Dream of the Polish Turtle

Most girls who have been through grade nine remember those secret crushes they had on the senior boys.

It would be that boy that did not even know you existed, had never even looked your way, but he had caught your eye, and the eye of all of your girlfriends. He became the hottest topic of conversation, hours spent giggling and daydreaming over what it would be like if he could just notice one of you. How amazing it would be if one of you became his girlfriend.

For my group of girlfriends, Sara, Emma and I, that boy was Brett.

Brett was in grade 12. He was one of the coolest guys in the school, with long flowing brown hair, tanned skin and gorgeous eyes. He was always surrounded by a group of people, laughing and carrying on. We were infatuated.

He was the topic of so many of the notes we passed between us

"So ah, what's new? See Brett today? He looks absolutely gorgeous today! He's wearing his jeans and this blue & white striped shirt. MAJOR gorgeous babe!"

"Saw Brett out at smokers today, with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth! GORGEOUS!"

We had even started talking like him, adapting his favourite phrase "So Ah...." in to our everyday conversation.

I don't know who it was that started the turtle thing, but one of us had had a dream about Brett and turtles. Something about him swimming in a Mr. Turtle pool?

Well at barely 14 years old, we thought this was the funniest thing. It wasn't long before we were sharing stories about Turtle dreams, and finding coincidences between Brett and turtles all over.

"Oh My God! Did you see, Brett is wearing green today...turtle colour!"

"I swear, I saw Brett eating Turtles at lunch"

We no longer used his name, we just called him Turtle. We collected turtles, drew turtles, even considered anonymously sending a box of turtles to him.

I even had a boy that liked me give me a turtle candle as a present. He heard I liked Turtles and thought he was going to impress me. Poor guy, he had no clue. We ceremoniously burnt the candle, while talking about Brett.

We followed him home, wrote him anonymous notes, studied his school schedule, and staked out his locker. Total stalking behaviour.

I don't know if he ever caught on, but we really were nuts.

Eventually, our infatuation wore off, and we moved onto other things. Brett graduated from high school, and soon we had real boyfriends, not ones that were out of our reach. Occasionally one of us would bring up turtles, and we'd have a laugh, but I don't think we ever had a crush like that on anyone ever again.

But I am quite sure, at least I know for me it is true, that to this date, any time Sara, Emma or I see a turtle, for a moment we think back to that time and smile.