The Puberty Diaries

Chapter 2: Psychological Maturation

The bus ride to Saguaro High took thirty minutes per my rough estimate, and by the time I arrived, there was over an hour left until school actually started, though that was nothing new for me. As the bus traveled through a short stretch of desert between the neighborhood and the town where my school was, I stared out the window for almost the whole time (only refraining when the sun entered my view). Even though I had lived in Phoenix for my entire life at that point, the sight of the dusty landscape still seemed so aesthetically captivating to me. The ground was barren and flat, but in a very attractive way, and the countless shades of brown, orange, red, and the occasional pink contrasted greatly against the sporadic green cacti. Put that right next to what remained of the sunrise, and you had a scene that I would never get tired of no matter how long I stared at it.

I would've been considerably more pissed off at Mom for making me get up so early for school everyday, if not for the fact that almost all of my good friends were usually present on campus well before school hours (possibly for the same reason). Even so, I still knew that Mom had her reasons for such, which included dropping Felipe off at elementary school since Dad was rarely able to. Not to mention that she often had to leave early for photo-shoots, and simply could not trust Grandma to supervise us kids without being supervised herself.

Saguaro High was essentially the last school in the Saguaro School District, and was physically connected to the identically-named middle school via a pair of glass hallways that both convened at a massive, two-story cafeteria. The elementary school that Felipe attended was (as could be expected) the first school that a student would normally attend in the district, but it was just far enough away from the other buildings that Mom couldn't trust him riding the bus alone to get there. Finally, there was also St. Theodore University, which... technically wasn't an official part of the district, but it was located almost directly outside the boundaries of the campus, and the majority of the seniors ended up just going there after graduation anyway. Personally, I was anything but terrified of this new transition, because aside from increased freedoms and a new set of teachers, I would not have to put up with anything too drastically different from the middle school.

The bus always stopped right on the edge of my school's campus. I instinctively thanked the bus-driver and disembarked. I hastened towards a small strip-mall just across the street, for it housed a Starbucks that I routinely visited for my secret caffeine fix (Mom and Dad banned the stuff, except on weekends). I stepped in, noticing something a bit different - almost as if it was a direct response to my different physical appearance that day. As opposed to one of the usual three baristas who normally served me, here was a completely new employee (or at least one who had seldom worked outside the back of the establishment)... and hot damn was he cute!

He was an African-American man with an incredibly young face and a jet-black afro that glistened under the artificial ceiling-lights (letting me know just how well he took care of it). He had a skinny form and a day's beard, and given his professionally-worn uniform, the only areas of skin he had exposed aside from his head were the majority of his arms, which were twiggy as well, but I could tell he at least exercised them once in a while. Stepping closer, I was able to make out the engraved words on his fools' gold name-tag: "Toby Lewis". Above all, however, I was feeling more than an innocent crush on this man. No, I was feeling desire. The desire to meet up with him alone and engage in an activity that would somehow involve all of my new body parts.

Whoa there, calm down! You're only fourteen and he's probably thirty!

If it weren't for that closer look at his face that suddenly made him less physically attractive, I probably would've become a nervous wreck while trying to place my order. Thankfully, I managed to almost completely recompose myself.