Girl Meets Boy

And suddenly there he was, this tall, quiet boy in a blue and
white shirt . . . I'll always remember the first time I saw him.

Donna is on a boat. She is going to Spain with her

family for a holiday. On the boat she sees Mark, a tall,
good-looking boy. But Mark is very shy and he doesn't
talk to her on the boat. W h o will help them to meet?
Will they be together?

Derek Strange writes books and stories for young

people. He lives in London with his family. He has one
son; his name is Mark. In July 1993, Derek and Mark
went to Spain on a boat for a holiday . . .

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 Dictionary words:

• Some words in this book are dark black. Find them in your
dictionary or try to understand them with no dictionary first.

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 Girl Meets Boy

DEREK STRANGE
Level 1

Series Editors: Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter

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 Addison Wesley Longman Limited
Edinburgh Gate, Harlow,
Essex CM20 2JE, England
and Associated Companies throughout the world.

ISBN 0 582 40111 9

First published by Penguin Books 1995

This edition first published 1998

Text copyright © Derek Strange 1995

Illustrations copyright © Bob Harvey (Pennant Illustration Agency) 1995
All rights reserved

The moral right of the author and of the illustrator has been asserted

Typeset by Datix International Limited, Bungay, Suffolk

Set in 12/14pt Lasercomp Bembo
Printed in Spain by Mateu Cromo, S.A. Pinto (Madrid)

All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored

in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior written permission of the Publishers.

Published by Addison Wesley Longman Limited in association with

Penguin Books Ltd., both companies being subsidiaries of Pearson Plc

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 Donna's story

My story starts in late July. It was July 21st, I think. It

was the first day of our holiday, a hot July day. I stood
in the sun and looked at the sea. It was eleven o'clock
in the morning. I was on the boat at Portsmouth with
my mother and father and my sister, Louise. Sea birds
played near our big boat and the small boats near us on
the sea.

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 I started to look at the people with us on our boat.
They all watched the sea birds and talked and laughed.
They were all happy on the first day of their holiday
too. And suddenly there he was, this tall, quiet boy in
a blue and white shirt: he was really good-
looking. I'll always remember
Wow! He's lovely. the first time I saw him.

Look!

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 He didn't see me then. He was with some friends.
One of the boys was his brother, I think: they had the
same blue eyes, the same mouth and nose, nearly the
same hair. His brother and one of the boys with him
tried to catch the sea birds and he smiled at them. Then
they came and stood near us, and they talked about the
small boats on the sea. I watched him over Louise's
head all the time!

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 His brother and his friends made a lot of noise, but
he was quiet and didn't talk a lot. Then suddenly he
looked at me and his eyes stayed quietly on me . . . and
he smiled his lovely smile with his shy blue eyes.

The people near me on the boat, the sun, the sea,

the birds, the noise of his friends, time - it all stopped.
At that m o m e n t there was only him and me, me and
him. Him and his smile for me. Only the two of us.

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 Slowly, very slowly, the boat started to move away,
across the water to Spain. It takes a day and a night on
the boat from Portsmouth to
Santander, in Spain. A day
and a night together, We'll be on this boat for a
on the same boat with day and a night. Perhaps I can
him . . . talk to him before we arrive
there . . . Perhaps I'll see him
again this evening . . .

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 It was a big new boat with cafes, shops, a cinema
and a disco. In the evening Louise and 1 went to the
disco together. We had a Coke and listened to the
music and watched the dancers. But he wasn't there.
Then suddenly a tall boy in a black and white shirt
came in — it was him! He was with a friend. They
stopped and looked slowly at all the people in the
disco. It was dark in there and he stood and looked for
a long time.

He's looking for me!

He wants to see me!

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 Then he saw me and he smiled a big, friendly smile.
I wanted to stand up and sing and dance . . . dance with
him. He came across the room and stopped near our
table . . . and he asked me to dance!

Do you want to dance?

Suddenly he wasn't shy with me. We danced

together for a long time after that.

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 But then I looked up and there was a second tall boy
in a blue and white shirt at the door of the disco, with
the same eyes and the same mouth and nearly the same
hair.

But the boy near the door had that nice, quiet, shy
face — not a big, open, friendly smile. Suddenly I knew:
this was his brother with me on the dance-floor, not
him! I was with the wrong brother!

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 He stood for a moment near the door and watched
me and his brother on the dance-floor with sad eyes. I
wanted to run to him, to take his sad face in my hands
and say 'sorry'. He looked at me, then he went out
quickly.

I stopped dancing, walked back to my table and sat

down. His brother started to dance with Louise.

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 I didn't sleep that night. I thought about him all the
time, and listened to the noises of the boat and the sea.
In the morning I went to the cafe at eight o'clock and
waited there with my sister for a long time. I wanted to
say 'sorry' to him. I had four cups of coffee, and I don't
really like coffee.
But he didn't come. Where was he? Where was he?

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 At eleven o'clock we arrived in Santander. I wanted
to stop the boat: I wanted to stop the holiday; I wanted
to go back to England. I only wanted to see him again,
to talk to him, to ask his name.
But he wasn't there.

W h e r e are you?
I want to see you again.

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 Mark's story
I started Spanish at school in September and I like it.
W e ' v e got a good teacher - Old Webb. 'Mr Webb,
not Old W e b b , ' my mother always says to me.
'He isn't old, you k n o w . '
Old W e b b - sorry, Mr Webb - always
takes some people from our school to a
place in Spain for the first two weeks of
the holidays, every July. Old Webb is
OK. Not bad, for a teacher.

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 We were at Portsmouth with Old Webb - sorry, Mr
Webb - and Mrs Webb. She's from Argentina; all the
boys think she's good-looking, too. There were six of
us with the Webbs: Harry Potts and his sister Sonia,
Nick Atkins (he's a good friend), Sue Bellamy (she's
clever), my brother Dave and me (we're fourteen and
we're good friends too . . . usually).

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 There were hundreds of people on the boat. It was
hot in the sun, a lovely day. People watched the sea
and the small boats. I liked being in the sun and thinking
about the two weeks holiday in
Spain. Old Webb started
Mmm. She's nice.
one of his stories about
And she's looking at me!
Argentina, but I didn't
listen. I started to look at
the people. And this girl was
there, near me, a really good-

looking girl with nice brown

eyes and black hair.

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 I'm really shy and I'm not very good with girls. I
didn't talk to her then, but I watched her with her
sister and her mother and father. Then they walked
away and she smiled at me for a
moment before they
went. My brother
Hey! She's smiling at
Dave saw her,
you . . . and you re all red
and he laughed
in the face - you're in love!
quietly at my
Hey, man! You're in love!
red face.

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 I wanted to see her again, perhaps in the cafe at
lunch-time, or perhaps in the cinema in the afternoon.
But she wasn't there and I don't remember the film.

In the evening we had a drink with Old Webb and

Lovely Lucrezia (that's our name for Mrs Webb). After
that Dave and Harry went to the disco — they wanted
to meet some girls. I don't like dancing, but I went to
the disco later: I wanted to see her again, the lovely girl
with the dancing brown eyes and the nice smile.

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 It was dark in the disco, and I stood near the door
and watched the dancers. Then I saw her on the dance-
floor . . . and she was with Dave! With my brother,
Dave! She smiled at him, too, a lovely smile.
I didn't want to watch; I walked out. I went and
looked at the sea and thought about things quietly. I
thought about her, her and Dave.

Oh no! She's with Dave!

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 I was up early in the morning, before six o'clock. I
went out again and watched the early morning sun and
the sea. There was only one old man and the sea birds
there with me. The old man smiled at me, but we didn't
talk. I liked being quiet.

I went in and had a coffee in the cafe, but I didn't

want to eat. All the time I wanted to see her. I wanted
her to walk into the cafe and come across to my table
and sit down with me and tell me her name and talk to
me. But she didn't come. I waited and waited, but she
didn't come.

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 At eight o'clock I went to find Nick and Dave.
Dave was very quiet all day, and he was really nice to
me. And I didn't see her again before we arrived in
Santander at eleven.
She wasn't there.
Will she come?

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 The town's story
Comillas is a small town fifty kilometres from
Santander, near the sea. In the town there are quiet
streets of old buildings and there is a small square.
There are small shops and cafes with tables and chairs
in the square, under the trees. A lot of people from
Madrid come to Comillas for their holidays, and a lot of
people from England stay in the town too. In the
evenings in June and July and August people like to
walk in the streets of Comillas. They stop in the
square and stand and talk together; their children
play together. Some people sit at the cafe
tables and have a drink and watch
the children or read their
newspapers or talk.

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 It was disco-night in Comillas on the
evening after the boat arrived in
Santander from Portsmouth. There were a
lot of people in the square — Spanish people
from Comillas and Madrid, but families from England
and France and Germany and Holland too. Some of the
English families from the boat were there now, in
Comillas for a night or two.

25

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 Donna was there with her family, at a table under
some trees. Her eyes were on the dancers . . . but she
didn't see them; the music was in her ears . . . but she
didn't hear it. She didn't want to look or listen or
dance; she didn't want to be there. She only wanted to
see the lovely, shy boy from the boat, perhaps to dance
with him.
I only want to see
him again . . . perhaps
dance with him.

26

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 First Mr and Mrs Webb wanted to go to a little
place near the beach where they always had good fish.
They wanted to have a good time on their first evening
in Spain, and later there was the disco in the square at
Comillas . . .

Let's go and eat at one

of the places down near the
beach. Then we can go to the
disco in the square at
Comillas. OK?
Yeah! Right!

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 Mark didn't want to go. He didn't want to eat or
dance or talk and laugh. He wanted to sit quietly and
think about the good-looking girl on the boat. Where
was she now? But Dave and Harry and Nick and Sue
all wanted him to go . . .
Later that evening he walked into the square at
Comillas with his friends. They found a table at one of
the cafes and they all sat down.

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 Mark looked slowly at the people at the tables near
them . . . Donna looked sadly at the people dancing
and standing in the square . . . then their eyes met.
Time stopped. He was here! She was here!
He smiled at her with his nice blue eyes. She smiled
back at him with her dark brown eyes. Suddenly he
wasn't shy. He stood up and started to walk across to
her . . . she was on her feet. Their hands met. She
wanted to dance now, only with him!

29

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 The others watched and smiled - they all knew.
And Dave? Dave watched and smiled happily. You see
only Dave really knew the story. Only Dave knew his
plan for his brother.
And Donna and Mark started to dance. They were
together.

My plan worked, you see. Mark is

always really shy with girls and I wanted him
to move, to get together with that girl. That's
why I wanted him to see us at the disco . . . to
stop being shy with girls . . . to move!

30

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 Exercises

Vocabulary Work
Look again at the 'Dictionary Words' in this story. Are they nouns
or verbs or adjectives? Write the words and write N (for noun), V
(for verb) or A (for adjective), e.g. story (N), bird (N).
Then write short sentences with the new words.

Comprehension

Answer the questions.

Donna's story
1 (page 5) When was the first day of Donna's holiday?
2 (page 6) Where was she when she first saw Mark?
3 (page 9) How long were Donna and Mark on the boat together?
4 (page 12) Who was on the dance-floor with Donna when she
saw Mark at the door of the disco?
5 (page 15) At what time did the boat arrive in Santander?

Mark's story
6 (page 16) What is Mark's name for his Spanish teacher?
7 page 16) How long was Mark's holiday in Spain?
8 (page 22) What did Mark do when he got up early in the morning?

The town's story

9 (page 24) Where is Comillas?
10 (page 24) What do people do in the square in Comillas in
the evenings in July and August?
11 (page 26) Who wanted Mark to go to the dance in Comillas?
12 (page 30) What was Dave's plan for Mark?

Discussion

1 Are you shy? When and why (or why not)?

Do you like dancing and discos? Why or why not?

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3 What music do you like for dancing? And for listening to quietly?

Writing

1 You are Dave. Write a short letter from Comillas to a friend

back in England (80 words). Tell her/him about Donna and
Mark on the boat.
2 Write 100 words about one of your holidays. Where were you?
Who was with you? What did you do on the first day or two?
Did you make new friends?

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Donna sees Mark on the boat to Spain. She likes him
and he likes her. Then Mark sees Donna dancing with
his brother, Dave . . . Is Donna in love with Mark?
W h y is Dave dancing with her?

Penguin Readers are simplified texts designed in association w i t h

Longman, the w o r l d famous educational publisher, to provide a step-by-
step approach to the joys of reading f o r pleasure. The series includes
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Series Editors: Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter

6 Advanced (3000 words) Contemporary

5 Upper Intermediate (2300 words) Classics
4 Intermediate (1700 words) Originals
3 Pre-lntermediate (1200 words)
2 Elementary (600 words)
I Beginner (300 words) British English
Easystarts (200 words) American English

Cover illustration Richard Jones

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