I Wonder What It's Like to Be Loved by You

I couldn’t keep the smile off of my face as I looked at him. His hair was short, no longer the curly mop it was; his freckles had somewhat gone away and he was much taller and very muscular… but it was him, there was no doubt about that. His bright blue eyes were still shining the way they used to, his mischievous smirky smile still dances across his lips, and his demeanor still exuded his simple yet at the same time very complex personality. It was Danny Jones

I felt my eyes starting to sting but I held back my tears. As hard as it was for me, I didn’t say anything. I just stood on the stage and waited for them as they walked over to me. Danny looked at me and he took a second look but then shook it off. My smile crept back across my lips and I could feel my dimples make their indent on my cheeks.

“So you must be the bird who designed all of this huh?” A guy with brown eyes and blonde said to me.

“That would be me,” I grinned.

“American?” He smiled at my accent but then went on, “Well, I’m Tom,” He introduced himself. “And that short one with blonde hair is Dougie, the one who keeps eyeing you is Harry and the stupid one there is Danny.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” I said to them but then saw Danny staring at me. I decided not to say anything yet about my identity and said, “Is there something wrong?”

“No, you just… look like this girl I used to know,” He shook his head. “She had the same dimples and sparkly eyes. Sorry though, I didn’t mean to stare. But you did a great job on this, you’re good at art.”

“Someone once told me that art was an expression of the soul and that beautiful art reflects a beautiful soul,” I softly said, hoping he’d remember the words he told me so many years ago.

”Kirstie,” Danny sighed and then his lips curled into a smile that reached from ear to ear. “It’s you.”

********
“Mom, I don’t want to go. I’m not going to know anyone and I won’t have any friends,” I sighed as I sat in the car with my mom outside of my new school.

“Honey, everyone will love you, just be yourself,” She encouraged me with a smile.

See, my parents and I just moved to Bolton. My dad is in the military and he got stationed here. I was born and raised in California and that’s all I’ve ever known. I’ve hardly even been in England a week and now I have to start school without knowing anyone and there probably won’t be any other Americans either.

Today is the first day of ninth grade and being a freshman in high school is hard enough, let alone at a new school where I don’t know anyone. What made it worse is that this is a private school and there was only about 150 kids in the whole high school. It was really clique-y and it seemed like everyone knew where everything was and knew exactly what to do, and I had no clue.

I sat down at an empty table in my first class, history, and sat quietly. I am not a quiet person but found myself rather shy in this situation. The kids filed in and everyone took a spot and talked with their friends and I heard some people whispering about me but no one even said hi. I just fiddled with my pencil and listen to the teacher talk, telling inside jokes and talking about things I didn’t know.

Everyone seemed to fit in except for me. I was the outcast. I felt like I was on a weird episode of Survivor and I was the one that everyone wanted voted off of the island. The teacher then said another joke, I didn’t understand it but everyone else laughed…except for one boy. He sat in the corner desk by himself, a guitar sitting next to him. He was rather cute but seemed to be an outcast himself. For some reason unknown to me, this made me feel better… although not much.

This is how the rest of my day went and I wanted to cry. When I got my lunch, I sat down on the floor with my back up against a wall. I slowly ate my food and stared at the ground. After a few minutes, I could feel someone walking by me but I didn’t want to look up.

“Hey,” Someone said to me.

“Hi,” I replied.

I looked up and found a boy looking down at me. As my dark brown eyes met with his bright blue ones, I remembered who he was. He was the boy in history class who sat by himself with his guitar.

“My name is Danny,” He introduced himself with a thick Bolton accent. “Danny Jones.”

I had heard people talking about him. The other kids seemed like they didn’t want much to do with him. I had heard them whisper about how he was strange and would always carry his guitar. They said he just wanted to fit in and that’s why he played guitar but he would always just be strange.

“I’m Kirsten Knight,” I introduced myself, sending him a smile. “But you can call me Kirstie.”

“Is it alright if I sit down?” He asked me.

“Of course,” I grinned.

He plopped down next to me and set his guitar on the other side of him.

“So, you’re from America?” Danny asked.

“Yeah, California. My dad is in the military and he just got stationed here,” I explained.

“How do you like it so far?” He went on.

“Not much,” I sighed. “I’ve only been here a week and no offense, but this school sucks. You’re the first person who’s even talked to me.”

“Well I don’t like it either,” Danny chuckled.

The two of us were silent for a moment until I spoke up, “So you play guitar?”

“Yeah, the other kids think it’s stupid,” He told me.

“Why?”

“They think that I’m trying to fit in by playing guitar but I wouldn’t want to fit in with those snobby kids even if I could. I play guitar because I love it,” Danny explained.

“If you love it, no one can take that away from you. Do what makes you happy, not what other people tell you makes you happy,” I said to him.

He got a wry smile on his face before looking at me and saying, “I think you and I are going to be great friends.”

“I think so too,” I grinned back.

Little did I know, that would be the moment that changed the rest of my life forever…