It all started in 7^th period chorus that one Friday. We were singing ‘True Love’ when Ms. Habegger stopped us and told us we weren’t singing with enough passion.

      “Imagine your absolute favorite person walked in the door. You’d want to impress them, right?”

      That was easy. All I had to do was imagine Elijah Wood come in and bada bing bada boom. Passionate singing. It worked of course and we moved on to the next song, ‘Hey Jude’ by one of my favorite bands, The Beatles. We were on an Irish Folk song that was translated into German (called ‘Feenhügel’) when someone came down the stairs from the gym. We overlooked this because sometimes people would sit on the stairs and listened to us sing. No big, we enjoyed it. Some of us even hated being heard before a concert but secretly loved the attention.

      The bell rang for eighth period and I went up to Ms. Habegger and asked her how she was doing and all of that sucking up crap. She left the room to go to the office and I finished packing my stuff. The stranger came out from the dusty stairs.

      “You have a great voice,” he said. “I could hear you from over there.”

      “Thanks.” I didn’t turn around, despite that his voice sounded strangely familiar…I wondered if he went to Vancouver High.

      “I love it when songs are in different languages. Especially a romantic one.” Again, I tried to identify the voice. I didn’t want to turn around; I enjoy a mystery.

      “So do I,” I said softly. “It’s so beautiful.”

      “Yes it is.”

I had been rummaging through my bag when it hit me: I was speaking to my favorite person.

2: “Oui Vous Pouvoir”

My head shot up. A humongous smile crept over my lips.

      “Do you speak any of the romantic languages?” he asked. This was good. Very good actually. If he kept talking. It meant he wanted to talk to me, a very, very good sign.

      “Sort of,” I answered. I chose my next words carefully. “I’m taking German and French. Do you speak any of the romantic languages or are you taking them, like me?”

      He paused a moment.

      “No, I don’t, sadly. I wish I did.” Of course I knew this and that he didn’t go to my high school at all. “Will you say something?”

      “In German or French?” I said quickly.

      “Well, the bell’s going to ring soon isn’t it? May I walk you to class? We could talk on the way there.” He suggested. I finally turned around. I was exactly right. I gazed into his stunning blue eyes.

    “Oui, vous pouvoir.” I responded. My best subject was French, third to German and English.

      “I know enough French to know that’s a yes.” He grinned. What a beautiful grin it was.

3: Little Black Flash Button

    “There is no way you are telling me the truth, Aradia! Why would Elijah Wood be at our school?” My best friend Luna Chantera asked later on the phone. My stereo was playing quiet Irish music and I had my writing binder out trying to get ideas from Luna about a new story but she kept changing the subject.

      “He was checking out New York schools for his cousin.”

      “Well then why was he listening to the choir, I mean you guys aren’t all that great…”

      “Oh shut up. He heard us singing ‘Hey Jude.’ You know how addicted to music he is!” My phone beeped. “Hold on Lun, I got another call.”

      “Fine…”

I pressed the flash button on my blue and black cordless phone.

      “Hello?”

      “Hey Aradia, it’s me, Elijah.”

My stomach did a cartwheel.

      “Oh, hey what’s up?”

      “Um, not much you?”

I looked out my window. I could see most of New York from my apartment on the Upper East Side.

      “Just listening to music…and writing. The usual. Hold on a sec.”

      “Okay,”

I pressed the little black flash button again.

      “Hey Lun, I have to go, I’ll talk to you tomorrow okay?”

      “Fine. See ya!” she responded.

      “Bye” I waited until I heard her hang up, then pressed flash again.

      “Okay sorry, I had someone else on the other line.”

      “No problem…”he continued. “You said you were writing?”

My heart skipped a beat. Why do I always get nervous when someone mentions my writing?

      “Yeah.”

      “What about? Something for school?”

      “No, writing is one of my hobbies.” I replied.

      “Can you read it to me?”

I heard my front door open.

      “Yes but not right now. My mom is home.”

      “How is that a problem?” he asked.

      “She hates my writing. Even if I’m reading it to someone else. She doesn’t think it’s a good idea.”

      “Oh…do you want to meet somewhere? Somewhere I can read it?” he suggested.

      “Sure. Um…where?”

      “How about the Barnes and Noble at the Lincoln Center on Broadway? Do you know where that is?”

      “Yeah.”

      “Sweet, do you have a ride?”

      “Yeah I’m eighteen remember?”

He laughed.

      “Yeah, sorry, but, seriously, can you blame me? Not every eighteen year old in New York City has a car.”

      “Well, I do.”

      “Cool. Well, meet me there in half an hour ok?”

      “Great see you then.”

      “Bye”

      “Bye.”

4: Everything, My Way

      As soon as we hung up, I took a quick shower and put my writing binder in my red, 2001 Mini Cooper S Convertible. Joining my binder in the passengers’ seat was my messenger bag. It went with me everywhere. Inside it was my wallet, laptop a novel or two (natural bookworm, that’s me), my cell phone, my mini flashlight (I usually am one of the unfortunates to get locked in a building with no power, or I just used it when I was reading or taking a walk late at night.), my portable CD player, my diary and when I wasn’t driving, my keys.

      I started the engine and took off to Broadway. Surprisingly it only took ten minutes to get there. I scored a parking space almost right in front of the bookshop.

Everything’s just going my way today… I thought to myself. Inside the bookshop wasn’t as crowded as a shop in New York would be.

      Elijah saw me and waved me over to the corner he was sitting in. He was wearing a blue baseball cap and sunglasses.

      “Nice shades, Lij. Very nice.” I teased as I sat down in the seat across from him.

      “Thanks.” He replied sarcastically. I pushed my writing binder towards him as he removed the sunglasses and pulled his cap down lower.

      “Here. This is most of my stories.” I explained as he flipped through the many pages of dozens of stories. “The most recent are in front.”

He immediately flicked to the back of the binder, where my first serious story was. His eyes moved quickly with each line he read. It wasn’t a very long story, considering I had written it ten years before, but he smiled anyway.

      “How old were you when you wrote that one?” he asked while flipping to a story in the middle of the binder.           

      “Eight.”

His blue eyes gazed up at me in awe.

      “You aren’t serious.”

      “Yes I am. I wrote that when I was in second grade.”

      “Hell, when I was eight I couldn’t write like that. I couldn’t write a good story like that if my life depended on it!” We laughed so loud the woman behind Elijah gave us a dirty look. If only she knew who was under that baseball hat…

      “Elijah, it’s a story about a talking horse saving a little girl from drowning. It’s not very good-”

      “Yes it is.” He reached out and put his hand on mine. I looked down at it then up at his face again. A group of cheerleaders from my school came inside to order from the café. Elijah and I both broke each other’s gaze to look at them. The lady behind Elijah gave them the same dirty look I received from her.

      “Kind of loud, don’t you think?” Elijah whispered.

      “Keine Scheiße…” I rolled my eyes at them.

      “Want to go somewhere else?” he asked me.

      “Yeah.” I jumped up and grabbed my bag while Elijah carried my binder, intent on reading it outside. “Where should we go?” I looked at him waiting for an answer.

      “Well we could go to Central Park, my place or your place.” He said slowly.

      I considered the options, not sure whether my mother would approve of having Elijah Wood over while her annoying, arrogant fiancé, Michael was there. And the park was too public for me. I explained all of this to Elijah and he agreed. We got into his car (’03 blue Mini Cooper) and headed for his flat.

5: Calm to Insane to Calm Again in 1.5 Seconds

      “Good. Hannah left for California already,” Elijah said when we got inside. I gave him a puzzled look. “She went to visit my mom.”

      “Oh.” I glanced around what I could see of the apartment. It had maple wood floors and maple furniture; every room had a different, deep color theme. The living room was beige and burgundy. What I could see of the kitchen was blue and yellow. The hallways and stairs were a hazelnut color, and the whole house smelled of rain incense.

      “Home sweet home.” He commented happily, dropping his keys onto a table by the front door. “It’s nothing much but, hey its home.” I was still taking it all in.

      “This house is beautiful, Lij.”

      “Want a full tour?” he asked.

      “Sure.”

He showed me around the den, the bathrooms, the closets, the kitchen, the guest room, the living room, and the balcony, which looked over Central Park and Central Park Avenue.

      “That’s only the first floor. The second floor is way better. You know why?”

      “That’s where your room is?” I guessed.

      “Yep.” He led me past a room, which was Hannah’s, his younger sister. (“Can’t invade her privacy…no matter how big a pain she can be”) and went into his room. His walls were painted blue and everything else was white or black. He had eight bookshelves lining one wall. Four of them held CD’s; the rest was filled with books. His desk stood in a corner, his screensaver a picture of the different skylines of the world. On one of his walls was a huge bulletin board, full of pictures of his friends and family.

      “Like my room?”

      “Yeah, it’s awesome.” I said, checking out what CDs he owned. He had at least 3,000.

      “You live close by here, don’t you?” he asked.

      “Yeah, I live about a block down from here. How’d you know?” I turned to face him.

      “Your phone number starts with the same three digits as mine.” He had his back turned towards his stereo. The Smashing Pumpkins’ 1995 album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness came on the speakers. He walked over to the bed in the corner and sat down. “I love this CD.”

      “Likewise…” I sat on the queen-sized bed with him. He was reading a story I had written in my freshman year. It had been for a class contest.

      “Think about someone you admire. Create a story about them and you meeting,” my English teacher, Mr. Herbig, had told us. “Which ever student has the most creative and interesting one will win a prize as well as an ‘A’ on their midterm.” I had written about my favorite author, J. R. R. Tolkien and how I traveled back in time to meet him. I almost got lost and stuck in time and he rescued me from several famous disasters of the past that my time machine had taken me to by mistake. One of them was the Titanic sinking; another was the beheadings of the non-Catholics when Queen Elizabeth I’s sister, Mary was queen back in the 1550s. Tolkien had used his wit and charm to save me from many things and get me back in my own time.

      “Aradia, you are one of the best writers I have ever met. You should get some of these to a publisher!”

      “Thanks Lij.”

      “By the way, what did you get on ‘Time with Tolkien’? Did you win?” I blushed.

Goddess, his eyes are gorgeous…

“What do you think?” I challenged.

      “I think you did win.”

      I smiled at him, pulling the binder into my lap and flipped to the divider labeled with the name of the story. I took it out and handed it to Elijah.

      “Turn it over.” I said quietly. He followed my request and smiled at the writing in red marker on the back page of the story.

      “‘Outstanding!’” he read aloud. “‘Come after class to claim your prize.’” He looked up at me with a curious look on his face. “What was the prize, Aradia?”

      “I received an all expense paid scholarship to a writers’ workshop that summer.” I pointed to a divider labeled ‘YWSW.’ “Young Writers’ Summer Workshop. It’s located at UNC. I went for the program but got loads more.” Elijah waited for me to continue.

      “Like…?” he said when he couldn’t take the suspense any longer.

      “Like my first serious relationship.” I replied with a smirk.         

      “Ah…” Elijah mumbled, nodding his head. “I know what you’re saying.”

      “Do you?” I said tauntingly.

      “I think so.” He responded thoughtfully.

      “Then what am I saying?” I asked, remembering what had happened that summer.

      “You fell in love, lost your virginity and got your heart broken all in the same summer. Am I right?”

      I raised my eyebrows, impressed at his way of getting things so precise. My bag started buzzing and the song ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ by the Verve cut the comfortable silence that had fallen between us. I rolled my eyes and looked at my caller I.D. ‘Luna’ it read.

      “Excuse me a second.” I said as I flipped open my phone. “Luna…”

      “Aradia…ELIJAH WOOD’S ON TV!!! Where ARE YOU? How could you be MISSING THIS?!” she screamed quickly.

      “Um…easy.” I replied glancing at Lij, who had started reading a story I had written just recently.

      “‘Easy’?! How could you say it’s easy to miss ELIJAH WOOD on TV?! You’re the most crazed fan I know!!!” she screeched into my ear.

      “Because, Luna. I’m with him…” I whispered. Silence. Then a humongous shriek came out of the tiny flip phone. I had to take my ear away from it so I wouldn’t go deaf.  Elijah even looked up for a second.

      “OK…Luna…calm down…”

      “OK…OK…I’m calm.” Wow she really could go from calm to insane to calm again in 1.5 seconds… “I’ll call you tomorrow. BYE!!!” she hung up and I closed my phone and looked at Elijah nervously.