Chapter 6

"September of 1986 I went back to school again, dreading another year with the losers I have spent 1/2 my life with already. No, they really were not losers, but to me they were useless because I was ostracized by each and every one of them. I had noticed in my homeroom a new face though; His name was Randal Logan, Randy for short. Quickly during the first couple of days I found he rivaled my intelligence, already correcting two of the teachers when they made mistakes. I decided it wouldn't hurt to try and make friends with this person since he was (as I found out later) even more intelligent then myself. Quickly we became friends and that made life much easier to bear.

I did not forget the letter that hope sent me during the summer, and I was looking forward to her moving back. I had told Randy about Hope and we came up with a plan to throw a party for her return. Picture this: Two geeks inviting the entire school to a welcome home party for someone no one really knew. It was a grand scheme, and we hoped it would work but when the day came for Hope's return we were left with the two of us, 40 party hats, a bowl of punch, our parents, and a melting ice cream cake.

Hope knew about the party and luckily she and her mother, Caroline showed up around at 4:15 PM. They were a little late to a party, a party that was dead before it even started. I felt like crap because of how things turned out and decided to go sit on the back porch and cry for a while. To my surprise, Hope had followed me. Before I knew it I was wrapped in soft arms and I had small hands pressed against my back. Hope, who had only grown one inch since the last time I had seen her, had tears in her eyes as she hugged me with every thing she had.

Quoting a really good book Hope knew I had read shesaid, 'Why are you crying little boy?' I looked at Hope with dismay and a little confusion and asked 'Don't you know? I planed this perfect party for you to say welcome back. No one showed up, the cake is melted, the punch is warm and I missed you so much. I wanted your first day back to be per-' she cut me off right there putting a finger over my lips, what she said next touched my heart, and in that fleeting moment I knew how special I was to her.

Hope said 'What you tried to do for me and what you have done, with your letters and the attempt of a party is perfect to me. You are here. I am here. What more could matter' ... with that she kissed me on the cheek and said 'Now lets go drink some ice cream cake, freeze the juice into ice pops and then dance!'

In our own way we danced the night away, Hope even danced once with Randy. She was right, nothing could be more perfect.

Saturday, October 11, 1986 would be a day I remembered with a smile for a long, long time."