While away, I got very bored at times, and among other things, I did an English Writing Past Paper (from '06). What I wrote (to time the time limit of 75 minutes) is completely true, and written in the first person with reason (e.g., it's me).
Task
New places, new faces.
Write about a time when you had to cope with new people in new surroundings.
Remember to include your thoughts and feelings.
Response
Walking into the school building, everyone seems to intently be going somewhere. I have no idea where to go. This is my first day. I stand on a single spot for what seems like an eternity as everyone rushes past. Eventually someone moves me away from my beloved spot, taking me to the nine other people starting in the same year as me. The wonders of starting at an eighteen-hundred person school are upon me, or so I thought; the school has no timetable for me. Almost an hour later I finally have a timetable, and someone (now) in my registration class is sent to get me.
We scarcely get to the classroom when the bell goes. Again I have the sense of unknown danger walking through the packed corridors full of people intently going places as I go to my first ever lesson: English. Finding myself being sat beside a girl who has herself just started here, I can't help to think that we're not even beside people who have been at this school for years and can help us get into a groups of friends, especially due to how shy I am. Oh how I would love to have friends in this huge unknown place…
Surviving the next few lessons (and break!), a girl manages to catch my eye, despite the million more urgent things on my mind. Do I really need such distractions on my first day?
Later, dangerously making my way to another class, I realise she's in it too. Am I going to be able to get any work done whatsoever? Within minutes the person beside me, a boy also in my English class, realises who I'm constantly looking at. Questioning me as to what colour her bra is, I answer honestly. It's black, and rather visible through her thin white shirt. I try to reason with him that I hadn't been specifically looking, it just rather stands out. He won't believe it, despite it being the truth.
Alas, over the remainder of the day, I manage to forget about her and get my mind back to more urgent issues, like friends (or lack thereof). Despite sitting beside her in the final lesson of the day, my mind is miles beyond her. I couldn't care less. I'm surrounded by people I don't know. I just want to escape.
Almost a year later I am again sitting near her in class. She, completely unexpectedly, asks me, "Do you fancy me?".
"No", I say answering honestly. Turning around to return to work, my mind starts to go astray, filling with thoughts of her. This time, however, not just how she looks, but also how nice she is. Shaking the thought of her out of my head I attempt to return to work.
For many months my mind remains full of her, but I am too shy and cowardly to do anything about my feelings. In the end, I begin to talk to my closest friends about her, not knowing whether it would be a mistake to talk about her or not.
Months later, my friends start to go mad at my constant talk of her. They always say they'll force me to ask her out, yet they never manage. I can scarcely talk to her, yet alone do anything more. She knows how I feel about her, she's heard my friends trying to get me to ask her out often enough, yet I remain too shy to do anything about it. I've been talking about her for an eternity, maybe I should just return to my spot, unsure of what to do, unsure of how to speak to her, unsure of how others will react.