Middle school is a swamp of awkwardness, and the hidden key to popularity in middle school is to luck into finding your way out of that mess of red bumps, B.O., and every changing bodies the fastest, and this is true til about 11th grade, when confidence finally can come into play, and nothing builds confidence like being popular early.
Lilly and Mikey sat in the back of the class, like popular kids would not that they thought of themselves this way. Lilly found herself bored, everything the teacher was saying felt like old news, she had been through puberty, she knew what it did, her early growth spurt was why she was so good at sports, so she distracted herself by watching with pride as she flexed her pec muscles something no other kid could do. She liked the feeling, it felt like her chest was getting more muscular as she did, and it was, as her mind drifted to thoughts of who might get picked in the NFL draft tonight.
Mikey was paying more attention, he could relate to what the teacher was talking about because he certainly felt like his body was changing in strange ways, his seat never felt this uncomfortable before, it was almost as if his hips were too wide for the chair, and the feeling only continued as class went on. By the end of class he was on the edge of his seat which forced better posture, his shoulders back, his chest sticking out. It caught the eye of one of the boys in the class, who he caught staring and made a face at, which the some of the rest of the class noticed, which made the teacher notice, which lead to a teaching moment.
"And that, is why boys like breasts." this outlandish statement got the attention of the class again. "breasts make milk, which feed babies, we are all wired to seek the best way to keep our offspring alive, so when we are showing off." the teacher gave Mikey a direct look which said "hey knock it off" as she said this "we are really saying something completely different, that we maybe don't want to say." Mikey shrunk in his chair a bit, and pulled a strand of blond behind his ear as he looked down. What was he doing to deserve that treatment? He wasn't showing off! It's not like he had any noticeable breasts....he had never thought of his chest as impressive or something to show off. That was more something his mom would do. He was confused at the attention he was suddenly getting for it.
They were both very happy to have class be over, even as Mikiy caught another boy sneaking a look at his butt. Lilly noticed this too and subtly grabbed Mikiy's hand in response, which Mikiy felt oddly ok with despite the fact that Lilly's hand seemed so big around his.
They took a turn down the busy hall and then down another to the main corridor and then down another hall, hand in hand it always felt like one was leading the other when they turned. Till Mikiy finally had to ask, "Billy...where are we going?".
Lilly turned to answer to that name at the cute blonde girl with him, something felt off about her, he too was confused, everything was moving so fast.
"I thought you were leading" Billy replied.
"Excuse me you two." It was the school cop. "You from the High school? Mentorships are in 33 burgundy, just over there." He pointed to a door.
Billy almost said..."but were not..." but it was a cop and they didn't want trouble, so they just went into the room, where the first thing everyone did was stare shocked at what had happened to their friends.
