Conner Ridge had a problem.  In all his fifteen years of life he had never been faced with a greater problem.  Staring him down from across the hall were two baby blue eyes, accompanied by a waterfall of hair red enough to rival the sun.  The contrasting colors created a strange mystical beauty that knights went to war for and caused heartbroken dreamers to jump off bridges.  Now this same beauty looked at him from across the hall.

They're amazing, the mindsets of some men, Conner had taken on 300 pound linemen, bullies with knives, and even grandma's no bake molasses cookies, but in all his life, never had he been faced by the fury that hell hath no.

The lovely girl walked forward, reaching into her pocket for something that Conner knew to be life ending.
With swiftness unknown to any but those who have feared for their lives, he ran.

Sanctuary appeared in the form of the men's restroom.  Ducking inside he hoped for little more then a moment to gather his thoughts, his wishes were granted.  "why was she smiling?" he thought, "Is she happy? Angry? Murderous!?". He decided it probably wasn't the latter.  He ducked back out of the restroom, silently praying that the threat was gone.

Seeing no danger he began to walk back to his locker.  All fears forgotten he began to spin the combination lock.  It was only then that he felt the long cold stare on the skin of his neck, and the hand tapping his shoulder.  Fear overwhelmed his subconscious as animal instinct took over.  "Run! Run!" it told him.  But Conner refused to give in.  He steeled himself, and with dread running down his spine, he turned to face the girl of his dreams.

Shining blue eyes pierced his heart, and he nearly died from overexposure to raw beauty.  If it was not for that life giving laughter, he would not have lived to see another day.  Coming out of his stupor he realized she was holding a small piece of folded paper.  He recognized it, it was the note that had started this entire ordeal.  "take it" she said. He didn't have a split second to even think about it, because she stuck it in his hand, smiled, and was gone.

The bell screamed.  Conner Ridge was jealous of the bell.  Gathering his books he ran to class as fast as he could.

Throughout English class he touched the note, wondering what the reply was, if it held a bright future, or repeated history.  He could only wish that Mira would be different from the ones that had denied him, he was tired of washing milkshake stains out of his jackets.

Unable to resist for another moment he took the note from his pocket.  Watching the teacher carefully he unfolded it little by little, "Conner," the teacher said, "you know my policy on notes?"

The blood drained from his face.  "Yes Mr. McCoy."

"Please bring it here."

Conner's steps rang of doom.  It took all of his will power not to rip it up and throw it away.

Mr. McCoy ripped the note from his hands, unfolded it, and began to read in an extremely clear voice.

"Dear Mira, I don't know how to say this, so I wrote you a poem," He smiled and cleared his throat.


“How long have we been here
Side by side
Standing so near
And yet so far,
Smiles sent flying
To back and to forth
Flirting and blushing
But saying no more
So now I'll step forward
To a future unkown
Brought to the present
With just five small words.
They're hard to say
But theres none else that will do,
Now no more delay,
I think I love you.”


Mr. McCoy stopped, caught his breath, and smiled.

“Conner, I think that is the most beautiful poem I have ever read. That’s extra credit if I’ve ever seen it. Oh! It goes on!”

Conner went in to shock. What! He hadn’t written anything else, what did he mean, ‘it went on’?

Mr. McCoy began to read again. “Ok, we can try.” Finally, the pain was over. But what did that mean? Was it good? Was it bad? We can try? What the heck did that mean?

The note was thrown away, but only after Mr. McCoy spent a good five minutes jotting down the poem. Conner was deep in a dark place of thoughts and questions.



***