When Emma was fourteen she was a freshman at Emerson High School, a prestigious private school in California. Her father was on the board of governors there and wanted Emma there so she could be the very best she could be. She followed his advice to the letter. She joined several clubs, continued to be a cheerleader and maintained a perfect A average. She thought she had no room for boys in her life, which was exactly the way she was choosing to live since the embarrassing debacle when she was twelve. Emma still couldn't but that night out of her head. Although she continued to be friendly to the Knightley family, including Alex, who was a senior at that same school at the same time Emma was a freshman, things were not quite the same between her and Alex since that night. They were close, but still never quite the same.
Emma let her mind wander back to that event, thinking of all the things she could have done differently for about the millionth time when she accidentally collides with someone in the hall. She gets knocked onto her butt and then looks up and what put the Emma Woodhouse in this position. Through her annoyance she glances up to see Evan Daniels, standing there holding a hand out to help her up. Emma blinks and regains her composure before allowing the football player to help her up.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going," Evan started. "I was thinking about the research I needed to do for the debate team. Are you okay?" He looks Emma up and down making sure she isn't injured before he continued. "Hey, I've seen you around. Aren't you Emma Woodhouse?"
Emma blushed madly at this. While she was just a lowly freshman, Evan was a well sought after and fairly popular Junior. He was connected into all the social groups that were filled with the young up and comers like Emma herself wanted to be. She looked at Evan and in her best professional voice said, "Yes, I am. And aren't you Evan Daniels, star corner back and captain of the debate team?" She responded with a cheeky grin.
"That is very perceptive of you Miss Woodhouse. I'm glad neither of us were being particularly perceptive at the moment of our fortunate collision though. I've been meaning to try to find a reason to start a conversation with you for ages, but sadly, I am late for my meeting. Would you care to continue this conversation over dinner Friday night by chance?" Evan asked her looking hopeful.
Emma did not even hesitate in saying yes and gave Evan her number and yahoo contact information. She then went racing down the hall to her class to make sure she wasn't any later than she was already. She talked with her friends and went on with the rest of her day, waiting to get home to see if Evan would call or message her. By eight that evening she had nearly given up, talking to Izzie about it, and asking for advice. Izzie just told her little sister to be calm, if he is interested he will call, if not, then it wasn't worth sweating over. Alex popped online as well, she informed him of the date and Alex cryptically asked her if she thought this was a good idea and then told her to be careful. That made Emma pause and actually consider if this date was a good idea after all. She decided to see what would happen. So, Emma continued to wait for the phone to ring or the messenger box to pop up until her self appointed bedtime to no avail. She stopped and considered that Evan could have just been really busy that evening with homework or practice, so she blew off her stress about it and went to bed.
The next day at school was Thursday and it went on like every normal Thursday had the entire year long. Nothing different or out of the ordinary happened. Emma didn't see Evan at all that day. After school she went to swim practice then headed home afterwards. She got in, took a shower and ate with her family. She logged onto her computer to do her homework and left her messenger open just in case. She was only slightly tempted to look up Evan's number and check on him, but she put that idea to the side as she continued to catch up on her homework.
Friday came and Emma was incredibly excited. There was no school that day so she had the whole day to plan the perfect outfit for what she thought was going to be the perfect date. She had spent all day primping and making herself absolutely perfect. She was ready by six pm that night for her date. She went downstairs to wait in the sitting room of her house for him to arrive. She was no need for him to have to wait on her to come down.
The Knightleys were joining Mr. Woodhouse for dinner, along with their son, Alex. John and Izzie had gone off on a date of their own, after being coupled of for a few years now. Emma lets everyone know she is waiting on a date, and they leave her to it, wishing her a lovely time. Soon six, became seven which became 8. When nine came, Emma was devastated again. She excuses herself and goes into her room to change into more comfortable clothes. While up there, she saw that she had an email from Evan. Basically, it said that he wasn't coming and that him asking her on the date was nothing but an April Fool's joke that was devised by his friends. He was sorry that she was the victim and hoped that she would forgive him at some point. After reading the message she snuck down the backstairs to head to her favorite tire swing. She was out there for maybe five minutes when a shadowy figure comes to join her.
"Hey, I'm sorry," Alex begins. "Maybe he got sick or something." Emma began to sob and launched herself off her swing and into Alex who had opened his arms, expecting a typical Emma overreaction. "He isn't sick. He emailed me, it was all a joke. A prank, whatever they want to call it," Emma stated with a large bit of venom in her voice. Then she broke and cried again, "I wasn't good enough for him." Alex reaches up and rubs a hand over her hair and told her, "Yes you are, he is just an idiot." Then he leaned down and kissed her temple. Emma was 14 when he got her first kiss from a man, and it was all Alex Knightley's fault, again.
