The Z's of High School

Chapter 3

As my head hit the pillow that night, I mulled the plans Jana and I had worked out over and over in my head. As the seconds ticked on, I felt myself falling deeper and deeper into soothing, dark blackness.

The next thing I knew, it was six a.m. and my alarm clock was noisily buzzing near my ear. I reached my hand up, with my eyes squeezed shut, and fumbled for the "off" button.
My hand slammed so hard onto it that I thought it would break right then and there. I sat on my back in bed for a few moments, my hands rubbing my eyes tiredly, and finally sucked in a breath and sat up.

I trudged downstairs in a haze, missing the last step and tripping. I landed on the wooden floor with a loud thump, feeling sore all over.

I groaned and got, up shuffling to the kitchen where I opened the cabinet and pulled out a cereal bowl. I banged it forcefully onto the table and proceeded to eating my cereal.

Once I had fully prepared for school, as in lazily brushing my teeth and pulling on a pair of faded denim shorts and a Nirvana tank that my mom had gotten me a few years back, I called out a goodbye to my mom and walked to school as a cool breeze broke the humid air.

I arrived at school ten minutes early as usual, and met Jana by our spot. Our spot was an absolutely ginormous tree with soft green leaves and a rough, wide trunk. We would always climb onto the stable parts shooting out, and just sit there and talk until the bell rang.

As usual, Jana had beat me there and was swinging her legs back and forth as she sat on a large piece of the tree, rubbing a leaf between her fingers.

Jana was a tall, skinny girl with light-brown hair and chocolate brown eyes that complimented her somewhat pale complexion. She and I had been friends for as long as I can remember, and we'd never since parted.

"Alright, down to business," Jana said in a serious tone as I approached, patting the space next to her on the tree branch.

I climbed up to where she was sitting, feeling the rough tree bark scrape my hands, yet not causing any serious damage, and plopped myself down next to her.

"Yes, ma'am," I replied, turning to face her so that I was straddling the branch.

"So... Jonah says he won't kiss you until the time is right... our goal is to make him kiss, because, let's face it, we all know that Jonah doesn't have the guts to actually kiss you," Jana laughed as I glared at her as a joke.

"So," Jana continued, "today we put into action Plan A. You flirt with Jonah... he won't be able to resist." Jana winked at me playfully and I punched her lightly in the arm.

"Okay... so how would I do that?" I asked her. Her jaw dropped open at my response, for what reason, I had no idea.

"You've never flirted with a guy before?" Jana exclaimed, eyes wide with disbelief.

"Not really... maybe a cute smile every now and then, but not really..." I said, now ashamed. Was I supposed to flirt a lot?

"All hope is lost," Jana groaned, throwing her arms up in the air. They hit her legs with a slap as she rested her head against my shoulder. "I guess I'm going to have to teach you how to flirt, huh?"

I bit my lip. Why did I feel she would go overboard with teaching me? Oh, right, because I knew my best friend so well.

"Just a quick lesson. It doesn't have to be too thorough... just a few tips," I said, before she could jump into a whole rant about my flirtation skills.

"Ugh, fine. But you're going to regret not letting me give you flirting sessions." she huffed. "So... boys like it when you smile at them, so good for you. Your smile is one of your most important features when it comes to a guy... a good smile is key. Other than that, you need to learn how to wink."

I scrunched up my nose at this. Winking at a guy seemed like I was coming on too strong...

Even though I could be quite girly at times, I was half tomboy as well. The thought learning how to wink at a guy seemed way too girly for my liking. But if this would help me with my Jonah problems, I'd be willing to learn how.

When I didn't protest, Jana continued.

"So," she said, straightening her posture. "Your wink is best with your strong eye. Which one is your strong eye?"

"Huh?" I said, raising an eyebrow at her question. "My strong eye?"

"Your strong eye. Where if you wink with it, it's easy to hold it closed. Basically, you don't have to strain to wink. If you have to strain, that's your weak eye." Jana explained, as if this cleared things up.

"Still not following," I said. I felt pretty stupid that I couldn't follow something that was apparently so simple.

"See, this is my strong eye," she said, winking with her right eye. "See how it isn't twitching?"

"Sure, let's go with that," I said. Jana rolled her eyes at my reply.

"There is no hope for you. Alright, see how my left eye is twitching? It's because it's not my strong eye." Jana said, winking with her left eye this time. It, just like she'd pointed out, was in fact twitching a bit. More like a fluttering kind of movement, up and down very quickly. "Now you try. What's your strong eye?"

I eyed her skeptically, but then tried it out. I winked with my left eye, but that turned out to be the twitchy eye.

"Oh, crap, what if both your eyes are twitchy eyes?!" Jana exclaimed frantically.

Then I tried winking with my right eye, which apparently was a success. It didn't feel like it was fluttering, and Jana's miserable look turned into one of pride, a large beam spreading across her face.

"That's the one. Your right eye is now officially your winking eye," Jana said quite enthusiastically, clapping her hands as she bounced up and down on the tree branch.

"Yay," I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes at my hilarious best friend.

She gave me a playful glare, and then returned to her bubbly demeanor. "So, like I said before, today we will put into action Plan A. You're gonna flirt with Jonah... and winking at him is the perfect way..."