This is Part 13 of the story of How I Met Superman. To get caught up (or remember where we left off!), you can find the preceding chapters here.

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The light was falling fast when he showed up at my door. My surprise must have shown all over my face.

“What are you doing here?” I whispered. I glanced over my shoulder to see if my mom was nearby, then leapt out onto the porch and clicked the brass-handled door quietly behind me.

“Orly said you –” He glanced behind me: took in the closed door, took in my expression, didn’t finish the sentence. Instead, he shoved his hands in his pockets and ducked his head. “I can leave. I just wanted you to know that everything was fine.”

As he turned to head off, I hustled beside him and motioned toward the front of the garage, where we couldn’t be spotted through the front-door windows. I felt terrible. It’s not that I didn’t want him there, it’s just that … it was such a surprise. … and … well, my mom. … I glanced back over my shoulder. Continue reading →

 This is Part 12 of the story of How I Met Superman. To get caught up, you can find the preceding chapters here.

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Over the next couple of weeks, I constantly looked for Superman at school. He never approached me during the school day. Instead, I’d see him leaning against the handrails at the band room, where he and his fellow drummers – Wade*, Tommy*, Orly*, and a handful of other boys – would laugh with each other and watch the girls go by.

But after school, he would find me, and take my books, and my heart would still, and he’d say, “Are you walking home?”

We learned more and more about each other during those walks. I was fascinated by his family: His mother came from Mexico, his father from Spanish-speaking southern Texas. They made enchiladas and menudo and tortillas from scratch on a regular basis. He told me his father had been in the military and then worked in the defense industry, and they moved around a lot when he was a kid. Subsequently, he felt very close to his older two brothers, who stood in as best friends in all those brand-new schools. I liked how close he was with his family. I liked how close he felt to his friends. He seemed to always be giving people things – money for lunch, a forgotten book to borrow, time after school – and I instantly loved that generosity about him.

But one of the afternoons, before walking home, he didn’t come find me. Continue reading →

This is Part 11 of the story of How I Met Superman. To get caught up, you can find the preceding chapters here.

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I balanced the box on top of the aluminum rail by the art building, peering inside to make sure everything was intact – it was. My “ceramics” project, a 7-inch-tall lion sitting on his haunches – was fine. He was a bit cartoonish, in the mode of my art back then, but his color was all wrong. He was … well, blue. I’d thought he’d be a nice caramel color when I painted it on, but I failed to read the side of the bottle that explained he would turn blue when fired in the kiln.

“Are you going to be okay?” Dawn asked, eyeing my awkwardly sized box, as well as my large stack of books held balanced on the rail.

I nodded. I wasn’t sure, exactly, how I was going to get all of this home, but I figured I’d work something out. She needed to get to a club meeting after school, and I didn’t want to keep her. “I’m fine. Go ahead.”

She looked at the box dubiously. “How are you going to carry all that?”

“I’ll think of something. I might just leave a few of these books here.”

She nodded slowly, but then something over my shoulder caught her eye. “Or maybe something else will come up.” Continue reading →

 This is Part 10 of the story of How I Met Superman. To get caught up, you can find the preceding chapters here.

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After Superman flew away from the party, I immediately did what any teenage girl would do: I went to find my nearest girlfriend and squealed “Did you SEE that???”

She jumped up and down with me, and we overanalyzed everything: Did he look into my eyes or at my lips? Did he simply rest his hand on my hip or pull me closer at the waist? Did he seem to want to dance with anyone else? Did he say he’d call?

I stopped short at the last question. No. He didn’t say he’d call. He didn’t say “See ya.” He didn’t say anything at all, in fact.

Dawn frowned. We weren’t sure what that meant.

We two love sleuths tried to dissect any other clues we could, but just then the party was interrupted by a few of the guests who wanted to do something different. Dancing was getting old, they said. They wanted to play Spin the Bottle. Continue reading →

This is Part 9 of the story of How I Met Superman. To get caught up, you can find the preceding chapters here.

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As soon as I untangled myself from Orly’s embrace, I realized my terrible mistake.

He looked at me with surprise, but mixed with just enough triumph to make me understand the gaffe. In rapid succession, I realized three things: He wasn’t even close to Edward Darcy; he seemed to think he’d “won” something; and Superman probably didn’t know this was happening.

I glanced into the kitchen where I’d last seen Chris, but he still wasn’t there. I knew I’d blown it. This was his friend. I wondered if Orly would tell him he kissed me. I wondered what Chris would think, and if he’d ignore me now forever – assuming I was fickle or silly or easy or simply interested in any male who happened to be standing in front of me at any given second. I slowly backed away from Orly and his sweater just as the last strands of a Styx song were ending. The song hadn’t ended yet, but it was close enough.

“Thanks for the dance,” I said quietly.

Orly gave me a crooked smile and asked if I wanted to dance again, but I just shook my head. I had no words. I’d blown it. Continue reading →