*Arrow*

*Chapter 4*

     It was Friday, the final period of the school day. School would be over in as little as forty-two minutes, and then I could go home and relax for the weekend. I walked into ninth period, one of the five classes I had with Sean, and sat down to the left of him, smiling pleasantly.

     "I want to ask you something," he said right off the bat.

     Sliding my books underneath my desk, I raised one eyebrow inquisitively.

     Sean paused, almost as if he was nervous. "Um, well . . . . I was wondering if you wanted to, you know, do something tomorrow afternoon." He suddenly developed an interest in his hands.

     My jaw dropped in disbelief, but I quickly closed it again.

     "If you're not doing anything, of course," he clarified.

     Archery class was on Saturday. "No. No! I'm free tomorrow, don't worry," I told him. "What do you want to do?"

     "That depends. What do you prefer?"

     Oh, man. I hated deciding things like that. "Well, we could, um . . . . " I racked my brain for possibilities, and immediately came up with one. "Oh! There's a beach a couple minutes from my house. We could go there."

     "Sound's good. Do you want me to pick you up?"

     We went over the rest of the details for our date. The beach was within walking distance from my house, so Sean was going to come to my house around seven and we would walk the rest of the way. I wrote down my address and handed it to him, and I could swear he was beaming as I did it.

     "Thanks." He took the paper from me. "See you then."

     It was pretty hard to contain my elation after that. Even though class was going on, I wanted to laugh like crazy, jump around like a maniac, and scream at the top of my lungs, all at the same time. And all because of this little fact:

     I had a date with Sean.

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     Throwing yet another useless clothing item on my bed, frustrated, I let out a dramatic groan. "Ugh! What am I going to wear?"

     It was six thirty; Sean would be here in half an hour. Just the fact that we were going on a date made my heart race, and the other fact that I couldn't decide on clothes to wear wasn't helping anything. For fifteen minutes I had been standing in front of my closet, arms crossed, putting together possible outfits in my head. None of them seemed right. 

     Did I mention how much I hate these classic girl moments?

     Tearing my eyes from the expanse of clothes in front of me, I glanced at the clock to my right, which now read 6:34. What if Sean came early, and I wasn't ready for him? What if he came late? Regardless of what time Sean arrived, I knew I had to make a decision at some point. After a minute of poking through my closet one more time, I pulled out a loose, pink shirt with a gray tank top to wear underneath and shorts. Good enough.

     At six forty-one, I was busy pacing across the living room floor where I could easily overlook the front yard. The silence enveloping the house was eerie, since my mother was at work - of course - and Jason was at his friend's house. I tried not to envision what the date would be like, whether it be good or bad, because I knew I shouldn't be getting my hopes up. With my luck, any date would never go exactly as planned.

     At five minutes to seven, the friendly chime of the doorbell echoed through the house, making my stomach do a terrified somersault. I flew down the stairs, nearly colliding with the door, and saw Sean's figure through the glass. Smoothing my hair down and tugging at my shirt, I pulled the mahogany wood door open.