But I'm Not a Princess

It has been a couple weeks since Joe came to my school. We have become really close friends but there always something too good to be true about the boy. Like when we go out to eat with friends, he will always hold the door open for me. When we go out by ourselves he will always ask me what I want before he tells the waiter what he wants. His mother must have raised him right because he is a perfect gentleman.

Joe and I were at lunch with our friends, sitting at our normal table. I was talking to Joe about one of their songs on their new CD when Joe’s best friend, well besides me, Max came over to talk to him. Joe turned to me saying something about girl problems and went off with Max. I didn’t see him the rest of the day. When I went to my car he wasn’t there either. Weird. I was about to get into my car when I heard Max running over her, calling my name.

“Hi!” Max gets out as he is panting from exhaustion.

“Uh, Hi Max. Do you know where Joe is? I haven’t seen him since lunch and he is in almost all of my classes. Is he ok?” I ask suddenly freaking out.

“Yeah he’s fine. So um, I was wondering if you could tutor me in math. You know how I am”

“Yeah, math isn’t your best subject. Which part?” I ask.

“Um…derivatives?” He answers with uncertainty.

“Sure. That sounds fine. You want to come over now?” I ask.

“Sure!” Max suddenly says full of happiness.

We both get into my car and I begin to pull out of the parking lot and towards my house. We begin talking about our classes in school and what colleges we are applying to. He says he wants to go into business and I talk about my dream of becoming a dance teacher. The conversation slowly begins to get awkward and I run out of things to say. My head begins to wander and I begin listening to the music that is playing, while I choreograph a dance in my head. This happens a lot of the time while I am driving. Actually it just happens a lot. Whether I am at my house, taking a test, or driving I sometimes get lost in my head and create dances.

My thoughts get interrupted when Max says, “Kirsten…? Kirsten? Anyone home?”

“Oh. Sorry, I was just off in my own world. What were you saying?”

“I was saying that you and Joe seem pretty close?” Max says.

“Yeah I guess. You guys are pretty close too.” I respond.

When we reach my house, we both get out of my car and go inside.

“Yeah, we are. I don’t know. I was just observing.” Max says, continuing our conversation from the car.

“Oh, Okay.” I respond, thinking to myself, Observing? Observing what?

We go into the kitchen and grab a snack. We then go and sit at the table and I get out my notes from math. I begin to help Max with our homework from tonight, showing him what he was doing wrong and how to fix it. Every so often I would look up from my notes and notice Max staring at me. I just decided to let it go. So there I was helping Max with his homework. My thoughts, although were not about Max and math. They would usually drift over to the boy with dark brown hair and those piercing brown eyes. I thought about how he suddenly disappeared from my life today. That never happened. I mean come on. When you have 6 classes together, you are bound to see that person. But not with Joe. After lunch, he was just gone. Poof. Disappeared. Did I do something wrong? Did something happen to his family? I couldn’t imagine what he would do if that happened. He and his family were attached to the hip. It was really cute, actually.

When Max finally finished his homework, I took a look at it and checked the answers. He got mostly all of them right.

“So that means we should celebrate, right?” Max says.

“Yeah, sure! That’s awesome, Max. See I told you, you could do it.” I answer, half heartedly.
My mind still is wondering, looking for answers about Joe’s weird behavior.

“You wanna hang out right now. Like watch a movie or something?” Max asks.

“Yeah. A movie sounds good. Can we watch Harry Potter? I love the 5th one.” I say.

“Yeah. Anything you want to watch is cool with me.”

So there we were, watching Harry Potter together. Thank goodness for the movie because it would have been very awkward if we just talked or something. A half hour in the movie I feel Max’s arm going around my shoulder. I looked at him, but his eyes were on the screen. I think to myself. Maybe that was a friend gesture…nothing more. I hope. I decided not to move his arm, praying it was to be meant as nothing more than friends. When the movie ended, I escorted Max out of my house and drove him back to school (since we took my car). When we got to school, I turned the car off and turned to Max.

“So um, here we are.” I say, hoping he would get the hint to go.

“Yep. So Kirsten, I just wanted to say Thank you for helping me with math. It meant a lot to me.” Max answers.

“No problem.” I say.

As he went to get out of the car, he turned his head and gave me a peck on the cheek. My body froze in shock of what had just happened. I heard the door close, so I went to get out and set Max straight.

“Hey! Max…um what was that for?” I ask, almost shouting at him from shock.

“Oh, well I thought you got the idea. I like you.” He says, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Okay. Well thanks for the compliment, but umm….I don’t really feel the same. Not that you
aren’t good looking or anything. I mean you are really nice and a great friend. But ummm” I start to ramble.

“Oh. That’s ok, Kirsten. I mean I know you like Joe and everything but I was just hoping I would change your mind.” Max answers, his voice full of sadness.

“What? Are you crazy! I don’t like Joe. Come on. We are just friends….” I say, trying to convince myself almost.

“Ok. Keep telling yourself that. I see the way you both look at each other. Come on, it’s not brain surgery.” He says. And with that he gets into his car leaving me very confused.

As I turn around to get back into my car, I come face to face with Mr. Jonas, himself.