The New Girl

7

How to fall in love

Alexa pranced into the third floor lounge. “I have a boyfriend! I have a boyfriend!” Lissy had been half-asleep on the white beanbag chair, but now her eyelids wrenched open and she sat up straight.

“Who,” she yawned.

Alexa grinned, “Ryan Bage!”

“No way!” shouted Lissy while Kelsey complained, “Ew! He’s ugly!” Maxi slapped her from her purple beanbag, and Lissy glared at her. Lizzie announced that she, too, had a guy.

“OMG who??” asked Lissy.

Lizzie grinned and sat up on the black beanbag. “CeeJay,” she said simply.

“Get out!” Alexa laughed.

“Ew! He’s ugly!”

Maxi looked at her and said slyly, “Just ‘cause you only have eyes for Dominic, doesn’t mean that all the other guys are ugly…”

“Shut up! You were supposed to be the only one who knew!” Kelsey glanced at Maxi and then said, “But in my opinion, Alex is ugly.”

“No he’s not!” Maxi protested. “He’s a brunette version of J.B.! You’re in love with J.B.!”

“Yeah, well so are you!”

“I won’t deny that…”

Megs came up the spiral staircase on her way to her floor. “Who’s in love with J.B.?”

Maxi and Kelsey both pointed at each other. “She is,” they said simultaneously, Kelsey almost falling off her red beanbag chair.

“I don’t doubt that, but what I do doubt is that either of you are obsessed with J.B. as much as I am!” Megs laughed and continued up the stairs.

“Well,” Alexa said after a pause, “That was odd.”

“Agreed,” said Nia, who had been sitting on her lime green beanbag, silent this entire time.

Alexa sank down into her sky-blue beanbag with a sigh. The dance was over, and she realized that her dress perfectly matched her beanbag chair. Alexa noticed that she could not stop thinking about Ryan! He was so wonderful and polite and gentle yet strong and silly and cared about others’ feelings and was just so amazingly adorably cute! She now realized that she had had a huge crush on him all along, but it was just covered by her feelings for Bradley.

Kendall came out of her room in her cute kitty pajamas, her bleach blonde hair up in pigtails, and sat comfortably on her also-light-blue beanbag chair next to the stairs. Earlier in the year, all the girls had pooled their money to buy these beanbag chairs for the lounge. Each girl had a beanbag in her favorite color.

“What’s up?” Kendall asked.

Alexa and Lizzie looked at each other. “We have boyfriends,” Alexa said, speaking for both of them.

“Well, I knew that you had one, Liz, but I didn’t know that you had one, Alexa. That’s so cool! Who?”

“Ryan,” Alexa grinned.

“Bage?” Kendall clarified.

Alexa nodded as Lissy asked, “Wait. We just found out that Lizzie had a bf, how’d you know?”

“She told me like four days ago…” Kendall said, confused.

“You had a boyfriend for four days, and you just told us now?!?”

Lizzie smiled that sneaky Lizzie smile. “Uh, lemme think… yep!”

Lissy smiled, shaking her head; Kelsey playfully punched Lizzie, then drew back, knowing that Lizzie was much tougher, but she just laughed.

The following Monday, Ryan came up to Alexa during breakfast and asked if she wanted to go into town with him that evening. She agreed, with a fluttering heart. Ryan smiled his huge, sweet smile that he smiled whenever he saw her, and went back to his table as she stood. My first date with my first actual boyfriend!

Ryan met Alexa at the bottom of the North Tower spiral staircase. He was wearing his dark green uniform shirt. He knew that was her favorite shirt of his (because it really accentuated his gorgeous emerald green eyes). He smiled at her with that smile. She couldn’t help it; she smiled too. They walked through the empty stone halls of Durmon, Alexa wishing he would hold her hand, Ryan wishing he was brave enough to try to hold her hand. He did get the front door for her, though. They walked out into sunshine that seemed too bright for mid-February.

“So… what do you want to do?” Ryan asked sheepishly.

Alexa laughed, a beautiful sound to Ryan’s ears. “I don’t know! What do you want to do?”

“How about some dinner?” shrugged Ryan.  “I’ve got money.”

“I do too,” Alexa laughed, “dinner sounds good to me. Where should we go?”

“There’s a nice little café up that way,” Ryan pointed. “You wanna?”

“Sure, why not!”

It was only after they had gotten there and been seated that Alexa realized that this was the café that Bradley and Leah had gone on their first date, all the way back in October, back when Alexa actually cared who Bradley was dating. But she didn’t care now; she had realized that Bradley was a total jerk and that Ryan was the most wonderful guy on the entire face of the planet!

He was sitting across the little table from her, not taking his gorgeous eyes of her, in her uniform purple blouse and green-and-purple plaid skirt. She could have been wearing a burlap sack and he would still think that she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. If only he could tell by the way she smiled at him that she felt the exact same way. They sat, not taking their eyes off each other, talking and laughing, until their food arrived.   

“I had so much fun!” Alexa assured Ryan as they walked back to the school. The sun had already set because after eating, they had gone to see a show in the little playhouse just off Main Street. He had put his arm around her during the show, and now he finally reached down to hold her hand. Their fingers interlocked romantically at once, and Alexa could not stop smiling. He was the most wonderful guy she had ever met! I hope he feels the same way! Meanwhile, Ryan was thinking, she is so cute and sweet! I think I love her. But does she feel the same? Oh, I hope so…

The couple reached the steps leading up to the great wooden front doors. Here they stopped, not wanting the night to end. Alexa and Ryan looked at each other. Then suddenly, Ryan grabbed her arms and pulled her forward. Their lips met, and it was the most amazing feeling either had ever felt. A chill ran up Alexa’s spine, but one of joy as Ryan held her tight in his strong arms. He was wearing cologne, and she was happily drowning in the scent.

They broke apart, both staring at the other.

“Wow,” Alexa breathed.

Ryan nodded in agreement and got the door for her. He walked her to the spiral staircase leading up to the North Tower and watched her as she climbed. Alexa was so completely in love with that brown-haired, green-eyed gentleman at the foot of the stairs.