Man, was she beautiful. I know it’s not polite to stare and all, but it was impossible for me to take my eyes off her. Her hair shined like the rays of the summer sun and her smile was just as bright and cheery. And her laugh… Oh her laugh was like waking up and hearing birds chirping outside my window. Oh my gosh I was turning into a sap.
She was sitting three tables away from me in the mall food court with three of her friends, laughing and talking and totally oblivious to the havoc she was wreaking in my world. I had arrived an hour earlier waiting for my idiotic friends to show up. Knowing that they were going to be late, I’d thought ahead and brought a book that I had randomly grabbed off the shelf at home. My parents were both professors at the local college so it wasn’t uncommon for me to go searching through their books when I got bored for something of higher level. I had just started the second chapter when she walked in and changed my life. Was it too early to be thinking such things? Maybe, but then I would look at her and any rational thought that was once in my mind vanished without a good-bye.
So for the past fifty-four minutes I’ve been thinking of ways to get her attention. Walk past her on the way to the taco bar? But I didn’t even like tacos so it would be weird when I didn’t order anything. I could cough really loudly. People sometimes did that to get other people’s attention. But then she might think I’m sick and not want to come near me. I could play it off cool and pretend to ignore her. I’ve heard that aloofness is the way to go from my buddies, but then again, none of the girls they’ve tried that on even know they exist and I wanted her to know that I exist. I wanted her to look at me just once so that I could die happy.
What was wrong with me? I was becoming obsessed with this girl and I didn’t even know a thing about her. Is this how stalkers first felt when they began their business? Not that I was going to stalk her or anything (I wanted her to like me), but this was insane. I’ve had feelings for other girls, sure, but nothing so strong so soon. Was this even possible? Was I just imagining this moment or dreaming? I had to be because angels like her didn’t exist in my world. And yet, here she was in all of her sunshine glory. If this was a dream, then I did not want to wake up. It was too beautiful.
Her red head friend said something that made her laugh. She closed her eyes and tossed her head back and all I could hear were the birds chirping such sweet music. When she opened her eyes again, she looked straight at me and the smile never left her face.
Everything stopped. Time and even life itself stilled as her eyes met mine. I might have even stopped breathing. Was this the moment that all the love stories were talking about? The moment when your life changed forever? If that was so, then Romeo and Juliet didn’t have a chance compared to this. I could see it all. I knew the exact place I would take her for our first date (Polito’s. It wasn’t the most romantic spot, but it was a good place to go to get to know somebody better), where we would have our first kiss (under the big willow tree by the river while it was raining. That was something I knew had to be romantic.), where I would tell her that I loved her (on the couch at my house while we were watching a romantic chick flick). I could see everything and it was all so beautiful that I couldn’t help but smile back at her.
A hand thumped me on the back, ruining the moment royally.  “Hey, Jake, what are you staring at?” my best friend, Richie Haaland, smirked. Reluctantly, I turned my back on the girl of my dreams to look at him instead. Our other two friends Rowdy and Lester were with him and their grins were as cheeky as his.
I rolled my eyes, “It’s about time you idiots got here. I’ve been waiting for an hour. What took you guys so long?” I wanted to turn back and look at her to gauge her reaction, but if I did that while the guys were here they would chew me out and no doubt embarrass me in front of her. Not that they weren’t already.
Lester sat down in the seat to my left and tapped his finger on his chin, “Now I’m no detective but it seems to me that your wait here may not have been as bad as you’re complaining about. Who is the lovely young lady you’re gawking at?” An eyebrow quirked in the air as he glanced over at the angel. She was fiddling on her iPod as her friends grew excited over something, Homecoming more than likely.
I pushed his shoulder, “Shove off, Les. I have no idea who she is.”
“But you wanna know,” Rowdy sat down on my other side. “Obviously she doesn’t go to our school because one of us would have dated her already.” Yeah right. The last time any one of us dated someone was in 7th grade when Richie asked out Tilly Perkins on a dare, and that lasted for only a week.
“She’s pretty and has a nice body so she’s most likely a cheerleader,” Richie piped in.
“There are car keys sitting in front of her so she’s at least sixteen.”
“She ordered the cashew chicken from the Chinese place and has eaten over half so she’s comfortable with her body type, which she should be.”
“And her- Would you guys cut it out?” I snapped. “She’s a girl, not a cow that you guys can judge at the fair. I think it’s only fair that you guys treat her as such.” I turned back to my book and tried to ignore the overdramatic gasps that were coming from my idiotic friends.
“Someone’s a little touchy,” Richie whispered. He grabbed my shoulder, “Look, man. We’re gonna head over to Gamestop and check out this new game that Les wanted. If you need a wingman or two, we’ll be there.” Gesturing to the others, they walked out of the food court and I let out a sigh of relief. My friends were great, but they would not be my first candidates for wingmen.
When they were out of sight, I glanced up from my book to take another look at the beauty that had stolen my attention and was hit with a nasty surprise: she was gone. They all were. The table was wiped clean of any evidence that they had been there at all. I frantically looked around the food court, thinking they might have moved to get away from my obnoxious buddies but they were nowhere to be seen.
Leaning my head back, I rubbed my eyes, angry at myself for letting her go. How could I not have noticed her departure? I silently cursed my friends for distracting me, but then took it back since I knew it wasn’t their fault. They wouldn’t be them if they hadn’t given me a hard time.
I just wish I had been able to man up and talk to her. A simple hello would’ve sufficed. Now I knew what I should’ve done. I should’ve walked right up to her and told her how amazing she looked today, even though I knew she probably looked like that every day. She might have blushed and said thank you, and then I would’ve introduced myself and pulled up a chair. I would’ve said hi to all of her friends and made sure I was polite, but my eyes wouldn’t be able to leave her face. After we had talked for a while and my friends finally showed up, I would’ve asked for her number before leaving and, granting she did indeed give it to me, I would’ve texted her straight away, saying that I wanted to make sure it was her.
But now that chance was gone and so was she. How could I have let her get away? I looked back at the spot where she had been sitting and sighed. It wasn’t going to be easy to forget about her and I certainly didn’t want to.
Closing my book, I turned to get up and start walking over to the Gamestop when a glimmer of something caught my eye. Glancing back at the table, I realized that there was something there that I had overlooked in the heart wrenching spur of the moment. The girl’s iPod was sitting on the table looking lonely and abandoned. Looking around the food court again, I checked to see if she was still here and I had just somehow overlooked her. She could’ve just been in the bathroom, but I knew that wasn’t the case. Why take your purse with you but leave your iPod? They must have gotten up quickly to leave and she simply forgot to put it in her pocket.
Standing up, I walked over to the table and picked up her iPod, looking around once more just to make sure she was gone and it hurt every time knowing that she was. It was rather old, a fourth generation, and her case had that zig zag pattern in orange and blue. Now what was I supposed to do? I had no idea where she could be or how to find her, and I most certainly was not going to look into her iPod. Even though it might help me to find her, I was not going to invade her privacy like that. She was most likely going to come back for it once she realized it was missing and I would be here waiting for her.
I sat down, not knowing how long she would take and opened up my book. Every time I finished a page I looked up to see if she had come back yet and every time I was disappointed that she hadn’t. After about five pages, I gave up and closed the book. If she hadn’t realized by now that her iPod was gone then she wasn’t going to anytime soon.
Maybe one of the other people had seen where she had gone to. Just as I was about to get up and ask the couple two tables away, the screen lit up. It was a notification from Facebook reminding her that it was Vikram Stanley’s birthday today.
That stopped me on a dime and got the gears in my head moving. Who was Vikram Stanley? Was he someone close to her? Family or friend? Boyfriend? Oh, he better not be her boyfriend. That would ruin my day if he was. Now I was faced with a choice: I could get up and ask the couple like I had planned or I could find out exactly who this Vikram Stanley was and quench my burning curiosity. Drumming my fingers on the table, I tried to decide but found that it was almost impossible to decide. I wanted to do the right thing, but I wanted to learn more about the girl whom I was now besotted with.
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out a penny. Honest Abe would know what to do. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and flipped it up into the air. Heads I would ask the couple, tails I would slide my thumb across the screen and hope that she had a password that would keep me out. Upon hearing the clatter it made on the table, I opened my eyes to watch it wobble for a bit before it settled.
Tails.
Without hesitation, I pressed the home button and I read the quote on her lock screen and instantly regretted what I was about to do. It was a list of seven keys to life:

1. Put God first
2. Love one another
3. Never hate
4. Give generously
5. Live simply
6. Forgive quickly
7. Be kind always

This girl had a list on her iPod to remind her to be a good person and here I was trying to break into it. God, please forgive me for I know not what I do. But I did know what I was doing and before I could change my mind I slid my thumb across the screen. Unfortunately, her iPod opened right up the home screen with all of her apps a touch away. If it had opened to the lock screen, I would’ve shrugged and, having given up my search for Vikram Stanley, asked the couple if they knew where she went. Alas, that didn’t happen so the first app I clicked on was Facebook, knowing that I could learn about my dream girl and this Vikram fellow in one fell swoop.
Her news feed popped up first, and the only thing that I really learned about her as I scrolled through was that she loved God. As her lock screen said, she put God first in her life and I deeply respected that. Most of the kids I knew blew religion off unless in front of a grandparent or a church member, but this girl made a point to let others know that she was Christian and proud. I didn’t even know where I stood on the subject.
When her news feed didn’t turn up anything else, I moved on to her profile, the main place to go if you wanna learn more about someone without their knowing it. Her name was Ily Woods. It was strange putting a name to her face, but it fit her perfectly. She did indeed look like an Ily. She went to Chandler Heights High which made me wanna laugh. Chandler was a uniform wearing prep school that my parents attempted talking me into when I was moving from eighth grade to high school. It was a good school and since my parents were college professors they could talk anyone on any school faculty into almost anything. It also helped that my mom had majored in and currently taught psychology, which she used to her advantage on my dad once or twice. But I had said no because I didn’t want to leave my friends and become some pompous phony.
Just thinking about how different my life could’ve been made me start to wonder about it. I would’ve made new friends who had more class and sophistication than the idiots at Gamestop did, and if I had met Ily freshman year we could’ve been dating for years now. I’d probably be dressing better and be taking classes that could possibly be a challenge for me. But besides the material things, I delved deeper and tried to think about how different my views of the world would be. Would I begin to think more like the rich boy I wasn’t or would I still retain the same mentality that I was born with? I’ll never know who I might have become, but I’m glad with who I was now.
Her birthday was September 29th of 1998. Using my time travel math skills, I came to the conclusion that she was sixteen years old. And then I remembered what the date was. Today was September 28th. Her birthday was tomorrow and she lost her iPod. If she was anything like me, and according to Facebook so far she wasn’t, tomorrow would be the worst birthday ever because of the lost iPod. Seeing how she seemed to have more important things on her mind, she’d probably be able to live without her iPod glued to her hip but I know I couldn’t. My iPod was my life. It had all of my music organized by feelings for whatever mood I was in and my notes were filled with all the poetry that I wrote when I was on the go. At home I had journal upon journal of poems and tidbits of writing that sprang out of my head like Athena out of Zeus.
I wondered what her notes consisted of. Were there new chants written down for her cheerleading practices or a list of her favorite Chinese foods? I rolled my eyes at the prospect of that. The idiots knew how to judge a girl by her makeup, but they didn’t necessarily attempt to see if their judgments were the least bit correct. Clicking out of her Facebook (I’d come back to that later), I tapped on her notes and realized that her apps weren’t organized in any particular fashion. They were just there. Her notes did little to reveal much about her, although she had multiple lists with names of Pokémon which completely blew my mind. The few girls I knew that played Pokémon had eventually grown out of it as make-up and clothes became the number one priority in life. But this sixteen year old girl played it, although whether it was an obsession from childhood that never ended or an entirely new addiction that she came upon was a fact that I had yet to learn. If I ever saw her again that would definitely be a good conversation starter.
Closing out of her notes, I couldn’t decide where I wanted to explore next. There was so much that I could still learn about her and even though it was the unconventional of doing it, it was working. What I learned so far about Ily Woods:

1. She loved God with all of her heart.
2. She was sixteen years old.
3. She attended Chandler Heights.
4. She liked Pokémon (which beyond her physical beauty was the most attractive thing about her).
5. She knew a guy named Vikram Stanley.

Thinking over that list in my head, I realized that it still wasn’t much to go on. I still didn’t know much about this girl who, like the light at the end of the tunnel, I looked forward to seeing. But I had her name and her face imprinted in my mind and that was enough to dwell on until the next time I saw her, and I would see her again. I would make sure of it.
Closing my eyes, I randomly selected an app to check out and see what I could glean from it. Peeking one eye open, I saw her songs listed in alphabetical order. Scrolling to the bottom, I discovered that Ily had over one thousand songs and I smiled. We officially had something in common. We were both music junkies. Tapping on the artists’ page, I slowly scrolled down, viewing each artist and the songs to see if I recognized any.
Ily had almost every single Skillet song I could ever think of on here. If this girl wasn’t my true love, then fate sure knew how to play a cruel joke. Skillet was my number one favorite band. I knew every little detail about each band member that I was able to uncover on the Internet. To be honest, I was a little jealous of John Cooper. The raspiness of his voice is exactly how I wished mine sounded instead of the dying seagull shriek that came out. To see them perform live was my ultimate life dream. Back stage passes would be nice too, but I’d be happy just to see them sing their hearts out on stage.
Scrolling down the list, I saw that she had a variety of songs from different genres. Country, pop, classic rock. There were even songs on there whose names didn’t sound like songs, or at least ones that I recognized. One said Mozart where there was supposed to be the artist so I assumed that they were orchestra music things. For once in my life, I wish I had listened to opera-like music (not that I would ever admit that to my buddies). It would just be another thing I had in common with Ily and another way I could start a conversation.
Clicking the home button again, I was about to decide where to investigate next when I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was gentle, meek; the sort of gesture that could only come from someone beautiful. I wasn’t wrong.
I looked behind me and there she was, my new found dream, and all I could think about is how she caught me red handed snooping through her iPod. Crap.
But she didn’t ridicule me or cause a scene that a total stranger had gained access to her personal life. In fact, she smiled, that beautiful angel smile that I had officially fallen in love with and pointed at the device in my hands. “Is that my iPod?”
When I had pictured and hoped that she would come back, I hadn’t gone so far as to think about what I would say. “Uh…” I said as I stood and handed her her iPod. “I saw that you had left it behind so I figured I would sit with it to make sure that nobody stole it. But don’t worry,” I said quickly, “I didn’t snoop through it or anything.”
Ily raised an eyebrow and looked down at the home screen on her iPod, not needing to say a word to point out the obvious lie I’ve just told her. Good first impression, Jake.
I shook my head, not knowing what I was thinking. “I’m sorry. Obviously I did go through your iPod but it was only because I wanted to learn more about you. A Facebook notification popped up saying that it was Vikram Stanley’s birthday and I just wanted to find out if- Shoot I forgot!” Ily shoved her iPod into my hands and scrambled to get something, her phone, out of her front pocket.
It was a crummy old Tracfone, not something that I would expect a Chandler girl to have, much less know how to use. She typed in a number expertly though and held up a finger to wait as the phone rang. And rang. And rang. We both stood there awkwardly, as she waited for Vikram Stanley to answer. Ily smiled at me and mouthed sorry, and it was impossible for me not to smile back and let her know it was alright.
This was not what I had expected. If anything, I expected her to be creeped out that a guy was going through her iPod. Smiling and waiting to talk to me had not been on my list of possible outcomes.
Finally someone answered on the other end of the line. “Hi Grandpa!” she exclaimed. Grandpa?
Never had I wanted to kick myself so much in my entire life. I had gotten extremely jealous over a girl I barely knew all because it was her grandpa’s birthday. That was a new low for me.
I stretched, twisting my back to the left and the right, hoping that my embarrassed blush would go away before she noticed. I needn’t have worried though. Ily was so animated in her conversation with her grandfather that it wouldn’t surprise me if she had forgotten I was here. She laughed and smiled throughout the entire phone call. Her grandfather must have been one heck of a funny guy.
After what seemed like forever had passed, Ily said good-bye and hung up the phone. “I’m sorry about that,” she said as she stuffed her phone back into her pocket. “I wanted to tell him before I forgot, but he can be a bit of a chatty Kathy and will just go on and on and on about whatever the heck he’s talking about. I think it’s just because we don’t get to visit him as much as he’d like since he lives all the way in Maine. He gets kind of depressed if we don’t call him a lot, so I try to call him at least once a week. I’m sorry, now I’m the one that’s going on and on and on.”
“That’s okay,” I said. “I honestly don’t mind.”
She smiled again, but then it faded when she looked down at her iPod. Apparently a phone call wasn’t enough to make her forget about the invasion of privacy I just committed.  “So you were snooping through my iPod then?” Her hand was on her hip, and if I learned anything from my mother, Ily meant business. There was no smile in her eyes; only a guard. My answer was going to be make or break.
Better not beat around the bush with her. “Yes, I was.”
“Why?” Ily tilted her head, her guard breaking down a little. She seemed interested in what I had to say, but I couldn’t tell if she was going to like my answer.
What the heck? The girl was from Chandler Heights High. Unless I ran into her again here, I was never going to see her again. That thought sent a small spasm of pain through my chest, but it was true. Might as well tell her exactly what had been on my mind during the past hour. “Because you’re the most beautiful girl I have ever seen.” I blurted out. “Since the moment I laid eyes on you, something changed within me and I just had to meet you. I was too afraid to approach you with your friends and was devastated when I found you were gone. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see you again so I went into your iPod to learn more about you.”
Well, there it was. I held my breath in anticipation to what she would say. Her cheeks had colored a little bit and she was biting her lip, looking at the ground. It was hard to read her without being able to look into her eyes. She held a lot of what she was saying in those blue orbs, more than what she put into her words. I had no idea where I stood with her now. I had been on shaky ground to begin with and wished she would say something to let me know.
She took a deep breath and looked up, a soft smile lighting up her features. “Ily Woods.” She said, holding out her hand.
The smile had returned to her eyes and it was such a relief to see. I blew out a sigh of relief. “Jake McPherson.” I said, taking her hand in mine. It was so small and soft that if felt like I was holding only a glove. She shook my hand firmly, though, something I wasn’t expecting. Full of surprises she was.
“So,” I said when she took her hand back. “You’re not mad that I went through your iPod?”
Ily shook her head. “Of course not. Would you care to walk with me to Polito’s just down the street? That Chinese food didn’t fill me up much and I could go for a slice.”
I blinked. That hadn’t been what I was expecting but I’d take it. “I’d love to. Would your friends mind though? I wouldn’t want to impose.”
She waved it away. “I told them to go shopping without me. I wanted to meet the boy who had found my iPod so then I came back here. They’re probably at Rue 21 or something.”
We started walking towards the exit. Even though I didn’t want to mess this up, something didn’t seem right about the way she phrased that.  “Wait a minute. You told your friends that you wanted to come back to the food court to meet the boy who found your iPod? That boy meaning me?”
She nodded, her hands clasped behind her back.
“Did you know that I would find it?”
She nodded again. “At least I’d hoped you would. Better than having a thief take off with it.”
I paused before taking another step. Ily turned back, a little puzzled at my sudden abrupt stop. I held up a finger, the pieces slowly coming together. “Hold on. Did you leave your iPod on the table on purpose?” There was no way that was true. Who did that? Who would leave a prized, expensive possession, granted that it was old and probably wearing out, in the middle of a very public place filled with strangers on purpose? It was unheard of, especially in today’s society.
Ily only shrugged. “You left me no choice.” Before I could ask how I had anything to do with it, she continued on. “You had been staring at me for the past hour but wouldn’t come over and introduce yourself. I might be a bit talkative but even I’m not brazen enough to talk to a total stranger, especially if he’s cute. Besides,” she turned around and walked on. “You were reading Moby Dick.”
The book in my hand suddenly felt like a fifty pound weight. It surprised me, how I could forget about the piece of literature I had been reading (or trying to) for the past hour. I wasn’t usually one to be distracted from reading, especially when it was a good book like Moby Dick. I’d read it once before and I had to say that Herman Melville had a way with words.
But what Ily said still wasn’t making sense. “So?” I asked.
She turned around, but didn’t stop walking until the exit door was behind her. “Sooo. What teenage boy reads literary novels for fun in a public? I didn’t know any before I met you. You’re not like anybody I’ve ever met before, Jake, and that is why I left my iPod behind. So I could meet you.”
She wanted to meet me? Me? The fact that she had been just as distracted by me as I had been by her blew my mind.
Closing the distance between us, I wanted nothing more than to put my hand in her angel hair and kiss her, but that would wreck my plans I’d been making for our future. Instead, I held open the door for her. “You know,” I said as she passed through the doorway. Her perfume smelled so sweet, like vanilla or something. “I’ve never met anyone like you either.” Yep. Definitely vanilla.
Ily turned around and for the first time since I met her, she actually looked nervous. Possibly even scared. “Is that good?” She asked meekly, and again I wanted to kiss her.
“Perfect.” I said, letting the door close behind me.