The New Kid

Liza

Liza was standing on the beach, wet sand tickling her toes and waves lapping at her feet. She watched as children ran alongside dogs trying to catch the water. The wind caressed her cheek and gently lifted her hair. She stepped slowly forward, feeling the chill of the water envelop her. Putting her face under, she looked in wonder at the beauty below. She reached for the most beautiful shell she’d ever seen and brought it up out of the water. Starting to examine it, she dropped it in surprise when she heard a most unusual sound. What was that noise…?

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEE-- Liza groaned and slapped her alarm clock, fumbling for the off button. It was a good thing it was so loud and annoying, otherwise she’d never get up in time for school. Sliding out of bed, she tugged off her pajamas and picked a shirt off of the floor. Liza had always been sort of messy. Still yawning, she went out into the kitchen, poured herself a bowl of cereal, and played on her phone as she ate. The cereal got soggy before she could eat all of it, and she ended up dumping it in the sink. Trudging over to the bathroom, she wondered how to do her hair that day and quickly decided she was too tired to do anything complex. She pulled out a hair tie from the cabinet, drawing her frizzy brown hair back into a ponytail and figured she looked okay. Then she grabbed her backpack and headed out the door.

Of course her parents weren’t even awake yet. They obviously needed sleep more than she did. Every night they went to bed around two o’clock, which seemed crazy to her. Didn’t they want to sleep? Sleeping was Liza’s favorite thing to do, and she couldn’t imagine going to bed past midnight. That was already the next day! Her parents really were crazy. Shaking her head, she dispersed her thoughts and tried to focus. How many tests did she have at school today? Math… science… oh yeah, and history. Her worst class. She liked learning about history, but she always felt like most of it was memorization. Which she was horrible at, hence her bad grade. Other than that, she felt like she did pretty well in school. She had some friends, didn’t fail any classes, and still had some fun once in a while.

“Liza! Hey, Liza! Elizabeth!!” Startled from her thoughts, she looked up to see one of her best friends running towards her. She hadn’t realized how far she’d walked already; she could see the school.

“Hey, Jen. Why so excited? We’ve got six hours of school to go to still.” Smiling, she hugged her friend. Jen sidled up to her and they kept walking.

“Oh my gosh. You will never guess what just happened to me!” she said, beaming. Liza already knew what just happened to her. In fact, it happened almost every day: Jen just got asked on a date. At least twice a week she would run up to Liza, squealing with delight, saying the same thing she just said. Liza humored her, though she knew the answer. She just wondered who had asked.

“What just happened to you?” She feigned ignorance as she mouthed the words along with her friend. Sure enough…

“I just got asked out! Isn’t that amazing? That’s four this week!” She practically radiated happiness. Liza couldn’t understand how she could keep being excited about all these boys asking her out. It wasn’t really a rare occurrence. Now, if Liza was asked out, that would be a very different story…. Again she had to ask herself how they became best friends. After all, Jen was a popular. But Liza was more of an introvert: she liked books, sleeping, staying on top of her homework, and much preferred her home to anywhere else.

“Who asked you this time?” That was the only part that really mattered. If it was someone Jen liked, then she wouldn’t be able to shut up about him.

“Nobody important, really. No one I like, anyway,” she replied wistfully. But quickly her smile reappeared. “It was Johnny. I knew he liked me, but I wasn’t sure if he had the guts to ask me. Too bad I had to turn him down, he wasn’t so awful.”

“What? Why did you turn him down? In fact, why do you turn every boy down? I mean, true they’re not your favorites. So what? At least they show an interest in you.” Liza looked away, thinking of the number of times she’d been asked on a date. That number was zero. She didn’t mind too much though; she wasn’t really focused on boys anyway. Boys could wait. School was more important to her right now.

“Because I want my first date to be perfect! I want it to be with someone I really, really like. It just won’t be the same if it’s a pity date.” Jen glanced over at her friend, realizing what Liza’s last sentence had really meant. “I think if you pay more attention to your appearance you could get some boys. Like, put your hair down! It’s super pretty,” she said as she tugged the hair tie out of Liza’s locks. “There, that’s better. Maybe try my advice tomorrow, put on a little make-up, hairspray, a bow… It could all work for you!”

Liza reddened. “Well, I don’t know. But let’s get to class, or we’ll be late. And you know I can’t ever be late!” Laughing, they both ran through the hallway for their first class.