I had to admit, right now, my life couldn’t be going any better. My boyfriend was the sweetest person in the world and my week had been pretty drama-free. I just had to hope I wasn’t jinxing that.

I walked into my 3rd period, science which had become one of my favorite classes because Danny was in it and neither Reagan or Carmen weren’t. When I entered the room, Danny excitedly waved me over.

“Hey, I have awesome news,” he told me, putting extra emphasis on the word awesome.

“What’s up?” I asked as I propped my head on my hands.

“So, on Friday night, they’re having this concert at the community center for kids who live in town who like to sing or play instruments and I am one of the performers,” he said, trying to sound cool but he still hasn’t figured out that I can read right through him.

“That’s amazing! You know I’ll be there,” I reassured him.

“That’s what I thought. I mean, I know how you get about all the girls who are just dying to date a good-looking rock star like me,” he joked as I playfully swatted him on the arm. Danny’s warped sense of humor never got old.

I had a very busy Valentine’s Day myself. Throughout the day, Josh had surprised me with some candy. Whenever I’d try to talk to him, he’d offer a shy smiles – I figured it was because we hadn’t been together very long – but when I tried to find out more, he only smiled and lifted a finger to his lips.

I was sprawled out on my bedroom floor after school, surrounded by a sea of flashcards and notes as I tried to study for the big test my World Studies teacher had oh-so-kindly announced for the next day. That’s when the doorbell rang. I assumed it was a door-to-door saleman of some sort and resumed studying, so I was startled to hear my mom’s voice summoning me downstairs a few moments later.

I was astounded to see Josh, looking awkward and wearing a crooked smile, in my doorway. My mom dismissed herself from the foyer with a wink my way. What was going on here? I turned to Josh for an answer, but before I could open my mouth to form a question, he took my hand and merely said, “Come with me.”

I raised an eyebrow, but followed Josh. He patted the handles of his bike, parked on my driveway, so I hopped on. I felt Josh’s breath on my neck as he climbed onto the bike behind me, but I didn’t mind.

Five minutes later, Josh was undoing his helmet chin strap. We’d arrived at Kahn Park. As I pulled my jacket tighter around me, Josh again took my hand, leading me in the direction of a secluded grove of trees. That’s when I saw Josh had laid out a picnic, blanket, basket and all, for the two of us. How’d he know I would much prefer this to dressing up and going out to a fancy restaurant? He urged me to sit, and the rest was history. I seriously thought I couldn’t have been happier – until later that night, when I was back in my room studying. I peeled off my jacket, only to find an unfamiliar lump in my pocket. I reached in and drew out a folded piece of notebook paper with “To: Maya” scrawled on the front in Josh’s handwriting. Heart racing, I slowly unfolded the paper.

I know we haven’t been together very long,

So I was afraid I’d get your present all wrong.

As you know, I’m no hopeless romantic,

And I know writing a love poem is so sycophantic.

I just wanted to tell you that you are the writer

That makes my day so much brighter.

I hope we can get to know each other better;

One thing you probably shouldn’t expect from me: a love letter.

– Josh

History started out with Ms. Mazef talking about stuff that I was not paying attention to. I felt bad about not listening because Ms. Mazef was my favorite teacher but I just couldn’t find it in me to care.

Then, the strangest thing happened. Right when Ms. Mazef was giving us our homework for tomorrow, the lights in the classroom went off. Everyone else in the room were talking back and forth about what this was except for Ms. Mazef. I assumed she was in on it since she was the only not asking questions.

I started to hear the opening guitar chords to a very familiar song that I couldn’t seem to put my finger on. When the lights went back up, I saw Danny standing in the doorway with his guitar intently focusing on singing the first lines of the song:

“Her lipstick stains on the front lobe of my left side brains”

I couldn’t believe he was really doing this in front of everybody! And that all the stuff he said on IM was just a cover up for doing one of the sweetest things anyone had ever done for me!

As he got to the chorus, he came up and sang at my desk so it was clear that he was really serenading me. When the song came to a close, everybody in my class started wildly cheering as I gave Danny a reassuring smile that everything was absolutely fine between us. In exchange, he gave me a wink and stuck a note to my desk as he left. I emerged into a goofy smile when I saw that the note read:

“Don’t worry, I’ll give you more than a wink later”

As this thought entered my mind, I glanced at my computer to see that Danny had logged on to his IM. I was extra happy about this because I did have a pretty important question for him that I didn’t want to wait too long to ask:

nicole837: hey danny, so we should probably start making some plans for valentines day when you have a chance

guitarman101: oh, well i don’t really think we should do anything special

When I read this, my heart sank so deep into my stomach, I thought I would puke it out. Danny had always done romantic things for me and now suddenly it’s Valentine’s Day and he wants us to act like we would on any other day???

nicole837: but danny, its our first valentine’s day together, don’t you think that means something?????

guitarman101: yeah sure i guess, i just don’t really feel like making a big deal out of it

nicole837: you know what, fine whatever you want. i gotta go, bye

I angrily logged off of my IM as newly formed tears threatened to roll down my face. I grabbed my IPod, clicked on “Someone Like You” by Adele and flopped down on my bed feeling unloved and exhausted from arguing with one of the only people I knew would always be there for me.

tenpin1000: hey Maya this is Josh

maya96: oh hi Josh. whats up?

tenpin1000: not much. you?

maya96: same here!

I sensed an awkward silence coming on, but luckily my fears were quelled when I heard the all-too-familiar ping that let me know I had a new message.

tenpin1000: this is going to be kinda weird, but stick with me, ok?

maya96: ok…

So much for not having an awkward silence. I idly surfed Facebook while I waited for Josh’s next message: the indicator reading “tenpin1000 is typing…” was displayed.

tenpin1000: so ever since leah and i started sitting with you, maya, i kind of started liking you.

tenpin1000: i know this seems really weird, but i really like you.

tenpin1000: i just haven’t gotten up the nerves to tell you. until now

tenpin1000: i know you don’t really like me, so i probably just ruined our friendship

tenpin1000: that was really stupid of me to say.

tenpin1000: just forget this conversation, ok? i’ll see you at school

maya96: josh, wait

tenpin1000: yeah?

maya96: the thing is…

I took a deep breath, fingers shaking as I typed my next message to Josh.

maya96: i kinda like you, too.

tenpin1000: really? no joke?

A broad smile broke out across my face.

maya96: yep. i guess i have all along, i just never realized it before.

maya96: i didn’t think i had a chance

tenpin1000: maya doyle, will you be my girlfriend?

maya96: yes, josh.

I couldn’t spend too much time focusing on this at home though because my thoughts about Maya were interrupted by my IM on my computer. I had been brought into a group chat with rayray245 and colorgirl. It didn’t take me too long to figure out they were Reagan and Carmen.

colorgirl: hey nic, we have some good news for you.

nicole837: first of all, i kind of only let people i actually like call me nic and 2nd, why would you guys care about telling me something good??

rayray245: because we really do think you’ll like this! kendra transfered schools. she goes to that new private school 2 blocks away from our school, i think its called ashford academy.

My spirits soared when I read that, turns out they actually did have good news!

colorgirl: don’t get too excited tho, sweetie. while you’ve been focusing on your dopey boyfriend, reagan and i have been climbing our way up to the top of the heap. so basically, that means we’re just as popular as kendra ever was

rayray245: oh and matt is now dating carmen just to let you know

The messages were coming in so quickly, I didn’t have a chance to get a word in edgewise. Reagan and Carmen sure were good at ruining my good mood fast.

nicole837: ok look, im not scared of you two or matt or anyone! you can’t intimidate me

colorgirl: oh, isnt that brave of you??

nicole837: ….

rayray245: you know what we told you in the halls

colorgirl: i think we’re done here

After Carmen typed the last message, the two of them simultaneously logged off. I had a feeling that school on Monday was going to be hell.

But I didn’t have time to strategize about Nicole’s situation; I had my hands full with one of my own. Leah, Josh, and Angela had just left my place. I thought things had gone relatively well, considering we’d all been a little nervous unconsciously. But towards the end, when everyone else was heading out the door, something happened that changed my outlook on the day.

And I could’ve been just imagining this – it was probably just a little twitch of the eye – but I could’ve sworn that Josh Tenley winked at me.

When it was time to head home, I was beyond grateful that the day was over. I wanted to get out of that building before I was caught in the middle of any more drama. I realized that some wants are just wishful thinking when two people started to head towards me that I hadn’t thought about in a long time.

“Okay, what is with those pants? It looks like you time traveled back to the 70s to get jeans that flare out that much,” Carmen snapped at me with Reagan following right behind her. I still couldn’t believe I had ever been friends with the two of them. It was just disgusting.

“But anyway, that isn’t what we’re here to talk about,” Reagan interjected before I could make a comeback at Carmen. “You and your stupid boyfriend completely ruined our party at Starbucks last weekend. Turns out when the ambulance comes, people just aren’t psyched about partying anymore.”

“Are you serious? That was Matt’s fault, not Danny’s or mine. Heck, Danny is the one that got knocked out trying to protect me! If that makes him a villain, I don’t want to know what the rest of us are,” I told them as I made an attempt to walk out but Reagan got in front of me just in time. She always was faster than me.

“Call it whatever you want but point is, you were part of what happened in some way or another. That means that this won’t go without you tasting your own party-bombing medicine,” Carmen declared as she walked off laughing with Reagan. I clutched my bag tightly, knowing that I was probably cutting off my circulation but was too scared to care. Without thinking about anything I else, I sprinted out of the building and got into Brandon’s car quicker than I had ever done anything in my life.

In Maya’s World, everything was going flawlessly. Leah and I had been texting and IMing a lot, and I was ecstatic to have finally discovered a true friend not living a thousand miles away. And, much to my surprise, Josh was turning out to be a nice guy, too. Nervous though I was, I decided to invite him, Leah, and Angela over to my house to hang out that weekend. Except for Leah, I hadn’t been around any of them outside of school, so I was appropriately antsy about the whole thing. But when I brought it up at lunch, everyone seemed game. And so it was settled: Saturday at 1pm sharp. I couldn’t wait. Or could I?

As I took my math books out of my locker, Danny and I shared a friendly look from across the hall. I turned my head and started to walk towards my algebra classroom when I heard a loud thud from the opposite way. I swiveled around to see Danny shoved up against his locker by a very angry looking Matt. I dropped my books on the floor and sprinted towards them.

“GET OFF HIM!” I screamed at Matt, tackling him to the floor. I didn’t actually think we’d go down so either I was a lot stronger than I thought I was or Matt was a lot weaker.

“My mom grounded me for 2 months! No friends, no parties no girls all because of this geek! He deserves to have eight black eyes!” Matt ballistically declared.

“Okay, since I’m the one who was in the hospital because I was unnecessarily punched by you, I think you deserve whatever is coming to you,” Danny shot back as he tried to move in towards Matt but I stopped him before he could.

“Matt did nothing wrong,” a voice from the hoards of students surrounding us said. As her golden locks came into appearance, I realized it was Kendra. “Nicole is just unappreciative of his love.”

“You are freaking insane, Kendra!!!! No wonder you like Matt so much and had to rely on me to help you get him back! It’s all because you are a nutcase!” I shouted as passionately as I could at her as I started to understand what I had just said out loud. I had just outed the most popular girl in our grade as a wimp who needed help to get a guy from one of the most unlikely sources, me. I watched as I saw some mouths drop open and more scarily, Principal Jilson had just come into view from where I was standing.

“In my office. NOW.”