birthday and her mom had not picked up a shift at the dinner. She had been home when they got back from school. Her mom had baked a cake and they had had lasagna for dinner and not the kind from a microwave meal as usual. It had been wonderful. For her birthday she had gotten a new pair of sneakers. She had asked for the latest pink and white Nikes, which were seventy dollars at the mall. She had really hoped for these since all of the cool kids at school wore them, but she knew it would have been expensive for her mom. Instead her mom had gotten her these shoes that looked almost exactly like the pair that she had picked out. The brand had been Niles and the swoosh was a little different to avoid a copyright infringement. She had found them for ten dollars at a market that was notorious for knock offs. Kim had done her utmost best not to seem disappointed but didn‟t think she had fooled her mom. Ally had been convinced she liked them and when her mom had said that they were knock offs, she had said that she would have never been able to tell if her mom wouldn‟t have said so. Kim had noticed immediately and was sure that her class mates would too. That would unleash a barrage of torments. All in all it had been a good birthday. Again no word from her dad but she had gotten used to that by now and even though secretly hoping she hadn‟t expected it anymore. Today she wanted to be a teenager. She would go to the mall. She knew she wouldn‟t be able to afford anything but still wanted to be like all the other girls at school. Window shopping would be fun too. She decided to wear her new sneakers and give them a test run at the mall. She would look around and see if she would notice any pointing fingers or people noticing the knock offs. If they wouldn‟t maybe she would take a chance and wear them to school. But they had to be tested first. She stopped at Mrs. Simon and talked to Ally for a bit. Gave her a kiss, said hi to Mrs. Simons and stopped at home to get her new sneakers then she was off to the mall. It was a thirty minute walk to the mall and she could have taken the bus, but walking was free and after waiting for the bus it would have only be 10 more minutes to walk then to take the bus. She arrived at the mall at about four o‟clock. The mall was busy as usual. She strolled around and checked out the latest fashions in the store windows and the boys at the food court. Both were out of reach for her she sighed to herself. She stopped at a store with a particularly nice display. In the centre of the display was a mannequin with a pretty pink top and a beautiful pair of jeans. She dreamed of herself arriving at school in that outfit. Surely it would change things. She snapped out of her dream when she noticed this uncontrollable giggle from behind. She turned and saw Alexis, Marcia, Megan and Natasha. They were on the cheerleading squad at school and thus the in upper echelon of popularity, and they were laughing at her. Megan quickly pointed out that the outfit she was checking out would cost more than thirty outfits would cost where she usually shopped. Then Alexis noticed her shoes and pointed them out inquiring about her new “kicks”. Natasha was quick to notice that they were knock offs and the barrage of insults picked up a notch. After about 5 minutes of this Kim was about to break into tears and run off. But that would make things so much worse. She wished she could sink into the ground and erase this event from her and her assailant‟s memories. If this was bad she thought, just wait tomorrow at school. She was already planning for that. She would be sick tomorrow. Then it would be weekend and by Monday it might be forgotten about and she might get out without any more embarrassment. It was a long shot but it was all she had. Then all of a sudden she heard “There you are, where did you go?” It was directed at her. She looked around and saw tall handsome boy walked up to her. He was 5‟11” and was tanned. His hair was black and well groomed. He looked 18 or 19 years old and had the brightest smile she had ever seen. He was fit and dressed very well. Who was this? What did he want? She was stunned in surprise and by his appearance. The cheerleading squad that had not been bringing cheer to her had the same reaction. What could this hunk want from a loser like Kim Brown? He walked up to her and kissed her on the cheek. Then he said “I stopped at the store where you got the shoes and they apologized about the mistake. It appears one of the warehouse employees was stealing shoes and replacing them with knock offs and then selling the real ones. They told me to bring them back and you would get new ones. They are very embarrassed about it.” Then he turned to the cheerleading squad that he had skillfully ignored and asked “Are these your friends from school?” She was still trying to figure out what was going on and after swallowing the lump in her throat, she managed a faint “Yes, this is Alexia, Megan, Marcia and Natasha.” Then she pointed at him and said “And this is……” trying to introduce this guy even though she had no idea who he was. “Jake” he interrupted her quickly and exactly at the right time. “It‟s a pleasure” he said. Then he quickly turned to Kim again and completely ignored the four girls again. They were clearly not used to that kind of treatment. They were always the center of attention because they were beautiful, rich and popular. Now they were just stunned. “Come on” he said, “I want to do a bit more shopping.” He had a bit of an accent that she couldn‟t place. It wasn‟t weird or annoying; it actually made him even more attractive as if that were possible. She followed him in the direction of the shoe store. Finally she was beginning to process things. He had seen what was going on and he had rescued her from her predicament. It would only be short lived though. Tomorrow she needed to show up at school wearing those new shoes or the cheerleading squad would see right through it. When they were out of earshot of the girls she looked at him and said “Thanks.” He smiled at her the most wonderful smile she had ever seen. “Don‟t mention it, I couldn‟t let those bitches get away with that” he said. They walked into the shoe store and she said “I‟ll wait here and sneak out when they are gone. I‟ll be ok now. Thanks.” He looked at her and said, I don‟t think that will work, you need to have those shoes tomorrow at school or they will come down on you twice as hard.” It was as if he had read her mind. “What‟s your size?” he asked. “Seven” she said. He walked to the counter holding one of the shoes. Two minutes later the clerk came out with a box with the size seven shoes that her knock offs were supposed to resemble. She tried them on and he asked “Do they fit?” “Yes” she said but I can‟t afford these. They were seventy dollars at the cheaper stores. At this one they were eighty-five dollars. He looked at the price and pulled a wad of cash out of his pocket. He pulled a one hundred dollar bill from the wad and gave it to the clerk. “This should cover the shoes and tax, keep the change and burn the old shoes” he said. The clerk nodded and he grabbed her by the arm and they walked out the door. “I can‟t accept this” she said, “I can‟t pay you back.” “I don‟t want you too” he said and smiled. When they walked out of the store she felt like she was walking on air. Partly because of the shoes but mostly because of this handsome stranger that was paying attention to her. She noticed the four girls in the distance watching the store as they walked out. They were checking up on her. They quickly pretended that they weren‟t looking at her and she did the same. He grabbed her hand and told her “We have to make it look good” and winked at her. Then he led her to the store front where she had been assaulted by the cheerleader squad. They stopped in front of the window and he pointed at the outfit and said “That would look great on you.” “I wish” she replied. He looked at the price and dragged her into the store. Not ten minutes later they walked out with 2 shopping bags. So this is how it feels she thought. No wonder women on TV call it therapy. Then they walked to the exit of the mall. When got outside he gave her a card and circled his cell number. “If you ever need me to scare off more bullies call me” he said. Then he gave her a kiss on the cheek and walked out to the parking lot. In the parking lot he got into a beautiful Porsche Boxter and sped off. She stared ahead in disbelieve over the events of the last thirty minutes. Then she looked at his card. Jake Juliano it said and listed a cell number, a few pager numbers and an email address. No physical address, company name or profession. Odd she thought but it looked very elegant. Finally she noticed the cheerleading squad standing at a distance. For a moment she was afraid they would come and harass her again but when they saw she noticed them they quickly walked back into the mall and pretended they had just stepped out for a smoke. With large steps and get head in the clouds she headed home thinking of this her own mystery man, Jake Juliano. Chapter 3: She arrived at home and quickly hid the new outfit under her bed. She wouldn‟t have been able to explain that to her mom. The shoes were fine she thought. Her mom would not notice the difference, which was not her interest. The kids at school were obsessed with making sure they looked perfect and were able to spot a fake a mile away. She felt relieved that she didn‟t have to worry about that anymore now. After hiding the bags with clothes she hurried to Mrs. Simons and picked Ally up. She thanked Mrs. Simons and had told her she had missed the bus and had to wait a half hour for the next one and apologized profusely. Mrs. Simons hadn‟t minded. When they got home it had been past six. She didn‟t like taking advantage of Mrs. Simons but today she felt the reason she was late had more than justified the being late even though she didn‟t feel like she could talk about it to anyone. She would tell Annie tomorrow. Annie was the only one she could trust to understand. Ok, Annie wouldn‟t quite understand about the problem with the shoes being knock offs or the need for fashionable outfits. Annie in fact might be the only one at school to get away with dressing however she wanted where everyone else had to adhere to the strict dress code or face ridicule. Kim had always pondered why Annie could and she couldn‟t get away with it and decided that it was because a combination of reasons. First of all Annie chose to dress the way she did. If she wanted too she would have a wardrobe of the latest fashions. All she would have had to do was give her dad a call on his satellite phone as he was probably off on some remote corner of the world on a drilling island. He would just tell he were his credit cards were and which one she could take. He would tell her not to spend over a certain amount but that amount would just be mentioned not to seem like a dad that just spoils his kids. The amount would be far greater then Kim could ever imagine spending on a shopping spree without flying to New York, Paris or Milan. Second of all, Annie genuinely didn‟t care what people thought. If people didn‟t like something about her then that was fine. She picked her friends because she liked them. Not because they fit a certain physical appearance. So picking on her generally had no effect and thus was no fun for the bullies. In the worst case scenario she might catch you off guard with one of her witty comebacks and the bully would end up being ridiculed. This low return on making fun of her combined with the risk of it generally was not considered worth it and thus she was left alone. The cheerleaders called her odd or crazy behind her back but she really didn‟t care what they thought. All this was why Kim couldn‟t pull it off. First of all she didn‟t have a choice about what she wore and second of all she did care what other people thought. Most of the time she could do a pretty good job on pretending that she didn‟t care but the especially vicious girls could see right through that. Almost like a shark smelling blood a mile away in an ocean. She made microwave meals for her and Ally as her mom had another shift at the diner and wouldn‟t be home until nine. Then she helped her with her homework and did her own while Ally watches another iCarly episode from a DVD set she had gotten 2 years ago. Ally had seen it at least fifty times but she liked it and since they couldn‟t afford cable it was her way of pretending that they could afford cable. It was hard to get her homework done. Helping Ally was easy since she had to talk to Ally about it and couldn‟t drift off but when she was working on her own it was just her and her thoughts and her thoughts had no plans to stick to the tasks on hand. She kept trying to think about her Geometry assignments but all she could think of in relation to algebra was the lines and shapes of Jake‟s face. When she tried to focus on Social Studies all she could do was compare the colors in the graph that displayed the religion percentages in a certain African country to the color of his eyes. At eight thirty she gave up and put Ally to bed. Then she lay down on the couch and zapped through the channels. She paused on the news as it was the most interesting of all the channels and after a few minutes she dozed off. She dreamed about Jake. It was the best night sleep she had had in a long time. In her dreams he had taken her away from her drab life in the apartment and they were living together in a beautiful house. For fun they would cruise around in his convertible and go to the beach. No way would they be living in Milwaukee. They would be in California or the Florida Keys, anywhere but Milwaukee. If she heard the word “bubbler” instead of water fountain one more time she would scream. She woke up at six am. Her mom had her hand on