My Second kiss

Chapter 3

Chapter Three

I looked down at My dress as I stood awkwardly outside the doors of my school's gymnasium. The bottom ruffle by my knees was wrinkled from sitting on it all day in classes, and I wasn't sure if my flat red shoes matched the red in my skirt. It seemed a little off. Clarissa and Nina had insisted that they go into the bathroom to look at themselves in the mirror before going into the dance. The noise coming from the girl's bathroom was loud, and I could smell hairspray all the way out in the hall. I wasn't about to go in there. So I stood by myself, gazing nervously through the open doors that led to the big room full of giggling teenagers and blaring music.

The gymnasium, which was the size of one full basketball court, was stripped of all of its athleticism. The main lights were off, and the only lighting came from a pink, blue, and green disco ball at the front of the room near the disk jockey table. Crepe paper and balloons-the same style that had been in the hall all week-hung from the ceiling and doors. In fact, it looked like the ninth-grade activities committee had just stripped the halls of all their decorations and hastily taped them all over the gymnasium. I tried to sigh, but I was too nervous to catch a full breath. I was starting to feel nauseous when Clarissa and Nina appeared at my sides.

"Ready?" Clarissa asked with a bubbly voice. This was just the sort of thing that she had been waiting all year for. It had the opposite effect on me. I couldn't stop thinking about Trace and the last dance. I hadn't seen him yet, and I was glad. Maybe he wasn't here. Maybe he had gotten permission to check out early. A flash of relief and disappointment swept through me.

Clarissa and Nina each took one of my hands as we walked carefully through the opened double doors.

I'm sure we looked utterly insecure and dorky. But that's exactly what we were. The room was huge, but it seemed even bigger being crammed with three hundred seventh, eighth, and ninth graders. Most of the ninth graders were crowded up front

by the disco ball. I spotted a few kids that I recognized as eighth graders standing in the middle talking, and it was obvious that the seventh graders were the small kids lined up against the surrounding walls. I was about to go take a place beside them when Clarissa started leading our little trio to the front of the room. I anchored my feet to the wood floor.

"Where are you taking us?" I asked between my teeth, my eyes wide with horror.

Clarissa looked at me with disgust.

"There is no way we are staying back here with all the lame eighth graders."

"But we are lame eighth graders!" I rebutted.

"Gemma!" Clarissa stomped her foot. "You cannot expect to dance the last dance with anyone if you don't get out there and show them what you can do!"

"But I can't do anything! I don't know how to dance or shimmy or even sway side to side without looking like an idiot!"

Clarissa rolled her eyes and looked at Nina. "This seriously should have come up before today." She

looked back at me. "Just do what I do and you'll be fine." She then pulled me harder than I was expecting,

and I stumbled forward, towing quiet Nina behind me.

Clarissa led us straight past the scattered eighth graders and into the squashed group of ninth graders at the front of the room. We bumped into a different person every step we took. I could feel their eyes blaring into my skull, and I knew they were wondering why a group of eighth graders-and not even cool eighth graders at that-were invading their personal space.

"Who invited the beanie babies?" a loud male voice boomed from somewhere in the crowd. I knew he was referring to us, and so did everyone else who stared at us in silence. I was too afraid to look toward the voice that sounded much too old to belong to a junior high student. I stopped breathing completely. I wanted to turn around and run out the back door and not look behind me until I was safely outside the school boundaries. But then I heard a familiar voice. "Leave them alone, Conrad." I turned around, and so close to me I could hear him breathing was my Jess. I was so happy to see him I could hardly contain myself. But I had to stay cool. Screaming and giving him a big hug like I wanted wouldn't help either one of our reputations. Thankfully, Jess didn't care much about his. He put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it gently. "Hey."