by Kerry Sparks
Chapter 2- Maybe Baby
Kermit’s cousin likes to hang out in front of my front door. I stomp my foot at him, but he just stares at me and croaks. Then he moves this bubble in his throat up and down. I throw grass at him, but it only seems to amuse him. Luckily, today a man is walking by with his dog.
“Sir? This is going to sound really crazy, but could you and your dog walk by my door for a minute? There’s a frog here, and he won’t move,” I explain.
The man gives me a very funny look like surely this kid is pulling my leg, but he, obligingly, comes over and the dog, a golden doodle, gets the frog to jump out of the way. I let out a huge sigh of relief.
“You got some kind of fear of frogs or something?” he asks.
“Yeah something like that,” I say.
He probably thinks I’m a total weirdo, but no worries. The frog is gone, and I can go inside my house.
After an hour of homework, I’m hungry. I snack on some Baked Lays potato chips. I don’t want to eat too much. My mom will be making something yummy for dinner for us, and besides, I don’t want to overeat with the dance being only two and a half weeks away.
I sit on the couch, and I start thinking. My thoughts are depressing me. My date is Lindy Masters, a female. My crush wants to go with me, though it’s not official, but I can’t go with him because Lindy likes him. Ugh! Why can’t she like someone else?
That’s it! If I can get her to like someone else then that will leave me free to go with Scott!
Who would be a good match for Lindy? It hit me like a ton of bricks. Roger Lenore! He’s totally hot, and he had just complimented Lindy on her legs the other day. He was perfect!
“He’s taken,” said Lindy.
“What?!” I asked.
We were back at school, sitting in the cafeteria. I thought I had come up with the perfect guy for her, but I had come up short.
“He’s already going with Nina Sanchez. She asked him a couple of weeks ago. All of the cute boys get taken early. You know that.”
“True,” I said.
I didn’t know that. I had absolutely no experience of going to a school dance. This would be my first dance so I had no idea you had to ask out the cute boys early. I blew out some air. Lots of it. Gallons maybe. Lindy gave me a funny look then stirred her applesauce. Then it was my turn to give her a funny look. Why would you stir your applesauce? Isn’t it like already blended?
I pouted for like two point two seconds then I put my game face on.
“I’m going to find you a date today,” I said, confidently.
Lindy looked worried. She adjusted her glasses nervously.
“No creeps ok?” she said.
I didn’t answer. I was already walking over to my next target.
“Ok?!” she frantically called after me.
I snickered inside. Miss Supermodel had her pantyhose in a bunch. But it was all in good fun because I was actually trying to help her get a date. She would be thanking me later. I kept walking. I was walking up to Tom Branson, a very cute seventh grader, who stood in the cafeteria line.
Lindy and I both prefer eighth graders since we were eighth graders ourselves, but it was too close to the dance to be picky. As the saying goes, “Desperate times call for desperate measures.” Seventh graders were fair game.
“Hey Tom,” I greeted.
“Hey,” he said coolly.
Tom had brown, chin length, wavy hair, and I’m not sure what color eyes. They looked red like a target symbol. I was on one mission and one mission only: to find a date for Lindy for the Snow Ball.
“Do you have a date for the Snow Ball yet?”
I showed no signs of nervousness. When an eighth grader talks to a seventh grader it’s kind of like a cat vs. a mouse. The eighth grader has the upper hand.
“Who wants to know?” he asked.
“Lindy Masters,” I said.
“She’s an eighth grader,” he said, coolly, to his friend.
“So…you interested?” I asked.
“Maybe Baby,” he said, “Let me get back to you tomorrow. Come find me at lunch tomorrow.”
“Let me get back to you” more than likely meant he had to ask mommy if he could go to the dance, or it could possibly mean that someone else had asked him, and now he had two choices to stew over. Either way we had a maybe. I returned to our table.
“He said maybe,” I announced proudly.
“Maybe?” she repeated.
“Yes maybe. That’s good. Maybe could mean yes,” I said with a positive attitude.
Lindy did not look pleased. She took off her glasses and began cleaning them with her napkin.
“Just forget it,” she said, “Don’t waste your time. Let’s just go together,” she said, rubbing invisible dirt off her lenses.
But I did want to waste my time. If I found Lindy a date then I could go with Scott. But Scott hadn’t even asked me yet. Maybe he didn’t want to ask me to the dance. Maybe he just had a math question he wanted to ask me about. He was in my Algebra class fifth period.
“DING!” the bell rang.
“Time for math. I’ll catch you later,” I said.
Scott cornered me right when I got in the room. He smelled good. I think he was wearing cologne. He’s the only boy I know at our school who wears cologne. It’s kind of nice. At least he cares about the way he smells. I couldn’t really pinpoint the actually scent he used. It was kind of like a cross between a pine tree and that brand new sneaker smell.
“Jen, are you going to the dance with anybody?” he blurted out.
“Nooo…”
I squirmed like a fish caught in a net. Now how was I going to get out of this one, and did I want to get out of this one?
“Do you want to go with me?” he asked.
“Well…you see. It’s like this Scott. I don’t really know you. And…my mom doesn’t let me go anywhere with anyone unless I know them,” I explained.
This was partially true. My mother told me this for adults, but it was ok for me to hang out with kids my own age. I was just stretching the truth. I had to. Otherwise, Lindy was going to disown me and make life at junior high absolutely unbearable for me. I would have to sit at lunch with Janitor Bob and his wet mop for the rest of the school year.
“Well, you can get to know me. Why don’t you walk home with me after school?” he suggested.
Scott lived in Lindy’s neighborhood. It wasn’t too far out of my way, but Lindy would see us if she was looking out the bus window, and she would also wonder why I wasn’t on the bus. Maybe I could just say that I was going to tutor him in math or something. Yeah. That could work.
“I guess that would be ok,” I said.
“Cool,” he said and smiled.
I smiled back.
OMG! I had such a crush on this kid!