N: This story revolves around the song in your eyes by Peter Gabriel. Now that the other kid bo story has moved onto a sequel, this is the one that some of you wanted me to write. A few of you didn't, but this is a different take on it. A different spin where you know the ending, and the story is being told. I'm not sure how it will work out, how long it will be. My time is limited and i've lost much of my gusto for writing lately... I'm also working on a update to cupid, but man the writer's block is strong on that one.

This story will be mainly told in Bo's Pov...

"Ugh, Mom. Why are you playing that silly song again?"

I chuckled, smiling at my teenage daughter as she dropped her backpack on the floor of the kitchen. "It's my favorite song, kiddo." I pointed at the backpack with my pen, "Iris, clean that up before you know who comes home, and gets sassy about stuff on the floor."

My daughter rolled her amber eyes, a trait I was certain she learned from her aunt. "Ugh! Fine." I watched Iris kick her overstuffed backpack into the mudroom. She came over to where I was working on a new file, huffing and dramatically flopping her head down on the kitchen island. "Physics sucks."

I patted her head, running my fingers through her sandy blonde hair. "It does. I hated it in high school." I bit the end of my pen, "I hated all math and science in school. That's why I went into marketing." I leaned over, starting my song over.

Iris, leaned on her hand, frowning. "Yeah, but I want to join the DEA. Be a super cool agent like Aunt T." She blew out a frustrated breath as Peter Gabriels soft vocals swam out of the speakers. "Mom, seriously. You've been playing this song non stop since Ma left."

I grinned, a small blush creeping up my cheeks. "I miss her, and this is our song." I paused, listening to a few lyrics, sighing lightly at the memories it brought up. "We'll get your Ma to help you with physics when she's back from Seattle. You know how much she wants you to follow in her footsteps."

Iris sat up, collecting her mop of hair into a ponytail. "Aunt T always tells me I shouldn't groan when I hear this song. She said there's a beautiful fuc…er…effing story behind it. How you met Ma."

I gave my sixteen year old daughter a motherly look, poking her side. "Watch your mouth. I know Aunt T has no filter when you are hanging out, but if your Ma hears you dropping f bombs." I tickled her side, making Iris laugh and hold up her hands in defeat.

"Okay, okay!" She giggled once more, sitting on the chair next to me. "So, you think I'm old enough to hear the beautiful story of how you met Ma? Or am I stuck with the wedding album and grandma's cheesy stories?"

I set my pen down, glancing at my daughter. Debating until I said screw it, "Fine. But two things. I was a weird kid who loved 80's music, and second, we never told you the truth because we didn't necessarily want you to follow our footsteps."

Iris cocked an eyebrow, "Were you a felon on the run when you met Ma? Cause I can't see anything about you two boring old ladies that would have me following in those footsteps." Iris smirked when I slapped her shoulder playfully. "Seriously, you guys are awesome parents and even after being married for seventeen years, I can see the love is still strong as over." She leaned over, flicking my elbow like she did when she was a little girl trying to get my attention. "Tell me, tell me, tell me."

I swatted her hand away, laughing. "Fine!" I took a deep breath. "I first met your Ma when I was eleven, and she was sixteen. And as weird as this might sound, I fell in love with her three weeks later, but it took us ten more years to finally get together."

Iris stared at me blankly, "Eleven? Sixteen? You wouldn't let me ride my bike to the end of the street alone at eleven. How…um." She shook her head, waving me on. "Go ahead, tell me this story. I'm mildly grossed out and intrigued."

I laughed, kissing the top of her head. "Thank you, kiddo."

I leaned back, "The year was 1992 and I was in middle school. Algebra was my worst enemy."

1992

I was happily jamming out to my greatest hits from the 80's cd, trying so desperately to avoid doing my algebra homework. I was already failing and it was barely three weeks into the new year. Truth was, when numbers were mixed with letters, I was clueless. My parents were upset, and had sent me to the school library on a Saturday to meet with a tutor. Not only did they send me on a Saturday, but a Saturday morning. The one day of the week I loved because I could sleep in and watch cartoons with my best friend Tamsin. I walked slowly, humming along to Heaven is a place on Earth, thinking about getting pizza later with Tamsin and go over our sweet Halloween costume plans. I was going to be Mary McFly and Tams was going to be Doc Brown. We were both super excited to get started, even though Halloween was a month away.

I shoved the library doors open, and groaned. I seriously didn't want to do this today, or tomorrow, or the day after. I could fail math, it's not like I was going to be a doctor or a scientist. I wanted to be a zoologist and wash elephants and play with penguins. No math was needed for that, just expansive love for animals.

I smiled politely, waving to the nice old lady librarian and walked to the far back rooms where tutoring sessions were held. The middle school was huge and connected to the high school, but thankfully our library was off limits to the high schoolers. I could hide and not be noticed by the cool seniors who scared me. I was a shy kid, with one friend and I was dreading going to high school. My mom had already begun to tell me the horrors of puberty, hormones, dating, and boys. All things that left me mildly panicked about the next two years. My body was starting to change, and it was freaking me out. I had to go get a bra last weekend with my mom and grandma. The stupid thing made it hard to throw a football around with my dad, and it pinched my sides. Yeah, I was eleven about to be twelve, but my parents always said I acted older than my age. Something they were grateful for, since I showed no interest in boys. All I wanted to do was hang out with my friends, go to school, and get over the hump of being a tween.

I flopped down at the table and emptied out my backpack, I was very early and saw no sight of my tutor. Some girl my mom promised was smarter than the teachers and could get me through Algebra with an A. I rolled my eyes at her, not believing there was anyone in this world who could make me understand numbers and letters together. I tossed the algebra book to the side with my notebook and grabbed my Wonder Woman comic. I leaned forward on my elbows and dove into the comic, getting lost in the story and my sweet tunes.

I was drawn out of the Wonder Woman haze when a firm hand tapped me on the shoulder, I spun around startled. A taller blonde girl stood in front of me, a warm smile on her face. I vaguely recognized her as a sophomore in the high school. Her face plastered all over the science fair posters. I pushed one headphone off and stood up. The girl was taller than me, thin, and wore a grey t-shirt with the high school track team mascot on it. What was weird, was that I felt my heart wobble in my chest when I caught a whiff of her perfume. It was that fancy one I really liked at the department store. Mom wouldn't let me get it, claiming it was for fancy older ladies. I swallowed hard as I fixed my baggy sweater, my hands sweating for no reason at all.

The girl grinned. "Hi. I'm Lauren Lewis. You must be Bo McCorrigan?" She looked down at the notebook in her hands, her brow scrunching up as she read over a page. "And you're struggling with Algebra one?" She looked up at me, her smile still warm.

I nodded like a broken bobble head, pointing at my algebra book. "Yeah. But I'm actually failing, not struggling. Probably why my parents hired you to help me." I yanked my other headphone off and hit pause on my discman.

Lauren shook her head and sat down, motioning for me to sit with her. "I volunteered to help. I usually volunteer every year to help as many under classmen as I can. I know what's it like to struggle with subjects, and I like to teach people." She pointed at my notebook. "Do you mind if I take a look at your notes?"

I swallowed hard, staring at Lauren's brown eyes and how they looked like the chunk of rock in the trailer for Jurassic Park. But her eyes didn't have a bug in it, they were pretty. I shook my head, reaching for my notebook. I was getting hot, maybe it was because the old librarian kept the dang place at tropical temperatures. I handed Lauren the notebook. "I can't get past the basics. It makes no sense to me."

Lauren patted my shoulder, "It's okay, Bo. I'll get it to make sense to you." She scanned over my notebook, her brow crinkling as she tried to decipher my bubbly handwriting. "Here. I think I see the problem. You're getting confused with the values of A, B and X." Lauren leaned over, pointing out my scribblings. "Let's go over the values of each and how they correlate with everything else."

And that's what we did for the next hour. Lauren broke down the values and explained them in a way that it finally clicked, well somewhat clicked, in my head. Soon she had me working on the simple problems and I was actually getting correct answers. What wasn't clicking was why I kept staring at Lauren here and there, and why my palms would sweat when she would smile at me and laugh.

Lauren glanced at her black digital watch. "We have five minutes left, Bo. Let's stop here and pick up next week." She collected her notes, neatly placing them in her own backpack. She paused when I picked up my Wonder Woman comic. "Is that the latest issue?"

I shrugged awkwardly. What the heck was happening to me, I never got nervous or awkward. "Um, yeah. I got it last night with my dad." I pointed at the cover. "It's a continuation of the operation cheetah storyline. It's pretty good."

"I loved that storyline, but my favorite is where she takes on Deathstroke." Lauren reached into her bag, pulling out the comic.

I stared at her, "You read comics? But you're in high school, on the track team." I was in mild awe, and picked up the comic. "I missed getting this one. I been trying to find it. Only my best friend knows about my comics. Middle school is hard, everyone is eager to stop being a kid and move onto being a cool adult."

Lauren laughed, "I'm a junior in high school, yes. On the track team, yes, but I love the things I love. Cool or uncool." She tapped the edge of the comic. "You can borrow it until our next session, Bo." She stood up, smoothing out her faded jeans. "Just make sure you do the practice quizzes I gave you first."

I nodded, excited to be able to read the comic. "Oh, I promise." I gently placed the comic in backpack and reached for my discman, setting my headphones around my neck. I packed my bag up with Lauren standing next to me, waiting patiently with that warm smile on her face. I swung the bag on my shoulders, gripping the straps tightly. There was a weird reaction in my body whenever she smiled like that, and it was weird.

"Well, see you next week, Bo. If you have any trouble, please let me know. Your mother has my phone number and I can meet you here anytime during the week. Track practice doesn't start until after winter." Lauren stuck out her hand. "It's been great to meet you, Bo."

I stared at her hand, it taking a minute too long for me to do the proper thing and shake her hand like I've seen my dad do a million times with his business friends. "Oh, um." I yanked my hand out of my strap, smacking the play button on my discman. Peter Gabriel's In your eyes, filled my ears at the exact moment I slid my hand into Lauren's.

There was a weird reaction. Her hand was warm, comforting, and sent my heart into a jiggly jumpy beat. All of the noise around me disappeared and all I could hear was the song and look into Lauren's big brown eyes. It was like all the moment in Far and Away when Joseph is knocked out and Christie falls on top of him, finally professing her love for him and he comes back to life. All slow motion and dramatic.

That's what this was. Right? Or was it a major hot flash?

I pulled my hand free when I felt it getting too gross. "Thank you, Lauren. I'll uh, next week." I smiled awkwardly, and walked out of the room quickly. Lauren holding the door open and waving as I almost trampled over the old librarian.

I rushed outside, gasping the cool fall air and shaking my sweaty hands out. What the heck was that? My body never acted stupid before, not even as I'd blossomed into ladyhood over the summer My mom's words, not mine. I chewed on my lip, and started walking towards Tamsin's house. She was a few months older than me, she'd know what was up.

XXXX

Iris stared at me. "You went to Aunt Tamsin for advice on your pre-teen hormones? Have you met her? I mean…." Iris stood up, grabbing a bag of chips. "So, you were eleven going on twelve and you met your tutor, and it was love at first sight?" She cocked an eyebrow my way. "Did Ma feel the same way? It sounds like she was just the school genius trying to pad her college application with charity work." Iris winked at me.

I shook my head. "Yes, I went to Tamsin for advice. Wrong idea, she had no idea either. Just thought I had a cold." I turned to look at my daughter. "But it took me three weeks to realize I was falling in love with your Ma and that stupid song I play over and over was my guiding light. A guiding light I ignored for a very long time." I shoved my hand into the bag of chips when Iris was next to me. "Sometimes your gut tells you the future, but we're all too stupid and stubborn to listen to it." I shoved a handful of chips in my mouth. "The song was like a ghost, always popping up when I needed to pay attention. But it took me a long time to listen."

"Ma said she fell in love with you at first sight. So, was it that day for her as well?"

I shook my head. "Lauren only saw me as a kid that day. I mean a sixteen-year-old looking at an eleven year old, all they see is a kid. My crush was nothing more than a infatuation in her eyes, until it shifted when Lauren graduated from high school." I smiled, "We had to become friends first, and endure a lot of missteps."

Iris gave me a look, one that reminded me so much of Lauren. "You broke her heart a few times, didn't you?" She set the bag of chips down on the table. "Tams told me a few things about when you were a jerky teenager. Pissed at Lauren for no reason at all, other than she was trying to be kind."

I nodded, looking at my daughter. "Watch your mouth! I did. I did a lot of stupid things. We all do stupid things for love." I grabbed my phone, "Let's go order a pizza and sit in the living room while I tell you the rest of the story."

I walked with Iris into the living room, smiling at the text messages from my wife as I searched out the pizza place.

I typed out a quick message to Lauren.

-I'm telling Iris our story.-

-You are? The full unedited one? Not the one we let your mother tell everyone? -

I chuckled. – The full unedited one. Where I fell in love with you as a kid and never stopped loving you. -

-It's normal, right? Five years apart in age? I'm kind of happy that I'm missing this conversation. - I could almost feel Lauren roll her eyes in her message.

-I'm not. I love watching you talk about the day it all clicked for you. The day you fell in love with me. Hurry home, I miss you. I keep playing our song.-

-I love you too, Bo. You know, we should write Peter Gabriel a letter telling him that it's all his fault. I'll be home soon. I miss you. –

I tucked my phone away as Iris called for me. Impatiently awaiting the next chapter to the story.