(click the link above to start from the beginning)
After having my ego bruised by being dumped by the ugliest girl in school because "God told her to", I was not as active in my search for love. There were a couple of close calls with a strawberry blonde horsey girl,(she liked horses-did not look like one) and a black haired girl that I leaned in to kiss and then pulled away at the last minute. I was still gun-shy, still striking out. I sort of stopped trying so hard for a while. It was obvious my efforts had not worked up until this point.

Several years went by and I found myself a sophomore in a small high school somewhere in the Midwest. I had become the emperor of the friend zone. I had a lot of girls that I hung out with, I wrote for the school newspaper. I wasn't the school jock, but I was fairly popular.

After the Winter break, school started and their were four new girls in class. A tall blonde with a nice, slim figure named Jan, her sister Carol who had short black hair and an equally nice figure, and a brunette named Amy with big blue eyes, a sweet face, and a figure that could be described as a little "thick" around the middle. She was very shy, but seemed nice. Somehow, I never really considered girls that, I don't know how to say it, had a little extra, as a bad thing. I guess my German heritage means I lean toward the healthy girls a little. Click here to read a whole post about this subject.

I found I got along great with Jan, we were joking together and hanging out a lot. I couldn't figure out Carol or Amy, they said very little, if anything at all. As time went on, Jan flirted with me, sent some kind of signals, but when push came to shove, she wouldn't go out with me. She didn't blow me off, but she always had an excuse, she was always busy, or would simply change the subject, but she kept being flirtatious. I finally decided that she was just a waste of time, one of those women that either didn't know what she wanted, or was speaking some strange language that sounded like English, but the nouns, verbs and adjectives all meant something different. Yes meant no, maybe means no, and no means yes, but you have to keep trying harder for a while before it actually means yes. My head hurt, I wrote her off and went rabbit hunting to clear my mind from the detritus she had filled it with.

Meanwhile, without me asking, trying hard or anything, one of my friends told me that Amy wanted to go out with me.
"You're kidding, right?"
"No, I'm serious!"
"Right, I've heard this before. OK, I'll play along. Ask her if she wants to meet at the mall on Saturday to go see a movie."
The flurry of communications commenced and by the end of the day I had my first official date with a real live girl.

My dad dropped me off at the mall and we went to the movie. She had makeup on. She smelled good. She had this way about her that told me she was as excited about this as I was. She laughed at all my lame jokes. She sort of snuggled up to me in the theater. I actually pulled off the arm stretch maneuver and had my arm around her and rested it on her neck.

After the movie, we walked up and down the mall looking at the stores. We held hands. I managed to have enough money for a couple of tacos and pepsi's at a dark little Mexican restaurant. I could not believe that this was happening. I was on a date with a girl, and she liked me! As I looked at her, it was like with Mary, my minds eye softened her image like baby oil on a camera lens. Her eyes were bluer, her lips redder and for once in my life everything was wonderful.

More tomorrow.
Thanks for reading,

AC