ven·ture

ˈven(t)SHər/

noun

a risky or daring journey or undertaking.

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"Alright class," My English teacher booms, grabbing everyone's attention, quieting us all down in the process, "I know that some of you have a had a rough summer, especially with the death of our superstar Dean, but it is mandatory that I do this so..."

He sighs really quickly before continuing making it abundently clear that he doesn't want to have to do this, "I am required to have you all write papers on your feelings if a student dies, to make sure you all are not depressed of some shit. Anyway, take out some paper and write an essay about your feelings. It has to be at the end of the paper." He sighs again and it annoys me at how annoyed he is, shouldnt he be caring about our well being rather than what he would rather be doing right now?

He was walking away to his desk before he stops and speaks again, "I want silence in here for thirty minutes then we will present. For once these don't have to be school appropriate."

I nod my head before grabbing for a sheet of paper and pressing my paper to the top right, writing my name at he top right corner. I glance up at Troy who is sitting across from me, I notice that he is staring at me with a small smile and blush. I smile at him, which he responds with blushing even more and quickly grabbing his pencil and scribbling something onto his paper.

I chuckle as I watch my boyfriend scribble nervously onto the lined paper and an almost joy fills me as I think about how lucky I am he chose me. I look down at my almost blank paper and the happiness leaves me as I try to think of what I should write about. I am not really good at writing down my feelings or doing anything with my feelings really.

"Hey..." Troy whispers, grabbing my attention and I look up at him to see what he wants. He gives a smile before handing me a small piece of paper. I give him a confused look for a second before looking down and opening up the paper he gave me. I smile and nod at him, thankful he is so good.

Within an instant I grab my pencil and begin writing onto the paper, finding out what to say thanks to my beloved boyfriend. I am so thankful that he knows me so well.

"Alright, time is up," The teacher announces while making it towards the front of the classroom now, "Any volunteers? Ah, OK Samantha go ahead."

Samantha Greene, blonde, dumb, selfish, known her since second grade. She is a lot like Jenna, but way dumber. Her ex Rich was sleeping with other woman while she was sleeping other men and they broke up, but are stupidly still friends. Everyone knows it and for some reason she bathes in the attention she gets from it.

She clears her throat as she steps up, pulling her paper to her face before popping a bubble with her bright pink gum, classic.... "Begin when you want Samantha," The teacher says, but he obviously didn't mean it.

"I am sad by the fact that dean died. Dean wasn't really my friend, but we talked occasionally and he was a really nice person. I heard a rumor that he could never keep a girlfriend and I could never believe that because he was just the sweetest person. My friend who once dated him explained that it was because he was too nice. He was nice to every one he met and that made his girlfriends jealous." She went on and on about how she wished she could have dated him or whatever.

By time she is done I am on the verge falling asleep, this entire thing was just that dumb, "Alright, who is next? No one...really? Fine how about....Jackson go."

Jackson groans before standing and heading up to the front of the class. Just looking at Jackson you could tell he hasn't been sleeping well lately or taking care of himself at all. He has messy brown hair that he used to spend at least half an hour getting to be perfect in the morning, he wore a dark gray sweater which contrasted with his usual T.V. show referenced shirts. He had the biggest and darkest bags under his eyes that you could even imagine. When he opened his mouth and began speaking it sounded as though a zombie was speaking and not an actual human, "Dean was a close friend of mine. We were both on the football team during my freshman year, but he had to quit because of theater."

I get sort of scared and grab onto Troy's hand. He reassures me by rubbing the side of my hand with his thumb and the action makes me forget about my fear, but rather make me worry about how my heart is about to explode from pure joy. This boy is a toxic drug that I am way too addicted to, but I don't want to stop my addiction.

"Dean was always a nice person, he never deserved any heartbreak. I didn't know very many of the girls he dated since he was a year older than I am, but I know that all of them were selfish...most of them were selfish. He did have good taste in girls though, he just couldn't say no and always ended up with the wrong one."

"Thank you, Jackson," The teacher says, "Uhm, we have time for one more person...how about you, Troy?"

Troy sighs rubs my hand one last time before walking up to the front of the class and beginning, "He was a jerk. It pisses me off that all of you are talking about him being this super nice person, but he really wasn't. I probably shouldn't talk about this, but last year there was a group chat that had a few people from our school it in. It was fun, I guess, but at one point we didn't use the chat for a month because of drama over Dean.

"My current girlfriend, Veronica, was dating him over that time. First of all, that makes me mad in itself, but that all could have been avoided. Had he just said no to the girl he dated before Veronica that drama wouldn't be there. I don't understand how playing with a girls feelings is considered nice, if you don't like them reject them. It is better than living in a fake relationship like that. What if it lasted years? If he can't say no there is no way he would be able to break up with them.

"Lastly, hypothetically speaking if he was in a toxic relationship where the girlfriend was a jerk and was controlling he wouldn't be able to get out of it. He couldn't stand up to her, because he is 'too nice' and he couldn't run away from her. The only thing he could do would be to ask a friend to make her think of Dean differently and that is like the worst thing."

Troy finished it off with a huff and a loud stomp of his foot before making his way over to me. I genuinely smile at my boyfriend, I know he didn't really direct his paper at me, but it sort of makes me think. Dean wasn't really the nice person we all took him for, he was really just sort of a pushover and coward.

My gaze travels from Troy to the bloodied figure in the corner of the room and I see him shaking, probably about to cry - if ghosts can cry. I suddenly feel guilty for thinking badly of a dead person, but not for long because the angelic voice I love oh-so-much spoke.

"I can't wait to hear your paper," Troy says, snapping me out of my trance, but I am not mad about it. I love every single word that he says to me.

"Huh?"

"Your essay, you were mumbling a lot while writing it. I can tell it's gonna be good, especially since I helped you with it," He chuckles while offering his hand to me since mine were in my lap. I smile generously and place my hands in his, the warmth makes my stomach do back flips and I am instantly cured of any bad emotions.

"Oh yeah..." I say looking down at my paper, seeing all the angry and sad scribbled thrown all over it, maybe I should throw it away, I mean Troy really made me think. My paper doesn't exactly seem appropriate after realized that Dean was not all that nice, "Yeah."

"Well, class, we'll be spending the rest of next class reading all of these, so be ready," The teacher announces, "You all have two minutes before class ends, pack up."

"Yours was good," I compliment Troy, shaking the idea of throwing my paper away, I would have to redo it then, but I have to go to Rachel's sister's baby shower. Oh, wait...I can't.

"Thanks," He chuckles showing me his paper, "What I wrote down has nothing to do with what I said though. I mean, I would rather just talk from the heart than write it down. I might have been too mean though."

"It was sort of mean," I agree, "But I think it was a needed wake up call for all of us, thank you for that." I smile at him while letting go of his hand so I can begin packing my stuff to go to next period - which I sadly don't have with Troy.

"You're welcome..." He mumbles giving me a quick kiss on the cheek, which sends both of us into a pair of smiling goofballs in love. Our faces are both a bright shade of red and I don't think I ever felt this way with Dean or Jackson. I just feel so at home and comfortable with Troy, like it is only natural for the two of us to be this way. I guess that is what finding your soulmate is like.

I have such an amazing person for me to put all my trust in and if that isn't just the best thing ever then nothing is. The small smile I had before turns into a full on ear-to-ear grin and I haven't been this happy in what feels like forever. I glance over towards the corner again, but the ghost isn't there and he is actually standing over Jackson.

Now, how do you deal with demons?