Lewis and Jenny Walker
He runs down the stairs and then he turns right, to the front door. He walks outside the shortest way to the mailbox right through the wet grass, without shoes, just his socks on because he is too lazy to put his shoes on. He thinks it takes too much time and he doesn’t care if his socks get wet or not. He just wants to check the mail as fast as he can, so he can return playing Xbox the new video game GTA5. He is just doing it because his mum applied for a new job, but the company still hasn’t confirmed that they have decided to hire her. Even though they said there’s no way they wouldn’t take her, they said they would send the confirmation containing the new working hours, but that was almost a week ago. She gets more and more worried that she might not get the job.
He opens the mailbox, three letters, but each time it’s not the confirmations, so he says a quiet “No” to himself. “No, no and nope.”
During his short walk back to the house this time he is taking the normal way to the entrance of the house and he looks a little bit closer at each of the letters. The first one is just some advertisement letter about a new pizza service which delivers the pizza directly to you, wherever you are from the internet. He is going to throw this letter immediately into the trash can as soon as he is back in the kitchen. The second letter is from his German teacher, who wants to inform his mum that his grades are way too low. That’s not the only class where he is struggling with because yesterday, his English and Math teacher also told him to show higher effort, if he wants to finish school this year and if he wants to go to college. He doesn’t really care about school right now and he just wants to have fun. He also throws the second letter into the trash can.
When he looks at the last one of the three letters, he is first surprised and he doesn’t know if he should be happy or anything else because he is so confused. The address where it had been sent from is:
Jenny Walker
5207 Sunset Ave
She is one of the most beautiful girls in school and everybody wants to be friends with her.
But he is an average kid. He is a very quiet and more introverted then extroverted person even though he likes to party a lot. His name is Lewis and his friends are not the guys who hang out with girls like Jenny.
The only encounter they had was when he came from a conversation with a teacher. She asked him if he could show her the school office because she was new at the time. Lewis had to say no because he was already late for his doctor’s appointment. Unfortunately he had to leave. He left her alone and felt bad, but he forgot about it very quickly. That’s why he is even more surprised about this letter.
He opens the letter and it is an invite for a “Good Bye – Party” at her house next Saturday. The next week is going to be awkward when he meets Jenny, but it is different.
Everything is like always when his mother drops him off at school: there are way too many cars trying to get a parking spot at the way too small parking lot in front of the school. It’s like trying to get all your video games’ disks in this one little CD slot of the Xbox at the same time, but he got already used to it after almost four years going to this school now. He still doesn’t have his driver’s license yet because he was too lazy. At least he got his permit just a month ago, but his mum told him that she would take him this week. He doesn’t know if it is because she has nothing to do or because she wants to be nice, probably a little of both.
He also hates Mondays like everyone else and worst of all his first period is German. He hates German class. He says that it is not unlike English but unnecessarily made harder and it sounds like a Russian guy sneezing and trying to speak at once.
When he comes into the classroom looking very uninterested, his German teacher Miss Mueller-Berg says nicely “Guten Morgen, Herr Brown!”
He doesn’t even look at her and just rumbles a quiet “Morning” in his jacket.
She keeps talking: “Heute werden wir einen Test schreiben.”
He just hears test and knows already that this is going to be bad, he hasn’t studied at all and he has just been playing Xbox the whole weekend.
She explains the test a bit, this time in English: “It’s just a very short test guys, nothing to worry about. You only have to conjugate the three verbs ‘sein’, ‘haben’ und ‘reden’ (to be, to have, to talk). If you kept attention last week, it will be easy.”
Lewis doesn’t remember anything and just writes the verbs down like he would conjugate them in English:
Ich sein, haben, reden
Du sein, haben, reden
Er/Sie/Es seins, habens, redens
Wir sein, haben, reden
Ihr sein, haben, reden
Sie sein, haben, reden
[these verb conjugations are wrong]
Lewis keeps his test until everybody has submitted their test. Then he gives his test back to the teacher. She looks at his sheet a bit disappointed and shakes her head. She tells him to stay after class.
The rest of this class passes by really slow and Lewis still doesn’t pay attention. After the class, Miss Mueller-Berg waits for everyone to get out of the classroom until Lewis is the only one who is still there.
She starts talking: “What happened to you Lewis? After almost two years of German you still can’t form the main verbs? We went over this last week, I mean …”
“I’m sorry, but I won’t need German ever again. So please don’t worry about me, I know what I’m doing.”
Miss Mueller-Berg answers unimpressed: “Okay, I trust you if you say so.”
“Okay, thank you.” Says Lewis slightly annoyed and walks out of the classroom.
The rest of the day is like always, nothing special happens.
On Tuesday Lewis has a short school day and he doesn’t expect much out of it. During lunch, shortly before his next class begins he sees Jenny and when she walks pass him she smiles at him and he smiles back. After that he feels so happy and he doesn’t even really know what just happened. When he comes home he is excited about the next day and thinks about to might talk to her tomorrow in school.
The next day he is kind of searching for her at lunch, but at the end of school he still hasn’t seen her at all. He guesses she might be sick today, and tells himself you can also talk to her tomorrow.
When he comes back from school he sees his mum sitting in the kitchen crying.
He, of course, asks what happened and she answers: “They didn’t give me that job, now I have to start all over again and we won’t have any money for the next time.”
“What about to ask dad for some money, at least he was your husband until two months ago.” “Yeah I will ask him, but you know your dad he has been an asshole.”
Lewis doesn’t know what more to say and just gives his mum a hug and says: “Everything will be fine!”
On Thursday he tries to talk to Jenny, but he only sees her hanging out with her girl group and some other guys. He doesn’t want to interrupt them.
After school he goes to Safeway and buys a 10$ iTunes gift card in case he goes to Jennie’s party on Saturday. Then right when it was his turn at the checkout, he hears a voice behind him saying something in his direction: “So are you coming to my party Lewis?”
He turns around and it is Jenny with a few of her friends. He answers: “Yeah I’m and I’m excited to come.”
“Okay cool, yeah I’m excited too and I’m happy that you are coming!” She says that with her very nice voice and then she gives him a cute smile when she leaves with her friends.
One of the guys punches him friendly on his shoulder and says “Hey Lewis, you are a cool guy why haven’t I met you earlier?”
“I don’t know man” is Lewis’ quick answer.
“Whatever, alright take care man, see you at the party.”
Lewis is confused and surprised about what just happened and then shouts: “You too!” It’s a little too late because they are already gone, but he is still happy and excited for Saturday.
So on Saturday he dresses up a bit. He bought a nice new shirt. Then around seven o’clock he goes to Jennie’s house. The party is boring for him in the beginning because he doesn’t know a lot of the people there. Then the guy he has met in Safeway the day before shows up and starts talking Lewis: “Hey Lewis, how is it going man? Nice to meet you again!”
Lewis is a bit relieved that he has somebody to talk to now: “Yeah hey man, it is nice meeting you. How was your week?”
“Was good, but I had a lot of homework to do and studying and stuff like that. I am very busy right now. I do not really have time to hang out with friends at the moment. Jenny’s party is an exception because she is going to leave. That is why I had to come.”
Lewis is confused because he thought all these guys would not care about school at all. He also does not want to embarrass himself by saying that he is playing Xbox all the time. He decides to answer in a relaxed tone and that it looks like that he knows what Tom, the guy from Safeway, is talking about: ”Oh actually I have a lot of things to do too, but I do not care about it too much. I just want to relax at the moment.”
“I would prefer that too, but I want to go to a good college man and then you can have more fun. Going to a college is more important right now for me than hanging out with my friends because that is important for my future.”
Lewis is even more surprised that this guy cares so much about his school life and his career. He can’t take any more: “Okay yeah sounds good. Hey see later man. I will get something to drink real quick.”
Tom takes it easy and is already talking to a group of girls next to him.
Lewis thinks about the conversation with Tom for a minute and then he also talks to some other guys, but it’s still not what he expected. The only real reason why he came was Jenny.
After almost two hours finally Jenny shows up and grabs his arm and pulls him upstairs in her room and wants him to sit next to her in her bed. First she apologizes to him: “Hey sorry, that I didn’t show up … I’m soooo sorry!” Lewis answers soothingly: “It’s alright, no worries” Then they talk a little about Lewis’ problems in school and his mum’s job problem. Then they talk about that Jenny has to move soon. Suddenly she kisses him. He is shocked and it becomes warm and cold around him. It feels so comfortable and does not really know what is happening. The tenderness of Jenny’s lips on his make him feel weightless and he is just so happy because he has not dared to dream of that. Then she stops and moves her face a little bit away from his face, so she can look right in his eyes. He still feels as awesome as before. She asks: “Is that alright for you?”
He says: “Yeah uh… sure” and smiles at her and she smiles back. They start kissing again. After sometime Lewis is wondering where after all she is moving and asks: “I don’t even know, where are you moving to? Maybe I can visit u then.”
She smiles and responds: “To Germany.”
When Lewis wakes up the next day he tries to remember and process the things that have happened the last day at Jenny’s party. He remembers that she kissed him and that he liked it. He also still knows that they have been together that whole evening. He tries to remember what they were talking about because all he has experienced yesterday is way too much for him. He just has not expected that she really likes him. Then he realizes that she has to move soon because that all happened at her “Good Bye – Party”. Then a little shock goes through his body and he imagines that all the things that happened yesterday, just happened because it was her “Good Bye – Party”. Maybe it was just a little joke for her or even worse a bet: “Get a looser to your party and kiss him all evening so he thinks you like him and then just leave because he can’t do anything about it.” That’s what Lewis thoughts are and suddenly everything what happened feels even more unreal to him than it already was. He is a little desperate and don’t know what to do.
After about five minutes imagining how wrong the situation could be he got an idea. He looks through his contacts and looks if she has given him her number and she actually did. Lewis feels kind of happy again, but still wants to call her and ask her if everything that happened yesterday was real.
He presses ‘call Jenny Walker’ and now he notices the first time that her name sounds similar to this whiskey ‘Johnny Walker’. The call has started already and Jenny picks up: “Hello, Jenny Walker here?”
Lewis has to laugh a little because it really sounded like the whiskey. Then he says: “Hey Jenny this is Lewis.”
Jenny hasn’t heard it: “Who?”
“It’s Lewis.”
Now Jenny got it and her voice becomes a little more relaxed and nicer: “Oh hey Lewis, sorry couldn’t hear it the first time my mum is vacuuming one more time before we move. So yeah how are you doing?”
Lewis answers understandingly: “No problem, it’s alright. Uhmm I just have a question about yesterday.”
“Okay so what is it?”
Lewis waits a moment and then talks: “Was the kissing and all that stuff yesterday serious or not because, I don’t know, I just haven’t expected all that?”
Jenny sounds a little confused and just says: “Yeah I was serious, I really like you, but if you don’t want to I have to accept that.”
“No no no no no… I like you too! No please, I was just unsure.”
“Haha so then everything is good right?”
“Yeah right.” Lewis smiles to his phone and then realizes that she can’t see it anyways. “Anything else you want to know?”
“Yes, I want to know how do you think it should go on with us because you are going to move in three days to ...uhm wherever. Are we going to stay in touch or should I come visit you or are you going to come back to America some day?”
Jenny laughs at first: “Haha Lewis I told you yesterday that we are going to move to Germany” and then she gets serious: “and your other question would have been my next one. I don’t know. We will live there only for two years because my father has to go there for work and I definitely want to stay in touch with you and if you want you can visit me anytime … hey I really don’t want to, but I have to hang up now I have to help here, I’m sorry”
Lewis can hear her to start crying: “Hey Jenny are you crying?”
Jenny tries to talk with her normal voice and not to sound sad, but it does not work: “Yeah because I really like you and it just started. Now I have to leave and that is so sad.”
Lewis almost starts crying too but he can control himself and tries to sound strong: “Hey, it will be alright. I will come and visit you as soon as possible and I will impress you with my German!”
Jenny sounds a little happier now. She smiles and cries at the same time: “Okay that sounds good! Have to hang up now. I hope we talk soon. I love you. Bye.”
Jenny has hung up already when Lewis tries to say “love you too”. At least he knows their situation between them now. He knows that she is serious, that she will move to Germany in three days and that she will come back in two years, but that’s still a long time to go. He knows also that he can visit her in Germany anytime and he definitely wants to do that.
He might want to impress with his German skills. Then he thinks about his situation in German class and thinks about a goal.
After a few minutes of thinking he tells himself: “If you, Lewis, get an A until the end of the year, you will have your own permission to go to Germany and visit your girlfriend there.”
… A few months later …

Lewis is sitting in his German class and is listening to Miss Mueller-Berg. She is explaining the solutions for the exercises in their final exam, which they wrote a few days ago.
After Miss Mueller-Berg’s explanations, she comes to Lewis with a huge smile on her face and says: “Lewis you got an A- and the best exam in the class! I’m so proud of you!”
Lewis is happy too. Then the bell rings and he waves his German teacher when he walks out of the class.
She waves back and says: “Nicely done Lewis. Have a nice weekend!”
Lewis is proud of himself and also has a smile on his face. Then his phone vibrates for a second. He looks who sent him a message and it is Jenny. The message is: “Hey sweety , how are you doing and how was your exam?”
After reading the message Lewis walks out of the school with an even bigger smile, maybe the biggest smile ever on his face.