Rachel had known Justin for two years when she realized that he was the one. She met him freshman year of high school and they had become friends during the second quarter of that year. He sat next to her everyday in the classes they had together, but he didn't seem to pay her very much attention. Rachel didn't really mind. When sophomore year rolled around, Rachel became infatuated with Justin. She wanted to know everything about him, be with him everyday, and be the only one he cared about. Justin was the class clown and although everyone in their class laughed at his funny remarks, Rachel hoped that her laughs would mean the most to him. They didn't, not then. But their friendship did grow slightly that year.
The crush that Rachel had on Justin was huge by the time they were in their junior year. As the year went by, Rachel's relationship grew greatly with Justin; however, it remained strictly platonic. Rachel was head-over-heels in love with Justin, and Justin just tried to make her laugh. As all people do when they have a crush on someone, Rachel imagined that everything Justin did was a sign that he liked her too. She began to realize to give up when she realized that he was just being who he was, he wasn't dropping any hints for her.
One day, Rachel looked at herself in a mirror and began to dissect her appearance. She was tall, 5' 8", but he was taller, 6'5". She also noticed that she was gaining weight. Every time she gave up on Justin, she nursed her sadness with food. Rachel knew that if she were to have any chance with Justin she would have to perfect her appearance as much as she could. So she went on a diet and she started to exercise.
Summer came and the pounds began to melt off of her. She watched as pant waists grew wider and she finally bought herself a size 6. At the end of August, she replaced her wardrobe with smaller, more fashionable clothes and hoped that Justin would like the way she looked in them.
Senior year would be the year, it had to be. She had four chances, and she had already blown three. She drove herself to school on the August 26th that she hoped would turn heads (hopefully Justin's) her way. Rachel opened the door to her Jeep and slowly put one denim covered leg out the door. The few people that were outside the small school turned to see who it was, as the stunning body followed, their jaws dropped in surprise and Rachel smiled at them all and removed her sunglasses.
She found everyone in the library listening to their boring principal's beginning-of-the-school-year speech. Someone started to hand out schedules, and she found hers. English, first period, she knew Justin was in that class with her, they had signed up together.
The walk to her English class was torture, what if the seats next to Justin were taken? She walked faster. There was nobody there. She went to find her locker and put her two books inside of it and then returned to her English class. It was an eight-person class, three people were there, and one of them: Justin. She looked at a boring "Writing is Fun!" poster on the wall and kept his position memorized so that she could walk over to him without looking at him. As she turned towards his row of desks, she looked at his face. His eyes were wide open but other than that, his face showed no expression. She sat down next to him. "Hey," she said.
"Welcome back," Justin said to her, without the vaguest hint of emotion. The class rolled on and he didn't even glance in her direction. He cracked his usual hilarious jokes and well-timed funny statements, and she laughed along with every other girl and boy in the room. Nothing was different.
Two weeks went by and Rachel was very frustrated. She decided to ignore him. She sat with a different boy and paid attention to class. When Justin cracked a joke, she just stared at the white board. When she saw him in the hall, she made sure that he didn't know that she saw him. She walked by as sexily as she could and stood next to her friend Jenna and started talking about a funny television show that they both watched. Justin stared at her and wondered, 'Why is she doing this to me?'
Her new tactic didn't get her anywhere further than her old ones did, so she reverted back. She spoke to him, he laughed, he spoke to her, she laughed. She couldn't take it anymore, he had to like her, and if he didn't at least she'd know. After he said one of his less funny jokes, Rachel said, "Listen, Justin, would you- well- you see... I've... I've liked you for some t-time now, and I was w- wondering if you would like to uh- see a movie with me?"
