Geek - Boy Equals....

PART 1.....Alter Egos....

CHAPTER 1

Tabitha….

‘How long do high school reputations follow you around?’ she wondered, approaching THE door.  Stopping just outside, she paused, thinking about her own reputation.

What was it again?

Geek.

Nerd.

Hopeless virgin.

Class Salutatorian voted……..‘absolutely nothing’.

Shaking her head, she wondered if that little nugget would make it onto her school transcript.  But yet even as she wondered about it, she admitted, way down in some deep dark part of herself, that what she was about to do was the most excitement she’d had so far in her entire life.  Even as small as it was.

Ordinarily, she would have never, NEVER, have volunteered for something like this, but the sake of her school career, hence entire future, had depended on it.  As well as the sake of the school newsletter’s future and reputation.

Inside her brain, Toi’s disdainful comments still stung from earlier in the day.  “Are you planning to be a goof forever, or just until they expel us all?  Are you going to do it or not?”

“Someday,” she murmured now, even though Toi and the members of the Social Committee were nowhere in sight, “you’ll see that I’m more than just a goof.”  And it was true.

As she snapped back to reality, it occurred to her that she’d been standing outside the door for almost two full minutes.  Without further delay, she stepped into the crowded boys’ locker room and waited for something to happen.  After a full minute, Tabitha Camilla Holmes was mortified.  She’d expected some kind of attention from the boys inside changing their clothes; some stares, whistles, maybe a catcall or two. 

Instead she got nothing.  After the first glance up to see who was entering, most of the athletes just dropped their heads again and resumed either dressing or talking.  A few guys came in her direction, but just breezed by on their way out the door, one even bumping her in the process.  She waited, but no ‘Excuse me,’ floated back to her. 

‘I guess I’m just not hot enough.’  The hot sting of tears welled in her eyes.  If a girl like Toi Del Ray had walked in, there was no doubt that all of these boys would be tripping over their feet to rush over and flirt with her.  Toi and her friend, Caryn McClean, both would have had to fend off admiring stares and stray hands from the guys inside the locker room.  But not her; geeky, nerdy Tabitha, right?  It was just as her best friend, Olivia, would describe it: ‘Girls like us aren’t what guys like.’  Their other friend, Kaitlyn, would pout just like Tabitha, but at the end of the day, there wasn’t anything either one of them could do about it.

Tab was in the boys’ locker room to interview Rio Martine for the school newspaper.  And aside from her embarrassment at the boys’ disinterest, she was extremely nervous.  Not only was Rio totally handsome, but it was her first time inside the boys’ locker room.  And boys were actually in it at the moment!   Of course, Tabitha knew that she was what you would call a nerd; why not say it?  Everyone else at Golden Rock High did.

What she hadn’t expected were the boys’ blasé response to her presence.  As if she was lowly and insignificant.  Maybe just unpopular.  But even so, she was still a girl.  Didn’t boys get excited to see females in their locker room?  Even if she was a nerd, she still qualified as a female.  Didn’t she?

‘OK.  I am a strong, intelligent woman…..er, girl.’

The sight of the breathtakingly handsome quarterback caught her off-guard.  “Rio,” she murmured.  There he stood, back facing her, toweling off the last drops from a shower.  Standing a little further back from everyone, he didn’t even seem to notice that she’d entered the room.