So He Said

"Mrs. Ravendalhen said you have to be my friend", he said to the shy girl on his first day of the second grade.
He repeated it in the third grade to get her to pass notes, then the fourth grade when he needed a science partner and the sixth grade when he wanted her to hang out at the snow carnival, and in the eighth grade when he got Debbie Newgate the sophomore knocked up and was too scared tell anyone but her, and by the time he had the shy girl climbing into his bedroom window to write plays instead of cleaning the Lutheran church across the street in the ninth grade or when in he got Debbie pregnant for the second time in their tenth grade year when she kept his baby or finally when the North Stars dropped him for using drugs, and a few times in between and after.