A large, barren oak tree sat alone, atop a hill, surrounded by a blanket of red, brown and yellow leaves. It was late September but an early frost had caused the leaves to change color and fall a few weeks earlier than normal.

The morning air was crisp but according to the weather guy on the local T.V. station the sun would shine and the day would be warm and beautiful. Stacy sat up in her bed, looked out her window at the tree and frowned. It always made her sad when Mother Nature changed the order of things.

Fall in northern Minnesota could be one of the most beautiful spectacles anyone ever saw, but when winter came early it changed how everything looked but not always in a good way. Most years, the leaves stayed on the trees till mid-October and changed from green and yellow to orange, red and brown before falling like a gentle spring rain and becoming a crunchy carpet under your feet.

Stacy liked to walk through the woods on her parent’s farm as the leaves changed and fell. She would walk around pretending she was a princess in a fairy tale awaiting her Prince Charming to find her and carry her off to live happily ever after. She would always end up at the lone oak tree in the middle of the field where the prince’s castle was located.

As Stacy got older she wandered the woods less and less realizing how foolish her dreams were of a Prince Charming with a castle. She still went out to the oak tree and sat under it watching the dragonflies dart around after mosquitos while wishing there was a Prince Charming for her. Some days she would sit out there so long that the dragonflies would grow accustomed to her presence and rest on her feet and legs. She would lose herself in their metallic wings until they darted off after their next meal.

Her parents lived on a forty acre farm about a half an hour north of town. They had a few neighbors, but out in the country, a neighbor was anyone that lived within five miles of you. A lot of them were relatives, but there were a few that weren’t related to her or anyone else around.

The farm wasn’t a working farm anymore. The barn had been torn down when it fell into disrepair, the chicken coop was used to store the lawn mower and weed whacker while the cow barn was where Stacy’s dad kept his motorcycle and work bench.

The house was a five bedroom, 3-story ranch house with new siding and shingles. It had a large wrap-around screen porch and a second story balcony that overlooked the field with the tree. Stacy’s mom had built a large bird sanctuary outside the kitchen window on the other side of the house where she could watch birds, squirrels and any other animals eat and play while she did the dishes every afternoon. Every morning, she would take some fruit and seeds out and fill the squirrel feeder with nuts, then sit back and enjoy.

Her father on the other hand liked to be in his tool shed, building or fixing something. His ‘to do’ list from his wife was always getting longer instead of shorter. His latest project was to make a china hutch for her that would house all of her collectibles but not take up a lot of space in the house. His plan was to have it set into the wall in the dining room.

The rest of her family kept busy doing their own things, either around the house or with their friends in town. Her brothers could usually be found in the swamp on their 4-wheelers or playing ball at the field behind the church; while her sisters usually went to town with their friends and shopped or hung out at the beach working on their tans. Stacy on the other hand, liked to stay at home and write poems or short stories. She used the woods and the farm as inspiration most of the time. Occasionally, she wrote about her daydreams of walking through the woods but usually she just wrote about nature and its beauty. She liked to keep to herself and didn’t have many friends. There were a few kids in school she hung out with on occasion, but normally she just wanted to be sitting under the large oak tree or at least looking at it from the balcony outside her room.

Seeing that the tree had lost almost all of its leaves on this morning made Stacy even more melancholy than usual. She sighed as she climbed out of bed and stretched before walking to the closet to pick out her outfit for the day. She hemmed and hawed for a few minutes before deciding on a layered look. She grabbed a white camisole and a short-sleeved red button up shirt to go with the brown floor-length skirt she had bought for herself the weekend before. She got dressed and looked at herself in the mirror, quickly running her hands through her chin-length dusty blond hair. On her way out of the room, she took one last look out the window at the tree and tried to be happy. “At least it didn’t snow,” she said aloud and walked out to the stairs down to the kitchen.

“Happy birthday!” her family shouted as she walked into the room. They had all gotten up early to decorate the kitchen and wrap presents for her. It took Stacy by surprise; she almost jumped when she saw what they had done for her.

There was a large homemade banner hanging above the door to the front porch that read ‘Happy Birthday’ and a pile of presents on the table in the breakfast nook next to a German Chocolate Cake (her favorite flavor) with “Happy Birthday, Stacy” written on it in yellow frosting (her favorite color). She almost forgot how sad she was about the tree that morning. She looked at all of her family members standing around and thanked them all. “I wasn’t expecting this,” she told them as they each wished her a Happy Birthday before departing for their destinations for the day.

It was a school day and her younger siblings darted out to catch the bus, while her older sister gathered up her things to drive herself and Stacy to school. They were in high school, Stacy a junior, her sister a senior, while the other 3 were only in Middle School, yet.

Before her parents stepped away they handed her a small box with a little ribbon tied around it. “Here, honey. We want you to open this one, now,” her mom told, standing next to her husband.

Stacy quickly yanked the loose end of the ribbon and let it fall to the floor as she carefully opened the box. As she opened it up, she gasped. “What’s this for?” She pulled out a dragonfly brooch with diamond encrusted wings, an emerald studded body, ruby eyes and gold trim. It looked old and Stacy wondered where her parents got it from. “It’s gorgeous, mom,” she said as she pinned it on her shirt.

“This,” her mom told her, “was your grandmother’s.” She reached over and traced a wing before continuing. “Before she passed away, she told me she planned to give it to you for your 17th birthday. She knew how much you love to watch the dragonflies in the field.”

Stacy hugged her parents with a tear in her eye, then grabbed her backpack from the floor and followed her sister out to the car.

During the ride to school, she couldn’t help but run her finger along the wings of the brooch, every once in a while looking down at it and imagining sitting under the tree surrounded by dragonflies. She thought back to the days when she would wander through the forest running from some imaginary thing and suddenly came across her Prince who rescued her from the evil and took her back to his castle. She giggled at herself and peaked at her sister to make sure she hadn’t heard her. Her siblings didn’t understand her imagination and always thought she was childish when she wander through the woods, running from some invisible danger.

Once they got to school, the sisters separated and went their own ways. Stacy got to her locker and shoved her bag in it before grabbing the books she needed for her morning classes. As she was sorting her pencils she caught something out of the corner of her eye. She looked up and saw a tall, athletic boy walk past her and into the office.

She knew he was new to the school. Mainly because there were only 500 kids in the entire high school and everyone knew everyone else. Also, because as he walked past her, he pulled out a map of the school.

He was good looking but Stacy barely noticed. She went back to her locker without taking a second glance his way.

If she had, she would have seen him glance back at her once he was in the office and smile at her.

Troy’s family had just moved to the area and it was his first day at Park Rapids Area High School. His first job was to find his locker. He had a map the school had sent to his house when his parents signed him up but he couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

At first he didn’t notice the girl standing at her locker. She seemed kind of plain to him, but as he passed her and pulled out his map, he caught a glimpse of the dragonfly brooch pinned on her chest. It made him think of the days he and his grandparents would sit out on their porch and watch the dragonflies dart around the yard, chasing their meals. He smiled back at her when he finally got into the office but she was too busy looking in her locker to notice.

He turned back to the secretary with the map in his hand. “I’m new here and can’t figure out where my locker is,” he told her with a playful smile.

The secretary pointed at the map with a pen and handed him a planner. “Everyone gets one of these,” she said without smiling. “Everything you need will be in here.” She opened it up and showed him the hall passes in the back of the book, where his schedule went in the front and the athletic schedule on the inside of the back cover. “PRAHS is very proud of our athletes and encourage all of our students to attend or participate in all athletic meets.”

Troy nodded at the lady behind the counter and walked back out into the main hall. He instinctively looked for the girl with the dragonfly brooch and instantly wished he would have gotten a look at her face. She was nowhere to be seen and he didn’t know if he would recognize her if she wasn’t wearing the brooch the next time he passed her in the hall.

He shrugged and headed in the direction of his locker. He found his way to the first class fairly easily, it was down the hallway right next to his locker. The next class was a little harder to find. He weaved his way through the sea of students, stopping at every hallway off the main hall and looked for room numbers. By the time he found the classroom, the bell had already rang and he shyly walked in, trying not to look lost.

“Welcome to Genetics class,” the teacher told him when he stopped inside the door. “You must be the new student?”

Troy nodded as the teacher walked to him and pointed to the classroom.

“Take any seat that’s open, Troy.” The teacher walked back to the white board and continued with the lesson while Troy made a bee-line to the back of the room and took an empty seat next to a cute blond who was trying unsuccessfully to hide her cell phone under her desk while texting her friend. He watched her for a moment before he turned back to the teacher. He had been so worried about looking silly walking in late that he hadn’t seen the girl from the hall with the dragonfly brooch sitting in the front row on the other side of the room.

Stacy didn’t look at him when he first walked in the room, she was busy taking notes the teacher had on the board. When she finally looked up, he was walking to the back of the room. She recognized him as the new kid from the hall and watched him until he sat down, then she turned her attention back to the white board and continued to take notes.

By lunchtime, Troy figured he had walked a couple of miles already with all the backtracking he had done trying to find his classrooms. He tossed his books in his locker and headed to the lunchroom with the rest of the seniors.

After he got through the lunch line, he stood in the middle of the cafeteria looking for a place to sit. Suddenly the cute blond from Genetics class with the cell phone walked up to him. “Hi. Troy, right?”

Troy smiled at her and responded shyly, “Yeah.”

“Why don’t you come sit with us? We’ve got room for one more at our table.” She led him to the corner where a round table sat surrounded by football players and cheerleaders. He took a seat next to the blond and set his plate down. Only one or two of the guys looked his way but all the girls stopped what they were doing and watched him sit down at the table with them.

He had an athletic build and the shirt he was wearing showed off his biceps and chest muscles. His dark brown hair was cut short and spiked a little in the front. He had always been told that his brown eyes were his best feature.

Troy looked around the table and smiled politely at everyone before returning his gaze to the blond. She suddenly realized what he was waiting for.

“Sorry. I’m Trina and this is the gang.” She waved her hand at the rest of the table and threw a look at the girls that made them go back to whatever they were doing before. “So, you’re new here? Where are you from?” She was sitting in the seat next to him but she was leaning over so far it looked like she was going to fall off her chair, into his lap.

Troy picked up the pizza on his plate and took a bite before he answered. “Missouri.” He took another bite and opened his can of pop. “We just moved here over the weekend.” He took a sip and looked around the table again. A few of the guys had left but all of the girls were still sitting around talking and he noticed the lunchroom was starting to clear out, as well. He continued to eat his pizza and drink his pop as Trina rambled on about Park Rapids and how she had lived there her whole life. She talked about how popular she had gotten after freshman year and Troy started to notice how good looking she really was.

Trina had long blond curly hair that she pulled back into half a ponytail. Her bright blue eyes sparkled when she talked and although she had a little too much makeup on for Troy’s liking, he started to become attracted to her.

They finished eating and he followed her out of the lunchroom as the next group of students filed in. He was too enthralled with Trina’s story of the football teams last two seasons that he didn’t see the girl with the brooch get in line for lunch.

“Did you see the new guy in Genetics class?” Briana was the only person at the school that Stacy really hung out with. She was in front of her in the lunch line and poking at the food choices they had. “This doesn’t even look like real food.” She made a gagging motion with her finger. She grabbed an apple and plopped it on Stacy’s plate. “I heard he’s a senior.” She raised her eyebrows and smiled.

Stacy just shook her head at her friends’ enthusiasm for a new boy in school. She had, in fact, see him before that class but she didn’t tell her friend that. “Yeah, I saw him.” She picked up a carton of milk and followed her friend to their usual spot along the wall by the window. Stacy liked to watch the birds out the window as she ate and get inspiration for her Creative Writing class after lunch.

“That’s all you have to say about him? You don’t think he’s hot or has lots of muscles or anything? You need to start noticing more things around you, Stac.”

The girls ate in silence as Stacy thought about what Briana said. She knew her friend was right but Stacy liked not being distracted by boys or anything else.

After a few minutes they started talking about the upcoming Science Fair and what projects they were thinking about doing.

After lunch the girls grabbed what they needed from their lockers and went to their next class. Creative Writing was Stacy’s favorite class. Although she had the highest GPA in the school and had already been scouted by many Ivy League schools, she could do anything she wanted but she only wanted to be a writer and had applied at the local college for writing classes.

Her teacher was Mrs. Binkman who knew of Stacy’s desire to write and helped her any way she could. Stacy was by far the best writer in the school and everyone knew it. Her poems were used by a local card shop and many of her short stories had been published and could be bought at the book store on Main Street.

“Happy birthday, Stacy,” her teacher said as she walked in. She reached out and hugged Stacy. “Stop by my office after school,” she whispered then quickly let go of her.

Stacy figured she just wanted to talk to her about her latest project and took her seat next to the window. As Mrs. Binkman talked to the rest of the class about digging way down deep in their soul to find what their next writing assignment was going to be about, Stacy looked out the window and watched as a dragonfly flitted about before landing gently on the ledge right in front of her. Its wings slowly moving up and down as it rested. She noted that the body was a yellowish-gold color with green specks that glistened in the sun. Its wings refracted the light and looked like prisms. She watched it for a while as she thought about her brooch from her grandma. She smiled and touched it as the dragonfly flew away.

She picked up her pencil and pulled out a blank piece of paper, completely ignoring everything going on around her in the classroom.

She sat there with her wings aflutter,

The sound she made was less than a mutter.

Her body glistening in the sun,

Her wings resting after the fun.

In flight, her tail would steer her like a rudder.

Stacy looked up at the clock and realized she only had a minute before the bell. She read the poem she had just written and frowned. It definitely wasn’t her best work. She piled it with her books as the bell rang, but as she stood up the paper slid out of her books and floated to the floor without her noticing. She rushed out of the room and hurried to her locker to get to the next class on the other side of the building.

Troy sat in Trigonometry after lunch trying to follow what the teacher was talking about. He stopped listening as the teacher talked about tangents and cosines and pulled out his schedule and map. Chemistry was next down the hall, then Creative Writing by the lunchroom. His last class of the day was Conditioning Class and he couldn’t wait for that class.

At his last school, he had been in football and baseball but since they moved in the fall, he didn’t join football for his senior year. He was hoping to join at the new school, but hadn’t gotten a chance to, yet.

He watched the teacher write what looked like gibberish to him on the board until the bell rang. He didn’t consider himself unintelligent but he knew he wasn’t exactly smart, either. He had signed up for the classes in hopes that they would pick up where he left off at his old school, but his new Math teacher was talking about things they hadn’t even touched on before he moved. He debated on asking the teacher for help but instead decided to wait it out a few days and see if he could just catch on.

Chemistry went a little easier for him. Science was always something he liked to learn about and the lesson picked up right where he had left off. He took notes and participated in the discussions and before he knew it, the bell rang.

He knew he would have to hurry to get to his locker in order to get to Mrs. Binkman’s Creative Writing class on time. He shoved his large textbooks in and pulled out a notebook for the writing class before rushing past a group of students heading the other way. One of the students bumped into him and made him drop his pencil. As he bent down to pick it up, the girl with the dragonfly brooch hurried past him. He didn’t see her, though.

He walked into the classroom and headed toward the desk by the window. He needed some natural light to keep him awake for this class. As he got closer, he noticed a small piece of paper on the floor and picked it up. It had a hand written poem on it.

She sat there with her wings aflutter…

He read the poem then looked out the window. He was never much for poetry but for some reason, this poem struck him as he watched a dragonfly out the window. He just knew that was what the poem was about.

He smiled to himself as he took his seat, the teacher was talking about digging into their soul or something but he wasn’t listening. He was too busy thinking about the girl with the dragonfly brooch and wondered if she had written the poem. He shook his head. He would have seen her walking out of the classroom if she had been in there before him. He looked back at the teacher as everyone pulled out their composition notebooks to start writing. He looked at the other students and realized he had no idea what he was supposed to be doing, so he read the poem again.

…In flight, her tail would steer her like a rudder.

He closed his eyes and pictured a real dragonfly that looked like the brooch he had seen on the girl that morning. A green body, red eyes and crystalline wings. It flew in his face and hovered there before gently landing on his arm. Its touch was soft but tickled him. It stayed on his arm until the bell rang, dismissing Troy to Conditioning Class.

He gathered up his things and folded the poem to fit in his pocket, then walked to the gym with a few of the guys from the lunchroom.

“Watcha thinkin’ ‘bout?” Briana asked Stacy as they walked to their lockers between classes.

Stacy paused and looked at the composition notebook she always carried with her for writing. “Do you think I should be a writer?”

Her friend just glanced at her before grabbing a textbook from her locker. “What else would you be?” Briana knew how much she loved to write, but she also knew how smart she was. Briana was intelligent, too, but nowhere near Stacy’s IQ.

“I’m serious, Ana. Do you think I should be a doctor or a Physicist and just write as a hobby, instead?”

When she had applied for writing classes at the Technical School in Bemidji, their academic advisor called her to see if she had made a mistake on her application. “Your grades are impeccable, Ms. Minker.” The advisor went on and on about how she could do so much more with her intelligence and told her to think about signing up for other classes to expand her horizon.

Stacy thanked the lady and told her she would think about it. Since that phone call, she had been second-guessing her writing. That was her one true passion. Yes, she was good at everything she did, but she didn’t enjoy them as much as writing. The teachers and other leaders at the high school had given up on trying to get her to go into a different career, they all understood her passion and knew she was very good at it.

Briana told her what everyone else told her. “You can do whatever you want, Stacy.” They walked in silence to Physics where Stacy was the acting student teacher. Sometimes the teacher needed her to answer questions from the class that he didn’t know but most days she just walked around and helped the others in class with their assignments.

Her last period of the day was free and the staff let her do whatever she pleased. Some days she ran copies for some teachers, other days she would help the 9th grade Math teacher, but that day she chose to sit out by the football field and think about her career choices.

As she found a nice shaded area to sit and relax, the Conditioning Class came out to run laps around the track. She tried to ignore them and listen to the sounds of nature all around her, but the group of students were making too much noise. She stopped listening and watched them run for a few minutes. She recognized a few juniors but it was mostly seniors in the class. She found herself staring at a muscular, dark brown haired boy that ran with ease ahead of the pack. He didn’t look too familiar and she figured that was the new guy from her Genetics Class.

She stopped watching and pulled out her notebook, opening to the next empty page. She closed her eyes and went back to listening to nature. A few minutes later she opened them and started writing a short story about birds that could talk and understand humans.

Her story was almost finished by the time she heard the final bell of the day. She knew her sister would be talking to her friends for a while before wanting to go home, so she took her time getting back to her locker.

She was almost to her locker when she ran into Briana coming from her last class.

“Where’s your brooch?” she asked Stacy concerned.

Stacy looked down as if her friend was playing with her but realized the pin was gone. She looked at Briana frantically. “Oh, no. I must have lost it. When did you see it last?” she asked hysterically.

Briana thought for a moment. “Well, I remember seeing it during Physics Class. Where did you go after that?”

Stacy retraced her steps in her head of the last hour or so. “After Physics, I went to my locker, then the bathroom before I went outside to write by the football field.” She hung her head. “I can’t believe I lost it already. I just got it for my birthday, this morning.”

“Ok. We’ll start at Mr. Murray’s room, then we’ll go everywhere you went after that.” Her friend smiled and reassured her, “We’ll find it. I promise.”

Before the final bell rang, Troy followed the rest of the class off the track back to the school to get changed. On the way in, something shiny in the grass caught his eye. He bent down and picked it up. He closed his hand around it and smiled before walking in to the school.

He needed to hurry to catch the bus home. He was probably the only senior that rode the bus, but his mom’s car was in the shop for a while and she needed to use his to get to and from work. He quickly showered and changed back into his street clothes. He stopped at his locker to grab his backpack and quickly glanced around for the girl that had the dragonfly brooch but remembered he didn’t know what she looked like and walked out to where the buses were waiting.

The bus ride home seemed to take forever. He was upset with his parents for moving so far from town, especially since he didn’t have a car to go anywhere. There seemed to be nothing but farms and trees where he lived. After about an hour, the bus stopped at his driveway and he realized he was one of the last ones on the bus. There was only two boys and a girl left who acted like siblings and he assumed they lived just up the hill at the large farm next door.

As he got off the bus, he looked out at the large field next door and saw a large tree sitting on the hill. It looked sickly, having lost almost all of its leaves already, but it also looked majestic standing tall and proud overlooking the large field, like a soldier protecting a village. He walked into this empty house and dumped his backpack right inside the door. He made his way to the living room and noted how quiet it was when no one was home. He flipped on the T.V. and plopped on the couch. He felt something poke his leg and dug in his pocket. He pulled out the slip of paper with the poem and the object he had found in the grass. He held it up in front of the T.V. and turned it over. The emerald, rubies and diamonds glinted from the light and he noticed the latch on the pin had been bent and wouldn’t stay closed. He turned it back over and tried to picture the girl that had been wearing it that day but couldn’t figure out what she looked like. He only remembered that she had short dirty blond hair. He read the poem again and set it down on the couch with the brooch on top of it. He knew that she was the one that owned both of these, but he had no idea how he was ever going to find her, to return them.

“I’m sorry, Stacy,” Briana told her as she put her arm over Stacy’s shoulder. “I know how much that pin meant to you.” She squeezed her shoulders. “Maybe someone will find it and turn it in to the office.”

Stacy looked at her with a tear in her eye. “Thanks,” she told her, hugging her back. The two walked to where Stacy’s sister was waiting impatiently for them, with sad looks on their faces.

“What’s wrong with you two?” she asked sarcastically. “Did you get one wrong on your Math test?” Stacy’s sister laughed at her own joke.

“Not funny, Trina,” Stacy shot her a disgusted look. “I lost the brooch mom and dad gave me this morning from grandma.” A tear fell down her cheek as her sister stopped laughing.

“Sorry,” she said. “Did you need help looking for it? Where did you see it last?”

“No. We already retraced my steps since Briana saw it last.” She lowered her head. “Hopefully someone finds it and turns it in. Let’s just go home.”

“See you tomorrow,” Briana called as she walked the other way.

“Trina, I need to stop at Mrs. Binkman’s room real quick. I’ll meet you at the car.” She headed down the hall to her Creative Writing class and dried her tears before going in. “Mrs. B?” she called. Her teacher popped her head up from under her desk.

“Sorry, I dropped an earring down there and I don’t think I’ll ever find it,” she laughed. “I’m glad you stopped by. I have something for you, but didn’t think it would be appropriate to give it to you during class. You know, favoritism,” she laughed again as she handed Stacy a wrapped present.

Stacy took it gingerly and unwrapped it. Whatever it was, it wasn’t going to replace the brooch she had lost but she would be grateful anyway.

She pulled the last bit of paper off to reveal a packaged writing notebook with a gorgeous mechanical pencil attached with a colorful strap. Hanging off the end of the pencil was a chain with a little gold dragonfly. Its eyes were Sapphires (her birthstone) and it hung off the chain like it was flying.

“Thank you, Mrs. B.” she said as she hugged her teacher. “It’s beautiful! I love it.” She held up the pencil and watched the dragonfly spin around on the chain.

“You’re welcome. You better get going, though. I know your sister’s waiting for you.” Mrs. Binkman shooed her out the door and went back under her desk to find her earring.

Stacy walked out to her sister’s car and climbed in. “Can we go now?” Trina asked as she put the car in gear and peeled out of the parking lot.

During the ride home, Stacy barely listened as her sister rambled on and on about the boy she ate lunch with. His dark hair and dreamy eyes; his muscles that protruded out from his shirt sleeves; how he listened as she talked about her ex-boyfriends that played football.

“I can’t think of his name right now, but he was so hot,” she finished as they pulled up to the house. Stacy rolled her eyes at her sister before looking at the tree on the hill. It looked like a King standing over his subjects; the grass in the field, bowing down to their ruler. As she got out of the car, she looked up at the road and saw the bus pull into the driveway. Since her brothers and sister were the last ones off the bus, the driver turned around in their driveway. She could hear them screaming as they raced down the driveway.

“Birthday cake time!” they all yelled when they saw Stacy. She smiled at them as she followed them into the house.

They all sat down at the table and sang “Happy Birthday” to her. She blew out all 17 candles and snitched some frosting before her mom took the cake away. “Go ahead and open your presents while I cut the cake,” her mom called from the kitchen.

Stacy started with the biggest present; a large gift bag that contained a shirt with a dragonfly on it. There was also a sun catcher in the bag that her younger sister had made for her in school. She worked her way to the smallest present; a dragonfly wind chime. Each and every gift had a dragonfly theme to it and she loved the fact that her family knew what she liked.

Her mom served the cake with ice cream and everyone complimented her on it. While they ate, the youngest brother spoke up. “Did you know that someone moved in next door?”

“I saw the moving truck on Saturday and was thinking about heading over and welcoming the family later this week,” their mom told him. “Anyone want to join me?” She looked at the older girls.

They both shook their heads at her.

“There’s a boy that goes to high school over there,” the middle brother said slyly. “He rode the bus home today,” he added.

Trina looked at her brother surprised. “Did he have dark hair, dreamy eyes and lots of muscles?”

“I don’t know about the dreamy eyes but dark hair and muscles he did have.”

“I changed my mind, mom. I’ll go with you. Can we go tonight?” Trina was a little too excited.

“I was going to give them some time to settle in before we bombarded them,” their mom told her calmly. “But, I suppose we could go tonight and take them some left over cake and ice cream.”

Trina squealed and ran off upstairs to change, forgetting about her cake on the table.

“Do you want to go with, honey, since it’s your birthday cake?”

Stacy finished her piece before answering. “No thanks, mom. I’ve got lots of work to do tonight.” She stood up and kissed her mom’s cheek. “Thanks for the cake and presents. Call me when dinner’s ready.” She headed up to her room with her composition notebook and walked out on the balcony to finish her short story from earlier.

Troy’s parents got home shortly after he did so he picked up the poem and pin and shoved them back in his pocket.

“How was your first day at the new school?” his dad asked when they got into the living room.

“It was okay,” he told them casually as he stood up and brushed past them to his room. “Call me when dinner’s ready,” he said as he shut the door behind him.

He pulled the items out of his pocket and carefully set them on his dresser. He sat on his bed and thought about all that had happened on his first day; seeing the girl that wore the brooch; having lunch with the hot blond from Genetics Class; then finding the poem and the pin. He knew he should bring the pin to the office at school, but he really wanted to find out who the girl was that owned it. He looked out his window and could just see the large tree. He sighed and grabbed his laptop. He scrolled through his fantasy football sites and made some roster changes, then checked Facebook. His friends had promised to keep in touch with him but he didn’t have any messages. He tucked the computer away and told himself he would message them later. He was thumbing through a football magazine when his mom called him for dinner. He tossed the magazine on the floor and walked out to the kitchen.

“Smells good, mom,” he told her as he sniffed the air above the stove. “What is it?”

She opened the oven and pulled out the rack. “It’s called frozen pizza,” she told him proudly. They both laughed. Troy’s mom wasn’t a very good cook and claimed that frozen pizza was her specialty.

They ate the pizza in the living room while watching Monday Night Football. At the end of the first quarter, there was a knock on the front door and Troy’s mom got up to answer it. A few moments later, she walked into the living room carrying a tray of cake, followed by two ladies. She set the tray down as Troy and his father complained about the first call of the next quarter.

“Troy, Rick, we have company.” She grabbed the remote and muted the T.V. “This is Trina and her mother, Darcy. They live on the farm next door.” Rick stood up to greet them and stepped back for his son.

“Trina?” Troy asked confused.

“Hi, Troy,” she said exuberantly. “I didn’t realize we were neighbors.” She stepped to him and took his arm. She turned back to the adults. “We met at school, today. We have some classes and lunch together.”

“That’s nice,” her mom told her. “But, I think we should get going. It looks like they’re busy watching football.” She grabbed her daughter’s hand and motioned for her to follow. “We didn’t mean to interrupt, we just wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood and bring some of Trina’s sister’s birthday cake over for you.” She led Trina to the door. “Maybe we can get together sometime?” she asked Troy’s mom as she walked with them.

“That would be nice. Maybe later this week, even?”

The women nodded at each other as Trina looked back at Troy who had gone back to watching football with his dad. She followed her mom to the car and drove home.

Troy watched out of the corner of his eyes as the car pulled out of the driveway. He didn’t want his dad to know he liked her already.

At the next commercial break, his dad was the first to say anything about the visitors. “They live on the large farm, you said? They seem nice.” He looked at his son. “And the daughter seemed really nice. Wouldn’t you say, Troy?” he teased him.

“Whatever, dad,” he said without looking away from the T.V., even though it was only a commercial for Ibuprofen.

“I didn’t get a lot of details, but I know there’s at least one more daughter that goes to high school and the father. I think there’s a few other kids, too,” his mom told him casually. “I think we’re going to try to get together later this week.”

Troy pretended like he was ignoring his parents, but he couldn’t. He liked the thought of hanging out with Trina and smiled to himself. He grabbed a piece of cake and by half-time had already eaten two whole pieces. “I think I’m gonna ask her to make that for my next birthday. That cake was awesome,” he said as he kissed his mom’s forehead on his way out of the room. “No offense, mom, but store-bought cake doesn’t even come close to that.” He carried his plate to the sink and went to his room to watch the rest of the game.

He looked out at the large tree that now looked like a skeleton in the dark with the moonlight peeking through the bare limbs.

He watched another quarter of the game before he shut off the T.V. and crawled into bed. He closed his eyes thinking about Trina but ended up dreaming about the faceless girl that he knew the dragonfly brooch and poem belonged to.

After dinner, Stacy went back to her room. There were too many bugs out still to sit on the balcony that late in the evening. She sat on her bed with her notebook and pencil and looked at the tree.

Her mom and sister were taking the leftover cake over to the neighbors while the rest of her family sat in the living room watching whatever was on the T.V. at night. She rarely watched T.V. and had no idea what they watched every night.

She had finished her short story before dinner and waited for inspiration to strike again. She thought about the poem she had written in class earlier and wondered where she had put it. Probably in her locker, she thought.

She watched the moonlight shine through the limbs of the tree onto the grass below. It looked like people dancing in the field and she watched them float around effortlessly, moving to their own music. She wished she could be out there dancing with them. Instead, she put pencil to paper and started writing.

The light from the sky shone bright through the tree,

Waiting for someone like me

To take a walk,

Not to talk,

But to just let it all be.

She closed her eyes and pictured herself sitting out under the tree while the moonbeams danced around her. Suddenly there was a knock on her door.

“Come in,” she called.

Trina walked in all smiles. “Hey,” she said. “So, our new neighbor is Troy, the new kid from Genetics class.” She sat on the bed next to Stacy. “He’s so hot.” She made a fanning motion with her hand. “Don’t you think so?”

“I guess so,” Stacy lied. She thought back to her last class when she sat in the shade and watched the conditioning class run around the track. She had noticed him, but not in that way.

“I think I’m gonna ask him to eat lunch with me again tomorrow. Hopefully he sits by me in Genetics class.” Trina started rambling on about him again and Stacy just nodded at her. “Well, I’ve gotta get to sleep. Have a good night.”

Stacy remained on her bed as her sister stood up and walked out of her room. She put the notebook and pencil on her nightstand and turned off the lamp. The moonlight was much brighter and higher in the sky. She watched the tree until the clouds blocked the moon then went to bed wondering where she had lost her brooch.