Tyler had been watching the new girl, Emma, for two months. She wasn't at all his type, but he couldn't seem to ignore her. The same could not be said about her interest in him, which was nonexistent. This was a new experience for Tyler, who was one of the most popular boys at school. Not every girl at school chased after him, but he had his pick of dates. Some girls showed disdain toward him, because of his reputation as a player. Some pretended to ignore him, but he would catch a glimpse of them checking him out when they thought he didn't notice. Many of the less popular girls were so shy around him that they could barely say two words to him.
Emma was completely different, because she wasn't pretending to ignore him. She seemed not to have noticed him at all, even though they were in the same history class. He had realized that she was often lost in her own world, as she didn't pay all that much attention to what was going on around her. She didn't dress like the other girls either with their jeans and sexy short skirts. All he had ever seen her wear were long flowing dresses and loose skirts that fell below her knees. He wished that she would wear jeans one day so that he could see what kind of body she had. Unlike the other girls, she wore no make up which also added to her innocent look.
He didn't know why he was even interested in her. She was okay looking but nothing special, certainly not one of the hot girls. She had long brown hair that fell to her shoulder blades and warm brown eyes. Tyler wondered if she had even had her first kiss yet since she hadn't gone out with anyone at this school as far as he knew. Being the new girl had surely gotten her some attention when she arrived a month into the start of school, but he hadn't seen her hanging out with any guys. She sat with a group of girls at lunch, but she didn't seem to interact with them very much.
Mostly, Emma spent the lunch break writing in her notebook instead of chatting. It was a three subject notebook with a plain red cover, and Tyler was very curious about what she wrote in there. Was it her diary? If it was, then he couldn't imagine what she had to write about since her life didn't seem exciting. Did she even have any friends?
Tyler's own friends would laugh at him if they knew how much time he spent thinking about Emma. Normally, if he was interested in a girl he would just flirt with her. Most of the time, the girl had already made it clear that she liked him. How was he going to approach Emma when she had shown no signs of even knowing that he existed? Tyler decided that he was going to make her aware of him. With her being in a trance half the time, he couldn't be subtle about it.
His plan was to bump into her and start up a conversation. He timed it so it happened in the hallway right before history class. She was so startled that she dropped all her books. Tyler apologized and bent down to pick them up for her just as the fire alarm went off. The teacher was in the classroom telling students to leave their books on the desks and walk in an orderly fashion toward the designated exit.
Tyler quickly handed Emma her books and told her that they still had time to leave them in the classroom. As she hurried to drop them on her desk, Tyler saw her red notebook on the floor. He hastily picked it up and slipped it under his own books before he hurried to leave them on his desk. Emma was already following the other students out of the classroom, and Tyler turned his body away from her so she wouldn't spot her notebook in his possession.
It turned out that there was a small fire in the kitchen, and the fire trucks were called out. By the time they were allowed to return to the building, it was time to go to the next class. Tyler's long legs helped him get to history class much faster than Emma, and he grabbed his books and hurried to his locker to deposit her notebook into his backpack. He would have to wait until he arrived home before he could read it. This hadn't been part of his plan, but he wasn't going to waste the opportunity now that he had gotten his hands on it.
The fire had disrupted his plans to talk to Emma, but at least now she had actually seen him. Tyler would catch her tomorrow and talk to her on the way to history class. He figured that he would drop her notebook off at lost and found in the morning before school. She would never even know that he had read it. Not that he was expecting to find anything interesting in there, but at least he would satisfy his curiosity.
Emma actually sought him out after school to his complete surprise. Tyler had never seen her look anxious before. "Did you see my notebook?"
He pretended ignorance. "What notebook?"
"Earlier today when you helped me pick up my books, did you see a red notebook? I can't find it." She had a soft, sweet voice.
"Did you check in lost and found? Maybe somebody turned it in." He felt bad that she was upset, but it was too late to tell her now that he had it.
"I'll have to do that tomorrow. I can't miss my bus."
"I can drive you home," he offered.
"Oh, thank you, but I don't want to bother you. I'll just—"
"It's no bother," he insisted. "C'mon, we'll stop by the office."
Her notebook wasn't in lost and found of course, and she became even more upset.
"You should check again tomorrow," Tyler said. "Maybe the janitor will find it."
"Oh, I didn't think of that." Emma looked a little more hopeful. "Thanks for giving me a ride."
"It's the least I could do. It's my fault you lost your notebook."
"It's not your fault," Emma said. "It was an accident."
Now he felt even worse for what he had done. Tyler changed the subject as he pulled out of the school parking lot after she gave him basic directions to her house. "So, where did you move from?"
"Well, the last place we lived was England, but we moved around a lot before we moved here. My dad travels all over for business."
Maybe that was what girls wore in England, Tyler thought. He had no idea since he had never been out of the United States. "How'd you end up in Michigan?"
"My grandma lives here. My parents are in the middle of a divorce, and Mom wanted to move back here."
"Yeah, that's tough," he said. "My parents are divorced, too."
"Do you live with your mom?" Emma asked.
"My dad actually. My mom left him for a guy half his age," Tyler said bitterly. He didn't know why he was telling her that, since he had never talked about it to anyone before. Trying to lighten the mood, he asked her about England.
She could hold a conversation when she wanted to, and she also directed him where to turn to get to her house. "Thanks again for the ride."
"Would you like to go to a party with me this weekend?" Tyler asked before she could exit his car.
She turned to him in surprise. "But I'm not invited."
"I just invited you. You'll be my date."
"You're asking me out on a date?" Emma looked bewildered. "I'm not the kind of girl you usually go out with."
"What kind is that?" Tyler held her gaze, and she looked away in embarrassment.
"Um." She struggled to find the right words that wouldn't offend him. "I've heard that you date the popular girls."
Good save, he thought. Tyler knew what his reputation was, but it was greatly exaggerated. He hadn't actually slept with half the girls at school. Sure, he was no stranger to hooking up, but he had higher standards than to sleep with every girl that was willing. When he left parties with girls that were completely wasted, it was only to drive them home to sleep it off. If they then decided to tell their friends that they had gone all the way with him, Tyler did nothing to dispel these rumors. His player reputation helped him avoid the hassle of girls who wanted to get serious.
Then Tyler realized what Emma had said. "You know who I go out with? I didn't think you even knew I existed."
"Of course I've seen you. We're in the same history class after all. God, do I really seem that out of it? I know I daydream a lot but…"
"I wish I knew all this before I decided to bump into you today," he said.
"Before you decided," she repeated. "You mean you did that on purpose?"
"I wanted to get your attention."
Emma looked so cute with her wide-eyed stare. She wasn't hot, but she was definitely cute. "Ever heard of saying hello?"
"I wanted to make sure you remembered me." He smiled in the way he had won over countless girls. "So, will you go to the party with me?"
She couldn't resist smiling back. "Okay."
"Great! I'll see you tomorrow at school."
"See you tomorrow." Emma got out of his car and waved as he pulled out of her driveway.
Tyler was in a good mood as he drove home. Things had worked out even better than he planned, since he had not only talked to her but gotten a date as well. The notebook was an afterthought at this point, but he decided to skim through it and see what she was always writing about.
The first few pages were blank, but then he got to the many poems she had written. They were about butterflies, rainbows, and other such girly things. What was he even doing with her? She was much too sweet and innocent for him. He had never before asked out a girl that he didn't plan to seduce. Tyler wanted to kiss Emma, though. He had imagined it many times as he watched her in class. Had she ever thought about him that way?
Scattered between the pages of poems were short stories that Emma had written. These were all romantic with various handsome knights winning the hearts of princesses and ladies. He only skimmed through a little of these before he got bored and went onto the next story or poem. One tale was set in modern times, and it caught his interest. The girl was named Amelia, and she was living in Italy. A guy named Alessandro started flirting with her. The story went into great detail about how good looking this guy was. So, Tyler thought, Emma did notice things like that. At the end of the story, Amelia had her first kiss with Alessandro.
Tyler wondered if this story was true, and if Amelia was really Emma. She did say that she had lived all over. Maybe Italy was one of the places, and she had her first kiss there. He was flipping through pages rather quickly now and getting ready to put the notebook away when he stopped at a story called The Garden of Delights. He smiled to himself as he again thought how girly and romantic she was. Then his smile faded as he was overcome with shock at what he was reading.
This time the girl was named Elizabeth, and the guy was Richard. This story had gone into nauseating detail about Richard's gorgeous face, mesmerizing blue eyes, and even the sound of his voice. What made Tyler stare at the words in disbelief as he continued to read the story were the vivid and scorching hot descriptions of a sexual encounter between the two.
His mind was reeling after he finished reading the story. It seemed that Emma wasn't half as innocent as she appeared to be. Tyler took her notebook into his dad's home office and made a copy of The Garden of Delights. Then he put the notebook back into his backpack and tried to concentrate on his homework.