Boys

Michael K joined our class in 6th grade. He had eyes like mine, freckles on his nose like me, only he was gorgeous. I was too young to do much more than make a mental note of it. Besides, Joey McIntyre's headshots were plastered all over my bedroom wall. There was no room for another man.

In 7th grade, however, Michael started showing up regularly in my top 3 MASH picks for future husband, along with 1, 2, and 3 for number of children we would have, and dog, cat, and monkey for the pets that might reside with us.

It was 8th grade year, springtime, that I tasted my first little bitty sip of love. I had just entered the door under the archway, and I heard someone bounding down the stairs which were to the left of the door. Our eyes locked, and he stopped dead in his tracks. And there we were......blue in blue in sparkling blue
and my heart was in my ears as though connected by stethoscope.

"Hi"
"Hi"
So. Beautiful.
"Well, I guess I'll see you later"

He went down the remaining stairs and exited past me, and my heart was back in my heart only it was singing! Spring, flowers, freshly mowed grass, summer vacation around the bend, and a crush, one of my very own. Romance to me was chasing a soccer ball with Michael, outrunning him or making him work to keep up with me.

We starred in the 8th grade play together a few months later. I was Annie and he was Daddy Warbucks. I told myself that the reason he decided to go for my friend Sophie, who played Miss Hannigan, was to avoid harming our believability as father and daughter. By then I was so smitten with the Mr. Bundles actor that Michael K started getting demoted to 2nd or 3rd pick for MASH anyway. What I remember most about that time, however, was that after school I would walk to the river and belt the "Maybe" song lyrics out into the wind. My heart was as full as it would ever be.