Once upon a time there lived a boy.
He would kiss me with wet lips that tasted like peppermint gum.
His hands would sweat and shake whenever he touched me.
I would giggle and shy away.
He smelled like the popular colognes the cute boys wore in high school
He had pale skin and freckles that you could only see when you were really close to his face.
He had soft curly hair that always hung in his eyes.
He could never look me in the eye too long without his cheeks turning pink and his stare hitting the floor.
I first saw him with his nose in a book hiding in the back of the class on the first day of school. He was new and painfully shy. The other kids ignored him because he didn’t seem to present anything entertaining to their two-dimensional worlds.
I found him intriguing.
During lessons he would not be the first to raise his hand, but in an effort to get him to come out of his shell, the teacher would call on him regularly. Somehow he always knew the answers and when he spoke it was eloquent beyond his years.
I was loud, blonde and bubbly. I had a close circle of friends and being the class clown was my favorite past time. I would sit down in the seat behind his every day. I would ask him loads of questions, which he would quietly answer with less than three words in a tone audible only to mice. He would never turn around unless I poked him in the back and waited for him to turn around.
I decided that I would have to get his attention a different way so I started sitting in the desk in front of him, therefore he was my captive audience. He had to face forward so he could not ignore me.
Every day I would go to class and every day he would try really hard to not make eye contact with me. In my frustration my fascination with this boy grew. I decided this boy would be the first boy I would kiss.
All of my friends found my attraction bizarre and somehow typical of my clowning around. They would tease me about my “mouse boy” and sometimes even tease him with the nickname. After I argued why this had to be the first boy I kissed, many of my girl friends started to find themselves strangely attracted to him too.
I tried everything! I borrowed pencils, offered up sticks of gum and treats in my lunch, hung my coat next to his and stood next to him in line. He would just watch me over his glasses from behind his books and the hair in his eyes.
A few years went by, still no first kiss.
We moved from elementary school to Junior high school. He was assigned to the seat behind mine in our typing class. At this point I had almost given up. I was so frustrated. No matter what I did he ignored me. I wore cute skirts, did my hair, practiced “fascinating conversations” to have with him. I managed to get the attention of nearly every boy in my class but not the one I wanted!
One night, on a whim, I stopped at a hair salon in the mini mall near my house where we all hung out. I walked in and sat down in the first open chair. The hairdresser asked if I would like a trim.
My hair was as long as it had ever been. It was nearly touching the top of my pants.
I said, “I want you to cut it all off.”
She asked, “Oh my gosh! Are you sure? Your hair is so beautiful!”
“Yes, cut it all off.” I said
I walked into class the next day with a super short pixie cut. I sat at the desk in front of my mouse boy.
“Oh my god! What did you do to your hair?” I heard him exclaim from behind me, “It was so pretty! Where did it all go?”
I turned around and looked him square in the face and said, “So that is all I needed to do to get you to talk to me? Had I known that I would have shaved my head years ago!”
He blushed and looked down at his desktop, “Do you want to sit next to me at lunch today?” he asked
“I would love to!” I answered
By Friday we were meeting up behind the skating rink and by curfew he walked me home and held my hand. When we got to my street he kissed me so intensely, his bright green mint chewing gum ended up in my mouth.
When I got home I stuck the gum between the pages of my journal and drew a little heart around it to remeber my first kiss.
We never kissed again.
Yes, that is me, sitting in a mud puddle contemplating a toad. (proving that I have been a little strange pretty much since birth) 
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