Boy Story | Jessica Flory

Prologue

The opposite sex has a very definite effect on any girl. Liz first noticed, when she began the sixth grade, how much some of the boys started paying particular attention to her. It started out as something nice the boys would say, and then she began to realize that she could actually make friends with some of them. Of course, she had had friends in her younger years that had been males, but those had been the friends of her younger brother, and she would feel very special anytime it was “just her and the guys”. But back then that “specialness” was felt by Liz in knowing that she was what people called a “tomboy”, and she wanted it to stay that way.

Sixth grade changed things in a manner where Liz could say that none of the boys that she now called her friends even knew her younger brother. It seemed like a miraculous happenstance that something such as this could even be possible.

A small event that would live for some time in the young sixth grader's mind happened toward the end of school when the entire middle school gathered at the track to have Field Day. Liz felt a sort of importance to her name when she was asked to pass information to the “captain” of their four-by-one relay, Bret. Together, they walked across the track, heads tilted towards one another so as to hear the other speak. At this point in time, the young girl didn't think about this relationship in any way more intimate than a friendship. But, to be friends like this with a boy! How exciting this was for her! She was just made a bit more excited by this new experience to find out that Bret showed at least a bit of “like” towards her. Having their heads tilted that close together and actually walking shoulder to shoulder had to mean something!

When seventh grade rolled around, that intimacy with Bret faded and the sixth grade friendship died. Liz, being the young, carefree girl that she was, let it pass with a smile and went on with her seventh grade life in the new school that had just been built. That is until she was assigned a seat in English class next to Parker.

His physical appearance wouldn't make a girl stop and turn around, but with the naivety—or the lack of concern—in something such as outward characteristics, Liz simply was attracted to him because he talked to her first.

The concept of “going out” was, for some reason, shunned by Liz. Even in her older years she would never understand why this was not on her “List of Values”. However, she believed that she liked Parker, and there was always the hope that he liked her back, for he talked to her first and continued to do so. Since “going out” didn't even come to Liz's head, she devised in her little mind a way to keep their friendship close by writing notes to one another. However, rumor had spread that Parker was “going out” with a girl by the name of Dynna. Liz wasn't crushed by this, but her high hopes of Parker liking her plummeted and never cared to rise again, although she still remained friends with him.

Perhaps this was the start of what Liz began to call, “The Ultimate”. The seventh grader began to explain this word in terms of “number one” or “being at the top of the list or totem pole”. Although the boy that she “liked” may have had a girlfriend, Liz believed that if she was someone the boy could talk to and if she remained friends with him, she was still “The Ultimate” and he liked her above all. But just as a friend, of course.

When ninth grade came, Liz had painlessly come to find out that she was not a girl who could turn a boy's head or even one that a boy would call “hot”. Since she knew nothing of being on any boy's “hot list”, not being on that list was pain-free. She was just Liz. And being just Liz was spectacular.

Now, dear reader, do not think that Liz's whole life revolved around the opposite sex. From sixth grade to ninth grade, of course she thought of boys. But very little, mind you. What girl didn't? She was caught up in her school work, her church activities, her friends, her family, her life! Boys were friends for Liz, and the thought of liking them more than that was a hideous one.

But, if this story was about a tomboy who never reached a mature stage in her life, what an irksome one it would be! We all read about those kind of girls, and they do eventually find out that they have a feeling of like for some figure of the other gender. However, this story is not exactly about falling in love and getting a first, high school kiss either. The objective of this story is to perhaps bring one to an understanding of standards and values that a certain girl had.