Ivory took a deep breath before squaring his shoulders, his eyes set on a brunette girl sitting alone at one of the many lunch tables. It had taken him weeks to get up this much gumption just to get this far. He took a few steps towards the lunch table and immediately turned back. “Oh no you don’t!” A sandy haired boy grabbed him by the arm and turned him back towards the girl. “Colton! I can’t do this!” Ivory snapped, his face as red as his hair. “You’ve gotten this far, you’re not turning back.” Colton told him sternly. “After all, what have you got to lose?” He let go of Ivory’s arm and walked away to go back to his watching post. “I’ve got everything to lose.” He muttered, rumpling his red curls as he walked over to the table.

She sat alone, looking down at the tabletop. “Hey Sara.” Ivory said sliding onto the bench beside her. “Hey, what’s up?” She said not even looking up from the table. “Well, I wanted to talk to you.” He said gather up all the courage he had. It was going to take all his effort to not sound like a babbling idiot. “Sure.” She said, still not looking up at him. ‘Maybe that will help.’ He thought. “I was wondering” He started, trying to keep his voice steady. “What?” Sara asked sounding genuinely interested. “Well… I was wondering if you would like to go out with me.” Ivory said very quickly. “What!” She said, sounding like the world was ending. “Sorry.” She shook her head. “Could you repeat the question?” She asked her eyes wide, still looking at the table. “Would you like to go out with m---“ He was cut off short as Sara’s head snapped up. “Noooo!” She said sounding outraged. Ivory felt the whole world crashing around him. How could this happen. Sara turned around, looking Ivory in the eyes. “I’ve got to go, I’ll talk to you later.” She said shaking her head. ‘She still wants to talk to me?’ Ivory thought, bewildered. “ Hey Ivory, what’s up?” Sara said cheerfully. “Wha-oh.” Exactly what was going on dawned on Ivory as he watched Sara take a blue tooth out of her ear. “Nothing, I just ---“ Again he was cut off this time by the bell. “I’ll talk to you later. Bye!” She waved and ran off, hoping to not be late for class.

“Great! Just great! I finally ask her out and she doesn’t even hear me!” He ranted, shoving his fists into his pockets as he crossed the cafeteria. “Didn’t go well did it?” Colton said joining Ivory. He had easily picked up from Ivory’s moody attitude that things had not gone to plan. “Does it look like it?!” He snapped, kicking a locker as he passed through the hallway. “I’ve got to go, I’ll be late for class.” He said moodily, not wanting to talk to anyone. At least next period he had English, where he could hide behind his book and sulk, and better yet, Sara was not in that class.

The final bell rang and the hallways were suddenly clogged with students. Ivory mindlessly let himself be pushed along by the crowd until he found himself outside by the busses. He stood in the middle of the schools front lawn looking out into the parking lot, not seeing anything that was there. “Ouch!” Two voices cried together. Ivory opened his eyes to find himself on the ground and to his horror, Sara, Sara of all people, was lying on top of him. “I’m so sorry.” She started gushing, realizing what was going on. To Ivory’s surprise he started to laugh. “It’s all right.” He smirked. Sara started to laugh too as she slid off of him onto the soft grass. Many kids passing by were whispering about them, but they didn’t notice. “I’m so clumsy!” She said picking up the books she had dropped. “Well, that makes life exciting.” Ivory replied, helping her gather her things. “Well, when we both come into school tomorrow, covered in bruises, we’ll see if you’re still okay with my clumsiness.” She said brushing her chestnut brown hair out of her eyes. “Hey Sara?” He thought now might be a good time to try and ask her out again. “Yeah?” She said, her curiosity taking over. “I was wondering---“ He started, but just then the bus engines started. “Oh no, I’ve got to go. I can’t miss my bus.” She said, a look of deep remorse on her face. “I’m sorry, I’ll talk to you later.” She called, running to reach her bus before it left. “UGGGGG!” Ivory wasn’t sure he could take much more of this. He climbed onto his bus and grumbled it himself the entire ride home.

Ivory threw his backpack into an empty chair before slumping into one himself. “Bad day?” His mother walked into the room, wiping her hands with an old rag, she had clearly been cleaning. He simply grunted back. “Well, if you don’t want to talk about it.” She sighed and left the room. “Was it that Sara girl? The one that you loooove. The one that you talk about in your dreams.” His little brother, Jacob, jeered as he walked into the room. “Shut up! You brat!” Ivory snapped, hitting Jacob upside the back of the head. “Stop that!” His mother said, walking back into the room. “Iv, I’m taking Jake to the park and I’d like for you to come along.” She said, putting her arm around Jacob. “Sure, why not!” Ivory replied enthusiastically, clearly mocking the trip.

‘Maybe today wasn’t so bad. I’ll just have to give it another go on Monday.’ He thought to himself, but his personal pep talk wasn’t working. He walked around the edge of the soccer field where a few junior high kids, Jacob among them, were practicing. “Watch out!” One of them called, but it was too late. The ball hit him squarely in the face. “This is just not my day!” He muttered, his hands jumping to his aching forehead.

“Excuse me! Do have any ice?” Ivory called as he walked into the deli across the street. His mother had told him to go there and ask for ice for his head. “Yeah, just a moment.” He heard a familiar voice call. “Here you g-oh, hey Ivory.” Sara said handing him a bag of ice wrapped in a paper towel. “What happened to you?” She asked, leaning against the counter. “Soccer ball.” He muttered, slightly embarrassed, putting the ice on his forehead. ‘Great, this makes me look so impressive. I look like a dork!’ He thought to himself. “Do you work here?” He asked, wondering why she was here. “Yeah, well, my dad owns the place.” She shrugged looking around the room. Ivory mentally hit himself. How could he miss such a big chunk of information? He had known Sara for years, but some how he had managed to miss the fact that her family owned the most popular deli in town. “Sara!” A man walked into the room from the storage room. “Your shifts over and if you and your friend...” He said gesturing to Ivory. “ … are just talking, then talk somewhere else. You’re crowding up the deli.” He walked behind the counter and ousted Sara off of it. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’re going.” She said landing on her feet. “Come on Ivory, lets go.” She said as she walked out the door. ‘No problem.’ He thought to himself, trying not to grin. ‘This is going in the right direction, maybe…’ His thoughts quickly worked to the conclusion that this would be the perfect time to ask her out. “Lets go over to the park.” Sara said already crossing the street. “Hang on! Wait up!” Ivory called trying to keep the ice to his head.

“So Sara...” He started catching up with her. “I was wonderin—“ Sara interrupted suddenly a scared look on her face. “Move!” She yelled as she pushed him off the road. Yet again he found himself lying on the ground and, to his horror and delight, Sara was yet again on top of him. She leaped to her feet, shaking her fist. “SLOW DOWN YOU IDIOT! YOU COULD HAVE KILLED US YOU DOLT!” She hollered at the top of her lungs.

A shiny new C70 Volvo convertible was speeding down the road turning onto the main road. “Sorry, Ivory, but I’m pretty sure you’d rather have me push you out of the road than be road kill.” She said trying to calm down. “Yeah, I would.” He said a little out of breath still on the ground. The car had come speeding around the tight corner at the and of the road and if Sara hadn’t noticed it they would have both died.

“Today is just not my day.” Ivory mumbled, closing his eyes, letting out a load groan and without even thinking about it started off on a long rant about how horrible his day was. “First I tried to ask you and talk to you like Colton keeps bugging me to do, I wish he’d bug somebody else, but you were talking on your phone, but I thought you were talking to me so I was really confused and I had no idea what was going and then later when I was really depressed I ran right into you and that hurt quiet a lot and then I was going to try and ask you out again, but you had to run and catch your bus so I went home really depressed and my mom was bugging me and my brother was making fun of me and then I had to come here because of my stupid butt brother and while he was having soccer practice one of the little pipsqueaks on his team hit me in the head with the stupid ball so I had to come all the way over to the deli and ask for ice and then you were there and that was really really embarrassing and then while we were walking over here I decided it would be a could time to try again, but then that stupid jerk in the cool car ruined it by almost running us over and yet again you landed on top of me which again hurt quiet a lot and on top of all this I got a stupid eighty on my French test which has absolutely noting to do with the rest of my ranting, but it’s horrible none the less.” He said this all in one sentence and breath, his eyes closed the whole time. “OH MY GOD WHAT AM I SAYING!!” Ivory practically yelled, his eyes flashing open, bolting upright.
Ivory hadn’t meant to say all that especially not to Sara. This had to be the worst moment of his entire life. He looked up at Sara to see utter shock written all over her simply heartbreaking face. “Opps.” He mumbled, the horror of what had just happened sinking in. They stared and stared at each other for what seemed like hours maybe even days, both their heads racing.
‘Maybe it will all work out. Oh who am I kidding I just totally messed up. I thought this couldn’t get any worse. Oh, what do I do? What do I say? Should I say anything? No, that’s how I got myself in this mess in the first place. Oh…’ Ivory thought, his head swirling.
‘Ask me out?! He was trying to ask me out?! Oh no, I’ve messed up big time. I can’t believe I didn’t pick that up. Oh my, this is my fault. I must have broken his heart. Oh what have done? I’ve got to fix this.’ Sara bit her lip, she felt horrible even though none of it was really her fault.
“Yes!” That was all she could say. “What?” Ivory asked a little taken a back. “I said… I said yes.” She said holding out her hand to pull him to his feet. “Really?” He said sounding slightly childish, allowing her to pull him up. “Really.” Sara said with a wide confident smile. “Wow, that sounds cheesy.” Sara said bursting into laughter and despite all that had happened Ivory laughed too. He smiled as they continued to walk over to the park, hand in hand. ‘Maybe today wasn’t so bad after all. Wait till I tell Colton.’ He thought laughing to himself, feeling like he could take on the world.