Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2011 15:27:51 -0500
From: Miles Popper <milespopper@gmail.com>
Subject: Luke and Collin

This chapter is purely setup for when the story gets good in the later
chapters. There is nothing sexual in this chapter, so if that is all you
want, then I guess you should skip this chapter.

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                           Chapter One
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	The first time I saw him was when I was a junior in high school. My
eyes probably lit up like it was Christmas morning, but I don't think
anyone really noticed. He was the most...well, it's pretty hard to explain.
It wasn't just his shaggy blonde hair, deep blue eyes, and cute smile that
won me over instantly, although that was a contributing factor. I just saw
in him everything I had dreamed about...ever, and I knew he was the one.
	The only problem was, he was 11 at the time. This didn't exactly
come as a big surprise to me or anything, I had known that I wasn't exactly
"normal" for quite awhile. I had urges and desires that weren't exactly
"main stream" if you want to put it that way. But how am I supposed to deny
what I am, or suppress what I do not choose to feel?
	The first time I saw him I was just passing him on the sidewalk of
my small town. I was with some friends; we were walking to our school's
football game. I was surprised that I hadn't seen the kid before. My town
wasn't quite the everybody knows everybody kind of place, but it was small
enough that you generally recognized just about everyone, on some level at
least. As much as I wanted to stop and at least ask this kid his name, as
to not be stuck with this unidentified beauty in my head, I knew I
couldn't.
	So the first time I saw him, I simply passed him, and he did indeed
remain unidentified in my mind.

	About 4 months later, fate was evidently with me. I was trying to
get involved in things that would look good on an application, since I
would be a senior the next year and would have to start sending
applications to colleges. I was already in some groups like National Honor
Society and Spanish Club, but a friend of my family convinced me that Big
Brothers Big Sisters would look really good too. I figured I could
sacrifice one hour a week with a kid if it meant I could put it on an
application. I didn't know it at the time, but it was going to be consuming
a lot more than one hour a week.
	So I filled out the paperwork and everything, and it wasn't too
long before I had to go to the elementary school to meet the kid I was
going to be paired up with for the semester. I walked into the office to
ask who I was supposed to talk to.
	"Hi, I was just wondering who I was supposed to talk to about the
mentoring thing?" I asked the secretary who was working..
	"Oh, right, you need to see Mr. Carter, he's down the hall, second
door on the left." she replied.
	"Thanks." I said, and walked out the door towards the rooms she had
specified. In there was the schools social worker, Mr. Carter, who was in
charge of the program.
	"Are you here to meet your buddy?" he asked as I walked in.
	"Yep." I replied
	"Excellent," he began, "Well, have a seat here and we'll go over a
few things. What is your name?"
	"Luke Johnson." I told him as I seated myself in one of the chairs
in his office. He opened up a file cabinet and withdrew a few papers.
	"Well," he said, looking over the papers he had gotten out, "the
boy you will be partnered with is Collin Douglas; he's 11 and in the 5th
grade. We paired you with him because his parents are divorced, and his
mother who he lives with is an alcoholic, so she isn't around a lot.
Hopefully you can just be kind of supportive, since he might be having a
hard time dealing with all that."
	"That does sound pretty harsh, but I guess that's what I signed up
for. When do I get to meet him?" I asked.
	"I can introduce you to him now, before he leaves. He says after
school for an hour several days a week to get help with math." Mr. Carter
explained.
	We both got up, and Mr. Carter led me down the hallway towards the
classrooms. When we got to the math room, I followed Mr. Carter in, and I
saw him for the second time in my life. The boy, who was evidently Collin,
who I had written off as someone who was probably from out of town, was
going to be my buddy, if you can call it that. This was too good to be
true.
	"Mrs. Donahue, if we could just have a minute or two, I need to
introduce Collin to his new buddy." Mr. Carter said, and when he did,
Collin turned around and looked me right in the face, smiling. I smiled
back, really just trying to keep myself congealed since I felt like a stick
of butter in the microwave. I wanted him pretty bad, but I had to keep my
cool.
	"That's no problem." replied the teacher, Mrs. Donahue. Mr. Carter
and I walked over to Collin's desk.
	"Collin, this is Luke, he'll be spending some time with you after
school one day a week." explained Mr. Carter.
	"Hi." was just about all I could managed, as I stuck out my arm
towards him.
	"Hi." he echoed my greeting back at me, and then shook my hand
after pulling the sleeve of his hoodie back. It was just a bit too big for
him, but if you ask me it just looked really hot on him. "Nice to meet
you."
	"Well you two can get to know each other better when Luke comes for
his first day. Right now we better let Collin get back to his math." said
Mr. Carter.
	"Aw, I don't have to do math. Can't today be his first day?" was
Collin's response to that. I wish I could have told him how much I agreed
with him.
	"I don't think that's a very good idea at all, young man." stated
Mrs. Donahue, "You have to keep that Math grade up and you aren't doing to
well at the moment."
	So Mr. Carter and I left Collin to his math, and went back to his
office to take care of a few final things before I left. It was decided
that I would come every Thursday after school, which was the day that would
best fit into my schedule. However, to be honest, I wasn't to happy about
it. It was Friday, so I was going to have to wait six days before I really
got to meet Collin. I guess I would just have six days of suspense then,
wondering what was going to happen.

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Like it so far? Probably not, this chapter isn't that interesting. But I
made it short, so it can't have been that bad. Anyway, I promise it will
get better as the story progresses.

Comments, Questions, Suggestions? Send them to milespopper@gmail.com.