Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2011 15:27:51 -0500 From: Miles Popper Subject: Luke and Collin This chapter is purely setup for when the story gets good in the later chapters. There is nothing sexual in this chapter, so if that is all you want, then I guess you should skip this chapter. ______________________________________________________________________ Chapter One ______________________________________________________________________ The first time I saw him was when I was a junior in high school. My eyes probably lit up like it was Christmas morning, but I don't think anyone really noticed. He was the most...well, it's pretty hard to explain. It wasn't just his shaggy blonde hair, deep blue eyes, and cute smile that won me over instantly, although that was a contributing factor. I just saw in him everything I had dreamed about...ever, and I knew he was the one. The only problem was, he was 11 at the time. This didn't exactly come as a big surprise to me or anything, I had known that I wasn't exactly "normal" for quite awhile. I had urges and desires that weren't exactly "main stream" if you want to put it that way. But how am I supposed to deny what I am, or suppress what I do not choose to feel? The first time I saw him I was just passing him on the sidewalk of my small town. I was with some friends; we were walking to our school's football game. I was surprised that I hadn't seen the kid before. My town wasn't quite the everybody knows everybody kind of place, but it was small enough that you generally recognized just about everyone, on some level at least. As much as I wanted to stop and at least ask this kid his name, as to not be stuck with this unidentified beauty in my head, I knew I couldn't. So the first time I saw him, I simply passed him, and he did indeed remain unidentified in my mind. About 4 months later, fate was evidently with me. I was trying to get involved in things that would look good on an application, since I would be a senior the next year and would have to start sending applications to colleges. I was already in some groups like National Honor Society and Spanish Club, but a friend of my family convinced me that Big Brothers Big Sisters would look really good too. I figured I could sacrifice one hour a week with a kid if it meant I could put it on an application. I didn't know it at the time, but it was going to be consuming a lot more than one hour a week. So I filled out the paperwork and everything, and it wasn't too long before I had to go to the elementary school to meet the kid I was going to be paired up with for the semester. I walked into the office to ask who I was supposed to talk to. "Hi, I was just wondering who I was supposed to talk to about the mentoring thing?" I asked the secretary who was working.. "Oh, right, you need to see Mr. Carter, he's down the hall, second door on the left." she replied. "Thanks." I said, and walked out the door towards the rooms she had specified. In there was the schools social worker, Mr. Carter, who was in charge of the program. "Are you here to meet your buddy?" he asked as I walked in. "Yep." I replied "Excellent," he began, "Well, have a seat here and we'll go over a few things. What is your name?" "Luke Johnson." I told him as I seated myself in one of the chairs in his office. He opened up a file cabinet and withdrew a few papers. "Well," he said, looking over the papers he had gotten out, "the boy you will be partnered with is Collin Douglas; he's 11 and in the 5th grade. We paired you with him because his parents are divorced, and his mother who he lives with is an alcoholic, so she isn't around a lot. Hopefully you can just be kind of supportive, since he might be having a hard time dealing with all that." "That does sound pretty harsh, but I guess that's what I signed up for. When do I get to meet him?" I asked. "I can introduce you to him now, before he leaves. He says after school for an hour several days a week to get help with math." Mr. Carter explained. We both got up, and Mr. Carter led me down the hallway towards the classrooms. When we got to the math room, I followed Mr. Carter in, and I saw him for the second time in my life. The boy, who was evidently Collin, who I had written off as someone who was probably from out of town, was going to be my buddy, if you can call it that. This was too good to be true. "Mrs. Donahue, if we could just have a minute or two, I need to introduce Collin to his new buddy." Mr. Carter said, and when he did, Collin turned around and looked me right in the face, smiling. I smiled back, really just trying to keep myself congealed since I felt like a stick of butter in the microwave. I wanted him pretty bad, but I had to keep my cool. "That's no problem." replied the teacher, Mrs. Donahue. Mr. Carter and I walked over to Collin's desk. "Collin, this is Luke, he'll be spending some time with you after school one day a week." explained Mr. Carter. "Hi." was just about all I could managed, as I stuck out my arm towards him. "Hi." he echoed my greeting back at me, and then shook my hand after pulling the sleeve of his hoodie back. It was just a bit too big for him, but if you ask me it just looked really hot on him. "Nice to meet you." "Well you two can get to know each other better when Luke comes for his first day. Right now we better let Collin get back to his math." said Mr. Carter. "Aw, I don't have to do math. Can't today be his first day?" was Collin's response to that. I wish I could have told him how much I agreed with him. "I don't think that's a very good idea at all, young man." stated Mrs. Donahue, "You have to keep that Math grade up and you aren't doing to well at the moment." So Mr. Carter and I left Collin to his math, and went back to his office to take care of a few final things before I left. It was decided that I would come every Thursday after school, which was the day that would best fit into my schedule. However, to be honest, I wasn't to happy about it. It was Friday, so I was going to have to wait six days before I really got to meet Collin. I guess I would just have six days of suspense then, wondering what was going to happen. _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Like it so far? Probably not, this chapter isn't that interesting. But I made it short, so it can't have been that bad. Anyway, I promise it will get better as the story progresses. Comments, Questions, Suggestions? Send them to milespopper@gmail.com.