My Short Story

“Trnnn” “trnnn” “trnnn” rang my alarm clock at exactly 7:00 am Monday morning. It was the beginning of a new school year and I was now in 8^th grade- the last year of middle school. I was going to graduate this year and go off to high school. I got up, washed my face and brushed my teeth. Then I put on my green pants and red T-shirt that my mom had bought me. I ran downstairs just in time for breakfast and had blueberry waffles (my favorite!) and a glass of milk when I heard my bus honking. I ran back up to my room and grabbed my school bag then put on my shiny green sneakers. When I stepped foot into the bus, I heard some giggles but I ignored it. I knew that I was shining just like my sneakers. I sat down beside JJ. JJ is my best friend. We’ve been together since preschool and he’s the only cool guy I know. On the bus I saw a lot of new faces. There was only one cute girl. She was wearing tight blue jeans and a T-shirt that said “I ROCK”. She was playing with her pig-tails and listening to music on her I-pod then Jason padded her from behind. Jason was the school bully. This is his second year in eighth grade and he repeated forth ad fifth grade as well. I didn’t know what he told her but it seemed like he was flirting with her and it looked like they were getting along. I didn’t mind anyhow. We finally got to school and directly went inside to see what classroom we were going to be in this year. JJ and I ran to the bulletin board and found that we were placed in room 218 with Mrs. Code as our home room teacher. The bell rang so we went straight to class. Mrs. Code had all the bulletin boards empty. I found that very strange since she usually decorated them with colorful pictures and neat stuff. But then she said: “this year you will be responsible for decorating the bulletin boards. Remember, you will graduate this year so we will have lots of things to work on”. “Oh. Yuppie!” I thought in my mind. Just then Jason pointed at me and said: “we can decorate the bulletin boards with Kevin. He is dressed like a Christmas tree”. The entire class laughed so hard that I started to blush. It looks like it was going to be a long year with Jason. The rest of the day went by fine. We had math class, social studies and cooking class. The day was finally over. JJ and I walked to the bus directly when the bell rang to find some seats. We waited for about half an hour till everyone got in then we drove away. I decided to stop by at JJ’s house and when I passed by the cute girl she said “nice shoes” in a low voice and her and her friends giggled. I think they were mocking me! I really thought that my sneakers were cool. I mean what’s wrong with shiny, sparkling green sneakers?! They even had red stars on them and some beads. I thought they were cool! We entered JJ’s house and his mom told us to wash up before we could eat. Then we joined her on the dining table. We had steak with mashed potatoes and vegetables. They tasted delicious but I couldn’t take my mind off the comment I got about my shoes. “What’s wrong?” interrupted JJ. But what was I going to tell him? JJ is my best friend but he has no style when it comes to clothing. He wears simple blue jeans with T-shirts and plain converses. PLAIN! No sparkles, no glitter, no nothing! So I just told him that I had to go home in an hour. We played some video games; then I went home. The next day at school Mrs. Code said that she had something to tell us. I was a little anxious to hear what she had to say. Then she said: “As you all know, at the end of this year, you will have a graduation party and after that is your prom so I hope you are excited about it”. SO what I thought: “What’s the big deal?” That’s when JJ whispered: “we gotta find dates for the prom”. Dates??? “YEPPP” said JJ “and as soon as possible or you’ll end up with no date on prom night”. Now I had a mission to accomplish as soon as possible. FIND A DATE. Well, with my looks and style in clothing, this was going to be a piece of cake. Tomorrow I’ll go up to that cute girl and ask her out on a date. After all, she did like my shoes. Maybe she wasn’t mocking my shoes after all. I told JJ my plan and he totally supported me. Well…not totally. He did tell me to take it slow and I felt that there was something deeper behind what he said. The next morning I woke up at 5:00 am. I wanted to get ready for my big day. First I took a shower and brushed my teeth. Then I took out my tight brown pants and my orange T-shirt to try them on. They looked stunning. I brushed my bangs to the side and the rest of my hair to the back. Next, I wiped some gel smoothly over my hair till they shone.  Now my problem was what shoes to wear. Should I wear my orange shoes or my brown ones? Mmm...mmm….I think the orange would look better. At 6:30, I heard my mom calling me for breakfast but I didn’t want to have breakfast at home. Instead, I was going to have lunch with my date-to-be at school. It was going to be a great day. Yes it was! I heard the doorbell ring and out of surprise it was JJ. He said his brother Brian was taking us to school. Brian was in high school and he had his own car. Every once in a while he would take us out for a ride. JJ was wearing a gray chemise with white stripes and black dress pants. He had a silver necklace around his neck with a matching bracelet and black leather dress shoes. His hair was waxed and it was a little long at the back. I guess he looked good. “Come on, Brian’s waiting in the car” he said. So I grabbed my bag and off we went. It was cool going with Brian to school. He would turn the volume up so high that you could feel that your ear drums were going to pop. He would also pass by Tim Horton and we’d have a cup of coffee and donuts before school. We did that today too. When we got to school, everyone was dressed up. All the guys in eighth grade were looking for a date and all the eighth grade girls were waiting to be asked out. Even the younger girls were dressed up. Apparently, there was no policy that could forbid them from attending the prom so they had an equal chance of being asked out or they could go alone. JJ and I sat on the bench and all the girls seemed to be looking at JJ but he didn’t budge. He was very self confident and didn’t think any guy could be a threat so he wasn’t in a hurry. Then the cute girl showed up. She was wearing black pants with a gray blouse and gray sandals. It was like she and JJ had planned it. They had the same taste in clothing. I couldn’t keep calling her “cute girl” so I asked JJ if he could go and ask her about her name. JJ was the perfect guy for the job. So he stood up and walked over bravely. I could see her smiling at him and between now and then she would blush. When JJ came back he said: “her name is Jasmine”. “And why was she smiling so much?” I asked. “I don’t know. I just told her my name and said that I was in eighth grade. I asked her about her name and told her that I’d see her around”.  “Oh no!” I suddenly said. “What’s wrong?” said JJ. “Look!”  It was Jason. He was standing with Jasmine and he handed her a rose. I had to move fast before it was too late. I waited until Jason left then I ran over to her.

“Hi Jasmine. I’m Kevin”.

“Okkk...” she said.

“Uh mmm uh.”

“What do you want?” she said.

“I want to invite you to lunch. It will be a date”.

“Hehehe. ME go on a date with YOU?! I don’t think so”. She walked away but then turned back and said: “by the way, nice clothes”. I was heartbroken. I wished the world would open and swallow me. I had never been humiliated that way in my whole entire life. After school, I went over to JJ’s and asked him if my clothes were that bad. He was quiet for a while and then said: “yes they are. If you want to get a date, you first got to get a makeover”. A makeover? And who was going to help me with that? Mom? No way!  She’s the one who always picks out my clothes and see what that has gotten me into. I think JJ knew what I was thinking about because he suddenly said: “Don’t worry! Brian and I will help you”. I guess they could help me. After all, all the girls couldn’t keep their eyes off JJ all day and Brian was the one who picked out his clothes. I wasn’t going to give up so easily and I became determined to achieve my goal. First I was going to throw away all my old clothes and buy new ones. But wait a minute. What was I going to tell mom? “Hey mom, I want to throw away perfectly new UGLY clothes.” She wouldn’t understand that they were ugly. My only solution for money was to ask Grandpa. He never says NO. After school I went straight to grandpas. He was very glad to see me. We sat outside in the garden and he ordered a pizza then asked me about school. I knew he was going to ask.  “School….school is good” I said. He looked at me and said: “I know that tone young man. Tell me what the problem is”. “Well I need some money. The thing is my clothes are too dorky for eighth grade and I think I kinda wanna change my style”. Grandpa reached his wallet and handed me $300 and I was off to JJ’s house. I rang the doorbell and Brian answered. He looked at me and smiled. I guess JJ had already told him the whole story. I went in and JJ asked me if I want to go shopping for some clothes. “Do I? Of course I do” I said and we were on our way to buy some clothes. I was now one step closer to reaching my goal. We reached the shop that Brian buys his clothes from and he told me that he is going to do the shopping for me. He picked out a pair of blue jeans, a purple T-shirt, a blazer and a silver chemise with a tie. He also picked out black dress shoes and white runners. He was about to pick out more clothes when he remembered to ask me how much money I was carrying. Unfortunately, I couldn’t buy anything else because no more money was left. Anyways, I didn’t mind because I loved the clothes we had just bought. For the next two weeks I wore my new clothes over and over again. I had hope that Jasmine would like my new style but every time I’d go over to talk she’d reject and humiliate me. “Maybe my hair was too ugly” I thought. I went over and talked to JJ so he could take me to his hair stylist for new hair dew. JJ was a great guy and he never said no. That afternoon, he and Brian came over. We sat outside for a while and had a few drinks then drove to the hair stylist. Obviously my hair was too long and I had no taste. He cut my hair and I got it waxed. I did look different and felt refreshed. Then I thought to myself how long I had been wearing my clothes over and over. They needed to be washed. When I got home I threw my clothes in the washing machine then my mom called me. She wanted to have a little ‘TALK’ with me. She said that I looked different and better but questioned me why I had asked grandpa for the money. “Well I can’t keep wearing the dorky clothes you bought me. I’m in eighth grade now” I replied. Mom looked at me with a sad face and said: “you could have asked me. I would have given you the money. You didn’t have to do it behind my back”. I felt ashamed and apologized for my rude attitude then she passed me a bag. For my luck she had bought me new pairs of jeans and many T-shirts and they were in style too. Everything was working out for me. Everything but Jasmine’s issue. I was giving so much effort but it seemed unimportant to Jasmine. The next day at school JJ told me that he has to talk to me. Guess what? It was that Jasmine liked JJ. I said nothing to JJ and told him to give me some time alone. The world now seemed an ugly place to me. Love was a lie. It was based on betrayal. The angelic figure I built of Jasmine was destroyed and I never wanted to fall in love again. All my efforts had gone down the drain. The year was going by and I had no date. JJ had Jasmine and even Jason had a girl. Every time Jasmine approached me and JJ I would leave. I couldn’t stand seeing them together. But one day all that changed. I was walking down the hall one day when a girl bumped into me. All my books fell on the floor. She kept on apologizing and seemed so sweet. It was love from first sight. The next few days, I started seeing her frequently but I was too afraid to speak to her and get rejected again. I thought it over many times. But what was I going to do? Was I going to allow one failing relationship ruin my life? NO. I wasn’t. I finally had the guts to ask her out and I did. Out of a surprise, she accepted my request. Day by day I started discovering myself through her. What I liked about her made me know what I liked and disliked. The thing I admired most about her was that she liked me however I was. I didn’t have to put much effort to make her like me. Daisy was the girly of my dreams. The end of the year had come and Daisy and I had to start studying for the finals. Every day we would sit together for hours reviewing our notes. Daisy took so much care of me. She was the angelic picture I had in my mind. It was time for our finals and we did great. Now we had to start preparing for our prom. I called Daisy and we agreed to meet at the mall. There Daisy tried on many dresses. They all looked nice on her but one in particular looked stunning. It was a brown satin dress with simple beads on it. I bought a two button, modern fit, made in Italy suit with side vents and flat front pants with a 6" drop. I also bought a shiny white satin dress shirt with a matching tie and a David Eden Mens black genuine crocodile lizard dress shoes Clooney.

While we were walking back home, I got a call from JJ telling me that he had left Jasmine. Now she was left all alone and I believe she got a taste of her own medicine. A few days later all the graduates went to school for a gathering to talk a little about the preparations for prom night. When I got there it was so crowded. Some students were choosing songs they wanted to listen to and others were choosing the designs they wanted the hall to be decorated by. While I was looking around I saw Jasmine so I turned away but then she came running to me. She begged me to be her date to the prom and started apologizing for everything she did to me. However, I was now a new person. I wasn’t the weak and dorky Kevin anymore. I had changed and become a better person. Simply I said NO and left home. The day of the prom finally arrived; the day that I had been struggling for from the beginning of the year. I truly felt great for the accomplishments I had achieved. At night JJ and Brian passed by me and we were going to take Daisy with us. I wasn’t surprised to see JJ with a NEW girl. He didn’t seem to take things seriously and just wanted to have fun and goof around. At the hall there were crazy lights and balloons everywhere; tables of punch, jell-O and all sorts of food. Students were dancing and laughing. Everything looked perfect. Oh yea, and Jasmine was sitting all alone doing nothing. Well not completely doing nothing. While Daisy and I were dancing, I could see her flirting with some guys, then all of a sudden “trop” hehehe. A girl spilled a bowl of punch on her for flirting with her date. She got soaked from top to bottom and everyone laughed their heads off. At that moment I remembered my first day in eighth grade when she mocked my shiny green sneakers.