It was the summer of '95 or was it '96, she couldn't remember exactly. It really didn't matter. She flipped a stone into the water and watched it skip across the lake. Jack had been bored and like her that summer he'd been tossing stones into the water from the other side.
She remembered watching his stone make splashes in the water just a few feet short of hers. Every day for a week they'd played this game. Each of them tossing in rocks and trying to out-skip the other. They kept it up until dark.
On the last day of the week, a Sunday, Jack didn't appear on the other side of the lake and Danielle found that she was disappointed. Perhaps he'd gone home, or he'd gotten bored with the game. She sadly started tossing in stones and counting the skips alone. Summer was almost over and soon she'd have to return to school.
"I bet I can beat that," said a soft voice from behind her. She turned quickly, to see who the voice belonged to. That's when she'd met Jack.
She sat down in the same spot, where she'd been sitting all those years ago, and felt around in the dirt for a tossing stone. There were always plenty of stones to toss in and she wasn't disappointed.
"I bet you can't," she'd replied, and handed him her next stone. "That one bounced eleven times before it sank, she bragged, crossing her arms across her chest in confidence.
Jack stepped closer and gave her an unbelieving stare. "No, it didn't, I counted ten," he corrected and kissed her cheek quickly, before he let loose of the stone she'd placed in his hand.
Surprised she'd missed the first few skips, but tried to recover by counting. "One, two three, four, five..."
Jack interrupted, "no it was already five before you looked. He grinned and reached down to pick up a new stone.
"Cheater!" she yelled, but laughed anyway. After all, it was just a game.
Talk about cheating. They'd spent the rest of the summer tossing, chatting, kissing, tickling and finally making love, then loving.
Going back to school wasn't such an easy thing. At least it wasn't for Danielle. Her parents had to remain over sea for the beginning of the school year so she'd been left with her aunt and uncle. Jack didn't seem to have any problems and he had also been left behind in his summer lodge as well.
He went back onto the football team and took back up with friends he'd made during the summer months. All the girls loved him. If he wanted to date he had his pick of beauties. He always smiled at her whenever he saw her, but didn't offer anything more than that.
Danielle started to wonder if any of it had happened at all. Maybe it'd just been a summertime fantasy. A dream of hers, and that embarrassed her. She'd stopped doing any extra things and mainly just kept to herself. Art was her love and she'd stayed with the drama club. She was the artist who did the sets.
She pulled up some grass and started chewing on the blades. It's funny how things change.
One day, toward the middle of the year, Danielle was working on the sets for a play the drama club was putting on to raise money for a local charity. She'd already painted the sled red. She'd moved onto the hedges, which would have strings of lights in endless colors attached to it when the play began. She'd been working on her creations steadily for the last half hour. Her mind was filled with endless projects she knew she needed to get done before school started the next day. Suddenly, she realized, she wasn't alone.
"Jack?" she asked, wondering why he'd just come into the room. "I'm sorry, but all the cast members have already left for the day, I'm just finishing up." She returned to her work filling in some pretty green leaves with paint. She'd be done in about two minutes and then she'd go home too.
"That's ok," he said, "I came in to see you." He sat down and took a big bite out of an apple; he had in his hand waiting for his words to sink in.
"What?" she asked; rather amazed that she'd heard him say that and stopped painting.
"Danielle," he stopped talking long enough to swallow the food he'd been chewing, and tossed the reminder of the apple in the trash before he continued.
"Why do you act like you don't know me? Did I do something wrong?" He sat down on the edge of the stage facing her with his back toward the gym.
"What?" She said again, totally confused. She laid the paint brush down on the cloth she'd placed on the floor to protect it and brushed at her face.
Jack snickered as he stood and pulled a Kleenex from his back pocket.
"A clown, you're not." he said and wiped at her nose, removing a layer of red paint. His touch was like magic to her. She swallowed hard and he moved away.
