Tinka sat on her bed, thinking about the past. More specifically, the past date she'd had with Ty. Ty had never asked her out again. She had to admit that she was the one who said they weren't alike, but she thought for sure that after some time, he might ask her again. He hadn't. Even though, she'd tried her best to make herself visible to him at school. She often stood around close by when he was by his locker, sat two tables away at lunch where he could see her, and made sure to walk by him in the halls everyday.
Why hadn't he talked to her again? Tinka despaired as she got up off her bed and headed to the bathroom to get ready for school. Wait….Tinka stood still, a finger rested on her chin in thought.
They were different, that's what she had said and maybe Ty still thought that they were too different. That was it!
Tinka raced to her closet and rummaged through it until she found a plain blue t-shirt. It wasn't very exciting, just a light blue t-shirt with white accents and a small, not-glittery white star on the bottom corner.
Tinka pulled the t-shirt on and looked at her reflection in the mirror on the back of her door. She looked really…normal. It wasn't to her taste, but she was willing to do this for Ty.
Next she dug up a plain skirt from the bottom of a drawer of unused clothes. It was darker blue and perfectly plain. It would work for her purposes though, she thought as she pulled it on.
Tinka found a pair of cream colored sandals without sparkles and put them on to finish the outfit.
She then went into the bathroom and applied some make-up with no glitter. She brushed her hair out and let it stay down. She put on a light blue head band to keep her hair out of her face and left her look like that. She looked just like a normal girl.
All the way to school, Tinka practiced talking without her accent. It was difficult for her to manage, but she finally got the hang of it. Hopefully, this would be enough to attract Ty's attention.
Ty woke up that morning in a disturbed state of mind. He'd wanted to have more of a relationship with Tinka, but she had basically turned him down after their first date. He couldn't understand why she would do that. She didn't even try to get his attention at school. It seemed like whenever she had the time to just stand around, she never looked at him, no matter what cool pose he was striking, whenever he went to lunch, she always sat two tables away instead of asking for the seat next to him, and whenever he passed her in the hall, she walked right by without even noticing him. It was so frustrating! What do you have to do to get a girl to notice you?
Suddenly, the answer came to Ty. Tinka said that they were different, Ty thought. That means, he should try to be like Tinka! She was telling him that she wanted him to change.
Ty had a momentary imagination of himself dressed in sparkly clothes and shuddered. How was he going to do this? He didn't want to do this, but if this was what it would take for Tinka to notice him, he would.
Ty popped open his cell phone and gave Deuce a call. "Hey, Deuce?" Ty said. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just getting ready for school. Um, hey, can you get me a Betwinkler? Before school, maybe? What do I need it for? Just something, dude, no big deal. A project I guess you could call it. Yeah, uh-huh, thanks."
Ty met Deuce about 15 minutes later and returned to his room, Betwinkler in hand. Here goes nothing, he thought to himself as he began to betwinkle his jeans. Whoa, sparkly jeans are ….. sparkly, Ty grimaced. He found his most colorful shirt and betwinkled that too.
Ty checked himself out in the mirror. He looked absolutely ridiculous. He really hoped his plan worked because he was going to be a laughing stock.
Ty hesitated and then grabbed a vest. He left it unsparkly and put it on over his shirt to combat the sparkles a little. He put on a colorful tie and headed out to school.
"So, Tinka?" Gunther glanced sidelong at his sister. "Why exactly are we not matching and you are wearing those ridiculous and boring clothings?"
"Gunther, I am just trying out something new," Tinka replied. "You have done it before."
"You are not using your accent," Gunther observed. "Is it a boy?"
"Of course not," Tinka blushed.
Gunther noticed her blush, but just nodded. "Right, well, if it is a boy that you have to change for, he is not worth it. If he doesn't love you for who you are now, he doesn't love you."
"Gunther, what would you know?" Tinka scowled at him. "You don't date."
"True, but I've had experience," Gunther sighed.
Ty bumped into Deuce on his way into school. Deuce took a look at his friend and burst out laughing. "What kind of project is this?"
"Look, man," Ty rubbed his forehead. "I just have to do this. Please, try not to make me feel more miserable than I'm already feeling."
"For you to do something this horrible it must be pretty important," Deuce tried to hold back his laughter. "Is this for some really important grade or your music?"
"No," Ty hesitated then confessed. "It's for a girl. She thinks we're too different. So, I'm going to show her that I can be…..not….different."
"Ty," Deuce put a hand on his shoulder. "Dina and I had to make a decision to always be ourselves around each other. Changing yourself isn't being honest if it's not how you really feel about yourself. One of the most important things in a relationship is honesty."
"Deuce, I don't even know how you got a girlfriend in the first place," Ty snapped. "But, I'm not going to take your advice when nothing else has worked. I can't just go up to her and say 'I like you and want to date you again' when she doesn't even know I exist."
"I think you can Ty," Deuce shook his head. "But, if you don't think you can, you'll have to come to that conclusion on your own."
"Whatever," Ty waved his hand at Deuce and walked off.
Tinka pouted through her classes. Who was Gunther to dispute what she was trying to do? This was the only way she knew to get Ty's attention!
Ty fumed through his classes. Deuce was acting like such a know-it-all! Why Dina was practically his clone! It was different for Deuce, he didn't fall in love with a girl who was totally the opposite of him!
As Ty and Tinka left their last classes for the day, they stamped off down the hall, the words from their best friends echoing in their minds, wondering if what they said was true.
They both glanced up at the same time and then glanced away, not recognizing each other. They were about 3 feet further down the hall, when they both spun around at the same time and stared at each other.
"Ty!" Tinka shouted in surprise.
"Tinka!" Ty shouted back.
They both started laughing at the same time.
"I feel really stupid," Tinka was the first to talk. "I thought I had to be normal for you to like me and …..it's obvious that you're not normal."
Ty smiled and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I thought I had to become a glitter boy for you to notice me, but I should have known that wouldn't change anything about the real me."
"I can't believe we both tried to change ourselves without just being honest with each other," Tinka giggled. "I should have told you months ago, that if you wanted to ask me, I'd say 'yes' to another date."
"I should have asked you months ago," Ty sighed. "I guess I just wanted you to ask first."
"Me too!" Tinka smiled at Ty. "I guess we're not that different."
"Guess not," Ty shook his head. "We're both too proud, yet willing to humiliate ourselves when pride takes too long. I guess we're just a pair of fools."
"At least, we are a pair," Tinka reached out for Ty's hand and his hand met hers halfway. "We can be fools together. A good friend of mine says you don't have to change for those you love, or something like that."
"A good friend of mine says you should be honest with those you love, or something like that," Ty laughed. "You know what I'm like then, I'm not sparkles."
"And you know what I'm like, I'm all sparkles," Tinka answered.
"And still we're not that different," Ty pulled Tinka along by the hand down the hall of the school. "Hey, Tinka, you want to go on a date this weekend?"
"I'd love to," Tinka replied.
"All right, then," Ty said. "But this time, I'm going to that date as myself. No more faux sparkles." Ty shuddered.
Tinka laughed. "All right and I will come to the date as myself. After all, yourself, as you normally are, is who I fell in love with."
"Me too," Ty smiled at her. "Meaning not that I'm in love with my normal self, but that I'm in love with your normal self," Ty stuttered.
"I know what you mean," Tinka smiled gently at him. "We're not that different you know."
A/N: if you liked my oneshot and ship GeCe, check out my multi-chapter GeCe story, 17 It Up!