I took a big bite of my frozen yogurt. Peanut butter frozen yogurt with m&ms. It was delicious! It was cold and tangy on my tongue. I was at frozen-yo with Sydney, Hanna, Daniel and Matt, my best friends and my crush. Frozen-yo was the favorite place for the gang and I to hang out at. We knew everyone who worked there, so it was basically like a second home.

“So, does anybody have Mr. Keetcher this year?” Daniel asked, his brown hair was newly sort of spiked up like Taylor Lautner and he was stuffing down his frozen yogurt. “Yes! I have him for English. Uch! He sucks!” Sydney cried, her eyes sparkling as she was gazing at Daniel. “I know! Hanna added. “He’s so mean!” Hanna was daintily taking small bites of her frozen yogurt. “Once, I overheard him talking to Miss Harold about the next project for school. Miss Harold said she didn’t want to stick totally to the curriculum. She wanted to do something different, more hands on. Mr. Keetcher refused and said he wanted to do the traditional curriculum, he’s so boring!”
Miss Harold was my English teacher. She was the best teacher ever! She was super nice and fun. We always did fun things in her class. Like, one day she let us act out grammar schoolhouse rock, which sounds stupid (I know, I thought so too), but it was actually fun. We were able to put our own twist on it, and we created songs about grammar, and dances. We added them to the originals but put tunes we knew to them. It was really cool. (Don’t tell Hanna or Sydney, but Mr. Keetcher made them do a poster about the history of grammar, haha!)
“You’re so lucky you guys have Miss Harold!!!” Sydney exclaimed to me and Matt. “I know,” I said. “We do the funnest things!” “Funnest isn’t a word Katie.” Hanna told me. “Oh, whatever,” I said. “Wait, you have Miss Harold?” Matt asked me. He smiled. “Um, yeah. She’s really cool, right?” I stuttered. Matt had Miss Harold? So cool! Just another thing we had in common. “Yeah! She’s so cool!” He smiled his big smile at me. Straight at me, only at me. “That’s so cool that you have her too.” He said.
He placed his hand on mine. Oh. My. God. Matt Johnsons hand was on mind! He curled his fingers under mine and squeezed gently. Holy crap! I was holding Matt Johnsons hand!! This was what I’d dreamed of! I was touching Matt Johnson. This was insane! This day could not get better! He smiled at me for maybe the fifth time today.
I looked over at Sydney and Hanna. Sydney’s eyes lit up, and Hanna was grinning. “Oooh, someone’s a go getter!” Sydney cooed. I blushed and tried to hide my smile. Matt was blushing too. We looked at each other and giggled nervously. Was I supposed to feel this nervous? In movies, it always looks so natural. Liars.
“Hey, guys, my mom wants me home by four. Sydney, Katie wanna come over?” Hanna asked. “Yeah, sure. I have to call my mom though.” I said. “Yeah, Matt we gotta hit the gas station on the way home. I gotta give somethin’ to Tony.” Tony was the owner of the gas station. The boys were always stopping by the gas station because Tony had a collection of baseball cards which he could be bargained to trade for other valuables, like signed hats and stuff. “Sure,” Matt replied.
We all stood up and threw our trash out. We walked outside but then said goodbye and parted out separate ways. The gas station was to the left of frozen-yo and Hanna’s house was to the right. “Bye Katie. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Matt said smiling. His face was a bit red, but in a cute way. “Yeah, see you at school,” I replied. We each walked away, Sydney, Hanna, and I right, and Daniel and Matt left.
“Somebody had an exciting afternoon, hint hint.” Sydney winked and nudged me. “Oh shut up Syd, he just held my hand, that was all.” Even as the words came out I knew that it wasn’t all. The excitement boiled up in me as I kept walking. I had to tell Maddy and see what she said. This was big. “Hey! Let’s go home and look up what it says about holding hands on the internet!” Sydney said. Leave it to Syd to think up somehting stupid but super fun. Hanna rolled her eyes. “Not everything’s on the internet Sydney. Some things just are what they are. There’s no right answer,” Hanna said sounding somewhat like an old wise lady. I giggled. “Whatever you say Hanna.” We walked to Hanna’s house and ran into her room giggly and excited.
Hanna was the only one of us who had her own laptop. My mom said I was too young and should stay away from all the new technology as long as possible because it ruins your life. My mom’s an over-exaggerator. Sydney’s parents had a family MacBook Air, the lucky girl. But Sydney’s Dad was always on it because he was a lawyer and he had to do a lot of business stuff.
We opened it up and Hanna logged into her account. She clicked the little blue internet explorer button and typed in “What does it mean when your crush holds your hand?” and pressed search. My heart was racing and I could almost feel it coming up into my throat. “Oh this is so exciting! Katie you’re the first one of us to have our hand held by a guy!” Hanna sighed. “For real, not just when you were in preschool-SYDNEY.” Hanna turned and looked at Sydney who looked at her feet and smiled.
About a million sources came up on the screen. One said, “Did your boyfriend hold your hand today?” I pointed at that and laughed. What was our world coming to? Another more promising one read, “He held your hand. The how’s, why’s and what does it means!” I pointed to that one and said, “Click on it!”
Hanna did and a site with a pink background filled the screen. The top of the article said, “What do I do next-hand holding.” Hanna scrolled down and read out loud. “So your crush held your hand today for the first time. Good for you! Now I’ll bet you’re wondering what it meant, and what to do next. Take this quick survey to find out!” This was the stupidest thing I had ever done. “I can’t believe we’re doing this!” I cried. “I can!” Sydney said and grabbed the laptop. She smiled mischievously at me and started reading the questions out loud: “1. How did you feel? Well, how did you feel Katie? Tell Doctor Sydney.” I laughed out loud. “Hardly,” Hanna murmured. Sydney rolled her eyes.
“I felt excited, and nervous, and happy I guess,” I told her. She wrote it down and read the next question. “How hard did he hold your hand?” I rolled my eyes. “This is so dumb! But he held it lightly, kind of tentative I guess,” I said. Hanna giggled and shifted in her seat. “Okay, three more. Did he smile while he did it, or not?” Sydney announced. “He smiled. Duh.” “Did he seem confident or not?” “I don’t know! Sure, confident, why not?” I cried. “Alrighty then, did he pull his hand away quickly after or did he hold it for a long time?” “He didn’t pull away fast.” I said, remembering the moment with a light heart.
Sydney clicked “Okay” and read the result out loud. “You and your crush have total potential! He really likes you. Now, it’s up to you to make the next move in the way you think is appropriate!” Sydney read in a fake girly voice. “We already knew he liked her!” Hanna said exasperated. Yes. I suppose we did.

I hadn’t seen Matt since the afternoon at Frozen-yo. I got a bit nervous that he was avoiding me. Maybe he was embarrassed. Though, it didn’t matter much to me why he was avoiding me. I had been worrying that he decided he didn’t like me. I didn’t know what I’d do if he didn’t like me!

One rainy afternoon (the day was as grim as I felt about Matt, I had been up almost all night thinking about him) I walked into my sisters room to ask what she thought I should do. I knocked on the door. Once, nothing. Twice, nothing. Three times, nothing. So I just decided to barge in. She didn’t answer. Her problem, not mine.

I opened the door and walked in. “Oh, my god Katie. If I don’t answer, try to get the hint that I don’t want to talk to you right now!” I rolled my eyes and sat down on her bed. She was IMing with her boyfriend, Jacob. “Maddy, I need your advice.” I told her picking up some of her makeup from her shelf near the bed. “What else is new?” She answered, grabbing the makeup before I could try it on. “I’m nervous my crush doesn’t like me. He held my hand a few days ago, but he hasn’t said anything to me since.” “Gee, I wonder why.” Maddy muttered under her breath. “Maddy! Seriously! What should I do?” I asked desperately.

“Tie yourself to a train track and let him rescue you. There, you have your answer, now goodbye,” she said typing away on her keyboard. I sighed and left the room. She was no help.
I decided to call Sydney. She’d know exactly what to do. I went back to my room and dialed her number. 301-435-1492. The phone rang, and rang. After three rings, Sydney answered. “Hey girlfriend!” She said excitedly. “What’s up?” “Ack, I have a problem. Matt hasn’t talked to me since the afternoon at Frozen-yo! I think he’s avoiding me,” I said. I sounded whiny, but honestly, I didn’t really care. We were in a crisis here! “He hasn’t talked to you since Frozen-yo? Wow, poor you,” she said. I shook my head. “I know! What do I do? I want him to go out with me!” I cried, exasperated. “Darling, darling, cool it. You’re in crisis mode. You have to take it down to cool mode. Now, why do you think he hasn’t talked to you?” She asked. I rolled my eyes. “That’s what I called you for!” I replied. “Okay, okay. Calm down. I know the answer. He hasn’t talked to you, because there’s no reason to talk to you. You have to give him a reason. I love you Katie, but let’s face it. You need to do something more exciting. You need a makeover! Or, not a makeover, but something new and exciting!” She was really getting excited now, and I was getting scared.
“Okay, makeover it is, but how?” I asked. “How you ask? Haha. Darling, you need to get your ears pierced!” Sydney cried. “My….ears pierced?” I asked tentatively. I touched my ear. A hole in my ears? Creepy! “No way!” I said. “Don’t you want to be able to accessorize with earrings, and be able to show off something more?” Sydney pried. The thought actually started to sound cool. Maybe, just maybe, it would be fun! “Okay, fine. I’ll have to ask my mom though. And if I do, YOU’RE COMING!” I said into the phone. I put the phone face down on my bed. I ran downstairs to where my mom was reading the paper.
“Hey, Mommy,” I said in my sweetest most innocent voice. I folded my hands in front of my chest in a pleading position. It was my signature pose. “No. Whatever it is no,” my mom joked with a huge smile. She knew what was coming. “You didn’t even know what I was going to say!” I pleaded. She smiled and said, “Go ahead.” I bowed and said, “Thank you. Now, I would like to ask you a very serious question. May I get my ears pierced?” I asked, desperately. My mom looked at me and smiled. “Oh, Katie, I knew this day would come,” she pulled me to her and gave me a hug. “Mom! I just wanna get my ears pierced, not get married!” She looked at me and smiled. “Yes, I suppose you can. When? Today?” I guiltily smiled. “That’s what I was…thinking.” “Yeah, I can take you today. What time do you want to go?” She asked. “Well, maybe in ten minutes?” “Ten minutes! Oh my, yes I suppose so. Meet me at the door in ten minutes.” I grinned and hugged her.
I ran into my room and picked up the phone. “Yeah, okay, be at my house in ten minutes!” I told Sydney through the receiver. “Oh, Katie you’re gonna look so perty!” I could feel Sydney’s excitement. What was I getting myself into?
****************

Sydney looked at me and smiled her mischievous grin. I still couldn’t believe I was putting holes in my ears at Claire’s. My ears were nice. They were soft and full. I wasn’t sure I wanted holes in them. But, it was a little too late for that. Sydney pulled out a pair of earrings that had tiny little skulls with blood on them. There was a big chain coming out from the end of it. “Oh, it’s so you!” Sydney cried. I rolled my eyes. “Sure, that’s me. If that’s me then these are you!” I pulled out a pair of pink fluffy, soft earrings. They were little fluff balls, they were insanely ugly! Sydney grunted. “Yeah right.” She walked over to the makeup section of the store.
I walked over to the counter and told the woman that I wanted to get my ears pierced she smiled at me and motioned for me to come over to the big red chair where I would sit to get holes in my ears. I walked over and sat down.
Sydney skidded over and picked up the stand of the choices of earrings I could choose for my first earrings. She pointed to two tiny blue hearts. “What about these?” She asked. “Hmm, they’re cute, but I don’t know.” They were a little too frou-frou. Then, I saw them, the ones. They were tiny little fake diamonds. They were beautiful! I pointed to them. Sydney grinned and nodded. “Oh yes.”
I told the lady that they were the ones I wanted. She picked them out and placed them on the table. She drew two tiny dots on my ears. She took out the ear gun. Oh boy. The ear gun. This was not good. She placed it on my ears and pulled the trigger. Goodbye wonderful, plump ears. I whimpered. And click. The first one was over. The pinch was not too bad. But now it was soar. She put the gun on the other ear and pulled the trigger.
It was over. Done. That was it! I felt my ears. My heart raced. The lady gave me a mirror. They were beautiful! Sydney beamed. “Oh Katie you look beautiful! You look awesome!” I smiled too. I suppose I did look beautiful. My mother was smiling. “Oh my. Katie. You look absolutely stunning. You look so grown up!” She said. I loved them. I did look grown up. I looked grown up and beautiful! Matt would think I looked beautiful. But more importantly, I thought I looked beautiful. No, I didn’t think. I knew.

“Guess what! Guess what!” Sydney ran up to Hanna and I at the park. How did she know we were there? I didn’t even wanna know.

“What?” I asked. I leaned my elbows on my knees. She sat down next to us. “Daniel asked if I wanted to go out! We’re together!” She cried. I grinned. I knew this day would come. Sydney had had an ongoing crush on Daniel. It never got smaller, just bigger. Sydney talked about him all the time. How she wished he would ask her because she was scared to ask him, how he had such beautiful eyes, his hair was so cute spiked up, etc. etc. So, I thought it would be a relief to Hanna and I.

“Oh, Sydney, that’s great! I’m so happy for you,” I said. As I said the words, a pit formed in my stomach. Why hadn’t Matt asked me out yet? Did he still like me? He said he had loved my earrings. And get this, he even said I looked really pretty with them at school! Ugg, why did I have to be so paranoid! This sucked. “I know! I’m ecstatic!” Sydney sighed.
I looked at Hanna. She was sulkily looking at the grass. “Hanna? Aren’t you happy?” I asked her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Oh, yeah. That’s great Syd.” She looked back down at the grass. Okay, this was not good. She was not ok. “Hanna, what’s wrong?” Sydney asked. She sighed. “Well, it’s just that, both you and Katie have boyfriends or some kind of relationship with a guy. But, not me.” Ohhh, now that made sense.
Sydney’s face lit up. Oh boy. “Syd, this isn’t a happy-” “I have the best idea ever!” See, Sydney’s best ideas are always quite interesting. “We’ll take Hanna down to the Plaza and teach her how to flirt with guys! A girls day at the plaza!” Sydney cried. This would be interesting. “One itsy bitsy problem. I don’t know how to flirt,” I told her. Sydney shook her head. “Fine, then I’ll teach you both how to flirt!” Hanna smiled. “Let’s do it!” We got up and walked down to the plaza.
The plaza was a big open place with tiled squares. It had a bunch of stores all around it. There were food stands and benches. In the center of it was a big fountain. It was a cool, classy place to hang out. Sydney, Hanna and I sat down on a bench by Aeropostle.
“Alright. First thing you need to know is always act casual. Make small talk. Also, don’t be too outward. Don’t overdo it. Bat your eyelashes a little, smile. Always smile.” Hanna’s face had seemed to take a long journey. At first, she was smiling, looking excited. Then as Sydney went on, she looked confused. Last she looked not exactly disgusted, but not exactly excited.
“Okay, Hanna. There’s a cute guy right there. What you’re gonna do is ‘accidentally’ bump into him. Smile cutely and say oh, sorry. Then, start to talk to him. Just act like your cute, little fun self and you’ll be awesome!” Hanna’s face turned white. “Um, ya know, Syd, I’m kinda um thinking, maybe this isn’t exactly a great idea. You know maybe we could do it another day?” Sydney snorted. “Go!” She pushed Hanna forward and she fell into the guy. Hanna’s face was now bright red.
“Sorry, I’m really sorry, uh, my friend, um, well, ya see-” Hanna stuttered. The guy looked confused and kind of nervous. “Yeah, don’t worry about it.” He walked away fast. Hanna ran over to us steaming. “Sydney! What was that? He thought I was a freak! What’s wrong with you??” Sydney giggled. “Okay, that wasn’t a good round. Let’s try again. It’ll all be good this time, now you know what not to do.” Flirting was weird. Why did people flirt? I wondered. What was the point? And, how did Sydney know so much?
“One more time and then that’s it!” Hanna glared at Sydney. Sydney smiled. “If you get this one I’ll buy you a pretzel at Annie’s. Now try it again, him.” Hanna loved Annie’s. Sydney pointed to a boy with dark brown eyes and a cute smile. Hanna rolled her eyes and walked over to him.
She pretended to trip over an old soda can. She landed perfectly in his arms. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” Hanna smiled shyly and pulled her hair behind her ears. She looked really pretty. Her dark brown eyelashes batted over her eyes. Sheesh, that Annie’s pretzel must’ve really worked some magic! Sydney was grinning so insanely big. We were too far away to hear what they were saying, but they were both smiling. “I’m just a miracle worker!” Sydney said. I rolled my eyes and smiled.
A few minutes later, Hanna ran over to us smiling like she had just won the lottery. “He took my number! Oh my gosh, it was great! He was so sweet and he said he liked my shirt. He likes pretzels too! This was so cool, I love you so much Syd!” Hanna hugged Sydney. I was amazed. It was the most confident I had ever seen Hanna. I was super happy. “Now, where is my pretzel?” Hanna asked, hands on hips. “Oh, that?” Sydney grinned.

I was sitting on my bed when Sydney called. “Hanna, I’m tired of you and Matt not doing anything so I made a decision.” I lay down on my pillow. “I’m coming over and I’ll tell you.” She hung up and a minute later she was in my bedroom on my bed. This was going to be quite the afternoon, I could tell by the way Sydney looked at me. “So, what’s your decision?” I asked amused. “You and Matt keep just liking each other, not doing anything. Plus, you’re always complaining about how you don’t know if he likes you or not and if he thinks you’re a thing. So, since I knew you would be too chicken to do it, I decided that I would call Matt and ask him myself!” She finished.

Call Matt and see if he thought we were a thing??? NO WAY. “No freaking way!” I grabbed Sydney and shook her by the shoulders. “Are you insane?” I cried. “Probably, but I’m still doing this!” She told me. Oh my gosh. She was actually going through with this. I didn’t think there was a thing I could do to stop her.

“Okay, we can do it, but I wanna be listening too! How are we gonna do that?” I thought I had won, so I put my hands on my hips triumphantly. “Simple, you’ll be listening from upstairs. If you don’t talk, he won’t know and you’ll be able to hear.” Shoot. It made me wonder how many times before Sydney had done this. “You suck Syd, ya know that?” I said shaking my head. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, now go upstairs.” I rolled my eyes and walked out of the room, but before I ran upstairs, I stuck my head back in the room and said, “You better not mess up!” She smiled.

I ran up to my mom’s room and sat down on her bed. The blanket was blue with white flowers. My dad had given it to my mom before she died. I looked at the pictures of my dad on the shelf by my mom’s bed. He was handsome. He had full head of brown hair, just like mine. Whenever I asked my mom about him, she would tell me he was always exciting. After they got married they eloped. He was always filled with exciting ideas. My mom told me that after she had me he all of a sudden decided to take Maddy and I to Disney World. He also paid for my mom to take a weekend for herself at a spa. Who takes a new born baby to Disney World? My dad, that’s who.

I walked over to the railing where I could see if Sydney was trying to give me the signal. She was. “Hi, Matt, it’s Sydney. How’s it going?” She walked away.
I picked up the phone frantically. “Uh, good. How ‘bout you?” His voice was so sweet. “Well, to tell you the truth Matt, I’m a bit worried about Katie. She’s been really upset lately.” “Is she okay? What’s wrong??” He asked desperately. He was so sweet. On the other hand, I could’ve slugged Sydney. “Oh, she’s okay, it’s just that she’s been worried you don’t like her. You do right?” I really was going to slug her when we got off this call. “Yeah. I do, I guess.” “You guess??” “Um, yes. I like her. Better?” “Much.” Sydney sounded satisfied.
“So, you like her, and she likes you, would you say you guys are a thing?” Boy that girl was smooth. “Um, yeah. I guess-I mean, yes. I consider us a thing I think.” Ahhhhh! “Great, all I wanted to know. Thanks M-”
Oh no. Achoo! I sneezed. Straight into the phone. What was wrong with me?? “Um, who’s that?” Matt asked. “Katie! You were supposed to be quiet! What about that is so hard to understand??” “Katie? You’re there?” “Um, yeah.” I was so embarrassed! “So, you heard I like you?” Matt sounded really nervous. “Um, yeah. I did.” I smiled. “And, that I think we’re a thing?” “Yeah. I heard,” I smiled harder. He laughed. “Well, my work here is done! You two lovebirds have a good chat.” Sydney hung up. “So, we’re an official thing then?” I asked. “Yup. We’re officially a thing.” I smiled my biggest smile of all. “Well, cool. I’ll see ya at school,” He said. “Okay, I’ll see ya,” I said meekly. Matt and I were officially a thing!

Sydney, Hanna and I were piled into Hanna’s car with her mom on a trip to the beach. The beach!!!!! “I cannot wait to go to the boardwalk!” Sydney cried. “I hear they have the biggest, flippiest roller coaster in Massachusetts! The Flipper!” I hated roller coasters! They always made me throw up. “I’ve never actually been on a roller coaster before.” Hanna said. Hanna! Stupid thing to say. “You’ve never been on a roller coaster before?” Sydney asked mischievously. “Um, yeah. Oh, god. Katie, if Sydney makes me go on a roller coaster, hide me!” I nodded. I at least had the sense not to tell Sydney I hadn’t been on a roller coaster either. Well not since I was five. “I can’t wait to go swimming!” I exclaimed. We all agreed this was gonna be the best weekend ever.
*****************

When we got to Hanna’s beach house, her mom went to her room to read a book and we quickly changed into our bathing suits. Sydney had a purple and white striped bikini, I had a red tankini with flowers on it that ended just at my belly-button and Hanna had a blue and green one-piece that actually was really cute and looked great on her.

We put shorts on over our bathing suits and set out to the boardwalk, dollars and coins jingling in our pockets. We walked until we got to a game where we had to knock down bowling pins with a ping-pong ball. “Let’s play!” Hanna cried. The prize was a one-ounce chocolate bar. Hanna lost after three tries, Sydney after two, and I won. I got a giant chocolate bar and we were on our way. One time Sydney walked past a couple of guys, one of them whistled. Sydney stopped turned to him and slapped him straight across the face. Then she just kept walking. We laughed, and laughed.

After a while of playing games, we stopped in a little shack that had boardwalk food like kettle corn and such. Sydney got fries, Hanna got a corn dog and I got a candy apple. Candy apples were the reason I lived. I loved them! They were absolutely amazing. We walked, talked, and ate and finally got to the dreaded Flipper. Sydney slowly turned to us.

“I dare you two to go on the Flipper with me.” Now, I was not one to turn down a dare, in fact I was known for never turning down dares. “Fine! We’ll do it.” I replied. “We?” Hanna meekly asked.
We walked bravely up to the ticket holder and handed him three tickets. “Thank you, please step onto the roller coaster and keep your hands inside the cars.” He looked tired. He had bags under his eyes and he yawned now and then. We stepped in the car. I could actually feel Hanna shaking. Sydney sat down on the far end I sat in the middle and Hanna on the other end.
Soon after we sat down we were off. The coaster lived up to its expectations, unfortunately. It had twists and flips and oh my god when I went upside down, I almost did puke right there on Sydney. I wouldn’t have been sorry if I did. Sydney had her arms up flailing the whole time, her wild blonde hair streaked behind her. I on the other hand had my hands tightly held to the bar in front of us, same with Hanna. Finally-FINALLY, the ride was over. Hanna ran off of it looking nauseous. I ran to nearby trash can and puked my candy apple out. “Nice job guys, I didn’t think you’d have the guts to do it.” Sydney looked impressed. “Well, I wouldn’t anymore, they’re all in that trash can over there,” I pointed to the silver trash I had puked in.
We walked back to the house and grabbed towels and tore off to the beach. We threw our towels and shorts on the sand. Sydney ran to the end of a dock which stretched out far into the water. Hanna followed and did a cannon ball. I ran after them and did my own twirl and jump. We spent the rest of the afternoon doing jumping contests off the dock and diving, and splashing around.
That night at dinner we had barbecue chicken and corn which Hanna’s mom had made. Boy is Hanna’s mom a good cook! We had warm biscuits and lemonade too. Then for desert we made brownies and watched a movie. The next day we went to the flea market and spent the rest of the money our parents had given us. On the way back, we all agreed, this really was the best weekend ever.

Today was the day I was getting my first phone and I couldn’t wait. I was jumpy the whole car ride with Hanna and Sydney and at the store I was even jumpier. I already knew which phone I wanted-I had looked at it in a magazine. So, all I had to do was ask the Verizon worker to get it for me, pay and leave.

“Oh, I’m so excited for you,” Sydney breathed. “Getting your first phone is like being given independence in a little electronic! It’s wonderful and amazing! It’s like being given a breath of fresh air,” Hanna nodded, agreeing. “It’s so wonderful Katie!” I beamed. I felt special with all the attention.

When we got to the Verizon store, Sydney walked up to a worker and put her hands on her hips. “This young lady is getting a new phone! She already has it picked out, so all you have to do is go and get it. Chop chop!” Sydney waved her arms at the worker. He looked disgusted. “Sydney!” Hanna, My mom, and I all said at the same time. “What?” I rolled my eyes and pushed her out of the way.

My mom went off to talk to the man while we sat down on a bench by the window. “I can’t wait till my upgrade!” Sydney exclaimed. “I’m gonna get an iPhone!” “Yeah, right. If you can scrounge up two hundred dollars!” I snorted.

The man came out of the storage room with a box which had a picture of my phone on it. He looked at me and asked if it was the right phone. I nodded and sighed. He set it up at the counter, we paid and left. On the car ride home, Sydney and Hanna stole my phone and played with it the whole way back. The phone was purple and had a full keyboard and two games already installed for free on it. It was wonderful!
When we got back to the house, we all ran up to my room and started setting it up. Hanna and Sydney uploaded their contacts, and I put in my home, Maddy’s and my mom’s numbers.
“You know who you need?” Sydney asked me. “Who?” I asked. “Well, you obviously need Matt’s number!” Sydney drew her phone out of her pocket and typed it in. “Let’s call him!” Before I could say no, Hanna pressed send and he picked up. “Hello?” Came Matt’s sweet, low voice. “Yeah, hey Matt. It’s Katie. I just wanted to tell you some big news!” I said, glaring at Hanna. She grinned back. “What? Are you alright?” He asked. “Yes, of course! I got a phone!” I cried. “Oh, Katie! That’s awesome! I wanna see it.” He said. Oh, he was so sweet! “Yeah, of course,” I told him. “Wanna meet at the park this afternoon?” He asked me. I beamed. “Yeah! I’ll meet you there at 2?” “Mhm. Can’t wait!” I cried and pressed end. “Yay!” I told my friends. They smiled.
******************


He wasn’t there yet as I walked into the park. I was about to sit down on a swing when he sneaked up behind me. “Hey!” He put his arm around my waist and squeezed gently. I turned red. “Hi,” I replied cautiously. We sat down on a bench by the lake. We sat in silence, just holding each other’s hand for a few minutes. The more we held hands, the easier it got.

“So, I wanna see your phone!” He grinned wide. I handed it over, smiling. He flipped the keyboard open and shut it. Then he went to the camera. He held it in front of his beautiful brown eyes and snapped a picture of me. “Cheese!” He said. I smiled and he snapped a few more. I grabbed it back from him and said, “Smile!” He did and I snapped one of him. Then he stuck his tongue out and I snapped one of him like that. He made a bunch of silly faces and we had a Matt and Katie photo-shoot. It was so much fun!

Finally I put the phone down and he looked me right in the eye. “Katie, I have so much fun hanging out with you! You’re fun and silly and you’re down to earth. I love being with you,” He looked at his feet. The tips of his ears were red. His brown hair hung just above his eyes. I leaned over and hugged him. He hugged me back.
We walked around the park for a while. One time when we walked past a little boy and girl playing together, I heard the girl whisper to the boy, “Let’s hold hands like those guys!” Matt and I exchanged a glance and laughed. We walked for a while and held hands. It was such a sweet afternoon, I didn’t want it to end.

Once more, the gang had gathered at Frozen-Yo. I was sharing a chocolate with mini recees cups with Matt, Daniel and Sydney were sharing a vanilla with chocolate chips and staring gooey eyed at each other, and Hanna was proudly eating her own green tea frozen yogurt with marshmallows. She was going to meet Ben-the boy she had flirted with at The Plaza after this.

“You know, I think that having a boyfriend is pretty cool!” Sydney said suddenly. I nodded, and so did Hanna. “I think having a girlfriend is pretty cool,” Matt said back. “You like have someone to talk to about stuff. They understand you, and you understand them. It’s so cool,” Hanna said taking a bite of her frozen yogurt. “And you have someone to make you cakes and stuff,” Daniel said grinning. Sydney slapped him on the shoulder. Matt smiled at me, “I like having a girlfriend because you can joke around with them. And also you share a special connection, you know? You have this connection that no one else has-or hopefully no one else has with you guys.” We all laughed. I smiled back at him.
I picked out a recees and scooched it over to his side of the cup. He liked the recees more than I did so I would give him them every once in a while. He grinned and ate it. “Oh, Katie, by the way, I have something for you.” Matt reached into his jean pocket and pulled out a small box. On the front it read: “To Katie-the sweetest thing in my life” I grinned and opened it. Inside was a silver necklace. It had a heart charm on the end. It was so beautiful I almost got teary eyed, but stopped before I realized what I was doing. He grinned and asked, “Do you like it?” I beamed. “I love it! I’ll wear it all the time!” I cried. “Here, let me put it on you.” I turned around and he gently opened the clasp. He put it around my neck and shut the clasp.
I turned around and showed it off to Hanna and Sydney. “You look so pretty Katie!” Hanna cried. “Yeah!” Sydney added. I looked at Matt and said, “Thank you. I love it so much!” He smiled and then, just like that, he leaned in and kissed me. And guess what, I kissed him back. His lips were soft and warm. I heard Daniel whistle, but I didn’t care. Some people say that 12 year olds can’t have love. I disagree. I think twelve year olds can find love. And I sure found it.