Beside Me

Chapter One

I first met Anna May in the fourth grade. I was standing waiting for the bus and I saw her walk by with her big sister. From the very beginning, I thought she was the prettiest girl I'd ever seen. I called to her right then, but she didn't hear me and kept walking. I rode to school thinking about nothing but her.
To my luck, Anna turned out to be in my homeroom, and when I walked through the door she was the first person I saw. I walked right up to her and put both of my hands on her desk. She looked up at me from the "back-to-school" project she was working on.
"Hi," I said. "What's your name?"
She blushed. "Anna May."
I was fascinated. "Like anime the Japanese tv?"
"Yeah . . ." She looked embarrassed but I couldn't understand why.
"I love it." Then I had gasped because I remembered that my mom always told me to introduce myself. "Oh, my name's Harold."
Anna smiled. "I like that name."
"Oh, I don't know, I think it's kind of dull. It'd be cool to have a name like yours because yours is so pretty. But I'm a boy so Anna May isn't the kind of name I should have. But it's a good name for you. It's a beautiful name."
Then she had grinned and I, feeling overly proud of myself, had taken it a step further. "You're beautiful," I had said earnestly.
She looked down. "Thanks, but I'm not," she replied quietly.
"Yes, you are."
"I'm not."
"You are."
"I see myself every day and I know I'm not."
"I'm seeing you right now and I know you are."
Then she had slapped me and I had shrieked and the teacher came over and asked what we were doing and I yelled that she had slapped me and the teacher frowned at Anna, who replied that she had only done it because I had called her beautiful.
The teacher had looked quite confused and had asked why it was that Anna felt she had to slap me just for calling her beautiful.
"Because I'm not," Anna said.
"She is," I said.
"You are," the teacher glanced at Anna's nametag, "Anna."
"Don't call me Anna," Anna said. "That's only for my best friends."
"Then what--"
"My full first name is Anna May. Call me that." She added, "Please."
"Okay, Anna May. You are beautiful."
I felt ignored and pushed between them. "She is, teacher, tell her she is! And I said it first!"
Then Anna told me to shut up and I stamped my foot and the teacher laughed and said, "You two are going to be in love someday," and Anna said that was gross and I said I already was and the teacher answered "I know."