Tina's Secret

On Halloween night, I found the girl I was looking for, right under my nose.

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Tina and me
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On a whim, I decided to take a Creative Writing course during the Fall
semester. I had enjoyed writing "Rebecca's Secret" and I seemed to have
some talent for the written word, plus I needed the English credit, so I
figured it was a good idea. The course was actually fairly popular so I was
lucky to get in. My first day of class, I walked into the door of a packed
classroom and quickly scanned for the only free desk, which was in the back.
I moved towards it and sat down. To my right was a goth-looking dude
dressed in black.

To my left was a sinewey blonde girl wearing a long, flower-print skirt and
a Rainbow Brite t-shirt that wasn't faded enough to actually be from the
1980's, but which I assumed was reprinted as retro fashion. She also wore
open-toed sandals on her feet, a hemp necklace, and several hemp bracelets.
She was your typical modern hippie, not the kind of person I had too much in
common with, but she had an open, friendly face and luminous blue eyes.

"Hi," I said, smiling to her.

"Hey," she replied, blushing, and then turning away. She was shy, I guess.

"I'm Jordan," I told her.

"I'm Tina."

"Are you an English major?" I asked her.

"Yeah," she said, "but this isn't a required course."

"I need the English credit," I explained, "but I like to write short stories
so I figured it was a good fit."

"Cool," she said, finally meeting my eyes.

Things went on like that between Tina and me over the next few weeks. Every
day, I would walk into the classroom to find Tina already sitting at her
usual desk. I would smile at her, she would smile back, and we would
exchange idle pleasantries until the professor arrived. Sometimes we would
talk after class while she waited for the bus, but not every time.