“Oh my god, I am so sorry. My friend…” I stopped talking at that point when I noticed who Natalie had shoved me into. You see, I’m a junior in high school and I’ve had a crush on a certain boy since freshman year. Now I know he likes me, because he always smiles when he sees me, but the problem is that we are both so shy around each other. I know I have to make the first move, but it looks like Natalie made it for me. I think before I go any further, I should rewind a couple of days, two to be exact.

It was a Wednesday, and Wednesday at school means the scent of rotting anchovies and perfume from all the girls mixed together into one nauseating scent. I grabbed my folder for choir and went over to my best friend’s locker. “Well isn’t this a shocker, Natalie. You are on time for school for the first time in your life.” “Hey, not all of us can be miss perfect-on-time-girl,” She said with sarcasm in her voice. “Kovi, what are you looking at? Oh wait, I know. He's coming down the hall, isn’t he?” Natalie is talking about Jason, the boy I have been lusting over for 3 years. We have talked and everything, but it’s hard to tell someone you like them when you can hardly breathe around them. “That’s awesome Natalie, good for you” I said being in a kind of trance. “Kovi, are you even listening to me? My god, snap out of it. Stop ogling him and just go talk to him, or I’ll make you talk to him.” I told Natalie I’d talk to him, because sometimes she just scares me. When she pulls out the Kansas accent, you have a reason to be scared. So with my confidence up I took off down the hall in a nice slow walk. I was about 5 lockers away when I chickened out and speed walked to the choir room, not looking back once.


Natalie showed up about five minutes later, and unfortunately today we had a sub, so all we had to do was talk. “ARE YOU CRAZY?” Natalie yelled at me. “I’m sorry I chickened out. I was so close and then, I don’t know. I just couldn’t bring myself to do anything but flee.” I knew she would forgive me and make up some genius and crazy plan that I would have to go along with, that’s just who Natalie is. “That’s ok Kovi, I’ve got a plan.” I was right, she is so predictable. “So what do I have to do? Steal the combo to his locker and hide in it? Take something of his and pretend he dropped it? What do I have to do Natalie?” She got her ‘I’ve got a plan that will either make you, or embarrass you’ smile and said “Don’t worry about it, leave it all to me. All you have to do is make sure you look nice for the next couple of days. I won’t tell you when or where my plan will take effect but it will happen, and you will talk to him.” She didn’t say much the rest of the period, but she did start drawing out a top-secret plan. Every time I tried to touch it or look at it, she would switch seats with someone or hiss at me. Yeah, my best friend hisses at me when she’s working on one of her crazy plans. I sure do know how to pick my friends.


I spent the rest of the day totally paranoid that Natalie would pop out from behind every corner and tell me it was time. Nothing happened that Wednesday, I was sort of relieved, but at the same time, I was worried about what Natalie had thought up. The next day, Natalie told me during second period that she was leaving at the beginning of fourth period. After the second hour bell rang, I packed up my stuff and noticed that Natalie was following me all spy-like around corners and down the stairs. I had a bad feeling that this plan of her was going into action and soon. So instead of going to my locker, I made a beeline straight for the bowling busses. Natalie got on the bus a couple of minutes after I did and said, “To be honest, I had no intention of putting this plan into action today; I just like seeing you so paranoid.” “I am going to kill you NATALIE!!!!!” I screamed, semi-jokingly, getting an angry glare from my PE teacher, Mr. Sharp and a chuckle from Jason, who was standing right behind him. “Listen up people, Mr. Johnson is sick, so his class is going to join us for bowling. So everyone make friends and be nice. Kids, get on the bus.” As the kids from Mr. Johnson’s class got on the bus, I noticed who sat down across from us. “Oh my gosh Natalie, you have got to be kidding me, he did not just take the seat across from us,” I whispered so Jason wouldn’t hear. With a huge grin exploding over her face, Natalie said “This is going to be so much fun. It’s so fun seeing you all nervous and paranoid.”


The bus ride to the bowling alley is fifteen minutes away, and for once, I was glad to be sitting on the inside so that I could avoid an awkward silence. I sat there with my head against the cool glass window and couldn’t stop myself from glancing over at Jason. At that same moment, I caught him glancing over at me. I wish I could just tell him that I like him and get it over with, I’m just so afraid of rejection. Natalie noticed me staring, so she poked me in the side and giggled. When we finally got to the bowling alley, we all went inside and Mr. Sharp assigned three students to a lane. In my lane, it was Natalie, Lauren, and myself, and in the lane next to ours, it was Matt, Mark, and of course Jason. “This is totally fate Kovi,” Natalie said to me with a grin. I always talk about letting fate take its course, and she always makes fun of me for it. I wanted to say something intelligent, but all I could think of was “Bite me,” and then the rest of the day just vanished.


The next day, I showed up to school to find Natalie leaning up against my locker, waiting for me with a huge grin, “Hey Kovi today should be fun.” “I so hate you right now I mean…” All of a sudden, I saw Natalie take her hand and shove me sideways. Before I knew it, I was falling and all I could think to do was grab the nearest thing in sight. Unfortuantly for me, the thing i grabbed wasnt attached to the ground, so i still ended up crashing into the ground. After picking myself up off of the ground, I started to pick up the stuff I had dropped and the items belonging to the person I brought down with me. “Oh my god, I am so sorry. My friend…” I stopped talking at that point when I noticed who Natalie had shoved me into. Natalie had put her plan into action alright; she had shoved me right into Jason. “It’s all right Kovi. Personally I think you should attack her, but I think I should thank her.” “Why would you thank her?” I asked with a smile. “If not for her, I would have had to wait three class periods to talk to you, and ask you to go to the game with me tonight.” With a huger than huge smile on my face, I said, “I’ll go to the game with you, but only if you paint your face with me.” He looked at me and said “Whatever it takes. I’ll pick you up around 6.”


As he was walking away, I started to walk to Natalie. I looked at her with the deliriously happy smile on my face and said “That is why you are my true best friend, and the next time I say anything about fate taking its course, I give you total permission to smack me.” I learned something that day; don’t wait for fate to take its course, because if you do, you will be waiting for something to never come. Sometimes you need to give fate a shove or two in order for you to get what you want. I also learned that best friends are always there for you either to embarrass you, help you, and just to support you and be there when you need them. It also doesn’t hurt to find a friend who has a good shoving arm.