~Micky~

It was like I was meant to get to know her.  I was already in all of her classes except her advanced math and science.  My first real opportunity was when I claimed her as my partner in Civics class.  I realized she wasn’t really nervous around people unless she was expected to talk.  Luckily I didn’t mind doing most of the talking at first, but I wanted her to talk to me eventually.

~Andrea~

I was gradually becoming accustomed to Micky’s undeniable presence.  He got into the habit of saying ‘hi’ to me in the hallways or smiling at me when he passed my desk in class.  In only two weeks he had managed to slip into the rhythm of our high school like a drop of rain conforms to the puddle it lands in.  After his first few days he stopped being the ‘new kid’, a label that usually lasts for the entire year, and became just ‘Micky.’  As he was, as he was rumored to be.  He didn’t seem to feel a need to change anyone’s view or opinion of him.  He was perfectly secure with himself.  It was certainly a quality a person like me envies.

 One of the few excitements during my freshman year involved getting my braces taken off.  I had once had two upper incisors that looked like vampire fangs, but three and a half years of gum-cutting, cheek-scraping, pain-inducing wirers and brackets in my mouth seemed to solve the problem.  As much as I hated that metal in my mouth – I actually recall believing they were torture devises invented by some deranged dentist – I had to admit the reflection smiling back at me in the mirror was more appealing.  Yet, after keeping my lips so firmly shut over my teeth for so long, smiling felt uncomfortable and somewhat unusual.

 ~Micky~

 If I had been double thinking my desire to get to know Andrea, I didn’t think twice after I saw her real smile. 

 After a week of being project partners in Civics class she was starting to relax around me.  Once she realized I would do most of the talking she stopped being so up tight. 

 The last day we worked on the project I saw that smile for the first time.  Cheesy as it sounds, it almost took my breath away.

 The teacher had this weird habit of dragging the last syllables of his words.  I’m not someone who mocks my elders but I couldn’t help myself with this one.  Mr. Johnson loved being in charge but wasn’t going to win the teacher’s award anytime soon.  He liked giving us instructions and pages of books and stacks of packets to read and didn’t really TEACH anything. 

 Andrea was sitting beside me, busily at work on her half of the project.  She was always in her element when it came to school work.  Sometimes I wondered why and how she could be so focused and serious all the time.  Mr. Johnson was giving us more instructions.

 Okay, guyssss.  This is the last dayyyy to work on this projectttt.  Use your time wiselyyy.”

Without thinking I muttered, “yes, Mr. Johnsonnn” just loudly enough for the girl beside me to hear.  She giggled and smiled in amusement.  Before then I had never seen her smile completely, showing her straight, white teeth.  I found myself staring at her like I was thinking something important.  Really, I was just looking at her. 

 “You’ve got a really beautiful smile.”  I said suddenly.  Her brown-gray eyes widened a bit behind her glasses.  “Why don’t you smile more often?”  She looked away and shrugged.  Her smile was gone.  “You should show those pearly whites.”  If I had been alone I would have face palmed.  ‘Pearly whites’???  Really?  I know girls like cheesy sometimes but I was definitely going overboard. 

 I don’t make it a habit to complement girls who are so shy about their looks.  So I didn’t enjoy the way Andrea squirmed when I said stuff like that…although it was pretty cute.  I just wanted to be the first one she remembered calling her beautiful before she turned into the swan I was sure she would be. 

Andrea surprised me twice that day.  I had turned back to finishing our project when she turned to face me completely.  I leaned back.  That was the quickest, most aggressive move I had ever seen her make.  But even that movement seemed mellow.  She searched my eyes for a minute and I froze.  She usually avoided eye-contact, though I did find her looking at my eyes when I really got talking. 

 Her eyes were really pretty behind the glasses.  An oddly perfect mix of Asian shape and these long, dark lashes. 

"Why are you playing with me?”  She asked quietly.  Her quick string of words surprised me.

“I’m not.”  I said slowly.  Andrea narrowed her eyes before looking away. 

“There are plenty of other girls who would love your attention.”  She said.  Her voice was cold.  Not something I expected from a girl as shy and mellow as she seemed.  “So why did you partner up with me?  You’re smart enough to get a good grade yourself.”  I realized she wasn’t being cold.  She was confused.  I remember looking at her.  She thought I was using her for a grade.

“I just think you’d be a cool person to get to know.”  Andrea shook her head after looking at me for another solid minute but didn’t say anything else.  It was like the three sentences she had already said were too much for her.  

Saying that last sentence was like asking her to let me get to know her.  Silence means agreement.  Right?

So in a perfect world or a TV drama we would have become friends, probably falling into puppy love all in freshman year. 

 The thought makes me laugh.  

~Andrea~

I was astonished at myself for saying so much to Micky but I had to know his intentions.  I’m a person who doesn’t know how to take complements and he had given me two already.  I was happy being in my own little world and Micky infiltrated it, breaking down any and all of barriers I had ever put up between myself and the rest of the world.  It didn’t necessarily incense me but his actions confused me.  It was like I had been at the deepest point in the ocean and suddenly being pulled up and tossed in a current.  Even if I hadn’t been entirely secure with myself, I had known where I stood in relation to everyone else: just someone on the sidelines, an extra on a set of stars.    

I’m not a cynic and I’m not completely dense.  Micky obviously meant any complements he gave and I think that was what baffled me the most.  I could have lied to myself but the truth is that his comments did affect me. 

Sometimes I still look back on the time he complemented my smile.  I think of it every time someone asks why I smile so much.  People think I’m just a happy person…but a big reason I smile so much is because of what Micky said that day.  It’s so strange thinking about it.  I had known him for two weeks at that point and he already influenced my future.  That wasn’t something I realized before now.

I guess there are moments in life that define a person, experiences and people that and who mold each person into what they are and what they become.  Maybe it can be compared to a rock in the sea.  It’s jagged and oddly-shaped at first, but as the current drags it towards shore it’s smoothed and refined by each grain of sand it meets with. 

 If I was that rock then Micky must have been an entire sandbar.   

~Micky~

I transferred to the same high school as Andrea right before the change in semester.  Classes and schedules changed and Andrea and I weren’t in the same classrooms anymore.  I tried to keep my eye on her but my ‘friends’ took most of my attention.  To make things worse I started having family issues that stole into my free thoughts.  I forgot the book worm with the pretty smile and thick glasses.  Not completely.  I just put the thoughts on hold. 

Once I saw Matt with her from the other side of the cafeteria.  They were talking about something school or class related.  I could tell because that’s the only reason she would talk so much without embarrassment.  Matt put his arm around her shoulders in a half-hug.  I was surprised when she hugged him back instead of stiffening or pulling away.  It wasn’t a romantic gesture because Matt hugged everyone.  Even some guys, to the discomfort of the football team he was on.  I knew that but I still felt jealousy. 

Still, I had to laugh in amazement at Matt.  That big teddy bear of a guy could take out a 200 pounder during a football game but made Andrea, a girl who froze up when she accidentally bumped shoulders with someone, comfortable enough for a quick hug.  I hope that guy found a job that put his talent into play because he really was incredible.

After that I only caught glimpses of Andrea in the halls or as I passed a classroom. 

The end of her braid. 

The corner of her glasses. 

Her shoe just before it disappeared behind a corner. 

Then the last half of the school year was gone before it really sunk it.  The summer went by even more quickly.  I was working to help pay bills and home life…well, I’ll leave that to imagination for now. 

I was dead tired and didn’t think much about Andrea until the day before sophomore year began.  I remember laying in bed.  My younger brother was snoring and I thought about how I would see her the next day.

As soon as I stepped into the noisy hallways of reuniting classmates, teachers, and cliques, ‘friends’ attacked me, upset that we hadn’t ‘hung out’ during the summer months.  It’s hard to look for someone when five or six guys are trying to get you in a headlock. 

It took me a while to find her.  It was in the café.  She was leaning against the white brick of the wall, at the corner table by the door as always, and completely into the book she was reading. 

If she hadn’t had the book I probably wouldn’t have recognized her.  The glasses were gone.  Her hair was down. 

Straight. 

Silky soft. 

Red-brown under the café lights.  It reached her shoulders in long layers.  She was smiling to herself, her eyes moving over the lines of the book.  Whenever I had seen her before she had a guarded, worried aura but this time she just seemed…content.  Happy. 

I was about to approach her but one of the junior girls stopped to talk with her.  Andrea looked up and gave her a bright smile.  She unfolded her legs and stood.  I couldn’t help noticing the slender small body moving beneath the simple t-shirt and jeans.  The duckling had become a swan over the summer.  I said a silent plea to the scheduling deities of the school guidance office. 

‘Please, please let me have classes with her…”

~Andrea~

When Micky told me he thought I would be a cool person to get to know he seemed rather determined.  The change of semesters seemed to change his agenda.  I didn’t see him often afterwards.  Soon I forgot everything, pushing it into the back of my mind where I stored the information that would never come up on a final exam.  As the saying goes: out of sight, out of mind. 

During the remainder of the school year I lived day-by-day, focusing on my school work.  I was like a horse with blinders on.  I couldn’t be sidetracked by friends or school events. 

Then, one day I looked up from a final exam and found the school year over. 

That summer I got sick and spent about a month in bed.  My mother had to force me to eat and I slept through most of the days.  My parents and I believed it was stress-related and chose not to see a doctor.  When I developed at high fever my mother finally insisted on taking me to the pediatrician. 

I had developed strep throat which resulted in a neck too stiff to move from side to side.  Untreated strep had led me into scarlet fever.  In the early 1900s it was something that could kill a person or leave them with severe brain damage due to the outrageous temperatures the victim’s body reached.  Thanks to modern technology, Penicillin, and Tylenol I was fine despite severe lack of appetite.  It did, however, take me the rest of the month to recover. 

Afterwards I found I had lost about twenty pounds, dropping my original weight of 130 to 110.  I was able to gain a couple pounds back, making myself the ideal weight for my build and five foot three height.  Any baby fat that had once clung to my frame was long gone.  Even my moon face had slimmed slightly. 

When I completely recovered I went to Montana for two weeks to visit family.  My younger brother and I spent the majority of our time at the pool and our skin darkened despite the bottles and bottles of sunscreen my grandmother insisted on.  My parents bought me contact lenses for the summer so I could swim and see at the same time, quite a novelty for a girl who was blind as a bat and had worn glasses since the first grade. 

The last month of my carefree summer left me much happier than I had felt in a long time.  I felt like I was returning to school as a whole new person.

~Micky~ 

As luck would have it, I didn’t have one class with Andrea.  I didn’t even get to talk to her because she had found a circle of acquaintance-like friends.  She just wasn’t as accessible as she had been freshman year.  To make things worse other guys were noticing her.  Underclassmen AND upper.

Once my druggie-jock companion caught me watching her.  He put his hand on my shoulder and said, “Quiet ones are the ones to watch out for, right?”  He eyed Andrea briefly. 

I’m generally not a violent guy, no matter what high school rumors were, but I’ll admit I wanted to deck the moron. 

If Andrea had been out of my league before we were in different galaxies now.