Part 1

The story starts out with an innocent 14 year old teenager, walking to her new school, in her new uniform. She had beautiful, almost sparkling green eyes. She had a small nose that every girl would envy for. Medium sized lips had shown from under her nose. Her hair was thick and brown with natural red highlights, smoothly coming to have themselves be admired. Since it was spring, she wore the summer version of the uniform. It was made up of a white short-sleeved shirt with blue cup link-like sleeve folds; showing a same blue color, a collar with a thin yellow line coming from the center. Even though there was a collar, there was no tie. It worked anyway, she could never find out how to tie it right. The other half of the uniform was her black, slightly above the knee, skirt. The rest of her had her small black book bag over shoulder, with her brown casual-dress-like shoes, with crew white socks. She flipped open her cell phone to see the time. “I am kinda early,” she said to herself, in a quiet voice. She flipped it shut. “Well, it’s a normal reaction for a new student, on their first day here. I do fell kinda nervous though. Hmm….I wonder how my first day will go….”1

Not five minutes later, she reached to the new school open gates. As she walked through, she pulled out a piece of paper from her book bag pocket. “Hmm…Class 3 Room B, huh? Sounds a little confusing if you ask me. The school’s way of organizing is complicated, but it’s not for me to decide, so…,” she cut off. “The school also is like, a whole three stories. Maybe each class has their own floor? I’ll go and see.” She walked into the doorway of the school. Exploring the halls and looking for stairs, she looked for her classroom. Hallway after hallway, doorway after doorway, up stairs after more up and down stairs, she tried to remain calm. Then she found a bench in a hallway she passed eight times already and sat down. She pulled out a small map of the school and looked in it. It was a very detailed map that identified everything down to where all the water fountains were. She put the map down to her lap. “There’s no way…,” she said. She stood up quickly and had her hands up above her head. “There’s no way I’ll find Class 3 Room B!” she yelled. Suddenly, there was the sound of a doorknob turning, from her left. She turned her head and saw a woman in a long white coat with pockets, glasses, and long brown hair in a ponytail. “Huh? What was that noise I heard?” she said in a quiet voice. The teenager was frozen, from embarrassment. The woman then noticed the girl. “Oh, you must be the new student. Having trouble I see. Don’t worry, during my first time, I needed the janitor’s help.” The woman walked towards the girl. “I’m Mrs. Hander and you?” she waited for a response. The girl composed herself. “Um…I’m Alley.” Alley looked down from self-humiliation. Mrs. Hander put her hands on her hips. “Well Alley, can I help you get to where you wanna get to? Obviously yes, but I was asking to be polite. Now where is it that you are going to?” Alley handed her the piece of paper of her room, since she couldn’t get herself to make words. The teacher took it. “Class 3 Room B,” she read out loud. “Oh, you got Miss Celley’s class. She’s a normal teacher, but she is nice.” She gave the paper back to Alley. “Her classroom is up that flight of stairs and her room is the fifth one to the right,” she said pointing toward the hallway. Alley walked down the hallway and saw. There was a doorway to stairs in the wall down the hall. She ran back to here the teacher was, but couldn’t find her. “Huh? Where did she go?” She turned around to go up the stairs, but then Mrs. Hander was right there. “Boo!” she said. Instinctively, Alley jumped back and made a lame martial arts position. That made the teacher laugh out loud. “Ha-ha! Sorry, my bad. I wanted to give a new kid a scare, but I guess I over did it.” Alley composed herself, yet again. She just walked by her silently and headed toward the stairs.2

Once she was upstairs, she walked down the hallway and counted the doorways. “One…two…three…four…and…,” she whispered and stopped in front of the door. There as a sign above the door saying ‘Class 3 Room B.’ She put her hand on the doorknob and started turning it. “Five,” she quietly said to herself. 3

She opened the door with her eyes closed to try and surprise herself. The door was wide open and she stood there, eyes still closed. Then she heard a noise in the background. It sounded like a brush, sweeping something. She opened her eyes to see where it was coming from. She saw a whole classroom of desks, facing giant chalkboards. To the east were big windows with morning sunlight shining through. Under the windows were counter tops. In the front of the class, facing away from her, was a young boy with very dark brown hair, in the male version of the uniform (just like the girls’ only they had black pants). He was sweeping the floor. Then the door hit the wall and made a small bump noise. The guy looked up and turned his head from his left. “Hell-,” Alley started. But then she stopped when she saw the rest of the boy’s face. She jumped back from surprise, because he had a scar on his eye that look as if it got sliced through. His eye remained closed. 4

Alley felt guilty for what she just did and wanted to make up for it. She fully stepped back into the room and gave a warming smile, closed her eyes, and cocked her head to the side. “Sorry about that, I just got surprised, mainly since there is someone in here,” she said politely, opening her eyes, straightening her neck, but still smiling. “And, uh…,” she paused. “My eye…,” the boy said in a slightly high baritone voice. “No, don’t worry about it. It’s how everyone reacts to it…when they see it for the first time…,” he looked back and finished sweeping.5

There was a long pause. The pause lasted only for about 45 seconds, but it felt like ten minutes or so. “So…,” Alley interrupted the pause. The boy was emptying the dust pan into the trash can. Only his left side showed, and his eye glanced over to her. “Um…So, you sweep in here? So…that’s like a class rule or something? Cause – “6

“No, it isn’t,” he interrupted her. “I do it voluntarily, but I don’t even know if anyone would notice though. The teacher can be ditzy at times and not even notice why her classroom is so clean and we have students in here that always make messes and such.” He put the broom and dust pan into a closet that Alley didn’t notice yet. “Hmm…that’s weird,” Alley said looking down, calm. “Huh? You saying I’m weird for cleaning? Listen I-,”he cut off, feeling irritated and thinking he didn’t need and argument in the morning. He sighed. Alley looked up quickly and had her hands out with her palms facing out and moving them from together and apart quickly, indicating hat she was misunderstood. “No, no, I mean, why would people not notice? People may not always get an award for doing a good thing. But people should at least know that.” The boys walked up to her, about two feet apart. “Oh…well sorry about that. I’m fast to...conclusions…and I have a bad temper,” he said slowly, guilty. He looked down, then up. “By the way,” he continued, “MY name is Jason Clover. My friends call me Jake…well…ex-friends…” He looked down again, lost in thought. “Hmm…,” Alley hummed. Jason looked up. “Ah? What?” Alley looked straight to his face. “Well…At first site, you look scary and intimidating - .” Jason looked down, squinted eyes, - “But,” she said importantly, closing her eyes for a moment and reopening them gracefully. “You are caring, kind, and not all that scary. And I’ve only known you for a very short time,” she said kindly and smiled. Jason’s eyes were wide open in surprise. He started to turn pink and turned around before Alley could see. “Ah, Jason?” she said innocently. “Oh, wait! I almost forgot.” She stepped back in front of him to talk to him face to face. He finally got rid of his blush and looked at her face. “I’m Alley, nice to meet you.” She gave a small smile, barely showing her teeth. Jason didn’t now what to say so he just replied as, “Nice to meet you too.” Alley started to shift her weight from let to leg, looking anxious. Jason was bewildered. “Uh…what?” he finally said. “Um…this is kinda embarrassing,” she said, still shifting her weight. “Can you tell me where…?”7

Jason was at the doorway pointing down the hall. Alley was in the hallway. “The bathroom is down that hall, you take a left, and then you can find it. You can’t miss it. And if you do, if you find a water fountain, you passed the bathroom a long ways.” Alley nodded during his directions, and started jogging down the hall. “Thank you, Jake!” She waved smiling and walking backwards to speak and turned back around. Jason blushed from the sudden call. Once she was around the corner, he put his hand to his forehead and walked back into the classroom. A small smile was trying to form, but he tried to fight it by a force of habit. He stepped back to the counters and leaned on it; looked behind him to the window. “Alley…huh?”8

By the time Alley got back, by her surprise, most of the classroom was already in there. She scanned the room for Jason and saw him in the back of the classroom and started walking to him. He saw her coming and looked up, brightened face. But then a girl stepped in front of her. She had short brown hair with her bangs held back with a green hair clip and green eyes. “Hey, are you the new student that I heard about?” she asked. Before Alley could answer, the girl already spoke again. “You are! I know it! And you in our class! That’s just cooler!” Alley remained silent. “Oh! Sorry. My name is Sofi. Nice to meet you!” She finally stayed silent. “Uh…I was gonna talk to Jake - ,” Alley started. “Oh, I wouldn’t if I were you. He’s an ex-gang member. Some think that he still is, but I don’t know. You see that scar don’t cha? Well that’s proof that he isn’t to be trusted. Fighting like that, it’s to be expected, and - .”9

As Sofi went on, Alley looked at Jason and he was looking down. She felt guilty. Then there was a hand waving in front of her face. “Hey are you even listening to me?” Sofi said. “Huh,” Alley looked back. “Geez…I said, how did you know Jason’s nickname?” Sofi said partly annoyed, not even knowing how annoying she really is. “Oh, I - ,” she started, but then the bell rang. “Oh, we need to sit down; the teacher should be here soon. You better sit down. There’s a seat next to me, you can sit there.” Sofi started walking to her seat around the middle of the class. Alley felt she had no choice but to follow her, so she did.10

Finally, the teacher, Miss Celley, walked in the door. She had a small binder in her hand. She had a crème formal jacket, light green t-shirt and a jacket-matching skirt to her knees. She reached her desk and said, “Hello everyone, and good morning.” She opened the binder and started to look through it. After a while she shut it with one hand on the spine and set the binder on her desk. “Today class, we have a new student. Everyone say hi to…Alley.” She reached her hand out pointing to Alley. She froze. “Don’t be shy,” the teacher said, “Come up here and introduce yourself to the class.”11

Alley slowly stood up and walked to the front of the class. She had her hands held behind her back and looked to the floor, shy. “Uh…hello…everyone. I’m Alley…Salm. But anyone can just refer to me by my first name.” She remained looking down. She looked up, long enough to see where Jason was sitting. He was in the back, last desk, in the row closest to the window. HE was looking at her as if he never saw her before. From that she looked down, sad that he would look at her like that.12

The day went by slowly at times and faster at other times. Unlike most junior or high schools, they mainly stayed in one room; until the last class, where they had physical Education.13

In this school’s P.E. classes, classmates are given clothes to wear for the classes. It’s a demand thing to prevent improper clothes from being shown. It also helped people who wouldn’t know where to go to get clothes. So the assigned clothes were reasonable.14

It was warm, so all of the classmates had white shirts with blue straps at the end of the sleeves. The shorts were slightly different. Everyone had a vote during a time and so the boys decided on blue baggy-like shorts to their knees, and the girls had not-that-tight same blue shorts to their knees. They were all the same length, to the knees. The voting had the girls have longer shorts so there wouldn’t be a chance of molesting or sexual harassment from any boys.15

Today they were doing uni-sex relay races (since during sometimes, it was separated, this was also surveyed). Everyone was at the started line, a couple of them stretching to get ready. Alley was just standing awkwardly in the background, not getting attention from anyone. Miraculously, even Sofi stopped talking to her. Apparently, she doesn’t like it when people aren’t talking back, even though she never lets anyone reply. Alley looked around and saw Jason in the back of the crowd, crossed arms. She started to walk to him, but then the teacher came back. Miss Celley was wearing the same as what the girls were wearing, but only she had a baseball cap over her head, and her blond long hair in a ponytail coming out of the back of the cap. She also had a clip board and a whistle around her neck. “Ok guys, today we’re racing. I put everything into random order so you don’t now who your up against or if it’s a girl or boy. Most of you know the rules, but I’ll just quickly explain it to Alley. To make it easier, I’ll show her by having the first two people go up. Now…,” she brought the clip board to read it. “First up are Sofi and Hoze,” she said his name with no enthusiasm. She turned to Alley. “This might be done differently then what I expected.” Alley didn’t understand. Sofi walked up to the starting/ finishing line slowly, even she knew what was going to happen. Then from the crowd came a little Latino boy with short, black curly hair. He didn’t even look like everybody else’s age area. He looked like he would be twelve at most. He also looked very fragile. Slowly, he walked to the starting point, but also seemingly hesitantly. “Did you remember your inhaler this time, Hoze? ‘Cause we don’t want what happened last time to happen again,” Miss Celley said in a tone. He put his hand in his pocket and brought out a small inhaler. “Yeah!” he said in a childish voice. He pulled something else out in his other pocket. “I also have a shot to take too!” again, sounding child-like. “Um…shouldn’t you have given that to the nurse?” Hoze froze. She put her hand on her forehead, practically, smacking her head. “Never mind…just…just get ready to race.” Hoze put his things back into his pockets and got ready for the relay. Alley could clearly see why Miss Celley reacted the way she did. “How can he not stab himself with that syringe?” she thought to herself. She sighed, not really wanting to know that answer.16

The race was about to begin. Miss Celley was beside the starting line and had her whistle in front of her mouth. “Ok then, on your mark…get set…,” she blew the whistle. Sofi took a strong lead and left Hoze in the dust. He started running, but it was like jogging, or fast walking. Miss Celley quickly went by Alley and started talking fast. “You see Alley, all you have to do is run around the track one time and I time you later. If you beat someone in a race, that gives you bonus points, that’s all about the race, so, it’s about time.” Alley paused. “Huh?” Then a thump noise broke. Alley looked over and saw Hoze on the ground. He was sitting and repeatedly took breaths from his inhaler. “Oh,” she said, unimpressed. “Hey, Alley, would you do me a favor and take him to the nurse’s office. Your actually one of the last ones on the list, so you have some time,” Miss Celley said. Alley nodded to her and ran to Hoze to take him to the nurse. Once she got him up, he fell unconscious. So Alley put his arm around her neck and would carry him like that. Since he was so fragile, it wasn’t so hard to carry him. When she turned around, she realized something. She didn’t know where the Nurse’s office was. Slowly, she turned around to tell her that, but then she saw the teacher talking to Jason; once they finished, he walked to her.17

“Eh?” she said. He was trying to fight a smile since he knew how embarrassed she was. “I told her that I would come with you so you wouldn’t loose your way back here,” he said in a stern, cool voice. Alley saw that his eyes said clearly ‘serious and intimidated.’ She just turned around and headed for the school building, Jason following her. 18

Alley had already laid Hoze into a nurse bed and talked to the nurse. She is used to this since it happens everyday. Alley wasn’t surprised. During the time, Jason was leaning against the wall with crossed arms. Once they were sure that Hoze will be fine, they headed back for P.E. 19

Down the hall, Alley and Jason were being quiet. Alley was gonna say something, but Jason had already started talking. “Alley, I’ve been thinking, and I don’t think we should hang out.” Alley looked up at him, confused. “Why? You’re my first friend.” He sighed. “You heard what Sofi said; I used to be a gang member. The gang I used to be in is also trying to get me back into joining the gang again. They said I as good fighter. I tell them I don’t wanna, and they call me a baby. So, you don’t know it, well, not really anyone knows it, but everyday. I have to walk home. They always meet back up with me there and fight me to try to force me to join back in. So I’m forced to fight them, against my will, and I come home bleeding and with bruises…” Alley got mixed feelings. “Your parents must get made,” she said, not knowing exactly what to say. “Humph,” Jason replied. Alley looked up. “Don’t tell me… there’s something about your parents…?” She paused waiting for Jason to reply. “My parents abandoned me when I was twelve. They just left the house and never came back. I’m happy for that, since they abused me and hated me…,” he stopped, stopped talking and walking. He heard sniffling from behind him. Jason looked back and saw Alley starting to cry. He quickly went back to her. “What’s wrong?” he asked in a soft tone. “You…your parents…just…sad…,” Alley could manage to say. She started to bring her hands to her face and crouched down toward the floor. He crouched down to talk to her. “Why are you crying? Not that, but…for me…?” he asked as if asking himself. Alley could barely speak between tears. “It’s sad. What…you have to deal with day in and day out.” Jason looked shocked. “I’ve never had a person cry when I tell then a part my life…,” he said quietly. “And that’s not all of it…” Alley grabbed Jason and started to cry on his shoulder. “Hey…,” he started. “We have to get back. The teacher will worry. Come on…” He started to pick her up and walk her back. She tried wiping her tears and followed. He let go of her, to have her walk on her own, and walked ahead. Then he felt a tug from the back of his shirt. Jason stopped and looked behind him. Alley was holding onto the bottom of his shirt with small grip. She was looking at her hand, gripping hand, and looked down with red eyes. Jason just gave a small sigh and walked on. “Try not to trip,” he said.20

Miss Celley turned around when she heard foot steps. “There you are…You almost missed your turn,” she said, partly complaining. “What took you so long?” Jason looked at Alley, she was looking down. “Huh? Is something wrong, Alley?” Miss Celley said calming down. Alley looked up and gave a reassuring smile. “I tripped and fell. I did cry a little, but I’m fine now,” she forced herself to say in a cheerful voice. Jason looked at Alley with worried eyes. Then whispers started roaming around the other classmates. “Do you think Jason did something?” a voice said. “Probably, he must teach lessons to new students to not mess with him,” another one said.21

Alley started to feel bad for Jason. She wanted to speak up, but she didn’t know how to. Before she could even think what to say, the school, final, bell rang. “Huh? Oh, looks like we’re out of time guys,” the teacher said. “Oh, tomorrow’s next P.E. is Jason versus Alley. But it doesn’t have to be a race, remember that. Dismissed!”22

Everyone left class quickly. They just got their bags, grabbed their home work, and went. Alley thought that Jason was going to clean again, so she waited for everyone to leave, still talking about Jason and what happened today. Once everyone left besides Jason and Alley, and the teacher left for “business in the teacher’s lounge” (socializing and such), Jason brought out the broom in the closet and started sweeping. 23

A couple of minutes into sweeping, Alley broke the silence. “Hey…Jason, sorry about earlier…on how I cried…sorry,” she said quietly, looking down. She was sitting over the counter. “You don’t have to apologize,” he said. Alley looked up and saw he stopped sweeping temporary. “It’s just a reaction. After listening to such a sad story, you couldn’t help it,” Jason said not looking at her. “And don’t say that your not gonna cry anymore. We both know that’s impossible. Don’t force yourself not to and…,” he paused for a moment. “If…you need someone to cry to you can come to me and tell me about it, I’ll listen. “Jason started sweeping again. Alley looked at the back of his head, her eyes wide open. “You…would?” she asked. He just nodded. Jason was kind of scared to look behind him, but he slowly turned his head to see her. Alley had her mouth slightly open and her eyes were filled with tears. Suddenly she jumped off the counter and glomped him. She glomped to hard and made Jason fall, with Alley’s arms around his neck. “Thank you! I never ever had someone to cry to. During most of my life I was alone, and had no one to cry to. Even my parents couldn’t since they are always at work.” Alley sniffed. Jason couldn’t take it all at once and turned dark red. Alley noticed. “Jake? Are you okay?” Jason froze. “Do you have a fever or something?” Alley continued. Alley took back on her hands and put it to his forehead. Jason didn’t know what to do. He put his hand over her hand. Then Alley paused. Jason then removed her hand and grabbed her shoulders. “I’m fine,” he said, closing his eye. Alley froze, and Jason had her sit up. “That’s good,” Alley finally said. “You were turning red suddenly and I didn’t know,” she said looking toward the side. Jason sat up. “No, I’m fine I said that before, so -,” he looked at her face –“don’t worry.” Alley remained silent, and Jason closed his eye and gave a reassuring smile. Then he felt something on his right eye. He opened his other eye to see, and Alley pulled back her arm. “Ah, sorry,” she said sad and guilty. “It was distracting and I couldn’t help it, sorry.” Jason didn’t care. “It’s alright. I don’t care if you touch the scar. It’s not like it’s gonna bite or anything,” he said. “It’s…okay?” Alley asked. Jason nodded. Alley started moving her hand to Jason’s scarred eye.24

“The skin is weak,” Alley said. “Have you ever gotten an infection?” she asked. “No, not really, surprisingly,” he answered. Alley wanted to see the skin more clearly and moved her face closer. Jason noticed and started turning red. He looked down. He looked up again, and her face was right there. Alley was frozen. Jason didn’t know he put his hand over Alley’s hand over his eye. Then instinctively, without his own control, his face came toward hers. Alley remained frozen. “Okay! I’m back!” Miss Celley yelled walking into her classroom. Alley and Jason stood up as fast as possible, and look away from each other. “Huh? You two are still here? Why don’t you go home already, I have to lock this place up, so get your stuff and go,” Miss Celley said. Alley and Jason followed what Miss Celley said. 25

Afterwards, both Alley and Jason were in front of the school by the gates. They were both silent. “So…which way do you go from here?” Jason said trying to break the silence. Alley pointed to a direction. “Oh, I’m going that way too. You wanna walk together?” Alley looked up. “Sure,” she said quietly. They set off.26

On most of the way there, it was silent. When the silence was broken, someone else from the usual one did. “Sorry about that,” Jason said. “I was gonna say you had something in your hair,” he lied. “Oh, really?” Alley said. “Yeah, but it fell out by now so…yeah…,” he said. It got silent and awkward. “Well, well, well,” a voice came. “Looks like ol’ Jay-jay got his own girlfriend.” Both Alley and Jason stopped in their tracks. Then, around the corner walked out three guys. One was taller than the others wore blue tank top, black jeans, and had a small wood-plank over his shoulder. The other not-so-tall one was African-American can wore black glasses, a green baseball cap, a white tank shirt and a very dark green pants with his hands in his pockets. The third one was shortest of them. He had short blond hair, giant blue eyes, and wore a regular red t-shirt and baggy blue jeans; he also had a toothpick in his mouth to look intimidating. 27

Jason got in front of Alley and put his arm in front of her. “Stay back,” he demanded. “But…” He looked back at her. She nodded. “Oh, she must be your girlfriend, you keep protecting her,” the voice from earlier came from the blond one. “You’ve been getting busy since we last saw you, Jay-jay,” the tall white one said, hitting the wood-plank over his shoulder. The black one just smiled. “You know,” the blond one was talking again, “ever since we lost you, our reputation has been going down.” Jason actually replied, “So?” The blond one got an intimidating glare. “Which means we need to fix that, by using you,” he said. “I told you, I’m not going back,” Jason said irritated. “That’s the thing; we aren’t giving you a choice.” Suddenly, the two tall guys darted Jason. Quickly, he grabbed Alley’s wrist and ran her to a save place and ran back to the two other guys. They started pulling punches at each other. Jason dodged most of them when they came.28

Alley just stood and watched, not knowing what to do. Then, from behind her, something pulled her arm. She looked behind and it was the blond guy from earlier. “Hey there, I always knew Jason had good taste, but you just too cute.” He forced her to turn and around and grabbed her chin. “Hey, why don’t you just hang with us? Jay-jay got nothing. You would like t be with us anyway, I know it. We can get you anything you like, just name it. Jewelry, clothes, technology, snacks, anything.” Alley struggled to get free. Jason finally saw and punched the blond guy right in the eye. He grabbed Alley away from him and ran off. Behind them, the other mysterious people were mad and running and yelling at them. Jason and Alley just ignored them and eventually, lost them.29

Finally, Jason and Alley stopped at the park to breathe. “Thank god, they’re gone,” Jason said. “Are you okay, Alley?” he said, worry-some. Alley nodded. “I’m fine, he didn’t touch me,” Alley said between breaths. Alley sat on one of the swings of the swing set, Jason sat on the one beside her. “I’m sorry…about that,” Jason said looking down. Alley shook her head. “No, it wasn’t your fault,” she grabbed the chain on the swing. Jason also grabbed the chains connected by his swing, and leaned toward her. “But still…!” he said with sincere eyes on her. Alley looked at him and quickly looked down. “I don’t blame you for anything, so don’t even think it.” Jason sat back to his past position. “I’m glad to walk home with you, really before, what happened, was fun..,” Alley said. She started to move her feet so that her swing moved a few feet back and forth. “It’s a nice park,” Alley finally said. Jason nodded. “Yeah…when I was small, I used to come here all time…But when I got older…,” he stopped. Alley turned to him. “What?” Jason looked down. “When I got older, I only came here for…fights.” Alley looked down. “Oh…” There was a total silence for a couple of minutes. “Shouldn’t we start going home?” Jason said, breaking the silence, yet again. Alley stood up. “Yeah, I better start heading home,” she said. “My house is actually a block from here. You?” She turned to Jason. “I live two blocks from here, so we live pretty close.” He stood up. “We actually passed it when we were running away,” he said. “Oh…” Alley replied. “So…see ya later, Alley,” Jason said walking off. Then from behind, Alley grabbed Jason’s wrist. “Wait,” she said. He turned back toward her. “Yes?” She gave a heart warm smile. “Thank you, for today. Thank you, for everything, Jason. Really, thank you.” Jason gave an innocent face. “I didn’t do anything really.” Alley shook her head. “No, you did. They may not be important things, but they still mattered to me. When you helped me find my way…to the bathroom…the nurse’s office and back…helped me get away from those guys from earlier…,” she paused. “If I wasn’t with you, that wouldn’t have happened,” Jason interrupted. “I don’t care if you blame yourself, but don’t. Like I said earlier, I don’t blame you for anything. What I really do is thank you.” Jason gave painful eyes. “Don’t look like that,” Alley said. “But, the best thing I that you for is what you said.” Jason looked up. “What?” Alley kindly smiled. “When you said that I if I had to cry. I could come to you…” Jason looked down. “Oh, that,” he said, embarrassed. “Don’t be embarrassed or anything. I’ve never had someone to cry to and listen to me. I really appreciate that.” Suddenly Alley hugged Jason. He wasn’t prepared for that and his face turned dark red, lucky for him that she couldn’t see his face. “Really, thank you! That’s a big deal to me.” Jason was frozen. Both of their heights weren’t too different. Jason only stood a couple of inches higher than her. Alley stepped back. “Sorry for suddenly doing that,” she said. Jason was still relieving his red face and nodded. Alley put her hand on his forehead again. “Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked. He nodded again. Alley sneakily put her hand over Jason’s right eyelid again. “Are you obsessed with my eye or something?” he asked, half-humored. “It’s distracting! Don’t blame me. Though you keep blaming yourself at times…” They both laughed. “Yeah, I do that, sorry…,” Jason said. “But how can you keep your eye closed all the time? Did you glue it or something?” Jason sighed. “I trained myself to make it stay closed. He grabbed her hand away from his eye. “You better get home. The sun is gonna set soon. If you have anymore questions, you can ask me later, okay?” Alley started sulking, but nodded. “Fine,” she grabbed her book bag and started to head into one direction. “Bye, Jake! See you tomorrow,” she waved.30

The next day, Alley anxiously and quickly walked to the school. She had to go through her regular routine of looking for the special stair case, and finally found it. “Fifth door on the right,” she told herself. She found the door, and went through it. “Good morning, Alley,” Jason said when she walked through the door. Alley smiled and stepped in. 31

Part 1/END32