Before The Boys Say No Part 11

That made me nervous. I just wanted him to suddenly notice me and strike up a conversation. I didn't like to be pursuing a guy this hard. I mean, it was a lot of work. And I didn't like the work, not one bit.

"So what's new with Dalton?" I asked, taking a seat beside her to watch the runners.

Johanna sighed. "I had to give up. I hadn't thought through my strategy well enough. The cheerleading thing is stumping me."

"Your hair looks good," I told her.

"I'm going back to brown," she replied. "I've chosen Bradley Jones as my date."

"The school president?" I asked incredulously. I had to give it to Johanna. She was setting her sights high.

She smiled. "His profile is a close match to mine already."

"Yeah, but he's dating that new girl."

"Not any more," she sang out. "He's a free guy. But he likes brunettes--and smart girls. He also likes to be with girls that have a certain leadership quality."

"h.e.l.lo," I said loudly, holding out my hands like I was presenting her to a crowd. "President of Honor Society right here."

"That's right," she said with a giggle. "I'm already halfway there."

"At least you don't have to run to get his attention," I sighed. "I'm wondering if all this is worth it."

"Don't give up, Bea. Michael's going to ask you to Winter Formal. Trust me. The formula will work."

I kept repeating her words the following morning when I tried to put the blue contacts in. I hadn't told my parents that I had bought them. I mean, Mom had freaked out so bad over me running, I could just imagine her reaction to seeing me with different color eyes.

I had gotten up an hour early to put the contacts in. It wasn't enough time. My hands trembled so bad that I kept dropping them in the sink, then having to rewash them in the solution stuff the optometrist a.s.sured me I'd need. I still didn't understand why I couldn't just wash them in water from the sink.

By the time I got the contacts in, my eyes were red. We're talking pink eye red. In both eyes. And I was ten minutes late to school with no time to put makeup on. Plus, the blue looked bright--almost scary.

I tried to slink into English cla.s.s, but it was impossible. The door is at the front of the cla.s.sroom. I didn't even look at the students; I just ducked my head and marched to the back where I usually sat. Except someone was sitting at my desk. I looked around frantically. It seemed everyone's eyes were on me. Even Brody's and Michael's eyes. There were two empty seats right in front of Ms. McEnroy's desk. Brody sat behind one. He patted the empty seat in front of him.

Mortified, I made my way back to the front and plopped into the seat in front off Brody. He leaned forward and whispered "hi" to me. Ms. McEnroy just stared at me the whole time, her face showing her displeasure. I tried to give her an apologetic look, but she didn't soften.

I felt the heat rise in my cheeks, and it stayed there throughout the entire cla.s.s. I know everyone had turned their attention back to writing, but sitting in the front of the cla.s.s made me feel like a spectacle.

I was so happy when the bell rang and cla.s.s was over. Brody tapped me on my shoulder to get my attention. I didn't want him to see my eyes, but I had no choice. His eyes widened when I looked at him.

"What's going on with your eyes?" he asked, shock written all over his face.

"I thought I'd try something different," I said with a grimace. "Do they look bad?"

He scratched his head lightly. "Well, I like your brown eyes better."

"Really?" I couldn't believe he even knew what color my eyes were.

"Yeah. Those look freaky. Is it contacts?"

I nodded. "I'm just trying them out for a while."

"Are they hurting your eyes? They're really red."

I blushed. "I had a problem getting them in this morning."

His expression suddenly changed and he looked at me almost tenderly. "Why are you trying to change yourself, Bea?"

I shrugged and turned around to put my book into my backpack. Brody's friends called him from the door, so he stood up and stretched. I tried not to look at him as his shirt raised just slightly above his jeans, exposing a little bit of his stomach. My heart started pounding. I quickly looked down.

"I'll catch you later, Bea," he said and sauntered to the door.

I was finally able to breathe. Ms. McEnroy was talking with a girl who had questions, but everyone else had left. Even Michael Walters, my potential date for the Winter Formal. Probably just as well since I didn't want my first impression to look like I had pink eye.

By the time I got to debate, my eyes were really watering. I grabbed some toilet paper from the bathroom to dab at them. No one said anything in the cla.s.s, but I sure got a few raised eyebrows. Mr. Robarb did a double take, but kept his mouth closed about them too.

I really wanted to go to the bathroom to take the contacts out, but I was meeting Johanna for lunch so she could see them. Plus, they were so hard getting in and I was going back to the track after school. I would have to say something to Michael.

Johanna had a surprised look on her face when she saw me. "They're so--blue," she said.

"I keep getting weird looks," I complained. "Do they look bad?"

"Well, not bad, just--"

"I'm taking them out," I said decisively. "Brody said they look freaky."

Johanna grimaced. "They do look a little freaky, but who knows, Michael may like them."

"Are you kidding, Johanna? I know they look weird. I'll take them back to the optometrist and see if he will exchange them."

"But today's supposed to be the big day when you talk to Michael," she said with a pout.

"I could, but I'd be leaving an impression of an alien embedded in his mind," I told her. "I'm taking them out right now. I'll be right back."

"I grabbed my backpack and scurried to the bathroom. It was full of girls using the mirror. I locked myself in a stall. I thought I'd be able to get them out without looking. Very carefully, I poked my finger in my eye, fishing for the first contact. Only it folded inside my eye. Tears were streaming down my cheek as my dirty finger dug into my eye to get it out. With success came pain. I felt like I had scratched my eye.

The second one was easier, but the damage had already been done. I sat on the toilet until my eyes stopped leaking. I dreaded going out to look in the mirror. When the noise had ceased in the bathroom, I was pretty sure the coast was clear.

The face that looked back at me in the mirror was totally jacked up. My eyes were so red that I was even afraid to look at me. I turned on the faucet and started splashing water over my face. I felt a weird stinging in the eye I'd had the most trouble with.

Lunch period was almost over by the time I felt comfortable to go back out. Poor Johanna had been forced to wait for me the whole time. I hoped Lanie and her friends hadn't been too mean to her.

I didn't need to worry. By the time I crossed back to the lunch tables, Johanna was surrounded by the popular girls and laughing. What a traitor! Lanie was just trying to mess my life up. I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of me seeing them so I turned back around and went to wait for my next cla.s.s.

I couldn't even remember finishing my cla.s.ses. Johanna really bothered me. She was ready to blow off our friendship at the first opportunity to try to make herself look more popular. I was sure it was part of her formula to get a date with Bradley.

I changed into my running clothes with even less enthusiasm. I'd remembered to bring three sports bras with me to run the track. I did some half hearted stretches before I took off on a slow jog. The track was busier than it had been the day before. A couple of runners came close to me, forcing me over. At one point, I had to run off the track to make way for a group of sprinters that took every lane.

I limped off the track after finishing my mile. Johanna waved to me from the bleachers. Reluctantly, I made my way to her.

"Why didn't you come back at lunch?" she asked when I plopped down beside her.

"I did. You were surrounded by Lanie and her friends."

"They were actually nice to me without you around," she quipped. "They could be useful in my quest to get a date with Bradley."

Just what I thought. I looked at her with hard eyes. "You know how much Lanie hates me, Johanna. Why would you do that?"

She looked surprised. "It's all part of the formula, Bea. I don't really like those girls, if you want to know the truth. They have no substance, you know?'

She searched my face with a worried expression. I smiled to let her know I forgave her. We had to do what was necessary to get our dates for Winter Formal.

"Michael's not even out here today," I said with a sigh. "I ran for nothing."

"I'm telling you, you have to talk to him away from the track. My research shows that guys don't like to be bothered in the middle of their game--you know, what they're concentrating on."

"I guess. I'll figure it out."

"Don't wait too long," she said. "Each day you miss talking to him throws my formula off. You have to try to talk with him tomorrow to stay on track."

"I need to go, Johanna. I've got a debate tournament this weekend and I'm supposed to meet Jared at the library in an hour."

"When am I going to meet this elusive debate partner?" she asked as though I was hiding something from her.

"Jared? You can meet him at the library if you want."

"Mm hmm,' she murmured. "I bet he's cute, Bea, and you're holding out on me."

"Right," I said sarcastically. "Stop by debate cla.s.s any day and you can meet him for yourself."

"I still think you should give him a try," Johanna said out of the blue. I had to rub my ears to make sure I'd heard her right.

"Give Jared a try? After all the work I've done trying to get Michael interested?"

"I'm getting worried, Bea. You keep making excuses not to talk to Michael. You're going to miss your window of opportunity."

"I'll talk to him tomorrow," I promised.

"But you need blue eyes."

"I'll try it one more time tomorrow," I told her. Getting a date really shouldn't be this hard.

So, it was with trembling hands that I awoke two hours early the next morning to put in contacts. The one that had bent had a slight tear in it. I started with that one. It took over an hour, but I got the contact in my eye. I felt pretty happy with my accomplishment even though the contact made my eye squint.

The second one took just half an hour to put in my eye. I closed my eyes, letting the tears run down my cheeks. Finally, I opened my eyes and blinked really hard.I think the first contact shifted a little, but when I squinted to look in the mirror, it appeared to be where it was supposed to be.

Dad saw me on my way out of the bathroom. We both just stopped and stared at each other. He finally shook his head and a look of disappointment came over his face.

"Are you ashamed of your Italian roots?" he asked me.

"Of course not, Daddy," I said. "I'm doing an experiment with Johanna--"

"Changing your eye color? Your hair color? What kind of experiment is that?"

"I can't explain, okay? You wouldn't understand."

"I command you to go back into that bathroom and take those out," he bellowed. Great. He was loud enough for Mom to open their bedroom door and poke her head out.

"Daddy, stop," I pleaded. "It took me two hours to get them in. It's for a school project."

"What cla.s.s makes you change your eye color?"

"It's actually Johanna's project. She's doing an experiment with formulas," I said, trying hard not to tell lie. I always tried to be honest with my parents--just, with some things they didn't need to know every detail. "I'm her guinea pig with something about changing eye color. It's really an independent study she's doing."

Well, at least it was true. I felt bad for making him think it was school related, but technically it was. It was just about dating boys at school. He looked at my mom, who shrugged.

"It's for school," she said sleepily.

"Maybe I overreacted a bit," my dad said sheepishly. He leaned in and planted a kiss on my forehead and moved past me to close himself in the bathroom.

"Have a good day at school," Mom whispered.

I smiled and blew her a kiss before letting myself out of the house. I felt relief wash over me in the car. At least I had jumped the hurdle of my parents. I knew I wouldn't be able to hide the contacts from them forever.

I swung my car into the parking lot and walked into cla.s.s. Ms. McEnroy was the only one there. She smiled as I took my usual seat in the back. I guess she had forgotten about me being late yesterday.

I suddenly had a thought. Michael sat across the room from me in the same seat every day. I picked up my backpack and moved over where I could sit next to him. That kind of screwed the other students up who sat around there. As they filed in, they were forced to take a different seat. I received several dirty looks, but no one challenged me.

Then Michael walked in. My mouth suddenly felt dry and I felt my body tremble from nerves. I didn't know how to flirt with guys. I figured the only way I was going to pull it off was to ask him questions about the one thing I knew he loved--running. I had a few minutes before cla.s.s began. I seized my moment when he stretched out his feet in the aisle toward me.

"Aren't you Michael Walters?" I asked, forcing a smile to my lips. "The cross country runner?"

He looked surprised at my question. "Yeah," he said with a slight smile.

"I just took up running myself and was wondering if you could give me some pointers."

"Sure," he replied with a shrug. "What do you want to know?"

I hadn't thought that far ahead. I probably should have done some research on running so I could ask some intelligent questions. I was left to wing it.

"Well," I said, clearing my throat, "I'm only at a mile right now--"

"Oh, you want to know how to increase your mileage?"

"Yes," I breathed out with relief. "That's exactly what I wanted to ask you."

Before he could answer, the bell rang. Brody slid into his seat just in the nick of time. He looked back to wave to me. I wasn't in my seat. He looked around the cla.s.sroom until he spotted me sitting by Michael.

"Catch me after cla.s.s," Michael was saying. "We can talk then."