* * *
Aldys could feel her mouth open wide. "Huh?" Sure Aldys, when unsure about what to say, don't say anything intelligent at all.
The boy standing next to her didn't seem to mind, though. "I said, do you want to go to the prom with me Aldys?"
Guy Perkins. Her secret love/crush for ever so long. Now he was asking her to the prom. The really bizarre part of it wasn't really that he asked her to the prom, but that he did it in school so that everybody who passed by could hear them. Guy had had some problems with acknowledging their friendship in public, actually he hadn't quite solved those problems, but he had taken an important step in the right direction.
Now he looked slightly impatient.
She decided to reply him. "The prom is not really my kind of thing Guy. I thought you would've understood that after all we've talked about."
He looked a bit down after that remark. His big blue eyes looked at her like she imagined that Bambi would look at her. "Why don't you ask Josie to the prom, instead?"
Guy nodded slowly. "Are you sure you won't mind?"
Why would she mind? It wasn't like they were dating or anything like that. He had only asked her to prove his friendship. "No, I won't mind, or else I wouldn't have suggested it to you. Want to come to Nana's with me after school?"
Sometimes Aldys really wanted to change her appearance. She didn't want to have glasses, or go around with those silly headbands that her father bought for her. She wasn't the little girl her father thought she was. Or wanted her to be. But she had no idea how she should start her little revolution.
"Do you think I should cut my hair, Guy?" She had ordered a cup of espresso and Guy had a cup of Cappuccino sitting in front of him. She had been playing with her hair as they discussed baseball. Now there was a gap in the conversation and Aldys had filled it with her comment on her hair.
Guy looked stunned and shocked. "What?" She said it again and now he only looked thoughtfully at her. "I don't think that you should cut it, Aldys. It is beautiful, why would you want to cut it?"
She smiled at him. "It was just an idea, I am kind of fed up with my looks and I want to change something."
He took her hand. "I like you the way you are, but if you really want to change anything start with the headbands." They both smiled widely, because she had told him how she loathed wearing them.
They had been going together for several weeks now, and strangely enough they had never bumped into anyone from school. It seemed like the entire student body was occupied with the preparations for the prom, except for Guy and Aldys. They had been at the ice rink several times.
Guy had come with her to watch her baseball games and she'd go with him to visit the Seniors' home where he worked at the weekends. They developed a friendship over these weeks that she thought was so strong that nothing could break it.
"Aldys?" David came over to her in the library. "We're planning to go to the prom, and we wondered if you would go with us." Aldys had changed her mind over the last few weeks about the prom. She really didn't mind the fact that Josie was going with Guy. But she wanted to be there, experience it, dance. "I'll come with you guys. What are we going as?"
She found that out later.