12th September 2006, fresher's week. That was the day I met her. Well, it was the day I saw here for the first time but then, I felt like, in just that one glance, I knew everything about her. Strange what the end of summer heat can do to your head.
Now bear with me. I will describe her for you but I'm not very good at it so be warned. She looked very much like all the other girls really; pale, sun-kissed skin that was slightly freckled particularly across her shoulders; about 5'7 so perhaps six or seven inches shorter than myself; slim but curvy, far from girly but still feminine and dressed to show it in washed out denim shorts, a graphic band tee and baby pink tattered converses.
But it was the little details that made her stand out, the way that the colours that made her burned just a fraction brighter than the spectrum of everyone and everything else; her hair was fairly long, down to just below her shoulder blades and it shimmered in rich copper tones, shattering and reforming in the sun as the strands were caught by the breeze. Her lips were the colour of crushed satin, not velvet like the goddesses of sonnets, but instead a beautiful, delicate shade of pink with perhaps an undertone of lavender.
My gaze continued its journey upwards and then froze, trapped in the beam cast by her eyes. They were like nothing I'd ever seen in either reality or fiction. They encompassed within them every kind of green that has ever existed; mint, sea, forest, summer, harlequin, spring and electric all rolled into one, with the darker shades rimming the lighter shades and blemishing them sporadically. They promised a story that I desperately wanted to hear.
And then she turned to me. She had obviously felt someone looking at her and had come up with me. I couldn't quite tell what emotion her eyes were describing. It was either disappointment or amusement with perhaps a hint of curiosity. Oh how I prayed for it to be the latter!
What happened next would change the course of our lives forever although, of course, being young, naïve students, we didn't know it yet. What happened changes everything because she changes everything; everything I thought I knew will be tested and replaced by things I should have known all along. My misconceptions will be murdered by this colourful girl and I'll welcome it. I'll welcome her and she'll welcome me and then…well…that's not part of my story yet.
So what happened in this part of the story you ask? Well the girl I'd spent the last 6 and a half minutes (I suppose, but time can play tricks on you inside your own head) got up and walked my way. I would become so familiar with that walk. It wasn't graceful in the slightest. She tripped over her undone shoelace just as she reached me and, by impulse, I caught her before she could hit the ground. She looked up into my eyes with a playful smile.
"Hi. I'm Nora. Nora Amare. I can't help but notice you're staring at me, uh…"
Oh right, my name which is…
"James. James Song."
"Well it's a pleasure to meet you James Song. Would you like to come down to the beach with me?"
"Sure. What would you like to do there?"
"We can do anything"
And with that notorious smile still playing upon her lips she jumped up and ran down to the waves.
And that was the first time I followed her.