Ellie sat in English class, not really paying much attention to Ms Kwan’s lesson. She was too busy thinking about her big date with her one and only, Craig. It was their 2-month anniversary, and he told her that he was planning a big surprise. She hadn’t expected him to do anything big, just being with him for the night would be good enough.

She tried getting it out of him, using many methods, but he wouldn’t budge. He said she would find out in time. She knew that he was having fun with this since he knew that she hated to be kept in suspense.

“Ms Nash, am I boring you?” Ms Kwan asked, standing right in front of her.

“No,” she answered. She was trying to listen, but every time she did, she got distracted, and started thinking about tonight yet again.

“Well then why is it that you’re not paying attention to the lesson?”

“Sorry, just got a lot on my mind. It won’t happen again,” she hoped. She really did want to get everything she could out of this class.

“Alright, but one more time and it will be Saturday detention for you.”

No that wouldn’t be good, that would mean missing band practice, and quality time with Craig; since during the week they hadn’t gotten to spend a lot of time together because of their school work lately. “Thank you.”

*******************************

Paige sat on the steps in the foyer, all by herself; listening to music on her MP3 player. It’s not like she wanted to be there by herself but her friends were all somewhere else, making no time to spend with her lately. Craig and Ellie were off probably in the music room, rocking out their music skills; Marco was with Josh, his new flame that he had met. With new relationships, they’re so exciting that you don’t always notice that you haven’t made time for friends. Jimmy had become best friends with Alex, becoming involved in their artwork. The way they acted you would think that they were going out; And then there was Hazel who didn’t seem to want to hang out much with old friends since her break up with Jimmy; she had wanted to distant herself from anyone that hung around Jimmy since she still held feelings for him.

She felt like she was always being left out of things. She wished that she had someone, like her friends did. Her last two boyfriends in the end had treated her like crap. Spin had gotten a little too close to Manny, and treated her rudely in front of all their friends. Matt had come back a changed man, invited her to a nice restaurant only to dump her and give her drugs. She was ready to move forward, and find someone who was nothing like those two.

Hey Paige,” JT said as he stood before her. Paige was startled at first; she had been in her own little world, not expecting someone to come up to her. “Why you sitting here alone?”

“My friends all have something better to do,” she said, trying to hide the sadness in her voice. She didn’t want him to know that it bugged her.

Sitting next to her, “Yeah it does suck when your friends have someone, and you don’t,” thinking of how Toby was back with Kendra, and how a lot of time didn’t have a friend to hang with when he wanted to do guy things. You couldn’t do some of those things with Manny.

Remembering that JT’s girlfriend had left at the beginning of the year, “Guess it must suck that Liberty left town.” She had seen that they had been really happy with her, but she never did get how he could stand her, to her she was rather annoying miss know it all.

“Yeah it does, I really did love her; I guess it just wasn’t meant to happen.”

*******************************

Craig put his guitar down and pulled Ellie onto his lap. “What are you doing?” Ellie giggled.

Brushing the hair out of her face, “Just thought you look beautiful today, and wanted to hold you.”

“You’re too much sometimes,” she smiled, kissing him on the tip of his nose.

“So you excited about tonight?” knowing that anticipation was killing her.

“Yes, been thinking about it all day. You know you got me in trouble because of this, but no I won’t ask again, I know you’re lips are glued shut about it all.”

“Good because I want this night to be special for you with all you’ve done for me,” squeezing her tighter in his arms.

“Well you’ve done the same for me. I guess you could say we saved each other,” leaning her forehead against his.

*******************************

“People our next unit in media immersion is pre-school television. Watch closely because we’re gonna learn from a master,” Mr. Simpson said before turning on the video.

Paige didn’t really care to watch this, but something caught her eye.

“It’s almost Thanksgiving and today we are going to be making none other than a turkey! Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble! But before we make our turkeys I’m gonna need my handy dandy little helpers. Where are my handy dandy little helpers? There they are!” JT said. He had so much passion there; you could see it in his eyes.

There was JT hosting the show helping kids make crafts, joking around. Paige smiled, the sweet side that she was watching reminded her of the date they had gone on way back when she was a 9^th grader. She never admitted it to anyone, but she actually had a great time, until Spin and Hazel ruined it. If they hadn’t come so soon she might have even kissed him.

It seems now that JT was even more caring individual as the time had passed. She thought that it was real sweet to see him working with kids, not caring that someone from school might see it.

One of the little girls staredt gobbling on the TV.

“So now let’s make our turkey girls. Come on over here. Okay so first of all...”

*******************************

“So Marco what should I wear?” Ellie asked as she paced in her room. She was so unsure what to wear. She wanted to look great, to wow Craig.

“Well did he tell you to dress casual or dressy?” needing to know before he could help her pick the perfect outfit.

“Dressy.” Where could they possibly be going that required to dress up, she wondered.

He got up off her bed and headed to her closet. Looking through her closet, he glanced through everything she owned, until he eyed ‘the outfit’. “This is perfect,” he said pulling it out of her wardrobe.

Ellie spotted it, and smiled, “Yeah it is.” It was the perfect dress.

“So why haven’t I ever seen that?” not recalling ever seeing her in it.

“Because I never had anywhere to wear it before.” She had hoped to wear it somewhere when she was with Sean, but he never got the chance to take her anywhere since he left almost right after she had bought it.

“Well I know Craig’s eyes are going to pop out when he sees you in it,” he smiled.

*******************************

Putting down her pencil, “What do you think of JT?” Paige asked Alex as they sat in her room doing homework. She had been thinking about him since she saw him on the show, and she didn’t understand why.

“Don’t have much opinion of him, don’t really know him. But his ex, well she’s another story.” What was up with this? She hadn’t ever talked about him before, why now all of a sudden. “Why do you ask?”

“I don’t know, Simpson made us watch this program, and he was the host, the craft man. I was just thinking about it I guess.”

She began to laugh, “You like him, don’t you?”

“No…yes…I don’t know. He was being real sweet to me today, and then I saw him on that show, and I don’t know it kind of melted my heart.”

“But isn’t he a little young?”

“That’s the reason I didn’t want to be seen with him years ago, even though the one time I did spend time with him I had fun,” she replied.

“If that’s the case maybe you should go for it. You sound happy just talking about, something that I haven’t heard in you in a long time.”

“You’re right, but what if he’s not ready for anything; I don’t think I can handle that.”

“Yeah but if you don’t at least try now it might be too late when you’re actually ready.”

Standing up from her bed, “That’s it, then I’m going to find him. Wish me luck.” She picked up her purse and ran right out her room, out the front door.

*******************************

Craig and Ellie arrived at Angelo’s a restaurant right on the bay. The nightlight was shining in a distance, causing the water to glisten.

Ellie was wearing a black dress that fell to her knees, with lace overlay over it. It was off the shoulders, with long lace sleeves that covered her scarred arms. She didn’t mind him seeing them, but she didn’t want others to stare at her, and wonder what she did to herself. She had left her hair down so that she could show off her stunning curls.

Craig wore dress pants, a black t-shirt with white letters that said the Ramones and a sport coat over the top to finish the outfit. He even had put some product in to enhance the curls in his hair.

As Craig gazed at Ellie all he could think was how beautiful she looked, and how lucky he was that she chose to be with him. Her smile made her glow like a radiant angel.

“Hi, I have reservations for 2 for Mr. Manning.”

The host looked down at the book, then back up, “It will be a few minutes.”

“Alright,” Craig replied.

Ellie couldn’t believe how sweet he was. During the summer they had walked passed this place, she had mentioned always wanting to try this place out. “I can’t believe you remembered,” she said, amazed.

“I remember everything that is important to you,” he said as they were seated, “because what’s important to you is important to me.”

She leaned over, as they stood there waiting for their seat, “I love you,” she smiled.

“Love you too!”

*******************************

Paige waked through the doors of the Dot, tired. She so hated not being able to drive, and having to walk or rely on the bus in cases like this. She had been on a big walk, to JT’s house but he wasn’t home. His grandmother said that she could probably find him here. She gazed over the room to notice him sitting in the corner booth by himself.

She strolled right over to him, “Is this seat taken?”

“No…sit right down. So why may I ask do I have the pleasure of your company?”

Smiling at him, “Well I’ve been thinking about you.”

Startled by her confession, “What…why?” Unsure what she may say.

“I saw you on the kids craft corner…”

He soon turned from being happy to disappointed, “Oh so you want to make fun of me.” She was known to make people feel bad when they do something that she doesn’t think is cool.

“JT!” a little hurt that he would jump to conclusion before she was able to finish, but understood why he was a little defensive after the way she treated him on their date. “No…I thought it was sweet.”

Wow, he thought, he never thought she would say that. “Thanks…even though I’ll never admit this to anyone, it’s not just about being on TV, I actually enjoy working there with the kids.”

“You’re good with them,” she said, thinking about the show again.

“So now back to your original confession, why have you been thinking about me?” He thought that maybe he should find out; something told him it was something he would really want to hear.

She didn’t know how to put it into words, funny for a girl who usually never was at a loss for words, now tongue-tied. She did it the only way she could think of at the moment. She grabbed the back of JT’s neck, and pulled him into a kiss.

The kiss sent shivers down her spine, something that she hadn’t felt in a long time. She no longer cared what others would think if they saw them. She wasn’t going let people get in the way of her happiness this time.

They both pulled apart. JT had a stunned look upon his face. He hadn’t expected her to do that. It had always been his dream for her to do that. He had to think about what just happened, was it something that he still wanted? Did he want to be with her?

“JT please say something,” she pleaded hating the sudden silence between the two of them. She was so worried that he wasn’t feeling it, that it was only one sided.

“Paige,” she looked down the moment he said her name, thinking the answer was no. He put his finger under her chin, tilting it up. “I would love to see where this could go.” Before she could respond, he leaned in for another kiss.

*******************************

Ellie and Craig walked hand in hand down the pier, with big smiles planted on their faces. They both just had a wonderful time at the restaurant, filled with talking and laughter.

“I’m so glad you made me wait for my surprise, it was well worth the wait,” she said leaning up against his arm.

“I’m happy you think that way.” He noticed that she was shivering a little. He couldn’t believe that she had gone out of the house without a coat in the middle of fall. He took off his jacket, and put it over her shoulders.

“Thank you,” glancing over her shoulder at him.

He grabbed her hand and spun her around to face him, took her other hand into hand, and began dancing with her. She began to giggle, “What are you doing?”

“I thought we try this out since we seemed to miss out on doing this at the restaurant.”

Biting her lower lip, “I like this; it’s just so romantic, dancing in the moonlight…with you”

She stops in her steps, “When I was a little girl my dad used to bring me down here for ice cream, so we could catch up on things he had missed while at the base.”

“And when he gets back you’ll do just that,” hoping that he would be home soon for the sake of his wonderful daughter. She really needed him right now.

“I’m not so sure anymore,” she said with sadness in her voice. She had doubts that he would ever make it home.

“Why’s that?”

“Because he said he wouldn’t be gone long, and now it’s been 2 yrs,” eyes glistening just thinking about it.

Stoking the back of his hand against her cheek, “Things got a little more carried away then they thought. He’s probably fighting to get home to you and your mom both.”

Turning away from him, “You think?” a little unsure. She had lost hope long time ago.

“Yeah.” Putting his arms around her waist from behind, “Just remember he loves you always no matter what.”

“Just as I love him,” she said, smiling slightly.

Staring up at the clear night sky, at the stars that shown above, “This sky we’re looking at is the same one he looks at every night, probably thinking about back home, about you.”

Leaning against Craig’s chest, “Thanks for your kind words. I’m sorry I wrecked the mood of our night.”

“It’s okay, I like that you share what you’re feeling right away, letting me know what’s going in on that head off yours. It’s what makes this relationship work.”

“I’m glad I have you; I couldn’t imagine anyone else understanding as well as you do.”

Smiling,” Me either.” Kissing her on the top of her head.

*******************************

Monday morning Alex was talking to Jimmy, standing at their locker. When JT and Paige walked by, hand and hand.

“Am I seeing things or did JT and Paige pass us holding hands, “Jimmy asked; astonished at what he saw before him.

“No…you actually saw that,” she replied

He couldn’t believe it. He never thought he would see the day that Paige would date a younger guy. “I guess she has really changed.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” she laughed.