I am Kylie, and I have Aquagenic Urticaria, which is an allergy to water. The minute it touches my skin, it blisters. Water is like acid as it touches me. I can drink water. However, I always wondered what it would be like to touch the ocean and feel the waves splash up on my body, to wear a bikini and not feel threatened to go into the water, or to enjoy a walk in the rain and kiss a cute guy like I have seen in The Notebook. That's a dream I have that will never come true.

I was teased at school because I wore a brown pair of waders. I did not want to have my skin get blistered. I felt like a victim, my teachers did not know about my condition because my mom did not think it was any of their business. Not to mention I only got close with two teachers. Mrs.S and Mrs.Greene who I would always tell that I'm gonna be famous. They knew right from the beginning. I was always reading and always smiling, singing and being super happy, but they said "one day you're going to change the world" and I believed it. The only people that knew about my condition were my mom and my friend, Marissa . Marissa was the greatest friend I could possibly ever have because she came to my defense when a couple of girls, Neisha and Leah, gave me the nickname of Fraidy Wady. I always tried to avoid water and I always carried hand sanitizer ever since then. However, after an incident in third grade I was taken out of public school.

So, you may be wondering how I am pursuing my education. Well, I am homeschooled and I took a lot of art classes because I had a passion for both art and poetry. I loved to paint the sky, the white overlapping the blue sky with shading in the clouds or the sun beaming through the clouds. I also loved to paint the different colors of horizons, the green and blues of oceans, and imagine in my head as if I was there. I won't ever touch water it is forbidden for me to do so. I even wrote poems about it. however, I've been writing poems about the neighbor boy because recently, I have felt that my heart was someplace else. I just recently realized that all this time I had feelings for the neighbor-boy. I tend to shy away from love, but I only felt this one other time. I was in 3rd grade. I remembered this boy and I knew I had only met him once. Marissa and I were outside laying in the grass, rolling in the grass and playing by the swings picking dandelions during recess and he was playing soccer since he was the champ and he made sure I knew that. He accidentally kicked a soccer ball at my head. It hurt but I'm glad that happened because it gave me a chance to meet him. He introduced himself, high-fived me and gave me a hug. It was just an innocent little crush I had on him, and it felt different than anybody else before. I felt so happy because I never felt emotions like that, until now. I told Marissa about it and my face turned bright red. Marissa playfully teased me about it for the longest time, until I was taken out of public school. The sad thing was that he did not know what happened to me in third grade. We were best friends in 5 minutes and then I was gone, I guess that's how it works when you are younger. I am sure he made new friends after me, but I do not think he realized that I was taken out of school.

My mom is a stay-at-home mom as well as a substitute teacher because it gives her an option if she needs extra money. The good thing is since 3rd grade, I have not had to wear waders anymore, at least in public I tend to wear overalls. My mom also gets discounts from the school so that I can go to art classes at school, but it's awesome because if I want to miss a few days it's no big deal because my mom talked to the school. However since she's a substitute sometimes she calls in sick because she wants to be here when I am sick in result of malnutrition. Everybody always called her Mrs.Smith and sometimes when I was ahead in my schoolwork I would go with her and sit in her class even though nobody knew who I was. I would stare out the window and just watch the sun beam. My mom would never let me go outside if there was a 10% chance of rain, so I guess it is a good thing I live in Nevada where we get an average of 9.5 inches a year. Yesterday it was raining so hard, but it was so humid. I went to my window and I saw a basketball flying in the air. I got to the window in time that I saw the neighbor score a basket. He was playing basketball with his friends. He had the most incredible brown hair and brown eyes that changed color sometimes and he was tall. The sweat was dripping down his forehead and stained his clothes and right now he was leading by 5 points because he was the best at sports as far as I heard. I was always hearing gossip about him in my art class because he never showed up until I changed to a different art class. He played every sport that the school offered as long as they did not overlap them, but his big passion was basketball. My mom always knew I liked him, but also never introduced me to him. She always told me his name was Liam. It was amazing when my mom was having a debate in class whether or not Vince Van Gogh was famous or if he was infamous. I interrupted, "Vince Van Gogh is an amazing artist now but not back then, kind of like Leonardo Da Vinci".

"Really, do you think he was famous?" interrupted the man in front of me.

"He was not at the time but now his paintings sell for millions."

"Interesting".

He then introduced himself, "Hi, I am Lee".

"I swear he said his name was Lee", I thought to myself.

"H....Hi, I am Kylie".

"Wait Kylie Smith?" He questioned.

"Yes" I replied.

"It is me, you know Liam? We were best friends in like third grade?"

"Oh..." I smiled.

"Hi, Lee".

"Wow, it is great to see you Kylie I never thought I would see you again!"

"Yes you too Lee".

My mom then interrupted us and said,

"You guys can talk more after class, ok? I have to go to the grocery store anyways after school".

"Mom, he lives right next door," I replied.

Lee turned and him and my mom both said "Really?"

"Yes, you were playing basketball with your buddies yesterday."

"Oh, well I guess I will talk to you later then?"

"Ok".

When I got home I ran to the bathroom and put a little mascara on, but nothing too glamorous. I also went to my room and put on a cute shirt and blue jeans before I ran outside and met up with him.

"Hey". He smiled.

"Hey".

"So, where have you been all this time?" He questioned.

"Well, I was taken out of school at the age of 8 and I am homeschooled now".

"so why are you in art class with Mrs.Smith?"

"oh, it's only cause my true passion is art!"

"oh"

"yea"

"Wow, all this time you have been my neighbor? How come I have never seen you outside?" He said as he shrugged his shoulders

"Well my mom likes to have me inside most of the time because she does not like me being outside a lot."

I was debating telling him, but I did not want him thinking I had a disease and I was contagious, so I did not say anything.

"Oh, well it is great to see you!, Will I see you tomorrow?"

"I do not know, I have got a lot of studying to do I gotta go, but you can text me, here is my number."

I get a text while studying "hey, wyd."

"Studying, hbu?"

"Oh, playing video games!"

"Really?"

"Yes, I really like them, do u play video games?"

"Well I used to, but not anymore!" I sent along with a sad emoticon

"Why?"

"Well, I always got bad grades, and I felt school was more important than that!"

"Well, how about sports?"

"I mean I like sports!"

"What type?"

"Basketball,disc golfing, soccer and football" replied Kylie.

"WAIT U LIKE BASKETBALL? ME TOO!!! I am the champ" Lee texted excitedly along with 3 exclamation points

"Lol".

"Well maybe sometime u should get out here and we can play a game?"

"Only if your friends and my mom are ok with it."

"Okay."

I ran downstairs to see if my mom was there. She was not, so I ran to the kitchen where she was cooking hamburgers.

"Hey mom is it ok if I go outside and play basketball with Lee?"

"Only if you finished your studies, did you?"

"I only have to finish the last chapter about Newton's law, please?"

"Okay fine, but, you have to wear sunscreen".

"Thanks mom!"

"I'm just trying to protect you!"

"I know" I said exasperatingly

I texted Lee

"hey, up for a game?"

"right now?"

"yeah, my mom said it was fine!"

"ok, yeah. Let me call up my buddies!"

I ran outside and went by Lee's house where the basketball hoops were. I did not see him. He was probably inside changing into a jersey, or maybe was standing me up. I started shooting hoops hoping he would come outside and he came out in his Horace Grant number 54 jersey. He walked up on the court and flushed his mouth with water. He placed his water bottle down and said

"Are we going to do this?"

I replied, " I do not have a jersey"

He said "I will be right back".

He came out with an Allen Iverson number 3 jersey.

"Here put this on!"

I smiled and blushed "thanks".

"No problem, so what do you know about basketball?"

"I know horse!" I replied

"where's your buddies?" I questioned

"Oh I forgot but , that is a really good game, but we can play Lightning, if you let me call up my buddies!"

"Okay that sounds like fun".

Lee called his friends Drake, Aaron, Matt, but Lionel was too busy to play. He was working on his running, not to mention he lived 20 miles away.

"heyyy Lee" said Aaron.

"Lee" said Drake.

"So who is this chick?" asked Aaron.

"She is the neighbor girl Kylie" replied Lee.

"Well let us play!" said Drake.

"Girls first" said Lee.

"No, let us shoot for it, first shot shoots first and so on".

I shot the first shot and made it in. Everybody looked at me in amazement because my form was perfect and they didn't think a girl could shoot. Lee shot it and made it even though he jumped kind of weird when he shot. Aaron and Drake shot, and they both missed. So, Lee and I decided that they should do a round 1 of lightning by themselves. Drake shot his basketball but he missed it because Aaron took his basketball and threw it knocking Drake's ball out of the hoop backwards. Lee and I just sat there laughing until Drake finally made it once more than Aaron. We continued laughing and the worst part and best part was the butterflies. Then finally, we all decided we wanted to do a 2 on 2 game. It was me and Aaron against Drake and Lee. Of course, I defended Lee because I liked him. He smiled back at me. I almost grabbed the ball from him and I even touched his sweaty veiny biceps on accident. I could not believe the feeling I got and that the feeling distracted me so much that my heart pounded. Then, it was Aaron and I's ball now. I took the ball and I dribbled to the hoop. Lee was all up in my face and even touched my hand until I said it was not fair because he was so much bigger than me. He laughed and said it was cute when I was bossy. He gave me a grin that made my cheeks turn as red as rudolph's nose. When we got the ball I passed it to Aaron to try and make a lay up and it went around the rim, and back out. I caught it and threw it back at Aaron, and he caught it and made a basket. But we were still losing. Aaron made the three-pointer shot. Lee made a retaliation as I saw him make a 360-spin layup. Obviously we won.

"Wow that was one hell of a game". said Aaron.

"Kylie, how are you so good at basketball tricks" asked Lee.

"Well, I have seen you play basketball a few times!"

"Oh" Lee blushed.

"well I should probably go inside it's nearly dusk and I have some homework to do"

Drake and Aaron told Lee that they had to go because they had to go to a party, right after that. They always go to parties. They invited Lee and I to go but I said no and so did he. After Drake and Aaron left, I went up to my room and finished my final chapter about Newton's law.


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