Gordo's POV
I walked throughout the mall, looking at all the throngs of girls my age desparetely trying to find a last-minute prom dress.
They waited a little too late, seeing that prom is TONIGHT. Anyways, why would I care? I'm not even going.
A girl and her mother almost knocked me over as they saw the perfect pair of shoes in the distance. I gave them a look, and the girl gave me a look in return. Wait, I recognized her from school...but I don't remember her name. She is probably muttering the whole thing between Lizzie and I under her breath to her mom.
Why was I at the mall anyway? I usually just sent my mom to do my shopping, or ordered it off the internet. I hate shopping, but today it just seemed right.
Not only was I at the mall, but I was there alone. Single white male guy...AT THE MALL, for freakin' sakes. Doesn't that just spell out pervert? I bet all of those moms are thinking that...telling the daughters to stay away from me.
I looked in the full length mirror that is in the men's department of Dillard's. I did look kind of freaky, with dark circles under my eyes, and my hair was even more scraggly than usual. My freakish appearance was due to two reasons:
1. A lightning bolt struck (metaphorical, not literal), and I just had this huge inspiration for my film. When I'm not at school, I spend almost every waking hour. Now it is finally finished, and in the mail to many colleges.
2. I've been having these really weird dreams lately. Lizzie is in them, but we are at the prom together. They are not sad or anything, but when I wake up, I have this feeling that something good is going to happen.
Maybe I should look like I'm on a dire mission to find shoes to shake all of the suspicious mom eyes. Yeah, that's it.
I causally pick up a pair of pumas, and pretend like I want them. The pesky salesman comes by and asks me if I want help, and I ask him for my size. These shoes are actually pretty cool.
I bring my purchase up to register, and feel good that my expedition to the mall was not completely worthless. Hey, I got a new pair of shoes. But that is not all....the next thing that will happen changed the course of my near future.
Off in the distance, I saw a group of girls laughing about something, to which I felt it safe to assume that they were laughing at me. But in the middle of the group there was a girl that looked strangely familiar...she had long, blonde hair, blue eyes, and she was beautiful.
No, Gordo, you're losing it. That is not Lizzie. She did not come back to life.
But, the way she smiled and laughed was uncanny....that was definitely her. Unless she is a hallucination.
I grabbed my shoes and ran over to the group.
"Lizzie," I said, tapping her on the shoulder. She casually turned around with a weird look on her face, and I thought, Crap. It's not her.
"Lizzie?" she asked, looking a little weirded out. "My name is Erica."
Her friends dispersed, probably thinking I would pull out a gun or something.
"Sorry...I just thought..." I stammered. "I just thought you were a good friend of mine. You could be her twin."
"Really?" she said smiling. "I'm new here."
"Were those your friends? I think I scared them away," I asked, gesturing torwards her friends, who were all in different areas of the store.
"Those are my cousins," she replied. "They were showing me around town."
We both nodded awkwardly for a second, and she shifted her weight nervously onto her other foot.
"Are you going to go to Hilridge?" I asked.
"Actually, I graduated early from my old high school at semester. I going to live here with my aunt and uncle while I go to UCLA."
"That's a far commute," I said, mentally hitting myself at the stupidity of my comment.
"What can I say?" she replied, throwing her hands in the air, as if she was asking something. "Don't want to pay room and board."
There was something in her eyes, like she was hiding something, but since we just met and all, I was not about to press her for it.
"I can show you around town," I suggested, and her eyes lit up.
"I would really like that," she said. "But I don't even know your name."
"Oh," I said, and we both laughed. "David Gordon, but most people call me Gordo."
"Gordo...I like that."
Matt's POV
I sat on my bed, picking at my guitar, trying to come up with a tune, while Victoria sat on my armchair, trying to concentrate on her math homework.
"Matt," she said. "Don't you think it was weird? What Donovan said?"
I was startled, but then again, it was not the first time she brought up this subject.
"I already told you my thoughts about that."
"Matt, he specifically told you that your sister loved you," Victoria said once again, as she did in every conversation we had about that subject.
"Yeah, and he also said he met a lady that was on the Titanic," I replied, my common reply. "He was probably dreaming."
This answer satisfied her for a second, but then she got that look in her eyes like she wanted to know something.
"But..." she started. "Never mind."
I struck a chord on my guitar, and wrote the progession in my head down.
"Doesn't this time of the year stink?" she asked, with a completely random subject. "We don't even get to go to prom."
"Isn't that right now?" I asked, only half paying attention.
"Yeah," she said, throwing down her pencil. "I hate algebra so much."
I laughed at her pouting.
"Stop laughing at me!" she exclaimed, throwing one of my pillows at me.
We began to have a little pillow fight, and our fight was interrupted by the ring of my cell phone.
I flipped it open, and I saw an unfamiliar number.
"Hello?" I said, expecting to hear some sort of wrong number.
"Is this Matt?" the voice asked, and I placed it with one of the seniors on the soccer team, Danny Kessler.
"Yeah."
"This is Danny Kessler, and I was going to the prom with Miranda Sanchez," he replied, confirming my hunch. "She has gone into labor."
"She's what?"
"We're at the hospital right now, and she wanted me to call you, and Gordo. She really wants you guys to be there."
"I'll be there in a sec," I replied, flipping my phone shut.
"Who was that?" Victoria asked.
"We got to go to the hospital...Miranda is in labor."
Gordo's POV
Erica and I sat down to eat dinner at a Subway, as we had spent most of the day together. She was uncannily just like Lizzie, and we immediately clicked as I showed her around town.
"So...is this like the only place in Hilridge? I knew it was a small town, but geez," Erica said. Yes, she had the same sense of humor as Lizzie did.
I laughed, and my cell phone rang. As I looked at the caller ID, I saw Danny Kessler's name. We had gotten to be pretty good friends when he and Miranda were dating.
"G-man, Miranda is in labor."
He could not have shocked me more if he said the planet Earth was being invaded by aliens.
"What?"
"She wants you there," he nervously replied.
"I'll be there in a sec," I said, and I hung up quickly.
"Erica," I said. "Do you want to come to the hospital with me?"
A concerned look washed over her face.
"Is something wrong?"
"You know that friend I told you about...Miranda? She is having her baby."
