Chapter 1: Enchanted

I love this city, I think to myself as I walk past the familiar paths of Central Park. The erratic lifestyle, the mentality, even the accents are just some of the many things I love about New York.

Unfortunately, I don't live here. I live in the small town of Darien, CT with my mother. My dad passed away when I was little. The only thing that I can remember about him was when we walked these same exact streets during my first time here. There are some days when I just wish that I knew more: for crying out loud, I don't even know his name or have a picture of him.

As I walked on daydreaming, my best friend Calista brought me back down to Earth by snapping her fingers in my face. With her exotic face and deep brown eyes, she totally has the potential to be a model. It's such shame she can't see it. "Come on!" she whined, "I wanna go to Times Square!" God, she can act like such a little kid sometimes! But I still love her to death.

"Someone's a little impatient," I said with a smirk. "Come on, let's go."

We hustled through the streets, essentially sprinting to Times Square as fast as we could. When you're in such a magical place for such a short amount of time, you need to be as fast as you can to getting where the true magic is. As we run by a gleaming skyscraper, I couldn't help but steal a glance at the reflective glass.

Obviously, I saw myself, Arielle. A fourteen year old girl with waist length wavy brown hair that flew in back of me and sea green eyes that shone with the familiar gleam the always get when I'm enjoying myself, standing out from my pale skin.

After that brief moment of vanity, I quickly return to my senses. Looking at my surroundings, I felt a familiarity towards them: I recalled a shortcut. Grabbing Calista's hand, I veered to the right, entering the Hilton hotel. I ran through a series of sharp turns, seemingly random: left, right, right, left, right, left. Finally, I got out of the hotel, took one final turn on 42nd Avenue, and we were finally gazing upon the marvelous lights of Times Square. Throughout the whole process, Calista was muttering something about how I knew New York better than Darien. But I was paying more attention to my surroundings.

"Wow," I whispered silently to myself. This is the thing about Times Square and just about everything else in New York: despite seeing it a thousand times, it still hits me like a ton of bricks. What can I say? I love the place. Looking to my left, I saw that Zena was also transfixed by the overwhelmingness of it all.

My zoning out was interrupted by a shove. I fell on the ground. HARD. Before my body could register the pain, my reflexes kicked in, and I automatically searched the surroundings for possible suspects.

Even though the person was probably long gone, I was surprised to see a hand to help me up. I took it and when I stood up I found out that it was that of a boy. He was around my age, and had the most beautiful bright green-gray eyes. His messy black hair framed his face, which was openly concerned.

"Are you alright? Sorry, some tourists are so rude," he said in a melodious voice.

"You say that as if you're not one," I said.

"Yeah I live here," he said, smiling. "It's amazing to know that you're a part of this big city, you know?"

"Exactly!" I said. Finally, someone who understood me!

"Anyways, I'm taking my little cousin here for her birthday." As he said this, his eyes wandered around anxiously.

"Did you lose her?"

"Nah, she's somewhere here. She just is a bit introverted, prefers to stay in the shadows. But she can take care of herself."

"I know the type. My friend Calista's just like that." I said. Scanning the area, I noticed that she, too, had gone and hidden somewhere. "Oh, by the way, what's your name?"

"Logan," he said. "Yours?" Logan. That's such a cute name. It suits him a lot. I was too busy fawning over his name to hear his question. He started staring at me, waiting for a response.

"Oh, and my name's Maria," I yelled over the loud hum of people in the background. God, I'm such a square, I thought. "Nice to meet you," I said while smiling.

"Same." His smile was just TOO gorgeous. Before I could sneak any more glances at him, though, a young girl with flaming red hair and bright green eyes ran to Logan. She had to be six or seven, not older than nine. Probably Logan's cousin. But wait: how can such a small little girl fend for herself in such a huge city. "Logan, we have to go. NOW!" she said in a childlike but urgent voice. "He's coming!" She started tugging on Logan so hard that he almost fell over. His open and pleasant expression automatically took on a hardened and angry expression.

"Ok, let's go," he said. He allowed the girl to tow him away. " Sorry about this. Nice meeting you!" he said as he disappeared in the crowd of people. Calista, seeing that he was gone, emerged from wherever she was hiding and approached me.

"Whoa!" she said. "Hot guy alert!"

I sighed. "You have no idea."

It is amazing how much a person can imprint on you with such a short amount of time. I retold the story to Zena while walking around the stores, who was absolutely furious that I didn't get his phone number. We decided to go into the Disney store, since it was a magical place. And, I'm not going to lie, I was sort of hoping that magic would work for me and Logan would randomly come out of nowhere.

"Seriously Zena! I just met the guy!" I shout whispered, when she was daydreaming about Logan and me as a couple. "I'm not the kind of person who hooks up with random people on the streets of New York! In fact, I've never even had a boyfriend before."

She sighed, picking up a necklace from the new Kidada collection at Disney. "But I saw a spark. Now it's lost forever. That meeting wasn't by chance: it was fate. You're perfect for each other!"

"You didn't even talk to him! How can you know…" she cut me off.

"It's all in the body language. You were into each other. It was so obvious." Oh, so know she was watching our conversation?

"Sure, whatever you say," I whispered to myself. I decided that I needed to get something from here for hope. I finally decided on this charm necklace with a golden scallop charm. I put it on, then, on the little wish card that was in the box I wished that, if Logan and me were meant to be, then it would happen. Hopefully sooner than later. It seems ridiculous that I was so wonderstruck by him, but I just couldn't help it.

Throughout my remainder of the day, I kept on looking around, hoping that my wish would come true, and I would see Logan once more. But it was hopeless: there were too many people. The odds of seeing him again are slim to none, which was just about the same chance of my wish coming true.