It was a cloudy day, the winds blowing east. Mr. Kruis had both the classroom windows wide open, the cold sweeping into the room while the students shivered from the cold. The news that morning had introduced the possibility of rain until Wednesday. That was no surprise.

Craig McFarley rested his head on his desk, doodling on the tabletop. It was a sleepy Monday, and Craig had looked forward to a week full of spring weather, but instead the month was drenched with April showers. Even the week before was just rain, rain, rain. Last week was Spring Break, but what kind of "Spring Break" was it if it was just rains pouring and the wind howling?

He was just ready to close his eyes and fall asleep when he heard the classroom door open and close. Sleepily, he looked up. When he realized who the person was who just entered the classroom, he raised his head slightly. The girl standing there seemed to have caught most of everybody�s attention.

"Ah, it seems that we have a new student," Mr. Kruis announced, gesturing for the girl to walk towards the center front of the class. He knew this by the stack of books she was holding in her arms. "May you introduce yourself?"

Craig recognized who she was, of course. She was Louise Pierce, the quiet girl who suddenly disappeared from school during the month of October. She was in almost all of Craig�s classes last year. Louise was always seen with her nose in a book, walking down the halls quietly with long strides. The "in crowd" seemed to have always teased her because of the way she dressed, which was usually long dresses that seemed to be purposely made for older women. But no matter what dress she wore, she always wore the same orange sweater with the green floral design imprints.

That day, she wore a long yellow dress with green flowers printed on it and wore brown loafers with white socks as her footwear. The yellow and green colors on her dress were rather vibrant, which made her seem more pale than the usual.

"Hey, man," Craig�s friend, Ryan Wilkson, poked him with his pencil. Craig leaned back as Ryan whispered, "Isn�t that Louise Pierce? The one that everybody said she ran away and killed herself because nobody at this school liked her?"

Craig snorted, "Yeah, I guess. But her appearance here seems to overwhelm those rumors, huh?" He stared at Louise, trying to stifle a laugh. Personally, he thought she was a complete nerd with her thick glasses and short brown hair. What changed was her hair, which grew down to the middle of her back and was pulled back into a braid. Craig always thought long hair was sexy, and the only good thing about Louise was her long, sexy hair. It was soft and silky looking. Of course, he wouldn�t admit that to anybody. He wouldn�t admit that to himself ever again after that.

Louise looked over the crowd of people who looked back at her with interest. Craig watched her until she finally spoke.

"I�m Louise Pierce," she announced, as everybody burst out in laughs. Mr. Kruis didn�t approve of the ruckus, and had everybody quiet down so Louise could finish. "I have gone to this school before, but in early October, I stopped going to school here and started being home schooled. So, um, here I am." Her voice was meek and shy, her eyes being fixated on the ground the whole time she was speaking.

"Nice, now you may have a seat in the back of the class behind Claudia," Mr. Kruis pointed to the empty seat at the table behind the one next to Craig�s. Louise took notice and quickly made her way to the back of the room, embarrassed from talking in front of the class.

Everybody glanced back at Louise, smirking.

Over the next few days, everybody was talking about the new Louise Pierce, and how odd that she came back after all that time. Nobody knew the truth why she went back to Hollington High, because Louise had no friends to confess her story to. She didn�t have friends, and probably never did.

Craig was at Ryan�s house in his room, laying on the floor staring at the ceiling while Ryan lay down on his bed, shooting a kiddy basketball into a kiddy basketball hoop attached to a wall. Craig was flipping through a Harley-Davidson magazine, grinning at all the beauties.

Suddenly, Ryan asked with the full effect of sarcasm, "So, ya think Louise is a total babe now, huh?"

Craig let out a loud laugh, "Oh, yeah. She totally gets me going on."

"Ew, man," Ryan scrunched up his nose, "That�s something we shouldn�t even be joking around about."

Craig snorted, "You�re the one who brought her up in the first place. Besides, I wonder why she went away and came back."

Ryan spun the basketball on his pointer finger. "Don�t know. Family problems, I guess. Not like I ever paid much attention to her before, so I see no reason why I should now."

Craig thought for awhile. He hadn�t paid much attention to Louise, either. But her hair� he just wanted to comb his fingers through it. Though it was always in a braid everyday, he always wanted to run his fingers through it, or keep placing it behind her ear as his mom used to do to his older sister when she was in middle school. Long hair had always caught Craig�s attention, because if the hair looked good, that meant the girl knew how to keep herself clean. And the smell of Louise�s shampoo always hypnotized him whenever she walked by. She smelt of strawberries, brown sugar and clean laundry. But he only got these thoughts in Mr. Kruis� class, since that was the only class they were together in. Other than that, he never paid her any heed during the rest of the school day.

The one thing he has noticed about her, though, was the blue ribbon she wore everyday, no matter what the rest of her outfit was.