Jeremy showed up at my house before the sun came up.

I didn’t even comb my hair. What was the point? I wasn’t trying to impress Jeremy. The only reason I was even participating in this boring on-line scavenger hunt was because my parents were making me.

“It’ll be fun, Nikki. Besides, Jeremy is new to the neighborhood. He hasn’t made any friends yet,” my mother said.

She’s got that right. Jeremy had spent weeks pleading with just about everyone in the sixth grade, but he couldn’t convince anyone to sign-up to be his partner. Then he did the unthinkable; he asked my parents if I could enter the contest with him! Who does that? I mean, he never even asked me. Instead he went straight to my parents hoping they’d make me do it, which of course they did.

“Nikki, promise me you’ll be nice,” my mother said.

“Jeremy is weird. All he does is play on his laptop, which he carries everywhere. And what twelve-year-old participates in scavenger hunts? They’re so second grade. It’s humiliating,” I whined, but my mother just ignored me.

At least none of my friends would find out about it since they wouldn’t do something so childish. Jeremy said the game could last all day because the items were scattered around the city. To make it worse, Jeremy’s parents were tagging along to make sure we didn’t get lost or anything. I told everyone I was spending the day with my grandparents and prayed the scavenger hunt wouldn’t take us by any local hangouts. I grabbed a hoodie so I could hide my face if I did see anyone I knew.

For the first several hours, I didn’t say a word. I just let Jeremy look up clues on his laptop while I followed him around. He got so excited about each clue; it was kind of annoying.

“Great! We get to take a bus downtown to the old school house!” Jeremy said with a smile.

“Whatever,” I muttered, putting on an oversized pair of sunglasses that hid most of my face. I thought I saw Kate Evans, the most popular girl in school, driving down the road in the passenger seat of her dad’s Porsche. I jumped, dropping my ipod on the ground.

“I’ll get that,” Jeremy said, tucking his laptop in his duffel bag and retrieving my ipod.

“Thanks,” I said, surprised by his chivalry.

The bus was filthy. There were food wrappers all over the floor, and I sat on something sticky. Just when I thought the day couldn’t get any worse, the baby in the seat in front of me started screaming. With one sniff, I knew why he was crying, and as soon as his mother changed his diaper, I wanted to cry, too. She put the dirty diaper under the seat, and I had to smell it for the next forty minutes.

When we finally arrived downtown, I ran off the bus. I desperately needed fresh air, but instead I got the disgusting smell of worms. It had started to pour, and it seemed like every worm in a one-mile radius was seeking cover in the bus terminal. I hate worms; in my opinion, nothing should look the same coming as it does going.

“OK, let’s check our next clue,” Jeremy said, whipping out his laptop.

“You said we had to go to the old school house.” I was getting really annoyed. I just wanted to finish this game and go home.

“Oh, I must have misread the clue.” Jeremy kept his eyes focused on the laptop. Was he avoiding my stare? “It says we have to go to some place called Friendship Junction. Any idea where that is?”

Friendship Junction? I looked over his shoulder at the computer screen. “Jeremy, the computer isn’t even turned on!” Suddenly, everything became clear. I wasted a perfectly good Saturday on some wild goose chase. “There isn’t a scavenger hunt, is there? You made this all up!”

Jeremy sat down on the sidewalk. “I just wanted to hang out with you. We’re neighbors, and I don’t really know anyone else in this town. I thought if I could get you to spend time with me, you’d see I was a nice guy and would want to be my friend.”

I wanted to scream at him but when I opened my mouth, no sound came out. Jeremy was sitting there looking up at me like a lost puppy. His parents were standing about twenty feet away and staring in our direction. They’d seemed so happy that I was playing this game with Jeremy, even though I was being a major downer.

For the first time, I noticed the T-shirt Jeremy was wearing. It had my favorite band on the front. That’s when I realized that I didn’t know anything about Jeremy. He had good taste in music, so that was one thing we had in common. Maybe there were other things, too. He was reaching out to me by making up this game, and I was being a total snob. He’d picked up my ipod, held doors for me—stuff most of my own friends didn’t even think to do.

Jeremy lowered his eyes and sighed. Probably because I’d just been staring blankly at him. As mad as I was that Jeremy had tricked me, I was a little flattered that he’d gone through all this trouble just to spend time with me.

“I think Friendship Junction might be somewhere nearby,” I said, reaching out my hand and smiling.
 

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ellynn524  - IMHO   |205.188.117.xxx |2010-01-09 04:04:54 It was a good beginning but it seems to have ended too quickly. There is more of the good story waiting to be told. I would have expanded it. Nice story,though.

Amethyst   |74.128.178.xxx |2010-01-21 05:13:32 This is a great story, Kelly!

Alandra Blume   |69.19.14.xxx |2010-09-13 04:49:21 Wow. The characterization of Nikki and Jeremy is fantastic. Such opposites who reach out to each other at different times and in different ways. This is lovely, and VERY realistic for this age group. I could relate with Nikki.

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