I Never Dreamt Because I'm Just Too Busy

Winter break was approaching rapidly, though it hardly felt like it to me.

I was so preoccupied with what was going on in school, and how I was doing that I hardly had time to think about the coming winter holidays.

It bothered me a little bit that I hadn't even thought much about it at all. If it were this time last year, I would have been ecstatic. Not because of the presents, just because this was one of the few times of year that our family acted as a whole.

I sighed, running my fingers through my hair. I was killing myself over school, and I really needed a break.

Good thing it was Friday, and come Monday school was out for two whole weeks.

I fell behind the group as they waddled up to the cafeteria.

Suddenly, I felt someone pull me back.

To my surprise and, I'm not even going to deny, my delight, it was Stephen.

"How would you like to take your vacation a day early?"

"Huh?"

He grinned. "This afternoon, the only classes I have are Guitar and Art. How about you?"

I scrunched my nose. "French and Art. Why?"

"I've got a proposition for ya. How about we ditch the rest of the day."

"Stephen, you know I can't."

"Come on, what's one day going to do to you?"

"My parents would kill me."

"I hardly think so, considering this is the first time you've ever done something of the sort." He paused, "If anything they would just give you a stern talking to, and maybe ground you."

I could always have Jessica get the notes to me. "I...I don't know."

"Come on, please Anabelle?"

"But..."

"You know you want to." He grinned, nudging me with his elbow.

But...ugh. What the hell. He's right. I had an A in that class anyways, and I hardly doubt one day would mess everything up. "Sure."

He smiled brightly. "Great."



We sat across from each other in an ice cream shop. Stephen had vanilla, and I had strawberry.

"Anabelle, calm down. Nothing bad's going to happen."

We hadn't even been here for half an hour and I was already having second thoughts.

"I know." Still I didn't ease up.

He laughed harder, "You look like you're expecting a team of assassins to kill you when you're not looking."

"Force of habit. I don't do things like this very often."

"I can tell." He chuckled.

Silence.

"So tell me about this date of yours." Stephen smiled lopsidedly.

I blushed. "There's not too much to tell. He's blonde, a year older than us, and a friend of the 'rent's son."

"Aw how cute!" He teased, "You're blushing! Is he dreamy?" Stephen tried not to laugh as he said that in a high pitched voice, propping his chin on both hands. He looked at me expectantly. "I bet he's dreamy."

"I can't take you seriously like that!" I laughed.

"Alright, alright. But really, is he everything you want?"

I couldn't tell if he was seriously interested, or joking around. "I don't know. I don't know much about him, but from what I do, so far he's different than most."

"How so?"

"He's not after what most other guys are. He seems to have a lot more on his mind than just pretty girls and all. Most boys care too much about how hot a girl is in comparison to how intelligent they are." I shrugged. "I only talked to him for an hour or so, and I won't really know if he's good for me until we really spend some time together."

He laughed. "You don't have too much faith in boys. Not all guys are like that. Your little Marco and I are proof."

"Besides you two, I don't know many others who don't care about personality more than appearances." I bit the last of my cone off. "Just out of curiosity, what do you look for in a girl?"

He thought this over, finishing his cone off as well. "She needs to be fairly intelligent. Being kind wouldn't hurt. Being shy is adorable, but it wouldn't really matter whether she was outgoing or not, as long as she knew how to have a good time. I don't know. I'm not completely picky, but I don't want her to be another carbon copy of the stereotypical high school drama queen that all the guys are after."

I thought this over. He really wasn't your typical boy.



We walked around the park for a while until Stephen suggested we got to his house and either watch a movie, or play a game. He said he honestly didn't care, he was just happy not to be in school.

As I looked in their bookshelf of movies and games, I knew instantly what we should play.

Just Dance 2. I felt myself smile. He shouldn't have let me pick.

I can't dance to save my life, but whenever I have to watch my niece she usually picks that game. It's funny because neither of us are very good at it, and no matter how much we play it doesn't seem to change.

I highly doubted that they played this often because it was behind most of the other games. But at the same time, it's very possible they did. I could see family gatherings where they all took turns playing, and even if they looked bad, they didn't care because everyone was laughing.

"What'd you pick?"

I turned around, game in hand.

He laughed. "Why that one?"

"Because I want to see your mad dancing skills."

"Anabelle, I'm so bad at it."

It was my turn to laugh. "You can't be any worse than me."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Just trust me."

"Okay." He shrugged, smiling, "But you owe me for this."

"Sure I do."

We put in the game, and the song selection came up. Immediately I picked "Hot Stuff."

"Oh god, no. Not this one." Stephen laughed loudly.

"Oh yes, we're playing this one."

"We never even use this game unless some of the family comes over, so needless to say, I don't know what I'm doing."

"It doesn't matter. I play it all the time with my niece, but honestly, I haven't gotten any better than I was the first time I played it."

The game began to play, and as expected neither of us really knew what we were doing. After a minute or so, we had actually gotten pretty decent.

I fell back and stopped, watching him dance by himself. Stephen was concentrating hard, and he hadn't noticed me stop. His hips swayed with the game's and it was a pretty funny sight.

I was trying to contain my giggles at his dancing. I can only imagine what I'd looked like.

The song continued on to sing, "Wanna share my love with a warm blooded lover," and I just couldn't contain myself.

The dancer in the game was jutting his butt out, and Stephen was doing exactly the same.

I busted out laughing and he noticed that I wasn't there.

"You looking for some hot stuff, Stephen?"

"You're a little jerk!" He laughed, his face flushed. "Watching me dance."

"Please. Don't be embarrassed. Your dancing was some...hot stuff."

We stared at each other, and soon enough we cracked up at my stupid attempt of making a joke.

Yeah, today was pretty great.