The girl who changed my life

It was the first period of the first day of 11th grade,and I didn’t feel like having people come up to me and say,”Hey Nathan! How was your summer?”, so I took a seat in the back row. I looked around the room as I waited for class to start.
On the walls, instead of cheesy motivational posters, my teacher had demotivational posters.One that caught my attention was, "Shoot for the moon: Even if you miss, you'll land among stars. Of course, then your eyeballs will boil and your lungs will explode from decompression. But that's what you get for being a showoff." I loved my teacher's sense of humor already.
When the bell rang, my teacher walked in. She was a thin, young woman with long blonde hair and a mischievous grin.
"Hey guys! My name is Mrs. Christensen. I have been teaching Algebra II for 3 years. Before that, I taught high school math at Leroy Jenkins private school." She went on to tell us where she went to school and a little about her personal life.
One of the rules of her classroom was no whining, and to prove her point she pointed to one of her posters that read, ”If you expect to score points by whining, join a European soccer team.”
After she finished introducing herself she said, “Now that you know a little about me, it’s my turn to get to know you. I’ll call roll and when I call your name, just take a minute or two to introduce yourself to the rest of class and me.”
I was single at the time, so I was on the lookout for a nice girl to date. There were a few girls in my grade who were smart, pretty, and seemed like the type of girl I would want to date. But then there was Kathrine Ricks. She was probably new, seeing as I didn’t recognize her even after being acquainted with most of the girls in my grade.
When the teacher called on Kathrine, she stood up self-consciously and mumbled, "Hey, my name is Kathrine but everyone calls me Katie. I’m a Junior and when I am not doing homework you can usually find me reading a book or playing the piano."
She nervously rolled her shoulders and slouched down in her seat, as if trying to hide from the rest of the class. I could tell she was uncomfortable in front of people; she seemed to stutter and mumble a lot. Though I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, she appeared to be different from other girls in some way. It might have been the way she dressed. While other girls were dressed in tanks and shorts, she wore a short-sleeved shirt and a skirt.
Mrs. Christensen called out, "Nathan Zhang!"
I stood up and told the class, "My name is Nate. I’m a Junior and I play basketball."
I sat down and soon after, the bell rang.
After lunch, I had U.S. History. This time, I was in the classroom one minute before the bell. That girl Katie was there with a guy that she evidently knew because she was smiling and talking animatedly with him. I felt a twinge of jealousy, but I didn’t know why, since I had never met this girl before.
When the bell rang, my teacher, Mr. Johnson, had to tell Katie and her friend to stop talking. He then seated us in alphabetical order. I was in the back row in far left corner. Katie was put next to me, and her friend in front of her. I was excited! Here was my chance to get to know this new girl, Katie. I was excited and nervous but I masked my emotions with a face of nonchalance. As she talked to her friend, I noticed more about her appearance than just what she was wearing.
She was tall, skinny with glasses, a splash of freckles on her nose and curly, reddish-brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. I could tell she wasn't super girly due to the ponytail and no makeup and I was curious as to why she was wearing a skirt. My desire to get to know her was fueled by curiosity and interest. I was brought back from my thoughts when my teacher, Mr. Johnson introduced himself.
He wasn't interesting in appearance or life. He was a balding, middle aged man who was short, plain and bland. After he droned on about himself and our class for about 30 minutes he told us to introduce ourselves to our neighbors.
Katie turned to me and stuck out her hand.
"Hey! I'm Katie. What’s your name?"
"I'm Nathan Zhang. I'm in your first period."
“Oh.”
"Yea. I'm the one who plays basketball. I also play baseball."
"Wow. That's cool. I can play wii baseball but not real baseball.” She said with a laugh.
“I can play football though.”
I looked at her surprised. This new girl wearing a skirt liked football!?! There was more to her than her appearance.
“That's really cool that you like football. Not many girls do.”
“Well I have a big backyard and a dad and brother who like football so I learned how to play.”
She then went back to talking to her friend.
Later that day, before I went to bed, I decided that it wasn't her appearance that made Katie stand out from the other girls. Both Katie and the other girls were beautiful in their own unique way. When I was listening to Katie and her friend talk she was nice and funny and I didn't hear her gossiping about other people. She seemed like a genuinely nice girl. Not only that but she liked sports! I guess the only way to find out if I am right is to get to know her.
The next day, Katie was sitting at her desk slouched her seat. I wondered why she wasn't as energetic as yesterday, so I decided to go and talk to her.
"Hey Katie. How are today?”
She looked at me confused and I wondered why .
"Hey Nate! I'm tired. You?"
"Same. I'm just waiting for my coffee to kick in.”
“Cool. How was your first day?” She asked genuinely interested.
“It was fine. Boring as usual. How about you?”
“It was fine.” She then paused as if debating whether to go on or not and then said, “This school is way different from my old school.”
My suspicions were confirmed, the reason I didn't recognize her was because she was new. Of course, when I was dating Mckayla I didn’t really notice anyone else but her and her friends.
“That’s why I didn’t recognize you. Cool. What's so different about this school?” I asked her.
She looked down embarrassed and said, “ This school is so much smaller than my old school. Also everyone knows everyone. It's more of a community here. My old school had more than four thousand students and the teachers didn't care about you. I was just a number. I also only know one or two people that go here.” She paused and then went on, “I don't know why I'm telling you this. I'm just rambling.” She blushed and mumbled, “Sorry.” She looked away with a distant look in her eye.
She seemed lonely. I looked at her red face and decided to invite her to sit with me at lunch.
Just then the bell rang to start class. “Well, I’ll go sit down now. I hope you like this school. See you later.” I said as I left.
“See you later.” she said.
I didn't talk to her again until U.S. History.
“Hey. How's it going?”
“I am doing pretty well. How are you?”
Her friend looked at me and asked her, “Who is he?”
She chuckled and introduced us. “Thomas, this is Nathan. He’s in my first period. Nathan, this is Thomas, a friend from my church”
I glanced at him. He was nothing interesting, just a scrawny nerd. I nodded toward him and then sat in my seat.
“So where did you move from?” I asked her.
“I moved way up here from Texas.” She said with a half chuckle.
“Is everything bigger in Texas?” I asked sort of jokingly.
“Actually, yes. The schools, the cities, the state.”
“We’re smaller than Texas but we're more of a community.” I said, trying to make her feel better.
“That's what I've noticed so far.” She said with a small smile.
I was trying to work up the courage to ask her to sit with me at lunch but the time hasn't felt right yet. I had never had this problem so I was confused at why this was happening. Why was I waiting?
The next day I decided to start talking to her about football and her interest of it.
I walked up to her in Algebra and started talking to her.
“Hey Katie. How are you today?”
She looked at me and smiled, “ I'm fine. You?”