(Author's Note: Sometimes, when I wanted to go in a slightly different direction, I have opted to write an alternate version of a branch that fits a little more with my thoughts. Lots of good things in the original I didn't want to lose, but wanted to slow it a little.)
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. Her mind drifted to thoughts of who might get picked in the NFL draft tonight, despite the fact before today, she knew very little about football.
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. Mikey was confused, why was this kid staring at him. He shot him an angry look and the boy turned around.
They were both very happy to have class be over, even as Mikey caught another boy watching him. He was completely confused about why everyone was looking at him...was it the hair he'd suddenly grown? Was he turning into some sort of freak?
"Come on," Lilly told him. "Let's get out of here."
They took a turn down the busy hall and then down another to the main corridor and then down another hall. Mikey finally asked, "Where are we going?".
"I was following you," Lilly told him.
"I thought you knew where we were going."
Lilly looked at him, equally confused. "No, I thought you did....But we're going to be late," she said.
"Excuse me," a voice said.
They turned, and a teacher was standing there. "What are you doing here?"
