Junior's POV

The ride to my house was really awkward, but almost in a good way. I don't know how that works but it just does. Me and Becky were sitting really close. Ours legs were touching and our shoulders were smushed up against each other. I don't think she liked it, which made it awkward. But I was loving it, so it was kinda good.

So if you couldn't tell from that last sentence, I'll just put it out there. I like Becky. But nobody knows that, and nobody will. There's no way she likes me back so I'm not gonna let anyone find out.

I've liked her for a pretty long time, I just wasn't completely sure of it. I mean, she's the first girl I've ever really liked. That day that we first met, I remember it like it was yesterday...

(Flashback)

"He throws.. It's up... Yeah! Touchdown!" I yelled in the supermarket once the roll of toilet paper landed perfectly in my mom's shopping cart at the end of the aisle. It landed on top of a pile of about 20 other toilet paper rolls I had thrown.

I didn't think anyone was listening to me. A few old people looked at me like I was crazy but that's what they all do. They'll give you weird looks but then keep walking along 'cause you're just a kid.

But anyway, I picked up another roll and threw it into the cart with a grunt. Three kids ran right up to the shopping cart with crazy looks in their eyes. One was a short black kid with a shaved head. The second was an even shorter baby-faced blonde kid. The last was a chubby kid with freckles and a backwards hat on.

I threw another one and they all stared down at it in awe when it landed in the cart with a thump.

"What a throw," the black kid said. Then the chubby kid said something that I couldn't understand. All of a sudden I heard mumbling coming from my left. I turned and saw a pair of eyes through the shelves that quickly disappeared. I ignored it.

I had another roll of toilet paper and figured maybe those kids wanted to get in on the action. "Hey buddy, catch this!" I yelled and threw the black kid the roll. He caught it and they all looked a bit surprised. "Good catch!" I yelled.

"Nice arm," he said admiringly. Then the three of the approached me.

"Junior Floyd," I said, introducing myself.

"I'm Hanon," said the black kid.

"Zolteck," said the chubby one.

"I'm Tad," the tiny one said.

"Cool," I replied.

"You wanna play some football?" Zolteck asked me.

"Yeah, let's see that arm again," Hanon agreed.

I was about to say yes but I heard something coming from where I heard the mumbling just minutes before. I ducked down because I knew that someone was spying on me. I had the perfect surprise attack planned. The three guys just stared at me like I was crazy.

"Hey you!" I screamed as I popped up right in front of the spyer. She let out a small scream and the shelves went tumbling down on her. We ran around to see who it was.

Hanon, Zolteck, and Tad laughed a little bit so I assumed they knew her. She had her hair tied back with a backwards hat covering it, a vest, long shorts, and some dirty boots. She was dressed like one of the guys.

She dug her way out of the boxes of food that she was buried in and looked up, a little embarassed. I noticed her face was covered in donut powder.

"Hi," she said shyly. I thought she was really cute.

After that, I found out her name was Becky, aka the Icebox, and her dad was coaching a peewee football team. I definitely wanted to join. I told her that her dad should come by my house to make sure it was okay with my mom, but I secretly hoped that she would come too.

I didn't know why I was feeling like this. I never thought about a girl this way before this. Girls were annoying. They didn't like sports, they didn't like anything fun, they were boring. But she was different, very very different.

Her dad showed up at my house a few hours later. I was lounging on my couch, playing with a football in my hands, watching TV. I saw out of the corner of my eye someone at the door. It was only for a split second but I was pretty sure someone was there. And it looked like Icebox.

Turns out, it wasn' was only her dad. He came in and had a nice talk with my mom, apparently they knew each other from way back in dinosaur times.

I sat on the couch trying to listen, but all of my concentration was on controlling my mouth. I knew if I didn't concentrate on this, I would blurt out something asking why Icebox wasn't with him. That would probably sound pretty suspicious.

All of a sudden I heard, "What do you say, Junior? You wanna play for us?" I snapped out of my concentration.

"I'm sorry, what?" I asked, not realizing what he was asking.

"Junior, would you like to play on Coach O'Shea's team?" My mother asked, probably a little embarassed by the fact that it looked like her son was completely zoning out, which I was.

"Oh, yeah of course," I said. This required no thought. I loved football and I'd get to see Icebox more. This is gonna be great, I thought.

(End of Flashback)

When we got to my house, the party was in full swing. Coach O'Shea went immediately to find my mom, which left me and Becky standing on my lawn alone.

I like that name, Becky. I just started calling her that today. At the game, when she decided to play for us, I said, "Hey Icebox, kick some butt."

She replied with, "Call me Becky."

So now that's what I've been calling her. I like calling her that better anyway. Icebox was too much like a guy, or a teammate. Becky fits her so much better.

At that moment I realized how much I liked her. So naturally, tonight when the team was all at my house and they asked who wanted to go get her, I was the first to volunteer.

So anyway, as I was saying, we were standing on my lawn alone. She started to walk inside but I grabbed her wrist. I decided that I needed to tell her I liked her. It was too hard to be with her when she had no idea.

"Come get a soda with me,"' I said. I wasn't ready to go into the party with all those people and have to fight for her attention. Right now I had it, and I was taking advantage of it.

She followed me into my garage and I flipped the light switch. However, the lights were pretty old in there so it only got dim.

I grabbed two sodas out of the fridge and sat down on the hood of my mom's car. She sat down next to me.

"Why's it so dark in here?" she asked.

"I don't know, the lights are old."

"You should probably get some new ones. This lighting isn't good for anything."

"Well, I wouldn't know, but you know what I bet it's good for?" I asked. I didn't even really know where I was going with this. Words came out of my mouth before I even had a chance to think about it.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"Kissing," I replied. Wait, what? I thought to myself. I don't wanna kiss. What am I saying?

"I thought you didn't want to learn how to kiss?" she asked, even more confused than before. She was referring to the day at the lake when me and her had a conversation about kissing.

(Flashback)

"Look, if I had to learn how to kiss, and I mean, absolutely, positively, no way out of it, no matter what, can't get out of it, had to learn how to kiss... Well then I.. I think I wanna... Learn with..."

Come on, Junior! Just say it! I thought to myself. What's the worst that could happen? ... Well, she could scream and run away. Or she could slap you then run away. All new scenarios kept popping into my head and they all ended with her running away. And I did not want that to happen. Just say it, Junior. It's really simple. You already said the sentence, just finish it off with a "you". Tell her you'd wanna learn with her! I was still debating with myself.

"Lemme guess," she said. "Debbie." She sounded kinda upset.

I said the first thing that came to me. "I don't know," which probably sounded like a yes.

(End of Flashback)

And she was right, I didn't want to learn how to kiss, not yet. But in some situation where I absolutely had to, I would definitely pick Becky.

"Well yeah, I mean no. I mean, I don't want to. But I was just saying it's the right lighting I think. And anyways, you never let me finish what I was gonna say that day at the lake." Here it goes, I thought. I'm gonna tell her.

"What do you mean?" she said, most likely trying to recall the exact conversation.

"I was about to say who I would want to learn with but you kinda cut me off," I explained. She looked at me as if to say "go on" so I continued. I scooted a bit closer to her as I began my next sentence. "I was gonna say I'd want to learn to kiss with-"

"Hey guys, what are you doing? We've been looking for you everywhere! You're missing the whole party!" Zolteck exclaimed, barging into the garage.

Maybe this is a sign that I shouldn't tell her, I thought. And with that, we both followed Zolteck back into the house to celebrate.