And thus began high school. That magical time in everyone's life when they supposedly figure out who they are, what they're going to do with themselves, and look back on it as the best years of their life.

It's also the not-so-magical time of puberty. Yeah, we all laugh at it now, but it was mortifying while it was happening. It's also extremely confusing when you can't quite place when girls stopped having 'cooties' and started becoming goddesses.

September 25, 1982

It started like any other day. Well, almost. I found myself alone in front of the school. April was running late that morning and told me to go ahead. For some reason I found myself unable to go inside without her. Although I'd bet the three large seniors wearing letter jackets standing about 10 feet inside had a lot to do with it.

April was right. I never had my lunch money stolen, or got beaten up, or anything that extreme. I was, however, far from immune to crumpled papers being thrown at my head, being tripped in the halls, or the immense verbal abuse whenever she wasn't around.

My eyes fell to a small bug a short distance from my foot. I could tell without even looking at my watch that it was 5 minutes until homeroom. Where the hell was she?

"I thought I said not to wait for me." I heard in a familiar voice. I opened my mouth to speak, but as soon as I looked up at her my jaw dropped down and my tired, half-lidded eyes shot open. "What? Do I have something on my face?" She brought her hands up to her cheeks worriedly.

After a moment, I finally found my voice. "Actually...yeah." It was true, technically. The smokey liner, perfect shadow that brought out that wonderful hint of blue in her eyes that was usually completely hidden by the green, thick mascara, and tint of pink on her lips were, indeed, something on her face. I found myself unable to take my eyes off hers. "You're wearing make-up."

"Um...yeah. It looks silly, doesn't it?" She ran a hand through her hair, looking away from me, and blushed.

"You look beautiful." It came out before I knew I was thinking it, almost like breathing. I was unable to stop myself.

"Thanks...oh, shit!" She looked at her hand with a slight panic, which I then noticed had black polish on each fingernail, one of which was chipped at the end. "How did that happen? I don't remember hitting it on anything!"

"Oh, my god.." I said, barely moving my lips.

"Oh, no! What now!? What, Mark!?" Her voice was getting rushed and distraught as she looked up at me.

I half feigned amazement. "You're a fucking girl."

She giggled, all panic melting away. "Well, the absence of penis tipped me off to that quite a while ago, but thanks for confirming it, Marky."

She walked through the doors, a little bit of unease still showing through her newfound confidence. After a few moments of being unable to move, I quickly moved to catch up with her. "So, is all that just for the class photos?"

I caught her glancing over at one of the aforementioned jacket-wearers and smiling.

"Well...something like that."