Never Going Back

Chapter 3

Lunch came quicker than I had thought, and eventually I was standing with my lunch tray searching for a place to sit. I couldn't find anywhere, so I just sat in the middle of an empty table, alone. After a few minutes, I felt a presence behind me and all of the sudden a large group of hip kids sat all around me, and Devin sat directly in front of me. They were laughing and chatting, and I didn't want to bother them, so I kept eating, taking mental notes. There were 7 kids in all, 5 guys and 2 girls, who seemed to only be in the group because they were dating a guy. None of the girls were latched to Devin so I thought maybe he didn't have a girlfriend. After a while, Devin finally began talking to me. "Jules! Is it alright if I call you that? Don't worry I haven't forgotten your name" I laughed, and replied with a simple "yes". "Why aren't you with your friends?" He asked. "I don't- I don't have any. I'm new this year." "Hey same here! I only have friends because this is my cousin, Brad. I've known all these guys for a while now." Devin nudged the guy sitting next to him, who was apparently Brad. "Well if you don't find any one else to sit with, you can hang out with us" Devin said with a smile. "Yeah, we'd love to have you with us, you seemed pretty lonely. And Devin said you're cool, so you must be!" Brad joined in. I looked at Brad, and back to Devin. "I'd love to." I said with a smile.

I pulled out my backpack from my locker and began stuffing it with books, then I walked out to the bus and sat down in an empty seat. After a moment Devin came running up the stairs and sat right next to me. "Hey! Are you still up for coming over?" He asked. "Um yeah," I said grinning. For the entirety of the bus ride we discussed things we could make, and finally we agreed upon some sort of desert with marshmallows, chocolate, and chex mix cereal.

I stood up and began following Devin off the bus, and the butterflies in my stomach began to be more urgent. I hoped Devin was a classy guy. The house was big and blue, with a pretty Garden in the front, and a white swing on the porch. Devin pointed to my right at a hammock between two aspen trees. "I put that there when we moved in because I wanted a nice place to relax and listen to hard rock music." He said. I laughed, "hard rock music fits the scenery perfectly." He smiled.

"So do you still think I'm shady?" He asked. "Not at all," I replied with sarcasm. "My parents are home, if that relieves any tension." He said, and it did. He opened the front door and held it open for me, and I walked inside the beautiful house.

"Devin! You're home!" A little girl with dark brown pig tails ran up and hugged him. "Wendy, this is Julie. Please be nice to her, she's going to help me bake you a snack okay?" Wendy smiled, with matching dimples to Devin. The little girl ran up the stairs and was instantly gone. "That's my little sister, she's six" Devin said. I grinned, "she's cute," I replied.

As we entered the kitchen a tall man with brown hair and glasses entered the living room. "Devin! You brought company!" I assumed this was his Dad. "Yeah, this is Julie." He introduced me, and I shook his Dad's hand. "Very nice to meet you. Are you here for the recipe homework?" He asked. "Yes," I replied shortly.

Devin walked over to the pantry and pulled out some ingredients as I wrote them down.

•4 cups of marshmallows

•3 chocolate bars

•1 box of graham crackers

•2 cups of milk

•2 cups of strawberries

After that we began to work on how to make the meal. I melted the chocolate and stirred in the milk, as Devin chopped up the strawberries. "I was thinking that we could just make a dip and use the graham crackers as a chip." I said, still stirring the chocolate. "That's a good idea." Devin said.

Finally we melted the marshmallows and put it all in layers in a pan. On the bottom was the marshmallows, then the chocolate was drizzled over that, and the strawberries topped it all off. I walked over to my paper and began to write our recipe down.

Step 1. Break up the chocolate bars In a small bowl and microwave for 30 seconds. Then mix milk into the chocolate, and microwave for 30 second-

Devin interrupted my writing by giving me a graham cracker he had already dipped. I took a bite and moaned in delight. "Come on, don't write down the recipe just yet," he said, "we need to make another batch for the class to try. I'm pretty sure this is the next big thing," he took another bite in utter delight.

Another batch of the graham cracker dip later, Wendy was called down to enjoy our recipe. Soon, Devin's mom came home from work and was introduced to me. She was very pretty with blonde hair and clear skin. She was the one who gave the kids their dimples.

we all sat there and enjoyed the mixture until the first pan was completely gone. I wrapped up the second pan with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge. "You can warm it up with the oven before school tomorrow," I said. Devin smiled at me. "Do you want to be walked home? It's not far, and I can take you." He said. "It's fine, I'll go on my own, thank you so much for letting me come over," I said to his parents. His dad grinned at me and said "you're welcome here anytime,"

I opened the front door with my backpack on. And sat down on the stair once I was alone. I began to cry, it had been coming for quite some time. I don't cry often, but when I saw how much of a family Devin had, it killed me. The only person I had was my delusional grandpa, and he barely remembered my name.

The door opened and I quickly wiped off my tears. Devin sat next to me silently as the sun began to set over the horizon. We had complete serenity for a few minutes before he broke the quietness. "Are you okay?" He asked, looking at me. I kept my head down, not looking up. "Yeah," I replied. Suddenly I felt his arms wrap around me, as he embraced me in a hug. I turned and hugged him back. It was the first real hug I'd had since I left my home town. We didn't let go for a long time and when we finally did, he reached over and wiped a tear from my face. "Whatever it is, it will be okay. You made a really good friend today, and when you feel like telling me you can. Now let's bring you home."

That was the kindest thing anyone had said to me since the accident.