Suddenly, You

five

Tessa

The week surprisingly went by and I thoroughly enjoyed it. After Monday, I didn't think my days could be any better, then came Tuesday, then Wednesday, then Thursday. Ms. James told me she considered me a friend, which warmed my entire body. It's a weird situation, since I'm technically her student, but she revealed that I'm actually only three years younger than her, which makes her newly twenty-two.

"So, I know we talked about it yesterday, but why don't you want to do anything for your birthday?" Ms. James asked me.

"Because, I never know what to do and I don't have any friends who want to spend time with me anyway." I shrugged.

"Well, I'm your friend." She smiled at me.

"What did you have in mind?" I leaned my head on my hand, focusing on her.

"Well, since you asked, I was wondering if you'd want to hang out, outside of school?" She asked, then clarified. "As your friend."

"Hang out, how?" I asked.

Her face lit up before she spoke, "Um— my friend has a boat and we were going to take it out to the bay tomorrow. I asked if I could invite you and they all said yes."

"They all? How many friends do you have?" I questioned her.

"There's nine of us, ten with you." She smiled.

"I'd actually really love that." I agreed, then decided to tease her. "As your friend."

In all honesty the thought of eight strangers terrified me, but I couldn't resist her or her offer. Plus, I would be able to see more of her, rather than just her school self.

"Yay! I'm excited to introduce you to everyone." She beemed.

"Are they from here?" I inquired information about these friends I'd be meeting.

"A couple of them actually are, they're sisters, but the rest came from my hometown." She told me.

"Am I going to be the youngest one there?" I asked, slightly concerned that they would immediately pick up on any age gap. I know we aren't too far in age, but if they were all older than her, then it would be noticeable.

"Not too much. The younger sister, Logan, is nineteen, but she'll be twenty soon. The oldest in the group is Danny, he's twenty-four, then everyone else falls in between." She helped me feel better. If they can hang out with a nineteen year old regularly, then I'll be fine for one day.

"So what are their names?" I requested.

"It'll be easier once you meet them to remember, but there's Danny, Logan, her sister, Leah, Maia, Izzy, Andre and Ty, who are twins, and Zach— and me." She counted her friends on her fingers, to be sure not to exclude anyone from the list.

"Yeah, not going to remember." I assured her, that her statement was found to be true.

"I think you'll really like them." She told me.

"I hope they like me." I spoke quietly.

"Trust me, they'll love you." She smiled widely.

I smiled, taking in her words. They felt so nice to hear.

"So, be ready at about ten, I can either pick you up, meet you somewhere, or you can meet me at my house, up to you." She offered.

"Whatever, I don't mind." I shrugged.

"You choose." She told me.

"Um— I'll just meet you at your house, so you don't have to go out of your way to get me." I told her.