I always keep trying to tell people that it's not my real name. My birth certificate tells a completely different story, though; it says that my real name is Awcrap Dickinson. The fact that my name had a bad word in it was, in all honestly, an accident. It's kind of like this; when I was born, my mother was asked what she was going to name me. This was her response.
"My baby's name will be - AW, CRAP!"
According to Mom, the reason why she shouted was because she suddenly remembered that she forgot to hire a babysitter for my older sister, Bea, who was about three at the time. The nurses just made an assumption of what my name was going to be, and Mom was too exhausted from childbirth to correct them. My father left while Mom was pregnant with me, so there was no way to correct them.
Thus, Awcrap became my name.
Because some people consider "crap", which was in my name, to be a curse word, my whole life was a disaster. No relative would ever step a foot into our house (at least when I was home), and whenever there was a family reunion, Mom and Bea would have to go alone, leaving me behind with a baby-sitter who hated me just because of my name,
"His bad name is a bad omen."
That's what most of the people who knows about my true name said about me.
At school, I was required to go by the name A.C. My real name was something only my teachers knew; if my real name were to be discovered by the student body, I would be expelled. For this reason, I kept my distance from everyone else and had absolutely no friends as a result.
However, this changed one day during my freshman year of high school.
I was finally able to genuinely smile for the first time in my life, and it was all because of one girl.
The girl who refused to judge books by their cover.
"I cannot stand it anymore! Today, after school, I need to see you in the band room!"
It happened immediately as I opened my locker right when the first day of school after winter break ended. I had as good of a Christmas as I could possibly ever have, and I was looking forward to another uneventful year of keeping my secret name concealed. This was the exact opposite of what I was looking forward to or expecting. An envelope - the one with that letter inside, floated out of my locker as I thrust it open, leading up to me catching it. Before I opened the envelope and read the letter, I took notice of how the letter was concealed by a heart-shaped sticker. I had my suspicions, and after I read the letter, my suspicions were confirmed.
This is a love letter.
Some random chick wanted me to date her.
Of course, for the sake of my secret being safe, I would have to reject her. I was only going to the band room to do so and do it politely. I had never even seen the band room before, though, so I had to constantly ask for directions. When I finally found the school's Music Department, there were two doors that led into the band room. I walked in through the door on the left.
It was a very large room. A director's stand was at the front of the room, and it was facing approximately a hundred chairs and music stands that were all lined up in multiple rows. Besides me, there was no one in the band room.
I decided to sit down in one of the chairs while waiting for the girl who wanted to confess her love to me. I was about to walk over to a chair when the sole of my shoe suddenly came into contact with something round. This caused me to slip and fall; luckily, I managed to stop myself from coming into contact with the floor by reaching my arms out and letting my hands smack onto the hard, concrete floor. It stung my hands a little, but there was no damage done to me.
I regained my composure and looked back to see what caused my fall. It was a silver cylinder-like thing; it looked like it could be a mouthpiece for a flute. No, wait, scratch that. It is a mouthpiece for a flute.
What the hell? What kind of idiot would leave a mouthpiece in the middle of the floor? I thought.
Deciding that I would take the mouthpiece to the school's Lost-and-Found later, I put the mouthpiece in my coat pocket and proceeded to sit in a randomly-selected chair.
Thus, my wait for the soon-t-be-heartbroken-although-I-will-be-letting-her-down-gently girl began.
....I got stood up.
I had been waiting for 10 minutes; surely, the buses had already left to take students home. I missed my freaking bus because of this girl. Now, I'm either going to have to call my mom to take me home or walk home in the snow. I didn't have my cell phone on me, so calling Mom wasn't an option; the only thing I could do is walk outside in the snow, with the temperature being close to freezing. I sighed and was about to stand up, but....
"Oh well, I guess I'll practice a little bit here, where no one can bother me, before I go home."
I suddenly heard the voice of an angel.
I immediately turned my head toward the direction of one of the doors - the one I didn't come in through - and there she was.
The most beautiful girl I had ever seen.
She had brown hair (with a hint of red at the tips) that stretched all the way down to her hips. She had sparkling, baby blue eyes, and a smile was formed on her pink lips. She was wearing a pink sweater, blue jeans, and black tennis shoes. She held a black instrument case in her right hand; it looked suspiciously like it could be the case for a flute.
The girl took a seat in the chair at the end of the row of the chair that I sat in. She paid no attention to me, so I figured that it wasn't her. I got up and was about to leave when suddenly....
"Aw, crap!"
I heard that angelic voice of hers say my name. As much as I hated my name, my heart skipped a beat when I heard her say it out loud. (I figured she wasn't referring to me, but still.) I walked over to the girl; she had a distressed look on her face, but I had this feeling in my guy that she was actually feeling a different emotion. I just shoved that feeling to the side and spoke the first words I've ever said to a fellow schoolmate.
"What's wrong?" I asked, feeling slightly awkward from having not actually spoken to anyone before.
The girl just looked at me and spoke.
"Oh, hello. I didn't see you there. Nothing to worry about, I just seemed to have left the mouthpiece for my flute somewhere."
Suddenly, I got a feeling of what she was talking about. I took the mouthpiece I found out of my pocket, handed it to her, and asked, "Are you talking about this?"
The girl eyed the mouthpiece and nodded. She then took it from me and thanked me with the biggest smile in the world.
"Thank you, Awcrap!"
"....Wait, how did you know my name?"
Asking that question may have been the biggest mistake I've ever made. Once I realized exactly what I said, I quickly covered my mouth; however, it was already too late.
"Oh, wow, that really is your real name! Mission accomplished," the girl said as she put her mouthpiece inside of her flute case (just for the record, the rest of her flute hadn't been assembled).
....Wait, what?
"Wait a minute. Who are you, and what do you mean, 'mission accomplished'?" I asked.
The girl closed her flute case and turned toward me with that smile still on her face.
"Nice to meetcha! My name is Chocolate Tesuto!" she introduced herself.
"....That's a strange name," I accidentally thought out loud.
"Says the guy who has crap in his name," Chocolate responded. "In all seriousness, though, I know my name is strange. People tell me that a lot. I don't really give a damn, though. I honestly don't think just a name defines who you are, Awcrap."
"Hold on a second. How do you know my real name in the first place?" I asked.
"Well, at the beginning of the school year," Chocolate explained, "I was just passing by the guidance counselor's office while you were in there. Then, I kind of overheard the guidance counselor call you by your real name. That got me a bit curious, and my curiosity has finally reached its peak. Over winter break, I put together a plan to lure you here and get you to reveal your real name!"
"....You're not recording this for the whole world to see, are you?" I asked in response.
"Ha! Of course not! Why would I?" Chocolate laughed.
"Well, the thing is, if any of the students find out about my real name, I'll get expelled," I explained. "After all, my real name does have the word 'crap' in it."
"Don't worry! I'll keep your secret. I'll even call you A.C. in public, and Awcrap only when we're alone!" Chocolate told me.
"Promise?" I asked; I had never been able to trust anyone before, so how was I supposed to trust a girl who I just met?
"Cross my heart and hope to die! I'm not the kind of selfish bitch who breaks promises like this!" Chocolate said sincerely.
I decided to just take her word for it; after all, she did seem like a nice person.
"So.... do you mind driving me home? I kind of missed my bus," Chocolate asked.
I got a bit confused for a second, but then, I got what she was asking me.
"Well, you see, Chocolate," I explained, "I'm only a freshman. I'm still a bit too young to drive, and I don't even have my learner's permit yet."
"Seriously?!" she exclaimed out of complete surprise. "You look like you could be a senior! Are you sure you're the same age as me?!"
"Yeah, I kind of get that a lot," I told her.
That was actually true. More than once, I've overheard my classmates say something along the lines of, "A.C. looks like a senior!" or "Are you sure he hasn't been held back a few grades?" Point is, I'm younger than I look.
"Well, what now?" Chocolate asked.
"Well, there's only thing that we can do now," I replied.
That was how I ended up walking home in what was now practically a blizzard alongside a girl who I had just met and already knew my secret.
There were only two words I could use to describe my reaction to the fate I had to resign to.
Aw, crap.
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