‘What can I have that won’t make me look like a hog going out to eat at the trough?’ I scanned the menu one last time before making my final decision.“Yeah, I think I will get the single cheeseburger.” I put my menu back down as Ethan motioned for the waitress to come over.The waitress was an older lady, maybe around my mom’s age. It seemed the kids from school either wanted to work at the pizza place or nowhere at all. The other food places around the town relied on middle-aged or older people who were looking for extra money or a second job to keep up with employee status. I gave the lady my order and looked over to Ethan who was waiting his turn. He ordered double of everything that he wanted and told the waitress to bag up the second portions.“Food for later?” I questioned him after the waitress had left, about the double cheeseburger, a large order of fries, and onion ring

The following morning, I spent a little more time on my overall appearance. I tried to remind myself that it was because of the mini-debate that was going on after school, but I knew deep down it had to do with Ethan. It seemed that our little get-together last night sparked something inside of me that I tried to shield myself from all during high school, the charm and the ways of the Ethan Lowry.I went into the kitchen to tell mom I was leaving. She looked at me in a way that she’d only given to Clarissa.“Did you do something different with your hair?”Seemed mom noticed that I was dressed up a bit more than usual and had even taken the time to fix my hair and make-up.“I just…uh…left it loose instead of pulling it back. Why? Does it look bad?”I put back the blueberry muffin and picked up an apple instead. I placed it in a Ziploc and tossed it inside of my backpack with all the other junk tha

I watched as all the other students piled into the classroom seconds before the bell rang. I noticed Ethan was the last in and he looked much calmer than he did last night. His jeans were faded and fit well in all the right places. The tight black t-shirt showed off his biceps, triceps, and every other muscle that the shirt nicely clung to. His hair was a bit messy, but it didn’t matter how he wore it as it always looked good.I smiled at him as he took his seat and he smiled in return, but that was the extent of our interaction. I thought for sure he would’ve at least said ‘hello’ or ‘hey, or ‘how are this morning,' but nope I just got a smile that everyone else got.Maybe I had read into this whole new friendship thing all wrong.Good thing I figured this all out before I let my mind dive into other possibilities.For forty-five minutes, I tried to concentrate on what our teacher was going over for the test tomorrow.

The sound of my name being called and the voice it belonged to startled me. I stopped and turned around to find Ethan jogging towards me at a fast pace. He tamed his speed down to a brisk walk the closer that he got until we were standing face-to-face.“What’s wrong?” I readjusted my backpack on my shoulder and hoped that this wouldn’t take too long. I glanced at the clock and saw that I was down to twenty-five minutes until show time for the debate.“I, uh…” He looked confused as to why he even came looking for me. “Your hair is different than it was this morning.”“What?” Now, I was totally confused. “You got out of class to tell me my hair looks different.”“Well, it was down this morning, and now it’s all pulled back.”I was flattered that he even recognized that difference in me.“I just got tired of it in my face. I have this debate c

I shook my head no at the other four before giving my final answer. Once I said it, one of my team members lay their head down on the table thinking I’d just messed up big time. I knew this was right, Ethan and I had just studied all of this. Even though we are taught to go with what the majority ruled, I applied my captain's authority and gave my answer.I heard a loud whistle and clap when the instructor announced that I was correct and that we’d won the debate. I saw Ethan in the second row, and he gave a small wave to everyone when the attention was brought back to him for being so loud.I couldn’t believe that Ethan actually came inside and watched some of the debates. Good thing he wasn’t there for the two other questions that I majorly screwed up on because my thoughts were somehow on him and I’d misheard what the instructor had asked.I waved back to him before turning back to my teammates. They all gave me a hug on