kokopellinelli | Remember

When I was 12, my dad had an accident. He spent 8 months in a hospital 300 miles from home, with my mom by his side. For the first 3 months or so, she was flying my brother and me over on the weekends, then back home for school. That took quite a strain on everyone, so we eventually moved there on a temporary basis to go to school in Anchorage. All of a sudden, I was thrust into a school about 5 times bigger than my own. In junior high. Which is a crappy time anyway.

8th grade...ah, the hell. In the 3 months I was there, I had rumors spread about me that I was a lesbian (I didn't have a boyfriend, nor did I want one) and I broke my foot in gym while playing a chauvinistic game of soccer (then had to walk to the bus stop after school, then across a frozen parking lot to the hospital, I wound up crawling because there was no one around to help me).

Anyway, the point of this post is to relate the humorous event (though let me tell you, it wasn't funny at the time. Hell no). My first day of school, I had to stand up in front of each class and talk about myself. I was called to the front of my English classroom.

"Hi. Um, I'm Nelli. I won't be here very long." I sat back down.

After class, the cutest boy I'd ever seen came up to me. Tall, brown eyes, longish dark red hair. We didn't have anyone like that at my school. He came up to me and stopped, flashed a grin, and said "Hi Nelli. I'm Chris."

And I, being a suave, worldly 13-year-old, blurted "How did you know my name???"

*yeeeeaaaahhhh....*

He looked at me oddly and said "um...you said it at the beginning of class." And then he left. And never talked to me again.

At least I can laugh about it now. See? *ha ha*