Chapter 32
DEAN
Ten years ago...
Small Town, USA
2004
Mia Gray is the most beautiful girl at Central High School. She’s your typical cliché “Miss Anti-Social”, the “I don’t hang out with the popular people to make a statement” type (never votes for superlatives), the sexy bookworm who’s had every guy’s attention since sophomore year, and the one girl who turns every guy down with a simple eye roll and a “Please stop talking to me” in five seconds flat.”
Her face is gorgeous, reminiscent of the models in the magazines—full and pouty pink lips, big brown eyes that see right through you, and even though she dresses like a damn librarian, she’d easily be voted “Miss Popular” if she were to ever put her name in for the chance.
Nonetheless, for some reason, she seems to avoid me like the plague. She leaves the four classes we take together early, never comes to pep rallies to cheer on the team (Even though I am the team), and the few times that I’ve approached her and genuinely tried to talk to her, she didn’t even give me her trademark, “Please stop talking to me.” She just gave me a blank stare and walked away.
No, really.
Sophomore year, when I first saw her (Not sure where the hell she was freshman year...), I was completely taken aback as to how pretty she was. I was so taken aback that I just approached her, no game plan whatsoever. Since she was sitting alone at a bench outside our cafeteria, I walked up to her and said, “Hey...What’s up?”
She wrapped up her sandwich, stood up, and walked away.
Junior year, during a football practice, I spotted her painting on the bleachers. She was wearing a short blue dress that actually showed off her curves, and since she sat through the whole practice without once looking up, I walked her way as soon as it was over. I cleared my throat this time and waited for her to look at me. And I made sure my voice was a lot more serious. The second her eyes met mine I said, “Hey...What’s up?”
She picked up her canvas and practically jumped off the bleachers.
And right before senior year, during the summer, when every guy on the team tried to tell me that Mia Gray was “untouchable” and “would never talk to any guy at our school” I tried that shit one last time. I spotted her with her friend Autumn at the movie theater where they worked one Saturday night. I left my date to walk up to her while they were in mid-conversation and looked right into her eyes. I made sure she knew I was fucking serious because I glared at her before saying, “Hey...What’s up?”
That time she called her manager.
With senior year starting in a few weeks, I’m not taking any chances this time. I will get her to talk to me. Even if we don’t end up working out, fine, but I have to see what could possibly happen. I’ve never had a crush on a girl for this long and I’ve never had to work so hard just to get someone to say a basic hello.
After the team’s first weight training practice in the school’s gym, I stay behind and pretend like I have muscle cramps that I need to walk off for a while. When I’m sure no one is following me out to the hallway, I find Mia’s locker: 345. She’s literally the only girl at school I know that makes use of Central High’s year-round locker perk.
I take out the list of digital locker codes I got from the school’s secretary (She has an unfortunate crush on me, despite the fact that me and her son are the same age), and find Mia’s code: 34-87-45.
The door pops open and I find myself faced with one of the most organized interiors of a locker I’ve ever seen. She has hooks on the door that she uses for extra pens and pencils, her paintbrushes are organized by height and color, and a lot of her personal reading books are similar to mine.
I pick up her copy of Macbeth and wonder if she actually enjoyed it or if she only read it because it was a requirement last year. I notice that her schedule for the upcoming semester has been slightly altered—as if she’s purposely gotten out of the classes I signed up for, so I take a picture of it so I can get placed back into her new ones.
Amateur...
I flip through her notebooks and notice there’s one that says, “Physics Summer Studies 2004”
She completed all of the summer assignments already?
I tuck the notebook under my arm, just in case I actually have to keep it, and then I flip through the few CDs she has, hoping we have something in common.
We do not.
We definitely do not.
I haven’t heard of any of these bands, and just from the way their album covers look I doubt any of them are something I’d listen to at all. Nonetheless, I pull out my phone and type in the name of the first band into Myspace and give them a try.