AUSTIN:
I had an amazing date with Ally. Wine was probably the most romantic drink you could have with someone you really liked. I grabbed my MacBook Air and logged onto Skype, to Skype my friends Jace and Dez. I made a video chat with them and Jace and Dez answered. I said,
"Hey, guys!"
Jace was saying,
"What's up, Austin!"
Dez was sipping on a bottle of Stella Artois.
"Someone's all happy about something!"
I said,
"I am! You know when I moved in here, I already know I like the place where I live. I think my favorite part is my neighbor."
Dez took a Homer Simpson-esque sip of his beer.
"What's he like?"
I said,
"She is gorgeous, super nice, super smart and really driven. You guys would really like her."
Dez asked me,
"What's her name?"
"Ally Dawson."
Jace's face light up in epiphany.
"I know her! She's Trish's childhood friend and Bella calls her "Aunt Ally" whenever she sees her. One of the nicest people I've ever met."
Isabella (or as we called her "Bella") was the two, almost three-year-old daughter of my buddy Jace and his girlfriend, Trish. She was one of the cutest kids I'd ever met. For a living, Trish was an RN at a pediatrician's office while Jace owned his own skatepark. Dez was a photographer and director and his girlfriend Carrie Lainfield was a yoga teacher at Body and Soul gym. The three of us met at a party and we had become fast friends- we bought food, went to bars and played video games together, we had gone to comic con together and we went clubbing together (not to pick up girls) and watched reruns of satirical (and at times, controversial) cartoons and sitcoms together.
Dez asked,
"What does she do for a living?"
I said,
"She teaches english to seventh and eighth graders at Kinloch Park Middle School. You guys remember my sister Cadence?"
Dez said,
"Yeah. I was at the hospital with you, your parents and Randy when she was born. I've known Cadence with her whole life."
Jace laughed.
"Yup. She's like a blonde, teenaged clone of Bella!"
I laughed.
"Anyway, get this, Ally used to be Cadence's english teacher! And Randy and Alanna are in town for the next six months and the family is having dinner and she's coming, too!"
Dez was saying,
"Wow, your new love interest meets your family."
I said,
"Well, she met my Dad, and she already knows Cadence. She was her teacher in eighth grade. Today, I went down to her work and snuck some little treats into her mailbox at her job at Kinloch Park."
Dez asked me in a high-pitched singsong voice,
"Ooh, what'd you give her?"
He took another sip of his Stella Artois. Dez loved his beer. But by no means was he an alcoholic.
"Victoria's Secret gift card for a hundred bucks and a scented candle?"
Dez was saying,
"You must really think she's sexy."
"I do. But of course, I'm still getting to know her. And we kept the wine drinking to a minimum."
Jace asked,
"How'd you guys meet?"
"She had a ton of papers to grade, and she said she needed some coffee, and she asked me if I wanted to go with her and I did. What happened was, I had just come home from getting my hair cut at Supercuts and I barely knew her, and she noticed."
Jace told me,
"Oh yeah, I saw the pictures and the video."
Dez just grinned like a blockhead. He was kind of a blockhead but he was a lovable one.
"I came with him. I took pictures and a video."
I said,
"I'm taking credit for the first and last one, because they were my snapchats."
"Yeah, you get credit for those."
ALLY:
I was at Kinloch Park, analyzing the gradebook. My first period seventh graders had come into my class. Everyday, my classes had to write in the journals about a certain topic, and it had to be at least one paragraph. Today's topic was What would you do if you could travel into the past? I also had a bin for homework- we had moved on from Oliver Twist to If I stay.
I had my students type up a paragraph explaining what they thought the book would be about and whether or not they were looking forward to reading it. I got distracted because I was thinking about hanging out with my new neighbor Austin last night. And on saturday, I was going to meet the rest of his family. I felt one of my students, her name was Caterina (She went by "Cat") Altman, tap my shoulder.
"Ms. Dawson,"
she asked me as she gathered some of her blonde hair and pulled it back with a jaw clip. Cat Altman was in the seventh grade, but she looked and acted like a high schooler and always dressed like she was a contestant on What not to wear or Project Runway. Which was understandable because she was the richest seventh grader in Kinloch Park- her dad was a data scientist and her mom was a fashion designer. I said,
"Yes, Caterina Altman?"
Cat rolled her eyes.
"I always feel like I'm in trouble when people say my full name. Anyway, are you OK? You were sitting at the computer when you just started to stare blankly into space. Normally, you call on students for doing that."
I said,
"Oh, yeah, Cat. I'm wonderful. I have this new neighbor, and I really like him."
Cat smiled.
"I think Ms. Dawson has some puppy love."
I giggled.
"Me too. Now please go back to your seat, Ms. Altman."
She said compliantly,
"Yes, Ms. Dawson."
She sat down at her seat. I was definitely in love with Austin. I was looking forward to meeting the rest of his family and reuniting with Cadence.