section 5

“He asked me to the dance!” My best friend Kayla came running into our homeroom classroom, flinging herself in to the chair and letting it slide next to me. Kayla was the kind of person that people liked to call a firecracker. Bright as the fireworks that made the night turn to day and as bubbly as a shaken up soda she managed to make all eyes focus on her when she entered a room and it wasn’t even on purpose. She was just natural center of attention. Between her looks, personality and good grades she could have done a lot better than me when it came to the best friend position but I wasn’t going to mention that to her.

“Who asked you to the dance?” I asked more quietly. People were already staring, but our teacher was too docile to have us try and quiet down and do homework like we were expected to do in homeroom.

“Brandon Chase, oh my God, who do you think I’m talking about?” She was bouncing up and down still talking loud enough for the whole room to hear. Kayla Travis was the only girl I knew who could manage to start gossip about herself, of course all the gossip about her was good. She was the school’s golden girl, at least in my eyes. It made me kind of nauseated. “Brandon Chase,” she said again, a little quieter and little more dreamily. “I can’t even believe it.”

Brandon Chase was a junior boy with two first names. I thought that you weren’t supposed to trust a person with two first names, but Brandon Chase was an exception to the rule apparently. He became school president, even though that spot was reserved for seniors, he was on honor roll and took all AP classes. He was captain of the debate team and always scored a place in the dance court. He was the male Junior version of Kayla.

“That’s great. You said yes right?” It was the response I was supposed to give.

“Of course I did! You’ll help me pick out a dress!” It wasn’t a question, though it should have been.

“Yeah, unless I have to watch Andrew.”

“Of course,” she agreed, but I knew she was shoving off the idea of me having some sort of responsibility for my brother. Kayla was an only child with a mom that worked from home. Kayla never had to worry about watching her little brother or sister, let alone having to watch over her brother or sister who had autism. Kayla’s life was so perfect. Blonde haired and blue eyed, clear skin that had never felt the pinch of a pimple, parents that loved and adored her and bought her stuff out of love and not guilt, perfect grades that came easy; she was a shoo-in for any college she applied to, and now the older escort to the dance. It was the cherry on her sundae. And she wouldn’t have to worry about the sundae going to her hips, she had the metabolism and figure that a model lusted after.

The bell rang and we both scooped up our stuff and exited the class room. “You’re going to the dance too, right? I need my best friend there too!”

The dance was next Friday, which was plenty of time for my parents to come up with something for me to do. They didn’t want to experience any of the finer points of high school. God forbid I enjoy my four years here.

“I don’t know. I don’t have a date.”

Kayla looked away, my position on the high school popularity pyramid was no secret. Whether Kayla remained my friend out of pity or true feelings was unknown though. “Well, maybe Cody could take you.”

Cody was our guy friend that completed our high school friendship trinity. He was a little nerdy and a little awkward but we had known him since kindergarten and been friends with him since it was okay to have guy friends. Kayla and I only started talking to him and letting him hang out with us because felt bad when the bigger kids picked on him, and honestly, we were both pretty sure that Cody still knew that. But he had always been there for us.

“Like a pity date?”

“Not like a pity date,” Kayla said slowly, rolling her eyes. “Like a date between friends…”

“When they both can’t get a date?”

“Yeah,” Kayla smiled brightly, happy that I finally understood what she was saying.

“Yeah. That’s called a pity date.”

We had reached the point the hallway where I went one way and he went the other, “You know that’s not what I mean, B. I just think that if the two you can’t find dates then you should go with each other. We both know he isn’t going to get anyone else to say yes.” I gave her a wry look, Cody was lower than me on the high school pyramid. He was even lower than Carly Birken who wore glasses, head gear and mismatching knee socks, she shrugged and turned towards the science wing.

I love Kayla. When I skinned my knee in kindergarten she had given me her Hello Kitty band-aid of her own scabbed knee. In some germy, disgusting, kindergarten way this meant that we would be best friends for life. But as much as I loved her, she sometimes said things that she shouldn’t. Even though most of the time she meant well.

“I just think honesty is the best policy,” she would say any time I brought up the fact that her words were kind of painful.

word count: 950

short: 50 words