Tales of a high school spaz

The Topic: 
Something embarrassing that happened at school.

I’m kind of a spaz, so I have no shortage of embarrassing anecdotes. Most involve me making a fool of myself over a boy.

This is the story of Bill.

I met him on the first day of school my freshman year. He was in the orchestra with me-- he played the sax, I played the clarinet. He was tall, with blonde hair and blue eyes, and he was a football star. He was, in short, a Dreamsicle.

I crushed on Bill all through fall semester. I dreamed about him during band class every day. I doodled his name in my notebooks. I wanted him to be mine.

The problem was, I was a nerdy freshman, and he was a cool junior. I was shy, so there was no way I could actually tell him how I felt. Ah, but I was a writer. I wrote Bill a letter, a beautiful letter, telling him exactly how I felt, how I longed to have him hold me in his arms, and how I prayed that he felt the same way.

I gave the note to Bill at the end of band practice. “Here’s a quick letter of some things I’ve been thinking about,” I told him. “Read it when you have time.” Then I walked out of the band room and waited for Bill to call.

I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Three days later, my best friend pulled me aside. “Lovely, I have to tell you something,” she said. “April told me you gave a letter to Bill, telling him that you loved him.”

I was shocked. April didn‘t even know Bill. She wasn‘t in the orchestra. “April told you that? But… how did she know?”

There was a pause. “Corey told her. Corey found out from Jodi, who found out from Sarah…. Sarah found the letter on the floor of the band room.”

Oh, no. No. Nononononononono………

I was pretty sure I was going to be sick. The ENTIRE school knew. Oh, God.

I found out that Bill read my secret yearnings and promptly dropped it on the floor. It was picked up, read, and dropped by at least four other people before Sarah picked it up. Sarah was on cheerleading squad, and told the rest of the team, including Jodi. Jodi told her boyfriend Corey (and the rest of the football team who she was messing around with on the side). Corey was April’s math tutor, and he told her while taking a break from algebra or geometry or whatever April was failing. And then, finally, it got back to me.

And then I begged my mother to let me switch schools.