The first day of starting my new math class in Mrs. Buck’s room didn’t start off in my favor. I know I have shared this story before, but I’ll give a refresher and tell it again for any new readers. My mom had packed me a water bottle where the lid had issues locking all the way. That water was inside my backpack that hung off the back of my chair in class.
I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around.
There stood this tall, brown-eyed boy with braces.
“Um, just wanted to let you know your bag is leaking,” said this brown-eyed boy.
I looked down, and there was a puddle underneath my chair.
My water bottle was leaking — a lot.
“Thank you,” I said to him as I stood up to assess the damage.
The bottom of my backpack still had a steady drip coming out of it. How embarrassing.
“My mom packed me this stupid water bottle and the lid doesn’t close right,” I tried explaining to him. One hundred percent blaming my mom. This guy wasn’t very chatty as he smiled and walked away.
In the later weeks, I got to know this brown-eyed boy with braces a little more. Finding out he was still pretty quiet and kept to himself, his name was Chris McElroy. Around Christmas, our seats moved in class, and mine was right next to Chris. As weeks passed, I continued talking to him about my band crush as we sat in class, and he would share his Ritz cheese crackers with me. I was a Chatty Kathy, and he was the guy who just sat there and listened. We became closer friends, and Mrs. Buck would throw erasers at us for talking during class. Haha. Good times!
Once the weather became a little better, the topic of the Circuit came up. He said he was into cars and drove some teal-colored Subaru. I said I went down to the Circuit with my cousin.
I had yet to get my driver’s license, but my cousin Ashley would take me down with her with my cousins Nicole and Danielle. Ash would purposely stop for washer fluid somewhere, then pull over in the old Savage Mart with her hood up at the Circuit. We would all get out of the car, and then guys would stop to make sure we were OK and didn’t need help.
This was honestly brilliant at that time. You didn’t have to worry about creeps as much as you do these days. (Kinda scary anymore.) But in the late 90s, it seemed pretty harmless. She would tell them we pulled over to put washer fluid in and then got to chat with cute boys who stopped to help us.
I asked Chris when he was going down to the Circuit, and he was going that weekend after work. He worked at Wegmans pushing carts.
I got my cousin to take me down that Saturday night by sleeping over at my grandparent’s house. Grammy always let me hang out with my older cousins, but I still had a curfew, which was fine with me. It was always an hour later than my parents gave me.
Well, I didn’t know crap about cars back in the day, but I knew finding a teal Subaru couldn’t be that hard. We did a few laps and finally found him. Windows down, my cousins kept teasing me to say hi, but at that moment, I was falling in love.
There he was in this adorable teal Subaru. Sunglasses on his head with one hand on the steering wheel. He looked over and smiled with his braces shining back.
I instantly grew shy. What was happening?
I gave a little wave, smiled, and said hi. That was it.
That Monday in class, everything changed. I wasn’t thinking about that drummer in band anymore. I was thinking about this hunk in a bad-a** looking car. I was falling for him and quite smitten! I went from talking Chris’s head off every day in class to being shy, BUT I made sure I looked good in math class when I was with him. I wanted him to be all mine. But how? I couldn’t speak around him anymore; things had changed. I was falling hard.
A week or so later, I was with my cousins again and wanted to ask Chris out but just didn’t have the guts. Just like I didn’t with the drummer in band.
My cousins told me to ask him out on a note, and we would put him on his car at Wegmans.
I remember this like it was yesterday, as we had a sleepover that night at Aunt Floss’s house. We planned everything out, and the next day, we were going to do it. That’s exactly what we did.
I bought a card that read, “I am always telling people how great I think you are.” Then when you opened it up, it said, “And today I am telling you.” I bought it at Wegmans. Nicole kept teasing me about seeing him while we were inside Wegmans. He was nowhere in sight, but that sexy green car of his was parked at the very back of Wegmans. Our plan was going to work.
After writing a little note inside this card asking him out, we walked over to his car to leave it on his window, but his driver’s side window happened to be down a few inches. So, instead of putting it on the window, we decided to put it in through the window. As I went to put the card in, I dropped it too soon (from nerves, I guess), and it dropped into the back seat!!
“NOOOOOO!!” I yelled. “Now, he is never going to see it!”
No joke, at the moment I heard, “Whatcha doin’?”
I turned around, and there was Chris walking towards his car, eating a pack of crackers. Man, did he love his cheese Ritz crackers! (Still does!)
There I was, a blubbering mess, not knowing what to say.
“Ummmm, uhhhhh. Hi,” I said.
“Ummm, well, I just put a card in your car for you from me, but it fell in the back seat, so you can just read it when you get home. There is no rush at all.”
“No, I’ll get it now and read it. I’m not busy. Just went on break.”
Lucky, lucky me.
I’m thinking, “Lord, no. Please no. Don’t do this to me. This isn’t happening!”
He unlocked the car, and the card was in his hand before I knew it. I wanted to crawl into a hole and die at that very moment. Meanwhile, my cousins stood there giggling and whispering, knowing what was about to happen as he started to open the envelope. I couldn’t stop it. The card was being pulled out of the envelope, and he began to read it while munching on another cracker…
TO BE CONTINUED
Get Smitten with this Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients:
• 9 ounces chopped dark chocolate, or 1 3/4 cups dark chocolate pieces (70% dark is best)
• 1 cup 2% milk
• 3 TBSP sugar or Stevia
• 2 cups whole milk greek yogurt
Directions:
Chop chocolate into small pieces with a knife or a food processor. The smaller the pieces, the more evenly the chocolate will melt.
In a double boiler, whisk together the milk, sugar, and salt. Heat the milk over medium heat (not high! Whisking frequently, till hot but not boiling.)
Add the chocolate to the milk and let it sit for 1 minute in the heated milk without touching. Gently stir with a spatula till the chocolate melts into the milk. Remove from heat. Continue stirring slowly till the milk and chocolate mixture is smooth and no longer grainy. If there are a few solid pieces of chocolate that refuse to melt, you can use an immersion blender to break up those pieces. Stir again with the spatula after blending to break up any air bubbles.
Drain off any excess liquid from Greek yogurt before measuring 2 cups into a medium mixing bowl. Use a fork to whip yogurt until fluffy. Stir the chocolate mixture again, then pour it into the yogurt, using a spatula to scrape up any remaining chocolate. Use a spatula to fold the chocolate into the yogurt till fully incorporated, light and creamy. This will take 2-3 minutes. Continue folding till all the white has been removed from the yogurt.
Divide the mixture between 6 ramekins, dessert bowls, or silicone hearts for Valentines. (Ordered from Amazon) Smooth and swirl the top of each serving with a spoon. Chill for at least 2 hours, up to overnight. Serve cold. Garnish with whipped topping and candies/fruits!
