"Enjoying the view?" Walter put a hand on Jay's shoulder to snap him out of it. Jay had been staring at Sarah again, from the distance the bleachers put between himself and her. Sarah had been too focused on the assembly to notice, but naturally, none of the other geeks where Jay was sitting were paying any attention to it. "Dude, you know how Sarah is. You're gonna creep her out if you keep ogling her all day."
"I am aware of that, but I'm afraid I can hardly help myself," Jay replied in that verbose academic tone nobody else seemed to talk with. "I hadn't the slightest notion Sarah possessed so much pulchritude! That such allure was sitting right under our noses is nothing short of astounding to me."
"Bruh," Zach interjected with only a quick look up from the game of Candy Crush he was playing. "I'm pretty sure I told you before, maybe as soon as last week, we've all been sleepin' on Sarah as girlfriend material. None a ya saw it before, but you do now, right?"
"Yeah, but dude, lemme repeat what I said back then," Walter interjected. "Our relationship with Sarah is fine as it is now, before we stick our dicks in it. She's one of only a couple gals in the school we could even invite to a game of D&D without expecting an automatic decline, and right now the only gal at our table! I don't want all that getting the kabosh because of teenage hormonal drama, man."
"Admonition duly noted, but Walter, I must predict that this 'teenage hormonal drama' may yet be coming anyway," Jay replied. "There are two major reasons for this, the first being that Sarah's sudden change in appearance and behavior may very well be indicative of some underlying psychological change or distress yet unknown to us. The second is her new and oft-rumored relationship with Kyla Leeson, if it exists. I am certain, in all practical senses of the word, that the latter's presence would profoundly disturb our collective dynamic were it felt for any sufficient length of time."
"I know, man. It worries me," Walter said with a sad look and heavy sigh. "It's hard enough to find people in this school to share interests with even passively, no matter the gender. We got a good thing going in our little group, here, man, and I'd really, really prefer it doesn't get broken up by you or Sarah or Kyla or anyone else, okay?" Of all the nerds in VLHS, Walter Smukmeyer was the most obsessively involved in comics, fantasy, scifi, and so forth. He had no problem getting lost in fictional otherworlds for hours at a time, but sometimes it ached a bit to be the single-person fan club for them. That's what he had friends like Sarah and Jay for; they could keep up with the lore. Moreover, given the whole acne-riddled 4-eyes look he had, he wasn't all too confident in his ability to attract a girl romantically, so he wasn't about to try.
"Walter, I can assure you I'd never voluntarily jeopardize the group's collective good, especially not over a chance at a significant other," Jay replied, "and I trust I'm not so foolish as to jeopardize it by mistake." Jay put a lot of trust in his own intelligence, in fact, and for good reason; in terms of academics, it would be no exaggeration to say he was the smartest at the school. "May I remind that if any romantic endeavor between myself and her is successful, it will only be a stronger intragroup bond, that need not affect any other. If it isn't, then I'd hope to exit the relationship with sufficient grace that the overall group dynamic is unaffected, and Sarah makes such decisions as she would've made anyway, however they involve Kyla and the rest."
"Y'know, if you asked me, I think you both need to chill out some," Zach said, still focusing on Candy Crush. "So what if Sarah feels like trying something weird today? Props to her for it, in fact! I didn't think she had it in her."
"Pfft," Walter said. "Of course you'd be saying that, Zach." If there was any single person in VLHS who genuinely did not care what anyone else thought of him, good or bad, that person was probably the deeply eccentric class clown Zach Jones. Though not dumb, he wasn't really much of an intellectual nerd like the other geeks, he was just shamelessly weird enough to be considered one. For instance, his outfit that day consisted of a black t-shirt with a dangerously ecchi Kill la Kill print on its front, over which he wore a salmon pink tuxedo vest with matching slacks that, according to him, he "saw in a Goodwill and thought looked neat." It certainly earned him a few weird looks, but nobody thought much of it; that was just Zach Jones for them.
"You should be saying it too!" Zach exclaimed in reply, closing the just-finished game. "Our sweet little flower of a friend is finally in bloom, and she looks swag as all get-out in it, too! We should be encouraging her, not killing her vibe or creepin' on her!"
"I never have meant any offense to her whatsoever, in my remarks to her today," Jay said, defensively in his own way. "I presume she's simply too shy to outwardly display positive reception of them."
"Jay, man, I mean no offense to you whatsoever, but let's be honest, you're not the best at talking to ladies," Zach replied patiently. "And Sarah is now definitely a lady who isn't good at being talked at. That's a pretty pogn't combination, if you asked me."
"I'd like to think I have sufficient experience talking to Sarah specifically that that poses no problem."
"That's cap," Zach said in disbelief. "And I'll prove it! I've got an idea in mind that'll prolly get me invited to Sarah's house tomorrow, maybe even alone with her; wanna bet it works?"
"Zach, no!" Walter said immediately. He didn't much like the look on Zach's face; it was the one he had when he got of his crazy ideas, too crazy not to act on. "Whatever it is you're thinking, dude, don't go messing with Sarah or Jay with it, man!"
"It'll be fiiiine, my man," Zach reassured him. "No cap I'd prolly've done it anyway without Jay in the equation, but now I just wanna show him how it's done. I won't be leading her on or anything, by the way."
Jay looked curious. "I presume this isn't one of your pranks, Zach?"
"No sir! Just a little idea to get some personal time with Sarah. How 'bout it?"
Jay thought about it, then nodded. "This should be either educational or entertaining, at least."
Sarah was leaving the assembly when Zach pulled her aside, thinking to herself how good it was for her to hear it, no matter how cheesy the motivational speaking was; she realized she'd needed the emotional support much more than she'd known before. I really am going to need a few really good friends to help me through this. Biff won't be getting here fast enough, and he was never especially empathetic anyway.
"Hey! Hey, Sarah!" Zach called to her and waved, signalling for her to stay back out of the crowd and talked to him a minute.
Sarah looked to him. "Oh, uh... Hiii!" she said with a smile and a wave. It wasn't as strong and cheerful a greeting as Sarah could've given, and internally she chastised herself for it while making her way over to Zach.
"So first of all, I've noticed that you've probably noticed that I noticed you, because I gotta say, you've made yourself a very noticeable little lady today! That outfit is fire, girl, good work!" Zach said to her cheerfully.
"Y-yeah... thanks," Sarah said with a blush, trying not to break eye contact and stare at her feet again. She was used to the compliments by now, but they still weren't quite having the intended effect on her self-confidence, as her mind for some reason simply wouldn't convince itself that she actually looked that good, although the compliments most certainly helped. What more occupied Sarah's thoughts was Zach Jones: What was the relationship between Kyla and Zach? she tried to remember. Most of her thoughts about Zach was indignation from the old her, since despite being extremely nonconformist, he was nigh impossible to haze. For instance, the old Sarah might've tried to insult his bizarre outfit for that day, but then Zach probably would've just laughed and said she couldn't handle his obviously superior fashion sense or some bullshit like that. The new Sarah, on the other hand, found herself much more in envy of the absolute confidence it would've taken him to pull off something like that.
"You're looking so good, in fact, that I'm thinking I just can't resist jumping on this bandwagon while it's still in town!" Zach continued. "How would you feel about making me one of the popular girls, Sarah?"
Just like that, every ounce of posture and etiquette left Sarah's head, and she reacted in pure, genuine shock. "I'm sorry, WHAT!?"
"I mean, you give me a makeover in your new style, sometime before school tomorrow! I'll get a dress, makeup, a wig, and the works, and you and me, we'll be the prettiest little princesses that ever walked the halls of VLHS tomorrow!"
"Butbutbut-... but you're a guy!"
Zach laughed. "You say that like mere manhood could get in the way of this prima donna! And don't go telling me you can't pull it off, with what you've done to yourself here today! It'll be fun, and hilarious, and you know, I just can't stand to see you having all the fun all off by your lonesome. You need a squad to make it an official movement! Besides, YOLO!"
There were no words. Sarah was speechless, quite literally; she was sure she couldn't choke up anything to say if she tried, with Kyla's old voice. I just had to wish for someone at my side through this, didn't I!? Sarah thought angrily. Be careful what you wish for, Sarah!
In the end, it was Kyla's old anxieties that finally caused Sarah to cave in. Whatever the merits or demerits of getting a crossdressing pal in her quest become the old her might've been, Zach looked so excited to tell his hilarious little visual joke that Sarah just couldn't bring herself to say no. Meekly, after a moment of thought she squeaked "A-alright... I-I guess I could..."
"Pog!" Zach exclaimed with a clap of his hands and a meaningful look over to Jay, whom Sarah had not realized until then was watching them in utter disbelief. "Pog, champ!"
"B-but you have to come really early! T-tomorrow! I have other st-... (gulp) other stuff to do that morning!" Sarah added quickly.
"Not a problem for me, pally! I'll be looking forward to it, sister!" Zach said with a laugh as he skipped off to his next class. Jay ran after him, apparently eager to talk with him about something. Sarah was all too happy to split off from them and get her own thoughts in order in the newfound comfort of privacy while walking to her next class.
So that's now Kyla, Melissa, Zach, and myself! She thought with brain ascatter as she paced the halls, no attention paid to her posture. What the heck am I getting myself into!? I'm gonna have to open a salon at this rate! she complained internally.
