• ONCE UPON A TEENAGERS HEART
    (based on a true story)

    Introduction:

    Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess that who in a grand castle. She had her perfect prince that was crazy over her. What else could she ever want? -only to get her head out of the clouds. I am not really a beautiful princess; I'm an average, sporty girl. I don’t really live in a grand castle; I live in a run down manufactured home. He may rule a country but I knew he ruled my heart. What I loved the most is that I could be an average girl but standing next to him I felt like a princess in a grand castle… and I was about ten.


    Chapter One:

    It started out with just a simple friendship, but later turned in to more. I think we were meant to be, but I just wasn’t ready yet. I was only ten, how was I supposed to know all the rules of dating?
    I was the new kid, I just moved to this strange town of Roseberg. Roseberg was a small run down town that we joked about saying if you blinked while driving through you would miss it. If you knew anything about schools, you would know that when you are the new kid you are either out casted from the beginning or you are the cool foreign, unique popular person to fight over. Seeing how the beginning of this story starts you would think I would be the cool new kid, but it’s not the case, I was out casted.
    “This is the new kid, Emily Richardson.” Mrs. Gilbertson my teacher announced to my new third grade class. “Hey.” I said quite sheepish. “Emily you may take a seat where ever you like.” She said sweetly. Ever since I was a child I was very observant. I had only known my teacher for a few minutes but I got a good feel from that lady. She was the kind of person that you would classify as the stereo typical grandma. She has the grey hair, glasses, sweet smile, and warm heart, everything you would ever want in a teacher.
    I took my seat and was quiet for the rest of class. I must say it wasn’t easy. Mrs. Gilbertson may be nice but she can talk forever. I am not talking about a quick rant about something. That I could handle. This lady stayed on topic the whole time. What was she, a robot?
    Once class got out we got to go to recess. (Yes this dates back to when you still got recess and it wasn’t just four minutes between classes.) I immediately ran to the high bar and sat on top. I sat there just letting the wind rustled my hair. I enjoyed watching everyone else play. (I wasn’t you typical ten year old.) I was content just observing. I always had been.
    That’s when I saw him. He has this crazy curly dirty blond hair. Even though I was only ten, I knew there was something to him. He wasn’t the cutest guy in the bunch but he had this smart but not nerdy essence to him that I liked.
    Cassie was a girl I had met in Mrs. Gilbertson’s class a few minutes ago and she was playing in the bark dust next to me. “Hey Cassie… Who’s that?” I said quietly as I pointed at the strange boy. “Oh don’t pay any attention to him. He’s different.” She wasn’t going to scare me off of him that easily. “What’s his name?” I asked again. “Aaron, Aaron Ratliff.” She said really bluntly. “Oh, Aaron…”

    Chapter Two:

    The next day I decided I wanted to talk to Aaron. I had dreamt about him all night and now was my time to act; he was alone on a computer. I sat at the computer next to him. “Hey.” I said while pretending to be into whatever I was doing on my computer. “Hey.” He replied back with out looking. Then he took a glance over and did a small double take. It looked like he would get whiplash. It was very awkward. I never thought of myself as beautiful or pretty. Let’s just say I wore my sporty look very well. Despite what I thought about myself he thought I was something worth while, or so I thought.
    I only took about another 20 seconds until I peeped over his shoulder and noticed him emailing someone. “You have an email account?” I said. “Yup; dont you?” Aaron replied. “…of course.” I said trying to sound shocked. When truth be told, I just got my account a few days ago. “Oh… if you -” He got cut of because the bell rang, but he didn’t need to finish, I already had my email address written down on a scrap piece of paper and I slipped it to him. He just smiled.
    That night I got my first email. It read…

    Dear Emily,
    I could see you were in to sports. What are your favorites? Do you have any animals?
    Aaron

    I wrote back…

    Aaron,
    My favorite sport is softball, but I also enjoy watching football. I do have some animals. I have two cats and one horse named Tinkerbelle.  Do you have any animal?
    Emily

    That continued all night till about 11:00pm when my parents caught me. I got reprimanded for not being in bed and that I should have known better. Blah, blah, blah.

    Chapter Three:

    It only took about a week of emailing him for us to both give up on trying to “just be friends”. We were like magnets. It took all of the energy in the world to be away from him. Nobody understood why I was always with this weird guy. Was our relationship coming to a end? No, it wasn’t and that was clear to me today.
    Aaron and I were walking to the bus on a warm sunny day, hand in hand, when he stopped me. I jerked back. “What’s up?” I said in my innocent, sweet voice. Just then he leaned down and kissed me on the cheek. His lips were soft and delicate. “What was that?” I said dumbfounded. “I'm sorry. I shouldn’t have… sorry.” I felt bad. I scared the poor boy and he tried to pull away but I had a strong grasp on him and I pulled him back and I gave him a soft kiss on his lips. The kiss didn’t last long but the memory will last forever. It took him a moment to regain conciseness then he said quietly, “I didn’t think you would have had that reaction.” I laughed and pulled him forward so we didn’t miss the bus.
    Ever since that moment we were connected. I can’t explain it. We were like twin flames. I can finish his sentences and know exactly what he means before he even says it. He is always on my mind. It was like I could be miles away from him but I could still hear his voice. This relationship seemed too good to be true and it was. The school year was ending and Aaron was a year older then me so he was going into the 5th/6th grade and was going to be stuck in the 3rd/4th. What were we going to do? I was so crazy over him. I was in, whit I thought at the age was love.

    Chapter Four:

    June 10, 2006, it was the last day of school. We went all day without talking. How could we? We knew that this perfect Cinderella story had to end some day. Didn’t think it would be so soon. That night I got his last email…
    Emily,
    I think it would be best if we were just friends. We both know this wont now that summers coming and we wont be in the same grade or class anymore. I don’t like saying this but I’ve decided if we let the summer finish us that way we would be able to get on with our lives. This will be my last email to you. I am deleting your emails and your email address I would suggest you do the same. You don’t know how hard it is for me to say goodbye to you.
    I love you. I will always love you. Don’t ever forget that.
    Aaron ~ P.S you are my cheese to my macaroni : P

    I knew in his head and for sure in my head we were screaming at the top of our lungs, “No! Don’t!” but there was no other choice, so I listened and let the summer finish us up. I also deleted all of out emails and his email address. I almost threw up when I deleted them. It was the worst day of my life and still is to this day.
    Three years went by, very awkward and weird years. Aaron had become a man. He was extremely attractive and was one of the most popular kids in his class. He was in 8th grade and I was in 7th. I have always been very bold and outgoing and now entering my teenage years it just boomed. My most distinct characteristic is my love for softball and my ability to “catch on” to school information fast.
    “Hey Taylor,” I said. Taylor was my 7th grade best friend. She is like my twin sister. We play fight all the time. “Yah Emily…” “You want to know what would be cool?” “What?” “… if I could just skip this portion of 7th grade. I mean, I already am taking two 8th grade classes, Math and History. All I would have to do is prove I can handle moving up in English and Science.” “You totally should,” she encouraged. “Think about it Emily. You are already a 4.0 student, you could do it easily. Just go talk to Mr. Cerad, our counselor and see if you can.”
    That’s exactly what I did. Within a month I had parent permission, teachers on board with everything, well almost every teacher, and principle consent and I was ready to change my classes and go into the big, scary 8th grade. At that point I thought the journey had just ended, but it had just begun.






    Chapter Five:

    I stood still in the front of the door of my new 8th grade science class. “Here goes nothing.” I whispered. I twisted the door knob as slow as I could and walked in. “Welcome Emily. “Come in and take a seat.” said my new science teacher, Ms. Dale. My heart started beating extremely hard and fast, my hands got all sweaty and I couldn’t figure out why, until I looked up. Sitting across the room was the one person that I thought I had forgot, Aaron. I didn’t think about how now Aaron and I would be in the same grade.
    Just then he noticed me and reacted just the same, but a tad more vocal. “She isn’t staying here for good is she?” he blurted out. “Yes she is.” Ms. Dale said before I could, and I was extremely grateful for that. “No! No! No!” Aaron said again. I didn’t know how to react, so I just put my head down and walked to my seat.
    Ms. Dale got Aaron to chill and got on with her teaching. She went on about how gravity pulls on us at a 9.8m/s2 or something like that. I wasn’t paying any attention. I was just staring at Aaron trying to figure out what he was thinking. It wasn’t that hard to guess.
    Just before she was about to assign an essay, the bell rang and we all ran for the door. Everyone but Aaron and I. Feeling quite awkward and disgusted I got up and left.
    I didn’t want to see Aaron again. It was hard enough to leave him the first time, I didn’t need to get attached and get ripped apart again. I think he thought the same. This year might be the closest thing to Hell I will come in counter with for, hopefully a long, long while.
    In the rest of my classes it was about the same. Aaron upset with the fact I was in the exact same classes as him. On the way to lunch I was talking to Taylor about it. “Taylor, I just don’t get it. We were so close…” I always knew the answer but never wanted to admit it, so I just listened to Taylor blab on about her different theories.
    I was rounding the corner to go to the cafeteria when guess who was coming around the same corner at the exact same time, Aaron. I bumped in to him, thankful that he didn’t have a tray of food with him. We stood there face to face, almost touching for a moment then realized both of our friends were behind us watching, so we both took a step back and walked by. At that moment I knew I was in for it. I was sucked in to the stupid love web again and I was the fly.

    Chapter Six:

    My English teacher, Mrs. Jones didn’t agree with my choice to excel to the 8th grade, so she decided to try to make the process as hard as possible so maybe just maybe I might crack and give in, knowing me, its impossible. So in madder of days I turned from a princess in castle to a knight on a battle field. With my sword up and shield ready I went in to defeat the fire breathing school.
    As it neared the end of the school year the big question was, will I go through 8th grade promotion? If so, can I go to the dance afterwards? Bigger question, who gets to decide what happens; Mrs. Jones because she is planning it all, the eighth grade because it’s their promotion and dance, or me? With this question in mind I went and asked Mr. Cerad. He said he would talk to everyone then report back to me.
    A few days passed and Mr. Cerad still hadn’t told me. I was sitting in class and this came on the intercom, “Can Emily Robertson please report to Mr. Cerads office? Can Emily Robertson PLEASE report to Mr. Cerads office? Thank you.” My heart was going 1,000mph as I grabbed my stuff and headed for the door. What’s going to happen? What will he say? Good? Bad? No. Scary.
    As I neared the door I thought of everything that had happened this year and how I needed to stick up for myself. I wont take “no” for a answer. “Hey. Please take a seat.” I did as I was told and sat down. “Mrs. Jones decided that a good compromise would be to let you walk at the ceremony but you can’t go to the dance.” No way! I won’t let that go! I deserve to go to the dance too! I earned it! “Fine.” I said as I grabbed my stuff again and dashed for the door. “Thanks for understanding.” he commented at the end. What’s there to compromise? I do my best and get punished for it! Good compromise…

    Chapter Seven:

    Word spread like wildfire. Now everyone knew about the whole dance thing and pretty soon everyone knew I was not happy about it, I made it quite clear. As that word spread, the other word of Mrs. Jones asking her leadership class to decide if I got to go to the dance or not. That just got me riled up.
    Meanwhile, my favorite sport, softball, started. I am a pitcher, always have been. I was playing for the 14U (fourteen and under) team. This means I am playing with the other 8th graders. The worse one was Carly White, a fellow pitcher and daughter of one of the coaches. We had daggers for each other. As I perfected my pitching she got madder and madder at me.
    A little info on Carly would be she was very, very popular with the guys. She was very preppy and was your typical wanna-be diva, dumb, a suck up, full of herself, etc. The only thing going for her was the fact that she was pretty. I will admit it, I WAS jealous of her at one point of time, but once I got to know her I took all that back. Anyway, she is in love with Aaron. Yes, my Aaron; all over him. Tying this back in to the story…
    It was May 22 and our softball team was having one of its practices. The big question is who will get to pitch in practice; Carly or me?
    “Emily jump in the pitcher circle and do a few ghost pitches without the ball.” Coach told me. “Ok coach.” I said as I ran over. Carly was not thrilled with this.
    “Wow. She’s pretty good…” Carly whispered to a few girls around her as she watched me pitch. At this time I had no idea what she was saying. I would have bet money that she was saying some nasty comment. Carly and I fought all practice. She would try to out do me and would mess up, I would laugh, making her even madder at me.
    After practiced ended, Rebecca came up to me and told me what Carly said about my pitching. Feeling guilty about how I acted at practice I decided to apologize to her.
    “Hey Carly, I would just like to say I am sorry about the way I acted and to say that you are a really good pitcher.” “What did you say I wasn’t a good pitcher?” she said all snotty like. “No. I just thought you would like to hear it… but I'm sorry about my behavior.” “Yes you did act really rotten. I mean why did you even try to make fun of me, its impossible.” I took a very, very deep breath and slowly let it out. “Ok whatever.” and walked away.
    I was the bigger person and apologized and she spit in my face! She is so rude and annoying. No wonder everyone hates her! She’s a jerk.

    Chapter Eight:

    “Aaron because you are the president I thought I should come to you to ask you about promotion.” I said. He groaned then said, “What.” “Why can’t I go to the dance? I know you had a big say in the matter.” “…because it’s an eighth grade dance. No sevies allowed.” That infuriated me. “What is your problem? Are you mad because you could have done the same thing? Because I agree with you, you could have done the exact same thing.” He gave a little puff and crossed his arms. “…because I know you were smart enough to do the same thing. I of all people should know.” Then Carly walks up and puts her arm around Aaron and starts climbing all over him. Aaron looks at me, then turns and looks at Carly and brushes her hands off of him. Carly furious stomps off and Aaron and I both start cracking up, until I realized I was having a good time with someone I'm mad at, so, mocking Carly, I stomped off. Aaron laughed. The magnet between us is still there.

    Chapter Nine:

    My parents have been pretty quiet about everything that’s been going on at school but they couldn’t bear it any longer. My dad was going to go call the school to schedule an appointment so they could go talk to Mr. Cerad.
    I was sitting in class biting my fingernails. It was the day of the appointment and they were most likely in it now. What were they saying? What will happen? Ok breathe Emily, breathe.
    After class I ran in to Mr. Cerads office and asked him what happened. “How did it go?” I said. “Fine.” “Oh ok. Thanks. Bye.” It wasn’t fine. My parents were starting to think about moving me to a new school. I don’t want to leave Aaron. It’s making me sick to my stomach to think of that. I don’t want to leave him. I need him.

    Chapter Ten:

    The big day came, its June 10, 2009, last day of school and 8th grade promotion. I still didn’t know if I was moving schools or not. We scheduled an appointment with the other school so that I could go walk around it and see if I like it.
    For 8th grade promotion I bought a dress and my parents bought a lei from Hawaii and shipped it up here for me to wear during the ceremony.
    “Hurry up! I'm going to be late!” I yelled at my dad as he is scrambling to get in the car. “Go! Go!” When we go there it was 5 minutes till it started. I ran back to where everyone was waiting. “I'm here!” I announced as I walked up to Aaron who was in charge with the clipboard. “Good. Stand right here between Lyns -” He did it again. He looked at me the same way he did when we first met. I couldn’t help but grin. “Uh… here between Lindsey and Me.” “Hey look at my dress! It cost $220.” Carly announced, directing it to Aaron and I. “Oh very pretty… I pulled the same look off with using only $20. Well, you’re very…sparkly.” I said. “They are crystals.” “Oh cool.” I giggled. “Emily, did I tell you, you looked pretty?” Aaron chimed in. “No.” “Oh well you do.” “Thanks.”
    We walked all the way to our seats across the gym with out anyone falling. We all sat down. Everyone’s parents were sitting in the stands either crying or taking a thousand photos. Our teachers gave some speeches; principle said a few words, easy, quick ceremony.
    When it got to calling names Aaron was the one to hand out the certificates and when my name was called I walked up and carefully mouthed, “Don’t say anything.” then winked. He smiled.
    After the ceremony I went to dinner and the other 8th graders went to their dance. Aaron and I never got each others phone numbers, email addresses or anything. Let’s just wait and see how the summer plays out.

    Look for the next sequel
    “Once Upon a Dreamer’s Soul – Summer Edition”