Jon Gibson sat on the wall after school, nervously swinging his legs back and forth. It was the first day of school after spring break and had been one of the most painful he'd ever endured.
He was waiting for Karyn Black, his best friend of longer than he'd care to mention. In fact, he'd been waiting to talk to her for over a week, but she always spent spring break with her parents in their caravan in the mountains and they had no classes together this year, so this was the first chance they'd had to get together for a while.
Finally, he spotted her strolling towards him across the yard. She was wearing her usual get-up of scruffy old slacks and her favorite worn old green jumper. Her short red hair was in its normal unruly state and she displayed her quirky grin as she spotted him slouched on the wall. The overall effect, he thought, was pretty cute. He'd always thought she was cute, but they'd never been more than friends. There were some friendships you just didn't want to complicate.
When she finally reached him, she leapt up onto the wall with somewhat more ease than he'd managed earlier.
"Hey, Jon-boy! How's it going? Good break?"
He grinned sheepishly. "Was okay. You?" he asked.
She shrugged. "You know, same-old, same-old. There's only so many snowy mountain peaks you can gaze at in wonder in a lifetime. I might have to give the old spring break tradition a miss next year and just hang out with you."
Jon grinned. "That'd be nice. Save me from couch-potato-dom."
"Anything of interest to report while I was away?" she asked.
"My grandfather died," he said.
Her face fell. "Oh, Jon, I'm so sorry. I know you were close. What happened? He wasn't all that old, was he? I thought he was off on one of his expeditions just a few months ago." Jon's grandfather was an archeologist.
"Heart attack, apparently."
"That's awful," Karyn said. "I can't imagine what it must be like to deal with that sort of ..."
"Can we change the subject? I'm still kind of ... emotional about this." In fact, the sorrow over his grandfather's death made his first school day back from vacation kind of painful to go through.
"Sure, Jon," Karyn said, placing her hand on her friend's arm.
Jon smiled weakly at her. And Karyn smiled back. But before anything could progress (if anything would have progressed at all), they both heard a high-pitched laugh.
Sarah McMillan, head cheerleader and class-A bitch, was wandering across the yard followed by her usual entourage of drooling, over-muscled football players and other assorted testosterone-fueled flunkies.
Karyn was unimpressed. "Can you explain to me why men are so shallow? Everyone knows that Sarah is a total bitch and yet, because she has blond hair and big breasts, every guy in the school spends half his life dribbling down her cleavage."
"Not every guy," Jon noted, although he had to admit that Sarah wasn't bad to look at, even though he'd never associate himself with someone with such a untrustworthy character.
"Okay, most guys. There's only one of her. Why can't she just pick one and let the rest of us have a chance?" She sighed.
Jon grinned. "Got your eye on anyone in particular?" he asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
She scowled at him. "No. Just a general feeling. God, I wish I had long blond hair and big boobs. Maybe then I'd get some of the attention."
"Do you really think that way?" Jon asked, surprised. Karyn wasn't the type of girl who cared about looks. Well, cared about looks the way Sarah and her friends did, anyway. She was more of a tomboy.
"Sometimes," Karyn admitted.
"Well, I think you look great just as you are."
Karyn smiled. He liked seeing that smile. It's like it made his whole world better. He really missed Karyn. It was great that she was back.
She checked her watch. "I've got to get home. My mom needs my help with something."
Jon nodded and watched Karyn walk away. He was so glad that he had a friend like her.
He looked around the now-deserted yard and decided it was time to slope off home himself. Tomorrow was a new day and there was only one way to find out what it would bring ...
