“DON’T DO IT!” I scream. It’s too late his legs fly up and he almost makes it across the hedge but his leg gets snagged on the last part. I see his terrified expression as he stumbles onto my part of the yard, and onto me. I look up at him dazed and he stares down at me, mortified. He tries to talk but no words come out. I start to laugh and he joins in. We roll around on the sand and dirt covered grass in till we are both filthy. He looks at me and says “My name is Jeremiah, by the way.” “Hi Jeremiah.” He stares at me and waits for me to say my name, but I smile and start to get up. “It was nice to meet you, Jeremiah the weirdo, but I need to go to the store to get some bread.” He got up quickly and looked at me, “Really? My mum was complaining about not having anything to eat, do you mind if I come with because I really don’t know where the store is.” “Yeah I could show you around too, if you’d like?” He smiled from ear to ear “Yeah I would like a tour from the island weirdo!”

He goes over to his house, to change and tell his mother, waving at me the whole time as he went. I know I have a stupid look on my face from all the smiling and the waving sent me over the edge, I am slap happy! When I get into the house I hear my mother’s voice from the kitchen “Taliyah? Is that you?” “Yeah mom it’s me, I need to get changed and then I’m going out.” I yell. She pokes her head around the corner, and looks me up and down. “What happened to you and where are you going?” “I kind of got into a scuff with the new neighbors” I start to giggle. “And now to make up for it, I’m going to give him a tour of the island.” She raises her eyebrows but doesn’t say anything, she’s probably thinking this could be good, but I don’t care. I go to my room and try to decide what to wear. I don’t want to wear something to nice but I don’t want to look like I don’t care either. I end up wearing teal shorts, that bring out my tan, and a black muscle shirt that says “Normal is Boring” I figured Jeremiah would get a kick out of that. I have blonde hair and it reaches half-way down my back, so I braid it to the side and add a headband. I put perfume on and touch of my makeup and head out the door.

 As soon as I walk out the door, I hear a slam to the left. I look over and he had just walked out his door, in a pale blue shirt and some khaki shorts. It brings out the violet in his eyes, I thought. He walks over to his side of the hedge and looks me up and down. He whistles, which of course makes me blush. He smiles. “So what do you want to do?” He smiles again. “What?” I ask. He coughs and says “How about we do the tour first.” “You still didn’t answer my question.” I say. He smirks and starts to walk off. “SO YOU’RE NOT GOING TO TELL ME?” I yell after him. No reply so I hurry to catch. “I hope you plan on telling me why you were smiling?” I say. “I hope YOU are planning on telling me your name…” “That’s why you’re not telling me, because I won’t tell you my name! Come on big baby, please tell me first, why were you smiling?” “Oh your already calling me baby…” He smirks and before I can retort, he gets this pained look on his face and he falls to the ground. “JEREMIAH!” I yell. I lay down beside him and check his pulse, he’s still alive, thank Jesus. “Jeremiah?? Are you okay, wake up Jeremiah?” He starts to fidget and say something that sounds like baby but it’s mumbled. I sit down next to him, grab his hand, and try to fight back tears. All the sudden he sits up real quick. He stares at me and looks slightly puzzled. “What happened?” He asked. I’m still holding his hand but I don’t care. “I don’t know, one minute you were talking about me calling you baby…” He cringed. “Oh.” I look at him and he just shakes his head. Ok he doesn’t want to talk about it. “Are you okay though?” He shakes his head again, but smiles. “I’m alright that kind of things happen a lot.” Still holding his hand I stand up and pull him up with me. He looks a little dizzy but he looks to be fine. He turns around in a stretch and I gasp.