Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2007 21:38:36 -0700 (PDT) From: Ashley Paul Subject: After all this time "What's Journalism?" I asked my new friend Kathy. "It's a class where you make the yearbook or newspaper. The teacher is really mean, so try to get her not to notice you", Kathy warned. I kinda listened to her, but it being the first day of 7th grade and my first year at that school, I was excited about everything and didn't pay her much mind. When it came time for us to go to electives, I walked into the journalism classroom and time seemed to freeze. She was absolutely the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I was overwhelmed with more emotions than I could have imagined. The first thing I noticed about her was the way her hair and eyes glittered and shined. She had incredible hazel eyes and her brown hair had perfect copper highlights. Luckily for me, it was only about 5 seconds that had passed before I realized I looked stupid just standing there staring. We all sat down and agreed on creating the yearbook and leaving the newspaper for the other class. First elective ended and I had to finish the rest of the day distracted by thoughts of her. The next day, I couldn't wait for that class to come again. When it did, I couldn't stop staring at her breasts. I guessed a size c-cup and I was right. The rest of the next few weeks went by like this and I quickly made friends, but could not tell any of them yet that I am Bi. During the progression of this year, my yearbook teacher Mrs. Wittington (yeah, she's married) grew to respect me as a talented writer and appointed me yearbook editor for the upcoming year. There were many times that year I just wanted to go into her ofice and have her take me then, but did not have the courage to tell her. Over the summer between 7th and 8th grades, I saw her with her daughter at a small theme park in the same county we live in once. That let me have enough memory of what she looks like to get off all summer. At orientation for my 8th grade year, I was the only one who stayed to help her sell supplies and old yearbooks. I got to spend some time with her talking to just me that meant so much more than she knew at the time. We had a new program to make the yearbook that was online and took forever to use. Since I was editor, it was my responsibility to make sure all the page were completed. I had to stay afterschool almost everyday, which made me soo happy. At my school, we had these encouraging notes the teachers wrote individually to different students they chose. She chose me every time that year, which made me feel loved. To me, I wanted this relationship to be more than physical, so I tried to remember everything she told me about herself. At the time, she loved country music and I absolutely couldn't stand it. That changed later, which I will mention later. I was also involved in the band more than I was in this class, but I managed to do both well. Towards the end of the year, the band awards ceremony took place, and I recieved the award for band student of the year. When I came down those stairs from recieving that award, she was right there to congradulate me, which made me feel on top of the world. All that year, I never told her how I felt, but that's ok. We had all of the 8th grade events and the year ended too soon. To this day, I haven't seen my bff Mandi again for reasons too complcated to explain (we still im though). I thought I had missed my chance to be with Mrs. Wittington forever, but a new hope came the next year when I volenteered to help with something for the band, because my mom was the band boosters president. This was my chance to tell her how I felt, now as a 9th grader.