Chapter 18

The school routine started to settle into a normal routine from here. Class routine was fairly typical and my grades would stay on average at about a B+. One side effect of the new school year getting started was having to get to new the new students that were added in, whether from younger or transferring in. Anna in my French class was an obvious example. My earlier guess had been right – she was naturally able to pick up what was being taught easier than most of the rest of us were. It was enough to make me wish I’d been started on a second language when I was younger. A nice thing about Anna though, she made an effort to talk to each person in the class, myself included. Unlike my two short brunette friends, Anna was a blonde. Her hair was short and about shoulder length. Her build looked to be about average and I’d have to overall say she was an attractive girl who seemed to be making friends easily. I guess when you have to go to school in another country you have to be more outgoing.

In addition to starting to get to know Anna better in French class she would also prove to be the cause of the first surprise of the school year for me. I had just finished eating lunch and was heading to my locker when I was called over by a group of girls that Anna was hanging around with by a brunette cheerleader named Michelle. “Hey, Ryan. You don’t have a date yet for the Halloween dance, do you?”

It was a simple question with a quick answer – of course I didn’t. The Halloween dance was our first dance of the school year and was a girl’s choice dance. So while I didn’t have the opportunity to ask anyone out, I had not been asked out either. “Nope, no date so far. Why?”

Michelle smiled at me and put an arm around Anna’s shoulders, nudging her up closer to me. Anna looked over at me with a nervous smile on her face (wait ... a girl’s nervous around me?). “Would you like to go to the Halloween dance with me and a few of my friends, Ryan?”

The smile I gave her in return was an easy and natural one. She was an attractive girl and so far we’d been getting along well. So did I want to go? Of course I did! Other guys might have waited to answer on the off chance they’d get someone more appealing to them, but I wasn’t the type. Plus, she was the first girl to ask me out period. “I’d love to go. We’ll just have to coordinate for plans, costumes, and all that. But we’ve got a few weeks for that so far so should be no problem.”

The smile she gave in return was brighter now and she gave me a quick hug before moving back closer to her friends. “I’ll let you know and get your phone number in class tomorrow so we can start figuring things out.”

I nodded my head in response. “Ok, sounds great. I’ve gotta go though, need to get ready for my cross country workout.” I gave her and the other girls a wave and then was on my way to the locker room. I’m sure I walked, but with the ego boost I’d gotten in being asked out like that I felt like I might have been flying.

While I got changed into my workout clothes I had to give it a thought: Lagoon definitely seemed to have helped me get over some of my natural shyness that I’d had previously. I’d been forced into working with all kinds of other kids about my own age and from areas far enough away that I might not have met or known them otherwise. It had obviously paid off in some dating I’d done over the summer and I had to attribute at least a little of my success so far socially in school this year to how I’d grown from working there over the summer. Granted, the pay wasn’t much but so far I’d have to say it was worth doing.

In the weeks leading up to the Halloween dance I continued to get to know Anna a little more in class as well as spending time with Adam, Tonya, and Tenille. Tonya and Tenille had both teased me some about my date with Anna, but it was all good natured. Neither one of them had the money to be able to go, so they were just planning on doing a movie night at Tenille’s instead of going to the dance.