It's Hard to be Lee

10. Finding a New

Friday could not come fast enough for her.

After school she spent an hour with her acting teacher Mr. Bennett, to work on some tricks to pronunciation and projection of her voice. She had to get rid of her Midwest twang to land most acting roles. No hard Rs, no slang, no "country grammar" as they called it back in St. Louis.

Lee loved doing the tongue twisters Mr. Bennett had her work on. She had them memorized to perfection.

"Take two terrific tigers, tie tight their tails together, tickler their tender toenails till totally tired their tempers."

She could say them slow or fast, with her Midwest accent, or with her everyday girl diction, she learned to perfect. They were a piece of cake to her, and she never got tongue-tied. They also worked on adding new accents and dialects. Lee could do a fierce Puerto Rican and French Creole, since her race was ambiguous, she could audition for roles calling for other ethnicities

"Lee, you're the best student I have ever taught," Mr. Bennett said to her.

"Oh, you're just saying that."

"I'm serious."

She thought about that. Mr. Bennett had been in the business for years. He had only been teaching for less than ten years. In that time, some of the best actors came from their school.

"Better than Daniel Hartwell?" He was her idol, who she thrived to be one day.

"You will be," he said to her. "You know, we have a play coming up, I expect you to audition."

She groaned and slunk down in her chair. "Mr. Bennett, I don't have time for—"

"You'll make time," he said to her.

She groaned again and slapped her forehead. Great! More things to take up her time. How was she ever going to get to spend time with Julius? She was looking forward to hanging out with him tonight. She was glad they were finishing up. She hurried outside where Julius waited in his car.

"Hey, neat car," she said.

"It's my dad's. I hope to get one soon." Julius did not say anything for a moment, sat there before he added, "You hungry?"

She shrugged. "Not really." Yeah, this was going great. Let the hot guy think she was not interested when she wanted to hang with him all night long.

"Let's go get ice cream."

"Sure."

Lots of fellow Larkin High teens were hanging out at Baskin Robbins. Lee spotted FeeFee with Julius' friend, Clinton, who was also a football player, and they headed their way.

"Hey, girl! Hey Julius!" FeeFee said.

"Zup Jules," Clint said and gave him a fist bump.

"I guess this is the spot, huh?" Julius looked around, nodding to a few people he knew.

"What flavor do you have?" Lee asked FeeFee, looking at her ice cream.

"Chocolate mocha."

"Eew!" Lee said.

"What do you want Lee, I'll get it," Julius said to her.

"Bubblegum," Lee said and smiled at him as he walked over to the counter.

"Now eww to that!" FeeFee said.

Lee loved hanging with her friends. She had not done it in a long time. She and Mark still talked and ate lunch together, but it was not the same. Yvette and Joe were still together so Lee and Mark just felt odd.

"So did you hear?" FeeFee asked.

"Hear what?"

"Yvette and Joe had a big argument and I think it's over."

"No way!" Lee said.

"Yes, way. Yvette was hysterical. It happened after school. Supposedly Yvette saw Joe kissing another girl."

She did not believe that at all. Joe was not that type of guy. Then again, she was too young to understand why guys did what they did.

"No way! Not Joe."

"Well, he denied it, but Yvette wasn't having it."

"Oh man, I need to go get my girl." She waited for Julius to walk over with their ice cream. "Uh, Julius...would you mind if we left? I need to go see a friend."

"Oh. Okay. Let me go get some lids for these to take it to go," he said, walking back up to the counter.

"Lee, he's a good catch, huh?" FeeFee said to her.

"Yeah, my boy is a perfect gentleman," Clint said.

"I'll remember that."

Lee asked Julius to drop her off at Yvette's.

"Are you going to be long? Do you want me to wait?"

"No, I live just down the street, I'll be fine. Thank you, I'm so sorry I ruined our date."

"No, this wasn't a date...yet. I hope I can get one soon." He took her hand. "One day I hope I have the pleasure of taking you on a real date."

He kissed her hand and Lee blushed. She got out of the car and walked up to Yvette's front door. Her mother let her in, and Lee went up to see her best friend and just as she expected, Yvette was still crying her head off.

She looked up when she saw Lee walk into her room. "Lee, what are you doing here?"

"Came to see my girl." Lee sat on the bed beside her. "I have ice cream, you want some?"

Yvette took the ice cream and ate a couple of spoonfuls before either one said a word.

"You heard?" Yvette finally said.

"Yeah."

"Oh Lee, he was with another girl!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! He had his arms around her, and they were close. Can't be sure he kissed her, but that's what it looked like to me."

"What did Joe say?"

"He was just talking! Ha!"

"Well, get over him. Like you said with Marc and me. There's plenty of fish out in the sea."

"But I'm not you Lee. Won't be able to just find someone new."

"Sure, you will. Come on, let's do a makeover. It'll make you feel better and have that eat-your-hear-out-Joe effect."

She first went to work on her mass of red hair as they washed it then blew dried it super straight. Then she pulled it up in a ponytail like hers, to the side. Yvette had bangs that framed her face and her green eyes. Then they started on her make-up. Lee was a pro at it now from working with several professional makeup artists. Then Yvette dressed in her hottest clothes, and they took several pics and posted them all over her Instagram.

"Let's make Tik-Tok videos," Lee said.

They did a couple of challenges and posted them and then goofed off and spammed some kids from school.

"Lee, thanks for hanging out with me and making me forget all about you know who. You're the bestest friend in the world," Yvette said and gave her a big hug.

"You want me to come over Monday and do your hair, so you look just as hot for school?"

"Oh, sure thing!"

"You're going to catch another hot boy in no time."