Innocent Times

world. The first day I started secondary school was when I first saw him, the guy I fell in love with that felt like it would be for all eternity, his name was Danny. He was always a few inches taller than the rest of the guys in our year, his chocolate brown hair was always spiked perfectly and often I was tempted to touch it to see how much gel he used to keep his hair in place. From time to time I often caught his eyes, those deep hazel brown eyes that developed butterflies in my stomach, causing me to stare at him for ages in class and because of this my grades at school weren’t always the best. He never seemed to be interested in dating any of the girls in school, just about nearly every girl in school had asked him out for a drink, cinema or study date but he always declined. I never had the courage to even speak to him, never mind asking him out for a date. Although I had long blonde hair and blue eyes, I did not think of myself as very attractive, I never seemed to have any guys asking me out. This did not help my confidence, I guess you could even say I was not very popular with the boys at school, hardly any of them asked me out and as for parties and hang outs, I was rarely asked. I was happy though, and all I needed was my best friend Jessica to talk about situations with; she was pretty much my sister but from another family. Without Jessica, I would have been eternally on my lonesome.
When I started year ten, this was when I cracked on with my studies and forget all about Danny and boys in general. Of course, I would never be rid of him as he was in a lot of the same classes as me but I was just sick of my parents constantly nagging at me about low grades and the teachers continuously telling me to do better. The nail on the head was when my parents got called into a meeting with my head teacher about how low my grades were and that I would soon go on to take my GCSEs, if I did not improve I would have to re-take another year. This meeting took place right at the end-of-year nine just before the summer break so I made a choice to myself and with the guidance from Jessica that during the six week summer break I would study ahead and try to improve my grades. In September going into year ten I was determined to do well and forget all about Danny.  But who would know during this year at school that it would change my life for all eternity and this event happened at the yearly Christmas school masquerade ball.
My grades had progressed so as a treat to say, ‘Well done’ my parents let me attend the ball. The head teacher had personally hand delivered my invite to my parents, so they knew I was not making up a story that my grades had improved so well.  I had gone shopping with Jessica to choose our dresses, it was a cool but dry day on that Saturday we picked our dresses, as an idea we visited the local bridal shop to see on the off chance there may be some bridesmaid gowns or prom dresses reduced. As luck would have it, I came across a silver ball gown. It was on display in the shop window. Silver was not a colour I would have normally gone for, but in the sunlight’s reflection it shone and reflected beautifully through the window. It was like the dress was out of this world and I don’t know what it was, but it drew me to it. Something made me want to enter the shop and check the price of it. It was as though I looked at it outside the shop in one moment and then the next, I was there standing right by it. There was just something about this dress that I could not get my head round but I loved it and I had to buy it. In my daze of excitement and confusion I reached for the yellow tag, it displayed reduced to £89.00. Mum had given me £100.00 to spend in town as a treat. I had seen a few CDs I wanted to treat myself to , but I loved the dress so much I sacrificed my treats and purchased the dress.
The lady in the dress shop was welcoming, she was an elderly lady but knew right away what I wanted but her welcome came across as though she knew who I was. She already had a few of the other girls from my school placing orders for dresses because of the ball, but not one of them wanted the silver gown. As it was on display in the window, the other girls had most likely thought it would cost a lot of money and not taken a second look at it. The dress was like it was meant  to be for me. The lady smiled at me as she took my measurements and as a kind gesture, she let me have the silver eye mask with a butterfly on either side on it, free of charge that matched my new silvery dress. I was still not with it exiting the shop from my excitement about the dress, I walked straight into Danny who had been walking by, I lost my balance and began to fall to the ground. I closed my eyes as I prepared to hit the concrete paving from underneath, but I stopped in mid fall. A powerful arm had caught hold of me and then a hand stroked my cheek. The same feeling of the butterflies in my stomach happened again. I opened my eyes