Once in the bathroom, she pulled down her pants and pull-up and peed just as she heard the door open and shut. Someone else was in there with her. She was glad once again that her mother got her pull-ups instead of her plan to wear diapers all day. She knew the diapers would have been crinkling as she changed them. At least the pull-ups were relatively silent.
When she finished and left the stall, she ran right into Julia Grass.
“Watch it, Miss Pee-pee Pants.” Julia set her purse on the bathroom sink. “Any luck finding a date for prom?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “I didn’t think you did. No one wants a prom date that leaves a trail.”
“Shut up and leave me alone, Julia,” said Deborah. “I was humiliated enough the first time, and you got my ex-boyfriend already. What more do you want? To make me feel horrible about myself? Well you got your wish.” Deborah turned and walked out of the bathroom back to class.
English was boring as usual, but as promised Mrs Miller picked up the papers at the beginning of class. She spent the rest of the class period passing out copies of the last book they had to read before the semester ended: the Scarlet Letter. Deborah flipped through it while the Mrs Miller droned on about Nathanial Hawthorne for the rest of the class period.
“Was it just me or was Grosstree especially boring today?” asked Lia.
“Especially boring,” said David Krouse, one of their classmates. “I mean, who cares about a bunch of Puritans.”
“I always liked that story,” Deborah admitted.
“You would,” said Lia. She turned to David. “You should see her bedroom. It is filled with trashy romance novels. That is all she reads.”
“I read other things,” said Deborah.
“Name the last book you read and you can’t count the 1984 or Brave New World,” said Lia.
“Fire Upon the Deep,” said Deborah and stuck out her tongue.
“Really?” said Lia. She looked shocked because she never expected Deborah to know the name of a science fiction book, much less read one. She forgot about that problem as she saw David walking away. She pulled him back by his backpack. “Ask her,” she hissed at him.
David suddenly looked uncomfortable. “Um,” he said. “Don’t take this the wrong way. I’m not going to ask Alison to the prom. Everyone will make fun of me.”
“You’re a jerk, David,” said Lia. “Go away.”
“It’s alright, David,” said Deborah. “Don’t worry about it.” She turned to Lia. “Thank you anyway. But don’t worry about prom.” Deborah had been to her own prom. It was at a hotel ballroom. Here at the school Alison attended, the prom was going to be in the school gym. That really didn’t excite her much, but she didn’t care.
“It was still jerky to say that.”
“You put him on the spot, Lia,” Deborah answered. “I’m not exactly prime prom material. Who wants a prom date that leaves a trail?”
“Aren’t you wearing one of your…?”
“Yes, but I’m not advertising it and that won’t get me a prom date either. Let’s just eat lunch.”
Lunch was better than usually. Today it was Frito Pie again. Deborah sat down with her tray and enjoyed her meal. Maybe today was looking up. She hoped Spanish would go well. It should. She and Lia had practiced it enough.
“Let’s go over our conversation one more time, Alison,” suggested Lia.
Deborah nodded in agreement. “¿usted habla español?”
“Si” answered Lia. They ran through their conversation one last time before the bell rang.
Computer class was non-eventful. They were just giving their next assignments and told to start them on the computers. Deborah didn’t even get a quarter of the way done. She supposed she would do it at home that evening. She had the Spanish conversation on her mind. She worried that the teacher might ask her some questions in Spanish that she hadn’t rehearsed. She looked over at Lia. She was typing away oblivious. Deborah envied her calm.
Finally, the bell rang. Lia touched her shoulder and smiled. “It’s okay,” she said. “You practiced this.” They walked out of the hall to class.
In the hall, Julia Grass bumped into them. “So, Accident Girl,” Julia sneered, “I heard you had to scrape the bottom of the barrel and ask David Krouse to prom.”
“David’s not the bottom of the barrel,” said Lia. “He is pretty smart too.”
“Yeah, he was smart enough to reject Pee-girl,” said Julia.
“Stop it,” said Deborah. She grabbed Lia’s arm. “Let’s go.”