When It Makes Perfectly Illogical Sense

Chapter 1

Her wavy, light-brown hair, sat just below her shoulders, and her boisterous grey eyes told me I was going to be seeing lots more of her around. It was the first time the two of us had ever interacted, or even seen each other. I was putting up flyers advertising guitar lessons. My music teacher at school had told me to stick them up in the local library and at the community centre just down the street from Meadow Ridge High. He loved to teach acoustic guitar and didn't want to be pinned to one place. Since I was his best student, he asked me to do him the favour. And I'm lucky I did it.

The girl with the grey eyes was nothing I'd ever seen before. She wasn't overly pretty, but I actually found her quite attractive. It was something about the vibe she gave off. Like, I know I'm different and everyone's going to have their opinions of me. And that's fine. I mean, her style was different. A black mini skirt, and a form fitted, white t-shirt, paired with a stack of gypsy-looking jewellery. She was putting pins in her flyers which, if I looked closely, were promoting an art club. I continued sticking up mine, occasionally glancing up to catch another second's worth of the surprisingly captivating stranger. We were gravitating towards each other, and before I knew it, we were standing side by side. From this distance, I noticed she had two freckles near the bottom of her cheeks. One on the right side of her face, and one on the left. She was finding a spot to put her last flyer and I was just stuck there, unsure of what to do. I fumbled with my stack of guitar advertisements and tried to appear busy. She smiled, as if she could see what was going on inside my head.

"Oh, dang it," I said, no other words coming to mind. "Looks like you took the last spot on the billboard." She reached up to take the ad down. "Wait, no. I didn't mean you had to move it."

"You sound like you're having a hard time making up your mind," she said. I blushed. Then when I realized, I tried to hide it.

"Sorry," I said. "What I'm saying is, you can keep your flyer up. I'll find somewhere to put mine." She nodded, then lent on the wall. Her eyes seemed to get a spark in them.

"So, guitar lessons? Do you teach?"

"No, I'm actually putting these up for my music teacher," I said, looking at the papers in my hand. "I play, though." She got a weird look on her face, as if she was analysing me.

"Electric, acoustic?" she asked.

"Acoustic," I said. She stood up a bit straighter.

"I've always loved the sound of an acoustic guitar."

I gave her a flyer. "You can check out Richard's offers. He teaches me." She took it from me.

"I don't think I'd have time. I have commitments at the Art Club," she said.

"Do you run it?" I asked.

"I'm the vice president. But the lady in charge is lovely." She seemed to enjoy talking about the art club, so I asked her as many questions as I possibly could. After telling me how long she'd been attending and what types of projects they did, I asked her the inevitable question.

"Are you good?" I asked. "At art?"

"I think so," she said. "But there's always room for improvement." I tilted my head at her, every word coming from her mouth interested me. She smiled again and looked over her shoulder.

"I guess I better be going." The moment we shared was never going to let me live in peace again. I would see her soon; I was sure of it. I'd search all over for her if I had to.

"Dallas, you good?" asked James, one of the guys whose locker was next to mine.

"Yeah, I'm... great." I was more than great. I was fabulous. The happiest I'd been since I started school, back when I was four years old. I was a new person. The bell rang and I got my things for first period. I had an elective first. Music. At Meadow Ridge High, once you were in tenth grade, you had free rein on most of your subjects. Since I was in eleventh grade, I could pick four electives. So, I was doing Music, Digital Technologies, Italian, and Extension Math. I also had to do my core subjects, such as English and Geometry. I quite liked my classes, especially Music. I'd been playing guitar since primary school and hadn't been able to put it down. There was no one who I could share my music obsession with, though.

Creating my own tunes and listening to Spotify had always taken top priority for me. I'd never been very social with the people in my grade. I guess I rarely thought I needed friends. That led to spending most of my time in the Music room, wasting time on the music apps they had set up. I mean, I had acquaintances who I'd walk around with at recess and lunches. They were just hard to get along with. Like when I'd say a joke, they would pretend to laugh, but I knew it was forced. I suppose they had no humour. And the girls at Meadow Ridge High... They're like a whole different species! They flirt and hold onto my arms like they do in the movies, but they don't want me. They just want my good looks. Any guy would be happy to have pretty girls hanging off them, but I'm not 'any guy'. Okay, that sounded self-absorbed, but that's not what I meant. I just wanted someone to like me for my personality. My quirks and the little things that made me, me. Can you blame me?

So, when I met the girl at the community centre, I felt as if my dream was about to become possible. She looked at me like I was a normal person. Like she'd seen many guys like me before. And I don't know why, but that was a relief.

That's me. Dallas Moore.