He was beautiful. There was no other word for it. I couldn't keep my eyes off him. My school's four color guard teams were at our first competition of the winter guard season and my team and I were scoping out the competition after our lunch. Our cadet had already gone, they always had such cute shows, I thought smiling slightly. Our SRA went on a little after that. We did our school cheer as they set up and they did pretty well for first show.

Now the SA2 guards were starting to perform, that's what my guard's class is. We didn't have to get dressed until 1:52, and it was 12:47 so we decided to watch one more guard and then go get dressed. The one we were watching was from Shelton and there about twenty five people on the floor ranging from about 13 to 16. Their floor was a light brown with what looked like a huge, red Celtic cross that took up almost the whole floor.

The announcer stated that they were from Shelton and they were performing 'Wheel Around The Sun' then said the instructors, director, and show designers. As they set, I noticed their different kinds of flags were dark green with wide gold metallic circles and a dark crimson flag with a metallic gold curve. Three of the people were guys and the rest were girls.

The first one, who was walking towards the far corner in the front with a girl his age, looked 16, too old for me to drool over, though apparently not for the older girls on my guard. The second one, who looked 16 as well, was ugly. The last one was hot. He looked 13 or 14 and had his jet black hair gelled up in spikes and almost braided on the side of his head like the two other boys.

He had brown eyes, and the red face paint only accented that. The dude was tall with brown pants and sleeve-less v-neck shirt that fit him well. I was sitting in the front row in the back where the performers watch and I think he noticed me staring at him when he set his red flag only inches from my black Uggs. He stared into my eyes for only a brief second and before he turned to go to his begining position with his rifle, I saw his mouth tug at the corner.

"Oh my god! He's sooooo cute, Makenna!" exclaimed my friend Shannon next to me. I felt my face burn as I turned my face to her.

"Dibs!"

"No fair!" she sighed. "I suppose I'll just have to find another cute guy who can spin something besides a pencil. Where I going to find one here?" Shannon said jokingly. We don't hve any guys on our guard,but there are always guards around that have guys. I laughed with her.

"You poor thing! Why don't you try him?" I said, gesturing to ugly guy. She made a face and laughed again.

"No way!" Then we both shut up because the music was starting. Though it was clear the oldest boy and that girl were doing a dance solo, I couldn't drag my eyes away from the boy with jet black hair. I could see exactly how his moves were done and how he prepped them, but I couldn't see how he could move so gracefully, not making any noise as his feet hit the floor from the endless tosses, turns, and spins. The music sounded almost Scottish or Irish, and was fast and hypnotic like he was.

The rifle line he was spinning with suddenly threw a moving triple that the person next to them caught. The entire front of the gym and scattered around the back burst into applause, including me. Shannon snickered and whispered to me; "Your boyfriend is so graceful!" I giggled against my will. Older girls from behind shushed us.

I felt as if I could feel the adrenalin even though I wasn't performing. My guy picked up his green flag as the sabers came in. It whipped around fast and in a blur, the tosses high and many. He threw his green flag to a girl with the same outfit and face paint, her hair in numerous braids, and then ran towards me.

I was a little confused and then I realized he wasn't running towards me, but the red flag he had set in front of my feet. He smiled brightly at me with white teeth clashing beautifully with his black hair and olive skin tone. Somehow I felt he was smiling more for me than for the judges at this point. He bent down to grab his flag then only walked about a yard away from me. I felt rightfully unsafe! I've been hit in the head with a flag more times than I care to remember.

Still, his guard's final flag feature was awesome. A few people got out, but their recovery was okay. The feature ended with a 180 to the back then throwing their flag on the floor and reaching towards the couple in the center who were back to back looking up. Everyone clapped and few even jumped up.

"Whoa," Shan said, looking at me. "They were pretty good."

"They were awesome!" I said looking at my guy who now looking at me. He smiled and winked before running to grab his equipment, high fiving some of his team mates.

"They are going to be hard to beat." one of my team mates, Katlyn, said with a slight frown as she finished clapping. I thought about the show. Yeah they were good for first performance, but they had the regular first show drops. Not that my guy dropped. Besides we're good too. Shannon just smiled and said;

"What's a good winter guard season without a little competition?"