Welcome to North Shore High

Makeover

"I'm not saying that I want to completely change who you are, I just things you can spice things up every once in a while." Damian shoved a pile of clothes at me to try on, "Was that mean?"

It felt like one of those makeover montages in chick flicks. You know, where it's just a bunch of clips of the main girl walking out of the dressing room and the friends keep saying no until the end. Then she walks out in this stunning outfit and the next day she walks down the hallway in slow motion, everyone staring at her. Yeah, that's not me.

"I feel like a sausage," I yelled from the dressing room.

"But you're a cute sausage," Damian yelled back.

I stared at myself in the mirror. I wore a denim skirt and a black, v-neck bodysuit with spaghetti straps and flowers embroidered along the neckline. I couldn't stop staring at myself, my imperfections. I hated how I looked. A knock on the door startled me out of my daze.

"Hey, are you okay in there?" It was Janis. "Can I come in?"

"Um... yeah, sure." I just then noticed that I was crying. I quickly wiped my eyes at she entered the room. Immediately, she could tell something was up.

"Hey," she said, calmingly. I had never heard her sound like this, "What's wrong?" It felt like something inside of me had burst. I broke down, again. She pulled me into a hug. 

"I'm sorry, I don't know why I'm emotional over this," she stroked my hair. 

"It's okay," she pulled away to wipe my eyes. Then she cleared a spot on the bench for both of us to sit. "Talk to me."

"I just can't help but see everything that's wrong with me," I said, looking down at my lap. "I hate being able to see my body so well." She rubbed my back.

"How about we don't buy any new clothes and get you home instead?"

"Yeah... maybe," I looked at her. "It might not hurt to buy these, just in case." I smiled. She raised an eyebrow and smiled back.

"'Just in case'?"

"Yeah," I said, looking away and laughing a little.

So I did. As I hung it in my closet, I toyed with the idea of wearing it to school. 

A few days later, I decided to do just that. I got up a little bit earlier to do some makeup. As I stared at myself in the mirror, I decided to grab a sweatshirt. I figured I can put it on if I get too self-concious.

Walking to school, I saw Marwan not too far ahead of me and decided to catch up to him. 

"Boo!" He flinched, but tried his best to not seem scared. If he noticed my outfit was different, he didn't say anything.

"Hey cutie, what's up?"

"Hey! Who are you calling cute?" I narrowed my eyes at him. "I am NOT cute."

"Sorry," he said looking at me, "Hey... I don't wanna call you ugly. Uh... Hey... person?" I burst out into laughter.

"Person? That's what you decide on?" As we walked the rest of the way to school, I continued to tease him about "Hey person."

I sat down in math class, unpacking my notebook and pencil pouch. I looked up and said hi to Aaron when he sat down.

"You look nice today," he said, smiling. I blushed.

"Oh, thanks!"

Later that day, Tyler and I were walking to lunch.

"So, what did Aaron want?"

"Oh, nothing. He just said I looked nice." We walked on in an almost awkward silence.

"Hey, do you mind if I grab something from my locker real quick?" I shrugged and we stopped at Ty's locker. "Um... so. I was wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime?"

"I mean... we're hanging out today after school, right? Aren't we going to Marwan's house?" He looked down.

"Uh, yeah. I just meant like, do you wanna hang out sometime... just us?" His face turned red. "I was thinking maybe we could go to an arcade or something."

"Oh! Um..." My heart started beating really fast.

"It's okay if you don't. I was jus-"

"Yeah, I'd love to." I smiled up at him.

"Cool, it's a date." He beamed at me, shutting his locker. Date.

"Wait didn't you need something from there?" I asked, pointing at the locker.

"Oh, no. I just said that to ask you out." I bumped him with my shoulder and started walking away before he could bump me back.

"Evans, get back here!" He yelled, running after me.