if you really knew Lola J,

i know that this post is due at 12:00 tonight but i've never liked sundays.

or attention

and i think that's the real reason i'm grateful i could sleep in paris for so long.

because every morning when i wake up for school,

i feel like a face without a name.

i get marked absent by teachers who don't see me,

teachers who couldn't tell you my name to save their life,

but maybe its my fault.

maybe it's because those teachers know I'm only taking their class for the credit,

maybe they know that the only reason i actually try is for the regent's scholarship,

maybe they know i couldn't care less.

but i could tell you their name.

and i'll tell you right now,

mr. nelson is 1/8th of the 1/4th that actually care.

when i stepped into his classroom,

he saw me.

i might've started out as a face without a name,

but i quickly turned into a name without a face

to my classmates.

he gave me my crayons back,

so i decided to take them to paris.

first day in paris

i walked those stoney streets

and it felt so good not to be alone.

when i saw the eiffel tower overlooking the darkly tinted city of love,

i finally felt a sense of unity 

a sense of belonging

a sense of "what-ifs?" and a conclusion of "who cares?"

because Lola J. wasn't the only one without a face to the name

and she felt like she could finally be herself 

in a class full of diversity.

everyone was writing with their crayons that wouldn't erase

no one was ashamed

and no one should be

 because really,

why be afraid of paris?

so here it is,

crayons that will never erase:

if you really knew Lola J,

you'd know that she stays up too late and wakes up too early. 

you'd know that she prefers her cereal with bananas,

you'd know that she visits her grandparents every sunday.

you might know her as the girl who chews cinnamon gum,

or the one who never has a pencil.

the one who was too shy to talk to anyone in the 9th grade,

and still gets scared to say hi to people in the hall. 

if you really knew her,

you'd know that she likes a good comedy,

and enjoys a good dance party.

you'd know that her favorite color is pink

you'd know that she loves calling people by their nicknames.

you might know her as the tennis player,

or the girl who lives on the corner.

the one who really hates school,

and usually just shows up for creative writing and ap calculus.

if you really knew her,

you'd know that her grandma's cousin was named Lola Jeppson,

you'd know that Lola was her sunday school teacher,

you'd know that she misses everything about her.

if you took the chance of really getting to know Lola J,

you'd know that she was

Bailey Andrus