The first bell rang. Jonathon looked up at the clock on the wall; it was 7:45. He unhappily shook his head. He was given the assignment to take pictures of students arriving in the morning, for the yearbook. Fifteen minutes prior, he had just finished telling his girlfriend, Deborah, that the theme for the yearbook that year was going to be "Day in the Life of...".

"Day in the Life of...?" said Deborah sarcastically. "Day in the Life of...what? Day in the Life of... government conditioned, voracious vessels of no substance?"

Jonathon stared at the stranger standing before him.

"I'm sorry...what?" Deborah laughed.

"I was a couple months behind in my 'Word a Day' calendar. I am simply trying to augment my vocabulary.", she innocently replied.

He leaned down to kiss her. He and Debs, as he endearingly called her, had been dating for several months now, several months more than his closest friends, Dino and Ben, could have ever imagined. Deborah was more than Jonathon could have asked for; she was his best friend and foreplay buddy in one. She made him what he was, and he knew that she was all he needed.

The second bell rang, and Jonathon gave up hope. He had gotten no shots worthwhile that morning, which meant that he would have to get there early again tomorrow. He shrugged and began heading in the direction of homeroom. As he turned the corner, he caught a glimpse of a girl walking out of the principle's office. She was aimlessly looking around the hall with a schedule gripped in her hands. Jonathon grabbed his camera and began taking shots of her walking down the large, empty hall. The morning sun shone through the windows creating an amazing depth, Jonathon had to take advantage of the situation. Upon hearing the click of the camera, the girl quickly turned around. Jonathon looked up from his camera. She began walking towards him. As she approached, Jonathon saw that she was a small girl, no taller than 5'3". She had shoulder length dark brown hair with short, blunt bangs. She was wearing white, low-rise slacks, a sheer yellow t-shirt with a blue spaghetti strap top underneath, and turquoise ballet flats. In her hair was a small yellow bow placed on the side. As she approached, Jonathon could tell that this girl had style.

"Hey..." she said.

"Hi, I'm sorry about the pictures...you're just really beautiful." The girl cocked an eyebrow and smiled. Jonathon quickly realized what he had said. "I mean the light through the windows was, uh, nice...that's why I said you looked beautiful, I didn't mean you, I meant the sun." Jonathon was incredibly flustered. Did he just say that? He felt sick. She looked at him half amused, half confused. Jonathon took a deep breath and said sternly, "You are not beautiful."

"Oh?", she said, her voice somewhat charmed by Jonathon's insanity. Jonathon looked at the floor. He screwed that up. He held his lips close together to refrain from saying something stupid...again, for a third time.

"Well, if you could pay no attention to my repulsive face for a moment, could you tell me where room 105 is?" Jonathon quickly pointed to the right, still staring at the ground, too embarrassed to look up.

"OK, thanks.", she laughed and with that she was off.

Jonathon slipped into homeroom with only 5 minutes left. The bell dismissed them for the first class of the day. Jonathon headed for math, a class that he hated. Its only redeeming quality was that his two best friends were in the class with him, which at times was not redeeming whatsoever. He sat down in the back and within seconds, Ben was sitting in the desk in front of him and Dino to the right. Dino whacked Jonathon in the arm.

"Unnecessary, man!" he complained. Dino just smiled the signature Whitman smile. Ben turned around.

"What up?" Ben asked. But before Jonathon had a chance to answer the teacher held up a stack of papers in the front of the classroom.

"Pop quiz...", she yelled. Everyone in class let out a loud groan.

The boys walked out the door of the class.

"Well, that quiz ripped me a new one.", said Dino.

"Yeah, me too, man. I totally failed.", replied Ben. Jonathon and Dino looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Ben never failed anything; it was like he was incapable of doing badly. Jonathon had also failed. Luckily, his next class was with Deborah and she would know the right thing to say to make him feel better.

The three walked down the crowded hallway, none of them paying much attention to where they were going. They had gotten into a conversation about some dating website Ben had found the night before.

"You guys...she seems like a really nice girl. You know, like, wholesome. Besides, it's not like all the people who are on that website are freaks, I'm on it.", Ben said defending himself.

"Oh yeah man, you're the role model for the 'normal' population out there. It's totally normal to lose your virginity to you're teach..." as Jonathon was about to finish his sentence, he harshly collided with something and was sprawled on the floor. He looked up to see his friends laughing hysterically. Jonathon looked around him, there were books covering the floor around him. He started to pick them up, when he looked to see who he ran into.

"Camera boy...". Gathering the books along with him was the girl from that morning. He mindlessly handed her the books. They got up.

"Wow, I'm sorry." Jonathon replied. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

"Is that because you were trying to avoid looking at my hideous face?"

"I don't think you're ugly. You know, I just meant that..."

"I know.", she said, smiling. "My name is Elle.", she extended her hand. Jonathon quickly grabbed it and began rapidly shaking it. She cocked an eyebrow, surprised at the intensity of his handshake. He just stood there, continuously shaking her hand; saying nothing.

The bell rang. Elle pulled her hand away. "Maybe next time I can get your name.", she said as she walked off down the hall.

Jonathon yelled to her back, "JONATHON! THAT'S MY NAME!!!!". He saw her hand fly up and wave goodbye.

Dino tackled Jonathon. He had completely forgotten that they had been standing there. "Who was that?", he asked.

"Yeah, who was that?" repeated Ben.

"Um, I think she's a new girl", said Jonathon.

"A NEW GIRL?!?!" his friends cried.

"Aw, man...that's like the absolute hook-up; the new girl, all scared and vulnerable in a new school, then this guy like comes to save her from all those bad things. Every guy wants to hook up with the new girl, especially that new girl." lectured Ben.

Dino nodded. "Looked like she was into you..." Jonathon turned towards him.

The two boys smiled deviously and walked away, leaving Jonathon standing in the hall staring in the direction Elle had disappeared to.

"Jonathon?" He quickly turned.

There stood Deborah. "I was waiting for you. You coming to class?", she asked.

"Um yeah..." he said, distracted. He shook the strange feeling that he had, and quickly ran after Deborah.