Tina sighed loudly, looking forlornly at her reflection. She wasn't pretty, she was plain-- not as bad, maybe, but not good.
"What's wrong, sister?" asked Maddy, Tina's not-quite-friend, but definitely not enemy. Whereas Tina was more or less in the "Brains" crowd, Maddy was, well, in her own classification. Tina tended to be quit and get lost in the background. Maddy was outspoken and, with her eclectic style, stood out. The pair were like a mismatched pair of Converse tennis shoes-- the same size and shape, but Tina was a plain white Converse and Maddy a lime green one.
"Its Tom," Tina replied, sighing again. "I just can't stop thinking about him, and he doesn't even know I exist."
"Oh, him," Maddy said. Personally, she suspected Tom to be gay, but telling Tina that would only upset her-- and Tina probably wouldn't believe it, anyway. Correction: Tina would REFUSE to believe it. Maddy leaned in close to the mirror and touched up her too red lipstick. "Have you tried the direct approach-- corner him and tell him how you feel?"
"I couldn't!" Tina gasped, jerking back. "I'd die!"
"Only if you had a heart attack," Maddy chided her. "And, seeing as how you joined the cross country team because he's on the cross country team-- and then managed to letter-- I don't think you'll be having a heart attack any time soon. That only happens to old and out of shape people."
"I had a second cousin who--"
"Don't interrupt me when I am getting into a good lecture!" interrupted Maddy. With a clinking and clacking of the many cheap bracelets on her wrists, the young lady set her hand painted leather purse on the counter. "I was just getting up a good head of steam. Anyway, since I kind of thought you still felt the same about him, and can't seem to talk to him, I got another idea."
"What's that?" asked the other girl. She knew Maddy wasn't actually mad at her for interrupting. They were always interrupting each other, and always mock lecturing each other in mock annoyance. She brushed a lock of mousy brown hair out of her eyes as she watched Maddy pull something out of the seemingly bottomless purse.
"A card," Maddy replied simply, handing Tina a seemingly ordinary Valentines Day card. "If you can't bring yourself to hand it to him, stick it in his locker. But for God's sake, at least put your name on it."
"A card?" asked Tina doubtfully, taking it from her friend's hand.
Maddy shrugged.
"Some of the female royalty of the school were talking about how these cards would make any boy fall hopelessly in love with you. Supposedly they come from some store called Spell's R Us or something. Anyway, they were ignoring me as usual, so I lifted some. I've been giving them to girls I know who are having boy trouble. If they work: great. If they don't, you're not any worse off, and he at least knows you think about him, and the school snobs are out some cards."
"Suppose I get it in the wrong locker?"
Maddy rolled her eyes.
"I *know* you *know* which locker is his-- plus you could always put his name on the envelope," she suggested. Maddy supposed she could see what Tina saw in Tom-- the guy wasn't bad looking, although really heavy for a runner, he didn't smoke, drink, hell, he probably didn't even swear! But, well, he was weird. Not a serial killer weird (then Maddy might have been interested), but a more vaguely nerdy, talks to himself and has a bunch of nervous habits weird. Oh, and his hair seemed to be always greasy and he wore thick glasses. (At least they were wire-rims and not cheap, black plastic.)
Tina looked at the card nervously.
"I don't know..."
"Look. I'm not letting you out of this bathroom until you've signed the card, and then WE are going straight to his locker and in it goes!"
"I can't put it in his locker!" objected Tina nervously. "I don't know his combination!"
Maddy groaned and rolled her eyes.
"You don't NEED to open his locker! These have been in this school since, like, the 1950s or something! They have gaps in them between the door and the door frame. Hell, the stoner kids hide their weed between the top of their lockers and that slanted metal roof thing that's on top of them for some reason. Besides, I lifted a pass key to the lockers from the lock box in the principal's office."
"You didn't!"
"I did. Now sign."
-------
Tom slouched through the hall to his locker. Thankfully gym class was over. There were any number of reasons gym was hell. 1) Tom wasn't any good at sports (even cross country-- four years on j.v.), 2) Coach Harms always took a forty-five minute coffee break during each class he taught, 3) Dale, one of the schools bullies-- a stoner-bully-- had it in for Tom apparently because Tom wasn't any good at sports and smarter than Dale. Dale had been throwing basketballs as hard at he could at Tom's head whenever he'd got the chance during the class. Fortunately, a couple of the wrestling team guys had decided to keep the ball away from Dale. Unfortunately, by that time about a half hour had passed, and Dale had gotten the ball something like ten or twenty times. Ouch.
Sighing, he briefly leaned his head against the cool metal of the locker's door. Why did he keep talking himself out of suicide? ANYTHING had to be better than this shit hole of a school, and crappy life! Eyes closed he listed his reasons-- fist and foremost it would hurt people he didn't want hurt and only prove to assholes like Dale he was weak. And he couldn't think of any foolproof way to frame Dale for his death.
Straightening, he realized he'd be late for class: History. And today was a test he hadn't studied for (he'd been on-line all night yet again), so he wanted as much time as possible! Quickly he yanked open the locker...
...and a card fell out.
Baffled, he picked it up and opened it.
"Tommy," it began. Inwardly he groaned. He much preferred "Tom." Whoever gave it to him didn't seem to know anything about him. The rest of it seemed to be a single, pre-printed line and a signature. He read the rest. "We will be perfect together, Love Tina."
Tina? Tom blinked. T-I-N-A The name seemed to somehow echo through his mind and, somehow, through his entire body. He felt flushed, lightheaded, with a wave of goosebumps followed by some sort of warm, happy, almost EROTIC thrill. Tina! His mind quickly shuffled through the Tina's he knew (not many-- a cousin, a neighborhood girl, about two or three others) and came up with the only possible Tina she could be: the girl from his cross country team! For the seemingly first time he realized she had perfect soft brown hair, breasts just the right size for his hands to hold, hips and a butt which looked perfect in her running shorts, and, and everything-- EVERYTHING! about her was perfect! And she'd chosen HIM!
He had the hardest erection EVER, and he didn't care if anyone noticed.
Barely remembering to grab his text books, Tom practically floated to his History class, and couldn't help wondering what class Tina was in. The end of the school day was HOURS away!
-----
Tom vaguely wondered why his pants were all now so loose. His size 34s wouldn't even think about staying up without a belt, and he was all they way in on the notches and could still pull his pants off easily. They also seemed to be bunching up on the tops of his shoes. He shook his head: he could always get new pants and Tina liked him. He walked out of his bedroom passing his younger brother in the hall. Odd, his brother seemed to be taller-- he'd must have hit a growth spurt. He seemed taller than Tom. Luckily that was too tall for Tina. He and his brother looked kind of similar.
Tom checked himself in the full length bathroom mirror. He didn't need to shave (when had he last shaved? Two weeks ago? Two weeks ago Tina had given him THE card. What had he been thinking about? Oh yeah-- who'd he look for his date with TINA. He ran a comb through his hair, which seemed to have more body and weirdly curly. Hadn't his hair always been straight and kind of lifeless? He'd always kept his hair short and maintenance free because of that..., but Tina like the feel of his hair, so he'd been letting it grow, and now it was down just past his shoulder. Maybe love had made it grown quicker and gain body... and become lighter, blond. Maybe he'd just been spending more time outside-- he liked talking walks and runs with Tina. That must be it.
And somehow his eyesight was better. Everyone thought he was wearing contacts now, but he wasn't. One day he'd just forgotten to put on his glasses and realized he no longer needed them. Maybe he'd had some sort of weird growth spurt which had changed the shape of his skull squeezing his eyes into a better shape? His eyes looked so blue in the mirror-- but they were always changing color due to the lighting and what he was wearing and stuff. Hazel eyes were just like that, although blue seemed to be showing up an awful lot lately. He was always getting lost in Tina's eyes...
He shook his head, smiling as his hair whipped around his face. For a moment he'd looked like some sort of freshman, or maybe middle school skate punk kid. But that was ridiculous. He was 19 and graduating in a few months.
He quietly slipped into the kitchen and out the back door. If he asked to borrow the car, his dad would ask if he'd finished his homework, He hadn't-- after all, how could a guy in love concentrate on schoolwork when he was away from his girl-- his true love? Impossible! He would deal with dad later.
He was a block away from Tina's when the red and blue lights started flashing in the rear window. Shit! Tom instantly knew what had happened. The speed limit dropped from 40 to 25 a couple blocks before Tina's and he hadn't slowed down. After all, he'd been in a hurry and it was only two blocks. Damn! Now he was going to be late.
He pulled over and got out his wallet. It seemed like forever before the officer got to his door.
"Look, officer, I'm really, really sorry, but I've just gotta see my girl and totally forgot the speed limit drops back at Elm," Tom explained breathlessly. The officer shined his flashlight into Tom's eyes.
"Okay, let me see you license and paperwork," the officer asked, ignoring Tom's outburst.
"Here's my license, sir, and I am on my parent's insurance," Tom replied, handing the police officer his card. The officer took it, looked at it, then looked at Tom, then back at the license and at Tom.
"This is you?" the officer finally asked.
"Y-yeah, I know it isn't very good," Tom assured him, his voice cracking-- something it hadn't done in years. Probably nerves. "But it is me. That's me. Sir."
He felt really nervous and a bit intimidated by the police officer.
The officer shined his flashlight in Tom's face and looked at him for a long, long moment before speaking.
"Okay, you wait right there," the policeman instructed. "I'll be back in a bit."
He went back to his car, taking Tom's license with him.
Tom sat nervously, drumming his fingers on the wheel.
'I'd better let Tina know where I am,' he thought, taking out his cell phone. He was still on his phone when the officer came back.
"Kid," the officer started, then saw the young man was on his phone. "Kid hang up and let me talk to you!"
"Hey Teeny-Tina, I've got to got. Yeah, I love you and just can't wait to see you again. Mmm--mmm!" The officer watched as the kid kissed him cell phone, then whispered some more sickly sweet endearments to whoever "Teeny-Tina" was. The kid had it really bad! That fact seemed to support his initial suspicions about the kid's age: probable middle-schooler with his big brother's license. Finally the kid got off his cell phone.
"Okay, look kid," the officer crouched down and looked the boy in the eye. "You and I both know that wasn't you on the license-- but your parents are covering for you and saying it is. But they DID tell me you don't have permission to be driving their car. I'm going to cut you a break and take you back home so your parents can deal with you, and they can come and get their car later. So get out."
Numbly, Tom slowly opened the door and got out. Not him on his license? Huh? Was he going to get it back? The policeman roughly shoved him into the back of the patrol car, and Tom noticed that there was another police car behind the first. He'd heard something about multiple police cars pulling over his fellow students.
As the police officer dropped off the kid, he saw another kid, obviously older, standing in the doorway behind the parents. Now THAT kid looked a lot more like the boy on the license. Right hair color, roughly the right height-- maybe shorter by a couple or so inches, but what teen male didn't give himself some extra height on his license? And everyone gave themselves a lower weight, which would explain why the other teen also looked lighter than the weight on the license. The boy he'd picked up was at least twenty-five pounds too light! He shook his head as he headed back to his patrol car. Considering how the kid had tried desperately to tell him he was the one on the license when he obviously wasn't, the police man figured he'd probably be picking him up again in the near future. The kid wasn't even bright enough to know when to change tactics!
Tom's parents were less than understanding, and totally did not listen to him. He found himself confined to his room, exiled from Tina, among other things. And they'd taken his phone so he couldn't talk to her! Completely unfair! AND the policeman had given THEM his license, and they hadn't given it back. Claiming that with this stunt and how poorly he'd been doing in school (his grades weren't THAT bad, were they? Actually he wasn't sure, but that wasn't important. What was important was that they had taken away his driving privileges, and, worse, said he was grounded and forbid him from seeing Tina again! EVER, probably.
Throwing himself on his bed, he was certain that his life was over. He had to figure out some way to see Tina again! Feeling betrayed and heartbroken, he wrote an epic poem to Tina, and folded it in a note he would slip to her during school tomorrow asking her to run away with him...