13 year olds Alyssa and Celeste were sitting in the food court at the mall, reading new purchased books over cups of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Alyssa was gnawing on her lip as she read, completely focused on the words in front of her. Amazingly, Celeste and her best friend were completely different, but totally compatible, and for some reason, it worked. A strand of artificial black hair fell in front of Alyssa's eyes and she pushed her glasses onto the top of her head, holding the hair in place.

Celeste, her blonde hair tied up as it always was when she ate, picked at her ice cream, and then turned the page of her book. Alyssa looked up.

"How do you read with dyslexia?"

Celeste shrugged. "It's just harder," she muttered, not even looking up from her book. It was a tradition of the girls to spend Saturday at the mall, go to a movie, buy a new book, read it in the food court over ice cream, and then go over to one of their apartments and spend the night.

"Whoa," Alyssa whispered, staring at something over Celeste's shoulder. "Check him out."

Celeste turned and noticed the boy walking towards Border's. Alyssa grinned.

"Come on. Let's go."

She stood before her friend could stop her and Celeste reluctantly followed. Alyssa slipped back inside the bookstore, casually glancing at books and then back at the boy who must've been at least two years older than them. He was tall, but only about an inch or two taller than the two already taller-than-average-girls. Dirty blonde hair was falling in his eyes as he headed towards the back of the store.

"Where are we going?" Celeste hissed to her friend.

"Come on! He'll notice us eventually."

Alyssa noticed the boy stopped around the Mystery/Thriller section and ran a hand down the newest James Patterson book. She grinned and kept walking, stopping one row in front of him. She leaned close to her friend. "Say something to him?"

Celeste blushed. "Me? Why?"

"Well, isn't he cute?"

"Um, yeah, but he's in high school!"

"So? Flirting is harmless!"

Celeste still looked skeptical, but she kept glancing at the boy. He had headphones in his ears and was gazing intently at the books as if searching for something specific. Rolling her eyes, Alyssa walked around the aisle, glancing at the books. The boy glanced at her. He had blue eyes. Alyssa smiled.

"Hi, there," she said.

"'Sup?"

"Nothing much. What are you listening to?"

"Boys Like Girls."

Alyssa grinned, looking at Celeste. "My friend Celeste loves that band, don't ya, Celeste?"

Celeste blushed. "Um, yeah, I guess so."

The boy smiled at her. "Cool."

"Ya know, Celeste, I hafta go check out some book in the Young Adult section. Why don't you talk to…"

"Simon."

"Simon about the band, and…stuff."

Alyssa gave her best friend a little finger wave and walked off. Simon smirked at Celeste. "Great friend. Leaving you high and dry with a strange boy."

"Eh, you're not so strange."

He smiled. "Good to know. So, where do you go to school?"

"Mason Middle."

"Ah, I'm corrupting you." At her confused look, he continued. "I'm a sophomore."

"Oh. Well…" Celeste bit her lip. "Maybe you could help me out with this whole high school thing. I'm going to Goode next year—"

"I go there. Maybe we'll see each other around campus next year."

Celeste nodded, sure she was blushing.

"Well, I have a swim meet there next Saturday. Maybe if you'd stay late I could show you around campus so you don't feel totally ignorant when you get there next year."

"That'd be awesome."

He walked around the shelf as if just realizing they had only been looking at each other's faces for the last two minutes. Not hesitating, he grabbed her hand—forcing a deeper blush from Celeste—and a pen from his pocket. He wrote down a 7 digit number.

"Call me, okay?"

She nodded. "Um, yeah."

He winked at her and walked back around the shelf to grab a book. "See ya around…Celeste."

"Bye…Simon."

Alyssa chose that moment to reappear, squealing. "Yes! You got his phone number! OMG, when we go to Abby's birthday party next week you are SO calling him, and—"

"Alyssa!" she hissed. Her best friend stopped and turned, noticing that Simon was now still watching them, smirking.

"Whoops."

A/N: Review, please:) Also, we'll be seeing more of both Simon and Alyssa in the future… :)

Love,

E. M. Zeray