After school I head over to my locker to get my books. I didn’t really have much homework but then I only had half of my classes. I close my locker and then start walking towards the school’s entrance. I had a long walk home, though mind you the walk was only long because I kept forgetting how to get to my house. I had only lived in it for a couple of days so I think I’m allowed.

“Hey, Melody.” Just as I walk outside someone yells after me. I turn around to see Daniel.

“You don’t have to be somewhere do you?” he asks me. I think about those boxes that needed to be unpacked. “I was thinking we could grab some coffee and I could show you around town.” I shake that thought away. Those boxes could unpack themselves.

“Coffee?” Ah, my ultimate weakness. He laughs.

“C’mon, my cars over here.” He leads me into the student parking lot.

“You have a car?” I had turned sixteen a while ago and had already gotten my license but that car my parents promised me… Well, it seemed to be missing in action.

“Yeah, but it’s nothing special really.”

“Who cares about special. It has four wheels and it moves.” We stop suddenly at this blue mini cooper and Daniel gets his keys out of his pocket and opens the trunk.

“Don’t tell me this is your car?” He puts his backpack into the truck and motions for me to do the same.

“Um, okay, I won’t.” He climbs into the car on the driver side and I get in on the passenger side.

“This is a cool car,” I tell him as I put on my seatbelt. He starts the car and starts to pull out of the parking space. “A very cool car.”

“You sound like Chris,” I immediately go silent. I’m not here to annoy a potential friend.

“Where is Chris anyway?” I ask in a poor attempt to change the subject.

“Track practice.”

“Track star is he?” I ask, only to have Daniel just change the subject back.

“Chris isn’t usually like that, the way he was today.” Daniel defended him. “He just doesn’t understand why I like Raine even though she’s…. mean.” I stop myself from pointing other adjectives for her behavior and continue to listen. “It’s just that I like everyone. I don’t see why I shouldn’t. I mean, Raine, she… She was a new student like you once. And people just avoided her and were mean to her. I just want to be friends with her like I’m friends with everyone else.” Daniel sighed. “It would mean a lot to me if you’d just try to be friends with her.” Even though it was probably around forty degrees outside, I practically melted. Daniel was just such a nice person. Way nicer than me though that probably doesn’t mean much necessarily.

“You’re a nice person.” I tell him. He glances at me momentarily, smiling.

“You probably think I’m sap or something, going on like this.”

“No, of course not.” He gives me a reprimanding look.

“Don’t lie.”

“I’m not. I just think you’re in love with her.” And suddenly, the blush from earlier returned to his face full force.

“I’m not in love- It’s not like that,” he sputters. I nod to myself. Of course it isn’t. Yes, and denial isn’t only a river. “I just like everyone.”

“You sound like a hippie.” He frowns for a second but then decides he doesn’t mind that label.

“Yeah, sure, you can put it that way.” He pauses for a second. “My parents are hippies,” he adds. I laugh to myself. That must be where he gets it.

“Okay, so you don’t like her. You just like everyone and don’t hate anyone.”

“Hate anyone?” he looks almost alarmed. “Of course not. I could never hate anyone.” He said adamantly.

“You know what Daniel?” I ask him as we pull into the parking lot of a Starbucks.

“What?” he asks suspiciously.

“You really are a hippie.” He rolls his eyes before leading me into the Starbucks. I breathed in the aroma of coffee. Screw chocolate, coffee is much better. More caffeine.

“I believe I owe somebody a coffee?” Daniel offers. I grin.

“Caramel ice coffee with whip cream.” He nods and goes to get our drinks. I head towards the back of the store to find a table. I sit down at a table and wait for Daniel to return.

“I believe this for you,” he hands me my coffee.

“Oh you must be an angel for you bring me a piece of heaven,” I exclaim. He gives me a weird look.

“Um, lack of caffeine disorder?” I try to excuse my weird behavior. (What? You mean you’re not always weird?)

“So,” Daniel starts. “Tell me about yourself.”

“Like what?” I always hate this question. It’s too ambiguous. Do they want to know things like my favorite color and what kind of music do I listen to or do they want my full life story (now available in soft cover edition)?

“Oh I don’t know. What kind of things do you think about?” Daniel takes a sip of his coffee. “I love minds.” I sigh, hoping that Daniel isn’t the son of a psychologist. I have had friends who had parents who were and half the time they ended up psychoanalyzing me. Among other things, I’m not supposed to have a personality.

“Are your parents psychologists?” I ask, hoping I’m wrong.

“No,” Daniel laughs to himself. “I just like psychology. I’m hoping to take the class next year.”

“They have psychology classes at Emerson?”

“Just as an elective. It’s a beginner’s course, nothing too major. But we’re getting off track here. You’re supposed to be telling me what you think about.” Ah, yes. I was, wasn’t I?

“I think,” I whisper, leaning in close towards Daniel. He leans in closer in order to hear me.

“What?”

“I think that the girl making the coffee looks like an elf.” Daniel sighs, shaking his head at me.

“You’re hopeless.” He subtly glances at the girl making the coffee. “Okay, so she does look kind of like an elf.” He admits. “But she makes a very cute elf.” I nod absentmindedly as I drown the rest of my coffee.

“That was fast,” he says, staring at my empty cup. I shrug.

“I’m an caffeine addict.”

“Join the club,” he says as he throws his also empty coffee cup into a nearby trash can. “Want to continue this conversation as I show you around?”

“Yeah, sure.” After I throw my cup away I follow Daniel back to his car.

“Well, as you’ve seen, this here coffee place is well loved by most of the juvenile population,” Daniel says, mimicking a commentator’s voice. “There are a few eateries around here also but none worth my praise.” He continues as he drives out of the parking lot. “If you want to listen to any music my CDs are up there,” he points to the thingy that is used to block out the sun.

“I hate zombies,” I say as I begin to look through his music collection.

“Well, that’s…. kind of random.” I shrug even though he can’t see me.

“You asked what I think and I think zombies are bloody scary.” His music collection seemed pretty cool, mainly rock like Kansas, the doors, T-rex and black Sabbath, the kind of stuff I could usually find in my dad’s old records. Except for this one CD by a band I’ve never heard of – the Format. I slip the CD in the CD player.

“This is my favorite CD,” Daniel comments, recognizing the music.

“I’ve never heard of them before.” I say.

“They’re kind of… different.” Daniel says almost as if he were embarrassed. “They’re kind of like lullabies.” I nod. After listening to them for a little bit I could tell they were lullabies but they sounded good.

“I like them.”

“They’re cool. Hey, look out the window,” I look out the window to see this big two story building with a huge and crowded parking lot. “That’s the mall. I usually try to avoid going there at all costs but the movie theatre is in there and the best music store too.” I nod. I try to avoid malls too because big crowds tend to scare me and so does really bad clothing, something no mall is without. But sometimes a girl has to do what a girl has to do, even if it means entering a mall, horror of horrors. “There are a lot of restaurants around the mall. The Turkish place is great. It’s family owned so it’s a rather small restaurant but it has better food than any of the chains.” Daniel adds.

“So where do hang out?” I ask, hoping that maybe this town will actually have some decent places.

“Other than the coffee place?” Daniel shrugs. “Usually just at friend’s houses but the parks are rather nice though during the winter it’s a little cold.”

“Yeah,” Now I love cold weather, but hanging out in the temperatures cold enough to have icicles isn’t my kind of fun. “You don’t have any swans at the parks, do you?” Daniel gives me a funny look.

“Yeah, why?”

“Swans are scary. When I was little I was feeding the ducks at a park and this swan came over and bit my finger.” Daniel smiles.

“Okay, so you are afraid of swans and zombies. I’ll keep that in mind. No attack of the zombie Swans for you,” I glare at him playfully.

“Those are legitimate fears, mind you.”

“Yeah, sure.” He mutters sarcastically. “Hey, that building over on the left is the library.” I glance at the building. It was decent sized for a library, but only one story. I should probably go look around it some time. And speaking of time… I glance over at the clock.

“I should probably be getting home.” I say, hoping that I can remember quite where it is.

“Where do you live?” Good question.

“It’s near the school in a small subdivision… something with kings in it?” I ask.

“Oh I think I know what you’re talking about. You mean Kingsmill?”

“That sounds about right.” Daniel does a U-turn and starts driving back towards the school. Shortly after we arrive at the entrance of a subdivision which does indeed say Kingsmill on the sign. I guess I should pay better attention to the details.

“Anything look familiar?” Daniel asks. I look around for anything I might have seen before.

“The gnomes,” I say, pointing at some garden statues in the lawn of some house. Daniel turns down that street. “I think it’s on this street. It’s 110.” And luckily, we find the house that is indeed mine. Daniel pulls up into the driveway.

“Thanks for the coffee and for showing me around,” I say.

“Sure, anytime. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I grab my backpack from the truck of the car wave goodbye to Daniel before heading inside.