• I sat there in awe as I watched her walk through the cafeteria with such elegance. She was Jennie Santos a.k.a. the person every girl wants to be. She sat down, swept her golden brown curls to one side and picked up her fork. “Wow,” my friend Elissa Ridel said. “I know,” I heard Jackie Bush say. “I’d say that too if she weren’t how she is. You know, mean, self-centered, rude,” I told them. Then Daniel came over. He was a senior, whereas the rest of us were sophomores. I really liked him even if he was Jennie’s brother and I knew him really well too. “Hey,” he said to me. “BYE!!” Elissa and Jackie said in unison. Now they decide to leave, I thought. “Don’t leave,” I muttered. “So, do you want to go out Saturday night?” And my heart skipped a beat. Usually guys didn’t ask me out and I didn’t ask them. I’ve actually never been on a date before which was pretty pathetic considering I was in the tenth grade. “Are you okay?” he asked me, “Should I leave?” He started to stand up, but I pulled him back down, his wrist was warm under my hands. That’s when it happened.

    eek eek eek

    “Everyone get out of the building now!!!” someone shouted, “Now!!! There’s a fire on the west side of the building!!!” Great, I thought, Just when things are going my way, something has to happen. Bells started to ring and everyone ran out in an un-orderly panicking manner. “Let’s go, Alexa,” Daniel grabbed my hand and literally swept me off my feet. We started running with the crowd making our way out of the building and he never let go.

    heart smile smile heart

    Saturday came way too fast. Luckily though, our school would be perfectly fine, it was just a small part of the fifth floor burned off, so ninth grade classes would have to be held in the basement. At precisely 7:30, Daniel was waiting in his silver Mercedes outside my house. I slowly stepped inside the car where in the back seat there were three other people. I recognized their faces. One of them was, of course, Jennie and the other two were her two best friends Kim and Chloe. “Hi,” I said uncomfortable with Jennie on my date with me. “Um…they’ll be sitting at a different table,” Daniel explained. I nodded awkwardly.



    We got to the restaurant a half hour later. “Table for two,” Daniel told the man. He walked us over to a small booth at a corner of the restaurant with a nice view of the town. “Before we do anything or talk about…well…stuff. I have something to say.” He told me. “Sure. You can say whatever you need to say.” I told him. “Alright then. First we should probably get each other’s phone numbers.” We exchanged phones and put in our numbers. “Okay. My family is moving to Los Angles.” He reached for my hand over the table. I pulled back. “Why?” I asked. “Because they think we’re in a ‘bad learning environment’ because of the fire and now-since they’re rich they can move anytime anywhere-they want to get as far away from New York as possible.” Then he added in, “I’m so sorry-but we can still keep in touch.” I replied by saying simply, “Oh. Sure.”

    crying heart crying heart crying heart crying

    The rest of the night was awkward and silent. I picked at my food constantly looking over at Jennie’s table. “Are you done?” He asked me. “Yeah,” I said taking a last sip of my Sprite. He asked for the bill and we all boarded the car. We dropped Jennie, Kim, and Chloe off at the mall uptown and he parked in front of my house so we could talk. “Um, thanks for dinner,” I said attempting to make conversation. “No problem. When I do move to Los Angeles, what if we meet other people?” He asked concerned. “Like you said, we’ll keep in touch,” I reached for the handle of the door and stepped out of the car. I wanted to believe that we wouldn’t meet other people, but inside I knew that it didn’t matter.