Your Guardian Angel

Every day when I woke up in the morning, somehow I always felt like the past year never happened and that Josh was still alive. In a way, I guess he was; he was alive in my heart and in my memory. There was no way that I would ever forget him. I never fully got over the fact that he was dead and mourned him every day. I thought I would never be able to move on. But, I thought wrong.

That morning I woke up to my alarm clock going off in my ear. I groaned and hesitantly got up. I always hated getting up in the morning because I always wished that I could live in my dreams forever. My dreams were the only place where I could see Josh and I never wanted to leave.

I got dressed as fast as I could and went off to school. When I got to my locker, I thought of my dream last night and smiled. The bell rang, so I quickly went to first period.

As soon as I got to class, I went straight to my seat. I noticed Jesse looking at me out of the corner of his bright green eyes. I smiled at him and he blushed.

“Today, we are going to start a project,” announced Mrs. London, beginning the class. “You will have to work with a partner. What you have to do is first interview someone from this class and then write a biography on his or her life. The interview has to be turned in two days from now and the actual biography is due two weeks from now. It should be at least four pages long and double-spaced. I have already assigned your partners, so please listen for your name when I call it.”

Oh no, I thought, groaning. What if she puts me with someone I don’t like or get along with? How will I ever get this project done? I hate when teachers do this! I’m not going to have any time to go out and have fun this weekend because I’ll be stuck doing this stupid project! I hope I get someone who is at least a little bit interesting…

“Riley Miller and Jesse McCartney,” called out Mrs. London. I froze when I heard my name paired with his. Somehow, I had a feeling we would be partners, even though I did not want to work with him; I knew he would be way too distracting.

“Now,” said Mrs. London as soon as she finished announcing partners, “You have the rest of the period to meet up with your partners and begin the project.”

I looked over to my right and there he was, sitting right next to me. Just like Josh, he was about 5’8 and his shaggy blonde hair came all the way down to just above his big green eyes. He was smiling widely at me, showing me those cute dimples. Now it was my turn to blush.

“So I guess we’re doing the project together, huh,” he said to me.

I nodded. “Yeah, I guess so. Where should we start? Do you think we should brainstorm some questions to ask each other for the interview?”

He agreed. “I think that sounds like a good idea.”

We took a few minutes to write down questions. When we were done, we decided that I would interview him first.

“Ok, I’ll start with the simple questions. Where were you born?”
“I was born at the Belleview Hospital in Westchester County, New York. I have lived here all my life; I just went to a private school. This semester, I was finally able to convince my parents to let me go to public school.
“When is your birthday?”
“April 9th, 1987.”
“How much did you weigh when you were born?”
“I was about 7 lbs, 5 ounces.”
“What are the names of your siblings?”
“Lea and Timmy; I’m the oldest.”
“What do you want to do when you become an adult?”
“I want to change the world in a positive way. I love to sing and act, so maybe if I become famous doing that then maybe that will make it easier for me to reach out to people.”
“Those sound like some very nice goals. How old were you when you started singing and acting?”
“Basically, I have been singing ever since I learned to talk. Acting came soon after. When I was little, I loved to do all these impressions of so many different people and at first my parents thought I would be a comedian. One day when I was about three or four years old, I was watching Aladdin with my family and singing the songs because I knew them by heart. While I was singing, my parents just looked at me with their mouths hanging wide open because they couldn’t believe I could sing. Their expressions were priceless.”
“I’m sure they were. Did you ever have braces?”
“Yes, but only for about three months in 2001.”
“Do you ever write any of your own songs?”
“All the time.”
“What are they usually about?”
“Most of them are about the hardships of everyday life. Some of them are also about old relationships, love, and hard breakups. Basically whenever I get inspired, I write and I can’t stop until I am completely done.”
“How old were you when you started to write songs?”
“Actually, I started doing it pretty recently.”
“That’s cool. What have you acted in?”
“I was in The King and I and a straight-to-DVD/video movie called “The Biggest Fan.”
“Awesome! I think that’s enough for your interview. Now, it’s your turn to interview me.”

He laughed and said, “Okay. When is your birthday?”
“May 5th, 1987.”
“Where were you born and how much did you weigh?”
‘I was born at Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but moved to New York when I was three years old. I weighed about 8 lbs when I was born.”
“What are the names of your siblings?”
“Jaime, Lindsey, and Jim; I’m the youngest.”
“What is your idea of a dream job?”
“I would love to be a writer. I would want the books I write to really touch people’s hearts and maybe change their outlook on life in a positive way. It would be such a dream come true to see one of my books get published.”
“That sounds like a great ambition. What kinds of things do you write?”
“I write many different things such as novels, screenplays, and poems. You should see, some of my screenplays are extremely long.”
“How long have you been writing?”
“Since I was nine years old. I remember an assignment I had when I was in fourth grade. We had to write a suspense story and I wrote about a girl who got kidnapped. My story was longer than anyone else’s in the class and I ended up getting a really good grade on it.”
“What topics do you write about?”
“I write about everything that has to do with life. Love and death are two among many topics that I write about. If it is poetry, I usually write when I am hurt or angry or depressed. Usually when I write a screenplay or a novel, I always try to incorporate some kind of lesson to the plot. I like to write about something I can relate to, so it’s usually about my life in some way. Writing is like my therapy.”

Mrs. London interrupted the class to tell us to stop because we only had a minute left until the bell would ring.

“Well, I guess that will have to be enough for your interview,” said Jesse. “We should probably exchange phone numbers in case we have any additional questions we need to ask each other.”

I agreed and we exchanged phone numbers. The bell rang.

“See you later,” I said to Jesse.
“I’ll see you at lunch. Remember, I promised you that I would buy you lunch. I don’t intend to break that promise,” he said while winking at me.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t forget,” I said, laughing. “Bye.”

We both walked out of the room and went to second period. For the first time since Josh died, I felt truly happy and was looking forward to having lunch with Jesse. Somehow I knew he would be different than anyone else I have ever known.