Our Year

Ok....where did we leave off?? Oh yeah, the summer came to a close and the new school year started. I was a junior, and Big B was a senior. With my new junior status came a student ID with off campus privileges. My dad was not too keen on the idea of me leaving at lunch, so I found myself often sitting with my freshman sister and her friends at lunch or at the seminary building eating lunch with my mom, who happened to be the secretary at the time. It was one day, near the beginning of the year, that I was eating lunch with my mom in her office when Big B came in to eat his lunch in the classroom. My mom told me to go tell him that his dad had come and taken his car. I was really nervous and tried to get my mom to just go tell him. In the end I went into the classroom and offered him some of my gummy bears and told him about the car. He seemed upset and said that he was planning on taking the car to go get an animation book from the library that he had on reserve. I ended up sitting in the classroom talking to him the remainder of the lunch period. Later that evening, I was sitting on the computer with my new AIM chat window open, when "Tunefreak" signed in. Nervously I clicked new message....and sent "Tunefreak" his first AIM message from "Starblurre". (if you have not caught on Tunefreak was Big B and I was Starblurre). I told Tunefreak that I was going to take one of my siblings to the library and that I could pick up his book for him, he responded thanks but he had already picked it up. We then conversed in some small chat....mostly about animation...before we went our seperate ways to do our homework. After that we seemed to notice each other in the halls, and say hi here and there. It was not uncommon for Tunefreak and Starblurre to have brief conversations now and again....a friendship was blossoming.

I remember asking Tunefreak if he was going to go to the next stake dance....he said maybe. He said it was his birthday, and jokingly asked me what I was going to get him. I thought....well gees I could get him something and just give it to him at the dance. I knew he LOVED Marvin the Martian so I got him a Marvin the Martian water bottle thing and a little lunch box.....on a side note, he always had a cartoon lunchbox....and to this day still takes his lunch in one. He was suprised when I showed up to the dance with a gift for him. I remember sitting on the floor (it was a pants dance) and talking to him and his friends that night. I also remember dancing with him and talking about his job and how he has to push all the carts. From that night on his nickname was "cart boy." It was also the start of.....what Big B calls the stalking....and what I like to just forget....or at least just call the visiting at work.

Every Friday night Big B worked at Kmart....I would often go to the H.S. football game and then go to Kmart. Sometimes, I would go through his line and just buy a pack of my favorite blue gum. One time, I did not have much money, and had an ABUNDANT supply of gum, so I bought two green beans from the produce section. But some nights....I would leave something on his car....cookies, a note, smiley faces, toilet paper....etc. It almost became a game.....and I secretly know he looked forward to it every Friday night.

Sometime in the midst of all this he asked Starblurre out on a date. We were IMing when he asked me to go to the dollar movie with him to see Hercules. I had a soccer game earlier and had showered and put on my pj's, but when he asked I could not help but say yes! I remember he wore his green Marvin the Martian long sleeve shirt, and my little brother J TOTALLY attacked him and grabbed his leg and would not let go....I was SO embarrassed.

Around October Big B's sister had a sleepover for her friends....one of her friends happened to be my younger sister (Aunt C). Anyway, it was Halloween and around midnight I got a call on my clear, see-through, totally awesome phone in my room....on the internet line.....it was a computerized voice telling me to look outside. I looked outside and our house had been toilet papered....someone had set off a firecracker under my window.....and someone had toilet papered my car!! The next morning when Aunt C came home, it quickly slipped that she and the other girls along with Big B and his friend were the culprits! Needless to say we made fun of Aunt C for toilet papering her own house.....but at that instant the war began!! Big B and I took turns decorating front yards and cars....I got caught more often than not...but it was fun. My signature became paper-chains and smiley faces. You can not believe how many trash bags full of paper-chains I would make....just to get him back!

Shortly after Halloween Big B asked me out on another date, he sometimes claims it was our first date. He took me downtown to listen to his friend play his sax. That date was interesting to say the least....but Big B jokes it was when I "fell" for him....LITERALLY! We were walking around and I saw a bum sleeping in a doorway so I was going around and stepped through a opening in the stoplight sign and I tripped and fell flat on my face. Big B kept walking and did not notice at first. I on the other had scrapped up my had and arm....but tried to play it off and act cool. I thought he probably would never ask me out again after that one.....I was SO EMBARRASSED!! Luckily he found it endearing and stuck with me!

Big B and I soon found ourselves meeting at the seminary more often for lunch, then some how in the process we started eating lunch together at school in one of the hallways. I say it was because I would always share my lunch and he liked my bagel sandwiches! On days he had tennis, I would stay with him until practice, or until I had to go to work. We just had fun, we could talk for hours and never get bored....it just felt so natural.....we just really enjoyed our time together! Oh and the picture above was taken at the seminary building in my nasty work shirt....Big B thought he was so funny for getting this picture of me!

Christmas break rolled around and we spent more time together. Our friend "W" had a party over the break and I remember his mom asking Big B and I if we were going to go to the Winter Formal dance together....I remember feeling so uncomfortable.....and answering "oh probably not." Christmas came and went, and then it was nearing time to go back to school. But before school started there was a New Year's Eve dance. My dad insisted on driving me and my sister to the dance because of all the drunks....and so we offered to take Big B and his little sister. We picked them up and went to the dance. We had fun and danced and talked. I danced with Big B the first dance of the 1998 year. He said, "I did not want to ask you a year in advance....but will you go to winter formal with me?" I of course said "YES" but the whole time knowing my mom was going to kill me since the dance was only a WEEK away!! Needless to say I found a dress and everything worked out well. Except....what do you do with your chewed favorite blue gum at a fancy restaurant with only cloth table clothes??? Well when I was 16, I would have told you....put it under your chair of course!! Anyway, we had TONS of fun at the dance....it was a rainy night....but before we went to the dance Big B made me play goofy golf in the rain under and umbrella. In a way Christmas break was the beginning of us wanting to spend a lot of our free time together.
From then on, every Saturday evening you would find Big B sitting here with me watching "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" (a cartoon talk show). My parents un-blocked Cartoon Network just for him so he could watch his favorite show. My mom would always stalk up on his favorite ice cream, or have cool aide and rice crispy treats for him. We spent a lot of time here watching movies and of course Space Ghost!

As the end of the school year approached so did the prom season. Big B knew he wanted to ask me to prom, but when his mom told him that a girl from his ward mentioned asking him he felt like he couldn't. So he called me and told me that if I wanted to go to prom with him that I should act fast, because there was competition. I took the hint and asked him to prom that night. However, since I asked him, I had to plan the whole thing. I decided I wanted to get him back for taking me goofy golfing in the rain in my formal dress. So I booked us tickets at the dinner theater I talked about in an earlier post (you know the one we won the staycation from??) Anyway, it is a totally casual melodramatic, slapstick place. I KNEW we would stick out like a sore thumb....but I knew it would totally embarrass him! So I took him there and we watched a goofy show and had pizza before prom. We both think it was perfect....it was embarrassing at the time.....but it made for some good memories! We had a great time at prom, but it was a little bitter sweet since it was Big B's last school dance, and I secretly wondered if it was mine as well.

The school year quickly came to a close. The picture above was the best we have of us together on his graduation night....and yes I know my eyes are closed...but this was pre-digital so you did not know if a picture turned out until it was too late. Anyway, I was in National Honor Society and they asked for some Juniors to be honor guards for the graduation. We somehow managed to get on the same row. We knew Big B would be on a mission for my graduation the next year....so this was our little celebration. The grasshoppers this night were a nightmare....they were flying everywhere dive bombing faces. We were sad that this stage was over. Knowing that the next few months would be bringing a lot of changes.....but ever so grateful that we had meet each other and had a FABULOUS year. After graduation.....Brian drove me home.....but first stopped by our special park.....and talked to me. He held my hand for the first time......and told me he loved me for the first time...it was a night I will never forget!