It's Hard to be Lee

2. Asking Him Out First

Lee aced the first week of school with the help of Yvette, Joe, and Mark. They were always together. They ate lunch together every day and had other classes together. Joe and Yvette were paired up most times and Lee and Mark were alone a lot. Lee had drama class with Joe, and he was the class clown.

"You know my boy is crazy about you," Joe told Lee in class one day.

"Who?"

"Duh! Only my ace, my homie, my partner in crime. Mark the Mack!"

"Oh." She liked Mark too. He was a sweet guy, mostly quiet, and smart, and had a lot going for him. Like her, he liked to write and they even let each other read their sappy stories they wrote.

"Oh? Well, I guess if you're Lee Anderson, you have dozens of guys all over you."

"Me? I don't!" Lee playfully pushed Joe. "Just that, Mark hasn't said anything to me like that. I thought he was fine with us being friends and that's it."

"Then you make the first move."

"Me?"

"Look, I already asked Yvette out for this weekend, let's make it a double date."

"Okay then, I'll ask him." There was always a first time for everything. These were not the old-fashioned days when a girl waited an eternity for a boy to ask them out. Nowadays, girls could step up to the plate.

She could easily text Mark, they had a private text thing going, but asking him out by text was lame. She scrolled through his IG and saw funny pictures of him and his baby sister. Nothing else too personal. She had not even heard him talk about his parents much.

She went on and on about how great she thought her parents were, but he never said anything, except how cool it was to be a big brother.

She did not know anything about that, being an only child.

By lunchtime, she felt she worked up enough courage. First, she met Yvette by her locker.

"What's up girl?" Yvette was in the middle of making a Tik Tok video that involved simply making faces. She was not up on the TikTok etiquette, so she watched her do her thing.

"Mark likes me."

Yvette huffed, making more faces for her video. "Tell me something I don't already know."

"Joe thinks I should ask him out."

"Go for it."

"I'm not that forward!" Lee whined. "Yvette!"

"Lee!" Yvette whined back to her. She stopped making faces at her phone and gave Lee her full attention. "What do you want me to do?"

"You have to help me. Tell me what to say. Do I just walk up to him and say, go on a date with me?"

"Sounds about right," she smiled, putting an arm around Lee. "It helps that you are a totally hot babe, okay. Annnnnd, he totally is into you. The boy is ga-ga."

"Really?"

"Lee, do you not see how he always wants to be around you? How he looks at you. Hello, earth to Lee Anderson, you're supposed to be Ms. Smarty Pants."

"Forget you!" Lee pouted.

A girl wearing a ponytail high on her head, with the school colors of red and white ribbons around it, caught Lee's attention. Then she noticed another, then another, and several more. She looked around at everyone trying to figure it out. Since when were ponytails in and why was every girl in school wearing one? Besides her and Yvette.

"Yvette, do you see that?"

"What?"

"Everyone is wearing ponytails!" Lee examined more of the girls as they walked by. The blondes, the brunettes, the weaves, the braids, all the girls had the one ponytail sitting up high on their heads. As diverse as Larkin High School was, every shade of girl she saw had the same thing going on.