Good Enough

Chapter 2

If there's any pro tip I could share with you, it's this: don't go to bed with makeup on. My alarm went off at 4:45 am as usual, and my pillow was covered in streaks of eyeliner and mascara. Grudgingly, I peeled myself out of the bed going through my typical routine: bathroom, brush teeth, and scrub my face. I got dressed today attempting to put in a bit more effort than usual. After all, this was one of the last warm days of the year. Plus, I had to make just about a million announcements at assembly today. After fifteen minutes of deliberation, I settled on a simple, soft blue dress with short sleeves and fell just above the knee. I paired it with my cute and comfortable black ankle boots that would keep my feet from aching as I trekked around my five mile wide campus. That's not an exaggeration either, my high school could have passed for a small town. I was dressed and ready with my books and soccer gear by 5:30, but since I didn't have to leave my house for an hour, I worked on the rest of last night's homework before heading out the door.

Per usual, I was one of the first day students awake and at school. The boarders were still in their dorms and in bed. But I needed to get a head start. First stop: my locker. I switched out my homework for my binders for Spanish and economics. Then I headed to the dining hall for breakfast. Yes, my school has a dining hall, and yes it serves a full breakfast buffet. It's actually quite over the top. As I sat down with my food and my reading for English, Para came bounding through the door, her hair - long and straight in contrast to my own - flew in a tangle around her. She seemed a bit disheveled and very clearly stressed out.

"Blay! I need you ASAP!"

"Hun, what's wrong?" I fully expected her disaster to be something along the lines of smudging her mascara or forgetting to text her mom what she wanted for dinner. What actually came out of her mouth was something I never could have predicted.

"Someone stole all the dance decorations! And now we can't have the dance because the school board called the dance committee irresponsible, and they won't refund us, but you have to understand it wasn't our fault! But then I thought, "Hey! What if they weren't stolen just never delivered? But then I was like oh no Blay dropped them off, and there's no way she took them cuz she's Blay. I mean you did drop them off, right?"

Her long spew of words was followed by the most menacing look I had seen her muster.

"Of course I dropped them off, Para. I remember as soon as you handed me the box of stuff, I began walking to the --" I stopped abruptly.

"What happened, Blay?"

She was not going to like this. "Well, you see, I really was on my way to the dean's office, but then I crashed into this kid who then after rudely telling me to get out of his way offered to take the box for me. I'm so sorry Par!"

"Oh my word! I can't believe this is happening... who was it?"

"That's the thing! I had no idea who it was! And you know me. I know everyone!"

"Wait. There's someone you don't know? We have to get to the bottom of this, then."

"I'll do anything to help you out Blay. Really, I will! This is all my fault. I'm so sorry!"

She let out a huge say, and no amount of apologies could have expressed just how badly I felt. "It's okay. I know you didn't mean to. We'll get to the bottom of this."

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The rest of my day passed uneventfully. Classes were pretty boring. Yes, every single one: English, history, economics, and government went by in a hazy blur. My student government meeting ended early. I had finished my column for the newspaper already, and most of my homework was done. I just had to head to the book club meeting, do some planning with Annalise, and then I could rest. This was all very good because I was worried sick about the supplies. So my few minutes of free time could be spent hunting this mischievous box down. Imagine if the entire dance had to be cancelled! It would be all my fault! But I had to keep calm. I told myself over and over again that we would find the box and the kid who took them.

When I got to book club, everyone was already in deep discussion. I gave Annalise, a surprised smile. "Wow! Everyone seems to have really liked that last chapter. What are we talking about here?"

Bryan, a girl in the club who rarely spoke to anyone but was notorious for knowing all the gossip, piped up. "Oh no. It's not the book. It's the new hottie at school." I had not heard anything about any cute new kids. And I was student body rep, how could I not know about one of the few new students we got every year?

"We have a new kid?" I asked, "How come I didn't know? What grade is he in?"

Bryan continued, "He's in our class isn't that amazing?"

"But that's not possible. We can't get new seniors."

"Well, he's not new exactly. He was a part of this weird program thing, but whatever. He's new to our class though, and he's super hot. His name is Josiah."

After the round of new gossip, we turned back to the book at hand. We went through the plot before the meeting adjourned -- early. Packing up, I began to walk out of the room with Annalise.

"You know I feel like I've been missing a lot lately. Like the dance committee lost their supplies, and I think it's my fault because Para asked me to bring them to the office, but then I bumped into this kid who was super rude but then offered to take the box to the dean's office for me. And I'm pretty sure he must have them."

Annalise's eyes grew round, "Wow! That's insane! I really hope we find them. I want to have the dance still. Did you ask the kid about it?"

"Well, that's the thing. I didn't know who he was! I didn't recognize him which is why I feel like I've been off lately. I didn't know who that Joseph, John -

"Josiah."

"Yeah, Josiah. I didn't know who that kid was either."

Annalise furrowed her brows. This was her habit whenever she was trying to figure out a problem. I'd seen her do it a thousand times in math class when she was completing the challenge problem. "Maybe...maybe Josiah and dance box item kid is the same person? I mean, if they are, that'd be two birds in one stone."

"Hmm. Maybe, but this kid seemed super familiar with the school, and I don't think he was as attractive as everyone is making this Josiah kid sound. But thanks, Lise, I'll give it a shot."

"No problem, B. I'll see you later."

After that, I got into my car and started the drive home. I had to track this Josiah kid down. He might just be the answer to my problems. And, if not, then maybe I'd meet a new hot friend. Ha, that's funny. I was so single. But I was grateful that I had finished some work. I had a feeling tracking my mystery guy down was going to be tricky. It was definitely going to be a long night.