As we all are, I am just a simple unit in the pool of numbers that make up the statistics in our country: the United States. I am a part of the population of geeks, gamers, and avid readers. One could say that I am attractive in some way but I never suspected girls to look my way. Did not really care for the most part.
It was completely random and I felt as if I was going to wake up from a chick flick. Any moment now, Celine Dion was going to start singing in the background. She wasn’t what you’d call beautiful or exotic but I still felt as if we were connected by some invisible string stronger than most would have with a complete stranger. I stopped walking towards the box office and stared at her curiously. Maybe instinct was telling me some strange accident would soon occur. Nothing happened however during the few seconds that I stood watching yet I continued to observe her. Her hair reminded me of a tame fire that flowed along her face and down her back. At first I didn’t notice that those blue orbs were staring straight back at me until they blinked and her light eyebrows creased in confusion. My eyes grew wide then cast away into the sea of people around me.
“Dude, hey duuuuuuude,” a voice in front of me brought me out of my distraction. Charlie punched me slightly with his fist; he couldn’t move me much though. I gazed down at him and chuckled. “You’re weird,” he commented and turned around to order his ticket. I followed suit and as soon as I could I glanced back up to where the redhead had been, but she had disappeared among the crowds lining up for the debut of Pirates of the Caribbean 3.
It did not take long for me to forget that she had even existed as I gazed happily at the wide screen hours later.

I’ve never questioned nor thought of the existence of fate. In fact, if I ever had before that day I probably wouldn’t have believed it anyway. Life was evil and had been stringing my emotions together lately like a crude kindergartener’s macaroni necklace. Yet now that I look back, I’m glad I hadn’t before believed in the existence of the tie between two souls; otherwise, that Monday would have gone horribly and terribly… right.
That day started quite oddly for me. First, my psychology teacher proposed a pop quiz and then my Japanese teacher disappeared halfway through class. I was partly expecting that aliens would beam down to earth and whisk my Economics teacher away. Then again, that wasn’t a bad idea since we had a test on supply & demand today and I hadn’t studied enough. However, I wasn’t too far off on the whole alien thing.
Charlie and I were playing paper football with quite an audience. It was mostly because I kept missing and flicking him in the face. The game almost started to escalate into a contest on who can cause each other the most pain, but the bell rung and we all settled down into our seats to face the teacher.
Instantly our eyes locked on each other. Those deep blue orbs scattered my thoughts and all I could think about was this redheaded girl that stood boredly at the front of the classroom. A flicker of interest danced across her face as we gazed at each other. She wore simple black jeans with golden thread and a black T-shirt that said, “Did you eat a bowl of stupid for breakfast?” Accidentally, I let a small chuckle out of my mouth and she cast a glance downwards at herself then smiled at me.
“Class,” the deep baritone of my Economics teacher began, “this is Tess Halvard. She’s from Scottsdale, Arizona.” Mr. Nero placed his chubby hands on the broad part of her back as if to lead her forward. The girl’s eyes shot straight towards his and her eyebrows tilted slightly in annoyance. I almost laughed aloud as I imagined her voice say, ‘Ugh, don’t touch me.’
With an audible snort she moved away from Mr. Nero and plopped herself into the chair in the back next to mine.  My eyes followed her every move unable to look away. It was so strange that she could generate so much curiosity in me that Charlie kicked the back of my chair to jumpstart my brain. I noticed later however, that I wasn’t the only one.
As is customary, if a new student is introduced into the class everyone will eventually try to talk to them, asking during the work period what it was like where they lived, all the things that they like to do, and what classes they were taking. After the test, I eavesdropped into the dialogue that some of my classmates were trying to get out of her. So far, I had gathered that she already had Senior in and History, but had Web Mastering next period. Secretly I hoped she would be in the same class as me.
All during their persistent questions, she kept tapping the end of her pen on her desk and shot looks across the classroom. Was she impatient for Economics to end? I know I was. Maybe she was nervous. The bell rung silently and I frowned, packing up my stuff. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed her staring at me and I smiled softly.

The lines for D-lunch were especially long that day much to my dismay. I groaned and sighed heavily at all the right moments when someone could be watching. What was even worse was that when I reached the start of the bar, they had chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes, my absolute least favorite lunchroom delicacy. Ya know if I had wanted steak, I would have gotten steak. If I had wanted chicken, I would have gotten chicken. There would be no circumstance that I would want both tastes forced together like two opposite magnets. In frustration, I stomped over the invisible line separating the two different lunch lines and grabbed a chicken sandwich, pepperoni hot pocket, and some fries. The small Latin lunch lady gave me a look I knew all too well as I settled for two cartons of milk instead of three.
Now that the school year had been well on its way for several weeks, all the groups that made up the student body of D-lunch were already settled on claiming their territories. The current anime populace took over an entire table near the exit to the parking lot. This year we were blessed with everyone in the same lunch, save for a few grave unfortunate souls. To get to this haven however, I had to pass them. Some of the ‘in-crowd’ would stare at outsiders as they passed, another section might just completely ignore you as much as you would ignore them. I always went with the “don’t mess with me” stride and kept my eyes forwards at all times. Except for today. Right on the outskirts of their territory sat Tess. On the other side of the rectangular table sat three hyperactive girls no doubt belonging to the cheerleader fan club. They gave no inclination to the existence of Tess only a few feet away from them.
As if sensing an escape from this prison, she looked up as I approached her seat. Her emotions were clear in her eyes as she silently begged me to save her and she unconsciously shifted her weight away from a possible spot for me. This girl so dearly wanted my company, how could I deny her? I could live through a good ten minutes in their territory. Nevertheless, I truly didn’t want to sit with the popular crowd; I felt as if I did I might catch something horrible and become one of them. Therefore, I kept on walking and looked away as if I had seen nothing interesting. Her body slumped and she returned to poking at her chicken fried steak.

I arrived at Web Mastering early, skipping out on the daily rant of my group of friends’ in the hallway. Mrs. Emerson grinned and sent a wave my way as I sat down at my PC along the wall. When I was waiting for my computer to turn on, I heard the sound of a chair being rolled backwards across the carpet to my left. That’s strange. No one sat there. Slowly, I raised an eyelid. There she was sitting uneasily at the computer next to mine. As I sat up in my chair, her gorgeous blue eyes sprang towards mine. She seemed to decide on whatever choice popped up in her mind at that moment and without a word, she whisked around to face her monitor screen.
I leaned forward and set my elbows on either side of my keyboard, watching her out of the corner of my eye. She was underneath the table, messing with various cables. The little um’s, ah’s, and ugh’s that issued from the dark space caused a smile to creep across my face. It was cute to see her struggle. A moment later and she resurfaced from beneath the computer table with her fiery hair disheveled. Despite the turmoil in my mind, I resisted the urge to help her calm down her hair. At first after watching her go through all of that, I didn’t have the heart to tell her but when she sent a glaring look my way, daring me to object to her attempts, I couldn’t help it.
“That computer doesn’t work.”
She stopped in mid press of the power button and time froze. Despair settled on her shoulders and she slumped forward.
This was wrong, I told myself. Quickly I turned away from her and focused on the website I was making. I didn’t want to feel the guilt that coursed through my veins.
With a heavy sigh she settled her head down gently in front of the keyboard but her relaxation didn’t last long as the bell rung and the class somewhat came to order.
“Tess, hunny, that computer is broken,” Mrs. Emerson’s voice came from behind us.
“I know,” she whispered solemnly and slowly rose from her seat.
“Here, why don’t you…” The rest of Mrs. Emerson’s sentence faded as I placed the large early 90’s headphones over my ears. My project completely enveloped me for a fraction of a second. A strong tidal wave of emotions crashed down on me as I sat quietly in that wheelie chair. What have I done? All the signs were there. We both wanted so dearly to talk to one another but I had to ignore them. Was I just simply being shy? No this feeling was much stronger. This feeling inside was fear. I feared myself at how much damage I could do before even satisfying the need to be by her side. Only then did I realize that what I feared had come true. I didn’t talk to her with all the others during Economics, I didn’t become her knight in shining armor in the lunchroom, and now the worst blow was that I embarrassed her. Silently I knew that I had made her feel stupid and rejected when I actually wanted the total opposite. My knuckles grew white as I gripped the edge of my seat and stared blankly at the screen before me. The sorrow that I suffered eroded away at my thoughts. I couldn’t concentrate. Then confusion overwhelmed my sorrow and replaced it. How and why was this girl affecting me so intensely? I barely knew her. Absently I turned my head toward where she had sat as if to punish my conscious. However, to my intense surprised, her outline came into focus as my eyes adjusted to the fact that she now sat there once more.
She sat smug in her seat with a sleek black laptop in place of the broken computer’s keyboard. Her legs folded over each other Indian style as she sat up straight. Those deep blue eyes smoldered with a strange inner fire that I gathered they must have borrowed from her hair. Satisfaction etched across her face at my apparent shock.
Despite the fact I felt horribly jealous, I managed to smile and speak kindly, “You’re so lucky.”
Her laugh echoed among the relatively quiet chatter of the computer room. With her mission complete, she spun around to concentrate on her new toy. However, motivation to make amends swiftly prevailed over my nerdy desire to complete my work and talk later.
“Dan.”
“What?” Her face scrunched up.
“My name is Dan,” I laughed lightly and mentally kicked myself. Her mouth created an O shape before she eyed me and turned back around. For a few minutes, she typed while I searched for words to say in awkward silence. Every now and then, she flipped through pages that Mrs. Emerson probably gave her. Her pale hands appeared so cold against the dark black of the keyboard. I wished silently to hold them in my warm hands to save them from freezing over. With a sigh, I collapsed backwards in my chair, linking my fingers together behind my head. Something like that would never happen, I barked at myself.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered under my breath, half hoping she wouldn’t hear so I didn’t have to figure out what to say next. Unfortunately, she did but responded not quite as I had imagined. Our bodies were suddenly facing each other and our eyes were searching each other’s souls. Finally, she broke away and gently pushed the screen of the lap top half way down.
“I’m Tess,” she said to her laptop.
“I know,” I replied stupidly and kicked myself in the shin this time. One of her eyebrows rose upon her light face as if her ESP noticed my repeated treatment of myself. Before I started to speak again, I wondered silently if she was even breathing. Her mouth drew across her face in a small tight line. The only sign that she might have been breathing was the occasional flare of her nose. “Soooo….” My shoes suddenly attracted my attention. “Would you like to sit at my table tomorrow? I mean you don’t have to. I know I probably don’t deserve your company after-“
Her laugh was like a range of happy little notes singing together. “I’ll think about it,” she mused. It is amazing how simply admitting your wrong can brighten a girl’s perspective of you. The smile that broke apart the straight line of her mouth flooded my heart with a happiness that I had never felt before. Pleased, I turned around to face my computer, blinded with this new emotion.
“Dan?”
She remembered my name!
“Yes?”
She gazed at me with that amazing smile then smirked, “Never mind.”