In All Shapes and Sizes

Chapter One

IAN

They say that love comes in all shapes and sizes. I always thought that love would be the size of 5'7" and have the shape of watermelons. But life is full of surprises. I never thought that I'd be thrown on my back as if I was a feather either. And by a girl two feet smaller than me no less!

My god, it was humilating. Not only did she land blow on my side, it also felt like a punch to my pride as a man. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start the story with one year ago. When my life was changed by her.

                                              _____________________________________

"Dude, you gotta help me!" Jacob was hanging on my right shoulder trying to get my attention. "She listens to you! Tell her to get off my case." He pointed to Sophie who was pointing a finger accusingly at him.

"Don't hide behind Ian, like that!" She exclaimed, "Stop being lazy and do your homework already, before the teacher gets back! And I do not listen to everything he says! Just because he's my cousin doesn't mean I have to listen to him!"

Jacob stuck his tongue out at her. I sighed, "Real mature man!" I said, "just do your homework." Jacob reluctantly sat down at his desk. Sophie followed him and slammed his homework down.

"Now work!" She exclaimed and started towards her desk at the front of the room.

BONK!

I looked over towards the door to see a little girl on the floor and a classmate standing above her. He apologized to the little girl when the teacher appeared. They tried to help her up, but she just glared at them and pushed herself to her feet.

What's with the little girl, I thought, who is she?

"-bathroom." The teacher was talking to the student and then he ran out of the room. She and the girl walked over to the desk next to me, "Ian, this is Nina. She's a new student starting today. Could you help her out and show her where to go for her classes?" I looked at her as if to say, 'really? This little girl is in high school?!' She legitimately looked like a seventh grader, not a senior in high school.

Nina sat down next to me and Ms. Hemingway went up to the front of the room. "Everyone, we have a new student today," she said gesturing to Nina, "please make her feel as welcome as possible."

Everyone looked at Nina. She was tiny. It looked like she was half my size. I am 6'4" so of course anyone would look small compared to me. But Nina looked like she would be shorter than Sophie and she's only 5'2".

Everyone's attention was on her throughout class. She had long, wavy, dirty-blonde hair. When I got a better look at her face, I noticed that she had soft features. Her nose was short and rosy. If it wasn't for the look on her face that said, 'stay away from me' She would be almost cute. Of course, me being stupid, I just had to talk to her.

"How tall are you?" I knew it was the stupidest question I had ever asked. She glared at me. If looks could kill, she would be a murderer.

"Shut up!" Her voice was surprisingly low considering how small she was. She clenched her fists. It looked like she was going to pounce on me and try to beat me with her fists. Not that I'd ever let her. I was the president of the martial arts club and best in my tae kwon do class. She wouldn't be able to lay a finger on me.

Lucky for me, she decided not to pounce. Instead, another idiot started talking to her. She ignored him completely.

Class finally ended. I asked her if she needed help finding her classes, but she ignored me.

Don't blame me if you get lost, I thought and headed to my next class. The day was quite uneventful. Little Nina was in my 4th and 7th period classes as well. But I guess she got lost because by the time, she got to class, she was with a teacher and it was almost halfway through the class.

 She didn't talk to me and I didn't talk to her. But that didn't stop all of the other idiots in class to ask her how tall she was. They were all victims of her spine-chilling glare and then were ignored.

The bell rang throughout the school and the halls were filled with students and back packs. A smile crossed my face. It was Thursday, my first tae kwon do session of the week.