Oh, happiness...

   I remember I met Clarissa in the sixth grade.  We were friends but not too close.  She was friends with Katrina.  I had her for my fourth period Beginning Theater Arts class.  We had one of the best teachers ever: Ms. Wendy Annette Bable. My most vivid first memory of Clarissa AKA Short Stuff is when she came to pick me up for a rehearsal. She was wearing a bright purple shirt with weird designs on it. I wore loose fitting jeans and a medium white shirt.

   Now, Clarissa, or should I say *tink* or volfie(German version of wolfie), is my best friend, more like my sister, but whatever. She is fifteen and so beautiful(not that she wasn't pretty in sixth grade).

   I remember I met Robert in the eight grade, though I had seen him around in the seventh grade.  He was always quiet and had that bad boy look. The first time I remember actually talking to him was at the beginning of eighth when this girl in front of me turned around and told me to give a note to him to pass to Elora. The girl was Justine. I know who she is now. Anyway, he had his head down and looked so beautiful. *sighs*  Well, mission accomplished and I talked to him that day.

me:*psst* Robert. Pass this to Elora.

Rob: Okay.

   Aren't I amazing? I had him for second and third period and sixth and seventh period.  I sat right behind him in Math(6th and 7th). I was paired with Kassandra for math buddies. She is really smart but it takes her awhile to understand things. Robert sat with Matthew Motemayor. Matthew was -is- annoying beyond all possible imagining. Well, not annoying, but really talkative.

Matthew: *psst* *whisper* Chicken! Oh, my God! Chicken.

Robert:*giggle*

Kassandra and I: Huh?

Miss Montalvo AKA our Eight Grade Mathematics teacher: Kassandra! Amanda! Hush!

   Do you see the injustice? No, Miss Montalvo was really cool.  If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be passing Algebra 1 right now. She got her stuff done, you know?  Anyway, I sat behind Matthew and Kassandra sat behind Robert. Kassandra and Robert were relatively good friends, so they talked a bit. I remember the first real conversation we had was about anime. I was recounting what had happened in the latest episode of eureka seveN when he turned around to listen. I didn't mind. I get curious too.

Rob: My favorite anime is D.N.Angel. Have you heard of it?

me: Nuh-uh.

   I was too shy to talk to him! I was embarrassed. I wasn't at all pretty. I felt ugly as hell. He continued to tell us about D.N. Angel but I only half listened. I was afraid he was noticing my ugliness.

   I also remember how later on in the year, we were all moved to a four desk table. I sat with Robert, Mike, and Willie. Mike is a really good friend of his whom I think is the cutest. Not in a bad way. I just think he's sweet. Now, Willie. He was an ASSHOLE. Sorry, but it's true. All he ever did was talk and demand the answers for things. But because Mike and Robert sat there together, Willie was a tad nicer. Robert and Mike were loud people. My table was always being told to quiet down by Miss Montalvo. I was silent and shy.

   I remember all I wore was corduroy skinny khaki pants and white polos. My Converse and an array of belts. Robert wore loose fitting khaki pants with either dark green Wynn Seale shirts or white or gray polos. He looked beautiful. Sorry, lovefest going on. 

   I would also hear Mike mentioning the name Erika and Robert becoming silent and stony-looking. I wondered who Erika was. Probably his ex-girlfriend. Or something. When I asked timidly, passing it off as just being curious, he shook his head and didn't answer.

   He called me a few days later.  I had never even given him my phone number. I wasn't even there. I was at my friend Akira's house. When I got home, late as usual, my father was angry. He said a guy named Robert had called. My father had never heard me talk about Robert, so he thought that he was stalking me. I quickly dismissed the thought of Robert ever calling my house and said it must have been a coincidence.

   When I got to school the next day and walked into the courtyard, he smiled at me and said he called me yesterday. I didn't smile. I was afraid. I suddenly feared he had found out that I liked him and would make fun of me.

me:*in a small voice* How did you get my number?

Rob: I called Andrew to give me Alex's phone number because I thought she might have yours. Why? Did I get you in trouble?

  I didn't answer and looked away. So he had gone through all of that trouble just to talk to me? Maybe he liked me after all.  I didn't catch his call until a few days later when I actually came home early. We -he- talked until eleven o' clock at night. It was very interesting. He laughed a lot.

  As the friendship progressed, I got him to tell me about Erika. He had her met in the seventh grade. She was beautiful and, in his words, a sweetheart. I wish I was a sweetheart.  He would see her in the courtyard at our middle school and he would talk to her in the mornings.

   He told me he was falling in love with her and she didn't seem to catch the hint. Sounds like me. I'm really dense and slow at understanding things. But other guys liked her, too. She had naturally black hair with scarlet highlights. That was her natural hair color. Dark eyes and pale white milky skin. Slightly taller than me. A big butt and big breasts. She had the bust x waist x hips ratio of a Victoria's Secret model. She was so intensely beautiful.

   Because Robert couldn't figure out how to tell her, he wrote her a note. He wrote it in the best hand-writing he could muster and gave it to her...

   She read the letter out loud to people and laughed about it... And he still loved her. 

   So he became friends with the famous Laura Valerio when she prevented him from joining into a fight. He would have gotten into a lot of problems if the had joined the beating of a guy(James) that was plainly making fun of him. Others had heard him talking shit(the rest of the eight grade football team) and joined in to beat up James.

   But Laura stopped him. And basically patched up every wound, checked if he was still breathing, made sure he could walk, and sent him on his way. And in return, Robert loved her with all of his heart and did everything for her. When he asked if she could be his girlfriend, her response was that she didn't know him well enough. Yet, she got with this other guy a few days later. I think his name was Margarito.

   Then...He met Ashley. I honestly do not know how many times she has failed the eighth grade. I don't even want to ask her age. She doesn't look fourteen. She was in the eighth grade when I was in the seventh grade and so forth. I'm i the ninth grade now and she's still in the eight grade. Eighteen next year maybe? I don't know. But she was with Robert for four months and used and abused him. At the end, she wanted to break up with her, but he broke up with her before she could. He told me they hardly ever talked and she was his first kiss. She always smelt like fish because she had a job in a resraunt that required that she handle fish. She had bad taste in clothes. Corset with bagy jeans? No. Fishnet and Converse? No. Ick. None of his friends liked her.

  Following that was his depression that led him to trust no one and consider suicide. He was manipulative and stony-faced. Well, this depression occured twice. After Erika first, then following Ashley. During one of the endless nights where he stayed on myspace.com he met this girl. He was so manipulative that he convince her that she was bi-sexual...So mean.

  And after that was the beautiful Kathleen with the abusive boyfriend. He was her comfort and he would hold her hand. So he thought that when she broke up with him he would be her boyfriend. Turns out, she never broke up with him and he got a call at four in the morning from her boyfriend. He told to him to stay the hell away from his girlfriend. His response: Okay... Goodnight.

  And then after that came me, the shy one with the hair. He said he thought I was interesting and made him laugh a lot. I've been with him for over a year now and I think I've caused him the most heartache any other has. I'm difficult. But he must love me if he has put up with me for so long or maybe he just doesn't know how to break up.

  When I started high school, I met my better half. He's more than a best friend but not a definitely not a boyfriend. It is an odd relationship. It is not a brother/sister relationship because I've been in one of those and this feels nothing like it. His name is Corey, but he likes being called YamaMayaa. I am happy I took German,otherwise I would never have met him. I sat behind him the first day of school. I turned around and said hello as brightly as possible. I gave me this look like he was going to swallow me hole for coming to close. I remember vivid red hair and (let's hope this doesn't sound corny) peircing blue eyes that seem to change color depending on the day. He had his arms crossed and looked angry that I dared speak to him, so I quickly turned around in fear before he ripped me apart.

   I learned later that he sometimes just looks that way. *giggle* He told me later that he was just surprised someone was talking or him or soemthing like that.  During the week before Christmas break, we became friends and I spilled my heart and its contents into his hands. I was surprised he didn'y break it like so many others had. He would walk me to the bus stop, where I would take it to go to Wynn Seale to visit younger students at my middle school. On th last day, he gave me a folded piece of paper with numbers scratched inside. I can't remember when I called him, but I did and after that it was hard to stop talking to him(not that I wanted to).

  Later I learned that Clarissa liked someone and kept having a dream telling her so. It was Corey - him: YAMAMAYAA! GET IT RIGHT*throws shoe at me* me: *is hit and killed on contact*...just kidding - that she loved and I immediatley devised a plan - me: Let's pretend I did! - to bring them together. Well let's just say that the outcome was Corey having to carry Clarissa home because her puny legs couldn't support her enormous ass...ah-ha.

  And the following days were of happiness. Where my life was sweet...For about three days. As a wise man once said, "Would happiness be as sweet if it were not for the bitterness of despair?"