High School hallways are a magical place of brief social interaction, whole relationships live and die in the 7 minutes between classes. They are a Zoo of mini episodes of every daytime drama that has ever aired, all intermixing and blending into a drone and buzz of conversation.
Kayla never liked it, it was like the world was shouting at her, too much noise, too much attention being thrown too many places. She was an introvert and she found the whole process of moving through the crowd to be draining, yet today she felt lighter as she traversed the crowd, she felt like people were getting out of her way faster and with more kindness. She made a mental note to wonder if this was because of her hair, but brushed it off.
She met Jay and Gladys at her locker like always, and played it cool to see if they would notice her hair and face, but they seemed unaware of any changes in her. Could it be she had done all this and forgotten? this was worrying, what if there was something wrong with her? She would have to keep an eye on herself, she looked down...hair, face, shoes, skirt..all normal. She tugged at the skirt a bit, it felt too low for some reason, she didn't like the way it bumped her knees.
Jay and Gladys broke her out of her thoughts. She suddenly felt annoyed that Jay hadn't asked her out or complimented her on her hair, why wasn't he interested? She felt jilted that she didn't have a boyfriend, she had never been kissed yet either, it didn't seem to matter before, but now she was dressed up, on display, she knew she looked good so why wasn't she getting bites from this guy? She found herself giving him a bit of attitude as they departed for their classes.
"That was a bit harsh" Gladys remarked as they made there way down the hall. "Is it your time of the month?"
Kayla was fairly sure it wasn't.
"It's just that I got all dressed up and he didn't notice me."
"Oh, the new skirt you mean? yeah it's nice but it's not that unusual for you Kay. Give him more of a chance than that."
New skirt? Kayla looked down, what was once a long skirt down to mid cafe was now much shorter right above her knees. It wasn't flashy or that different, but she felt much more comfortable in it, enough that she hadn't noticed the change...This confirmed it! She was changing....into what?
Art was her next class, she hugged her friend, suddenly much more aware of her size, a thought which made her uncomfortable for the first time. She went into class a bit dazed.
