12 Weeks, 12 Dates

Chapter 1: The Bet

Chapter 1: The Bet

“Gooooood morning!” Naomi greeted me in her usual chipper voice at my locker. It was amazing how she could manage to be so lively, especially on a Monday. Mondays and mornings were the main enemies of my life and putting them together was just too horrible to even think about. Somebody should really change the schedule for Mondays, making it so that we could come in three hours later than we usually did, you know, to ease us into coming to school. That would be nice.

“Mumfdng,” I replied in my raspy old man voice. It took a while for my vocal cords to warm up. They hated Mondays and mornings too.

“Come on, Piper,” she whined as she pinched my cheek. “Wakey, wakey."

I swear, if she pinches me one more time, I’ll…do something worse. Again, another reason why Mondays suck: you can’t think of good comebacks.

She flicked her wrist on me as she gave up and started twisting the dial on her locker. Naomi bobbed her head to whatever song she had stuck in her mind this time, making her black wavy hair swish back and forth. I wish I had glossy hair like that. I am only gifted with this ridiculous red hair from my mom. Of all the genes she could have passed down, like perfect skin, or curves, or even eyebrows that never needed a waxing because they are the most ideal eyebrows in the world. But no, I’m given the red hair, clearly giving people the chance to call me “Carrot Top”. No wonder Archie hated Reggie, I would too if someone called me that.

“Hellooo,” a voice said from behind me.

I turned around and saw it was only Daniel with a grin on his face. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him stop smiling.

I grunted in response, leaving Nay to be the one giving the greeting. “Hey Danny,” she mirrored his smile. He went over and kissed her on the cheek. “You look great today.”

She flipped down the bill of his baseball cap. “Thank ya very much.”

Daniel and Naomi had been going out since last year and thankfully they were the respectful couple and not the ones always on each other. Those people just gross me out.

Daniel took off his hat and put it on Nay’s head while she asked, “So Pipe, what did you do over your weekend?”

“Helped my mom with my aunt’s last minute plans, but mostly read a book and watched TV,” I answered plainly.

“Again?! Piper, you never do anything fun! Why don’t you go out to some parties or something? I bet you could dance pretty well if you actually went to one,” Naomi wagged a finger in my face.

Ugh, I hated this speech. She gave it to me every Monday when I explained about my weekend. Apparently, I’m not the most exciting person in the world. Fine, somebody pass out some glow sticks and we’ll have a rockin’ time. Glow sticks, whoop whoop!

“Or at least come out with us,” Danny said. “You know you’re our friend."

Naomi nodded. “That would be super fun! We could find someone to set you up with while we’re out.”

I shook my head. “Uh, no thanks. Dating is not a priority of mine right now.”

She put her hands on her hips, “Then are you saying you’ll be a third wheel your whole life?”

“No. I have never been a third wheel anyway. I’ve always been a one wheel,” I proclaimed.

Like a unicycle, I thought. Unicycles are way more awesome than a tricycle, even better than a bicycle. Unicycles take courage to ride while having excellent balance and stability. I have excellent balance, I’m stable.