Once upon a time, there was a Goddess named Sarah. Sarah Goddess was this fourteen year old girl that I was obsessed with for 570 days. I'll tell the story of her later, but right now I'm going to tell the story of the girl that looked like a Goddess.

Looking at pictures of Sarah and Joy respectively, I'm not sure where the notion that they looked alike entered my mind. But somehow, this girl in my lunch period reminded me of Sarah Goddess. I didn't know her name, so I called her The Sarah Lookalike. There was this boy that I played baseball with and went to school with in junior high named Bryan. Bryan was a nice enough fellow, but his mind was sometimes a dime shy of a cola due to some disorder. This effect his speech and gave it a slurring sound. So when he said her name (which was "Julie") the Sarah Look-a-like had a name: Joy.

Joy had the same lunch period as Jay and myself one semester. Because of her resemblence (in my mind) of the Goddess, she and this other girl I named Brittany because she fit the description given of a girl I knew online of the same name caught my eye. I am a skilled people-watcher. When I am looking at someone, I generally do so as inconspicuously as possible and I can honestly say that either they don't notice that I'm looking at them or they're looking for me to be looking at them. The biggest thing I was was sit at the end of the table so if I looked forward, she'd be in my peripheral sight.

Jay and I would come up with the worst pick-up lines ever and she provided ample entertainment as she talked to her friends. As time progressed, Jay started having a minor little thing for this girl for reasons other than that she looked like a Goddess. I looked her up in the old Seabrook yearbook and discovered that Joy and I appeared to have a mutual acquaintance: Ashley, the youngest daughter of a family mine takes a trip with to Pensacola year in and year out. They both went to Seabrook, were in the same grade, and played on the tennis team.

The next church youthgroup meeting I asked Ashley about the girl. She was not remarkably helpful. They knew each other but only in passing and she didn't know if Joy was seeing anyone. "Oh well," I thought.

The next day at school while I was waiting outside my chemistry to talk to Jay (who was headed for physics) Ashley walked by and said, "Julie says she wants you to stop stalking her."

"WHAT?!"

I chased Ashley down and got a full explanation. Apparently Joy had seen me looking at her on a couple of occasions. Let me emphasize that I neither looked at her intensely or even flirtingly. Never for more than a couple seconds at a time and I look at all kinds of people for a couple seconds at a time. Even ones that don't look like Goddesses. Joy was obviously paranoid, I reasoned. And stuck up as most girls, even if I had been looking at her flirtingly, would take it as something of a compliment. I'd expect that kind of self-importance from a Clear Lake Intermediate girl, but I expected better from a Seabrook one.

Shortly afterwards the semester ended and I was transferred out of that lunch. Periodically we'd be taking a test and I would be in that lunch again, sitting at the same table with Jay (and now Oz) on one side and Joy on the other. If Joy thought I was stalking, I would show her what stalking was.

Every day I was going to have that lunch, I dressed in all black. I lowered my head and looked her square in the eye. Poor Jay was an innocent bystanderI imitated her movements as if I were reporting to Jay (who was smitten, lest we forget) her every action. Funnest. Lunches. Ever!

Any chance that Jay had of talking to Joy (which were slim anyway thanks to Oz) were dashed. A sad casualty of war.