Painted Smiles [completed]

September 14

I have to admit: I was expecting great things from today. I was excited to prove Dakota wrong about Dolly and tell Mrs. Finch that everything was okay, but nothing really went as planned.

I decided to look nice, which is a once in a while occasion. I wore a salmon shirt that was tucked into a coral skirt. I wore my navy blue keds which matched my navy blue eyeshadow, and even decided to wear a pink bracelet. (I think my new thing is only wearing two bracelets on my right wrist, one of which has to be my Lokai bracelet since it goes with everything.)

I got to school with my chin held high. My nose was raised up and my strong eyes were filled with determination. I was excited to see Dolly, and I wondered what she thought about yesterday.

Although I made a complete fool of myself when we were hanging out yesterday, I was excited to prove myself wrong about not being good enough. John was cool. He had a way with the ladies, and everyone knew that. Not only was he cool, but he was popular. He had more friends than I could count, while you could probably count my friends on your fingers.

But now I was at school. I had the familiar comfort of my friends with me at almost all times, especially when I was around Dolly.

Before I went to skinny hour, I went to Mrs. Finch's room, since I got to school early all of the time.

She was wearing a Fair Creek sweatshirt and sweatpants. Classic Mrs. Finch. She seemed to be setting up a lab so I just set my backpack down and placed my phone beside it.

She looked over and took off her glasses so she could get a good look at me from afar.

"Claire! How's it going with that 'person'?"

I cleared my throat as I thought of my response. I was the one to suggest hanging out to Dolly... I was the one who came to her, when it should've been opposite.

"You're not gonna like this, but I went to see a movie with them."

Her eyes widened and she put her glasses on a desk in front of her. We were practically standing on opposite sides of the room, but it felt like this was some sort of therapeutic conversation already.

"Well... Was it good?"

I nodded and she smiled a bit. Disappointment created wrinkles on her skin as she continued to look at me. Still, I think she was mostly worried about me, just like a cat would with her little kittens.

"I see no problem if everything's-"

"I love a girl."

I didn't mean to cut her off, and I especially didn't mean to say that, but it happened to slip out. At first, I saw no expression on her kind face. It was a look of astonishment that my own mother gave me when I confided with her, so I was terrified. I was terrified that one of the only adult figures I can go to for advice was about to reject me for being queer.

"Well, that's scandalous!" She suddenly burst out laughing.

I didn't know what I felt, but it was enough to let the paint slide off my face. I laughed, and I'm sure it had at least some mixture of relief and happiness.

When we both finally stopped, she walked up to me and gave me a warm hug, mostly because of her sweatshirt. I was so glad to finally get that off my chest.

"So tell me all about this girl," she mumbled while finishing the hug.

I looked up at her with a wide smile and blushed a bit. I wasn't sure how I felt about this yet, but I was relieved.

I didn't know how to explain Dolly, so I came up with the best that I could. "Her name is Dolly. She's really pretty and funny, but she has an emotional side like me. We used to date, but then she left me. I was really upset and angry at her all summer, but then we both apologized for being rude and became fiends again."