Chapter 5
"Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart."
-Kahlil Gibran

When I arrived in my fourth period class, English, I was a bit disappointed to see that Erik was not there. I really didn't know what to think of him... Erik was... unique. There was something special about him... I didn't know what it was but I did know that he needed a friend and I was determined to be one... even if I ended up being the only friend he had.

Someone gently touched my arm and I jumped, startled out of my thoughts. Beside me stood one of the most attractive guys I have ever seen. Blond hair cut short and spiky gave him a roguish look, his deep brown eyes were soft and warm, and a small dimple appeared next to pearly white teeth and a perfect smile. "Did you ever lose that bracelet in a swimming pool?" he asked in a deep, masculine voice.

Dumbfounded, I sat in at my desk gaping like a fish until my pitiful brain finally came up with a response that didn't sound too half-witted. "Huh?" Brilliant, Christine, just brilliant.

"Did you ever lose that bracelet in a swimming pool?" he repeated, still smiling. I tore my eyes away for a moment to see what he was talking about. Oh yeah! That bracelet! The piece of jewelry that this Greek god was referring to was a silver ID bracelet that my father had given me on my sixth birthday. It had a small silver plate with my name inscribed on it next to a small engraved rose. From the day I received it, there wasn't a day I took it off... except for one day when Dad took me to the beach. Ironically, it was at the hotel pool that it had slipped off my small wrist when I was walking around the pool to greet my dad as he got out from diving into the deep-end. He walked away for a moment to towel off and that's when I discovered the bracelet was gone. Then I hadn't been a very good swimmer and was devastated when I saw my bracelet twinkling cruelly at me from the bottom of the pool.

I remembered that I started to cry until a very wet boy about my age with a dimple in his cheek popped up in front of me and handed me the bracelet. I was so happy that I gave the boy a kiss on his cheek... and for the rest of our trip there, we had been inseparable companions.

Remembering all this I blushed a little but smiled. "It is you, isn't it?" he continued and, if it was possible, smiled bigger. "Wow. Christine... you certainly have... changed..."

Feeling more like an idiot every second, I finally managed to stutter out: "I'm sorry, but I don't remember your name..."

"Rod. Rod Chandler." Just then the teacher walked in, Rod smiled and, melting me with his eyes, walked back to his seat. "I'll see you later Christine."

"Congratulations. You have just done in five minutes what every girl in this school has tried to do every year."

Still a bit dazed, I turned to see a friendly looking girl about my age with short blondish-brown hair and oval shaped glasses over a freckled nose smile at me from her desk in front of mine.

"What do you mean? What have I done?" I asked, the memory of Rod's gaze still warming my cheeks.

She grinned and pushed her glasses up farther on her nose. "Snag Rod Chandler, of course. He's only the most eligible guy in school. One, he's totally hot. Two," She tapped her fingers as she counted off. "He's the captain of the football team. Three, he has his own Porsche. Four, he's from one of the richest families in town. And five, his dad's the mayor."

I grinned at the girl's bored look. "You don't seem very impressed."

"Who? Me?" She put on a mock-horrified expression. "Never! I couldn't ever be romantically interested in Rod. I practically grew up with him. His mom and my mom were best friends, so we got to play together a lot as kids. We went to pre-school, kindergarten, and elementary school together." She shrugged. "He's more like a brother to me. In fact," She leaned over close to me as if to divulge an important secret. "I could tell you diaper stories about him!"

I laughed and she joined in. "By the way, my name is Marisa." The teacher looked our way for a moment, annoyed. "I'm Christine," I hurriedly whispered back.

I flashed an apologetic smile at the teacher and started to listen. Later, when the teacher wasn't looking, we swapped schedules and compared them. Unfortunately, we only had one other class together which was French IV.

When the class let out, Rod accidentally bumped into me on our way out the door. "Sorry, Christine," he said but the way he looked at me with those gorgeous brown eyes convinced me that he wasn't at all sorry that we got to touch.

All the way to the cafeteria I had a silly grin slathered all over my face. It was going to be an interesting year.