Chapter 7
Sarah
Sarah frowned slightly as she walked down the street, past the local gas station. He had noticed her, despite all she had done to keep a low profile. Why else would he have suddenly slowed like that? It had been like a slow-motion shot-- his hands suddenly moved as though through molasses, and his demeanor became unreadable. She sighed.
He was truly intriguing. That first time she'd seen him, it was like seeing one of those really attractive movie actors. Sarah was hardly a ditz, but no girl would ignore such grace, such a flawless complexion, such thoughtless perfection.
She was hardly a fool, either. No dreams about instantaneous everlasting love-- she had deliberately pushed the incident back into her mind and ruthlessly flattened the crush that threatened to come to life. But when she'd seen him again, walking down the same road at the same time, she became helplessly fascinated by him.
Sarah was one of those people who wants to grow up to be so many different things they usually become menial workers. Right now, her two strongest interests were reporting and movie-making, and if this guy wasn't born actor material she didn't know what was. As to reporting, she fancied it would be interesting to find out about his life like a real reporter would.
Now she hurried to the bus stop, it would be arriving any minute now. While waiting at the stop, she pulled out her notebook and twiddled her pencil over her dossier on-- she realized she hadn't given him a name! Clearly, she needed to find out his real name, but until then she needed some pseudonym. Mr. X was too silly, and he wasn't much of a Mister anyway... she grinned as she remembered the particular actor he reminded her of, with his amazing gracefulness. "Name = Legolas" she wrote, thinking of some of her sillier friends.
Sarah stopped and crammed her notebook back into her backpack, the bus was pulling around the corner. On the way home, she continued her scribbling.
Sex? Male, duh
Height? Hmm... more than me, so at least 5'4"
Eyes? Don't know yet...
Hair? Don't know yet, always wearing hat
Distinguishing marks? Not a clue!
She scowled at her list. This wouldn't get her any farther than "handsome stranger" would. And she wasn't finding out much about his life, either. He left his apartment too early for her to be done with school, and there was no way Mom would allow her to go off to the downtown to spy on some man. Ludicrous... instinctively she reached up and pressed the button, her stop was next. As she descended from the bus, she began formulating a plan to get her near his home next morning.
---
"Mom? We're out of milk," Sarah called. "I can go get some from the store if you want..."
"Sure, go ahead." Sarah grinned. That had been easy enough, as long as her little brother didn't check the downstairs fridge. The route to the store ran right by Legolas' apartment; maybe he would be coming out? Then she would at least know what time to tail him to his work. She hunted down her notebook and headed for the bus with 1 minute to spare. Perfect timing.
The bus took her past the apartment-- Apartment name = Golden Shore-- but no Legolas did she see. Ah well, the best-laid plans of mice and schoolgirls often went astray. She'd come back later, maybe even today...