Hailey squeezed in and out of groups of people, trying to get to her locker. She yawned. Even though the football game had been Friday night, and she had all Saturday and Sunday to recover, she still felt a little sleep deprived. Oh, well. When she finally reached locker 203, she unlocked it and grabbed her books for science, Spanish, and history, then slammed the door…on her finger!

“Ow! Ah, ouch, ah! Ooow!”

“Oh, Hailey, what happened?” Jaime was suddenly by her side. Unable to speak, Hailey held up a very sore finger. A trickle of blood confirmed her need to go to the nurse’s office. They hurried down the hall and knocked on the door. The nurse, Ms. Windle, opened it.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Ms. Windle. Hailey had a little, um, accident…” Jaime began, but Ms. Windle was already inspecting Hailey’s finger. Jaime mouthed “See you later” and left for class.

“Oh, you poor thing. Funny, your my third locker-slammed-on-finger incident this month. Kids really need to be more careful these days.” Ms. Windle chattered cheerfully as she applied a band-aid and got a bag of ice. “There was one boy who did it really bad. I had to give him some aspirin. Do you need aspirin, sweetie?”

“Um…uh, no, I don’t think it’s bad enough for that.”

“All right. Well, here’s a note explaining your tardiness, and you just keep that ice pack on your finger as long as you need to. I’d say favor it for about 3 days. Expect a nice bruise there, too. Take care,” She said as she opened the door.

“Thank you, Ms. Windle.” Hailey rushed out the door, her finger throbbing with every step. Science had started 10 minutes ago.

“Hailey, could you please explain your tardiness?” Mr. Finch was so keen on punctuality.

Handing him the note from the nurse, Hailey said, “I had a little accident with my locker.”

“Hm. Sit down then, please, and open you book to page 284.” Some of the kids were holding back giggles. Sure her face was close to the color of ketchup, Hailey sat down. But not before she noticed Jason smiling at her. Her face turned a firetruck red.

After a very boring and drawn out class, Hailey was back at her locker. She was glad school was finally over and she could go home. Suddenly, a voice came from behind.

“So, what happened?”

“Eeeek!” Hailey spun around, startled, and then nearly fainted when she saw Jason. “Oh, um, hi Jason. I didn’t…I didn’t know you were there. Er, here. I mean…you scared me.” She inwardly slapped herself.

“Look’s like your finger has seen better days.”

“Well, see, I uh, slammed my finger on my locker…I mean, locker on my finger.” Stupid, stupid, stupid!!!

Jason laughed. “Ouch. I did that once. I felt pretty dumb.” He ran his fingers through his dirty blonde hair. “Hey, I was wondering, there’s this awesome ice cream shop downtown, and all of my friends are busy this weekend and couldn’t come, and I’ve been wanting to go for a while, but you know, nothing’s really all that great if you’re alone. So, I just wanted to know if you’d like to come with me. Saturday, four o’clock.”

Hailey’s heart stopped. Jason. Asked. Me. On. A. Date. I really need to slam my locker door on my finger more often. “Uhhhh, yeah, sure. What time?”

“Um, four?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry.”

“Here,” Jason handed her a slip of paper with his number. Hailey scribbled her number on his hand. “Should I pick you up, or do you want to meet somewhere?”

“Um, I don’t know. We could meet…at the library I guess.”

“Parent issues?”

“Yeah.” Hailey was pretty sure her mom wouldn’t want her going on a date with Jason. At first she was worried he would think her kind of weird, but he seemed to understand.

“Yeah, adults can be pretty strange sometimes. I’ll meet you at the library at four, then.”

“Uh, yeah. Ok.”

Hailey walked outside to the bus and climbed on, so happy she nearly forgot to get off at her stop. She ran past a few houses until she spotted hers, then ran inside and called Jaime.

“Hello? Hailey?” Jaime sounded like she was eating something.

Hailey suddenly felt a burst of excitement, and it all came flooding out at once. “I bumped into Jason in the hall today and he helped me pick up my books and I was being stupid but he asked me out to this ice cream place so basically I’m going on a date with Jason this Saturday!”

“He WHAT?”

“I’m not kidding! He really did, Jaime!”

“I’m so happy for you! And-” Hailey heard a voice in the background. “Oh, I gotta go. I’ll call you later.”

“Okeee, bye.”

“Bye! Good luck on the date!!”

Hailey plopped on her bed and sighed, a stupid grin plastered on her face. Then she jumped up and squealed as she did a happy dance.

Rian’s fluffy head popped from her doorway. “What’s up?”

“None of your business.” She started trying on different combinations of jewelery, dresses, and shoes.

“Date.”

She whirled around and stared at him, confused by his sudden deduction. “Huh?”

Rian came over and sat cross legged on her bed. “You got a date.”

Hailey almost told him. But something held her back. What if he told mom? What if mom made her stay home? That would be too embarrassing to handle. “Uh, no. I mean…Uh, well, Jaime and I are seeing a movie. And I’m really excited.” Rian just stared at her with an “Uh-huh” face. “And it’s a really cool movie that…I have wanted to see for a long time. So I’m excited about it.”

“Who is he?” Rian raised an eyebrow.

“I told you, it’s not a date. It’s a movie.”

“Is he even your age?” Rian really wasn’t buying the movie thing.

Ugh. “OK, fine. But PLEASE don’t tell mom and dad. I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t let me go, but Jason and I are just getting some ice cream, and he’s only a year older than me and he’s really nice.”

Rian laughed. “Yeah, all right. But here’s some dating tips.” Rian had a girlfriend, Natalie. “Be yourself. It’s cliche, I know, but honestly. Guys can tell and hate it when girls pretend to be someone or something else. Also, don’t cake on the make-up. Don’t talk too much, chatterboxes can be annoying. Don’t act clingy. Don’t talk to other friends, especially guys, that you might see cause that will be awkward. Wear deoderant. Don’t wear 7 inch heels, and for Pete’s sake,” Rian started walking out the door. “Don’t do any shopping!”

The week flew by fast, and soon it was Saturday. As far as Hailey’s parents knew, she was going to meet Jaime at the park. Some cover-up, blush, mascara, lipstick, and a natural smokey-eye made her face, and she spent about an hour in the bathroom working with her curling iron to get some beach curls. She wore white shorts, a coral shirt, and coral 3 inch heels. Silver starfish earrings and a silver necklace with a diamond seashell charm completed her outfit. After remembering deoderant and spritzing some perfume, she grabbed her white purse and went out the door.

“Ugh!”

She ran back inside and grabbed her forgotten liscense.

After pulling into the library parking lot, she caught sight of Jason and ran up to meet him.

“Sorry I’m a little late.”

“That’s ok. Come on.” Hailey tried not to gape at the black camaro.

“Wow. This is your car?”

“Yeah. Birthday present. Isn’t it sweet?”

Hailey nodded.

***

Hailey got out of her car, walked up the front steps, and leaned against her front door. She was weak with excitement. Their date had gone so well. They got ice cream, then walked around downtown, stopped at a coffee shop, then came back home. And he said he couldn’t wait to see her again! She felt about to have a heart attack.

She finally opened the door and stepped inside.

Hey! yeah it’s kinda long and it doesn’t end so great, but next chapter is awesome! plus we all like long chapters right? please comment and give suggestions! I’m not just saying it…I’m BEGGING! Please! I really want you to tell me ONE OR MORE of the following things:

1) What you think is going to happen (with hailey and jason, with hailey and jaime, with rian and natalie, with hailey’s mom, with jaime’s family, etc.)

3) What you DON’T like

4) How this could be even better

5) What you think about this little secret date

PLEASE, PLEASE don’t read this without commenting! I really, really, REALLY want to hear from you!!

Love you all,

dogluvrgirl101