I sat in my school computer lab. The day had gone by fast but now it seemed like class would never end. I looked at the clock-two thirty. We had maybe ten minutes left. We were writing stories for Writer’s Round Table and my mind was blank; well except for him. My mind ran wild with what he was doing right now and what he was thinking. Maybe he was in classes like me. A shadow stood over me, and I let out a little sigh. This was the third time she had caught me, as she called it staring off into space. “Well, I see you have been busy for the last forty minutes. Haven’t you?” Mrs. William asked looking at my blank screen. She didn’t have to say anything else to put a stone in my stomach. I felt sick.

I started typing about school, and once she was gone, I sat there once more thinking about him and the space between us that felt like it was getting bigger every day. He was starting his third year of high school, and I was in 8th grade. Yeah, I know there was an age space but my mind just didn’t understand it can’t have what it wants. So I spent my time thinking about him like a dog drooling over a chocolate that it could never have.

BIIIIIINNNGGG!!!! The bell went off. I grabbed my stuff and headed out the door. I had just started at this school and I didn’t know anyone. Even though my mom kept reminding me that we only moved ten minutes away, it felt like a different world to me. You can imagine the loneliness I felt. My locker was close to my last class, and it wasn’t a far walk but knowing that I wouldn’t have someone come up to me and start talking to me made me feel like just a ghost wandering the halls. Opening my locker after the tenth try, I pulled out my backpack and binders. Everyone was talking and slowly making their way to the bus loop, but I slid quickly in between small groups in the hallway. I rushed out the school doors to escape. The hot air grabbed my jeans and stuck them to my legs. The sun was hidden away in the clouds just like me in the school. Only a few kids were outside now so there wasn’t a big mob to fight to see where my bus was. Mr. Key, my bus, driver stood in the doorway of another bus. I waved at him to let him know I was there and climbed on. A few moments later he joined me. Sharing a smile with him, I pulled my phone out and turned it on. I knew nobody would text me or call, but I liked knowing it was out.

I watched three other eighth graders walk down the bus walk way. It was the third week of school, and they still didn’t know my name. They were all girls, so they were loud, laughing and talking about a boy who had tried to ask someone out and got rejected. I pushed my knees up on my seat and tried to drown them out. Once in a while they would pull me into their conversation, but mostly I sat by myself in my own thoughts.

I felt the bus nudge forward, and we were heading down the street. My bus stop was close to last so it was a long ride. I thanked Mr. Key for the ride and got off the bus.. I walked down my drive way. Before I reached the steps Daisy was barking at me. Her face popped up and gave me a welcoming bark. Opening the door, I placed my lunchbox on the counter and moved quickly to the stairs.

My room wasn’t big and it wasn’t small. I found it the perfect size. I dropped my backpack on the floor and lay on the bed. I closed my eyes dreaming of another world where he would have picked me up from school and we would have hung out at his house. Just then I heard my phone buzz from where I had tossed it on the ground. It was probably my mom asking if I had gotten home. Reaching down from the bed and almost falling off I grabbed it. No it was him.

I sucked in my breath. Had he really texted me? I opened it and a smile came to my face. He was the reason why I went to every church activity and helped out. On the screen I read, “Hope you had a good day. Can’t wait to see you at church tonight and hear about your day.”

My heart was full again knowing he cared. I sat there and smiled to myself like an idiot for a long time, but all I cared about right then was that he thought about me.