Love Notes - By Heather Gunter Page 0,6

like me.

I get through my next couple of classes without a hitch and I don’t see Maverick in any of them.

The one class I’m looking forward to has finally arrived.

Choir happens to be the last class of the day, which at least it gives me something to look forward to. I walk in and see several different clusters of people spread throughout the room. As I’m looking around I catch the eye of a red headed girl who immediately smiles up at me. I take that as an invitation and walk over. As I’m planting myself in the seat next to her she immediately starts to introduce herself.

“So you’re new here, right? I mean I’ve never seen you here before. I guess I should introduce myself before I start spouting off at the mouth. I kind of tend to do that. My name’s Tori.”

I know immediately that I like her, and I can tell we could be friends. Her bubbly personality is infectious and she seems sincere–a rarity in my experience.

“My name's Charlie,” I say.

“Charlie, huh, I like it,” she responds.

I explain to her about my family's move and as I’m talking to Tori, I see Maverick walk in. Immediately I stop and my eyes drift to his. I’m not sure why I’m even looking at him. After all, I’m not model material like some of the other girls at this school.

I’ve seen several girls gazing at him in history class and I’m nothing to write home about in comparison. I don’t know why I react to him the way I do. And for that matter, why I think he might possibly even give me a chance or notice me. I mean, what am I thinking?

Tori spies me looking at him. “So, I see you’ve noticed our star football hero Maverick huh? You’re not the first to get all gooey eyed at him.”

“I’m not gooey eyed,” I snap back. I glance at Tori and see the hurt expression across her face.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to be so bitchy. Trust me I’m not. There’s just something about him.”

Tori replies, “No biggie,” and then says, “I’m really not sure why he’s here. He’s never been into choir before. You will love Mr. Hall though. He is very passionate about music and gets really excited!”

Mr. Hall walks in and stops to talk to Maverick. He directs him to a seat. As I glance over I notice he’s about to sit with those awful girls from my history class. They’re all smiling as he walks over to them. For whatever reason I can’t help but feel disappointed. One, because I was hoping to avoid those girls and second, he’s sitting with them.

While I deliberately try to ignore them, I do learn the names of the girls Maverick is sitting next to. Miranda and Ashley. Or should I say, tall, blonde and perfect. Not to mention neither of them have a boy’s name.

I spend most of the Choir listening to Mr. Hall as he describes what he would like to do this semester and the types of music he would encourage us to sing. While he’s talking I can’t help but catch his infectious attitude towards music. It’s clearly his calling, like he was meant to be a music teacher. I get so excited listening to someone who is as passionate about music as I am. I take it so seriously and I can tell Tori does as well. In the short time we’ve spoken, I can tell we are going to be good friends.

As class is about to end, along with the school day, I hear Mr. Hall tell Maverick he would like a word with him after class. As soon as those words are out of his mouth the bell rings. I slowly take my time getting my things together and I over hear Mr. Hall telling Maverick that he’ll have to participate and that he needs to take the class seriously. Mr. Hall tells him that there can be no goofing off and even though he needed an extra- curricular credit, he’s expected to do what everyone else is doing.

Hearing this makes my stomach drop. Choir is not a joke to me. It irritates me that Maverick might think he’s just going to skate by and take an easy class. Music is me, it's what I’m all about, it’s a huge part of me. I’m not even sure why I’m so upset. I don’t even know him and he doesn’t know