by Jacqueline Dodd

Created on: August 31, 2008

The year was 2002, it was my first day of the eleventh grade and I was sitting in Hospitality & Tourism class, scanning the room for a familiar face. I've never been one to hang around with a large group of friends, so the odds that one of the five or six people I was close to were going to be in any of my classes were slim to none. I'd only chosen the course because at the time there was only one art class I could've taken and I was already in it. That left me with a blank spot on my schedule and it had to be filled with something. Hospitality was the lesser of several evils, so onto my course calendar it went. I'd just about given up hope five minutes into the period and had accepted that I was doomed to be the class loner all semester when he walked in.

I'd noticed this guy around before, ever since my freshman year as a matter of fact. He was a year or two older than I was and kind of hard not to notice. He definitely wasn't the type of guy who blended into the crowd. He wasn't good looking by the standards of most of my peers, but there was something charismatic and slightly dangerous about him that drew me to him almost immediately. He was a larger guy, pale skinned, with long, unnaturally coloured hair (I believe it was green the day he walked into my class), a serious five o clock shadow and a skull shaped silver ring dangling from one earlobe. I decided right then and there that I had to introduce myself to him, get to know him and - at the very least - become his friend. He's just so cool, I said to myself. I knew he'd have great taste in music, movies and books. Here's someone I can have a decent conversation with, I thought to myself.

A couple of days later I did just that. I don't recall who spoke to who first, but we hit it off right from the start. As I'd figured simply by judging his outward appearance, he did have great taste in music. This was the basis of our first conversation. We liked a lot of the same bands - as I'd suspected we would that very first day - and his cool factor skyrocketed with me when he mentioned the names of a few obscure metal bands that I had never even heard of. In fact, he had great taste in just about everything. He was the epitome of amazing to me and as the days went by and we got to know more about each other, I knew I falling hard and fast.

Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months and we made extremely, frustratingly slow progress. By this time he'd told me that he liked me and I told him I felt the

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