How Rachel and Terry Met

Terry and Rachel met for the first time at the end of summer 2005. Rachel, after spending a school year studying in Dallas, became homesick and moved back home to Houston to attend HBU where Terry was a full-time student. After exchanging e-mails and chatting online for two weeks, they were mutually interested in each other and (finally) met in person at a bible study. They discovered that they had far more in common than they had first imagined, and felt as if they had known each other their whole lives. THE END

Or, dear reader, you can carry on to the more interesting (and accurate) version of the story...

One day as Terry was online updating his online journal, he decided to troll around the Xanga site and see which other HBU students had recently updated their online journals, as he had many friends who did so. As he was scrolling down the list, he saw the profile picture* of a certain girl named "Amarisa" and thought, Oooh, she's cute! So, he clicked on the pic and started reading her public journal.

The two, "Amarisa" (or Rachel) and Terry, began visiting one another's journals, leaving comments. Then they started chatting online, talking about HBU, religion, literature, cooking, China, past experiences, and how Terry--by the picture he had sent Rachel--looked ethnically ambiguous (they thought this was funny). They really enjoyed chatting with each other, and then one day, Rachel mentioned that she was going to a bible study that night at a professor's house. Terry replied nonchalantly that he, too, would be attending the bible study and would see her there. (But recent confessions have revealed that Terry actually had no intention of going until he learned that Rachel was. What a sly dog!)

He did, indeed, see her there. She was shy, and was secretly pleased at how cute he was. They chatted somewhat awkwardly about Terry's new cooking ideas, and during the study, Terry, in a fit of flirtatiousness, untied her double-knotted shoelaces. She blushed and scolded, but liked the attention anyway. After the study was over, they talked a little more, but Terry noticed that one of his old friends was there so went to talk to him. Rachel hung around, hoping that Terry would come back over to talk to her, but he didn't, so she left in a huff.

After that, Terry and Rachel never really went on any official "dates" but rather met up as friends would. They always had something interesting to talk about, and always felt comfortable and free to be open with the other. They were always honest. Not long after they met for the first time at the bible study, the two made their friendship a little more official by becoming boyfriend and girlfriend.