I had everything I needed, already within me, my skills, my talent.

All I needed to do was destroy the whole system holding me back.

*

The bell rang with an almost rhythmic sound, 1:00pm. Everyone in the class hurriedly packed up their belongings and began rushing towards the lockers, hoping to get a nice hot lunch early. These people were practically robots, their only purpose to serve as a group of background characters in the panels of a manga. Every single day, they mindless rampaged the canteen, when it was obvious that bringing your own lunch was not only much cheaper but also more convenient.

Behind the swarm of buffalo people, I slowly made my wat to my locker. I had prepared a small lunch for myself, consisting of a compact, juicy ham sandwich, an apple, a small oat muesli bar and a little chocolate bar which I packed as a treat for myself. The entire meal came to less than $4 in total and yet most students were spending over $10 just for some heated burgers, pies or sausage rolls which were lower quality than ones you'd find at a gas station.

It was a little disheartening, coming to the conclusion that I was in fact the Side Character in someone else's story, but that may have been something that would change the way I see everything. I have read lots of books before, I've seen about every trope there could possibly be. Now I could easily predict their actions, determining the outcome before it even begins.​ Today, we find ourselves observing an almost cringeworthy clichéd romance trope. It seems I was trapped inside of someone else's romance story. A wild Mackenzie stumbled into my view as I saw the beginning of a definitely very promising romantic confession where I definitely don't already know that she will say no.

The boy was about as interesting as a physics textbook. His hair was a bland black colour and he had no obvious unique aspects of clothing on any part of his body. I'm sorry, but you simply do not stand a chance with the heroine.

With an embarrassing tone, the words, "...will you go out with me?" was uttered in complete disarray and without any sense of flow. It was like he was choking as he was speaking and to top it off, he bowed his head like he was in some Japanese high school anime. The response was already clear before Mackenzie even opened her mouth, "I'm sorry...", you can imagine the rest in your head, I'll save some of the humiliation.

It was funny, assuming this was the standard high school romance development, I should be waiting for the male lead to pop his head out at any time now. I really wondered what he would look like, according to my predictions, it should be very obvious who they are as soon as I see them first hand.

After that miniature commotion, I decided to find a nice shaded area of the courtyard where I slowly ate my lunch. I looked out towards the hustle and bustle of the school grounds. I guess I was the standard shy girl trope it seems. Author person decided not to give me any friends which was not very kind of him, but oh well, at least he programmed me to not feel much loneliness which was good enough for his incompetence.

Almost as soon as it began, lunch was over, everyone huddled up into small posses like scabs on the green grass of the school grounds. I opened my phone, 2:05 was plastered on the front screen, I put in my password and looked at the classes I had for the rest of the day, well the one last class I had in the day, Biology.I had neither a positive nor a negative feelings as I read it. None of the subjects really stood out to me either in a positive or negative way. They were all just subjects, which I did, none of them were hard but most importantly, I didn't care about any of them.

My brain now pondered. At first, I felt like the fact that I never achieved what I wanted was what gave my life substance. It was like the only reason I kept pushing was because I had some loose flying hope that kept telling me, 'granted, you haven't succeeded the last ??? times you tried but there's like maybe a possibility you'll get somewhere in life' or something like that. But now that I've figured out the truth, that small possibility was pulled out from underneath me like some funky magical rug.

But now I had a different goal, Side Character or not, if anyone can change the world and become the Main Character it was me, and now for the first ever time in my life, I was determined, and I knew exactly what was standing in my way.

I heaved my stack of books towards the biology classroom. The school just loves increasing the amount of books we need to buy every year. It was to the point where I couldn't even see in front of me when a slight breeze caused one cover of the books to flip up. This was going to be a problem, just as I took my last step, my foot seemed to have hit something causing me to topple to the ground like a house of cards.

Whatever, this wasn't a big deal, there wasn't even many people around me to witness the moment. I slowly picked up my books one by one, "Hey, are you okay?" Just another random boy deciding to help, it was pretty nice of them to do so. I still looked down at all of my belongings as the two of use picked them all up. As all the books were off the ground the boy said a little, "here." I gave a generic reply, "...thanks," and I assumed that was the end of it.

As I looked up towards the boy, something struck me. Not literally but figuratively. This boy, he had a fringe covering some of his face and he was unexpectedly cute. He even gave me a nice smile before walking off.

It took less time than I would've expected. Who would've known the coolest boy in school would appear like this, right in front of me, helping me pick up my books.

I certainly wouldn't've guessed it.

And I'd never forget his face.