" Dana Harrison, front and center,"barked the sharp voice of my new professor at Northern University in Boston.

   "Excuse me, but my name is Danna...not Dana," I corrected as I stood  slowly. A common mistake, it was. It wasn't Dana like Dayna, but Danna like Hannah. I was used to it.

   "Thank you very much for correcting me , Ms. Harrison, but there's no need. You will have a number from now on. Your number is 56, understand?" she rose her eyebrows, waiting for a response.

   "Yes, professor Gupta," I sighed and sat down, again, slowly. And to think I actually wanted to come here. Sure, Harvard was a great school (My father wanted me to go there instead of Northern University). It just wasn't my style. Plus, I didn't think I had good enough grades in high school even though I almost had all A's. I guess it just excited me to know that I would be able to come back to Boston for college. What I mean is, my dad had always liked change so we moved around a lot. Then, we moved here to Boston. At first, it was just another one of those crappy moves, but on my first day of my freshman year at Boston, my spirits were immensely uplifted.

    A girl named Lacey came and sat with me at lunch. She was kind and asked me where I had lived before and if I had liked it. Of course, I said no but she smiled and laughed anyway. It didn't take long for us to become inseparable. A few weeks into my move, Lacey and I met a guy named Alexander. We were instantly friends when we began to talk. So Lacey was the comedian, Alexander was the comforter, and I could never seem to figure out how I balanced everything out. It was like I was just...there. In fact, that's the way I always had felt. I had always felt like I didn't fit in anywhere. Nonetheless, Lacey and Alexander made me feel as though I did mean something to them in some crucial way.

   Alexander and Lacey were unique people, also. Lacey was gorgeous and was usually dating a new guy every week. Boys found her mysterious, naturally. She had beautiful, blonde hair that she flipped back in this really attractive way, with no hands, of course. No matter how many times I tried it, I could never do it quite like she did. Of course, she never noticed how guys gawked stupidly at her. She was too busy getting perfect straight A's and I mean perfect. Lacey had these amazing blue eyes and inquisitive eyebrows. I always envied her and wondered why she picked me to be her best friend when she could have been a popular girl. Heck, she could have been the most popular girl in school what with her looks, brains, and personality.

   Alexander was... perfect. There were no words to describe how utterly perfect he was. He, like Lacey, never noticed how girls were crazy about him. He had these dark, hazel brown colored eyes and brown hair that was just the style that I loved. He was tall and had the most breath taking smile. Every time he smiled at me, my heart seemed to leap into my throat and shatter into a million pieces. Although, I had always been a shy girl and could never tell him the affect he had on me. I guess I was just too much of a wimp. Lacey, however, was not shy and would have told him in a heart beat that she liked him but that's just how different Lacey and I were from each other.

   The weird thing is, all the time since I've moved back to Boston; I have never once seen Lacey or Alexander. Where could they be? I mean, they had wanted to come to this school, hadn't they? I thought we'd talked about it once. The only thing I could do now was wait. But how long would I have to wait before I saw them again? It's odd how time just seems to drag when you're waiting for something to happen, isn't it?

   " Danna? Danna is your name, isn't it?" Someone asked me, interrupting my thoughts.

   " Uh, yes," I looked up to see a girl with short brown hair and big brown eyes standing over my desk while people rushed past her.

   " Well, I'm Carmen and...class is over. I just wanted to let you know so you wouldn't be late for your next class. First days are the most important."

   " Ummm, thanks, Carmen. Guess I was daydreaming," I smiled sheepishly and got up from my seat, gathering my books, "I'll see you next week, right?"

   "Sure," she nodded and walked away.

   I walked to my next class, the echoes of my recent thoughts swirling around in my mind until I got a headache. I tried to focus on getting to my next class. What was my next class? I looked at my schedule, attempting to balance all my books in one arm while I held the schedule in one hand. It didn't work. My books fell to the floor with a bang. I bent to pick them up and sighed exasperatingly. No, nobody came and helped me pick them up...no cute guys that I would fall in love with weeks later, although I half expected it. Sadly, that kind of thing doesn't happen in real life...especially in college.

   Once I was done picking my books up, I dug into my pocket and pulled out a Lifesavers Wint O Green mint which I am addicted to. Whenever I was stressed, I popped one into my mouth just to calm myself by focusing on the sweet and cool flavor of the mint. My addiction started when I was just a little girl. Whenever I cried, my mother would reach into her purse and hand me a Lifesavers mint. I instantly stopped crying. I guess it was a good memory...of my mother. You see, my mother and my father had one thing in common. They both liked change. Therefore, my mother didn't like being a wife...or a mother for that matter. It was just too routine for her taste. So she left. Of course, I never really cried about it because when she left, Daddy told me that she had gone on vacation for a little while.

   It was a very poor idea, to tell me that lie. For years, every day after school, I sat on the porch swing outside our house, waiting for her to return home. I pictured the whole thing in my head. Her shutting the car door and instantly pulling off her heals to walk bare-foot in the grass towards our house. I would run up to her and she would slip me a mint before Daddy came out and saw. He didn't like the idea of me eating hard candy at such a young age. It scared him. But, she never came back. Daddy finally gave in and bought me my own mints from then on to keep me from crying like I did after she left. I ate them ever since. 

   I walked to my next class, still sucking on my mint, thinking about my childhood. I walked in and people were still finding seats and chattering with new friends. I sat in a back corner chair, sliding into the seat slowly. I held my head in my palms, my elbows on the desk. I looked around at all the other students. Most of them were smiling, excited about their first day in college. Then, the professor walked in, placing his brief case on his desk. He sent one of the students around the room, giving a paper to everyone. The paper read "Getting To Know Me". Great. An information sheet. But why? Why would you want to know about someone when you can't even remember their name? There were too many students for that.  Then, he did something odd. He put an equation up on the board. He turned around and looked at us, his eyes flickering to different faces around the room.

   " Write the answer to this equation on the back of the paper that was just given to you. If you can't solve it, then leave this classroom right this second," he ordered. About eight people got up and walked out of the classroom. I, however, knew the answer to this equation and quickly scribbled it onto my paper. I looked up and saw the professor smiling smugly. He pointed to the door and shook his head, still smiling.

   " I knew they would leave. Now that I've gotten rid of those slackers, let's get started. My name is Professor Malcolm and I am your new chemistry teacher," he said with a pleasant tone. He pointed to a desk on the left side of the room and said," Okay, we'll start over here. I want you to introduce yourself and say a little bit about yourself. Save some info for the sheet that was handed out, okay? I don't have time for your life story."

   Suprisingly, this class didn't seem to last long enough. Professor Malcolm wasn't one of those really stern professors. He was fun, lively, and suprisingly young. I'd say he's in his late twenties, early thirties. He easily became my favorite person in the whole university. I walked out of the classroom in high spirits. This feeling vanished quickly. Bam! I crashed into someone, clumsily dropping my books...again. I said I was sorry and headed for the door to the outside campus. Time to find some lunch. I drove around the town that I knew well, looking for a good place to eat. I found a nice pizzeria a mile or so from campus.

   The little pizzeria was empty except for a heavy-set man at the counter. His face lit up when he saw me walk through the door. He smiled, warmly and beckoned for me to come to the counter.

   " Hey! First customer of the day! You can eat free. What do you want? Pick anything," he insisted graciously.

   " Thank you," I smiled. I ordered a simple, individually sized pepperoni pizza and a Pepsi. As I was waiting at the counter, someone entered the pizzeria. A boy hobbled in on crutches, a scar on the right side of his forehead that crossed with his eyebrow.

   " Hey, Carlos," the boy greeted the man at the counter, smiling.

   " Hey, Alex! How's the leg doing? You're looking pretty good today," the man named carlos pointed out. Wait...Alex? I took a better look at the boy. My breath caught in my throat.

   " Yeah... but I've been better," Alex smiled again. That breath-taking smile that I knew so well. Alexander!

   " Alexander!" I exclaimed, jumping a little with excitement. His eyes flickered to me.

   " Yeah...that's my whole name. My friends back in high school called me that. They called me 'Alexander the Great' but now I go by Alex," he  laughed half-heartedly.

   " I remember that," I furrowed my eyebrows, looking down. Why didn't he remember me?

   " Oh, you went to my high school? What's your name?"he asked,cocking his head to one side.

 I honestly don't know why I did it. I just said the first thing that came to my mind, I guess.

   " Dana. My name's Dana."