Chapter 2

"Oh, so you wish to know more details ... more about us. I guess I'll start Friday April 2, 1984. You see, I was nine years old then and this is back when I first met hope. I was attending my fourth year at Riverside Elementary school in Reading Pennsylvania. Not a real significant place to be, at least for growing up. My parents told me Reading started to decline about 4 years before I was born.

Basically this was because a lot of the gang families from New York and New Jersey were starting to move Pennsylvania. They wanted to take advantage of cheaper living and lower taxes. With the climb of drug usage and sales in the late 70's, the streets of my hometown weren't as safe as they once were. But alas, I am getting off track.

It was this day; Hope first came to my school. The second she was introduced to the class I was captivated by her, not because I was a boy and she was a girl. At that age I could care less about girls and I knew nothing about what the opposite sex was about. This was something totally different.

A glow seemed to consume her. It was, to me, very peaceful and I noticed it more then I noticed what clothing she had on and how she looked physically. I had asked my best friend at the time if he also seen it and he just looked me as if I were crazy, so I never said anything to any one but her about it since. Now that I think about it though, that glow was always there just for me. Sounds selfish I know ... but it wasn't.

In later years that glow provided to be the key to my ... powers ... I am still reluctant to call it that ... as the glow around me that she could see the key to hers. She had stated years later that my glow was dark Purple as hers was golden with a hint of sky blue. Later on I surmised that people call this glow an Aura, but again I'm getting ahead of my self.

During lunch that day, I went up to her and introduced my self. She replied in kind, but she was very quiet, seemingly reserved and kind of shy. Over the next two months we became good friends. We did everything two normal people do at that age ... talking, helping each other with projects, playing video games and just having fun. I had found out Hope was 11 years old, but she didn't look it being short for her age. She was always short for her age though.

To my dismay though at the end of that school year I found out she had to move again. Her mother it seems was a business woman, and forever traveling. Her father long ago left for someone else, forgetting his family. The spark that was our friendship became dormant for 2 years 3 months and 11 days. She had to move so they could afford to keep living. It never occurred to me this was the reason she was so intelligent, yet 2 years behind in school.

To say those next two years were anything near good would be a blatant lie By becoming friends with Hope, I managed to ostracize my self further from my male classmates, well further then my grades had already placed me. They were forever picking on me about when my "girlfriend" was coming back to school. I guess this torment added to the way I felt about her when she returned.

In some twisted way, it caused me to miss her even more and care about her more as the time passed. Summers weren't much different then school days, considering the fact that I was not allowed outside much because of all the crime. So I can say, those two years were both boring and lonely Yet I stayed optimistic and outgoing, just as I was before."