“Whoo!” I howled spiking a tye dye bouncy ball in the junk food isle of our local Rite- Aid. Kensington the pale, anti-social store manager turned his television up. I was always trying to pull him out of his cocoon, it would happen one of these days, but until then he would just have to be annoyed by my midnight enthusiasm.

“Andrea Wells does it again!” Paulina joined in helping me relive my moment of glory. We’d kicked some serious lady Trojan ass, and my dad was so proud of me. My brother Hadyn wasn’t able to make it though. I wasn’t surprised, we’d started growing apart ever since my mom passed away. Either way it would have been nice to have him there.

“I can’t believe we won the championship!” I said, pushing all thoughts of Haydn aside.

“I know!” Paulina said glaring up at the shelf. I grabbed the chips up on the highest level. “I could have gotten those myself thanks,” she said snatching the Cheetos away from me playfully. I laughed grabbing another ball out of the big white metal basket.

I planted my feet onto the ground, and tossed the ball up into the air. And there he was: Scott Hawkins in the flesh. I’d only ever seen him in a picture, an amazing picture of his amazing bright green eyes, and sexy dark brown hair which had been spiked to perfection. But right here-in the middle of the junk food isle in Rite Aid where Paulina was blabbing her mouth about how tall I was- is where he stood, no spikes.

I remember the first time I saw his picture. I’d been going through my dads things. I didn’t normally go into his study and look through his stuff but I needed the playoff itinerary. Anyways my dad kept a record of all the college kids that interned for him at the hospital. They all contained up to date pictures, and that’s how this blessed miracle came to be.

“Andi.” Paulina nudged me in the hip. “That guy keeps looking over here at you.” She brought to my attention as I ogled Scott from afar. Then he started to walk this way. Scott D. Hawkins was walking this way! “Text me later with all the details,” Paulina whispered before disappearing. Paulina couldn't leave me here! How was I supposed to act around Scott anyways?

“You’re Andrea aren’t you? Andrea Wells?” He asked his green irises dancing with intrigue.

“Yeah, I go by Andi actually,” I said nervously tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. No one ever called me Andrea unless they needed my full undivided attention. I tended to get scatter brained easily.

“Andi,” he corrected smoothly. “You’ve…” He looked like he was trying to find the right words. It was so cute. “Grown up,” he settled, his smile exuding friendliness.

“Thanks.” He’d probably seen a bunch of old pictures of me around my dads office. I begged him to take them down, but he insisted they stay put. To make a long story short, I’d pulled the whole ugly duckling turns into a swan bit. So here I stood at 5’10’’ blonde hair, blue eyes and oh my god…. in my very tiny spandex volleyball shorts. Nice.

I caught Scott staring (more like admiring) my legs and felt a bit more at ease.

“He’s always talking about you, your dad,” he said grabbing a bag of cookies off of the top shelf. Did I mention that Scott was taller than me? Well he was. Do you know how hard it is to find a guy taller than me here in our little podunk town of Bliss, Idaho? Nearly impossible! Out of all 275 residents I was the tallest girl in the eleventh grade.

“That’s dad. Always chatting it up about me.” This is why people like me should never be around the likes of Scott Hawkins. I only ended up saying stupid things like, “chatting it up.” Did that even make any sense?

As Scott reached down low for the gummy worms, I saw a black and blue welt on his highly defined abs.

“What happened to you there?” I asked, rubbing the area near my own rib cage.

He chuckled. “Oh that’s nothing. I was actually wrestling with your brother earlier. He’s pretty strong,” he said smiling. So that’s where Hadyn had been, at Scott’s.

“Hadyn can be such a pain sometimes.” Although none of the girls in town would have agreed with me, especially Paulina.

“It was all in good fun. Can I get you anything?” He wanted to buy me something. How sweet.

“Ummm…” All I could say was Ummm? Good job Andrea.
“How about some candy ropes? They’re classic.” He grabbed the bright red ropes off of the plastic prongs and we walked over to the register.

Kensington rang up Scott’s snacks with about as much enthusiasm as a cadaver. “Have a nice day,” he said turning his back on us.

I cleared my throat.

“Congratulations. Gooo Lady Coyotes,” he said lifelessly with his back still to us.

“Thanks Kensi.” I tapped him on the shoulder before walking out with Scott. It wasn’t till then that I realized Paulina had driven me into town after the game.

“I could give you a ride if you want,” Scott said, shifting the white plastic bag from one hand to the other. I didn’t want to seem too eager so I weighed my options. Hmmmm...Walk nine miles or get a ride from Scott Hawkins?

“I’d feel terrible if something were to happen to you when I wasn’t around,” he said taking my silence as a decline.

“No, I want to. I was just hoping that Paulina got home okay,” I lied.

He looked around the empty lot. “Well we’d better get going.”

He opened the passenger door of a blue Chevy Geo. Now for all you big town folks who have no clue what a Chevy Geo is, picture a baby blue Tonka truck that you see little kids playing with, or a clown car. Now think even smaller than that. And you have a Chevy Geo.

I giggled zipping up me team jacket.

“It’s a rental I swear,” he said laughing with me. I could have been a lot worst. I thought of the brown Yugo my grandpa used to drive.

As I climbed in I wondered idly how we were going to make this work.

***