I’m a senior in high school, a typical teenage guy. I’m just a random dude, nothing much special about me, or so I thought. I liked hanging out with the guys, but the second they’d start talking about cute girls, I’d leave, because I don’t want to be like them. Date a girl for a week, then break up. And repeat. I want to be a good boyfriend, I want to make sure that if I date a girl, I want to spend my whole life with her. Whenever I see her, I want to fall in love with her all over again, but first, falling in love would be a nice thing. When you’re an honors student, a hockey player, a theatre nerd, and the captain of the debate team, you don’t have much time for expressing your emotions.  So hence, I don’t. I hope I don’t end up alone, never finding that one person, but isn’t that what everyone hopes? To find someone? To have a shoulder to cry on? Oh man, I wish I wish upon a star. I don’t fit in much, it’s not the fact that I don’t get along with anyone or I get bullied a heck ton, but it’s the fact that like I said earlier, I just don’t have time. Mondays are debate practices, Tuesdays are theatre, Wednesdays are hockey, Thursdays are theatre again, Fridays are mostly filled with a bunch of homework, then on the weekends I have hockey games,and debate. I’m a bit of an overachiever as you can tell. Anyways, I used to not be as busy, and I used to have this amazing friend, but we stopped hanging out when she moved, six years ago, my best friend left, and I guess I tried to fill in the empty spot with sports and other activities. Emma, one of the sweetest people on the Earth, was my best friend. I still can’t get over that. Six years later and here I am, missing her more than anything. When she moved, I helped her pack up her car, and gave her a letter to read once she got there, because, at the time, she didn’t have a phone, and neither did I. Once she was gone, I realized she wasn’t gonna come back, but now that I'm older I think about it, a lot. Maybe I should go to her. Yet at the same time, I always say, what if she left for a reason, maybe she’s sick of me, I mean, by now who isn’t?

Wednesday night hockey, whoop dee doo. Just another casual day at the ice rink, again. But today, my coach was out of town, and the only person to fill in was the most strict coach I have ever heard of, Coach Doug. Doug used to be a marine, but now that he’s older, he’s a hockey coach, there isn’t anything better to do then coaching a bunch of smelly hockey players, at least, in his mind. “One hard lap!” He’d scream as he blew his whistle, then that was always followed by something along the lines of “Hurry up! Don't just sit there Marshmallow Fluff! Maybe you should change the team name to be Fluffies instead of the Dragons!” It went so far to the point where I'd count the second till we could leave. Thirty-seven minutes and 26 seconds left. Perfect time for checking and scrimmage. I had so many other things on my plate while we played, most of the time I didn’t even notice that coach called for a line change, or that one time where there was a puck flying at my bare head.
    I opened my eyes slowly, and everything became more cloudy. I could tell someone was pulling at my laces on my skates, most likely in an attempt to get them off. I tie my skates really tight let’s just say that. Once my eyes were fully open, I could see that there was soon a figure skater stabbing at my laces with a knife, a sharp one too, but I didn’t notice that until she missed my skate, and created a giant gash in my leg. I sat up quickly in pain and soon fell off the bench because I couldn’t keep my balance. I couldn’t see anything that was happening, though, I could only make out one bright red blur before I got picked up and carried into an ambulance. The last thing I remember was that figure skater. Remind me when I’m better to thank her for stabbing my leg will you?

Turns out that being in the hospital gave me some time to relax and take a break from everything, and everyone. Besides the people that would occasionally come to give me food or fluff my pillow I was pretty much alone, it was great. I’ve been here for about two days, and today was the day I got told some good and bad news. The doctor, tall, blonde, and official, walked in took one look at me then turns to the nurse and murmurs, “You’re right, this is going to crush him,” And that kids, is the moment I started to worry. He used a bunch of big words I didn’t understand, so once he left, I asked the nurse to explain everything he just said to me. So pretty much, I’m in trouble. Something with infections, this and that and I have to get my foot cut off and replaced with an artificial foot. But no, it doesn’t stop there, not only will I not be able to play hockey, I don’t have enough money to pay for it. No worries though because there is good news! Surgery is tomorrow, I stay here for another week and then I’m out of here, meaning I’m free to do almost anything I please. The key word here is almost.

Okie Dokie, let’s do this, It’s just a simple surgery. I can do this. I can take on anything, what exception will this have? Status update: I can’t do this. There’s no way. WHAT IF I DIE? I can’t die, yet. I don’t want to die. Shush Noah, you got this, it all lies in your hand, well foot really. Either way, I won’t die. I hope. I don’t think there is a big chance of a person dying during foot surgery. Okay, second update, there is a very small chance of dying, like to the point where it’s one in a million. Nothing to worry about. I’ll be okay. I’m strong, independent, and tough. “Okay, I’m ready. Go ahead and inject me with anything needed,”
    The nurse took a long hard stare at me and said “What are you talking about, you’ll be awake during the whole procedure,”
    “Oh come on, this isn’t the time to joke man, I’m about to get my foot cut off. Shush your face,” The nurse then proceeded to cover my face with a mask and then it was all lights out from there.

I blinked quickly, almost as a shutter on a camera and looked around the room, same room as before, just this time I had something missing. My second pillow. Oh yeah, and my foot. That wasn’t there either. I had so much free time that I figured out how many seconds are in a year, by the way, it’s 31,536,000 seconds. Anyways, thankfully I’m out of this bed in just ten days! Time flys by fast when you don’t have to sit at a desk all day listening to an adult lecture you. The food here isn’t too bad, like seriously if it was my choice, I’d eat this any time, any day. Oh and going back to something from a long while ago, just because I don’t have a foot doesn’t mean I can’t walk down the path to my destination okay?

Whoo Hoo! Back on my foot again! This artificial one isn’t as bad as I thought, and just in case you didn’t know, they cut my calf of too. So I’m halfway there to having a plastic peg leg! Arghh! See that there, that was my pirate noise. Ten days seems a bit short considering I no longer have a lower part of my dominant leg, but because I’m me I told them I refuse to stay there longer than I needed to. Once I could walk I practically strutted out the door. Now, whether I took off the hospital gown was what struck me. But It’s all good, for I ran back into my room and got my old clothes, even though they had blood on them. Casually strolling down the street on my way home, a dance studio caught my eye. I cautiously opened the door to it careful not to disturb them, and as I watched for a bit I didn’t notice the gorgeous girl skipping towards me. Okay so, you know how in The Wizard of Oz Dorothy follows a yellow brick road to get back to Kansas. I found my yellow brick road, but this time, it was a gray sidewalk, leading me to my happy ever after. I couldn’t help but blush when the girl sat next to me, I think it was her eyes because they ended up being the first thing I fell in love with. “Hi! I’m Ingrid! Welcome, to our dance studio,” as she finished her sentence the rest of the room looked towards me and twirled closer.
    “Oh, hi, I’m Noah. I didn’t mean to interrupt, I’m sorry,” I stated back with a crack in my voice, “If you don’t mind me saying, Ingrid, not only are you a wonderful dancer, but you’re also quite beautiful,” The rest of the room awed lovingly
    “Thank you, Noah, are you looking to join our studio? We need a male dancer, currently our count is 17 girls, I’d appreciate a guy dancing with us,” this was the moment I began to think, Ingrid kind of reminds me of Emma, maybe it wouldn’t be too bad if I did try out dancing, even though I most likely suck at it.
    “Ugh, well,” I pointed at my leg, “I don’t know how good of a dancer I’ll be with this, plus I don’t have any money to join so, I’m sorry,” I started to walk out the door when I turned back took a piece of paper from the desk and wrote my number on it. I kept it right where I wrote it and it said, I’ll be back for more than one reason.

A year later and I still haven’t heard from her. I’m okay now. I’m okay, just thought that if she was the one she would come after me. Maybe I’m interpreting this wrong, maybe she’s waiting to see if I liked her enough to come back, because oh, how I love her. I’m not sure what it was about her, but she was different than all of the other girls. It could have been how her long brown hair waved swiftly as she skipped, or how her eyes changed a bit when she saw me, as a matter of fact did you know that when a person looks at someone they love their pupils enlarge by 40%. So if I ever look at your eyes creepily, I’m seeing if you love me.  It was around noon, so I decided a walk to some places would be nice, considering that I was gonna try something, yes, I do have a plan, not an evil one, just a plan. Before I left my house I made sure that I had an extra bag, of workout clothes and a bouquet of roses, for obvious reasons. The studio wasn’t far away from my place, I’d say about eight minutes. Anyways, I opened the door to the dance studio which seemed to be empty, I strolled along to the front desk and began to take the flowers out from my bag, as I was setting them on the table I could hear the pitter patter of her feet on the ground as she was running towards me, you would never think that someone as light as her could actually tackle a hockey, well former hockey player. Once she actually managed to get her arms around my face she kissed me, and it was like everything I ever thought it would be. I wrapped myself around her and never wanted to let go, she was one of those people who you don’t want to leave your side. Her comfort made me feel a thousand times lighter, and a thousand times brighter. I picked her up and stood her with her hands open and her eyes next to me, it was a big, risky step, but so was my lost leg. I was ready to conquer the world, just needed someone who loved me along for the ride.  I got on one knee, opened the box and told her to open her eyes. That right there, if I could’ve caught that moment on camera I would’ve because not only did the sixteen other dancers walk out at that moment, but it was the moment I knew I’d spend the rest of my life with her. She danced her way into my heart, and I skated into hers.