Evolving

Grade Seven

Shayle was in high spirits one Monday morning. The prior weekend, her dad took her to the mall to pick up some new clothes from any store she wanted. She wasn't a girl known for her fashion sense. In fact, she considered herself to be one without any sense of fashion at all, but that particular day at the mall was different. She wanted to put an effort into her style for once. For all the wrong reasons.

Jeremy was shoving books into his locker when Shayle joined him. She put on her most innocent smile and flipped her hair into place.

"Hey Jeremy," she said. "Do you know where room 304 is? I have to turn in my, um, Winter Dance tickets before this Friday."

He gave her one of his own slow growing smiles. "Hey. Yeah, it's just down the hall."

"Oh really? I guess I missed it," she chuckled. "Man, if I didn't find that room, I probably wouldn't have been able to turn in my ticket to the Winter Dance."

"You're going to the dance?"

"Of course, I am. I mean, it's a dance, why would I miss it?"

"I just thought, you know, with your parents being strict and antisocial and all."

Confused, Shayle asked him, "What? My parents aren't... strict and antisocial, where did you get that from?"

"Oh, Jesse, told me that they–"

"That is all I need to know." She couldn't keep from rolling her eyes. "Jesse is full of it. He's just mad that his parents are vegan and won't allow him to get the Double Double from In and Out Burger."

Jeremy laughed. It was the best sound Shayle had ever heard. It was music.

Shayle flipped her brown hair over her left shoulder once again as she searched for the right words to fill the silence. "But yeah, I'm totally going to the dance."

"That's cool."

"Yeah.... Are you going, too?"

"Yeah I am."

"That's really cool."

"I guess so."

"Yeah. All I have to do now is decide what dress I'm gonna wear."

"Sounds fun."

She laughed.

After a few awkward seconds of Jeremy looking around and Shayle pulling at the hem of her shirt, she realized that the conversation was going nowhere. Jeremy was not going to ask her to the dance with all of her cryptic messages, so she decided on a different tactic.

"I was actually almost not able to go because I had a C in math and, ugh. It was terrible, but I got it up," she said.

"Math? But math is, like, the easiest subject on the planet!" he laughed.

"Maybe for you. I have to work my butt off.... It's always been a weakness of mine."

"Who's your teacher?"

"Mrs. Matthews."

"Oh, I have her, too."

Shayle tried to act surprised. "Really? No way, do you think you can help me out a little?"

"Totally. Maybe during lunch today?"

Score, she thought. "Yeah, wow, thank you so much!"

He smiled at her again. "It's no problem. See you later."

"Bye. See you."

*****

Shayle tried to get through four periods of class work without thinking about her date — she preferred to think of it as a date— with her crush, but for her it was mentally and emotionally impossible. When the bell finally rang, she nearly sprinted to the cafeteria. She got there before anyone else and choose a table far off, but not too far that it became obvious of her motives.