1000 Paper Cranes

Chapter 4 - 957

"She was going to what?" I asked, incredulous. Joanna was driving me home. She had just explained that Robin had not meant to join our study group at all.

"She has a higher grade than you do, Einstein. Why would she want to take Calc from you?" She laughed, reaching to turn the radio louder. Her favorite song had come on.

"She wanted to ask me on a date?" I asked aloud, baffled. "I thought guys were supposed to ask girls out."

"Yeah, so did we!" Jo yelled over the pop star on the radio. "But since you took forever, I encouraged her to pursue you. And, well, it almost worked."

I pondered this for a moment. Robin had wanted to ask me out. A date? I was eighteen and I'd never been on a date. I wouldn't even know how to date. I wouldn't even know what to do on a date!

"How do I fix this? I might want to do this whole dating thing. I've liked her forever, Jo. I need your help." I conceded, at last.

For a moment, I saw a devilish glint in her eyes. She had a scheme. Jo always had a scheme.

"I tried to tell Robin how dumb you really are," Joanna said nonchalantly. "She didn't believe me, just kept telling me how smart and dreamy you are. Okay, maybe 'dreamy' wasn't the adjective she used, but you get the idea."

She put on her blinker and turned the opposite direction of my house.

"Um. Jo? Where're we going?" I asked worried that she may have gone crazy.

"You asked for my help. It's my opinion that your clothes suck. I'm staging a Robin-tervention." She smirked.

"How long have you been waiting to use that?" I rolled my eyes.

An hour later, Jo and I were at the register, my arms loaded with new clothes. She had also found two new pairs of shoes for me. Apparently, my well-worn high tops were considered ratty and disgusting.

"Jo, I can't afford all of this; we're going to have to cull some of it down. I spent my allowance on video games." I said around the heap in my arms.

"Don't worry, I've got dad's credit card." Joanna flashed a smile as she dug around in her bag and retrieved the shiny, plastic, no-limit card.

"That's for—"

"'Emergencies only.'" She cut me off. "I know. But listen. A girl tried to ask you out and you offered to tutor her in calculus. My dad will understand. Besides, he thinks you're in love with me. If I tell him it was so you could ask out Robin Chiang, he'd be over the moon."

It was true. It's not that Mr. Johnson hated me. He thought I was a "fine young man," he often said so. He just thought I wasn't right for his daughter. And I totally agreed.

Joanna loaded our finds onto the counter and swiped her credit card.

"Next stop, a haircut." She announced.

"What's wrong with my hair?" I demanded. I was quite fond of my messy, shaggy, wavy hair.

"Nothing. If you're an Irish Wolfhound."

So another hour passed and at the end, I had short hair like the prep boys on the covers of the teen magazines. I felt naked and my glasses didn't fit right anymore. They felt crooked and threatened to fall off my face if I looked down too quickly. I wasn't sure that I liked my new look too much. Except that I actually really did.

"Remind me why I just pulled a Grease and changed my look?" I asked still surveying myself in the mirror.

"You're less like Sandy D and more like Cinderella." Joanna joked. "And I am your fairy godmother. You asked for help, so here I am."

That night after I finished my homework, I reflected on the crazy day. In my four years of high school, that had been the most eventful day I had had. Maybe Joanna and Jonathan had been right. It was time for me to stop hiding.

I smiled, folding my last crane for the day. Number 957. I wrote ask Robin out on it and hung it, along with the other ones I had folded that day, on the curtain of cranes I had created since the previous summer.