• It was too early, way too early to go to school. Why did the administrators demand that all the students go to school by 5 in the morning? Why kill the already tired and sleep deprived children anymore? Tia was trying to keep herself awake, her backpack on her shoulder and her large cup of coffee in hand already half gone. Her grade was going on a field trip today, oh goody, being stuck on a train with all hundred and four idiotic high school seniors for five hours sounded like fun. They were going to the city to a museum. Once again, oh goody.

    Tia only wished that she could handle her grade well enough not to purposely get lost on the way back and take a bus home. She didn’t care much for busses, but then again, she hated trains. She looked up from her seat on the bleachers in her high school gymnasium looking at all the ‘mature’ boys took basketballs and tossed them about the room, baskets were made and used to hang from; in truth all these efforts were merely their attempt to snag a girl to sit by on the train ride…at five o’clock in the morning. Her head fell against her shoulder as she took another sip of her coffee.

    “Tia!” came the all too jumpy voice of Tia’s friend Cara. Cara sat happily next to Tia and poked her. “Oh-My-Gosh! Isn’t this exciting!?” Tia responded by groaning and turning from her friend, pulling her sweat shirt hood over her face.

    “Cara, is there ever a moment where you’re not WIDE AWAKE?” Tia moaned. Cara simply laughed and playfully took Tia’s coffee from her. Tia jerked and groped for the cup. “Hey give it back, Cara come on!”

    “Wake up silly!” Cara chirped.

    “If you ever expect to see me awake, please just give me my coffee…besides, what is your secret?”

    “I never go to sleep!” her friend jested. “Didn’t you know coffee can kill you?” Cara explained as she held the coffee from her friend. Tia used up all her energy just to reach it and take it back; she celebrated by taking a long needed sip.

    “Didn’t you know coffee can wake you up?” Tia mumbled as she pulled her hoodie closer. Was it her or was it getting colder? She didn’t have time to think before Cara took her arm and shook her; it took everything in Tia’s power to keep from spilling her coffee. “God what is it now?”

    “Look who just arrived?” and from the tone of Cara’s voice, Tia didn’t need to look. It was Dorian wasn’t in? And as she turned she saw Dorian smiling their way, not at Cara, but at Tia. Why couldn’t he leave her alone? And why couldn’t Cara forget about him.

    “Cara, stop crushing on him, please, you deserve better!”

    “But he’s too beautiful!” Cara exclaimed love sick. Tia shook her head and leaned against the wall beside her. The boys continued to play ball while the girls all took seats on the bleachers. They all gossiped and chatted, making the noise in the gym even worse than it was in the first place. Tia took another sip of coffee, only to be disappointed that she only had one more sip left. She ruefully took her last sip and stood to throw out the cup, on the way and in her sleepiness, she walked head on into some poor person and they were both knocked back to the floor in moments. Tia was stunned, still quite asleep and couldn’t figure what happened or that she was on the floor until she was standing with the person she knocked over lifting her up from under her arms. It took a little effort to realize that he was speaking.

    “-You?”

    “What?” Tia mumbled as she shook her head and looked up to the person’s faced, to realize just who she was talking too. Before her stood the new boy, Ivan, in all his blond-hair-blue-eyed glory. She blinked a few times, but he was still standing there looking at her with a smile to fantastic to be real.

    “I said, ‘I’m sorry, did I hurt you?’” he said with his fantastic smile. “You look dazed, I wasn’t paying attention, did you get burned?” it was then she realized that she had coffee on her arm from not only what remained in her cup but about a fourth of what was in his cup. And she dimly realized that it did hurt. She shook her arm, to shake the hot water from her arm. Ivan lead her to the water fountain where he helped her take off her sweat shirt and rinse her reddened arm under the cold water. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he uttered, seemingly embarrassed. Tia couldn’t understand how he could be so embarrassed, she was lobster red and horrified. The cutest boy in school was standing so close; helping her, touching her arm…she had to remember to breathe.

    “It’s ok, it doesn’t hurt,” she said foolishly. “I mean, it’s not your fault, I walked into you,”

    “On the contrary, I walked into you. You were just a foot from the garbage pail and I had to come out of nowhere and block your access to your goal.” He spoke so well and yet…so strangely. Tia was caught in his trap, if it was a trap. And what made her feel stupid was all she did was nod.

    “Ok,” she dried off her now cooled arm and rung out her sweat shirt sleeve into the fountain, he merely laughed.

    “So, I’m Ivan, yeah I know strange name, I don’t think we’ve been introduced.” His voice was like music to hear ears, she didn’t want to speak and interrupt such a song. She turned to look at him, his perfect body leaning up against the wall of the bleachers besides the fountain with such poise. And when she caught sight of his smile again, she couldn’t help but smile to.

    “I’m Tia,” she said softly, ashamed at how timid she sounded. “You are in Chorus with me,” He nodded with his fantastic smile and laughed.

    “Right, you’re the teacher’s favorite,” she couldn’t help but blush when he said this, but then again, she couldn’t disagree.

    “I guess, it took a lot of work to become her favorite,” she stated.

    “Well, what kind of work would that be?” he asked as she dried her sweat shirt and put it back on. He was joking wasn’t he?

    “Trying to make her laugh, make her smile, make her cry.” Tia stated as they started back to the gym from the small hall they stood in with the fountain. He looked at her with an over played interested face. Was she boring her? Or was he being sarcastic?

    “Oh? Really, do tell? Isn’t she emotionless?” he asked, yup, he was being sarcastic.

    “Not when I sing.” She said proudly, he followed her back to her seat in the bleachers, and thankfully Cara was off with one of her other wide awake friends.

    “Now what do you do differently that we don’t do?” he asked with a smile as if he already knew. “I’ve never heard you sing by yourself, are you any good?”

    “Oh I’m good, not trying to sound vain or anything. I mean, I got her to cry…and she has no tear glands.” She jested. Ivan laughed as he took a sip of his coffee, or what remained of it. “It all depends on how you sing and what song,”

    “So what song got the honors?”

    “Please don’t make me Love you,” she said with a soft smile. There was a brief silence as Ivan sipped his coffee.

    “I’ve never heard of it, is it from a musical?”

    “Yes,” she uttered. She watched as the teachers finally rallied the boys from their games on the courts and drew them in to the bleachers. Cara returned after her failed attempts to gain Dorian’s attention. From the looks on her friends face Tia could see that she didn’t even get a glance. But Cara did however notice Ivan sitting beside Tia and her smile instantly returned. He finished his coffee and by the time Cara reached them and before she could say anything, he was up and heading to the garbage. Cara sat in his place, stating to Tia that she wasn’t going to get to sit by him again.

    “So what was that all about?” Cara asked.

    “He walked into me, we burned each other with our coffee, and in the end we started talking.” She replied.

    “Well he looked pretty interested from what I was seeing down there, Dorian wasn’t giving any one the kind of attention that Ivan was giving you! That’s his name right? Ivan?”

    “Yes,” Tia was great full that before Cara could continue talking, one of the teachers decided to start shouting through the gym all the directions for the day. We would first all file onto the busses in the parking lot, than from there we would take are suit cases and load them on to the train that would take us to the city. That day they would see the museum, stay over at a hotel, go see a musical and have lunch and dinner with the class, stay over at a hotel, then go home. Tia couldn’t belive Cara was truly jumping out of her socks. Even while they all were herded to the busses, all Tia could do was keep looking for Ivan.

    Boarding onto the bus, boarding on the train, somehow she was relieved to find he only sat four rows before her in both. She was able to look at the back of his head, until Cara requested the aisle seat for an easy escape. “I want to be able to get off this bus right after Dorian, that way I can sit with him!” Cara explained her master plan. Tia just couldn’t believe her friend. How could she be so obsessed with Dorian? She shifted in her seat so she could see Ivan’s head, only to slink into her seat when she realized that she was doing the same thing. And what was terrible was that she just met him today. She leaned her head on the window and watched the scenery fly by.

    The Train station didn’t arrive fast enough; and when they finally did arrive, they didn’t have time to relax. The hour was filled with unpacking baggage, handing out tickets, organizing the rambled and hystericly bored seniors; it was a sight to see. And here Tia tried repeatedly to find Ivan, turned each corner, c aught sight of him and walked toward him, only to lose him in the crowed as he moved once again. Cara was blissfully unaware at Dorian’s attempts to get close to Tia, and Tia’s attempts to get to Ivan, Cara simply followed Dorian where ever he went. The train station was a mess.