The In-Betweeners

I could go through my entire sophomore schedule and describe each and every class to you. I could tell you how my Enlish teacher, Ms. Brooks, was a complete bitch and had how this one kid, Ricky Scott, would always push her buttons to get a laugh from the class. Or I could tell you how I loved my art teacher, Mr. Brandt, because he let us pick whatever medium we wanted and would sit there the whole class and have a conversation with us about anything we were interested in. Or I could tell you how my chemistry class sucked, and that my teacher, Mr. Agostini, was an impossible, conceited idiot and how I have no idea how he managed to get tenured. Or I could tell you how Shane and I hardly had any classes together, and how Brian and I seemed to have almost the same exact schedule (with the exception of one class).

I could tell you all this, but you'd probably be bored by it.

So I won't tell you any of that, I'll just tell you about the girl. That's right, a girl. And not just a girl. The girl. And before you jump to any conclusions, reader, the girl I'm referring to is not Shane. I'm referring to Melanie Ryan.

To be honest with you, I had had no idea who Melanie Ryan was before chem class sophomore year. Somehow, we ended up sitting at the same lab table and became lab partners. She wasn't somebody you would look at and label as interesting or intriguing. She wasn't a beauty queen, but she wasn't ugly. She was pretty in a very conventional way. Her brown hair had been cut into a very normal haircut and was always clipped back to the side neatly. Her makeup was always spotless, and she had these blue-green eyes. Those eyes were probably the only non-conventional thing about her looks. They were gorgeous, and that was that.

Melanie Ryan, the girl with two first names. That was the first thing I noticed about her, to be honest with you. During role call, when I had no idea that she was sitting right next to me, I thought how funny it would be to have two first names. And I thought it was especially funny how she had a girl name and a boy name. I don't know if you're amused by that, but I certainly was.

And then the girl next to me raised her hand when Melanie Ryan was called and said, "Here."

There was nothing special about her voice.

There was nothing special about her clothes, or about her hair, or about her name except that she had two first names. But honestly, that's pretty damn common too. There was nothing special about this girl.

But then she turned to look at me. And those eyes, those gorgeous eyes were looking at me. She smiled, and said,

"Hi."

There was nothing special about the way she talked, or about her smile, or about her teeth. But those eyes, those fucking eyes were astonishing. They say that eyes are the windows to the soul.

Melania Ryan had a special soul.