Love Hertz, Prologue,
by Master Elf of The Shady Crew

Sixteen-year-old Lyle Hertz sat at his desk in Math class and stared off into space. It was halfway through the school year's second semester, and his mark was average, so he found it hard to concentrate during class. Which is why he was daydreaming.

He was aware of what was going on around him...all but what the teacher was saying. His attention had broken away from the restraints of the tedious overhead note and wandered off to meet his friends after school.

It was common for Lyle to sit in class and think about what might happen in the immediate future, as was the same for most other teens like him. The only thing? While others daydreamed, they usually did so about getting high and drunk, or playing sports, or watching TV, but when Lyle trailed off into his fantasies, they were about love. Not just any love though -- true love with the girl of his dreams...the girl of his dreams that he thought he would only meet in just that -- his dreams.

It's not as if Lyle never looked for his dream girl; he could just never find her, though he had come close in the past. But they had always turned out to be something completely different.

The first time Lyle could remember thinking he fell in love was in the first grade when he had a crush on his young teacher, Mrs. Evre. But of course, as every young child learns when they first fall in love with someone unavailable to them, love hurts. Lyle could remember exactly what had happened when he told Mrs. Evre about his crush: she told him that she was flattered, but that she was married and was also way too old for him. She also had kids, as her youngest son, Philip, was in Lyle's class that year, and to add to the pain Lyle had felt, he and Philip were in the same class for years to come, a constant reminder to Lyle about the pains of love.

Maybe that's why he was so determined to find true love. Or, maybe, the search was all just a ploy to escape the harsh reality of the natrual longing for love every person has. Either way, he never stopped looking...

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A/N: This is the prologue to a romantic comedy series I'm thinking of writing. "Love Hertz" is the story about Lyle Hertz and his best friends (Joshua Pogoster, Ryan Thurst, and Melanie Helt) looking for love in high school. I don't know if anyone who reads here (at ) is interested in this type of series, so I'm going to write a few chapters, and then if enough people want me to continue writing it, I'll happily do so. Thanks for reading!