Chapter 1: Dear Jon

He had brought them here because of the view. The fact that this was where they came to watch the stars on their first date only made it all the more special. It had been so familiar to them. They had came out here every year after school let out for the summer. They would sleep on the ground and just watch the sun set and the stars peek through the dark blanket that would cover the sky. So it only seemed natural that this be the place he took her to finish off their first date. It felt even more right on their anniversary. They had been here for the past hour just looking at the stars and holding each other, but that was not all that they had planned for their first anniversary.

She readjusted herself, laying her head on his shoulder. Their lips met with that warm electric feel you get when you know you are kissing someone you will spend the rest of your life with. Their lips peeled apart, their eyes opened slowly and they got lost in each other again. That was the last moment he knew that he just liked her. He knew in that instant that he loved her. He knew nothing after that though. Nothing he had ever done with her had prepared him for what was coming next.

"Jon, I love you." He pulled her in close and kissed her with all his being. She just melted in his arms. When they pulled apart again she couldn't look him in the eyes, like she had before. She spoke in a far away voice and when she finally spoke what she said shattered his world. "I don't know how to tell you this but... I have to... I have to... leave you." She lowered her eyes and fought the tears that were welling up. She wiped them away on her sleeve and struggled with the words. "I can't tell you why. I wish I could. I have to... I have to leave. I never wanted to say this... but I have no choice. I have to leave you. I have something I want to give you to remember me. If you want it give me your hand." he nods his head slowly holding back the pain he feels. The words ripping his heart to shreds. The whole time he is hoping that it is only a bad dream. "Kiss me okay?" He looked at her first with overwhelming joy and then with defeat but did as she asked. He felt the electricity flow through him as her lips met his and she put his hand on her heart. Time seems to stop for that second where he felt as one with her and his world turned black.

"Man. What did I drink last night? I feel like shit." He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with the palm of his hand as he stood up stretching. "Wait! What in the hell is this on my hand? Fuck!! Don't tell me Lynn and I got wasted and got a tattoo of a broken hourglass. Why in the hell would I get a broken hourglass on my hand? Well, I guess I was really drunk if I got a tattoo and don't remember. You can't really expect me to be thinking hey let's get a tattoo with meaning.

Nah, but I wonder what Lynn got, maybe I can talk her into letting me look for it tonight. I wonder what she got. I wonder where she got hers..." He got up slowly the smirk still on his face as he jumped in the shower.

"Honey you better hurry up you are going to be late for school. It is already eight o'clock and you haven't even eaten yet."

"Shit no time to eat now, mom. I got to go." with a peck on the cheek from his mom he was out the door. Well on his way to being late for class, again.

Man if she gave me a brown paper bag I would swear I was on a show on Nick at Nite. Oh well, it could be worse since dad has been gone she doesn't have anything else to do. So I guess being the stereotypical 50's mom is what she does to get her kicks but she sure doesn't act it at night. The censors would have had a seizure if Donna Reed wore a tank top and blue jeans."

He usually talked to himself as he daydreamed on the way to school. It was his daydreaming that caused him to be late more than ninety percent of the time. He would get lost in the stories that unfolded in front of him.

Shit! I got ten minutes to be at the school." FUCK! If I'm late again I am going to be kicked out of Psych class and that is the last thing I need." He would get strange looks from people who saw him talk to air as if carrying on a conversation, but he never even noticed when slipped from thinking something to saying it.

Coach Orse wasn't the happiest person in the world, a former football player and a man that had his foot broken because he was playing Rugby while he was drunk. Of course he had the great idea to tell the students this the first day. Despite this, all the football players respected him and everyone else showed up on time. Except for Jon, he showed up late just enough times to learn the rules and how late to show up. It irritated the teacher/coach more than anything. The fact that Jon was a damn good student who passed every test he got to take only compounded the problem. The only thing that saves him was technically an unexcused absence won't get you kicked out but it also means you fail the test that day. Even though there had been football players who got away with such things, Jon wasn't so lucky.

Today was like any other, Coach Orse was standing outside the door waiting for the bell to ring. It didn't help that he had already sent Jon to the office for insubordination for pointing out errors on his tests and then arguing that he was right. The coach wasn't too happy about being proven wrong. It was even worse since he had copied the question from the book, then put the wrong answer on the key. So to get out of major trouble Jon was forced to apologize for being right and that was exactly what he did.

"I'm sorry I was right about you being wrong. From now on, when you are wrong in class I will just make a note of it and when you check our notebooks you can find them there."

They had tried to suspend him for three days. All they got out of it though was a wounded ego. The principal overruled the VP's decision when he heard what was going on and smartly told them to grow up. If they were going to make mistakes then they have to accept it. Lastly they need to try not to make fools of themselves again.

Ever since then the coach would checked the bathrooms to see if Jon was hiding inside. Jon wasn't that stupid. He would if nothing else slow down or just duck into the nurses office because he felt "ill". The nurse was gone today and he couldn't slow done or he would be late for second hour too and he didn't need that either.

"Shit, I need just another few minutes and I can actually be on time today. If the bell didn't ring I could get in there and say the bell never rang. It was in the rule book. Jon made sure he learned the rule book, it had saved his ass more than once.

2. Tardiness -not being in your seat when the final bell rings.

a. 1st through 3rd tardies to a class during a semester warning issued by teacher

b. 4th tardy = a detention, 5 tardies -2 hours of detention, a 6th tardy = 3 hours detention

c. 7th tardy = 1 day in the Alternative Classroom

d. 8th tardy = 1 day out-of-school suspension, 9th = 2 days OSS, l0th = 3 days OSS

e. 10 accumulated tardies in all classes -1 day suspension

f. 15 accumulated tardies in all classes -3 day suspension

If the bell doesn't ring, then there's no trouble. Somehow Jon never really felt that safe with this argument. He knew why. It was a technicality and they never liked students finding loopholes. It showed that they could think freely and in their own words that wasn't what high school was for. It was for learning not free will. Free will wouldn't get them anywhere in the real world. They were preparing them for the real world.

"I have two minutes I have no chance to make it today. Shit why can't I just get up on time for once and get to class with time to spare. The sad thing was I know I have a test today I need to be there on time. I need to be there on time. He slows his pace and finally gets there lost in his stories again. This time he just gave up on the idea of getting in class on time. so he was waiting for the punishment he knew was coming when he slipped into his seat not even looking at the clock or the teacher. "Why is it so silent? Shouldn't he be teaching or something?" he thought to himself as he heard the bell ring. HELL YEAH!! I must have forgot to set the clocks back or something. I made it on time. Hell. Yeah.

"Nice to see that you decided to be here on time Mr. Stundeglas. I see you decided not to miss another test. What's wrong don't think you can pass if you miss another one?" Jon just ignored him and as usual was the first person done.

He was happy as could be, even if the teacher was an ass, until he noticed Lynn wasn't in the seat in front of him like she usually was. She must have had a bad hangover last night "oh well I will stop by to see her after school, I guess." The rest of the day passed in a sort of haze, he was worried about Lynn she never missed more than first hour with a hangover she must have been really sick if she missed all day. The final bell of the day rang and he rushed to her house not sure if what to expect since she didn't even answer the phone when he tried calling at lunch.

That was what worried him the most, she had never been too sick to answer the phone. She lived in the opposite direction from his house but it didn't matter he was worried and he would risk it. his mom would understand she had always thought of Lynn as more of a daughter anyways. They had been friends forever, so she was a fixture at the house. It wasn't unusual for her to stay at the house or him at hers their parents just understood how close the friendship was. That and they figured it kept them from worse influences.

Those were the very reason his imagination was running away from him now. He cared about her and was trying to prepare himself for what he might find when he finally got there. The one thing that could usually calm him was only making it worse as his mind flashed over what could be wrong with the girl he loved. He saw her parents telling him she was in the hospital, she was dead she was just too embarrassed to see him, that she was abducted by aliens, every possible thing that his active imagination could think of became real to him for those few seconds. Nothing he saw though had prepared him for he did find when he got there. There was nothing, no one there.

It was as if no one had ever lived there. There were cars in the garage but the walls were bare, devoid of tools that he knew Lynn's dad would never have taken down, or put away. It wasn't any better inside the house, all the furniture was there but there wasn't the marks on either side of the door where Lynn's mom had marked their heights growing up or the place in the corner of the living room where some of the Christmas tree lights scorched the wall. Every trace of them had vanished. He searched the entire house for a single trace of them but he could find nothing. After a quick search he flopped down onto the couch with his head in his hands thinking about the memories he had in this house and the memories he had in the spot he now sat. The first kiss he had ever given her was on this couch. He had came over to her house because her boyfriend had just dumped her. He just held on to her for the time that it took for her to work out the tears but this time he looked her in the eyes and wouldn't let her look away. He had been waiting for this time so long he was afraid to screw it up.

"Lynn... I told you that he was a jerk but I'm sorry I was right. I hated knowing you were with that asshole. He treated my best friend like shit. I don't ever want to let anyone treat you like that again." He saw her smile, leaned in and before the night was over he had a girlfriend, but what surprised him the most was when her mom leaned over the couch and whispered in his ear "Took you long enough don't you think?"

He had had too many memories here to just let it go though as if she never existed, he loved her too much for it to happen. It had taken him to last night to realize it and he never even got to say it back. He started to get up and leave when something moved out of the corner of his eye. When he turned around there was nothing there but a simple white envelope lying on the coffee table with the words Mi Amante stamped across it. But when he bent to pick it up his left hand began to itch and by time he actually got the letter to where he could open it. The words had changed to My Love. He didn't understand it but he knew whose hand writing it was and that was all that mattered. He tore the letter open and began to read it.