Once Upon a Time~ (A Kinda Lesbian Story)

Chapter Seven

Everything was absolutely perfect. I dreamt of one day marrying Stevie and adopting children in need. I was so happy with him as my boyfriend. Even as the end of fourth grade neared, I realized that Stevie and I had still not shared a kiss. Alas, I had never particularly thought about kissing him at all. To my dismay, I realized that maybe our relationship was simply a glorified friendship. But I also knew that that was not going to be true if I had any say in it.

I devised this lovely little date to eat tacos in the city park. Our parents were very much in approval of our relationship so they would be happy to help. Everything was perfect from the small park bench to my yellow sundress, I was determined to make this all absolutely perfect. Stevie arrived in his parents van, he waved to them as they drove to the restaurant across the street to eat dinner with my parents. Stevie was wearing his nice jeans and a green collared shirt with dark blue horizontal lines acrossed it. I could not help but smile at his freckles scattered around his nose, my favorite thing about his appearance. He sat down next to me and our feast began.

After several minutes of lovely taco eating we were finished and decided to walk around the park. I told Stevie about the book I had finished the night before and he kindly listened. We stopped infront of the rose garden and I found myself mentally preparing. Did I mentally prepare for Michelle? No, that was different, that was play, I thought. Stevie's words interrupted my inner argument.

"Aly, I have to tell you something." Stevie began. I nodded for him to continue. "So my parents decided that starting next year, I am going to be homeschooled."

My jaw dropped, "What? Why? They can't! It is not because of me right?"

"No no no!" Stevie said, "It has nothing to do with you. It's just that my grades have not been the best and I really do not have any friends besides you. They think that I need a personalized study schedule to work with my problems."

Though I hated to hear it, I knew it was true. Stevie was having problems in school. He worked in the resource room for an hour everyday for personalized work but it was not enough. During class Stevie was not able to follow along as well as the rest of our class. Reading was also really hard for him as the words jumbled up on the page when he tried to read them. That was why he loved to watch me read or have me read to him. Sometimes our teacher also went too fast explaining things to him which would end up being confusing and make Stevie feel dumb. Stevie really was extremely smart and could play with numbers much better than I could, but when he began to feel dumb he would become angry. No one liked it when Stevie got angry. His face would become red and turn into purple and blue, if given time he would scream and kick, throwing the largest tantrum the world had ever seen. On days I was absent it could take as many as four paras to help him outside of the classroom into the hall. But on days I was present, I could usually give him a hug and he would settle. Reflecting on all of this, I knew it would be better for him to stay at home. He could go at his own pace, be in the comfort of his home, and have his parents ready to calm him down if his anger kicked in.

"I understand Stevie, I am going to miss you lots at school." I said. "But we can still meet at the library! I can read you more books and help you with your homeschool English class."

Stevie shook his head, "Actually, my parents say that I will be on a special online schooling plan that is centered near Denver, Colorado."

My heart skipped in my chest. "Your moving?"

"I'm sorry."

I barely remember what happened after that. We did not kiss, as I had completely forgotten about it. I was completely in shock over this news. How was he leaving? Did this mean we were over? A fear came over me that if Stevie was gone I may never have a boyfriend again.

The next couple weeks of school went by extremely quickly, though I longed for every moment to be slower. Stevie was going to move the week after school was out so I wanted to spend as much time as possible with him. But much to my dismay, school ended and all of the students were released into the world for summer vacation. On June 2nd, I was dropped off at Stevie's house to celebrate his birthday. Boxes were scattered every where and the house was in no way neat, but the company was good as Stevie, his parents, his two brothers, and myself sat at the dinning room table for a birthday supper.

After dinner, Stevie began opening presents first from his family and lastly from me. I remembered one story I had read to Stevie was about a young boy who wore a bowtie everywhere he went. Though the story had much more to it than that, Stevie kept thinking back to the bowtie. He later told me that he had never owned a bowtie and would often become distressed when he would attempt to tie one of his father's regular ties. So when Stevie opened the small box with the gold wrapping paper and peered in to see the sky blue bowtie, his eyes sparkled.

Stevie moved three days later, the family carrying all of their possessions in a large U-Haul and two mini-vans. I waved goodbye as they drove down the street not knowing that I would never see Stevie again. He was my most special boy friend. But really he was my most special friend.

That summer was, in fact, very lonely. Many days I would find myself stuck at home in the un-air-conditioned house reading some novel about goblins or wizards. I wished to be in a far away world where there were not as many standards placed on members of society. There were days I would walk around our large farm and tell myself stories, simply to pass the time. It seemed so strange that when I wished for time to slow it seemed instead to speed up and when I wished for time to speed up it would stay at a snail's pace. I did not go to town as much as I hard before because my father had lost his job when the company sold to another. He was often good company, listening to my silly, childish ideas but sometimes I just found him very distant and determined myself as better company.

My mother continued to work often and her times at home often became filled with stress as my parents fighting reached new levels everyday. My snow-white skin slowly tanned that summer from the many days outside to avoid the harsh, bullet-like words.

This was also the summer I began taking a large notebook with five-hundred sheets of lined paper outside and started to write my silly stories. Though most I can barely remember to this day, others I have retrieved from my memory and began writing again, this time with mostly correct spellings. I enjoyed the flow of the pen as I drew my imaginative stories on the thin paper. I felt as though I was an artist of words instead of color. Occasionally I would also write letters.  Sometimes to no one, other times to Stevie or to Michelle. I never sent a single letter, but I would often ponder what I would say to them if I could and I would write these things in a letter. My favorite part of writing letters was ripping them up and throwing the tiny pieces up into the air where the wind would whisk them away to far away places.

By the end of the summer, I had learned to enjoy loneliness. In some aspects the new school year approaching scared me very much. What if my bullies returned because I was no longer with a boy? What if I was unable to make new friends? All of these things ran through my head, as I walked into class on the first day of school. I planned to keep my head down, speak only when spoken too, and hopefully make it through fifth grade alive.

I had no idea that I would be soon make friends with the girl in the corner with the purple streak in her long black hair with the black gloves with holes in the fingers exposing her black painted nails.