The Girl

By Colin Johnson

I sat and watched the two of them play ping-pong. I wanted to join them but they obviously were trying to ignore me. She looked at me, and I looked back at her. I knew I would have my chance but that annoying boy who followed her everywhere hated me. He was 14, I was 12, and she was 16. All my friends liked her to. Her eyes glimmered in the sun, her hair flew in the wind, and her voice was as soft as rabbits fur. I couldn’t help but follow her in every activity we did at camp. If she did tennis, I did tennis. All of my friends came too. One day at kickball, everything changed.

Fifteen minutes into the game, I noticed that she happened to be there. Luckily, I was on her team. I played shortstop and she played third base. After three innings it was my time to shine. Although the same boy that followed her around was there, he went to get water and she was sitting on the lawn alone. I walked over to her, sat down, and awkwardly thought of a word that could spark a conversation. My friends didn’t help by laughing and pointing. So I sat there, for about one minute and then it came. She started the conversation first by saying, “How have you been?”

Bursting out of my skin I replied, “Good.”

“So I heard you and your friends like me,” she said silently laughing.

“Uhhhhhhh kinda,” I stuttered in embarrassment, “Just as a friend though.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Yeah, that would be weird,” I said.

“Not really,” she said.

Surprised, I slowly said, “I have to go!”

“Alright, bye,” she said smiling and waving goodbye.

Out of all the girls at the camp, she was the one.