Lab PartnersA Story by Yari Garcia (Older Profile)This is a short story I had to come up with for my Creative Writing class. Very simple and cutesy-- I hope you enjoy :-)I cringed
as Professor Marcus announced our lab partners.
I was stuck with Miley Hatfield, the beautiful-yet-stuck-up cheerleader
I’d been crushing on all year. The
bubbly girl sat next to me, her blond hair up in a ribbon, her cheerleading
uniform perfectly ironed. She chewed on
a wad of bubble gum that smelled of cherries. Looks like
I’ll be doing the entire frog dissection myself, I thought.
Yeah, I was angry, but at the same time, I didn’t mind doing all the
work. My crush was that bad. “Look, you
don’t have to--” I began, but was quickly cut off by Miley. “We should
use the scalpel carefully to cut through the epidermis,” Miley said, “then use
the scissors to carefully cut through the muscle layer. We don’t want to
cut too deep and lacerate the mesentery, lungs, or other organs.” Miley
giggled and gave me a smile. “Do you want to cut the epidermis or muscle
layer? Oh, we can rock-paper-scissors for it!” I opened
my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. I stared as Miley held out a fist
on top of her open palm, the universal symbol for I’m ready to
rock-paper-scissors. “Uh… yeah,
sure,” I managed to say before holding out my fist and palm, hoping my hands
wouldn’t shake. I wouldn't be doing the project alone, but that only
meant my list of problems increased. I no longer had the excuse not to
ask Miley out because she was stuck up. She was actually quite lovely… One, two,
three. I chose
rock. Miley
wrapped her paper hand around my fist, making my pulse quicken…
my crush on Miley only getting worse. “I win!” I looked at her as she smiled and
got to work. I was floored. No,
no. Snap out of it! I told myself. This was too good to be true. At any moment now, Miley would turn to me and
do something typical, like tentatively remove my glasses and tell me how much
better I look without them. Typical
cool-girl-trying-to-be-nice-to-the-dweeb move. “So, how’d you get into cheerleading?”
I asked, prompting her to drop her nice-girl attitude and adopt her real,
stuck-up one. “Well, I just love dancing,” she
said simply, “and the school has no dance team, so cheerleading made sense.” She shrugged.
There was a brief moment of awkward silence as she sort of smiled at
me. “But I highly doubt I’ll be getting
a dance scholarship, so…” she pointed at the frog with her scalpel, “…let’s get
froggin’.” Mmmhh. I expected her to go on and on about her dreams
of being a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader.
When that didn’t happen, I finally stopped staring at her cherry lips
and leaned in to see her cutting into the frog. And promptly fainted. There was a clang and a clatter as
my world tilted from underneath me, and the floor rushed up to meet my
face. Lightheaded and on the ground,
Miley’s face swam around my head, looking down on me, concerned. “Julian, are you okay?” She asked, her voice echoing in my mind. I saw her leaning down over me, the overhead
lights forming a halo around her pretty blond hair. This was it.
She was leaning in to give me CPR… “Don’t worry Julian, I’ll get
Professor Marcus. He’ll know what to
do.” “No, no, I’m okay,” I said groggily,
sitting up. Then my vision cleared and
reality struck me. There were smiling
and snickering faces looking down at me, all around me. I even heard one student say, “O. M. G. Really??” Embarrassed, I sat up and allowed
Miley and Professor Marcus to help me onto a chair, at a desk far away from any
lacerated frogs. I was given paper and
pen to write a short essay in lieu of doing the actual dissection. I groaned internally as I watched Miley work
without a partner. She kept glancing back
at me and smiling warmly, making sure that I was okay. She wasn’t even fazed or upset. She simply tackled the project herself. I was no longer simply crushing on
the stuck-up cheerleader like everyone else.
She was smart, kind, funny, friendly…not just some popular girl. And I knew right then and there--from the
reject-who-can’t-handle-a-dissection chair--that I no longer had an excuse to not ask her out. I had to try. And that made me so much queasier
than the dead frogs.
****
“You either have to go up the
hierarchy, or you’ll drag her down to your level.” Among the clatter of forks, cheap
plastic trays, and laughter, my best friend was making no sense. “What are you talking about?” I asked Carlos. “You, going out with Miley,” Carlos
replied, waving his fork in the air for emphasis. “Either you have to become popular, or she
risks her popularity being seen with a dork like you.” “Gee, thanks,” I mumbled. Carlos sounded shallow and stupid, but it
sort of made sense. A quick glance
around the crowded cafeteria, and I knew exactly what he meant. The cafeteria was perfectly
compartmentalized-- the goth students were a blur of black clothing in one
corner; the geeks sat at the table closest to the trash cans; the jocks all
wore their jackets at the loudest table; and the cheerleaders all looked like
someone hit “copy & paste,” over and over again. Aside from Miley, of course. I quickly looked back at Carlos when she
glanced my way. “Come on, Julian. Give it up,” Carlos insisted. “She’d be risking her reputation going out
with you. We don’t fit in anywhere--not even
at the geek table!” “You’re wrong,” I meant to say it
with conviction, but my voice trembled. Ehem! “She’s not like that. It’s been three days since I fainted in
class, and she still checks up on me, asks me how I’m doing. She’s a good person.” “You fainted?” “Carlos, help me out here. I really like this girl.” Carlos let out an exasperated sigh. “Dude, you’re just setting yourself up for
disaster. Why ruin what you have? Can’t you just be her friend?” “You want me to be Friendzoned??” I said with all the drama I could
muster. Really, what was Carlos
thinking? “Julian, I’ve heard that she’s never
even been asked out. Ever. Even the jocks are out of her league.” Carlos leaned back on his chair, the
conversation over for him. He’d made his
point, but I wasn’t going to give it up.
Miley had proven to be a really special person, and my crush had grown
to such epic proportions that I refused to ignore it. “I’m going to be the first one to
ask her out,” I stated. Carlos just
looked at me, unfazed, his body language calling my bluff. So I added, “Right now.” This made him lean forward so
quickly that his chair made a horrible screeching sound against the linoleum
floor. “Julian-- don’t.” I got up before I even knew what I
was doing. I broke eye contact with
Carlos and headed boldly to Miley’s table. My confidence lowering with each
step. What was I doing? I was
unpopular, unstylish, un-everything! As I passed each table arranged neatly by
clique, I could feel all eyes on me. I
was breaking all the unwritten rules of high school. Still, I kept walking-- confidence lowering,
heartbeat rising, and profuse sweat possibly happening. I reached Miley’s table before I
thought of anything to say. I had eight different pairs of
cheerleader eyes staring up at me, if I even counted correctly in my borderline
hysterical state. “Hi, Miley,” someone
said, and I realized it was me. “Hey, Julian!” Miley said with a smile. “Girls, this is Julian, my lab partner. Sit down.” “Um, no… that’s okay,” I said. “I just wanted to ask you a question.” Miley smiled. “Yes?” “Do you want to go out sometime?” Holy crap, that was loud. In my nervousness, I must have lost control
of my volume. I braced myself. No
matter what happens, you tried, I told myself, and it sounded stupid, even
to myself. The time between the question and
the answer seemed to stretch forever. “I’d like that,” Miley said, her
soft cheeks blushing lightly. “Text you?” I nodded my head yes, gave a little wave to all the girls,
and turned back to my table, where Carlos waited with a hanging jaw. “Didn’t I tell you he was cute?” I
heard Miley say behind me, and I smiled.
The End © 2017 Yari Garcia (Older Profile)Author's Note
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2 Reviews Added on June 8, 2017 Last Updated on June 12, 2017 Tags: teen romance, young adult romance, young adult AuthorYari Garcia (Older Profile)Denver, COAbout~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ My profile has moved! Follow the link by my pic or go to www.writerscafe.org/YariGarciaYA See you there ^_^ (/ (/ (^-^) c(")(") ~*~*~.. more..Writing
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