I look over at the clock to see how long we have before class officially starts. My first day of class in senior year, I look over at Gerald and can't help but remember all we've been through together. It'd be nice if he shot a glance back but he's too busy making Phoebe laugh. The two of them have been together since seventh grade and are still mad for each other. I can't help the twinge of jealousy that follows that thought. It's been six months since I've even thought about being in a new relationship. The girls here are all the same, all Patty clones, and I've had more than my fair share of that drama. I dated her back in freshman year but I couldn't handle all of the back and forth with her. One day she loved me the next I was suffocating her…she had a screw loose or something.

I look down to my phone, waiting to see if Gerald's answered about going to the beach after this. I look over again, this time to shoot him a look but I get distracted by her. I have no idea who she is but she's hauntingly familiar. I can't know her though she has a face to beautiful to forget. Her eyes are cast down, long blonde hair covering them. She has a notebook pressed to her chest and is biting her lip. She glances up, I guess to find an open spot, and makes eye contact with me before turning bright red. I think I'm in love.

I can't believe I'm here again. I can't believe the only open seat is next to him. It's been, oh gosh what, six years since I've seen these people? The only one I've even talked too was Phoebe and that was only occasionally. After the whole mall thing Dad decided to pack up the family and move out west to Arizona. That was the worst mistake of our lives but at the time I was so grateful to get away from him, Arnold Shortman. Arizona was good in the way my parents finally learned who I was. After Olga coming home an unwed mother I became the favorite. Last year when mom passed dad decided he needed to go back to his roots, which meant back to Arnold for me.

I walk through the rows of people toward the open spot, everyone gawking at me, especially him. I can't really blame them I'm not that awkward little girl anymore. No more unibrow, pigtails, or pink dresses, now I look like the girl I always wanted to be. I'm curvy and fit, from dancing and working out in the gym, my hair is long and wavy, which is shielding my face from the stares, my eyebrows are no longer one and I wear things that show off my figure. I can admit I grew well and I'm grateful for it, I don't think anyone recognizes me. This is insane of course, back in Arizona I was confident, I would never walk with my head down but these people, they know who I was. I can't blame them all if they still hate me, even if Phoebe swears no one will.

I take my seat next to him and hold my breath; the way he's looking he has no idea who I am. It stings my throat a little though, can someone who had such an impact on my life really have no idea who I am anymore. Surely, deep down in that not so football head, he has an idea of who I am. He has too.

I can't take my eyes off of her; neither can any other guy in the room. She may be acting shy but I can tell she's not. Maybe it's just how her body glides around the room next to me. I peak down to her legs, fully exposed by denim shorts; she has the legs of a goddess. I need to know who she is.

With that Mr. Phillips walks into the room slamming the door shut behind him, something about not tolerating late students. He waddles over to his desk in the front corner of the room and plops himself down without much of an introduction. Mr. Phillips is the only English 4 teacher in the school, the oldest and fattest too. He never much liked me, especially not when my parents came home, he had my dad in high school and warned me in the halls more than once that he would be watching me. After clearing his throat for what felt like hours he began role call. I listen carefully to each name waiting for hers to be announced. As it gets closer to my name I watch her squirm in her chair, she must not like participating in class.

"Rick Nelson."

"Here."

"Rebecca O' Donnelly."

"Here."

"Helga Pataki."

"Here." My throat struggles to get the word out. I feel the air around me charge with electricity as the light bulbs go off in each of their heads. I can't even look over to Arnold, I can't tear my eyes from my notebook, and they all remember me. The bully, the ugly duckling, the girl who would scare off the boys, torment the guy she loved, and had a single friend in her entire school, I was her. It all came crashing upon me, the past I tried so desperately to bury. All of the progress I made in Arizona was gone; here no one knew how much I had changed; only what I had once been. My throat burned as I held back tears, there had to be a way out of this hell.

Of all the people in the world I never though I'd see again, she had topped the list. No one even really knew what happened to her, for weeks it was the talk of the fifth grade. Her family fled after we stopped the building of the mall in our neighborhood, left in the dead of night never to return, until now. I pull my eyes away from her red face and look at my desk. I haven't thought about her in years and it makes me feel guilty. The last conversation I had with her she confessed she loved me, kissed me, and disappeared. Who would have ever thought she would grow up so incredibly beautiful? I look at her again, with new appreciation in my heart.

Her hair was still the same yellow blonde it had always been but it was no longer in intimidating pigtails. She wore it loose and wavy and it just reached down her chest. I couldn't see her face but I knew she grew perfectly into her nose and that her eyes would still be that icy blue. My gaze drifted down and for the first time I took in her body. What was once a rectangle was now a perfect hourglass, curvy and strong. I look at her legs again, they were slender but still muscular and led up to the roundest behind I had ever seen.

Could this beautiful creature really be the same girl I knew as a kid? Did anyone else know she was coming back? I have to ask her.

I haven't heard a single word of this entire introduction, his eyes keep drilling holes into me. My heart hammers harder into my chest, how on God's green earth did I end up next to him? Why didn't Phoebe save me a seat like I had asked? When I walked in I noticed she was next to Gerald, they've been dating for years, but I thought her former best friend would top that.

BRRRIINNNGGGG

The bell cuts through my thoughts and makes my heart skip a beat. I have to get out of here before anyone can ask me any questions. I gather my things as quickly as possible and dash out the door. As I make it through I hear his voice call out my name. I can't stop though I can't face this just yet.

Just like last time she leaves me alone, breathless, and very confused.