Hello, wonderful reader! Guess we have to commemorate 1/4 of the way done with writing prompts!

So I noticed I had accidentally changed prompt #21 to a private story - oops... This one is public, and now everyone can read it! Which is great, because it's one of my favorites. Enjoy!

Prompt: There are many, many crazy things that will keep me loving you. (They Can't Take That Away From Me, Frank Sinatra)

Ace didn't know why they didn't think she was beautiful. To him she was the most amazing thing he had ever seen.

Tessa was smart. Way smart. Not just the kind of 'oh, I know the answer' kind of smart, the 'I've already graduated from college twice and have a PhD' kind of smart. You could have throws quantum physics at her in first grade and she would have understood it perfectly.

A lot of guys thought she was intimidating because of that. 'I can't go up and talk to the genius girl! Her vocabulary is so large I can't understand her!' But he knew in English class Tessa forgot how to spell 'were' and had to ask him. They had laughed for hours about it afterwards. Genius Tessa, trying to remember if were had one 'r' or two.

She was gorgeous, but she never let it show, hiding behind sweats and a big t-shirt. Ace liked that. She looked better in slippers than any model could look in high heels. Sometimes people's opinion bounces off of how you act, and to the jocks Tessa's nerd-like attitude was enough to make them turn away.

Ace prided himself in seeing how people really were, not just what they seemed to be. You got to know people better, and the dirtbags always rose to the top. It took a little digging to get to know someone, and Tessa was a gem. A diamond in the rough.

He didn't ask her for homework answers or anything like that, the football guys did that already, and she was too nice to deny them. Another thing - Tessa was an angel, plain and simple. She had a heart three sizes too large and couldn't stand to watch the parts in movies where the characters were embarrassed or injured. She hurried out of the room to get some water when she and Ace were watching Elf, and while he was laughing his head off when Buddy almost got hit by a car she was ducked behind the wall, asking 'Is it over?'

Simply, she was amazing in every way. It wasn't that she had the stuff the jocks looked for in girls - pouty lips, dramatic makeup, big butts, whatever, it was the opposite. Tessa was proud of who she was, and it showed. Even the most put-together cheerleader had half the confidence that Tessa did, and half the goddess-like looks shrouded by a sweatshirt hood. Tessa didn't need anyone to tell her she was amazing, even though Ash was tempted to tell her fifty times a day.

She would play 'Bohemian Rhapsody' at full volume and jump on the couch belting the lyrics, completely off key, grinning like crazy, and you couldn't help joining in. She would dance on top of the tables, waltzing with an invisible partner, and she was more beautiful in her jeans and t-shirt than in a ballgown. She would play MarioKart with Ace and run a victory lap around the house when she won, and he would throw the race sometimes just to see her glowing face as she took off.

They had been friends for only a year, but it felt like years, ages. Pointing out constellations - she knew every one, and could recite the myths behind them, too. Melting their Halloween candy in a bowl and drizzling it over popcorn while watching 'Wall-E.' Meeting after school to work on projects late into the night, pausing only to build a pillow fort. Tessa didn't care if she appeared childish, and Ace loved it. All the girls at school trying to act like adults, and she was still dancing with her feet on top of his.

Her face was a masterpiece he couldn't help but admire - her eyes most of all, twin jewels, emerald with flecks of blue and gray that kept you mesmerized as they flashed. Her smile was wide and bright, enough to warm up the coldest of hearts, and he had never seen her frown. She was too good for that.

Trips to Starbucks, ordering four hot chocolates each and seeing who could chug theirs the fastest, feeling it burn down their throats, warming them to their toes. Snowball fights in winter, when she would make the best, most strategic forts and shout out 'force times trajectory angle!' whenever she nailed him in the head with a snowball. Roasting marshmallows over the fire - Ace liked his browned and toasted, and Tessa preferred her blackened to a crisp so that when you bit into it the gooey marshmallow insides would ooze out.

In summer they jumped into Ace's pool, calling out poses they had to make before they splashed into the water. Making snowcones out of crushed ice from the fridge and apple juice, which was a total failure but Tessa somehow couldn't get enough of. Complaining about summer reading, even though Tessa had read the whole book in one day, no matter how long it was, along with the study guide and had already written her brilliant essay about the themes of the story.

Every day with Tessa was hilarious, and she was a ridiculous genius disaster. They would go to the fair and she would grill him for not knocking over the soda cans or getting the rings on the bottles, saying that if he simply followed the formula it was so simple.

"Well, you try it then!" He had protested.

So she had, and won a huge stuffed bear about the size of his car. Rule One: Follow Tessa's formulas.

One time they had tried to make a Thanksgiving dinner themselves, blasting music and pausing in the middle of basting the turkey to have a lightsaber fight with the uncooked breadsticks. Ace had made mac-n-cheese with panko, a specialty of his, and Tessa had cooked just about everything else, and it turned out to be pretty darn good for two high school students cooking a turkey. That thing was gargantuan, and very intimidating.

She came to his baseball games, cheering the loudest from the stands even when he completely struck out, and he went to her Academic Decathlon competitions, laughing when someone even tried to oppose her and being the first to stand up and clap when they announced her as the winner for every section she competed in. She was even more radiant on stage, beaming and totally in her element, and he had to force his eyes back on the road when they were driving home and she was explaining the awards she had won.

"And this one," She would say, "This one is for math. That test was so easy, they even had calculus!" Then she would blush and get flustered and apologize, saying she didn't mean to sound condescending, even though Ace knew she wasn't being condescending at all. He knew the types of smart kids who would always rub it into your face when they were better than you, but Tessa was nothing like that. She never tried to downplay her intelligence either, the perfect balance that made her so unique, so real.

When he lay in bed Ace could see flashes of her cross his mind before he went to sleep - a hand, brushed against his arm, or her shirt collar popped up when she impersonated the annoying jocks at school, or her shouting 'Get to the time machine, Marty!' as soon as they left Starbucks and sprinting to the car. Little memories, priceless treasures.

Had it really only been a year? How could he have not known her before then? He had known of her, everyone had, the genius girl who sat at her own table, buried in homework from her AP classes and the five college courses she was taking outside of school. Ace thought he was possessed when one day he turned and sat with her than at his usual table with his baseball friends.

"Um... Hey." He had said, and she had bolted straight up like she had been electrocuted. Her hair, in a messy braid, was wild and loose, and her nose was smudged on the tip where it had touched her paper.

"Hi!" She had replied, grinning but with the clear 'are you lost?' look in her eyes.

"What are you working on?" Ace had asked, pointing to her papers with his fork and taking a bite of cafeteria hamburger, which was about as appetizing as a brick.

"Oh! This is an essay on quantum entanglement. I'm doing it for class. You're Ace, right?"

He had nodded, then extended his hand to shake, wanting to appear gentlemanly. "And you're Tessa."

Certainly no fairy-tale encounter, but good enough for the two of them. They had been friends ever since.

It was a crazy thing, Ace the baseball guy and Tessa the genius, actually connecting, and he had no real idea how it even worked out, but there they were, rolling on the floor laughing when Tessa jumped about ten feet in the air when she saw the fake mouse he had put in the kitchen floor, or shedding manly tears when watching the beginning of 'Up' together. They had even pulled the Home Alone stunt with the pizza delivery guy, who had thankfully played along and even convincingly screamed when the gunshots rang out and didn't call the police, until Tessa's neighbor had. Maybe not their finest moment.

Tessa was a collage to him, a collage of so many things, of memories and pictures and experiences woven together. Tessa was apple juice snowballs and impromptu jam sessions and MarioKart champion and sparkling green eyes, that wide smile that was infectious. Everything she did was with a spark of whimsy and a pinch of crazy, a good crazy that made it seem like the world was theirs. Tessa was sleeping bags on the roof, Tessa was stardust.

And maybe, maybe one day, Tessa would be his.

That was a long way away, though. For now he would enjoy everything about Tessa that kept him coming back for more.

Sorry for the repeat, folks. Hope you liked it! Just click that little star down in the corner of your screen - that's it! Thanks a million. 99% sure this won't happen again, my bad.

Another thank-you! Until next time.