Jenny’s memories of her new, dorky life had by now settled in and permanently replaced all of her old, popular life. She vividly recalled being picked on by the popular girls in school and never getting any attention from boys… finally one day, she just accepted and settled into her role as the school nerd. And now, she had never been happier!
She recalled the day she and Kyle first met, when she had bumped into him in the school library—literally. She, the picture-perfect geekette, strode into the library with a stack of books nearly up to her chin. A pair of mousy brown pigtails swung behind her, and she had to be careful where she placed her perfectly shined round-toed mary janes so that she wouldn’t trip. All this carefulness was for nothing, however— Trish and Alex, two of the popular girls in school, had spotted her entrance and we laughing uproariously at the sight. Jenny no longer remember that Trish and Alex had once been her adoring groupies… now, however, the girls confided for a moment and, as Jenny approached, Trish stuck out her foot. In a flash, she was sprawled on the floor, books scattered everywhere. The girls snickered behind their hands as Jenny, flustered and tearful, stood hurriedly. Without the stack of books, they could see that she was wearing her usual peter-pan collar blouse, today with an ugly brown cardigan. She had buttoned the cardigan’s top button only, folding her collar out over the sweater’s neckline. The girls rolled their eyes at this hopelessly geeky getup, and Jenny, who looked like she was about to tell them off, instead turned scarlet and scrambled to pick her books up, avoiding the girls’ eyes.
After returning the books to the librarian— her only friend in the whole school— Jenny skipped excitedly to the nonfiction shelves. Normally she was very quiet and demure, never attracting any attention to herself, but, gosh, she was just so excited to learn!
For a second time that day, Jenny took a tumble as she turned a corner into the encyclopedias fell head-on into one of her classmates. “GUH!” they both said as they toppled to the floor in an awkward pile.
“GOSH!” said Jenny, “I’m sho shorry, golly, I washn’t even looking…” she groped around on the floor instinctively, finding her glasses and mashing them back onto her pimply face. Something was strange though… she felt odd…
“Haw haw (snort)” said the classmate, “I think we have each othersh’ glasshes!” Taking his own (leaving her squinting and helpless, looking like a little mole), he put her own thick-framed glasses back onto her face, refastening the chain that allowed her to hang them around her neck when not in use (these were her special library glasses, of course). She could see him clearly now… pale skin, buck teeth, a Battlestar Gallactica t-shirt tucked into his shorts. Jenny found herself stammering even worse. “T-t-thanksh… um… uh… what’sh your name?” she said, looking down at her shiny shoes and biting her lower lip.