Kiss A Girl

(5 Times Mitchie Got Rejected And The 1 Time She Didn't)

Here's another story named after a song, but not really a songfic. It's more in the style of That's Not My Name. The title song is by Keith Urban. Also, for those of you that don't know, quiz bowl is somewhat like team Jeopardy. I can explain it better in a PM if you'd like. I don't think I'm gonna make it to 20 stories before Thursday, but oh well, we'll get there eventually. In the meantime, here's the 19th for your enjoyingness. Which is totally a word now, by the way.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, but I do know how to do the Watermelon Crawl. It's very catchy.

Mitchie Torres liked to joke that she was a horrible teenager. She liked most vegetables, with the exceptions of onions and green olives, always got her homework done, usually early, and some nights she just loved hanging out with her mom, having a good family dinner and lounging around talking on the porch. She never attended a party or felt the urge to try drugs, cigarettes, or alcohol all through her high school years. The only parts of being the opposite of all the teenage stereotypes that she wasn't proud of were the fact that despite being eighteen years old, she'd still never had her first girlfriend or her first kiss. Sure, she was gay, but nowadays that was so commonplace it was hardly an excuse. Of course, it wasn't as if she'd never tried. Mitchie had been rejected nearly every possible way except for a straight 'no'.

The first time, she was only thirteen. She, her mother, and her mom's boyfriend of the time had gone down to one of their friends' house. The boyfriend had killed a deer, and his friend had a business packaging and cutting up deer for the local hunters. He also happened to have a daughter that was only a year younger than her. And who, upon meeting her for the first time, seemed to be instantly attracted to her. Mitchie was also semi-attracted to the other girl's infectious enthusiasm and hair so blonde it was nearly white.

However, there wasn't much she could do in front of her mother, so they simply exchanged phone numbers. That was right around Thanksgiving. All through the next month, they called each other nearly every chance they got. One particular three-hour call was the longest Mitchie'd ever had, lasting longer than the multitude of calls she shared with her best friend. Unfortunately though, they lived nearly half an hour apart, and Mitchie's mother considered the girl somewhat of a, to put it lightly, 'whore'. Still, she was the first one who'd ever shown any interest in Mitchie, so she was quite nervous and excited. Especially when the other girl offered to give her her first kiss at her New Year's party. Unfortunately, when she asked her parents, her mom's boyfriend saw right through that plan, and her request was denied.

After that, the months went by, the calling continuing, but steadily slowing. Around Valentine's Day, they hadn't talked in a while. Mitchie had been waiting for this day to ask the girl out officially, she'd wanted a little ceremony to the event as it was her first 'relationship'. When she called the other girl, the talk was short, as she was busy. Soon, Mitchie was informed that 'they could still be friends, but she'd missed her chance.' These days the other girl has a steady boyfriend who is very large and would likely nearly kill Mitchie if she tried anything. Mitchie realized a big part of her attraction to the girl was due to the fact that she made it no secret she liked her back, and found her easy to get over. They haven't talked in a few years.

The second time was just a year after, in eighth grade. Upon transferring to her new school the year before, she'd made no secret of the fact that she was gay. This had caused her some trouble when trying to make friends. Eventually she fell into a group. At a dance she helped one of her classmates get over his girlfriend dumping him earlier that day. Surprisingly, she'd later become better friends with the girl that dumped him than the boy himself, but at the time she enjoyed his company, and he got her in with his 'clique.'

The rejection was slight, but it still somewhat hurt. The lunch ladies were trying to get rid of their food that wouldn't keep over the holiday break. Thus, they were giving away one of the always popular giant chocolate chip cookies per student, usually a good fifty cents each.

Mitchie sat and watched as her new friend, Chris, got to the counter just after they'd given away the last one and walked away disappointed. Then, she witnessed a fine act of human kindness. The girl she'd had a crush on the entire year walked over and gave Chris the cookie she'd gotten. The reason Mitchie hadn't been hurrying for a cookie was because she'd already gotten two of them earlier, paying normally for the second. As she watched this, she felt an urge.

Partially because she liked the girl, but mostly- or so she told herself- because the girl had helped her friend, she walked over to the table, and gave the other girl her extra cookie. She looked up, confused, and Mitchie started to blush. Her embarrassment was not over though, as the girl's friend sitting across from her laughed "Yes, she'll go out with you." Mitchie turned a shade of red usually seen only in the worst cases of rug burn. Then the rejection came, as the other girl smacked her friend on the arm and proceeded to thank Mitchie while telling her how much of a jokester he was. It may have been unintentional, but Mitchie's crush started fading after that episode. They graduated together, but never really talked again.

The next rejection came only a year after that. Mitchie had been talking to a very beautiful girl in her study hall class, one of those very popular girls that would only talk to other people if they were bored and had no friends around. Fortunately or unfortunately, however you choose to look at it, this was the case for both girls.

As they talked though, they began to realize they had more in common than they'd thought. Or at least Mitchie realized it. She was still a bit nervous around pretty girls to talk too much. She really thought she had a chance though, and a new crush grew.

Near the middle of the year, she decided to ask the other girl to the Homecoming dance. However, being deathly afraid of asking her, she was forced to resort to some unpleasant methods. One day in math class, she worked up her courage... and passed the other girl a note. She watched as it was considered. Then, the object of her affection turned, and seemingly asked her friends their opinion. Afterward it was passed back to Mitchie, with a gentle, but still clear 'no' written in purple cursive.

The part Mitchie found intriguing was the line above that, which had been crossed out with pencil. After studying it for a while, she laid back on her bed, inadvertently putting it up to the light and revealing what she swore looked like a yes. Nothing ever came of it, but the two's history was not over.

With another year came another rejection. After the last one didn't work out, Mitchie developed a new crush on a girl in her creative writing class. This time though, she tried learning from her previous mistakes. She did actually manage to ask the girl to the dance, with words you could even find in a dictionary. And she said yes! Mitchie was so excited she had a perma-smile for the rest of the day.

All bubbles must eventually burst though. Mitchie's burst on the very day of the dance. The girl she'd asked never said no, exactly, but she never showed up either, and the two are very nearly the same thing. The night wasn't a complete loss though. Last year's rejection girl and one of her popular friends noticed Mitchie had gotten stood up, and thought it was a very disrespectful move. They both offered to go with her to the dance. Mitchie ended up having to pay for all three of them, even though the other two had already gotten in once, but she appreciated the thought. They all got in, and Mitchie had a grand time simply letting go of her problems and dancing with her friends.

The final rejection wasn't really a rejection at all. It was more just Mitchie being paralyzed by her nerves. Her school held a date auction as a fundraiser, and through a highly coincidental series of events, she ended up buying a date with the girl who'd previously rejected her and been her 'date' to the dance. She even gave Mitchie her schedule, telling her when she'd be free. Waiting was in order though, as in buying the date Mitchie had used up her funds. By the time she had the money again, the timing was always wrong, and then her 'date' had a different date at their prom. Despite numerous opportunities, nothing ever happened between the two of them.

As the saying goes, the sky is always darkest before the morning. Or something along those lines. Usually it would be a bad idea to take thirteen high school seniors on a road trip. However, these were the kids of the quiz bowl team, the smart ones, the 'cream of the crop' as their economics teacher liked to say. It was funny and yet disturbing, as he hadn't heard the story Mitchie had, of the two students on her bus who'd had sex in a corn field.

They'd gotten two adjoining hotel rooms for the Nationals competition, and the kids had lots of free time to hang around with each other, and possibly the kids from the other states and their teams. Most of Mitchie's group stayed in their rooms though. All the adults seemed to trust them, as they left them alone for a while while going out for a coffee.

A couple of the boys insisted on watching the NASCAR race, and some of the others who were bored decided to join them. Mitchie ended up watching on the bed with her friend Nate. Both of them could be very childish at times, and they eventually started a large pillow fight, and people got thrown everywhere across the room, screaming and laughing all the way.

This continued until a knock came to the girls' room door, opposite where they were watching the race. As it turned out, someone had slipped a condom under the door and run off. This gave them all a good laugh, but they quickly returned to the race, and more childish antics. Until the condom dropper came back, and slid a note through. It read 'Premarital sex is wrong. Get a room.' And it was simply signed 'Texas'.

Of course, this couldn't go without a response, so Mitchie and her friend Alex quickly got to work on their own note. It read 'But it's so much fun... and we have two!' The note was then taped to their room door with the now empty condom wrapper. Alex and another of their friends, Laura, waited at the peephole of each of the doors.

That wasn't enough for Mitchie though. She set out along the floor, circling to the other side of it. The hotel was set up with halls in a large square, rooms along the outside of the rows, and a large area for the elevators in the open center. She then noticed a group of kids sitting outside their rooms on the floor above. Thinking they were the obvious suspects, she crept back around to the staircase, which was helpfully right near them. She climbed it quietly to the floor above, and discovered by sitting on the stairs she could hear some their conversation. However, she heard nothing incriminating.

Still, they were her best lead, so she climbed to the floor above them, where from the elevator area she could see both their group, and the door with the condom and note. For the next hour, she maintained a stakeout position, even coordinating others as they came to join her, giving them a floor or position.

Soon, Alex came to find her, having passed on the door-watching duty. She sat down next to Mitchie. "Kinda weird how they thought we were all having sex in there, huh?"

"Yeah. I guess we didn't really think about how other people would take the noises."

"Wonder what they'd think if they knew nobody was doing it. Think they'd be disappointed?"

"From their note, I'd say they'd be happy about it."

"I was kinda thinkin' about it differently."

"What? How is there a differently?" Mitchie was clearly confused.

"I was thinkin' we could give a reason to leave us a note." Alex smirked, then leaned in quickly and captured Mitchie's lips.

Mitchie was amazed. She'd expected big things from her first kiss, but nothing like this. Alex was simply incredible. She began to realize as they kissed, this was clearly where she was meant to be. She thought back to all those dances, when she'd repeatedly been dateless. She'd always ended up spending the slow dances with Alex, who never had anyone either. Her mother had been insisting they'd end up together since the first time.

'Great.' She thought sarcastically. 'Now I'll never hear the end of that.' Currently though, she couldn't find it her to care, as the other girl's wonderful tongue traced her bottom lip. She opened her mouth, and was surprised to find things got even better as they continued. She was starting to feel slightly light-headed when they finally pulled back to breathe.

Alex smiled gently at her. "I can't even tell you how long I've been wanting to do that." She chuckled. As Mitchie smiled back, she realized something else. Her whole life, she'd been searching for the wrong thing. She didn't just want to kiss a girl. She'd needed to kiss this girl. And if she had her way, she'd keep kissing her- and hopefully more in the future- for years to come.

I have a friend who's always having to pull up his pants. My friend Ethan likes to tell him he should play football because he's always hiking. I always tell him I'm not a Twilight fan, and I don't wanna see his New Moon. On that note, you should review. ~SGM