Katie was a shy 16 year old trying to make her way through High School. She never had many friends, as no one really liked the way she acted. She was quiet, always looked serious and enjoyed spending all her time in the band room practicing her guitar. The only two people she could ever talk to were her band teacher Mr. Fann and Mr. Vilder.

Every morning she did the exact same thing. She woke up at 6 am, took a shower and headed to school by bus. Even though school started at 8:30 she always made sure to be at school at least at 8 am to get some practicing in before school started. She had to take three buses to school everyday so she had to leave the house early enough to get there. It was hard at first but after doing it for a couple of years it was a simple task that fell right into her routine.

Today was no different; she woke up on a Monday morning at 6 am feeling a tad groggy as she had been out late the night before checking out a local band at the jazz basement downtown. It was a beautiful morning that she wasn't prepared for. She loved the dark and gloomy weather because that is how she felt everyday.

She jumped off the bus at the stop near her school and started walking with her Discman blasting some local jazz music she had bought the night before. She always tried to avoid any looks or conversation, as she hated attention.

She walked into the school with her head down prepared to get to the practice room a.s.a.p., but as she walked into the school she rammed right into someone. She dropped her books and dropped her Discman on the floor breaking it open with the contents spilling onto the ground.

"Crap, brand new c.d. and everything" stated Katie

"I'm sorry about that, maybe I can fix it, hi I'm Andrew" Andrew extended his hand out to shake her hand but she backed away quickly.

"Uh hi, I gotta get to the band room, don't worry about it." Katie picked up her books and her broken Discman and ran into the band room and slid into a practice room. She picked up her guitar, which she left in the room everyday and started playing her favorite blues lick.

"Tess how am I going to reach her?" Asked Andrew.

"Be patient with her Angel boy, besides you are the substitute English teacher so you will be seeing a lot of Katie these next few days. She is always in English class asking her teacher about ideas for her latest stories or poems."

"Alright, we shall see" Andrew was a tad discouraged, as he did not want to see Katie hurt in any way. She had a lot of potential with her guitar and he didn't know exactly what would happen if he was here instead of Monica.

The following day Katie walked into English to find Andrew sitting at Mr.Vilder's desk.

"Where is Mr. Vilder I need his guidance for my latest poem, have you seen him???" Asked Katie anxious to steer clear of Andrew.

"He is out for a couple of days, something about needing to purchase some new Mr. Potato Head's." Laughed Andrew.

"Ah yes, Mr. Vilder loves collecting odds and ends as you can see!" said Katie pointing around the room where you could see posters from every Shakespeare story every made, Star Wars memorabilia, life size traffic lights and railway lights and thousands of knickknacks including his entire shelf full of Mr. Potato Head's.

"Oh here I have something for you" said Andrew pulling out a wrapped box. The wrapping had guitars all over it.

Katie took it with some suspicion and opened it carefully to find a brand new Discman.

"Oh wow, thank you so much, why did you do this you didn't have to"

For the first time in the past two days Andrew saw Katie smile. It was a legitimate thankful smile that made Andrew smile as well.

"It's the least I can do for breaking your old one"

"What is that smile for????" Asked Katie still keeping her defenses up, as she was uncertain about this fellow who was willing to buy her a Discman just because.

"Nothing, I am simply glad that you like it."

"Ok" Katie sat down to start off her brand new poem.

After a couple of hours with Andrew lecturing the class about Hamlet Katie was getting extremely bored. She absolutely hated Shakespeare since she could never relate to it. But, suddenly Andrew's voice came out louder than before. In a way it was as if she was supposed to only hear the last thing he was going to say.

"Now my last thing will be a final quote from Shakespeare's play Hamlet: "This above all-to thine own self be true."

Something about that quote perked up Katie. It was something that meant a lot to her. No matter what happens in life she should be proud of who she is. As if God himself was trying to bring a message across that it was okay to be herself.

'I must be imagining things, I'm never accepted for me so why should this be any different' thought Katie.

The bell rang finishing off her morning, she was glad to get going giving her at least an hour of lunch to practice her guitar.

"Hey Katie could you stay here for a second I need to ask you a couple of things" Katie couldn't understand this Andrew character. He seemed so interested in everything she was doing, no one had ever done that before.

As the rest of the kids filed out of class Katie waited for Andrew to say something. She felt shy and kept her head down hoping he would just let her leave.

"I was reading your latest essay that Mr. Vilder asked me to correct, it's truly touching. A family losing everything in a fire and having this wonderful person become a hero by raising enough money so that the kids could have a wonderful Christmas. You are very talented Katie. I am very proud to give you an A for this essay." Smiled Andrew handing her the wonderful essay.

"Uh thanks, I didn't think it was that good, just a thought that came to my head one day. Look I really need to go now" Katie ran off into the hall to get to the band room as soon as she could.

As she arrived in the band room she snuck into her practice room and started playing away on her guitar as tears poured down her face.

'No one has ever taken time to thank me for writing something. It came from the heart and it wasn't shut down by anyone, this can't be happening' thought Katie as she continued playing.

Without Katie's knowledge Andrew was sitting beside her unseen listening to her wonderful playing hoping to crack her mysterious nature. Tess approached Andrew.

"Angel boy, how is it going with her???"

"Well she seemed extremely affected by a simple compliment. I'm not sure if it was such a great idea to thank her for her work???" Asked Andrew.

"Baby you have to understand that she feels so alone and invisible to the world. When that happens to a girl there is no telling what she feels and what she doesn't. Simply a compliment probably changed her entire day. Those are tears of confusion, but this is only the beginning. Continue with her." Tess disappeared as Andrew continued sitting watching Katie until she left to head home later in the afternoon.