There I was in the high school auditorium that night, with a bunch of other students, standing around waiting for Mr. Thomas to give us direction. I’d filled out some forms with personal information and been photographed. Someone named Debbie, who referred to herself as the stage manager, whatever that is, handed me a script and a contact sheet with the names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of the other cast members.

Mr. Thomas had said he wanted me for the Chorus, so, I opened the script and took a look at the lines labeled "Chorus"... oh my god! How was I supposed to remember all these lines? It went on for pages and pages. I was just about to go over to Mr. Thomas and tell him I couldn’t do it, when I saw her, that girl from across the street.

Remember that old sappy love song about the heavens creating the perfect human? Well, that’s what I thought when I saw her. I think I actually heard that song playing in my head. She was beautiful. She was slightly shorter than me (the perfect height for kissing) with long, dark hair, blue eyes and a mouth that formed an angelic smile. I wanted to reach out and touch her full lips, feel their softness and verify that they were real, but I was afraid that I might damage them somehow. She was talking to Mr. Thomas and was really animated. She was smiling one moment, laughing the next, making hand gestures; she even started dancing around at one point. Apparently, I had kept walking, because I suddenly found myself on the other side of the gym, standing in front of them. Was I staring at her?

“Hello there, Scott,” Mr. Thomas said and patted me on the shoulder. Once he saw my eye, he said, "Ouch! That's some shiner. Are you alright? What happened?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

"Luckily we have three months of rehearsal. It should be healed by then."

Katie turned towards me and I was mesmerized by her piercing blue eyes. "You poor thing," she said as she touched my cheek just below the bruise. Her scent was intoxicating.

Mr. Thomas spoke, but I only heard part of it, “... Katie? ... second semester... in the Chorus too.”

My response was something unintelligible.

“Okay,” Mr. Thomas continued, “Katie Williams this is Scott Davis.”

It all happened so fast, it’s hard to remember. I think I shook her hand; I’m fairly sure I repeated her name: Katie; but, I couldn’t turn away from her eyes. She smiled, laughed, touched my forearm and said something in my direction, but I can’t remember what. Mr. Thomas said something about “thanks for coming tonight” and “get measured for your costume.” He pushed me in one direction and I started walking. What was I supposed to do again? There was a line of people and I just followed them. I couldn’t stop thinking of Katie and the way she looked at me.

The next morning, as I was leaving for school, I closed the door behind me and checked to make sure it was locked. Mom had already left for work. When I turned around, Katie was standing right there. Did I just scream like a little girl?

“Hi.” she said. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“No, you didn’t scare me,” I said, trying to act nonchalant.

“It’s Scott, right?”

“Yeah, Scott. Katie?” As if I didn’t know what her name was.

“Yes. Are you walking to school? My mom would drive me, but she went into work early today, so I guess I’m hoofing it to school. Do you mind if I walk with you? Since we’re going the same way and all?”

Oh, my god. She wants to walk to school with me? Okay, be cool. “Oh. Sure. Yeah. That’d be fun.” We started walking.

“I usually go to my friend Jeff’s house and then we go to school from there. Is that okay?”

“Sure! He’s the guy in the wheelchair, right?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah, I see you guys in school a lot. How long have you known each other?”

“About eight years,” I said. “Something like that.”

“I hear he’s really smart.”

“Yeah, he’s the smartest guy I know.”

“Sorry about all the questions,” she said. “I’m just curious, you know. I’ve never known anyone with a handicap. Is it wrong to use that word?”

I was a bit relieved, actually. She picked an easy topic of conversation for me. “Believe me, it doesn’t prevent him from doing anything at all. He’d probably talk to you about it, if you asked him.”

She frowned and scrunched her nose. “Oh, I’m afraid I might say something stupid to him. How did it happen?”

“Motorcycle accident. Jeff’s dad used to own a motorcycle. Every once in awhile, he’d dust it off and go for a ride. We thought he looked so cool. We were never allowed to ride on it; Jeff’s father said it was too dangerous and not for kids. Of course, that only made us want to ride it more. Early one morning, we snuck it out of the garage. We didn’t start it until we were some distance from the house, so the noise wouldn’t wake up anyone. Then, we went for a ride. We were just fooling around. He thought we could take a steep hill. I was thrown off the back of the motorcycle. Jeff wasn’t as lucky. The bike flipped over and landed on him a couple of times before it rolled down the hill. There was nerve damage. He hasn’t been able to walk since.”

“That’s awful.”

“Ever since the accident, he’s been designing his own artificial limbs.”

“Really? He wants to make his own legs?”

“Oh, he’ll do it. He keeps saying, ‘the technology’s not there yet’ and ‘in a couple of years.’”

“They already make artificial limbs, you know. He could run races with them and everything.”

“Those aren’t good enough for Jeff. Something about the power supply. I think he wants rockets that pop out of the legs or something.”

She laughed.

“Seriously,” I continued, “you should see his schematics. He’s got body armor to go with them. The whole thing.”

Jeff was waiting outside his house as we walked up.

“Hey, Jeff,” I said, “this is Katie. She moved across the street.”

I can’t remember what came after that. The two of them spent the rest of the walk to school debating artificial intelligence or something crazy like that while I tried to think of something clever or meaningful to say.

Next Chapter: Chapter Four