One day, I was walking to class with my friend Brandi, (we call her Brad for short, because we all have nicknames that are guys names instead of ours), and I accidentally walked into him. The poor guy, I didn't even see him coming around the corner! Brandiand I happened to be talking about the guy who sits in front of me in Algebra 2. It was Jason of course. (I picked that seat so I could stare at his beautiful locks of hair that I loved so much.) Jason looked down to where I had so graciously fell to the ground.

"Carly are you okay down there? Earth to Carly? Carly are you there?" It was like the Gods were calling my name...

"Carly....Hello down there! Can you hear me Carly? Answer me already." I heard Jason say as I opened my eyes. "Carly are you okay?" I opened my eyes to see that a group of people had come to my rescue, or just to laugh at me; one of the two.

"I'm okay Jason...just help me up please" I said reaching for his hands. The hands that I had never had the chance to touch before were helping me up from a terrible spill! "Thanks Jason. You're a real life saver. Hey! Stop making the room spin!" I said grabbing hold to Jason for a leaning post.

"Carly are you sure that you're okay? Do you want me to help you to the nurse's office?" Jason said as we walked with his arms around my shoulders. A teacher finally got all the others 'helpers' to go back to class like normal students. I felt as if I was in heaven.

"Earth to Carly," Jason asked as I noticed we were already at the nurse's office.

"Hi Nurse Kelly. Carly had a spill in the great hallway. I think that she's okay but she happens to be complaining about the room and how it won't stop spinning", Jason told Nurse Kelly. "Could you make sure that she is okay while I go to get a drink of water?"

"What's wrong Carly? Would you like to tell me now that Jason left the room?" Nurse Kelly asked me. I hope that he will be back soon. I don't like to be alone in a room with Nurse Kelly, especially in the state that I'm in now.

"I think that I am okay now. I had a huge spill in the great hallway because I wasn't watching where I was going. That's all." I told her, looking around the room. I saw plenty of certificates and plaques everywhere. I guess she really was a nurse after all.

"Now Carly, are you truly sure that you are able to go back to class right now? I mean you might need to sit down and let your equilibrium settle before you go", Nurse Kelly said just as Jason walked in. I stood beside one of the many beds that she had in her office.

"Let me take your temperature, Carly. I think you really need to settle yourself down, right now!" Nurse Kelly almost yelled as I fell onto the bed, blacking out. "Carly can you hear me dear? Carly....Carly....Carly? Are you there honey?" But being me, I was totally out for the count. I couldn't hear a single word that the nurse had said...until I heard Jason speak.

"Carly, wake up. Carly....Carly?" And still no answer from me. "Carly, please wake up. I just want you to wake up....please!" Jason had tears in his eyes. I lay there, able to hear only the franticness in his voice. I woke soon after, startled to find that Nurse Kelly had the principal and vice-principal in here. (Chances are that she was going to call my parents if I didn't wake up soon.) "Carly are you okay now dear?" Nurse Kelly asked me one more time before I realized that she was, indeed, talking to me.

"Yes, Nurse Kelly I am. Can I please leave now?" I asked her. Honestly, I felt fine. I just felt a little off balance.

"Let me check on your reflexes and then you may go only after you have proven to me that you can walk by yourself, not with Jason's help." She said as she watched me get up and stand on my feet. "Good, now take a few steps for me. That's it, nice and easy Carly."

I noticed that my feet didn't happen to listen to my brain so well after all, but I wasn't about to tell the nurse. She might have sent me home or had my parents come to get me. I didn't want to look like a baby so I sucked it up when I felt a sudden cringe come on my face.

"Carly, what's wrong? I saw that you tried to hide the fact that it hurt. Don't you think for a moment that I am going to let you go to class, unable to walk with that armload of books that you were carrying when you came in here young lady. Now straighten out your leg and don't you dare move a muscle except to sit down." Nurse Kelly practically commanded me. "Don't hurt yourself any worse than you are already."

"I can't help but hurt myself, if you want me to sit down. I have to bend my knee to do so, you know," I said more to myself than to Nurse Kelly and the audience watching my every move.

Jason was still here, sitting on the bed where I now lay, with my leg on his lap. I know this is all pretty hard to believe. (A girl, who hardly knew anyone at the beginning of the year, now had the guy that she had a crush on helping her.) He seemed to amaze me as the day went on. I like to think that Jason and I began a friendship that I will never be able to forget for as long as I live. I don't know what Jason or I thought as I sat there with my leg resting in his lap. It seemed perfect until Nurse Kelly told me the unbelievable outcome of my trip earlier that day.

"Carly, I am afraid that I have some bad news for you dear. I think that you may have twisted your knee when you fell today," Nurse Kelly said as I began to sit up. "Don't raise up just yet Carly. I think that I had better call your mom and tell her to come and get you. I don't think that you will be able to drive home today."

"What are you talking about? I am just fine and dandy, Nurse Kelly. I don't need my parent's help anymore than I do to think on my own," I said matter of factly. "I don't think that it is fair how you seem to think that every little thing I do wrong. I am okay and I will do as I please, Nurse Kelly!" I said as I got up from the bed (or at least tried). Nurse Kelly looked from Jason to me and from me to Jason.

"Jason, I think that you may need to help Miss Carly here to her classrooms for the rest of the day. That shouldn't be a problem because you have most of them together, right?" Nurse Kelly asked Jason as he helped me get up.

"I think that we do Nurse Kelly. I would be pleased to walk Carly to her classrooms today and tomorrow if she doesn't mind," Jason said as I finally got up off the bed. I had Jason help me gather my books. "Carly, don't start to carry those books. I will carry yours for you if you don't mind."

"Thank you again Jason for helping me, but I think that you have done enough already. I wish that I could just do it myself," I said as he interrupted me.

"Carly, don't worry about the books and helping. I would do anything to spend a day with you," Jason said taking the books from me and opening the door.

"Before you go Carly, I do need to wrap that knee of yours and you need to see a doctor immediately if the pain worsens," Nurse Kelly told me, "Now sit back down and let me wrap it. Good thing you wore capris today. I wouldn't have been able to wrap it with those tight jeans you girls are always wearing here at school."

"Nurse Kelly we do not wear 'tight' jeans in this school and you know it," Mr. Solomon, the principal, told her. "You know for a fact we do not allow that in our dress code here and we won't have people who disobey it either." As he said the last part of his 'speech' he looked at me like I was the one who disobeyed the dress code here. In fact, it was his own secretary in his office who did.

"Mr. Solomon, do you think that I would do such a thing, here at this school?" I asked, getting up after the nurse was finished with my leg, "Thank you Nurse Kelly and I will be going now with the help of Jason, I suppose."

"Yes you will Carly and don't take your books. I will carry them for you. Mr. Solomon, what class period is this?" Jason asked the principal, hoping that he would say it in short-term and not take all day.

"It is almost sixth period and you need to report to the library for testing today you two. I think that you missed half of the test which means that you will have to make it up on Saturday morning," Mr. Solomon said as he opened the door for us. "You will have to leave early for the next period Carly. If you have to go get other books you will have to stop at your locker before you go to class. I will tell your teachers that you are excused from track and basketball. You will not be able to compete with your knee like that."

"But Mr. Solomon, I have to be able to go watch sports still. Saturday, we have a huge basketball game against our rivals, the Charlotte Bear Cubs, and I have to support our team. I don't want to be excused from my sports, I will do as I please," I said walking to my locker.

"Carly with that attitude you will get no where but detention. Expect to see me here Saturday after the make up test."

"Mr. Solomon, Carly did not mean anything by that last statement. She must be in some severe pain to cause this much trouble. Think that I speak for her when I say that she will be happy to stay out of her sports in order to keep Saturday afternoon open. I think that she would like it very much if she could just attend the ball game instead," Jason said trying to cover my butt.

I am glad that Jason decided to help me but he should have thought out what he was going to say longer. I can't understand why he doesn't try any harder than he does. Jason is a smart person; he just doesn't know how to use his brain very well.

"Jason I am just fine and I think I should be allowed to go. You and I both know that I am perfectly okay and do not need to rest my knee at all. I am going to do my best to get this knee problem fixed." I told Mr. Solomon who just happened to take the long way back to his office.

My locker was right beside the office and I hated that I couldn't get away from the principal for a second of my time. I really wanted to talk to Jason alone but that wasn't the reason I wanted him gone. I couldn't stand the fact that the principal and I weren't getting along. He wanted me to be more goal-oriented and all I care about is being able to play basketball and softball again.

"Well Carly it was nice seeing you again. I think that I will report to my office now to talk to your mom. I want you to know that she will find out even if you don't chose to tell her. I'll see you two later!" Mr. Solomon said to me like he was someone who actually cared about his students. Yeah right!

"Jason, why did you have to go and tell that to Mr. Solomon? You had no right to tell him how I really felt and what I intended to do Saturday. I think that it's best if we go our separate ways. Don't talk to me for awhile," I said trying to open my locker and not cry at the same time.

"Carly, you heard what Mr. Solomon said. You can't go to that game and you know it. I guess that's okay because if you're not there, I don't want to go either. What's the use of going if I can't look into the crowd and see you there cheering me on? I would love it if I could come over Saturday for dinner instead. Your mom might like to know why you fell today." Jason said opening my locker. "What books do you need? I can get them for you."

That's all I needed to hear. I knew that my day wasn't going to get any better. I couldn't wait until later that day to tell Brandi and Lauren about it! I just know that they will be so happy to know that Jason is going to come over to my house this Saturday. I can't wait!

"Carly, are you listening to me? Carly are you there?" Jason asked me as I continued to stare off into space.

"Yeah I am. I just got off track for a moment. Do you mind telling me again what you were saying?" I asked while I reached for the books at the top of my locker. "I think that we better get going Jason. The bell is going to ring and we are going to be late for sixth period.

"Okay, I was saying that it would be great if I could come over Saturday and have dinner with your family," Jason said as I shut my locker, "I hope that it is okay with your mom. I know that my mom want to meet the girl that I am always talking about."

"Huh? You talk about me to your mom?" I said surprised. We walked to Algebra 2 together until I saw Lauren and Brandi.

"Carly are you ready for an exciting date or what?" Lauren asked me when we met up in the hallway and Jason was out of earshot. "I can't believe that you got a date with the school's hottest guy for Saturday!"

"Oh Lor, don't get so melodramatic on me! I mean, it's not as big of a deal as you think it is...well, maybe it is after all. Just don't build me up okay?" I said as we reached Mr. Rick's classroom. "I just hope that I don't mess things up."

"Carly Martris? Am I hearing okay? Did I just hear you say that you had a date Saturday with none other than the school's hottest jock?" Brandi said as she took her seat beside mine. "I can't believe you didn't tell me sooner!"

"I would've told you but I couldn't find you quick enough. If you're lucky, I'll tell you at work, if you don't leave early again. You some how skip out again on the clean up. If it keeps happening again and again, the boss is going to find out and you know you don't want Leon to find out! He'll fire you forsure!"

"Oh George, you are so funny! I won't get caught and you know it!" Brandi laughed as Mr. Rick turned to us.

"Now ladies, are we here to learn or are we here to gossip about Carly's date on Saturday?" Mr. Rick asked as I looked up, blushing. I hoped that I hadn't been talking that loud.

"That depends on what day it is, Mr. Rick. Today is Wednesday right?" Lauren asked laughing.

"Yea, it is Lauren. That means that today is gossip day and tomorrow we can listen before the test!" Brandi laughed with her.

"I sure hope that we can listen before that mondo huge test Friday," I said laughing with the girls.

"Don't hold your breath ladies, the test is tomorrow and that means you have to listen instead of gossiping today," Mr. Rick laughed as the other classmates joined in. "Now if you will turn your attention to the white board then I will begin."

I sat there trying to look as if I was listening and taking notes, instead of writing one to Lor and Brad. It said:

L & B, What do you think that I should do about Saturday? I don't know what to do... I don't even know what to wear! Please help me! W/B/A/S/A/P! Carly

Lor wrote: Do and wear what is natural to you. He didn't call it a date did he?

Brad wrote: What ever makes you feel comfortable is what you should do. Don't worry about the date thingy. Just be you.

I wrote back saying: Thanks guys. I'll make you proud. What if we made it a triple date and you guys came over too? Would you guys be up for that?

B& L wrote: Sure! I will talk to Jon (Brad) and I will talk to Charlie (Lor). We'll three-way you tonight! Loves!!