Written in the Notes

Chapter One

Have you ever met that one person that you just feel connected to? That person you just feel drawn to. That person that makes you think destiny exists. That when you walk into a room full of people you don't know, and your eyes land on them and you know they are the reason why you're in that room. That you know they mean something to you before you even know their name. For me that was Ki.

I first saw Ki at fourteen. It was the summer right before middle school. I had ridden my bike to the library like I had the hundreds of times before. Usually, I would curl up on a chair in the corner of the library in the non-fiction area, I was less likely to be bothered while I read. But that day, I felt drawn to the stacks of fiction. I was roaming the shelves; not really knowing what I was looking for. I pulled a book off the shelf. One that I had read a dozen times before. I looked up from the book in my hands and to my right after I had felt someone pass. The girl looked over her shoulder back at me. Our eyes connected and I just knew she was the reason I broke my routine. The girl had long black hair swept over one shoulder. She was wearing a grey long sleeve and jeans. A backpack hanging off one shoulder and a violin case in her other hand. Her eyes were the brightest of blue.

The girl had paused mid-step and give me a shy half smile. Her eyes drifted to the book in my hands then back up to my eyes. I was going to say something; I didn't know what but I would have said just about anything if someone hadn't said what I assumed was her name. The women from the study room called the girls name again. She looked at the older woman who called her and said coming. Then looked back at me before walking into the study room. I smiled shamelessly to myself as I looked at the book in my hands. I can remember it so vividly now. How that one shy half smile made my heart explode.

I didn't check out that book that day. But I know she did. I saw her balancing the book in her hand while she was trying to juggle her violin and backpack while struggling to open the door to the car she was trying to get into. Once she was in the car, she saw me by my bike and I could make out a faint blush. I guess she had watched me put the book back on the shelf after all. That one fact made me feel like I was soaring.

We had never actually said anything to each other that summer. But we did silently book trade. I would wait by the shelf every Friday and Tuesday that summer with a book in my hand and make sure she saw me with it. Granted I knew she was looking for it but still. Then leave it in that same spot I left the first book. She would put a book in the window outside the study room on her way in. It was strange really but I loved reading what she left me. I always made sure to read it from cover to cover and if it was a series, I would finish it. No matter how long it was, or even if I had read it before or literally anything else. I just made sure to read everything she left for me that summer.

School was the last place I had expected to run into her. Let alone have multiple classes together. Honestly though we didn't say anything to each other until the third week of middle school. I had finally had enough and asked if I could sit next to her at lunch despite there being plenty of room elsewhere. Despite my elementary friends having a table already only a few feet away; a table that had plenty of room. She gave me the brightest smile I had ever seen. Even now nothing can compare to it.

"I'm Sam "I offered my name up as I settled next to her.

"Ki" From that day forward I had nearly every lunch with her where we talked about anything and everything.

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But that was years ago. Now we are 17 and in our junior year of high school. Where we still eat our lunch together. I laid back on the concrete edge of the planter and put my head in Ki's lap. Throwing my arm over my eyes dramatically and letting out a sigh.