Persisting Anyway

2) Dress Shopping

It was too late to go to class since there was only fifteen minutes left. I decided to go to the library and finish the last bit of AP Literature homework I had.

But I was too distracted to focus on my homework. A certain face and a certain smile remained seared in my brain. Carter's face occupied my thoughts for most of the time in the library. My eyes wandered. For a few, slow minutes they watched a pair of boys battle on the chess board. What first started as a promising match turned into a game where one would move his king and then the other would move his.

A change of scenery brought me to briefly watch the latest episode of what looked like an intense action show, the next second brought a few computers with documents, and the next a group of freshman girls gossiping in hushed giggles. I followed their gaze to see what the fuss was all about.

I looked to find the one person who had prevented me from focusing. Carter Jones was walking past the windows of the library and met one of his buds halfway down the library walls. He took his friend's hand and pulled him closer to slap his back once. He was grinning from ear to ear, a smile I had only seen once in the car ride from the hospital. It was different from the one he greeted Amanda with.

And then it dawned on me.

This smile?

This smile was genuine.

The bell pulled me out of my thoughts; I quickly packed up and threw my bag over my shoulder as I walked through the doors. But, when I looked for him, I realized he was already walking in the opposite direction.

Instead, I walked towards the choir room to run into Rory and Claire.

"So I heard that you took a trip to the hospital with Carter Jones." Rory squealed, she was completely boy crazy. Rory still brags about how she and Josh Handerling, Carter's best friend, had a 'thing' when she first moved in sixth grade.

"Too bad it wasn't you with Josh, Rory." Claire commented.

Rory sighed. "Yeah, too bad, I think he would have found it completely and fantastically awkward! He probably gags at the thought of even looking at me. Oh well, at least I've got you two." She threw her arms across our shoulders and we laughed in agreement. We all knew it, so we openly joked about how none of the popular boys even knew our names, which was, sadly, probably true. But I was glad we weren't popular, it was too much stress. With these two I had no drama.

I was caught up in my thoughts when Claire burst out excitedly.

"Okay, we need to go shopping for homecoming dresses!" Claire squealed. Claire had been excited about homecoming for the last month.

"Claire, homecoming is not for almost a month." I reminded her.

"But all the other girls might get the good dresses, and then we will be with the freaking ugly dresses that were left on the rack for a reason." Rory was overly passionate about ugly clothes. Heaven forbid she wore the same jeans for two days in a row, let alone wear an 'ugly' clothing item.

"Okay, okay, fine. We can go, when do we want to go?" I asked.

"Tonight!" Rory's heart was definitely set on getting a good dress.

I sighed, "Fine, after school, I am going to drive home, and then will one of you pick me up? I have to grab my purse."

"I will pick up you and Claire. My car is better." Rory said.

"You just like it better because it's black and has a good sound system." I retorted.

"What can I say? My music has to be loud."