| Finally, they both spotted one another. For a moment, Nick was too nervous to walk up to her, but he knew he had to. He smiled happily and walked the rest of the way up to her. She smiled slightly and looked down quickly. "Hey," Nick said, once he reached her. "Hey," she replied, quietly. "...Well, come on!" "Wait," he said, stopping her. She was still looking down, not wanting to meet his eyes. "I was wondering, um.. would you mind sitting by me during classes? I mean, I don't really want to be by myself, and you're the only one I.. uh... have really been around all day..." She looked up and grinned. "Sure... I'd love to," she said, almost in a whisper. Now that she was looking up, he noticed a white paint smudge under her eye. With his thumb, he slowly yet gently wiped it away. She was wondering why he was rubbing her cheek, until he showed her the paint on his finger. "You had a paint smudge under your eye," he said, grinning. She blushed. She felt stupid for thinking he was being affectionate towards her. "We were painting the sky in art.. I guess I got the paint from the clouds on me," she laughed. "Well, are you ready for the next wonderful class?" He laughed. "Not really," he exclaimed. "But I guess I have to. We better get going, or we might be late." They both locked hands once again, without even thinking about it. They were now used to holding each other's hands. Ashley really liked having someone to hold on to. As they were walking through the halls, they noticed something. People were looking at them and whispering. Ashley really didn't like that much attention. Having almost no self-esteem made her uncomfortable in big crowds. She started to walk faster to get away from them. Nick could tell she was uncomfortable with everyone looking at her. He wondered why, since he had always loved being the center of attention. He went along with it, though, and walked just as fast as her. Once they made it to their room, they took a seat right next to each other. While Mr. Hoster was explaining everything, Ashley sat there daydreaming and twirling her hair through her fingers. She was bored, since Nick was just sitting there, writing. She smiled slightly to herself, thinking of how long she had wanted a love like this to come into her life. She had never felt so amazing in her entire life. Nick had just got done writing her a letter and looked over at her. He smiled to himself. She looked so happy just sitting there. He felt like she was so perfect for him. He was so glad that he was able to find someone like her in this school. He cleared his throat quietly to get her attention. She looked over at him. He held the note out to her, and she took it from him. She was excited to see what he had written. She opened it near her lap, so the teacher couldn't see her reading it. It said: "Hey Ashley! I was wanting to know, do you want to ride with me to Casey's for lunch? Also, do you want to go somewhere after school? Even though this town isn't big, it would still be cool to hang out with you. I really want to get to know you better. Write back!" She turned the paper over to respond to his letter. She wrote: "Hey! Yeah, I'll ride with you over to Casey's. And, even though there's not much to see here, I'll show you around. Maybe we can even go to the mall later. I would really like to get to know you better, too." She handed it to him, and he read it. He, then, looked up and smiled at her. She smiled back. Just then, the bell rang, ending their homeroom class. They walked out the door and down to their lockers. She saw her friends and went to tell them that she wasn't going to lunch with them. With them, she saw Lynze, another good friend of hers whom she hadn't seen all day. Lynze was wearing jeans and a black shirt with a logo on it. She dressed both casually and fashionably. She had shoulder-length strawberry-blond hair that was in a ponytail and brown eyes. Like Ashley, she was kind of short. She met her in 9th grade, when Lynze moved there. She was very pretty, just like Ashley's other friends. When Ashley got near them, they started teasing her again. "Hey, I heard about your new boyfriend," Lynze said, smiling. "Yeah, Yeah," Ashley sighed. "But anyways, I'm riding with him to Casey's, so see you all later!" "When am I going to meet him," Lynze asked. "Later," Ashley replied, walking away. "Bye guys!" They all responded with a "Bye." Ashley ran up the stairs and saw Nick waiting for her by the doors. "So are you ready to go," Nick asked. She replied with a "yep." Nick took Ashley's hand and led her to his truck. He had a dark blue Blazer parked right behind her car. Ashley had a silver convertible. Her Dad had bought it for her for her 16th birthday, since she had always wanted it. "Wow, that's a nice car," Nick said, looking at it. "It makes mine look like a piece of crap." "Thanks," Ashley laughed. "That's yours," Nick asked surprised. "You want to ride in yours, then?" "We don't have to," Ashley said, getting into his truck. Surprised by that, he got into his car and drove them to Casey's. He, then, drove into the parking lot. "So are you hungry," Nick asked. "Not really," Ashley replied. "You can get something if you want." "I'm not really hungry anymore either. Do you want to just drive around then?" "Sure," Ashley said, laughing. They drove around laughing and talking about anything that came to their minds. Then, the subject of dating came up. "In my old school, none of the girls liked me. They didn't think I was cool, I guess," Nick said. "Are you serious," Ashley asked, astonished. "Yeah. I was picked on a lot and guys were always trying to pick fights with me." "Why in the world would they do that," Ashley asked. "Don't know. Probably 'cause I was out of school so much. I was in this band called the Backstreet Boys, and we were all over America doing appearances, trying to be recognized. That started about 11 years ago. After a while, we just gave up. I moved here to kind of start over, I guess." "That's awesome you were in a band, but it's stupid people treated you like that. I haven't dated much, though, either. I think it was because I was overweight, and I'm really shy," Ashley said, looking down. "Well, I guess we have one more thing in common," Nick said. Ashley smiled. "I guess we were just made for each other," Nick added. She then looked up and stared into his eyes. She knew she loved him. Then, she moved closer to him. They closed their eyes, parted their lips, and kissed each other for the first time. |