I was sitting in the back of the theatre watching them rehearse and so on.

I've got this English paper to finish Dan finished his scenes walked halfway down the steps and jumped the rest.

As he's walking down the aisle he stops and sits down next to me,

"What subject?"

"English."

"Gibson?"

Nod. You don't need to tell me how literate and eloquent I am.

This is the point where I expect him to get up and leave thinking " great conservationist"

But he stayed just sitting there like watching me write was the most fascinating thing he'd seen all day.

I started nonchalantly humming the tune to of that Shania twain song "from this moment on" I don't know

Any guys who would just sit there in silence and watch it sort of gave me a hawk and mouse feeling so I was

Slightly glad and only a little perturbed that he knew most of the words to a song I had loved in 1997.

Over on the end of the fourth row Mandy has sat for the past hour and a half (note that the practice only started an hour ago)

LeClair and Bob were on stage at the time reading their scenes. Beth was off in the winds apparently threatening some random

actor with a baseball bat, sometimes I feel sorry for them.

Dan usually sits down for no more then a few seconds before making his rounds to every girl in the theatre so I was ready

For him to jump up and go any second, he didn't though until a few minutes later LecLair called out for her "Errant Husband"

He was wanted on stage

"Will you wait for me?" Dan said to a confused me

I must have said something like "sure-fine-ok" or some other generic response.

Most guys don't really pay a whole lot of attention to me it's not that I'm not pretty I consider myself decently interesting

Most people think I'm really shy but actually I just don't talk to people I have not interest in. Often when I'm on a bus,

Sitting, or waiting somewhere various people will try to start a conversation with me I feel quite mean and heartless

Because of all the effort they are putting in to try to make me comfortable, and all it's doing is make me wish I'd brought

A book so I might look engrossed in something.

(LeClair if interrupted in the middle of reading would stop and proceed to listen to some sob story in an elevator, or at the dmv

Or a wrong number)

Sometime in the 7th grade for at least two weeks I made a real born again effort to be really friendly to humanity,

Or at least the people at my school. Failure. It came out strained and unnatural.

(Mandy's reasons for her personality/lack of social graces are somewhat different; with me people don't like me because

Of a lack of caring enough to get to know me, Mandy, the opposite they make their decision after the y get to know her.

She's blunt but still somewhat approachable, she quietly notices things but can argue with the best.)

Sometimes I pay attention to little things but I've been burned to many times with, "what is it already professor?"

I look because I'm interested in that person not people in general that job as an observer is just too overwhelming.

After Dan finished his scene with only a few of his "wait...wait...line"'s (which he would say as he puts one open palmed

Hand on his head the other arm stretched out holding one pointer finger up to signify the "wait" part, this done while he

semi-crouches.) He then ducked over into the wings for a few minutes and then came back bouncing towards me and said

"Bob wanted me to ask you if you'd come home with me to pick up something for him."

I told him I'd just wait for Bob and we'd come over and get it on our way home.

"Could you just come w/ me now and get it I'm the only one leaving right now..." Dan said

I will say asking me to walk home with him boosted my ego and sped up my heart and I really was more excited then I sound

But I wasn't sure of enough things to be totally ecstatic.

We walked mostly in silence, note the way he does with most other people, while I, racked my brain for something other then

"Pretty day" to say (note-during that time in 7th grade "pretty day" was something I said entirely too much)

I was then getting a little fed up with myself, I did like this guy and yet I was making no attempt at intelligent or otherwise,

Conversation, I even prayed it would rain so we could have some romantic "sing' in in the rain" where we run back to his

House and he would lend me some of his clothes and we'd sit down and talk... or at least it would be an excuse to hurry and

Something to laugh and exaggerate about later. What did happen was he brought me in his house ran up stairs and grabbed a

Wal-mart bag and handed it to me.

"Do you want me to walk you home?" he said

He sounded sort of annoyed with the prospect so I said no.

It rained as I walked one block up and one alleyway over to our house. The walk over to the Blakely place circle was not nearly

As good as my dreamt about walk in the rain could have been but it had it's uses fizzling my anger being one of them. No one

Was home, I bet everybody went to Denny's (wonder why Dan didn't.) if I could always do what I wanted I would have gone back

Over to Dan's I could just tell him no one was home at me house but I don't want to think he walked me home because I needed

To be taken care of like that and going over their now and telling him that would only prove that point.