FALL AWAY ⇢ JONATHAN BRANDIS

one ↠ jonathan

All I ever wanted was for Sarah Conway to leave me alone. It all began in the summer of 1957, before the start of second grade.

For me, it was the beginning of what be more than half a decade of strategic avoidance and social discomfort.

"Hi, I'm Sarah Conway!" She exclaimed as the small, blonde girl hopped into the van and attempted to lift one the boxes.

"Hey, hey! What're you doing?" My father questioned.
Sarah turned to him. "Don't you want some help?"
"No. There's some valuable things in there."

"How about this one?" Sarah continued, she bent down to lift the box, but my father stopped her.

"No, no, no. Why don't you run along home. Your mother's probably wondering where you are." My father urged.

"Oh, no. My mom knows where I am!" Sarah smiled. "It's fine."

It did not take long to realise that this girl could not take a hint.

"It's awfully crowded in here with three people." My father continued.
Sarah shrugged. "I don't mind."

Of any kind.

Sarah turned to me. "You wanna push this one together?"
My father put his foot down on the box before Sarah could touch it.

"Jonathan, isn't it time for you to go help your mother?" My father asked as he kept his eyes glued on the small girl stood in front of him.

"Huh?" I asked. I then realised that this was my ticket out of here. My eyes lit up. "Oh, yeah!"

I ran out of the truck and quickly as possible, but before I knew it someone had grabbed my shoulder. I mean, nothing would stop her! I was about to tell her to get lost, when the weirdest thing happened.

I spun around and her hand slid down my arm until our fingers were intertwined. I couldn't believe it! There I was, holding hands with this... strange girl! How did I get into this mess?!

"Well, hello! I see you've met my son." My mother appeared.
"Uh huh." Sarah grinned.

Finally, I did the only manly thing available when you're seven years old: hide behind your mother.

However, my troubles were far from over. The minute I walked into Miss Yellson's classroom...

"Jonathan, you're here!" Sarah exclaimed, running towards me with open arms. Everyone began to laugh as she hugged me tightly.

It was clear. School would not be a sanctuary.

"Hey, Jonathan. Where's your girlfriend?" A kid in my class mocked.
I was branded for life. Everywhere I went, someone would tease me; in the cafeteria, in the park...

My first year in town was a disaster, and the next three weren't much better. But, finally, in sixth grade, I took action. I hatched the plan...

"Sherry! Hey, Sherry, wait up!" I called out as I ran towards the short-haired, blonde girl.

Sherry turned around and smiled. "Hi, Jonathan!"

I asked out Sherry Stalls. To fully appreciate the brilliance of this plan, you have to understand that Sarah Conway had always hated Sherry Stalls. I never understood why. Sherry was nice, friendly, and... she had a lot of hair.

The idea was that Sherry would eat with me, maybe we'd walk around together, and hopefully Sarah would eventually lose interest.

As I saw the look on Sarah's face when she saw Sherry and I were holding hands, things were unfolding quite nicely.

That is, until my supposedly best-friend, Oliver Jackson, took an interest in Sherry himself. Loyalty gave way to desire and Oliver - the turncoat - told Sherry what I was up to... she didn't take it well.

Word got back to Sarah and pretty soon she started up with the goo-goo eyes again. Only this time, it was worse. She started sniffing me! That's right... sniffing me! What was that all about? My only consolation was that next year would be different; Junior High... a bigger school... maybe we'd be in different classes and it would finally... finally... be over!