My first crush...maybe...

It wasn't really a crush that I had.  Rather, someone who had a crush on me and I was too oblivious to even notice.

I went to a conference in my last year of high school, where I met some of my closest friends.  One such friend, is Redhead.

I had a knack for saying what was on my mind - the filter between my brain and my mouth was (and still is) rarely used.  I was going through the registration line, and was met by a team of university students who were volunteering their time that week (something I would do in the years to come).  Some hardcore rock music was playing in the background and without even thinking, I said "Who's awful music is this? It's not even music, it's just noise!"  Redhead piped up and said "Oy, it's my music and you're just evil".

From then, Redhead called me "Evil Girl".  The name stuck (throughout the conference and surprisingly for a few years to follow).  In the middle of the week, we had a Francophone dinner, where everyone was encouraged to speak in French.  Being fluent in language, I had no issues, and eventually found my place in the dining hall.  At my seat was a little name placard, with the words "La P'tite Mechante" handwritten under my name.

Redhead picked on me throughout the conference (and I was oblivious to the fact that it was because he may have liked me).  I had kept the little placard from the Francophone dinner and at the end of the conference when we all signed each other's notebooks and wrote little letters for one another, Redhead wrote on my placard.  It was sweet.

For the month that followed, while Redhead was back at home on the East Coast, and I on the West, we exchanged pages and pages of emails about school and life.  Redhead was an amazing friend to me.  And, maybe it was just that, him being an amazing friend...  or maybe it was a crush?  I wasn't allowed to have crushes on red-headed, freckled-faced guys...so it couldn't possible be....it was all so confusing...