The next day at school, I was still feeling sore from my fall—and from all the teasing my brother had given me on the way home. He had even given me a grand bow at breakfast, calling me "Tree Hero" while our mom looked on, totally confused. If he mentioned that nickname to anyone at school, I'd never live it down.
I wasn't even in the classroom yet when my friend Lily appeared beside me, practically bouncing. "Hey! You'll never guess who I saw coming out of the nurse's office."
"Uh… I don't know?" I said, not exactly interested after everything that had happened.
"Guess!" she pressed, her eyes twinkling with excitement. "It was that guy with the messy black hair from Class B! You know, the one everyone says is kinda mysterious?"
I froze. "Wait, messy black hair? Like… dark, kinda curly?"
"Yes!" she whispered, almost jumping. "Everyone's talking about him. Apparently, he has this habit of disappearing during lunch. No one knows where he goes."
A weird feeling crept over me. "Right," I said, trying to act normal. "So, uh… what's the big deal?"
She just rolled her eyes, smirking. "The big deal is he's cute in a mysterious, loner way. Haven't you noticed?"
"Well…" I began, my mind flashing back to the tree incident. I didn't want to admit I'd met him in such a spectacularly awkward way. "Maybe I've seen him around."
Lily squinted at me. "Abi… You're acting weird."
"Me? No!" I said quickly. "I'm just, uh, sore from gym yesterday." Not a total lie—I'd definitely felt the impact of that fall.
Then she started giggling. "Seriously, Abi, we need to find you someone to date or something. I haven't seen you this out of it since… well, since The Great Swing Set Incident."
I groaned, because here we go. "That was years ago!"
"Yeah, but it's legendary!" she said, eyes gleaming. "Remember? That's how we all became friends! You dared me to swing as high as I could, and then your brother ran by, yelling about a bee chasing him. You tried to jump out of his way but tripped, and we all ended up in a giant pile-up."
"It was basically an accident," I said, half-laughing.
"Yeah, but that's the best way to become friends," she replied. "Through pure disaster."
"Are you two talking about the Swing Set Incident again?" my brother chimed in from across the hall, smirking as he passed by.
"Oh, hush!" I threw my pencil case at him, but he just laughed, dodging out of the way.
With a quick eye-roll, I turned back to Lily. I tried to avoid thinking about the guy from the tree, but then I saw him at lunch, sitting a few tables over. His head was buried in a book, totally ignoring the chaos of the cafeteria around him. My friends were busy gossiping about the latest class drama, but I couldn't help sneaking glances at him.
Did he remember me? Or was I just a weird story he'd tell his friends? "You'll never guess what happened—I had to rescue some girl stuck in a tree!"
As if on cue, he suddenly looked up. Our eyes met across the room, and my face went red. I looked away, pretending to be fascinated by my lunch tray. After a second, I dared to glance back, only to see him chuckling slightly before returning to his book.
"Abi!" Lily's voice snapped me back to the present. "What are you staring at?"
"Uh, nothing!" I said, feeling my face heat up again. "Just, um, thinking about homework."
"Right," she said, raising an eyebrow.
The rest of the day went by in a blur, but I couldn't help the weird excitement that had settled in my stomach. Whether I liked it or not, that guy was already occupying way too much of my brain.
---
At Home
When I got home, I was greeted by my brother's grin. "So, did you see your hero again?"
I felt my face heat up. "What? Who? I don't know what you're talking about."
He chuckled, clearly enjoying my reaction. "Sure you don't."
I grabbed a pillow and chucked it at him, but he dodged, laughing all the way down the hall. As I headed to my room, I realized I'd be seeing the mysterious guy again tomorrow—and I couldn't deny a part of me was looking forward to it.