The day I finally introduced myself to Hazel Meringuer might have been the best day of my life, and I didn't even know it.

It was a normal day, like any other. I'd gotten a seventy nine on my chemistry test, which wasn't too bad considering my hatred for the subject, but wasn't good enough for me at the same time. I needed something to prove to my mom that her money was being well spent, on both school and my supplies.

I'd planned to go up and talk to Hazel casually, and not bring up the fact that I hadn't realized she existed for about nine years. Maybe avoid mentioning my watching her as well, and possibly squeeze in some light conversation... Unfortunately, my plans never seem to work.

Instead of staying true to my casual chit chat plan, I panicked and ran to my locker, unsure of why it was so hard to go speak with the girl. Normally I could walk up to anyone, say hi, and be done with it.

But with her it was so much different.

Jane came up to me, her strange, almost shaky smile alerting me instantly that she was trying her hardest not to laugh at my stupidity. What a friend.

"Go ahead," I muttered, turning away to get my books. It would be better to look away from her as she mocked me, I thought. Less embarrassing, right? Wrong. Turns out your best friend laughing at you is just as terrible even when you aren't looking. Especially when they spit laugh.

Unable to take the excessive saliva landing on the back of my head, I slammed my locker door shut and turned to face her, feeling anger spread throughout my body. "Listen," I said fiercely, "the only reason I didn't talk to Hazel was because I didn't want her to know about my idiocy in not realizing her existence! Is that such a hard thing to understand? I wasn't being a chicken, so shut the hell up about it, because it wasn't that big a deal!"

Jane stared at me, and I felt my heart jump in panic at the thought of her being mad at me. She then held her hands up in surrender.

"Alright. You win. I'm sorry," she said.

I stood there, wishing she'd say more—I always felt like a chump when she did her long silences—but she simply turned and went to her next class. God, she could be so frustrating when she didn't say anything.

The next class was English. It was a little awkward, as Jane and I sat beside each other in that class and things were now tense between us, but other than that it went as usual.

Until Mrs. Berkely assigned us a project.

Normally we would work on our own on class assignments, but today was not a normal day.

The project was to complete a presentation about acknowledgements, and why authors usually put them inside their books. I know. Dumb project. But that was Mrs. Berkely for you.

Mrs. Berkely picked student names out of her large, pink hat, and bellowed them to the class. 

"April Donovan and Nancy Dwyer!"

I turned to Jane and bit my lip, unsure of how to start my apology. "Listen, Jane..."

"Jonathan Jacobs and Molly Hanson!"

"You don't need to apologize, Marty," Jane said quietly, her gaze pinned to the floor. She always knew what I was about to say; even before I said it. "I shouldn't have laughed, it was inconsiderate of me... it's just that that's what we do, you know?" She glanced up at me, and I swallowed hard. "We laugh with each other. I don't see why this Hazel thing is so different."

I was about to respond, about to give her the exact reason why 'this Hazel thing' was so different, but nothing came to me.
I sat there, trying to come up with some sort of reason that would explain why this weird girl in my class so intrigued me, and came up with nothing. Nothing that would explain what I was doing about her. Why I stared at her for what felt like an hour the other night, while she was simply watching the sun set.

My mouth was open, ready to pop out some random response, but I was interrupted by the most shocking words I'd ever heard in... that week. Five words, and my life was changed.

Since then I have forever thanked Mrs. Berkely for the names she picked out of that hat, for they were:

"Hazel Meringuer and Marty Brown!"