The Girl Who Never Spoke

Chapter Seven

    Doing the project at Rory's (and Rowan's) house wasn't that bad. Once we walked in Rowan grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me over to an older version of her, who I assumed was her mother, Mrs. Calloway. " Hey Mom! This is my BFF Renée I was telling you about!" Did she just call me her BFF? "She's the one sleeping over with me tomorrow!"
    "Why hello sweetie! I'm Rowan and Rory's mom. Nice to meet you!"
    "Nice to meet you to!", was all I could manage.
    Just then, Rory came bursting into the room. "Excuse me Rowan, but right now, she's my friend, not yours. Now, we have to go work on our project!" And that's exactly what we did. We planned out what kind of hands we'd take pictures of and then went downtown to do it. All the people were really friendly and Rory did most of that talking! The next day we handed in our pictures ready and turned in. Miss Carol loved them!

•••

Tonight was the dance night. Rowan, as she said, helped me pick out my outfit. We decided on straight hair, skinny jeans, and a shimmery black tank top, with ankle boots. By 5 I was dressed and ready to be picked up. At exactly 5:02, a car pulled in the driveway. I grabbed my wristlet and headed out the door. "RENÉE!!!!" Rowan squealed. " YOU LOOK FABULOUS! This is gonna be awesome!"

Once we got to the school, Rowan wanted to take a picture in front of the "Welcome West Wing High Freshman" banner. "Omg!! We look so cute! Would you mind if I posted this on Instagram?"
"Go ahead."
"Great!! What's your username?"
" It's _renéezoe_"
"Okay! I'll tag you!"

As soon as we walked into the building, I saw multicolor flashing lights and heard loud pop music. Rowan squealed for the hundredth time. "This is gonna be SO. MUCH. FUN!!!!!"

The DJ played some popular songs that everyone knew. Rowan and I jumped around and sang at the top of our lungs. Huh, I was actually doing normal teenager stuff! "Rowan, I've gotta go take pictures for the photography club. Would you mind posing for a picture?"
"I'd love to!"
Rowan struck a pose, arms open wide and above her head, her face scrunched up in a duck face. I snapped a pic. "That looks amazing!" I noted "I'll meet you back here in 15 minutes, I have to getting at least 10 pictures for my photography assignment."
"Alright! Don't be gone long!"

I walked around, snapping pictures as I went. In the 15 minutes I walked around, I got 22 pictures! Some were of the lights, people dancing, I had people pose. I'd definitely get an A+ on this assignment, if it were graded. I made my way back to Rowan. "Hey!!! You're back! Let's dance some more!" And so we did!

After awhile, a slow song came on. A blonde hair dude came over to Rowan, asking her if she wanted to dance, and she, of course, agreed. Since I had no one to dance with, I sat in the corner. Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice. "Have no fear, Rory is here!" He laughed. "So, neither of us have anyone to dance with, soooo maybe we could dance together?" He ran his fingers through his hair.
"Uh sure" I blushed.