Annie appeared one day while I was being kicked out of the Year 4 class for being too hyperactive. I was on full tablets of pseudoephedrine to clear my blocked ears and stop earaches or having to have grommets put in. The Quadrangle next to the class played some amazing synth music Axel F by Harold Faitermeyer. I didn’t know it at the time but I loved it for some reason.

At that point of walking out of the hallway detention to the quadrangle I saw what could only be described as the most beautiful girl in the world. She wore a blue tracksuit with different coloured hand prints all over the jumper. I was in love. Everyone flocked to her like she was the virgin Mary and it was surreal everyone wanted to be close to her or be her friend. All the boys were also enamoured by her cute features and wry smile, For some reason I could never go near her or talk to her.. I felt so much for her that a rejection would be un-livable. I tried to impress her from afar jumping off high things. Sliding down hills in front of her, being seen with the cool kids and trying to hang out with my brother’s older clique. To no avail she would just smile at me and walk away knowing I was hamstrung by some invisible force of infatuation.

I was told we had to pack up and leave the small town on the last day of school before Christmas break. I went around the school getting all my friends to put there signature and farewell note on a piece of paper. I saw Annie sitting on the oval pipe fence with two other girls. It was as if there was an force feild I couldn’t go with in 10 meters to ask for her signature and frewll note. A friend saw me frozen as he took the piece of paper and walked over to her fearlessly. The girls giggled as she wrote Annie with her first leter as a star and two XX’s handing it back it was something else like I had landed on another planet.

First contact.

“Oi give me that!!!” The Red headed bully Marcus and his spiky haired mate Travis grabbed it from my hand. The love of my life was captured on that piece of paper. I chased them but all they did was avoid and hand it between each other. I was turning red with anger and they saw that one of them could get a punch from the building frustration.

“SHHHHHHTTTT.” Marcus ripped the paper in two, then four, then…. may as well of been my heart.

I broke down on my knees and cried.

Travis and Marcus showered the pieces of paper like confetti over my devastation and walked away high fiving their revenge and domination.

The friends came and consoled me they took me to the Principles office. He tried to patch it up and gave me a letterhead and signed it with good luck in your next school in the city. Other friends put there signatures on the new piece of paper ….but it didn’t matter. Annie had seen me cry and lose to the two bullies. It was over.

They had won…

I rode my dragster bike through the park feeling that wet sting of old tears not leaving my cheeks. Home was already looking like a pile of cardboard boxes and newspaper scrunched into balls for packing.

“Right pack up your room the removalists are here tomorrow.” I looked at my mother with no expression and went to the back yard to see the ducks.

I stared at Annies picture in the School year book.

Someone I would never see again.

The only true love I’d ever know.