It all started in my senior year of high school. I had already committed to FSU and was ready to head off to college, party a little, and live my “free bird” life. But then… I met Alex around winter break. School had been going on since August, but somehow, we had never crossed paths. One day, I went to lunch with my friends, and they decided to sit with a group of their guy friends (a grade younger). That’s when I first saw him—Alex. He was cracking jokes the whole lunch, and since I laugh at pretty much everything, I couldn’t stop. I left that lunch thinking, Okay… he’s funny. Before winter break, we had one “preview” week of the classes we’d get in the spring. That’s when it happened—he walked into my history class (a class I usually dreaded) and I suddenly had never been more excited for history in my life. We had only met earlier that day, but he walked right up to me and said, “Ashley, where do you think I should sit?” I played it cool—“Wherever you want”—and, of course, he sat right next to me. From that moment on, history was… well, history. I don’t think I ever listened to that teacher again. We had weekly vocabulary quizzes, and Alex would try to cheat off me, but even with my crush on him, I wasn’t about to make it that easy. If he wanted to be with me, he’d have to put in the effort. I looked forward to no other class like I looked forward to history. We joked around every single day until one afternoon, Alex finally asked me out—to the movies. My friends teased him for picking a date where you can’t really talk, but I loved the movies. It quickly became our thing—we went more than most people probably go in their entire lives. Not long after, he asked me to be his girlfriend… over text. (Yes, over text.) Which meant he had a lot to make up for when the time came to propose. And let’s just say… he more than made up for it.

I met Ash for the first time in December, in our Early American History class. It was the first day of our new schedule, and I was running late as usual. When I walked in, I spotted a seat next to her. Honestly, I didn’t think they made girls that short. She was hunched over a notebook, scribbling away, and when I asked her where I should sit, she looked up and smiled. “Wherever you want,” she said, like it was no big deal. So, I sat down next to her, and I couldn’t help but think—school had started in August, and it was already December, and somehow we hadn’t crossed paths until now. The rest of the class was a blur, but something about that moment stuck with me. It wasn’t long before we started talking more, and it’s funny how you can go through months of school without really noticing someone, and then suddenly, you can’t imagine a day without them.