Dont forget.

Chapter 3

Shocked and confused, I didn't know what to do.

"Oh ok." I said trying not to stumble on my words. I sat in the seat beside him and looked at my map some more.

Ten minutes later our homeroom teacher was walking us to her classroom. She assigned us by alphabetical order. I sat by a girl. She had long straight red hair, with the bluest eyes you could imagine. Since we had to stay in homeroom for two hours, so the teacher could tell us the rules and how things work around Crenshaw High, I started to talk to girl that was sitting next to me.

"Hey, I'm Natasha."

"Nice to meet you Natasha, I'm Melody." she said shyly. I forced myself not to stare at Hale the whole time. He sat in front of me, so all I could see was the back of his head. At first when I saw him, I thought I was crazy. But then I looked at him again for a quick second and he had those same piercing green eyes and that same effect, but no scars. Maybe he used really good concealer, or maybe, like I said, I was crazy. It was probably all the nervousness from being at a new school.

"So are you new here, like to this town, 'cause I haven't seen you in any of the middle schools. Trust me, I would know you if I saw you." Melody said as my train of thought crashed into nothingness disappearing, and coming back to reality.

"Oh no, you're right, I'm new. I just moved here from Morris, New Jersey." I said as the bell finally rang.

"Oh ok, well I'll see you tomorrow in homeroom." she said as she left the classroom waving. I waved back, and took out my map for guidance, again. So far I was in my last class, my seventh block class, art.

I've always loved art. Everybody sees it in a different perspective. And it's refreshing to hear another voice in the picture other than my own. I started painting when I was three years old. Well, I could only draw stick figures until the third grade when I found a book about how to draw. It was the best ever. Ever since then I've submitted my work to the town photography class and I've always won first place. Hopefully this school will accept my talent. I had to have no distractions. If I did, I couldn't create a "master piece", Kellie Carter, the judge in the art contests, would call my work.

For the first ten minutes of class the teacher was talking to us about the rules and assignments that we had to do throughout the school year, when suddenly Hale walked in.

"Sorry Mrs. China, but I had to run some errands for my homeroom." he looked straight at her, not even glancing anywhere else.

"Well alright then Hale, have a seat across Mrs...." she glanced at her notebook and called out my name. "Essence, she will be your art partner for the year."

"Yes, ma'am" Hale said as he sat in one of the easels in front of me. He winked and sat down.

***

I was waiting for Lin to pick me up after school when Hale stood beside me and started to talk to me.

"Natasha right?" he said as he took out his head phones.

"Yeah, it's Natasha. But you can call me Nat, if you want." I said a too fast. I looked at him; his eyes were fixed on mine, when my cell phone rang. I took my eyes off of his, and took my phone out of my purse. It was Lin, of course.

"I have to take this" I said.

"That's okay. I'll wait." What did he mean by wait? He had something to tell me, well he better have something to tell me, he was the man of my dreams after all.