Then You Came Along

Chapter 1

"I had the best time with my grandmother; I was just eating and eating," Penelope sighs, a satisfying smile on her face. "I love old people."

I exchange a look with Gideon, and we burst out laughing. "That's because you are an old person yourself. It's not rocket science, Pen."

"I'm not old." Pen looks around to see if anybody is close enough to hear that. "We're all the same age."

"That's not what she meant, Pen, and you know it," Giddy says. "Annie is trying to say you're an old person trapped in a seventeen-year-old body. An old soul."

Pen scoffs, although she understands what we mean and has a smile on. "Whatever, you both are just jealous you didn't get to spend time with your grandmothers as I did. You didn't get to eat a lot like me."

I pout, "I don't have a grandmother."

"I would rather stay in school, trapped in these hallways all through summer, and spend the time poking my eyes with a pencil than go to live with my grandparents," Giddy says, a horrified look on his face.

I pause to imagine the scene and shudder at the thought of lonely Giddy, trapped in these hallways and blind. "I did not need to imagine that."

"Do you think your grandparents would ever change their mind?" Pen asks, looking concerned and worried.

"No. My grandparents' ideologies and beliefs are set in stone, and they would ever accept me. I'm a disease in their eyes, a malfunction."

Pen and I exchange a look and proceed to hug him. "Giddy."

He chuckles, "don't worry, I'm fine. I've overcome all that, and I don't care what they think because I know I'm perfect."

"That's the spirit," Pen says, grinning proudly at him.

"So? Did you find any cute hot guy to hook up with during the summer?" I ask him, wiggling my eyes and begging for details.

Giddy pouts, "no, not really."

Pen sighs, "we're just not lucky with love."

"True," Giddy and I agree, but then I continue. "But we're going to end that cycle. We'd break it and become our luckiest this year. It's our last year in high school, and it should be our 'yes' year."

Penelope sighs deeply. "Annie, you're still on that?"

"Yes!"

Pen, Giddy, and I have been best friends since freshman year. I am 5 foot 6 with long brown hair and frazzled bangs falling over my forehead, I had weird freckles, and because of my freckles, I started wearing makeup to cover them in junior year. Giddy is Asian American and the same height as me, except he can get tanned and doesn't have hair over his eyes. Pen is the second tallest girl in the school and the tallest amongst us at 6 feet. She had dirty blond big curly hair that got bigger when wet, and she wore cute nerd glasses that made her nose look smaller.

I didn't leave middle school with any friends, my only friend transferred to another school in another state for high school, and I came into freshman year scared and lonely. Then I met Pen, the mature girl who seemed to have everything together. Pen and I sat together in class, and she talked to me first, telling me what she knew about our incoming maths teacher. She had a senior sister in her sophomore year who told her stories. That was how we became friends. I continued following her around, and she stuck with me.

Then we met Giddy during a physics lab session; he was in a hurry when clearing his table, and then all the contents fell to the floor. Pen and I went to help him out and a ruler and compass later, we were all laughing and talking. Since then, we stuck together, the trio that blended in so well in school people barely knew our names.