Change (2)

The next day at school was humiliating, it felt like everyone was staring at me as I walked down the corridor. I felt my cheeks burn ever brighter red, but eventually, as they reached their reddest shade yet, I reached my registration classroom. As I sat at the back of my chemistry classroom, (I had chosen to sit at the back 'cause I thought all the cool people, like Jen did, but sadly, in this instance I was mistaken, she sat at the front, with her best friend Ros, and Vicki) I quickly checked to see who else was there. Fortunately Ben wasn't in class yet, I knew he would be harassing me about my "Date" last night. Huh, like I was gonna think about that anymore. Although I was finding it pretty hard to forget, especially as the whole school seemed to know about it. I would rather have been stood up.

Just then my contemplations were interrupted by the arrivals of my class teacher, and then about ten minutes by the entrance of my goddess. No, I chided myself, she wasn't mine, it had all been a cruel joke, she didn't like me. Nevertheless I was unable to stop my imagination roaming, what if she didn't really like that guy, Matt, I think his name was, but she was...she was... desperately in love with me... only... Matt had more money... so she was forced to go out with him. yeah, that'd be it..

"Scott? Scott Henderson! Pay attention! Now, tell me, how many moles are there in this problem." my attention was wrenched back from Her, to the normal mundane chemistry lesson, one subject that I was bound to flunk as I had paid absolutely no attention to anything since the start of the course, two years ago. Standard Grade could go stuff itself, I had more important things on my mind, like her and how on earth I was gonna get her to dump Matt and go out with me, for real this time.

As I was walking back from Tescos, on my own, I bumped into Jo, a friend of mine who attended Dundee High, but was in St Andrews for, well actually why was she here?

"Hey Jo! What'cha doin' here??"

"Oh, hey Scott, um, well I had an orthodontists appointment, and I've got the rest of the day off now. "

"Oh."

"Hey, what've you got next period?"

"Uhhh, Games I think, yeah" I consulted the perfectly folded timetable in my top pocket, "I've got double PE next. Why?"

"Just 'cause I've got nothing to do, sooo, I was thinking you could skive PE and come to Costa's with me? Please? You look sad, maybe I could help?" Jo was angling now, she knew all about my miserable date the night before, as the first thing I'd done when I got home was to E:mail all the gory details to her.

"Well, I'm not sure, Jo, I've never skived before."

"Come on, if it makes you feel better, we'll get the bus back to my place, and Mum'll give you a lift home, ok?"

"alright" I felt like I just needed to talk to someone and Jo was the closest thing I had to a best friend, we'd grown up together, we knew each other inside out, I was at her house as much as I was my own.

Once we were settled on the couch with supplies of chocolate and crisps, I got Jo back up to speed with all that had happened within the last twelve hours.

"Sco-ott?" Jo asked in the little sing-song voice she puts on when she is about to ask you to do something you might not like.

"Yeah-es?" I replied in kind.

"Where do you buy your clothes?"

"Um, Debenhams, The Gap, Next, . " I trailed off.

" See, that's the thing, you should have at least semi-fashionable clothes since you shop there, but you don't, no offence-" she hurriedly added, "but you just aren't the most fashionable person I know, hmm, what about. ever heard of Ozzies?"

"No, well, yes, but I assumed it was some kind of, I dunno, drink or something."

"That's another thing, you never go out, ok, I propose that we take a trip into Dundee on Saturday. We can probably take back some of your stuff, I mean you look after it so well, that no-one would ever know it had been worn so, we can just say they were birthday presents, and even if we only get store credit, we can get you some more fashionable stuff, or at least, nicer stuff that what you wear just now. um, yeah, I think we should also introduce you to some other kinds of music, I mean, classical is all well and good when you're middle aged or studying or something, but really, I mean, come on, you should be into Good Charlotte, or AFI or The Foo's or the Chili's or something like that." her eyes travelled up and down my body slowly. "Yeah I reckon baggy jeans would really suit you, Roads or Criminal Damage jeans. I think they'd suit you better than these chinos, still, no offence, Scott, but I've been itching to get my hands on your wardrobe for years."

I was taken aback by the force of her assumptions, she'd obviously thought a lot about what she wanted me to look like."and get your hair cut, and." I blocked out her ramblings, and when she next had to pause to draw breath, I cut across her,"Ok, ok! I'll do whatever you suggest! I have some birthday money left, but you have to promise I get the last word in what I look like? You can supervise." A compromise, and pretty generous I thought!

By Saturday I was regretting my rash decision to let her choose clothes for me to try on. Although I had managed to get some money back from some of the shops, I wasn't prepared to be spending quite so much in one shopping trip, well maybe spree would best describe the event. I now had a new pair of Road cords for school, along with two more pairs for leisure (this used up the money I had got back from shops). Also I had two pairs of Criminal Damage jeans, and a pair of DC shoes, along with a new hoodie, and two T- shirts. By the end of this I had spent all my birthday money, plus my allowance, which I had been saving for the past two months. We still had a trip to the hairdressers to go, but this was to be her treat.

When I looked in the mirror that night, dressed in my new gear, with my new hair cut, I hardly recognised the boy reflected back at me.