• Do you ever have a memory that is so precious to you that you never forget it, for better or for worse? Well for me, there is a special one that is close to my heart. I remember on very beautiful starry night, a girl as beautiful as a blossom gave me something very precious to her heart. I also remember making her a promise to meet her again under those same stars. Alas, I have waited time and time again for her to show, but she never came. So I hang on to her memory, her gift, and that fragile hope of seeing her again.


    “Wake up and feel the wrath of my mighty dictionary,” an annoying voice cried out in the distance of Leon’s mind.
    Soon Leon could feel the weight of the oversized book crushing down his skull with a force of a concrete slab. The shear weight of it knocking him to the ground and back to reality.
    “OWW! Hey, why did you bash my skull in with a dictionary?” Leon screamed as he held his head to cope with the pain.
    “Because the thesaurus was too heavy to lift,” Cooper sarcastically answered his best friend as he reached out his hand.
    Leon grabbed Cooper’s hand as leverage to help him off the sidewalk and onto his feet. As Leon dusted himself off Cooper asked him what he was doing staring off into space.
    “I was thinking of her again, Coop,” Leon answered his friend with a sadness in his voice gripping the chain around his neck, “Tonight is the night of the Briarwood Day Carnival and I still haven’t fulfilled my promise.”
    “Hey don’t worry. You will see her again. It just won’t be tonight because you have to come with me on a double date,” Cooper exclaimed putting his arm around Leon’s shoulder.
    “Why am I going on a double date with you?” Leon questioned in an angry tone.
    “Because my girlfriend and I set you up on one,” Cooper stated as he started to run away from his best friend. Leon began to chase after Cooper shouting out how many ways he could kill him with a paper clip if he ever caught him.


    My memory is all I have of you. So long ago, you made me a promise and I gave you my heart. Though, I haven’t seen you since that beautiful full moon night, I pray that under that same full moon, I will see you again.

    As the sun was setting on another day, Alexandra was up in an old oak tree watching the sunset as she did everyday. As she peered down from the lovely twilight sky, she saw in the distance, the workers slaving away to set up for the annual Briarwood Day Carnival.
    “The sunset looks beautiful over the water doesn’t it,” a sweet voice called from the ground.
    Alexandra was surprised and looked down from her perch to see who it was, “Hey Valencia, how long have you been standing there?” Alexandra asked.
    “Oh, just about five minutes,” Valencia replied. “Come down I have to talk to you about something.”
    Alexandra quickly jumped out of the tree. Her long chestnut hair was flowing behind her as she landed with the grace and agility of a gymnast.
    “Ok if it involves the incident with the leaf blower and your brother. He didn’t tell me that it was plugged up,” Alexandra quickly said.
    “No, he forgave you for that, but that’s not what I have to tell you. I just got you a date for the carnival tonight!” Valencia gleefully replied.
    “What?” Alexandra asked angrily and turned her back to Valencia, “Come on Val. You know I hate blind dates.”
    Valencia eyes soon began to well with tears. Though her back was turned, Alexandra could hear her friend’s silent tears. She did not like to see any of her friends cry. It just broke her heart when they did. She turned back to Valencia and halfheartedly agreed to go on the blind date and was relived when Valencia told her it was a double date.


    “This brings back memories,” Leon whispered as he searched his mind for that precious memory.


    I was sleeping underneath an old oak tree near the pier. I went there to get away from the noise of the carnival. When I just got into a nice nap until I felt a drop of water hit my face. When I looked up I noticed a little girl with long dark brown hair sitting on one of the tree branches.
    “Hey, what are you doing up there,” I shouted up an old tree.
    “None of your business” she shouted back fighting the tears in her eyes.
    I soon climbed up the trunk of the tree to try and comfort her. I got halfway up the tree when my foot slipped and fell on my back to the cold hard ground. She soon jumped out of the tree and rushed to my side.
    “Are you alright?” she said with concern.
    “Yeah, me and gravity have a love-hate relationship,” I joked to make her smile. It worked and she started to giggle. The smile on her face stood in stark contrast to the tears that quickly ran down her face.
    “Why were you crying?” I asked her with concern.
    “I told you, none of your business!” she screamed.

    Soon his memory flashback was interrupted by a swift kick to the back of his leg causing him to face plant into the ground below.
    “Man you have been spacing more than usual lately,” Cooper retorted as he looked down at Leon, “Hey you better get up your date is coming.”
    Leon quickly jumped to his feet and dusted of the dirt in his black jeans. When he looked up he saw two girls. He knew Valencia by her cropped blond hair, rocker tee, and her habit of wearing a mini skirt over a pair of jeans. Though there was another girl with her Leon had never seen before, but she looked familiar. Her hair was a beautiful shade of chestnut; her green eyes shown like polished emeralds and confidence shown off of her like an aura.
    “Hey Valencia,” Copper said as he put his arm around his girlfriend and gave her a hug, “Who’s your friend?”
    “Oh this is Alexandra,” Valencia replied as she hugged Cooper, “And this must be Leon. Cooper told me all about you and how you beat each other up on a daily basis.”
    “Oh really does he tell you that he usually starts it,” Leon snarled.
    “Do you want to throw down right here?” Cooper retorted staring angrily at Leon.
    “Bring it on. I brought the paper clip,” Leon threatened reaching into his pocket.
    Cooper quickly turned to Valencia and asked, “Hey, sweetie, you want to go ride the Scrambler?”
    “Sure,” Valencia agreed as Cooper pushed her in the opposite direction from Leon.
    “Wow, I never seen someone run that fast after being threatened with a paper clip,” Alexandra pointed out. “So now that you scared your friend and Valencia away, what do you want to do?”
    Leon began to think but not about what they were going to do, but of this same night six years ago.

    “Hey! You want to go to the carnival,” I asked the girl.
    “Sure. What you want to do?” the girl answered my question.
    “You want to go play in the arcade?” I asked.

    ‘How about we go to the arcade,” Leon asked without realizing what he was saying, like he was reliving that moment.
    “Ok, let’s go!” Alexandra gleefully said grabbing Leon’s hand and leading the way to the arcade, while he was still reliving his most precious memory.
    When he came back to his senses he did not know whether this was his memory or his reality, until he saw a finger pointing in his face.
    “I challenge you to an Epic Air Hockey Battle!” Alexandra said in all seriousness.
    “You’re on,” Leon answered.
    As they walked towards the air hockey table Alexandra asked, “Ok which side do you want? Red or Blue?”
    “I don’t know the red side has a better slope angle but the blue side has a side angle…” Leon began to go on a mathematics rant about the hockey table.
    As Alexandra began to get annoyed and confused with all the geometry talk she yelled out, “Ok if you aren’t going to make up your mind I’ll pick the red side.”
    “Hey I was going to pick that side!” Leon yelled back at her.
    “Hey, you start talking about math out of school, I get to pick your side,” Alexandra replied wittily.
    Then both of the opponents take their respected side of the table. Leon inserted the dull quarters into the bright flashing machine, pushed the button, and the machine began to vibrate. Leon noticed that he was missing his paddle and began to search frantically for it. Then Alexandra, taking advantage of the moment, placed the orange puck on the table and smacked it with a blinding force and scored the first point.
    “No fair you cheated!” Leon wined.
    “Its not cheating if the game hasn’t started,” Alexandra replied with a hint of sarcasm.
    “Oh you know that is bull! I don’t even have a paddle yet!” Leon yelled in a winy tone.
    “You mean this paddle?” she said pulling out Leon’s paddle from under the table.
    “Give me that!” Leon yelled grabbing the paddle out of her hand and stomping back to his side of the table. “Now where is that puck?” Leon said looking down at the hole that the puck was supposed to come out of.
    “You mean this puck,” Alexandra said as she dramatically pulling up the puck so that Leon could see it.
    Leon’s jaw dropped, “How did you steal that from my side?” He yelled.
    She smiled devilishly as she replied, “That’s for me to know and you to find out Emo Boy,” and flung the puck at him like a Frisbee.
    “Ok now it’s personal!” Leon growled as he slapped the puck down almost causing an impact crater and hit it with all the force he could muster up and the epic battle began.
    The battle lasted for what seemed like an eternity. Anyone could hear the ricochet for miles around. Soon the sounds of the ricochets started to diminish. With their strength almost gone both competitors stared each other down for the last point and the match.
    “Wow your pretty good,” Leon exclaimed, “But you are no match for me. I haven’t been beat in 3 years and I am not going to start now.”
    As Leon was still ranting Alexandra lazily hit the puck in Leon’s goal spot and won the match.
    “Hey! That’s not fair!” Leon yelled.
    Alexandra replied, “The first rule of comic books, while you enemy is ranting, that is when you make you final strike.”
    “Aw man, I can’t believe I fell for that. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” Leon said under his breath.
    “Its ok you’re not the first person to fall for that!” Alexandra comforted Leon.
    “That’s great I get twenty bucks to come and I’m still sent to my corner. I should have just stayed home.” Leon yelled loudly.
    “Wait you got paid to come?” Alexandra yelled backed. The she reared back her hand and slapped him in the face with all the strength she had left and then ran away. The force of the slap knocked him to the ground and the locket around his neck popped out of from under his shirt. Leon looked down at the locket and began to flashback to that night six years ago.

    “I had a fun at the carnival,” the girl said as she hugged me.
    “Me too,” I replied.
    “I don’t want this night to end because I won’t ever see you again,” she tried to say through her sorrow filled voice.
    “Don’t worry we will see each other again. I promise,” I said to calm her down.
    The she held out her pinkie and demanded, “Pinkie promise.”
    “Pinkie promise,” I agreed and grasped her pinkie around hers.
    Then she began to rummage through her pocket and pulled out a gold heart-shaped locket with an emerald in the middle of it. Then she the put it around my neck and fastened it tightly.
    “Take this so you don’t forget me and if you take it off ninjas will come and take your cookies,” she replied with a smile on her face.
    “It will never leave my neck. You can count on that,” I said with a smile on my face.


    Then out of nowhere came one of his favorite and most annoying ring tones. The shear humming of the melody snapped him back to reality. He then removed the slim jet-black phone from his jacket pocket. He quickly looked down at the phone to see who was calling him.
    “What does he want now?” Leon yelled at his phone.
    Leon decided not to take the call but to get back on the mission at hand. Valencia would never forgive him if she found out what he had done to one of her friends again. He quickly rose from the ground onto his feet and ran as fast as he could in the direction he saw her traveling. After several minutes of intense running, Leon found the sulking Alexandra up on a tree branch.


    Alexandra noticed Leon out of the corner of her eye; he was walking closer to the trunk of the tree. When he reached the tree he began to climb up to where she was.
    “Leave me alone!” Alexandra told Leon as he climbed.
    Then suddenly his pant leg snagged on a stray piece of tree bark sticking of the trunk of the tree. As he tried to pull his leg from tree trunk, he accidentally let go of the tree and slammed into the unforgiving ground.
    Alexandra quickly jumped out from the tree and rushed to Leon’s side.
    “Are you ok,” Alexandra asked.
    Leon sat up and replied, “Yeah, me and gravity have a love-hate relationship.”
    Before he finished what he was saying Alexandra crept closer to him and kissed him. Leon was in shock that the girl who he just meet tonight was now kissing him like they were dating for some time.
    “What was that for?” Leon asked as he pushed her away.
    Alexandra completely ignored his question and reached for the locket around his neck. “I see you kept it,” Alexandra whispered in his ear, still gripping to the locket, “Were you afraid that ninjas would steal your cookies?”
    Leon could not believe what he had just heard. Everything was making sense now. Why she looked so familiar and why he was attracted to her like no other girl before. He quickly reached up and put his arms around her neck and returned the kiss that she had started just moments before.
    “I promised you we would see each other again and I never break my promises,” Leon stated.
    “Yeah you did. So what do you want to do now,” Alexandra giggled.
    “Well you do owe me a rematch, since you cheated the first time,” Leon replied while standing up. He soon pointed at Alexandra and responded, “I challenge you to an Epic Air Hockey Battle!”
    Alexandra laughed and stated in a serious tone, “You’re on!”