed like she couldn’t escape punishment from her teacher no matter what.

As Ruby was torn between the severity of being punished for being late and not completing her homework, the screech of a bike brake resounded in front of her, followed by Howard Coleman’s voice, “Ruby Gregory, what are you doing here?”

Ruby looked up to see both Rusell Henris and Edward Woods pulling up and stopping their bikes as well. They were all looking at her.

However, as if Ruby didn’t even exist, Steve didn’t slow down at all. Instead, he skillfully maneuvered around her, parked his bike neatly in an empty spot, and locked it. Only then did he, with the bike key in hand and the backpack slung over one shoulder, walked over to Ruby..