Your Guardian Angel

It’s been a little over a year since it happened. Every night in my dreams, I relive the worst week of my life. First, the death. Then, the funeral. Finally, realizing the fact that I will never see his face again. Every morning I wake up shaking and shivering. I think about him every day, every moment, wishing he were here with me.

The dreadful day has come where I have to go back to school from a luxurious (well, sometimes, when I wasn’t thinking about the one year anniversary) winter break. I decided to stay in bed as long as I possibly could to avoid having to start the day. Pretty soon, my parents came in and started yelling at me to get out of bed. I did so hesitantly and slowly got ready for the first day of the second semester of my junior year.

The bus came and took me back to the place where so many things, good or bad, happen. I quickly got off the bus and went straight to my locker and then first period.

After I sat down, I looked around at all the students in the classroom. A boy with shaggy blonde hair caught my eye. I studied the boy closer. He was about 5’8 and had bright green eyes. He looked just like…

No, I thought. It couldn’t be…

“Class,” said my teacher, Mrs. London. “We have a new student today. His name is Jesse McCartney and he is a transfer student from a private school. Jesse, why don’t you go sit right over there next to Riley? Riley, please raise your hand so that he knows who you are.

I raised my hand and the blonde boy walked up and sat down next to me. The class continued.

At lunch, I sat with my friends Amanda, Natalie, and Caitlin.

“Hey,” they said as I sat down at the table.

“Hey,” I said back. “What’s up?”

“Not too much here,” said Amanda, pushing her shoulder-length blonde hair away from her face so that it couldn’t get in her food. “I can’t believe we are back in school already. Winter break really flew by this year.”

“It most definitely did,” replied Natalie, tying her long, brown hair back into a ponytail. “I didn’t even get a chance to go shopping in the city like I do every year. I broke my tradition!”

“Oh, what a shame,” said Caitlin, sarcastically.
“Shut up!” retorted Natalie, trying not to laugh but not succeeding.

Then, the blonde boy from my first period walked in.

“Girls,” I said. “Who does that blonde boy over there remind you of?”

I pointed at him so that the girls could tell whom I was talking about. In turn, each of their mouths dropped.

“Wow!” exclaimed Amanda. “He looks exactly like-”

I cut her off before she could say the name.

“I know,” I said. “At first I thought it was him, but it can’t be because that’s impossible.”
“They look so much alike that I can barely tell the difference,” said Natalie.
“This is the strangest thing I have ever seen,” said Caitlin. “Are you sure they’re not related?”
“As far as I know, they aren’t,” I replied. “They look like they could be twins, though.”

The blonde boy, Jesse, noticed all four of us looking at him while he had a tray full of food in his hands. While he was walking toward us, he did not look where he was going and tripped over someone’s foot. His food ended up in my hair, on my clothes, and all over my face. His drink of Coca-Cola hit a teacher in the head by accident. The whole room erupted into hysterical laughter.

“Uh, my bad?” Jesse asked, meekly.
“I just realized another similarity between the two of them,” I whispered in Amanda’s ear. “They have a knack for making idiots of themselves.” When I said this, Amanda snickered.

Jesse got up from the ground and looked at me with an embarrassed look on his face.

“I am so sorry!” he said. “Let me help you get cleaned up.”
“No,” I said. “That’s ok. Don’t worry about it.”
“Well, at least let me buy you lunch tomorrow to make up for my klutziness at least a little bit,” he insisted.
“You really don’t have to…”
“Yes I do. Please just let me buy you lunch. I will feel so much better about the whole situation.”
“Well…ok,” I said, giving in.
“By the way, you’re Riley, right?” he asked me. “You are in my first period.”

I nodded.

“That’s me,” I said. “You’re Jesse, right?”
“Yeah,” he said. He smiled at me and said, “It’s nice to meet you.”

I said, “It’s nice to meet you too,” and smiled back at him. ‘But, right now, if you don’t mind, I would really like to go and clean myself off so that I don’t have to stand here with food all over me and everyone staring at us.”

He laughed and said, “Yes, I guess that would be smart. See you later.”

“Bye!”

The girls followed me to the bathroom and helped me get cleaned up.