I slammed my locker door closed in frustration, so hard that my mirror inside fell. My class had just received our scores on our recently taken math test, and in my mind, an eighty-seven percent, my grade, was not acceptable. I was sure my parents wouldn’t be elated at that grade either.
“I’m in over my head”,I thought to myself as I walked down to the café for lunch.
This year I was taking as many advanced classes as I could; Acc. Math, Earth Science, English 9, Global, and lastly R1 French. Did I mention that I’m only in eighth grade? Plus, I’m involved in so many extra-curricular activities, such as, band, chorus, jazz ensemble, Math and Science Olympiad, I’m an editor of my school’s literary anthology, The Summit, and I have a one hour flute lesson every Monday after-school. I have absolutely no free time on my hands, in school or at home.
As I turned the corner, still lamenting, and looked up, I saw my best friends Ciara and Rei standing at Rei’s locker. Ciara, or Cia as we like to call her, was waiting for Rei to put away her Math stuff so they could walk to lunch together like they did everyday.
Just as Rei was finishing, she looked up and saw me.
“Liz!”, she called, “C’mere!”
I hurried over to wait with Cia, so we could all walk together. Rei quickly grabbed her notebook, a pencil, and a book, then slammed her locker. After lunch was her free period and she preferred not to come back to her locker after lunch, but rather go straight to her classroom. She said that it gave her the most amount of time to work on her story.
When we started to walk and Rei brought up the inevitable question about the upcoming dance.
“So”, she started, “who are you going with?”
“Nobody yet-but I’m really hoping Alex asks me!”, I replied.
“We turned the corner and walked into the café. As we walked to our table, we looked around, trying to look as cute as possible, and laughing, so that every girl in the room wished that they were with us.
Rei and I had brought our lunches from home, so we walked over to our usual lunch table, and joined up with some of our other friends, Sarah, Maddy, Shannon, Kelly, Katie, and Amanda. We sat down and started to talk and eat.
About five minutes later Cia came over with her lunch and sat down next to me. She picked up her grilled chicken sandwich and bit into it.
“Ewwww!”, she squealed, “they put tomato on it again! I specifically asked for NO tomato! Great, now I have to throw this away.” She said as she got up and threw out her sandwich.
“Hey, guess who’s staring at ya’ Liz.” Rei taunted.
“Hmmm, let me think for just one second-him?! I replied quickly, willing myself not to stare right back.
“Well, why don’t you smile back at him?” Rei asked.
“Because, that’s just not who I am.” I told her, “I’m not like you-I can’t randomly go up to him and start flirting with him out of nowhere. Trust me, if I could I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you right now.”
“You just need to become more outgoing and spontaneous-like moi!”
“The problem is, I don’t know how to do that.” I said. I truly didn’t have the slightest clue about how to start.
“Just follow my lead for a few days, and do what I do”
“This isn’t going to turn into a Rei-flirt-with-Alex-in-front-of-her-BFF-fest is it?”
“No, I promise”, she said, with a little too much sincerity.
“You promise?”
“Yes!“
“Okay fine, pinkies”, I sighed, “just to be sure.”
At that exact moment the bell rang, signaling the end of our lunch period. I stood up, along with the rest of my friends, and walked out of the café.
“Okay!”, Rei shouted to me over the deafening hum of a thousand different conversations going on at once, “Step one is simply talking to him. So, follow me and jump into the conversation when you want to.”
“‘Kay…” I replied, as I tagged along behind her, as she weaved through the crowd in search of Alex and his friends. When she finally found him, she struck up a conversation about the test that Mr. Roberts had given them in science earlier that morning.
While she was talking, all I could do was stare at Alex. He was wearing an American Eagle sweater with gray and white stripes on it, along with jeans. His shaggy, dark brown hair fell into his perfect deep blue eyes, and curled out slightly at the ends. He was drop-dead gorgeous.
“Every so often he would glance at me, and I would get lost in his deep blue eyes.
“Smile, Lizi, smile.“, my mind screamed so loudly, I thought Alex might hear it.
I forced myself to smile and looked on as they compared their answers to different questions.
I didn’t want to “jump in” like Rei had suggested because I didn’t have Mr. Roberts for Science therefore, I hadn’t taken that test and I wouldn’t have anything intelligent to say.
When Alex and Rei finished talking, and Alex went to his locker, I trailed after Rei, as she walked towards her study hall.
“Why the heck didn’t you say anything to him?!” she asked, frustrated.
“Because, I’m not in your class, so it would be way too obvious for me to go up to him and randomly start talking to him about a test that I didn’t even take.
“So? That’s why it’s called flirting!”, she shot back at me.
“Maybe, but when I talk to him, if that ever happens, I want to sound smart.”
“Why smart?,” Rei asked, “You know, not all guys are into smart girls.
She made air quotes as she said smart.
“Well I certainly don’t wanna look like an idiot! Anyways, I have to go, otherwise I’m gonna be late for art.
“Okay, see ya’” Rei called as I sped around the corner to my next class.