• I rushed down the hall, rather quickly, to beat the bell to my 3rd period class. My long super dark brown hair was flying in my face as I dodged the crowd. I hurried down the stairs and as I did so, I bumped into someone. My shoulder hit his and my books fell to the ground. If that wasn’t bad enough, we both bent down to pick up my books and our heads also bumped. I rubbed my head on the spot we collided as I raised my head to meet eyes with the “bumpee”. I soon discovered it was Alan Tarbet.

    I stared in awe. My eyes were meeting with the Alan Tarbet, the type of guy who was absolutely gorgeous from head to toe, with his dark brown hair that has a bit of curl to it. He also has deep almond brown eyes, with the long, dark, eyelashes that come with them. Of course, how could I forget about his smile, his beautiful smile? His shiny whites totally bring out his chic, shiny lips. Oh, how I love those lips!

    We stared into each other’s eyes and slowly, an adorable smile spread across his face. Which, I need to add, brought out that special little gleam in his eyes that is only there on rare occasions. Gosh, I feel so lucky right now!

    I, on the other hand, am nothing compared to Alan. With my sleek black hair that reaches a bit below my shoulders and bangs that rest on the tips of my eyelashes to match. I apparently have pretty brown eyes, or so I’m told. “Oops,” he started to say, “I’m totally sorry” He looked down, on my binder he saw a light blue bumper sticker (that I obviously didn’t put on my bumper) that said ‘UCLA Bruins’ outlined in yellow. Or also know as, their school colors. “Do you like the Bruins?” he asked me.

    My mind went blank and I froze, “Umm,” I stuttered. “Yea, I love them! I want to go to college there, if I’m even lucky enough to get in.” Alan just stared at me for a minute or two.

    “Oh, cool. Me too,” he responded. “Its McKenna, right?” I nodded and I slowly looked down to my watch, my eyes not wanting to unlock from his. I closed my eyes from a couple of seconds and wished that time had stopped altogether. Sadly, I was wrong. Not that I expected it to anyway.

    “Uh-oh,” I said, looking up from my watch, forgetting about the fantasy that I was wishing my life could be. “I really have to go! I’m going to be late, sorry!” I yelled at him while running to the Girl’s Locker room. Oh, how I wish I had 4th period P.E.

    I dressed into the P.E. attire speedily and skidded to a stop when I reached the basketball courts. This is where my class, Mr. Lindsey’s class, meets everyday, where we have to be stretching; otherwise he’ll take points off. I mean, really, who takes points off for not stretching! I got there as he was taking attendance, “McKenna Osaki,” he called out twice before I answered.

    “Here!” I shouted while brushing my hair out of my face. “I am here.”

    He glared at me; then looked around at my classmates and back to me again. We all knew what was coming. I groaned a tiny bit under my breath, while everyone else didn’t even dare to let out one little breath. “You see class, McKenna is a perfect example!” My head perked up a bit. “If everyone was late to everything, the world would be out of order. Thanks to McKenna, she gave us a perfect example… By wasting our time! And Ms. Osaki,” he glared at me once more, “you caught me in a go—“ Mr. Lindsey was interrupted by”.

    “What a surprise,” he said sarcastically, “Mr. Semenza, did you know that you’re about 5 minutes late to my class?”

    “Um…” was all he said. As Mr. Lindsey turned back around he mumbled, “I… I was…” he looked at the kids closest to him and sighed. He motioned Mr. Lindsey to come closer to him, and Jacob said why he was late. Mr. Lindsey just laughed and yelled; “Ha! Mr. Semenza was late because he helped Mrs. Ortgiesen to “organize” her classroom!” He laughed some more, and then glowered at Jacob. “Yeah right! Like you of all people helped someone out! My office, now!” He shouted at him. He did what he was told and sulked towards his office and looked back at us. He then glanced up at the sky, put his hands in pray formation and mouthed ‘Help me, save me, help!’ When Mr. Lindsey saw him, all he did was wave at us then ran inside his office. All we did was let out a huge sigh of relief.

    After P.E., I raced up the stairs to “accidentally” meet up with Alan there. My plan was to run up the stairs, when the dismissal bell rang, and start up a conversation. Or, hopefully, he will first. *Ding, Ding, Ding* the bell rang, and I was off, running as fast as I could. Thank god, I was in soccer, I thought. I was half way up the stairs and not even out of breath yet. Just then, boom! I collide with somebody, again. It was Alan! Not how I thought this would be, but it works.

    “We got to stop doing this,” I told him trying not to laugh. He smiled at me; I smiled back.

    “Do we have to? I actually enjoy seeing you,” he said with a tinge of disappointment in his tone. I only heard the little bit of enjoy and my head started to hurt, rather badly. “Oh,” apparently he saw me blanking out. “McKenna? Are you ok? McKenna!” Alan nudged some kid, I think it was Emma, one of my close friends, “Can you bring these down to the office?”

    She nodded intently and bent down to pick up my books. Alan then picked me up, fairytale style. Alan ran down the stairs, or so it felt like. I was becoming dizzy and my vision started to become fuzzier and fuzzier by the second. I think I finally blanked out as he scurried to the office saying, “McKenna, work with me here. McKenna, come on stay with me, plea—“ and that was all I could recall when I woke up in my bed the next day.

    My parents were there, staring very intently at me. I can’t blame them though. I don’t know how long I’ve been out. “Mom? Dad?” I said while rubbing my eyes.

    “Yes, sweetie. We’re here,” I heard my mother say. Ugh, just then I felt a massive pain in my head and I groaned. My dad immediately grabbed my hand. I pulled away.

    I glanced around, “What happened?”

    They looked at each other, then back at me. “Well sweetie,” began my mom, “some boy at school…” Alan, I thought. She continued, “He saw you faint, so he picked you up and brought you to the office. We came as soon as we heard. He also said that he thinks you hit your head on the railing while walking up to class. I think his name was,” my mom glanced at my dad, “Oh what was his name.”

    “Wasn’t it Alvin, honey?” he responded to her.

    “No…” Then, she got this bright look on her face. “Alan was his name. That’s it. He is a very nice boy.” She directed her attention towards me again, “Do you remember any of this, sugar?”

    I rested my hand on my head, once more. “Not really,” I said. Of course, I did though. I was talking to Alan about how we collide much to often and all of a sudden I felt dizzy. I dropped my books, and as I started to go down my head hit the railing. But, I suppose that’s it. Just then, the phone started ringing.

    My dad started to get it, but my mom stood up and mumbled, “Don’t worry. I can get it.” As she left, I closed my eyes and sighed.

    I awoke from my deep sleep about 2 minutes after my mom went to answer the phone, or so I thought. I sat up on my bed and looked at my clock. It read 8:56. I assumed it was pm, so I opened my curtains and was surprised by what I saw. My parents were always the people on your block to throw amazing parties, or “get togethers”. So, as I was saying, I looked out my window and saw… a banner. A banner that said, ‘Get Well Soon, McKenna’. And this, this was no surprise.

    I ended up hobbling down stairs to my dad making breakfast. “Hey, sweet pea,” he said comfortingly. “Have a good night sleep? You’ve been out since yesterday.” My mom came in then, putting in her earrings, getting ready for work.

    She saw I was awake and said, “Oh, you’re up! I’m not sure if you remember this, but yesterday, before you fell asleep, the phone rang. It was that boy Alan wondering if you were okay. I told him you were fine and would call him back when you woke up.”

    “Thanks, Mom!” I giggled a bit too excitedly, and ran up to my room. I took in a breath and almost chocked because of the excitement I was feeling. I also speedily brushed my teeth and popped in a mint so I would have good smelling breath when I called. Did you know that people could smell your breath from the other line? I do this every time I’m on the phone.

    I took another deep breath, this time without choking, and slowly picked up my cell phone. I dialed his number. (Yes I know his number! He is my crush for god’s sake.) It rang and rang and rang. I sighed an exasperated sigh. Nothing, I thought. So, I left a message saying, “Hey, Alan. It’s McKenna. I heard you tried to call so I’m just returning your call. Umm…” I stuttered. “Oh! My cell phone number is 805-798-3041. And my house number is… Ooops, but you called me on my house phone. So I guess you already have it! So, yeah. Call me back when you can! Bye.”

    Oddly, the phone started ringing after I left the message. So I answered with a, “Hello?”

    “McKenna! Yay, you’re okay! I only have a few minutes cuz I told Ms. Sullivan I need to use the bathroom.“

    I thought about what she said for a second or two and then I said, “Wait, what day is it?”

    “Thursday,” she sounded weird when she said it. “Oh, hey… Can you pick me up after school? Maybe we can go to the mall or see a movie!”

    Holy crap! That’s why Alan didn’t answer his phone! Then I realized Emma was still on the phone, “Umm… sure, Em! Lets see that movie Knight and Day, with Tom Cruise! I can look up the movie times.”

    “You got it! See you later, McKenna,” she said before she hung up. Ok, what shall I do for 8 hours? Hmm… I guess I’ll go look up the movie times. So I did. There was one playing at 3:30. Right after school, I thought. Perfect! “Done with that,” I said aloud, not really meaning to. I quickly put my hand over my mouth, as if that was going to prevent people from hearing it. “Mom?” I called out.

    “Hmm?” She replied.

    “I’m gonna take my shower now!” I told her.

    I looked at myself in the mirror. I look good! I thought to myself. I was wearing a light purple dress with black flats. I also curled my hair, so that made the outfit that much better! “Its Spring and the weather was perfect for the dress. I can’t wait to go pick up Emma!” I hopped up and down, twirling and whirling in my room, dancing to You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift.

    When I got to T.O. High School, I saw Emma waiting for me. I was shocked to see her talking, talking to Alan! I actually got a bit jealous for a second there, but I know that she wouldn’t steal him from me. I hoped.

    I got out of my car and walked over to where Emma and Alan were. “Hey, guys,” I said to them.

    “Hi, McKenna! Did you find a movie time?” Emma questioned me.

    I nodded, while saying, “Sure did!” I glanced over at Alan. He was staring at me, “Do you want to come with us, Alan?” I asked him.

    Alan started looking at his feet, “I wish.” He looked up and winked at Emma. “I will most definitely take a rain-check. And, I will see you guys… later.” Alan said while walking away, smiling as he did so.

    When Alan was out of sight, I turned towards Emma. “What was that? Why did he wink at you? You guys are secretly dating, huh? I was wrong to fall in love with a guy like him. You’re so much prettier than me, Em! I hope you guys have a great life.”

    I started to head back towards my car, but I was pulled back. “McKenna! What kind of friend would I be if I did that?” She paused, “Oh, I know! A jerky one! Really, McKenna? Did you see the way he stared at you and the way he asked you for a ‘rain-check’? Come on, you know me way better than that!” She reassured me.

    I sighed, “I guess you’re right.”

    “Umm… Duh!”

    “Hey,” I said, “don’t push it.”

    She changed the subject. “Okay, we better get going if we want to make that movie.”

    On our way back to the car, I said, “Do you think we could skip it? Im still kind of tired."

    Emma put on her puppy-dog face. Boy, was she good at that! “Please, McKenna! This was important, I miss you.”

    “Fine,” I said, giving in to her devious ways.

    After the movie, Emma was so jittery! She was fine during the movie, but right when we got out of the theater… it was all-downhill from there. “Are you okay?” I asked her.

    Nothing, then… “Yeah! Why wouldn’t I be! Are you?” She yelled in my face.

    “Uh, yeah… I think you had too much candy, Emma.”

    She looked puzzled. “Huh? I didn’t have any candy, silly goose!”

    Oh, gosh. Here we go… “’Kay. You ready to go? I can drive you home.”

    “Oh, uh. About that. Do you think I could hang at your place? I got a ‘D’ grade and my mom is going to flip! Think I could chill at your place, you know? Better late than never!” She pleaded.

    I answered, “Yeah, sure. Why not?”

    Emma looked more relieved than ever. I wonder why? I thought.

    When we got home, I stuck my keys into the doorknob and opened it. All the lights were off. The whole house was silent. That’s weird. I wonder where everyone is? Oh, I bet they’re outside. “Lets check outside,” I told Emma.

    She nodded, agreeing. “Mo-“ I didn’t get to finish. A huge group of people jumped out from various people. I barely saw anyone, because there was only 1 person I was absolutely ecstatic to see.

    But, I gave my parents hugs first. That would be a bit weird and awkward if I didn’t, and then made my way over to that special person.

    I said, “Hi, again,” when I went up and got his attention.

    “Wow, I think this is the only time we’ve spoken when we haven’t bumped first,” Alan said.

    I laughed, “Yeah. I think so.”

    He laughed too, then stopped. “Oh, hey. I’ll talk to you later. Okay? See you around.” Just then, Alan walked away, without even a response from me.

    I turned away, but kept my eyes on him. He walked over to his girlfriend, Kelly Royal. And let me tell you, see was a ‘royal’. A royal pain in the neck! Alan sat down and Kelly came up and sat on his lap, handing him a Coke-A-Cola.

    I glared for a while. I sighed and then looked around for Emma. I could use her spunky-ness right about now. I finally saw her laying on a lounge chair with her boyfriend, Ryan. I don’t know him that well…

    Sighing, I decided not to go over there. I didn’t really want to bug them. So i sat down on the edge of my pool and let my feet dangle in the mellow waters. “Hey, sweetie! Having fun?” My mom said, coming up and putting her arm around me.

    Not in the mood for my mom, i faked a smile for her sake and nodded. “Good,” she said. “Sorry for not telling you, but it wouldn’t really be a surprise, huh?” I think she noticed me drifting away because she got my attention again. “Is that him?”

    I pretended to be puzzled and just looked at her with my head tilted. I didn’t dare glance back at them. The last thing i need right now is Q&A from my parents. Before my mom got a chance to say anything, my dad ran up with a camera in hand and yelled, “Smile!” I did, even though we probably have over a million pictures of us.

    My mom got up and lightly kissed my head. I looked at her, smiling a real smile. She smiled back and went around, asking if anybody wanted anything. That was so my mom.

    As soon as i was positive she wasn’t in my view, I glanced back over to Alan and... Kelly. They weren’t there. I bet they left to go make-out in my closet upstairs. Something happened that i didn’t expect, though. A loud uproar came from the opposite side of the pool. Alan and Kelly. Fighting. Near the edge of the pool.

    Realizing this was most obviously the best day ever took me less than a minute. Kelly had thrown her hands in the air and stormed away. But Ryan was faster. He grabbed her and threw her into the pool. I searched for Alan’s face, but it was lost somewhere in the crowd . . .or not.

    He was walking towards me. Wait, he was walking towards me? I scowered in the foggy water blocking my reflection. Alan came and sat next to me. We were both chuckling as Kelly scurried to the steps of the pool, looking like a raccoon with all the make-up pouring down her face. I almost wished he didn’t push her in; it would be a great joy to see her cry.

    When we were done cracking up, i spoke and raised my eyebrows, waiting for some sort of explaination. “So?”

    Alan looked into the water. A gulp came from him before he replied, “Uh... I dumped her.” He was saying with a hidden smile and repeated nods. I smiled big, failing at trying to hide it.

    “Why?” I asked, faking my concern.

    “Well,” he started saying, “I didn’t like her anymore. I like someone new.” I blushed, even though i knew it wasn’t me.

    I kicked my feet in the water, making little splashes. I didn’t want to push it, so i stopped there and got up. My heart was practically pulling me back down, though. It relaxed a bit as he got up too. “So . . .” i said.

    Alan did his little half-smile and mumbled something i couldn’t hear. “What? I can’t hear you over the music!” I yelled back at him, considering we were exceptionally close to a speaker.

    It was my own, personal nightmare. Almost. “I LIKE YOU, MCKENNA!” Alan yelled, right as the song was over and changing.

    I instantly blushed and everyone else shut up. “Well . . .” was all i could say . . . “I like you too.” He got a huge grin on his face; We nodded. That was it. All we did was nod. Time flew by as we sat on a lawn chair and talked. Slowly, the crowd decreased and we were the only ones left as the beautiful sunset ended the perfect day.

    My parents walked out and we didn’t pay any attention, until my dad cleared his throat of course. We looked at them and got up. My mom tapped her watch as if time was running out; which for us, it was. I walked him over to our side gate to get, at least some if none, privacy. “Today was fun,” Alan said, one hand on the gate latch.

    “It was, wasn’t it.” I chuckled, and added some sarcasm, “No thanks to you.” with a small punch to his shoulder.

    He acted genuinly surprised, but I knew he was just playing. “Of course,” Alan said as he pulled me in and gave me a kiss. It was fantastic. Magical. Stunning. And i loved every minute of it. “See you tomorrow, McKenna Osaki.”

    “Yes you will, Alan Tarbet.” I said, signally good-night. And that was it.