The New Kid

"Do You Like My Bow?"

After four hours of curling, straightening, hair-spraying, braiding, and makeup-ing, all Liza felt comfortable with was a nice bow with her hair down. She did look pretty good with her hair straightened, though, so she took the bow along with a straightener to use later. The next day she carefully put the bow on the side of her hair. She thought it looked a little weird, but that’s what Jen had told her to do, so she trusted her. Feeling extremely self-conscious, she walked out the door.

When she got to school, she went straight to first hour. She wanted to see if anyone noticed. Liza sat down next to Ryan, half hoping he’d say something and half hoping he wouldn’t.

“Hey Liza! Wow, you look… different.”

“Thanks Ryan. I wanted to try something new.” She paused. “Do you like my bow?”

He nodded, then looked away. Liza turned too, suddenly self-conscious again. To her relief, the bell rang and Mr. Mason called for everyone’s attention.

“This unit, we’re going to do a project. You’ll team up with a partner to make a poster about the book we’ve been reading for the past few weeks. It should have a 150-word summary and drawings of characters in the story. This will be worth twenty percent of your grade, so make sure you team up with someone that knows their Spanish.” A collective groan swept through the class. Liza just smiled; she understood the story and was great at drawing and Spanish. This would be a cinch. “We won’t choose partners for two days, as we need to go over vocabulary, so you can think about who you want to partner up with.” He walked back to his desk and started working on the computer to pull up the vocabulary for the unit.

Tony tapped Liza’s shoulder. “I like your hair,” he said, grinning.

“You... you do?” For some reason that made her flustered.

Staring intently at her, he replied, “Yeah. That bow really compliments your eyes.” He laughed at how uncomfortable that made her.

In her next hour, she got a compliment from a popular girl that had never talked to her before. “That bow is super chic!” she said.

As she passed a group of girls in the halls, one of them said, “Oh. My. Gosh. That bow is so cute!”

Even a teacher commented on her appearance. “Elizabeth, you look very nice today.”

At lunch, Liza thanked Jen for her expertise. “I got tons of compliments! Plus, a certain boy liked it…” She smiled mysteriously.  

“Oooh!! You’re crushing! Who is it? Do I know who it is? I told you it would help!” As interested as Jen was, Ryan seemed to perk up a little too.

“His name is Tony. He’s new. But I want to come over tomorrow morning for a real makeover.”  At that, Jen hugged her. Ryan rolled his eyes.

“This will be great. I’ll straighten your hair, braid it a little, give you a headband, doll you up with some makeup… You’ll be the prettiest girl in school!” Liza just laughed; she knew that wouldn’t be true. But she definitely was excited to have the chance to get Tony’s attention.

“This will be great. I’ll straighten your hair, braid it a little, give you a headband, doll you up with some makeup… You’ll be the prettiest girl in school!” Liza just laughed; she knew that wouldn’t be true. But she definitely was excited to have the chance to get Tony’s attention.