The Motto

Frankie looked over at his wall. “It’s missing something” he had painted a picture Jamie had taken of the front of their school with all the trees and the old building and buses. He took a pencil and started to draw his friends.

He drew Adam first, looking all confident, with his arms crossed over his chest. Emmi was next, she had her hand behind her neck looking very shy and insecure. And then there’s Kevin wearing his hood up and his hands in a gang signal. Next to Kevin was Cass reading a book. Lastly Jamie was in the middle with her hands on her hips and a sly smirk on her face. It was perfect.

Frankie’s mom walked into his room. “Whoa” he said. “You did a lot” he looked at the paintings. “Let me guess, that’s Adam” he pointed to Adam’s picture. “That’s Kevin…Emmi?” Frankie nodded. “The blond girl, I remember her…who’s that again?”

“Cass”

“What about the girl with the dark skin and curly brown hair”

“Jamie” Frankie smiled just saying her name.

“Jamie?” her mom asked. “That’s a new name”

“She’s from England. She moved here this year” he said. “She’s awesome. She’s a photographer and she’s really artsy. I like her a lot”

“Oh” Frankie’s mom said. “How much?”

“We went on a few dates”

“You’ve been dating and you haven’t told me?”

“I guess…for three months” his mother was shocked. “I don’t think she wants a boyfriend, though. Well, maybe I should ask”

“When do I get to meet this girl?”

“I can invite her over right now!” Frankie jumped up and grabbed his phone. “Hey…wanna come over? Great!”

…

The night was awkward, only for Frankie’s parents. Jamie was nice and seemed very smart but Frankie was like obsessed with her. They were practically glued at the hip.

He looked like he was madly…not even, crazily in love with this girl. He seemed almost different around her. They talked about riding bikes and going for walks in the park, something Frankie almost never did before that school year. Now that concerned them.

After that Jamie was over Frankie’s house ALL the time. They spent a lot of time in his room together. Frankie said they’re just painting or doing artsy stuff or playing video games. But his mother knows how teenage boys are.