Thinking Outside of the Box

Chap. 4

Chap. 4

Kyla frowned into the mirror and plucked a hair off of her eyebrow. The first school dance was tonight, on Halloween. The day before Kyla’s birthday. Her date was Jorge, the cute guy who lived two blocks away in Mr. Mobley's apartment. She settled for the comb over your shoulder hairstyle that she usually rocked and a light addition of make-up. Kyla applied a thin layer of lip-gloss over her lips and stared at her reflection in the mirror. She was stunned, never had she just observed herself in the mirror to see what all the boys were whistling at. She was beautiful. It wasn’t just something every other boyfriend told her to make her feel better. It was true. Kyla grinned and smoothed out the wrinkles in her denim skirt and her red plaid button down shirt tucked into it. She also was wearing sparkly red heels that matched her red pearly earrings, you could try and guess who she was for Halloween.

“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, Toto,” Her mother’s voice exclaimed edging with a Southern drawl from behind her.

“Mom, that’s my line,” Kyla pointed out, turning around and giving her a long hug.

“Oh, my little baby girl’s growing up!” Maria Santiago’s eyes welled up with tears while Kyla rolled her eyes. It was the expected thing for a parent to say when their child went to a dance.

Liiiiiiiing!

Kyla’s doorbell moaned. The odd sound it made creeped Kyla out every time, even though she had been hearing it for all of her life.

“And here’s Jorge, Mom!” Kyla said grabbing her denim purse that held lip-gloss, candy, money for a cab and her cell phone.

“Ooh! I’ve always loved that boy! I remember that time...” Kyla zoned out from her Mother’s obvious attempt of what she called ‘conversation’. When they made it to the front door the doorbell was ringing the second time.

Liiiiiiiiiiing!

Kyla scowled as her mother opened the door and gave Jorge a huge bone-crushing hug. Kyla shrugged pitifully when Jorge raised an eyebrow at her questioningly. When she let him go Jorge’s face was dark red in comparison to his usually caramel cheeks and his freckles stood out like brown specks of dirt in tomato soup. He fixed his straw hat, which had been leaning somewhat to the side, on his head. Of course Kyla had to do outfit coordination! He too wore a plaid shirt and jeans, looking handsome himself. Kyla smiled at him and he took in her outfit.

“Kyla you look… amazing!”

Kyla thanked him, gave her mother a warning glare then walked out of the house arm-in-arm with Jorge.

“You know, you look very sexy too, Jorge.”

Jorge scoffed, “Right. Says the beautiful girl dressed like Dorothy to the dorky dweeb dressed like a scarecrow with no brain.” 

Kyla laughed. What else was she going to say, it was partially true.

“So, I heard your birthday is tomorrow,” Jorge muttered sheepishly.

She nodded as he took off his straw hat, keeping it in place with his chin, and removed a square shaped brown paper bag wrapped box from the porch. Kyla knew it was too big to be a box of condoms but she still crossed her fingers.

“Here.” He handed it to her and Kyla shook it gaining a laugh from Jorge.

“Go on, open it.”

Kyla would have too, that second, if a huge commotion weren’t being made down the street. She directed her attention to 2 beautiful yet ghetto African-American girls knocking loudly on Ramon’s door, which was 3 houses down, making a loud racket.