Hey :D

So this chapter is pretty much about one of Maria's first crushes (so cute :3)

Don't forget to leave suggestions!

Maria is almost 13, Elle is almost 15

"Whatcha doin'?" The boy sat down next to Maria on the bus.

"Nothing, really, I'm just playing Pokémon." Maria said, her accent faintly Italian. Maria looked up. The boy had brown hair and blue eyes. He reminded her of Uncle Ian as a kid. He was smiling at her. He was kind of cute…

"Really! I love Pokémon! What's your favorite Pokémon?" The boy scooted a little closer to her.

"Ummm," Maria blushed a little. "Either Pikachu or Venusaur. See," She pointed to the Venusaur on the DS screen. "He's level eighty-nine… Who's your favorite Pokémon?"

"My favorite is Charizard, but he's only level seventy-six." He laughed. "I'm not exactly the best at Pokémon…"

"No problem, I suck at shooting games, I'm best at the horror genre. I'm Maria, by the way."

"You like horror? That's so awesome. I've never really met a girl who like videogames before, much less horror. And my name is Nick." Maria laughed.

"You haven't? Videogames are the best. I guess I might have a different perspective than other people though. You see," Maria took a picture out of her bookbag and handed it to him. The picture was of her, Marzia, and Felix when she was four. "My last name is Kjellberg… have you ever heard of PewDiePie?"

"No way!" Said Nick. He stared at the picture in disbelief.

"Way," Maria said, nodding.

"That is awesome! And it would explain your accent." Said Nick. Maria blushed.

"It is pretty cool, oh and I've never seen you before, are you, like, in a different class or something?" Maria asked.

"Oh, no, I just moved here to Sacramento from Pennsylvania, but I've live in a bunch of different places, my dad was in the military." Nick looked mildly uncomfortable and a little sad. "It's complicated." He handed the picture back to Maria, who carefully slipped it back into her bag.

"Hey," Maria sensed his sadness and smiled, trying to cheer him up. "My mom is from Italy and my dad is from Sweden, I was born in England and live in America… it's complicated for me too."

"Yeah," Nick nodded, looking down.

"Anyway," Maria continued, trying to change the subject. "What's your favorite horror game?"

"Amnesia!" Nick smiled.

"Me too!"

"We are so in sync!" Nick laughed.

"Totally!" Maria smiled. "By the way, you can sit here every day if you want, I'm the only person who ever sits here, anyway."

"Wow, thanks, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to make any friends, but you're super cool, so, yeah, thanks." Nick smiled, somewhat awkwardly, then burst out laughing. Maria wasn't sure why, but he didn't seem to be laughing at her, so she laughed too.

"Oh my god, I'm crying," Maria said between laughs.

"Me too." Nick attempted to stop laughing and took a few deep, shaky breaths. Maria did the same.

When the bus arrived at Maria's bus stop, Nick moved out of the way for Maria to walk down the steps. At the bottom step, Maria turned around quickly.

"Hey, Nick, It was nice meeting you, like, really, really nice."

"You too!" Nick responded, then at the last minute, he called, "Hey, Maria, can I get your number?" Maria turned around and smiled, tucking a lock of her long dark blond hair behind her ear.

"Sure, it's nine one six, nine five five, seven five seven three." Nick scribbled the numbers down on his hand.

"Thanks, bye!" he waved to her as the bus drove away. "I am definitely calling that girl." He thought to himself.

Maria waved back, then turned and started walking towards her house with Elle.

"What are you so happy about?" Elle joked, referring to Maria's huge smile.

"Oh, nothing." Maria answered, skipping down the road. "This is so not nothing." She thought.