Fire

Marie first met Corlin three years ago. Her eyes were drawn to his bright red hair and his orange eyes. Marie had to shake her head once or twice and look again, but sure enough, they were a vibrant orange, with flecks of gold and hazel.

She loved him at once.

But Marie knew better. She had frizzy hair and eczema on her arms, making them red and scarred for everyone to see. Her father was black and her mother was white so she was of neither race, and she was always too caught up in her books to be noticed by another human being. But still she dreamed.

“Hey Mrs. Miller.” Marie said as she walked into her favourite teacher’s room during lunch. She was in grade seven; it was her first year at Artemis High School. The 7/8’s had one wing; the High schoolers had the other three. There were four wings in the huge school, North, South, East, and West.

“Hello Miss. Marie.” Said the plump woman sitting at her desk. Mrs. Miller was Marie’s only friend back then, and she’d come in daily to talk about books and other things. “One moment, I just need to finish up with this young gentleman here, he’s new.”

And there he was, Corlin. His short orange hair almost glowed, and his face was splashed with freckles. He looked up shyly and made eye contact with Marie, and her heart stopped at the sight of his eyes, he looked back down.

“Miss. Marie is in grade seven, so she probably won’t be able to show you everything around… I’d get a fellow eighth grader to help you, sweetie.”

“Thanks miss…” He mumbled.

“No problem Corlin, here’s your text book, I look forward to classes with you.”
An eighth grader! Thought Marie, OH he’d never like me!

And that was that, until Marie entered grade ten.

The tenth grade was a terrifying and wonderful experience for her. She was never popular but she now had a few friends. Her grades were still good and she was getting along with all of her teachers. Mrs. Miller was still even around.

“God dammit!” exclaimed Marie, “I forgot to get that book from the library!” She looked at her friend Keira.

“Don’t look at me! I gotta meet my dad outside! I ain’t coming with!”

“Fine.” Sighed Marie, she turned and ran up the stairs to the second floor, where the library was. She walked in and was greeted with the smell of books, a smell she had come to covet and love. She turned and went to one of the back sections looking for an old book she had found earlier. It was a book on the ancient Greek and she was doing a project on it. Her school had a pretty sizeable library so she was far from view of anyone else in the library when she finally found the section she was looking for. And there, reading the very book she was there for, was Corlin.

He looked up at her, they made eye contact, her heart stopped, and then he looked back down at his book.

Say something! She thought to herself, panicking, her palms sweat as she walked forward and her voice wavered as she forced out the following words.

“H-Hi I’m… um… I-I’m M-Marie…” she mentally slapped herself in the face idiot! She thought.

He turned around and smiled. “I’m Corlin.” His voice was warm and sweet like honey, his eyes were the colour of mandarin’s flecked with gold, and a little hazel, he held out his hand.
Marie took it and found it to be warm, she liked it, emboldened she pressed on.

“Um… I was wondering i-if you were going to take that book out… you see… I need it.”
He looked down at the book, almost as if he had forgotten it was there.

“Yes…” he mumbled to her, then almost as if he was speaking only to himself he said “It’s not like there’s anything I wouldn’t know in here.” He turned and gently handed to book to her, Marie was hyper aware of their hands brushing against each other. “I hope to see you again soon Marie.” And then he walked away, disappearing into the forest of bookshelves.
Marie stood there, rooted to that spot for a good five minutes before she came to her senses. She held the book to her chest and walked out of the library, almost forgetting to even check out the book, in a daze. Corlin, she thought, actually spoke to me! I touched his hand! He was reading this book! And..., a smile flitted across Marie’s face, he hopes to see me again! Marie almost skipped home.

After working on her project for a little bit Marie went on the computer. She logged onto her Facebook account and searched “Corlin” to see if he was friends with any of her friends, and there he was, part of the “Artemis High School” Network , and they had five friends in common. Her pointer hovered above the “Send Friend Request” button. They had only met twice, once if you count the one time she had actually spoken to him, and that was only a few hours ago! Would he think she was a total creep? He did say he wanted to see her again... or was that just to be polite? Marie had always been a major over-thinker, scenarios that would probably never happen ran through her head, ranging from him denying the request to him messaging her back with a marriage proposal. Her palms sweat, she closed her eyes and clicked.

Half an hour later, while surfing the website of her favourite author, Marie clicked on the tab that held her facebook page just to see if Keira had answered her question on the Science homework. She looked up to see she had a notification, it said “Corlin Summers has accepted your Friend Request” Marie almost jumped out of her chair from excitement, her heart began to beat fast as she imagined all the possibilities. For once Marie was excited to go to school the next day.