Sand Art Crafts

Where would I find a sand candle arts and crafts? My friend like arts and crafts and making a sand candle sounds interesting. Does anyone know where I can get that arts and crafts? Thanks!

where to buy sand for arts and crafts? hi i was just wondering where i could buy sand (for arts and crafts purposes) or kids playing sand?? im doing this thing for art and i need sand to make it look like a beach thank u :D

Sand art question... please help!!!? I have always loved sand art and i recently got a beautiful vase with an amazing front view of a beach made of sand and my cat had tipped it over when i was sleeping. i am very upset and i am trying to find where to buy more online but every time i search google it says "how to make sand art" or "sand art crafts" i just want a easy website that has them to sell. i hope somebody can help:) Thanks

Where could I get a protection mat for art and crafts? I am going to buy art and crafts including moon sand for a friend's kids' xmas but she is a very anti mess person so am looking for a sort of protection mat that can go on over a table or on the floor. Does anyone know where I could get one? Thanks

What are some neat crafts with sand? I'd really like to make somekind of sand art with colored sand.

Coloured sand Arts. Arts and crafts? I would like to know how to colour or dye sand, have you seen those glasses vases or bottles with coloured sand in them? well i would like to make some myself. can anyone give me some tips or pointers? Thanks

how much money dose sand art cost at michals the arts and craft store......? sandart I need to know how much it cost

Where can I buy colored sand in Northern Virginia? I need small amounts of color sands. I need mostly dark colors. I checked in Michaels Art and Craft store. They just have three to four colors. I checked in A.C.Moore and they do not have colored sands. Where do I find colored sands?

Advert on tv at minute - Childs arts/craft toy involving sand? I would like to buy for my little girl but cannot think of the name of it? Anyone know

Can anyone tell me some good ideas for a public birthday party? Okay, I am planning a huge birthday bash for my whole family (birthdays around same time) and I need some original ideas for games, crafts, etc. but please not TOO costly. Any and ALL will be appreciated. I already have the basic games and a water-slide, face painting, t-shirt decorating, karaoke, candle making, sand-art, and Daisy Duke contest. Any and All suggestions (appropriate) will be highly appreciated. THANKS!

How can I appreciate modern art? Went to the Houston Art Museum. I'm no expert, but I have half a sense of art appreciation. If i don't "get it" on an artistic level, I can at least appreciate the craft, attention to detail, time and effort it takes to create a work of art. Then there was the modern art. I couldn't fathom it, nor could I appreciate the craft as it all looked so much like a rush job. How is a canvas with painted squares art? Or an acrylic cube filled with pink sand considered display worthy? I see no craft, nor any astetics. Am I missing something, or is modern art simply a statement that there is nothing left to explore?

Can I apply acrylic paint (art or craft grade) over oil-based wood stain on large pine wood carving? I recently sculpted a huge figure from a white pine log. I used an oil-based walnut stain and was not totally happy with the results ( stain was applied a few days ago). I decided to augment parts of the piece with paint / wash / glaze. I have TONS of acrylic paint - both craft and artist grades - but I don't know if if I can use this over oil stain. Do I need primer? Do I re-sand the areas? Or should I use oil-based paint? I'm mostly interested in a semi-transparant white-wash that will allow some of the dark grain underneath to show through. Any suggestions? THANKS!!

Where can I buy small lattice panels? I'm looking for lattice with small openings to use for cabinet fronts. I've looked at Lowe's, they only have huge pieces and the wood ones are sanded nicely. I've also checked Michael's, no luck. Is there any arts and crafts retailers out there?

materials for wood crafts with acrylic? I'm getting confused with the materials that I need to use when painting wood crafts, basically is it ok to use the acrylic primer and sealant/topcoat that is typically used in houses? I noticed they are more expensive. let's say I'm painting my closet, i sand it first then apply my primer. Do i use gesso or just the primer from ordinary hardware stores? I paint my closet using acrylic paint from the hardware stores, then paint the design using a stencil using acrylic paint that are sold in tubes (the one that artists use). After drying, I apply a topcoat/sealant - again do I use the one sold in art shops or the one that are used in houses? Any input would be extremely helpful. I'm so confused! Yes I plan to put details on my closet. Oooh i thought gesso was for wood also. What topcoat do I use? I'm thinking I have to coat the entire closet and not just the design right? Coz the texture will be different? So just use household topcoat?

I am taking my daughter (1) and my nieces (3, and 5) to the pumpkin patch. I have three options. Baby is free? Stony Creek Farms 15 minutes away Parking $5 $3 Jumping Pillow Pedal Cars $2 Haunted House Gourd Sling Shot Pumpkin Train Giant Chess $1 Candle Making Cob Cannon High Striker Hayride Kiddiepillar Duck Race Free Straw Pile Farm Animals Playground Guffy Acres 1 hour away $8 Admission Pumpkins $1-8 FREE HUGE corn maze Hayrides Corn Box (like a sand box, with corn) Barnyard Barrel Train Mini Hay Maze Craft Tent "Cow" Roping Straw Mountain Tube Slide Goat Walk Lil' Coop Straw Jump Dress a Farmer Russel Farms 10-15 minutes away admission $5 FREE Hay Ride Corn Maze Scavenger Hunt Farm Animals Miniature Golf Pony and Tractor Peddal Carts Play Area Lasso a "bull" "and more" What "more" is, I have no idea. X-tra cost Pumpkin Patch Sand Art Face Painting Country Store Pumpkin Decorating Happy Halloween

What to buy a 4 year old that has everything for her birthday? Hi everyone, It my partner's daughters birthday at the end of this month she will be turning 4 and we need some ideas of what we can get her. Basically everything we have said we will get her, she already has, she is spoilt rotten by her mum. Her mum has got her an iPod and Nintendo DSi for her birthday (we think she is far too young for these) and want to get her something more appropriate and fun for her age. We have suggested a sand and water tray, outdoor toys, art and craft stuff, play camera (she is fantastic at taking photos), play kitchen etc but she has everything already! She isn't a girly girl, she isn't interested in dress up, or dolls etc but loves art and craft, playing with little figures, dinosaurs, Playdoh, playing outside, being read stories etc. Does anyone have any suggestions? I have heard of the new Magic Maize/Happy Mais, has anyone tried this yet? If there is anything new just out that sounds good, maybe she won't have it already or perhaps something that can only be bought in America etc so it will be most likely she won't have it! Thanks for any help! Thanks for the great ideas so far, definately have given us something to think about! Stellar Meg - luckily she seems to be ok on that front (so far) it's her mum that could do with that present!!

Crafty question and ir eally need your help!!????!!???!!!? okay so i made this recipe for bead( it was like a dough) they baked for 2 hours. i need to use sand paper to make them smooth, but the holes closed up a lot. how can i Re-due the holes after they have been baked. i know i ask lame questions about crafts but crafts are a big [art of my life, so your help is VERY much appreciated. thanks. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!1 miz lamb

10 yeard old daughter's craft party? My daughter is turning 10 July 27, and I am trying to think of a fun birthday party. Last year she had a luah party and she really liked that, but this year i was thinking maybe a craft party? I could get a lot of tables and set them out and on one i could put like washable paint and paper and one could have coloring books ,crayons,and markers.. and one could have the different colored sand that you put into bottles.. but what other kind of crafts could we put out? she is really into arts and crafts so i just know she would like this.

Will there ever be a need for master crafters again? I was in a building built in 1883 or so in my home town with a friend who is an interior design artist. We were looking at the carvings on the wooden wall panels. He showed me how the scrollwork had parts where it went into deep curves that hid parts of the woodwork from the eyes. Those parts were fully sanded and finished, just like the exterior part that was easily seen. I was told by him that extremely few people alive in the US have that kind of skill anymore, in scrollwork the carved parts that are hidden from the eyes are no longer sanded or finished, but left rough. This is due to a lack of demand for exceptionally skilled crafters, because we as a nation are all about what can be produced quickly and cheaply with little regard for careful crafting of objects. Do you think this will ever change? Or as we progress technologically will those arts be forgetten completely?

HELP me translate these english sentences into spanish.? They need to be in the YO form (i) 1. When I was a younger I played basketball allot. 2. I played on the swing set when I was younger. 3. I loved to watch cartoons in the afternoon. 4. I used to go to bed at 9:00 pm. 5. My favorite food was pizza when I was younger. 6. I played in the sand box when I was younger. 7. My favorite class was arts and craft. 8.I didn't know how to swim when I was younger. 9. I collected action figures as a young boy. 10. I hated girls when I was younger. These are for spanish class and I am a boy this is mt sisters account.. thank you.

care to give me a critique? is there a beauty in my poetry that deals with the plight of a tree of how the deer nibble at her bark and she is home to the meadow lark she stands tall in the rain and snow in summer is dressed with no place to go she'll shade you happily on the hottest day and give your children a place to play then after years of standing still and tall her spot is gifted to a shopping mall and then her long life is brutally cut short by men who see only a new food court yet her journey does not end right there she is planked and sanded with great care and crafted lovingly by men with their heart into what she always was a piece of art sooo it's that good huh?i left you speechless...com'on people tear me a new one.....

Methods for crafting with Styrofoam? I'm working on a final for one of my art classes, and I've been finding it difficult to craft the foam exactly how I want it. I have a..heat wand..I guess is the best way to describe it, which will burn into the foam and is pretty good for shaping. I've also sanded some of the things. I also need the best method for attaching a foam model to a canvas. Gluing it just sound too simple, I'm afraid it won't work. Anyway, any methods or tips any other artists who have experience with this medium could give me would be great.

How does this sound? Hey, I recently sat down to the computer and started writing this, and I wanted to know what you thought about it. Be brutally honest, too! Thanks in advance. I walked slowly up the path, disgruntled because of another Saturday that I had to wake up earlier than 1:00. But my father still insisted I come, even though I was a senior in high school and could make my own decisions. I looked down and realized that my shoes didn’t even match; one black and the other brown. I shrugged and continued on, wondering what the big fuss was all about. I remember thinking that my dad must have already hired somebody to replace Sandy. Man, I would miss that old guy. He was like the father I always wanted. But now he was gone, retiring in Colorado, he says. I would want to stay here, in sunny California. But no, he wanted snow. Fine, he could have all the snow his little heart desired, while I was stuck here with my dad. I guess that the fact that I could crawl out of my upstairs window and down to the beach was okay, but, still, I had to live under the same roof as my dad, and until I could move out, I wouldn’t be completely happy. Or so I thought. I approached the old, weathered steps that led to the office part of the aquarium. It wasn’t really open to public, but we jokingly referred to it as that because Sandy had always been bringing people here to see the marine animals and try to convince them not to pollute or not to go fishing or other nonsense like that. But I had seen some changed (or seemingly changed people) that had walked out of that doorway. As the handle of the door twisted, I could almost feel the change in the atmosphere inside. I pushed open the door, heaving a little bit because I knew it always stuck. “Um… red or yellow?” George, a guy who worked here and I had known all my life, asked. It looked like he was talking to the processor of the old computer we had been trying to fix forever. I was about to make a joke about his sanity when a lilting, musical voice answered. “Red, please. Yes, that one, the one by your foot.” The voice sounded like it was suppressing laughter when George frantically searched between the mess of wires to find the right one. When he picked it up and held it out, a nicely tanned hand reached out for it. Her nails were long, but not too long, and manicured without nail polish. I was unnaturally pleased that she wasn’t one of those crazy, nail-painting girls. Who cares what color your nails are, anyway? “Okay… try turning it on, it should boot up now. I wonder who the idiot was who attached all the cables, they were in the wrong places,” she called out to George as I flushed; I was the one who had connected all the cables. They looked like they had gone where I put them. The computer whirred to life, a gentle hum on the newest processor in the building. Genius, that girl was great. We really needed all the programming on that to keep track of all the information that had been flooding in from our partners up in northern California. Then a pair of legs was thrust out from under the desk. Nice legs, very muscular, well tanned, yet thin, too. Her flip-flops were slightly sandy, like she had just stepped off the beach. Then she shimmied out from under the desk, stood up, and tried to brush herself free of the dust that grew under there. Her face turned towards me then, just as if she had known I was there the whole time but was a little too busy to talk at the moment. Her eyes turned what seemed like the whole force of the ocean on me, and I felt like God had captured the waves and currents of the sea outside that building and put them inside of her. Crystal blue, they were stunning, and seemed to hold more knowledge and sadness than I thought possible for one human being. Yet they seemed like they were happy, too, and that they only hinted at the sadness that she had seen. I wanted to see her laugh right then, and I knew that I wouldn’t be pleased until I did. “Hiya, you must be Justin! George was just telling me about you and the other guys who worked here.” So George had already told her about all the other boys who worked here. The other guys, probably so much more handsome in her eyes, would no doubt steal her away before I had a chance to hold more than a two minute conversation with her. Yet when she thrust out her hand for me to shake, I couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to hold that warm hand in mine if we walked down the beach. I surveyed the rest of her outfit casually as she glanced around the office. Her hair was pulled up into a messy bun, and long strands of brown hair swept around her face, offsetting her white smile wonderfully. She wore a scooped out tank top with a bathing suit underneath, tied around her neck in a flouncy knot. Her Bermuda shorts fit snuggly, but seemed comfortable on her. A set of hand woven bracelets wrapped around her left wrist, and it looked like each of her friends had made one, judging by the different names on them. I was about to head out back to the tanks when my body took control of my mind. Before I could stop myself, I thrust myself to her, and my lips pressed on hers. Her eyes widened, but she didn’t pull away like I thought she would. My first kiss, though no one ever knew I was a senior in high school and still hadn’t kissed anyone, and it was amazing. She closed her eyes then, and I was about to wind my arms around her waist when George smacks the back of my head. “WHAT THE HECK, MAN?! What are you doing?” He was totally shocked at my outgoing behavior. Normally, I would stand at the back of the room. I was always alone at parties. Yet she felt like the one. The crazy sparks that were supposed to fly between two people when they first kiss did more than fly; they zigged and zagged through my mind until I thought I was going to collapse from the crazy joy that I got. “Well, I guess guys in California are just more abrupt than Kentucky.” She giggled, but her eyes strayed to me with questions and – could it be? – a trace of longing. Her cheeks were flushed and her smile crooked, yet it only made her even more beautiful. “If your dad finds out about this…” George trailed off, shaking his head dutifully. “He won’t, man, not unless you tell him,” I answered, suddenly scared as to what my father would do. He had always been the protective type. “Oh, so you aren’t normally like this? Or only when Daddy’s gone?” Her tone was lilting and sarcastic, but real curiosity burned behind her eyes. “What are you talking about, girl?! This guy has never been the kind of guy to do that. He hasn’t even had a date in his life! Not that girls don’t want him, but he is just that way. Living with his dad all the time, I guess. I mean, look at him. Isn’t he gorgeous…” I cut him off with a quick glare. George rambled. A lot. “Look, miss, I’m sorry. I really, REALLY, don’t know what happened, and I’ll do anything to make it up to you.” I was red and completely mortified. What did she think of me now? “Don’t apologize. It was not exactly the romantic first kiss I imagined, but I think I… kinda liked it,” she said, and then flushed as she realized she had said it aloud. Did she say her first kiss? Or did I imagine it? Did I ruin it for her? Or was it more than she had hoped for? My mind was working over time when my dad came in. His hair was graying badly, but he always tried to keep up his health. He jogged five miles on the beach daily, and I usually did, too, but I went in the opposite direction. He looked too business-type for California. No other marine biologist would walk into his office, ready to start checking on porpoises and jelly fish, dressed in a tie. I mean, really. His slacks were ironed perfectly, and he glanced disapprovingly at my uncoordinated shoe selection, and the girl who was still more of a stranger than I could imagine stifled a giggle as she followed his line of vision. I glanced at my shoes, only to see that hers were to totally different colors of brown, and two different styles. “Justin, I see you have met Paige Abney, so now you can get to work,” my dad grunted, to the point as always, and even though I didn’t even know her name, I nodded. I turned on my heels and began walking to the back door that led to the tanks outside where all the wildlife was held. I glanced over to Sandy’s old desk and saw that she had already put her stuff up. Her laptop was a white Apple version, and it looked too complicated for me. She had three novels, each wider than my head, stacked on top of each other, the top one with a bookmark sticking out of it. The spine of it said The Complete Collected Works of John Keats. Poetry, she liked poetry! We had too much in common. I wondered briefly if she wrote her own like I did. Then I noticed a pair of cheep sunglasses was hanging lopsided on her computer, and they had the little fake gem stones glued all over them. It looked like the type of thing you would see small children making at Arts & Crafts, but a picture was pinned underneath the glasses. It had four girls who were smiling and posing hilariously at the camera, all wearing the same kind of glasses. Her bulletin board, like each of ours, was now posted with reports, memos, and scraps of random papers. But most prominent were the pictures. They were scattered everywhere, pinned up with every last thumb tack we had in the office. I slowed so I could look at them, though I only had the chance to glance at about three as I went by. One was of three young teen girls (I recognized Paige immediately due to her eyes) at an ice skating rink, all leaning precariously on each other. Their faces were flushed, probably from the cold, and they all seemed to be laughing crazily. Her eyes didn’t hold the sadness they did now, but they were still just as knowledgeable. It shocked me. Another picture was of a group of nine girls, each grinning hugely, and the tallest one holding a shorter one in her arms. Paige was peeking out behind a girl with glasses, and had her arm draped around the shoulder of another with freckles. You could see how easily they commingled, lounging against each other in the bright sunlight. The last picture that caught my eye as I went by was one of Paige and five other girls. Their names were scrawled on the picture in elegant script, and it looked recent. They were all lounging on the back of a house boat. The names were: Paige, Cassidy, Whitney, Anne, Kaitlyn, and Emily. I presumed these were all her best friends, and in the corner was the date: June 23, 2007. Only two months before the present date. She must have been heartbroken to leave them. I could only shake my head and wonder. “Hey, wait for me!” Paige called, and I thrilled at her touch when she laid her hand lightly on my shoulder. “Your father wanted you to show me around since I am going to be working here for a while,” she whispered, “but I just wanted to come anyway.” Her smile was slightly teasing, but mostly curious. I tried to shrug nonchalantly, yet I could almost feel her disbelief in my casual acts. “Okay, then I get to show you what I do most of the time.” She nodded, almost confused, and I laughed inwardly at the surprise I was sure to see on her face. We opened the back door, and she cringed as it squeaked, though I barely noticed that. I heard her mention something about ‘oil’. We walked on the small stone pathway that let from tank to tank, grass growing around the edges of it, and sand beyond that. Paige slipped off her shoes, one at a time, then picked them up in her right hand and grabbed my hand with her other hand. I was still wondering if I was in shock after the kiss and imagining this when she tugged me into the sand, giggling. Her toes splayed out confidently as she flitted across the grounds with me, and her chaotic expression made me laugh. Had I really just met her 15 minutes ago? We slowed to a walk, hers more bouncy than mine, and I savored the sweet breeze, bringing in salty air and that sea-like brine I lived for every morning. The sun baked my face, and I could already tell that I would still have the sun-induced hi-lights later in the colder part of the year. I turned to Paige when she let loose her hair, and I was surprised to see the layers fall all the way down her back, sun bleached streaks in hers, too. It was thick, and waved silkily as we trotted in the sand. Finally we approached the first tank. “Okay, so this tank is my favorite. Now let me show you why,” I murmured close to her ear. Then I broke into a run and hopped up on the edge of the tank. I quickly stripped off my shirt and dove in. When I came up she seemed not to be looking at me, but to be looking at something behind me, a look of joy in her eyes. I smiled because I knew exactly what she was looking at. I dove back under and called with the whistle that was around my neck to the two shapes that were swimming together. They rushed forward to me, and I got lost as I did every time I worked with the two Harbour Porpoises. I could hear their soft clicks under water, and it made me want to burst with joy just looking at their joy. They were such free creatures. I came up for air and flipped around to explain to her their names, only to find her slipping off her tank top and shorts, in her bathing suit only. My mind went into shock at the sight of her in a bikini. W-o-w. She crawling onto the edge, and dove right in, perfect swan dive all the way. She swam under the water, not at all on top of the water in the free style stroke I swam. She swam peacefully, not in any hurry, and I admired the way her hair flowed out behind her, becoming threads of silk all woven together. She didn’t come up for air once until she got to me. “Harbour Porpoises! I have never got to work with and porpoises before! Only Dolphins. My boss said that when I got out of college he would think about it, so I moved out here. I’m heading off to be a freshman at DeVry University. Here at Long Beach, too. I thought it was the best place to go, since I love the west coast. Plus, now I can work here without having to worry about driving so far to school. Will you be a sophomore?” She was so happy, just babbling on, and I was so shocked. She would be going to the same school I was. She would be a freshman like I was. Would she be as shocked as I was? “I… uh… whoa…” I couldn’t say anything. Today was turning out to be the luckiest day ever. “Justin?! Are you okay?” Paige looked nervous at my blank stares. “Yes! I’m great! Better than great!” I burst out with. A grin slowly spread across my face and I pulled her thin waste to me and kissed her again with new enthusiasm and I greater hope for a happy ending than I ever had in my life before. I didn’t care if she hated me for going at it a second time. I didn’t care if she hated me for not even knowing anything about her before kissing her like this. I didn’t care, because it all felt just so right for once in my life. Then she wrapped her arms around me neck and pulled closer, like she too needed the comfort that I sought with her. Her lips her slightly parted as were mine, and I breathed in the heady scent that came off her smooth skin. I let my hands play across her hair, loving the way it slid easily through my fingers. Her fingers wound themselves in my hair, and they knotted quickly as she clutched to me, obviously wanting nothing more then what I wanted; to stay welded like this forever. I closed my eyes to enjoy the moment with all of my other senses when something rammed into my back. I flew forward into the water, pushing her down with me. I came up choking, but when I looked around, she wasn’t above the water. “Oh no. Oh no no no no no! Paige!” I flipped around frantically, glancing through the clear waters of the pool, trying to see if she was on the bottom. She probably hit her head on the shallow floor, and I would never forgive myself if she was hurt. I searched in a mad daze until I heard a scream. Not a scream of terror, but of joy. I flipped around to see her hanging on the fin of one of the porpoises. She was being pulled towards me, and I smiled when I saw her face. But my smile faded when I saw the huge gash on her forehead. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that it was stupid to be in the tank without greeting the porpoises. They were so spoiled and needed the attention so badly that they would butt anyone in the back who ignored them. Though I had taught them myself how to pull people on their fins like they were now, they were still dangerous creatures if they wanted to be. “Paige!” I screamed, and my frantic expression must have scared her a little, because her smile faltered, then fell of her face, as she noticed the warm blood trickling down the side of her face. She let go of the fin to reach up and touch her head and slid into the water. I swam to her swiftly, pushing my arms hard against the waters that pushed me backwards. When I finally got to her, she was pale and trying hard to breathe through her mouth. “That was fun,” she laughed shakily, still breathing through her mouth. I guessed at that point that she couldn’t stand the smell of blood. It wasn’t doing much for me at the time, either. “Let’s go inside. Now,” I was firm because I didn’t like the odd color she was turning. She seemed almost green when she nodded. I was able to swim with her clinging to me back because, though she was easily as tall as me, she was very light. I lifted her gently up on the ledge and swung my legs over. Then I picked her up in my arms and cradled her to my chest like a young child. I was walking swiftly up the path, ignoring the way the hot stones burned my bare feet when she started shaking slightly in my arms, even with the heat. I brushed the hair out of her eyes and she smiled weakly. Her eyes were cloudy but she tried to stay focused. “It’s my fault. Really, it is. I wanted to try riding them like I saw you yesterday when I came by to get the details on my job. But I didn’t know it was so fast. They just took off, and I couldn’t hold and that’s when I cut my head, when they dove under and I hit the bottom. I’m so sorry,” tears leaked over the rims of her eyes, sorrowful and pained, whether because of the pain or the remorse, I couldn’t tell, but I very gentle kissed the tip of her nose to calm her down. I really needed to get to know this girl. I kicked open the door and rushed inside, ignoring the gaping expressions from the two college guys who clocked in a few minutes after we went outside. They were always the ones with new girlfriends every week, and it shocked them to see me with this gorgeous girl. I kept on walking to the beat up fabric couch that we had in the back of the room so we could watch the plasma if ever we got to bored, which was often. Ever so gently I laid her down, and slid the only pillow under her head, gesturing that I would be right back. George had been hunched over at his desk, typing away, when he glanced up to see why they gasped. His expression went from curious to appalled in record time. “Justin, oh my gosh, what did you do to her, boy?” Of course, always assume it was my fault. I ignored him and ran to grab a wet cloth to lie on her forehead. I grabbed the clean one off the rack in the bath room and ran it under the warm water. I wrung it out a little and dashed back into the main office. I sat on the couch, trying not to shake it too much, and placed the washcloth over her head, dabbing gently to try and clean off some of the blood. The color wasn’t returning to her cheeks, which bothered me deeply. “Carson, call the hospital. Tell them we have a head injury and they might need to come here,” My voice was sharp as I whipped orders to one of the college boys. He was the kinder of the two, and I knew he wouldn’t argue. He seemed to keep the girls for longer, whether he was more appealing or appreciated them longer, I didn’t know. “Justin, I’m getting your dad,” George said, then dashed off before I could stop him. I sighed in defeat at what was sure to be the worst lecture I had ever gotten in my life. “I don’t need any help… I’m fine, really… See?” Paige lifted herself up gently on the couch, and then swung her legs over the edge. Still holding the wash cloth to her head she turned to me and smiled weakly before taking two steps. On her third step, her face went bone white again and her knees gave way. She sank to the floor and I reached down to pick her up. My face was a mask of pain and worry, seeing as the only girl who had ever shown any interest with me would probably never want to see me again because I had put her life on the line. I cradled her in my arms again, and then tried to set her on the couch. But her fingers that had twined around my neck refused to let go. I reached up with one hand and tried to unlock her fingers, but she refused to unwind them. She still managed to smile slyly, and I sighed in defeat and sat on the couch, with her on my lap. She refused to let go of my neck, afraid I would leave; though that was the last thing I wanted to do. Her nose was buried in the crook of my neck and my cheek resting in her hair when my father stormed into the room. “JUSTIN!” he bellowed the second he caught sight of my head resting on her hair, and her face buried in my shoulder blade. It only made things worse. “What did you DO to her? You called the HOSPITAL because of a HEAD INJURY?! WHAT HAPPENED?!?!” His voice was threatening to reach new levels of maximum volume, so I blurted out. “Nothing, I did nothing. It was that porpoise that you have scared to death out there,” I new it wasn’t true that the porpoises were scared, because I interact with them daily. I just used that card because I knew that they were terrified when he had taken them from the ocean uncalled for. I will always use that against him. Wild animals need to be left to be wild, free. He didn’t understand that, just like he never understood me. “Justin…?” Paige mumbled into my skin. I turned back to her right as the door opened, with Carson leading in the local doctor, Doc, as we called him. I had visited him last time I broke my arm on the rocks by the beach. He was a good guy, and I knew he could help her. “Shh, its okay, the doctor is going to take a look at your head and see if you’re okay,” I was talking quietly to her, almost as is she was a child, and she noticed. She looked up and smiled thankfully for my patience. “Justin, you said head injury on the phone, so what happened?” Good old Doc, right to the injury. So I explained in brief what happened. Paige groaned when I got to the part of her diving under the water and hitting her head on the bottom. I casually left out the part of kissing in the tank. “Mmmm hmmm, sounds like a possible minor concussion. But I can stitch her up here, if you would like,” he suggested, and I looked at Paige. She wasn’t scared, or was hiding it well if she was, and I questioned her with my eyes. She nodded once, and I nodded at Doc. Yet I about told him not to when he got out the needle he was going to use to stitch up the cut. “Son, you might want to hop up while I do this,” Doc said, and I tried to slide out from under Paige. Yet her arms were clinging desperately to my neck, and her eyes were a silent begging not to go. I went to reach around my neck and forcefully remove her hands when the symbolism of it caught up with me. If I really loved her, and wanted her, even if I knew nothing about her, I couldn’t leave her now, despite my fear of needles. But if I made her release me, then I was saying, in a way, that she didn’t mean that much to me. And she did mean everything to me, this total stranger who made me believe in love at first sight. So I grasped her closer, pressing her skin against mine, relishing the warmth, and shrugged at Doc. He looked at me with strange eyes, eyes that were finally happy, seeing me happy, like he had never seen me before. I bent down gently and pressed my lips against hers. My dad’s sharp gasp almost made me stop, but I realized that I should be able to make my own decisions. So I pressed my mouth lightly to hers, and she pressed her lips against mine, almost as if she was scared that if she wasn’t strong enough that I would leave. I parted my mouth slightly, once more wishing that this moment could be all that I would ever live with forever. I felt the corners of her mouth turn up slightly and I had to release her for Doc. I couldn’t bear to see him put stitches in her head, even though I was sure that her bangs, cropped shorter than the rest of her hair, would cover them when he was done. I played with her fingers, lifting them slightly and learning the contours of how they rose and fell. Doc sighed and got up, so I presumed he was done. “Well, I suggest that she not come to work for the next week,” her eyes flashed with steel and a possible rebellion against doctor’s wishes on that, “and that she take a couple of pain killers tonight. The stitches should actually dissolve after a while, so don’t worry about getting them wet. Be careful next time,” Doc threw one more accusing glare at me, and then walked through the door. “I am not going to sit on my butt at home for the next week! I am coming tomorrow, I don’t care what that fancy shmancy doctor of yours says…” Paige was rattling on, so I assumed she felt better. I let her sit in my lap as everyone knelt in front of the couch and asked her what had happened and how it felt to have stitches. I listened to her musical voice, reminding me of wind chimes the way it rose and fell in a beautiful tone. Her cheeks were gaining their color back. Her eyes still looked sad, but not as doleful as before. They seemed almost preoccupied from the sadness that hung on her soul, the sadness I had sensed before I had even said a word to her. I wanted to take it all away from her, make her happy, even if I had to jump off a cliff to do it. She shifted slightly in my lap, but not farther away, rather closer to me but still angled so that she could talk to them. She let one of her hands fall from my neck, her fingertips brushing along my still bare chest when she let them fall in a way that made my breath catch and my heart race. She used her hands animatedly, waving them around while she talked. Yet she somehow managed to inconspicuously brush my cheek, or my hair, or my shoulders as she talked. Her eyes never glanced at me, but if I shifted, she did, readjusting like I was her gravitational pull. The way her breath, vanilla and mint all mixed together, tickled my cheek made me want to inhale deeply. She wore no perfume, but the fragrance just emanating from her skin made my senses go mad. Because she was still in a bikini, I could trace down her arms, lightly, so that no one would notice. I slid my hands down the small of her back, angling her again so that no one could see. I relished at the warmth she emitted, and traced my thumb down her spine once more while I spoke. “Paige,” I whispered with my lips close to her ears. I saw her shiver, but not out of discomfort. “I might need to take you home now. You can show me where you live. I’ll drive your car and then walk home. How about it?” I asked, but my voice sounded more persuasive than just a question. “That would be great, thank you. And thank you for this… exciting day,” She laughed lightly. She stood up, knees shaking slightly. I bent down to pick her up, but she waved me off, clutching around my shoulder instead. I wrapped my arm around her waste, hugging her to me for support. She waved a casual goodbye as we sauntered clumsily out of the office. Once down the path, she whispered in my ear. “I think I’ll like it here. As soon as Doc says I can get back to work, we are trying that again. The poor porpoises didn’t know I was such a novice,” This girl, this amazingly reckless yet still timid girl, this girl who drove me crazy, this girl I wanted to know everything about, this girl drove me insane right at that moment; insane in the sense of this-is-first-love-so-I’ll-put-up-with-you-because-I’m-in-love-with-you insane. Where is your car?” I blew off her comment, inwardly shaking at the thought of having to repeat this whole ordeal. “Over there,” she pointed casually as she looked sideways at my face. She really was quite tall, taller than most of the other girls I had seen around. She was only about an inch shorter than me, and I think I liked having someone my height. I followed the line of her finger and stopped momentarily. Why was I not surprised that she drove a convertible? And not just any convertible, but a BMW M3 convertible, top of the line. I continued on down the sandy path towards the lot, but not before she misread my pause. “I know, it is kinda shabby, but I like it,” she mumbled defensively. Shabby? Did she say shabby? Good grief, this girl’s parents must be money bags. “Not shabby at all. Plus, at least your car runs. Mine is still stuck at a garage. Plus, I like the red.” I was teasing a little, but I really did like the color. “You’re teasing me. You don’t like it, do you?” She sounded playfully hurt. I tapped her lightly on the nose with my finger before opening the passenger side door. She looked slightly disgruntled that I got to drive, but I ignored her. Walking casually around the front of the car, I wondered if this would be some of the last time we would have to talk about what happened today. And I wasn’t talking about her head injury. My fingers hesitated to open the door, afraid of the certain banishment I was going to get from her. I was afraid of rejection, and that was why I had never tried harder to get a girl. I didn’t want to be turned away. I opened the door anyway. I sat down quietly and then shut the door. Then all of a sudden she was on top of me, kissing me so roughly that I gasped. Her mouth was moving in earnest on mine, and her hands clutched the side of my face as if they could hold me there if I didn’t want to be there. But I did want to be there. I was just confused as to why she was suddenly passionate about the way she kissed; before it had been gentle, yet this was rough and desperate to make me understand. Yet I didn’t quite understand, especially when I felt salty tears slide from her cheeks onto mine, and her body being taken over by wracking sobs as she clung to me. I knew then that she wasn’t lying about her first kiss, because the way she acted as if she needed this to go on forever was completely understood, understood by me, the novice at relationships. I took the side of her face in my hands and lifted it gently up so that I could see why she was crying. Silent tears slid down her body as sobs continued to shake her slender frame. Through her sobs she managed to choke out words that made everything clear. “I just thought… you were the one… as soon as I looked at you… I wanted to touch your face… then you kissed me… but I was sure… after you saw how stupid I was… in the tanks… that you… wouldn’t… want… me…” her fears, irrational as they were, took over once again and she buried her face in my chest. I clutched her hair and pressed my lips to it, and held her tightly. “I never believed in love at first sight until today,” I whispered to her as I pulled her up to cradle next to my neck, “but you made me believe. You made me believe, you, this complete stranger, made me believe that I could find someone who would understand. And I will never give up on that. That rush of my blood hot through my veins because of you will never go away, even if you do. For the only way I will leave you is if you don’t want me anymore.” My voice was confident at the end, and she looked up at me with tears still in her eyes. Her lips brushed along my neck, up my chin, until she found my lips. It was ever so light, the way she brushed against my mouth. Like a butterfly, so elegant yet fragile. “We might want to get you home now,” I suggested quietly, hoping to lighten the mood. “Yup, that would be a good thing,” she said in a still shaky voice. I lifted her up gently, trying to reposition myself as I did so. When she had thrown herself on top of me, we had slid lower in the seat until her foot had hit the reclining button and it had slid back. She was practically lying on top of me. I slid her next to me, yanked up the seat, and the pulled her up on my lap delicately. I could drive like that, surely. She looked over her shoulder in question, and snuggled closer when I smiled at her. Her cheek was pressed against mine when I pulled out of the lot. “So, tell me about yourself,” I said conversationally. I slid to the far left of the seat and let her slide down to the right since she was thing enough. Turning the steering wheel would be a problem if I didn’t.

Funny Sayings Needed!!!!? •Earn cash in your spare time. Blackmail your friends. •Drugs cause amnesia and other things I can’t remember. •Dyslexics have more fnu. •Everyone is beautiful if you squint a bit. •Failure is not an option, it’s a lifestyle. •Failure is not falling down; it’s not getting up again. •Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies. •I don’t suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. •If I look confused it’s because I am thinking. •Seen it all, done it all, can’t remember any of it. •Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people seem bright until you hear them speak. •A day without light is like, um… night. •When there is no light, it’s dark. •The wheel is spinning, but the hamster is dead. •If you can’t convince them, confuse them. •If you can’t beat them, arrange to have them beaten. •My anger management class pisses me off. •You’re jealous because the voices only talk to me. •Dreams are like rainbows, only idiots follow them. •Don’t follow my footsteps, I walk through walls. •Rehab is for quitters. •You tried your best and failed miserably, the lesson is, never tried. •I used to have a handle on life, but it broke. •I’m not who you think I am pretending to be. •“Somewhere over the rainbow” well, how can there be somewhere over the rainbow when you can’t get to the rainbow? •Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together. •Acupuncture is pointless. •Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don’t. •I feel like I am diagonally parked in a parallel universe. •It was recently discovered that research causes cancer in rats. •Constipated people don’t give a crap! •Auntie Em- Hate you, hate Kansas, taking dog, Dorothy •Guns don’t kill people, but they make it pretty easy. •The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. •You’re slower than a herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter. •There are three kinds of people: those who can count and those who can not. •Cracks in the sidewalk are only reminders that you are never too strong to fall apart. •Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else. •I like work. It fascinates me. I stand and look at it for hours. •Someday we will look back at all of this and plow into a parked car. •Accept that some days you are the pigeon and other days you are the statue. •I don’t have an attitude problem. You have a perception problem. •Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. •List of things that NEED an answer: Why do physics have to ask for you name. •Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It is the transition that is troublesome. •Vampires are make-believe, like elves, gremlins and Eskimos. •If life is a box of chocolates, then death must be a peanut allergy. •There is always light at the end of the tunnel, just pray to God that it is not a train. •Who ever said that nothing is impossible has never tried slamming a revolving door. •My mind is like a steel trap. Rusty and illegal in 37 states. •You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted and then used against you. •Depression is merely anger with enthusiasm. •All stressed out and no one to choke. •Experience is what you get when what you attended to happen didn’t happen. •I don’t exaggerate. I just remember big. •Some days it doesn’t seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps. •Preserve wild life… pickle a squirrel! •I think, therefore I am overqualified. •Bombs don’t kill people. Explosions kill people. •Cheer up. The worst is yet to come. •If it weren’t for Thomas Edison we would all be watching television in the dark. •I love deadlines. Especially when they make that whoosh sound as they go by. •There are very few personal problems that cannot be solved with high explosives. •Chess is mental torture. •If you think that you are too small to be affective, then you’ve never been in the dark with a mosquito. •Chaos, panic, & disorder- my work here is done. •Too many freaks, not enough circuses. •I am not tense, just terrible, terrible alert. •People will believe anything if you whisper. •I put the “fun” in “dysfunctional”. •Shut up stupid voices, or I will stab you with a Q-Tip. •Is there another name for synonym? •Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy. •A conclusion is a place where you got tired of thinking. •If a word is misspelled in the dictionary, how will you ever know? •I’ll kill for a Nobel Peace Prize. •Doesn’t “expect the unexpected” make the unexpected expected? •Christmas – What other time do you sit in front of a dead tree and eat candy out of your socks? •It’s not an optical illusion. It just looks like one. •My mind not only wanders. Sometimes it leaves completely. •¾ people are sane. So think of three of your friends. Are they are fine, and then you are not. •Just when I got used to yesterday, along came another day. •I had amnesia once…or twice. •What was the greatest thing before sliced bread? •If #2 pencils is the most popular, then why is it #2? •Is it my imagination or do Buffalo wings taste like chicken? •Monday is an awful way to spend 1/7 of your week. •I plan to be spontaneous tomorrow. •Inside of every old person is a young person wondering what happened? •Schizophrenia beats being alone. •All true wisdom is found on t-shirts. •They told me that I was gullible, and I believed them. •Never on any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night. •There is a very fine line between hobby and mental illness. •If you are reading in a bathroom is it considered multitasking? •The easier way always presents itself after the job is done. •When else failed, it’s good to have a little talent for one’s amusement. •The speed of time is one second per second. •If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? •Don’t drink and drive, because you might hit a stop sing and spill your drink. •Strangers have the best candy. •Don’t tell me that the sky is the limit where there are footsteps on the moon. •Do you believe in love at first sight or should I walk by again? •If at first you don’t succeed, then failure must be your style. •Go take a long walk off a short pier. •You annoy me as much as a wet leaf stuck to my a**. •Fairy Tales- Horror stories for children to get them used to reality. •If you are not apart of the solution, be apart of the problem! •My computer once beat me in chess, but it was no match for me in kick boxing. •Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them more. •Ask me no questions, and I will tell you no lies. •Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. •Between two evils, I always pick the one I have never tried before. •I arrive at school late, but I make up for it by leaving early. •I am free of all prejudices. I hate everyone equally. •I have a body of an eighteen year old. I keep it in the fridge. •I never loved a person the way I loved myself. •I am not really a religious person, but if you are up there, SAVE ME SUPERMAN! •It’s not the people in prison that scare me; it’s the people that are not. •“We have been spotted and are getting sucked in by her tractor beam.” •This is like trying to find a fart in a Jacuzzi. •I reject you reality, and substitute my own. •Support the fine arts. Shoot a rapper. •In my opinion, angry people need hugs, or sharp objects. •People tell me that I don’t listen… or something like that. •GO LICK A FROZEN POLE! •If Tylenol, a band-aid, or duct tape can’t fix it, you have a serious problem. •I am going to take over the world. All I need is sporks, napkins, Styrofoam, and bubble wrap. •Plagiarism saves time. •Some call it stalking. I call it love. •My heart has been removed to make room for the sarcasm. •Bull**** make the flowers grow, and that’s beautiful. •Only dead fish go with the flow. •I meant you no harm. But you were standing where I was shooting. •Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defense. •You have to be 100% behind someone in order to stab them in the back. •If the president does it, it is not illegal. •Live everyday like it is your last, crawl in a corner and cry. •She has a lot in common with Hitler, except she has no mustache. •I have more talent in my tiniest fart than you have in your whole body. •Be attached in a detached way. •Who has a tiny brain, big mouth and an opinion that no one cares about? YOU! •His mind is so open that you can hear the wind whistle through it. •Some people cause happiness where ever they go, others when ever they go. •Anything good in life is either illegal, condemned or fattening. •Ambition is the last refuge from the failure. •As I said before, I never repeat myself. •Bugs are Sons of Glitches! •Constant change is here to stay! •Don’t take life so seriously, you won’t get out of it alive. •Everyone hates me because I am paranoid. •Wheaties and Beer: The Breakfast of Champions. •He who laughs last didn’t get it. (HOPE!) •I can resist everything except temptation. •My day is not complete until I’ve terrified a complete stranger. •Aim Low, Reach Your Goals, And Avoid Disappointment. •Forgiveness is me giving up my right to hurt you for hurting me. •A pat in the back is just inches away from a kick in the butt. •Another brilyunt mind diztroyed by the publik edukashun sistum. •Dyslexics of the World....Untie!!! •Aw fudgen nutter bars. •He’s all foam, no beer. •She’s proof that evolution can go in reverse. •I say no to drugs, but they don’t listen. •We don’t necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people. •You’re so stupid you threw a rock at the ground and missed. •I am right 90% of the time, so why worry about the other 12%. •Remember my face, my might need an alibi later. •I have not failed. I just found 10,000 ways that do not work. •Never play leap frog with a unicorn. •I fell in love with you the first time I spied on you through your window. •I was about ready to conquer the world, but I got distracted by something sparkly. •An answer to that nagging question… I LET THE DOGS OUT! •I’m not smiling at you; I am tying not to laugh. •For all of you that talk about me, thank you for making me the center of your world. •I don’t hate you; I just need someone to take my anger out on. •Reality: An illusion caused from lack of alcohol. •According to my calculation, Escalator + Slinky=Unlimited Fun! •Sugar Booger! •Son of a bean farmer. •Fhat the Wuck!!!!! •If I die, I will kill you. •Forgive your enemies, but do not, I repeat, do not forget their names. •Humpty-Dumpty was pushed! •If you DO succeed at first, try not to look astonished. •When the blind leadeth the blind, get out of the way. •If you don’t like the way I drive, get off of the sidewalk. •I am not littering, I am donating to the Earth. •Only in America do we have drive up ATM’s with brail on them. •Anyone who says, “As easy as stealing candy from a baby”, has never tried it. •We are the people our parents warned us about. •If someone with multiple personalities threatens to kill himself, is it considered a hostage situation? •Shooting yourself in the foot is a lot more fun than it sounds. •Give a man a match and he will be warm for a moment, but set him on fire, he will be warm forever. •Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are good is like expecting the bull not to charge because you’re a vegetarian. •The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. •Murderer? Well that is a harsh word. I prefer to think of myself as a Mortality Technician. •Microsoft: “You got questions. We got dancing paperclips.” •When someone tells you nothing is impossible, tell him to dribble a football. •If I had shot you sooner, I will out of jail by now. •Wrestling is just ballet with violence. •She is what I call a suicide blond. Dyed by her own hand. •Gravity always gets me down. •I like running with scissors, it makes me feel rebellious. •Death is life’s way of saying you have been fired. •Do not let the sands of life get in your sandwich. •To be, or not to be, those are the perimeters. •Save trees. Eat a beaver. •I put the “stud” in study. •Never stand between the dog and the fire hydrant. •Two wrongs are only the beginning. •Aim for the stars. But first, aim for their bodyguards. •Okay, so… what is the speed of dark? •He is a box of Cracker Jacks without a prize. •This is not a School; this is hell with florescent lighting. •Some say we will look back at this all and laugh nervously and change the subject. •Creativity is a drug I cannot live without. •Glitter never goes away. It is Herpes of craft supplies. •I used to think I was indecisive, but now I am not so sure. •I am short and ugly enough to succeed on my own. •I think we consider too much luck of the early but bird, but not enough on the bad luck of the early worm. •I get enough exercise pushing my luck. •Give Pizza Chants. •Nothing is more discouraging than unappreciated sarcasm. •Every time I look at you I have the fierce desire to be lonesome. •Sometimes you are the windshield and other times you are the bug. •Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. •Televangelists: Pro Wrestlers of religion. •Life is not about hiding during the storm, it is about dancing in the rain. •I wish my mouth had a backspace button. •Stressed spelt backwards is Desserts. Coincidence, I think not! •Some people are like Slinkies, good for nothing, but you can not help but watch when it tumbles down the stairs. •Good friends always bail you out of jail; True friends are always right beside you in the jail cell saying “Dude, that was AWESOME!” •There go my people. I must find out where they are going so that I can lead them. •Money may not buy happiness, but it sure makes misery a lot easier to live with. •The man who smiles when something has gone wrong found someone to blame it on. •If at first you do not succeed, redefine success. •No, I do not have a solution, but I deeply admire the problem. •He is a self made man and worships his own maker. •If it does not fit force it; if it breaks, it needed replacement anyway. •Never fight with an idiot. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience. •You can go anywhere in life if you look serious. •When you do not know what to do, walk fast and look serious. •I know you are thinking what I am thinking; you should be ashamed of yourself. •Don’t piss me off. I am running out of places to hide the bodies. •People like you are the reason why I need medication. •Errors have been made. Others will be blamed. •No sense of being pessimistic. It does not work anyway. •Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. •I do what ever my Rice Krispies tell me to do. •Stop the violins. Visualize whirled peas. •Today is the last day of part of your life.

How does this sound? Hey, I recently sat down to the computer and started writing this, and I wanted to know what you thought about it. Be brutally honest, too! Thanks in advance. I walked slowly up the path, disgruntled because of another Saturday that I had to wake up earlier than 1:00. But my father still insisted I come, even though I was a senior in high school and could make my own decisions. I looked down and realized that my shoes didn’t even match; one black and the other brown. I shrugged and continued on, wondering what the big fuss was all about. I remember thinking that my dad must have already hired somebody to replace Sandy. Man, I would miss that old guy. He was like the father I always wanted. But now he was gone, retiring in Colorado, he says. I would want to stay here, in sunny California. But no, he wanted snow. Fine, he could have all the snow his little heart desired, while I was stuck here with my dad. I guess that the fact that I could crawl out of my upstairs window and down to the beach was okay, but, still, I had to live under the same roof as my dad, and until I could move out, I wouldn’t be completely happy. Or so I thought. I approached the old, weathered steps that led to the office part of the aquarium. It wasn’t really open to public, but we jokingly referred to it as that because Sandy had always been bringing people here to see the marine animals and try to convince them not to pollute or not to go fishing or other nonsense like that. But I had seen some changed (or seemingly changed people) that had walked out of that doorway. As the handle of the door twisted, I could almost feel the change in the atmosphere inside. I pushed open the door, heaving a little bit because I knew it always stuck. “Um… red or yellow?” George, a guy who worked here and I had known all my life, asked. It looked like he was talking to the processor of the old computer we had been trying to fix forever. I was about to make a joke about his sanity when a lilting, musical voice answered. “Red, please. Yes, that one, the one by your foot.” The voice sounded like it was suppressing laughter when George frantically searched between the mess of wires to find the right one. When he picked it up and held it out, a nicely tanned hand reached out for it. Her nails were long, but not too long, and manicured without nail polish. I was unnaturally pleased that she wasn’t one of those crazy, nail-painting girls. Who cares what color your nails are, anyway? “Okay… try turning it on, it should boot up now. I wonder who the idiot was who attached all the cables, they were in the wrong places,” she called out to George as I flushed; I was the one who had connected all the cables. They looked like they had gone where I put them. The computer whirred to life, a gentle hum on the newest processor in the building. Genius, that girl was great. We really needed all the programming on that to keep track of all the information that had been flooding in from our partners up in northern California. Then a pair of legs was thrust out from under the desk. Nice legs, very muscular, well tanned, yet thin, too. Her flip-flops were slightly sandy, like she had just stepped off the beach. Then she shimmied out from under the desk, stood up, and tried to brush herself free of the dust that grew under there. Her face turned towards me then, just as if she had known I was there the whole time but was a little too busy to talk at the moment. Her eyes turned what seemed like the whole force of the ocean on me, and I felt like God had captured the waves and currents of the sea outside that building and put them inside of her. Crystal blue, they were stunning, and seemed to hold more knowledge and sadness than I thought possible for one human being. Yet they seemed like they were happy, too, and that they only hinted at the sadness that she had seen. I wanted to see her laugh right then, and I knew that I wouldn’t be pleased until I did. “Hiya, you must be Justin! George was just telling me about you and the other guys who worked here.” So George had already told her about all the other boys who worked here. The other guys, probably so much more handsome in her eyes, would no doubt steal her away before I had a chance to hold more than a two minute conversation with her. Yet when she thrust out her hand for me to shake, I couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to hold that warm hand in mine if we walked down the beach. I surveyed the rest of her outfit casually as she glanced around the office. Her hair was pulled up into a messy bun, and long strands of brown hair swept around her face, offsetting her white smile wonderfully. She wore a scooped out tank top with a bathing suit underneath, tied around her neck in a flouncy knot. Her Bermuda shorts fit snuggly, but seemed comfortable on her. A set of hand woven bracelets wrapped around her left wrist, and it looked like each of her friends had made one, judging by the different names on them. I was about to head out back to the tanks when my body took control of my mind. Before I could stop myself, I thrust myself to her, and my lips pressed on hers. Her eyes widened, but she didn’t pull away like I thought she would. My first kiss, though no one ever knew I was a senior in high school and still hadn’t kissed anyone, and it was amazing. She closed her eyes then, and I was about to wind my arms around her waist when George smacks the back of my head. “WHAT THE HECK, MAN?! What are you doing?” He was totally shocked at my outgoing behavior. Normally, I would stand at the back of the room. I was always alone at parties. Yet she felt like the one. The crazy sparks that were supposed to fly between two people when they first kiss did more than fly; they zigged and zagged through my mind until I thought I was going to collapse from the crazy joy that I got. “Well, I guess guys in California are just more abrupt than Kentucky.” She giggled, but her eyes strayed to me with questions and – could it be? – a trace of longing. Her cheeks were flushed and her smile crooked, yet it only made her even more beautiful. “If your dad finds out about this…” George trailed off, shaking his head dutifully. “He won’t, man, not unless you tell him,” I answered, suddenly scared as to what my father would do. He had always been the protective type. “Oh, so you aren’t normally like this? Or only when Daddy’s gone?” Her tone was lilting and sarcastic, but real curiosity burned behind her eyes. “What are you talking about, girl?! This guy has never been the kind of guy to do that. He hasn’t even had a date in his life! Not that girls don’t want him, but he is just that way. Living with his dad all the time, I guess. I mean, look at him. Isn’t he gorgeous…” I cut him off with a quick glare. George rambled. A lot. “Look, miss, I’m sorry. I really, REALLY, don’t know what happened, and I’ll do anything to make it up to you.” I was red and completely mortified. What did she think of me now? “Don’t apologize. It was not exactly the romantic first kiss I imagined, but I think I… kinda liked it,” she said, and then flushed as she realized she had said it aloud. Did she say her first kiss? Or did I imagine it? Did I ruin it for her? Or was it more than she had hoped for? My mind was working over time when my dad came in. His hair was graying badly, but he always tried to keep up his health. He jogged five miles on the beach daily, and I usually did, too, but I went in the opposite direction. He looked too business-type for California. No other marine biologist would walk into his office, ready to start checking on porpoises and jelly fish, dressed in a tie. I mean, really. His slacks were ironed perfectly, and he glanced disapprovingly at my uncoordinated shoe selection, and the girl who was still more of a stranger than I could imagine stifled a giggle as she followed his line of vision. I glanced at my shoes, only to see that hers were to totally different colors of brown, and two different styles. “Justin, I see you have met Paige Abney, so now you can get to work,” my dad grunted, to the point as always, and even though I didn’t even know her name, I nodded. I turned on my heels and began walking to the back door that led to the tanks outside where all the wildlife was held. I glanced over to Sandy’s old desk and saw that she had already put her stuff up. Her laptop was a white Apple version, and it looked too complicated for me. She had three novels, each wider than my head, stacked on top of each other, the top one with a bookmark sticking out of it. The spine of it said The Complete Collected Works of John Keats. Poetry, she liked poetry! We had too much in common. I wondered briefly if she wrote her own like I did. Then I noticed a pair of cheep sunglasses was hanging lopsided on her computer, and they had the little fake gem stones glued all over them. It looked like the type of thing you would see small children making at Arts & Crafts, but a picture was pinned underneath the glasses. It had four girls who were smiling and posing hilariously at the camera, all wearing the same kind of glasses. Her bulletin board, like each of ours, was now posted with reports, memos, and scraps of random papers. But most prominent were the pictures. They were scattered everywhere, pinned up with every last thumb tack we had in the office. I slowed so I could look at them, though I only had the chance to glance at about three as I went by. One was of three young teen girls (I recognized Paige immediately due to her eyes) at an ice skating rink, all leaning precariously on each other. Their faces were flushed, probably from the cold, and they all seemed to be laughing crazily. Her eyes didn’t hold the sadness they did now, but they were still just as knowledgeable. It shocked me. Another picture was of a group of nine girls, each grinning hugely, and the tallest one holding a shorter one in her arms. Paige was peeking out behind a girl with glasses, and had her arm draped around the shoulder of another with freckles. You could see how easily they commingled, lounging against each other in the bright sunlight. The last picture that caught my eye as I went by was one of Paige and five other girls. Their names were scrawled on the picture in elegant script, and it looked recent. They were all lounging on the back of a house boat. The names were: Paige, Cassidy, Whitney, Anne, Kaitlyn, and Emily. I presumed these were all her best friends, and in the corner was the date: June 23, 2007. Only two months before the present date. She must have been heartbroken to leave them. I could only shake my head and wonder. “Hey, wait for me!” Paige called, and I thrilled at her touch when she laid her hand lightly on my shoulder. “Your father wanted you to show me around since I am going to be working here for a while,” she whispered, “but I just wanted to come anyway.” Her smile was slightly teasing, but mostly curious. I tried to shrug nonchalantly, yet I could almost feel her disbelief in my casual acts. “Okay, then I get to show you what I do most of the time.” She nodded, almost confused, and I laughed inwardly at the surprise I was sure to see on her face. We opened the back door, and she cringed as it squeaked, though I barely noticed that. I heard her mention something about ‘oil’. We walked on the small stone pathway that let from tank to tank, grass growing around the edges of it, and sand beyond that. Paige slipped off her shoes, one at a time, then picked them up in her right hand and grabbed my hand with her other hand. I was still wondering if I was in shock after the kiss and imagining this when she tugged me into the sand, giggling. Her toes splayed out confidently as she flitted across the grounds with me, and her chaotic expression made me laugh. Had I really just met her 15 minutes ago? We slowed to a walk, hers more bouncy than mine, and I savored the sweet breeze, bringing in salty air and that sea-like brine I lived for every morning. The sun baked my face, and I could already tell that I would still have the sun-induced hi-lights later in the colder part of the year. I turned to Paige when she let loose her hair, and I was surprised to see the layers fall all the way down her back, sun bleached streaks in hers, too. It was thick, and waved silkily as we trotted in the sand. Finally we approached the first tank. “Okay, so this tank is my favorite. Now let me show you why,” I murmured close to her ear. Then I broke into a run and hopped up on the edge of the tank. I quickly stripped off my shirt and dove in. When I came up she seemed not to be looking at me, but to be looking at something behind me, a look of joy in her eyes. I smiled because I knew exactly what she was looking at. I dove back under and called with the whistle that was around my neck to the two shapes that were swimming together. They rushed forward to me, and I got lost as I did every time I worked with the two Harbour Porpoises. I could hear their soft clicks under water, and it made me want to burst with joy just looking at their joy. They were such free creatures. I came up for air and flipped around to explain to her their names, only to find her slipping off her tank top and shorts, in her bathing suit only. My mind went into shock at the sight of her in a bikini. W-o-w. She crawling onto the edge, and dove right in, perfect swan dive all the way. She swam under the water, not at all on top of the water in the free style stroke I swam. She swam peacefully, not in any hurry, and I admired the way her hair flowed out behind her, becoming threads of silk all woven together. She didn’t come up for air once until she got to me. “Harbour Porpoises! I have never got to work with and porpoises before! Only Dolphins. My boss said that when I got out of college he would think about it, so I moved out here. I’m heading off to be a freshman at DeVry University. Here at Long Beach, too. I thought it was the best place to go, since I love the west coast. Plus, now I can work here without having to worry about driving so far to school. Will you be a sophomore?” She was so happy, just babbling on, and I was so shocked. She would be going to the same school I was. She would be a freshman like I was. Would she be as shocked as I was? “I… uh… whoa…” I couldn’t say anything. Today was turning out to be the luckiest day ever. “Justin?! Are you okay?” Paige looked nervous at my blank stares. “Yes! I’m great! Better than great!” I burst out with. A grin slowly spread across my face and I pulled her thin waste to me and kissed her again with new enthusiasm and I greater hope for a happy ending than I ever had in my life before. I didn’t care if she hated me for going at it a second time. I didn’t care if she hated me for not even knowing anything about her before kissing her like this. I didn’t care, because it all felt just so right for once in my life. Then she wrapped her arms around me neck and pulled closer, like she too needed the comfort that I sought with her. Her lips her slightly parted as were mine, and I breathed in the heady scent that came off her smooth skin. I let my hands play across her hair, loving the way it slid easily through my fingers. Her fingers wound themselves in my hair, and they knotted quickly as she clutched to me, obviously wanting nothing more then what I wanted; to stay welded like this forever. I closed my eyes to enjoy the moment with all of my other senses when something rammed into my back. I flew forward into the water, pushing her down with me. I came up choking, but when I looked around, she wasn’t above the water. “Oh no. Oh no no no no no! Paige!” I flipped around frantically, glancing through the clear waters of the pool, trying to see if she was on the bottom. She probably hit her head on the shallow floor, and I would never forgive myself if she was hurt. I searched in a mad daze until I heard a scream. Not a scream of terror, but of joy. I flipped around to see her hanging on the fin of one of the porpoises. She was being pulled towards me, and I smiled when I saw her face. But my smile faded when I saw the huge gash on her forehead. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that it was stupid to be in the tank without greeting the porpoises. They were so spoiled and needed the attention so badly that they would butt anyone in the back who ignored them. Though I had taught them myself how to pull people on their fins like they were now, they were still dangerous creatures if they wanted to be. “Paige!” I screamed, and my frantic expression must have scared her a little, because her smile faltered, then fell of her face, as she noticed the warm blood trickling down the side of her face. She let go of the fin to reach up and touch her head and slid into the water. I swam to her swiftly, pushing my arms hard against the waters that pushed me backwards. When I finally got to her, she was pale and trying hard to breathe through her mouth. “That was fun,” she laughed shakily, still breathing through her mouth. I guessed at that point that she couldn’t stand the smell of blood. It wasn’t doing much for me at the time, either. “Let’s go inside. Now,” I was firm because I didn’t like the odd color she was turning. She seemed almost green when she nodded. I was able to swim with her clinging to me back because, though she was easily as tall as me, she was very light. I lifted her gently up on the ledge and swung my legs over. Then I picked her up in my arms and cradled her to my chest like a young child. I was walking swiftly up the path, ignoring the way the hot stones burned my bare feet when she started shaking slightly in my arms, even with the heat. I brushed the hair out of her eyes and she smiled weakly. Her eyes were cloudy but she tried to stay focused. “It’s my fault. Really, it is. I wanted to try riding them like I saw you yesterday when I came by to get the details on my job. But I didn’t know it was so fast. They just took off, and I couldn’t hold and that’s when I cut my head, when they dove under and I hit the bottom. I’m so sorry,” tears leaked over the rims of her eyes, sorrowful and pained, whether because of the pain or the remorse, I couldn’t tell, but I very gentle kissed the tip of her nose to calm her down. I really needed to get to know this girl. I kicked open the door and rushed inside, ignoring the gaping expressions from the two college guys who clocked in a few minutes after we went outside. They were always the ones with new girlfriends every week, and it shocked them to see me with this gorgeous girl. I kept on walking to the beat up fabric couch that we had in the back of the room so we could watch the plasma if ever we got to bored, which was often. Ever so gently I laid her down, and slid the only pillow under her head, gesturing that I would be right back. George had been hunched over at his desk, typing away, when he glanced up to see why they gasped. His expression went from curious to appalled in record time. “Justin, oh my gosh, what did you do to her, boy?” Of course, always assume it was my fault. I ignored him and ran to grab a wet cloth to lie on her forehead. I grabbed the clean one off the rack in the bath room and ran it under the warm water. I wrung it out a little and dashed back into the main office. I sat on the couch, trying not to shake it too much, and placed the washcloth over her head, dabbing gently to try and clean off some of the blood. The color wasn’t returning to her cheeks, which bothered me deeply. “Carson, call the hospital. Tell them we have a head injury and they might need to come here,” My voice was sharp as I whipped orders to one of the college boys. He was the kinder of the two, and I knew he wouldn’t argue. He seemed to keep the girls for longer, whether he was more appealing or appreciated them longer, I didn’t know. “Justin, I’m getting your dad,” George said, then dashed off before I could stop him. I sighed in defeat at what was sure to be the worst lecture I had ever gotten in my life. “I don’t need any help… I’m fine, really… See?” Paige lifted herself up gently on the couch, and then swung her legs over the edge. Still holding the wash cloth to her head she turned to me and smiled weakly before taking two steps. On her third step, her face went bone white again and her knees gave way. She sank to the floor and I reached down to pick her up. My face was a mask of pain and worry, seeing as the only girl who had ever shown any interest with me would probably never want to see me again because I had put her life on the line. I cradled her in my arms again, and then tried to set her on the couch. But her fingers that had twined around my neck refused to let go. I reached up with one hand and tried to unlock her fingers, but she refused to unwind them. She still managed to smile slyly, and I sighed in defeat and sat on the couch, with her on my lap. She refused to let go of my neck, afraid I would leave; though that was the last thing I wanted to do. Her nose was buried in the crook of my neck and my cheek resting in her hair when my father stormed into the room. “JUSTIN!” he bellowed the second he caught sight of my head resting on her hair, and her face buried in my shoulder blade. It only made things worse. “What did you DO to her? You called the HOSPITAL because of a HEAD INJURY?! WHAT HAPPENED?!?!” His voice was threatening to reach new levels of maximum volume, so I blurted out. “Nothing, I did nothing. It was that porpoise that you have scared to death out there,” I new it wasn’t true that the porpoises were scared, because I interact with them daily. I just used that card because I knew that they were terrified when he had taken them from the ocean uncalled for. I will always use that against him. Wild animals need to be left to be wild, free. He didn’t understand that, just like he never understood me. “Justin…?” Paige mumbled into my skin. I turned back to her right as the door opened, with Carson leading in the local doctor, Doc, as we called him. I had visited him last time I broke my arm on the rocks by the beach. He was a good guy, and I knew he could help her. “Shh, its okay, the doctor is going to take a look at your head and see if you’re okay,” I was talking quietly to her, almost as is she was a child, and she noticed. She looked up and smiled thankfully for my patience. “Justin, you said head injury on the phone, so what happened?” Good old Doc, right to the injury. So I explained in brief what happened. Paige groaned when I got to the part of her diving under the water and hitting her head on the bottom. I casually left out the part of kissing in the tank. “Mmmm hmmm, sounds like a possible minor concussion. But I can stitch her up here, if you would like,” he suggested, and I looked at Paige. She wasn’t scared, or was hiding it well if she was, and I questioned her with my eyes. She nodded once, and I nodded at Doc. Yet I about told him not to when he got out the needle he was going to use to stitch up the cut. “Son, you might want to hop up while I do this,” Doc said, and I tried to slide out from under Paige. Yet her arms were clinging desperately to my neck, and her eyes were a silent begging not to go. I went to reach around my neck and forcefully remove her hands when the symbolism of it caught up with me. If I really loved her, and wanted her, even if I knew nothing about her, I couldn’t leave her now, despite my fear of needles. But if I made her release me, then I was saying, in a way, that she didn’t mean that much to me. And she did mean everything to me, this total stranger who made me believe in love at first sight. So I grasped her closer, pressing her skin against mine, relishing the warmth, and shrugged at Doc. He looked at me with strange eyes, eyes that were finally happy, seeing me happy, like he had never seen me before. I bent down gently and pressed my lips against hers. My dad’s sharp gasp almost made me stop, but I realized that I should be able to make my own decisions. So I pressed my mouth lightly to hers, and she pressed her lips against mine, almost as if she was scared that if she wasn’t strong enough that I would leave. I parted my mouth slightly, once more wishing that this moment could be all that I would ever live with forever. I felt the corners of her mouth turn up slightly and I had to release her for Doc. I couldn’t bear to see him put stitches in her head, even though I was sure that her bangs, cropped shorter than the rest of her hair, would cover them when he was done. I played with her fingers, lifting them slightly and learning the contours of how they rose and fell. Doc sighed and got up, so I presumed he was done. “Well, I suggest that she not come to work for the next week,” her eyes flashed with steel and a possible rebellion against doctor’s wishes on that, “and that she take a couple of pain killers tonight. The stitches should actually dissolve after a while, so don’t worry about getting them wet. Be careful next time,” Doc threw one more accusing glare at me, and then walked through the door. “I am not going to sit on my butt at home for the next week! I am coming tomorrow, I don’t care what that fancy shmancy doctor of yours says…” Paige was rattling on, so I assumed she felt better. I let her sit in my lap as everyone knelt in front of the couch and asked her what had happened and how it felt to have stitches. I listened to her musical voice, reminding me of wind chimes the way it rose and fell in a beautiful tone. Her cheeks were gaining their color back. Her eyes still looked sad, but not as doleful as before. They seemed almost preoccupied from the sadness that hung on her soul, the sadness I had sensed before I had even said a word to her. I wanted to take it all away from her, make her happy, even if I had to jump off a cliff to do it. She shifted slightly in my lap, but not farther away, rather closer to me but still angled so that she could talk to them. She let one of her hands fall from my neck, her fingertips brushing along my still bare chest when she let them fall in a way that made my breath catch and my heart race. She used her hands animatedly, waving them around while she talked. Yet she somehow managed to inconspicuously brush my cheek, or my hair, or my shoulders as she talked. Her eyes never glanced at me, but if I shifted, she did, readjusting like I was her gravitational pull. The way her breath, vanilla and mint all mixed together, tickled my cheek made me want to inhale deeply. She wore no perfume, but the fragrance just emanating from her skin made my senses go mad. Because she was still in a bikini, I could trace down her arms, lightly, so that no one would notice. I slid my hands down the small of her back, angling her again so that no one could see. I relished at the warmth she emitted, and traced my thumb down her spine once more while I spoke. “Paige,” I whispered with my lips close to her ears. I saw her shiver, but not out of discomfort. “I might need to take you home now. You can show me where you live. I’ll drive your car and then walk home. How about it?” I asked, but my voice sounded more persuasive than just a question. “That would be great, thank you. And thank you for this… exciting day,” She laughed lightly. She stood up, knees shaking slightly. I bent down to pick her up, but she waved me off, clutching around my shoulder instead. I wrapped my arm around her waste, hugging her to me for support. She waved a casual goodbye as we sauntered clumsily out of the office. Once down the path, she whispered in my ear. “I think I’ll like it here. As soon as Doc says I can get back to work, we are trying that again. The poor porpoises didn’t know I was such a novice,” This girl, this amazingly reckless yet still timid girl, this girl who drove me crazy, this girl I wanted to know everything about, this girl drove me insane right at that moment; insane in the sense of this-is-first-love-so-I’ll-put-up-with-you-because-I’m-in-love-with-you insane. Where is your car?” I blew off her comment, inwardly shaking at the thought of having to repeat this whole ordeal. “Over there,” she pointed casually as she looked sideways at my face. She really was quite tall, taller than most of the other girls I had seen around. She was only about an inch shorter than me, and I think I liked having someone my height. I followed the line of her finger and stopped momentarily. Why was I not surprised that she drove a convertible? And not just any convertible, but a BMW M3 convertible, top of the line. I continued on down the sandy path towards the lot, but not before she misread my pause. “I know, it is kinda shabby, but I like it,” she mumbled defensively. Shabby? Did she say shabby? Good grief, this girl’s parents must be money bags. “Not shabby at all. Plus, at least your car runs. Mine is still stuck at a garage. Plus, I like the red.” I was teasing a little, but I really did like the color. “You’re teasing me. You don’t like it, do you?” She sounded playfully hurt. I tapped her lightly on the nose with my finger before opening the passenger side door. She looked slightly disgruntled that I got to drive, but I ignored her. Walking casually around the front of the car, I wondered if this would be some of the last time we would have to talk about what happened today. And I wasn’t talking about her head injury. My fingers hesitated to open the door, afraid of the certain banishment I was going to get from her. I was afraid of rejection, and that was why I had never tried harder to get a girl. I didn’t want to be turned away. I opened the door anyway. I sat down quietly and then shut the door. Then all of a sudden she was on top of me, kissing me so roughly that I gasped. Her mouth was moving in earnest on mine, and her hands clutched the side of my face as if they could hold me there if I didn’t want to be there. But I did want to be there. I was just confused as to why she was suddenly passionate about the way she kissed; before it had been gentle, yet this was rough and desperate to make me understand. Yet I didn’t quite understand, especially when I felt salty tears slide from her cheeks onto mine, and her body being taken over by wracking sobs as she clung to me. I knew then that she wasn’t lying about her first kiss, because the way she acted as if she needed this to go on forever was completely understood, understood by me, the novice at relationships. I took the side of her face in my hands and lifted it gently up so that I could see why she was crying. Silent tears slid down her body as sobs continued to shake her slender frame. Through her sobs she managed to choke out words that made everything clear. “I just thought… you were the one… as soon as I looked at you… I wanted to touch your face… then you kissed me… but I was sure… after you saw how stupid I was… in the tanks… that you… wouldn’t… want… me…” her fears, irrational as they were, took over once again and she buried her face in my chest. I clutched her hair and pressed my lips to it, and held her tightly. “I never believed in love at first sight until today,” I whispered to her as I pulled her up to cradle next to my neck, “but you made me believe. You made me believe, you, this complete stranger, made me believe that I could find someone who would understand. And I will never give up on that. That rush of my blood hot through my veins because of you will never go away, even if you do. For the only way I will leave you is if you don’t want me anymore.” My voice was confident at the end, and she looked up at me with tears still in her eyes. Her lips brushed along my neck, up my chin, until she found my lips. It was ever so light, the way she brushed against my mouth. Like a butterfly, so elegant yet fragile. “We might want to get you home now,” I suggested quietly, hoping to lighten the mood. “Yup, that would be a good thing,” she said in a still shaky voice. I lifted her up gently, trying to reposition myself as I did so. When she had thrown herself on top of me, we had slid lower in the seat until her foot had hit the reclining button and it had slid back. She was practically lying on top of me. I slid her next to me, yanked up the seat, and the pulled her up on my lap delicately. I could drive like that, surely. She looked over her shoulder in question, and snuggled closer when I smiled at her. Her cheek was pressed against mine when I pulled out of the lot. “So, tell me about yourself,” I said conversationally. I slid to the far left of the seat and let her slide down to the right since she was thing enough. Turning the steering wheel would be a problem if I didn’t.