A Walk to Remember

by Nicholas Sparks

My name is Landon Carter, and I’m seventeen years old. This is my story; I promise to leave nothing out.

I was voted student body president with a fairly large majority of the vote. I had no idea what trouble it would eventually lead me to.

She had a slight smile on her face. “I’d love to,” she finally said, “on one condition.” I steadied myself, hoping it wasn’t something too awful. “Yes?” “You have to promise that you won’t fall in love with me.”

After we said our good-byes, Jamie and I walked in silence without saying anything. I could tell she was sad. The more I hung around Jamie, the more I realized she had lots of different emotions—she wasn’t always cheerful and happy. Believe it or not, that was the first time I recognized that in some ways she was just like the rest of us.

“It is, sometimes. Don’t get me wrong—I love my father with all my heart—but there are times when I wonder what it would have been like to have a mother around. I think she and I would have been able to talk about things in a way that my father and I can’t.” I assumed she was talking about boys. It wasn’t until later that I learned how wrong I was.

“Break a leg?” I said. Wishing someone luck before a play is supposed to be bad luck. That’s why everyone tells you to “break a leg.”

“You’re beautiful,” I finally said to her, and I think everyone in the whole auditorium, from the blue-haired ladies in front to my friends in the back row, knew that I actually meant it. I’d nailed that line for the very first time.

As these images were going through my head, my breathing suddenly went still. I looked at Jamie, then up to the ceiling and around the room, doing my best to keep my composure, then back to Jamie again. She smiled at me and I smiled at her and all I could do was wonder how I’d ever fallen in love with a girl like Jamie Sullivan.