CHAPTER 10 (SWITCH)

I was at the laundry now, waiting to claim my clothes. My fingers drummed the desk while my other hand was propped under my chin. I could hear the mechanical sounds of the machines and a few kids protesting. Well, this wasn't exactly the best hang-out for kids. Even I wouldn't go here. It's just so dreadfully boring.

I let out a yawn.

Oh gosh. I shouldn't have stayed up all night. But that was for a good, educational purpose. Excellent documentaries about Egypt don't come very often.

The lady at the counter was taking an awful time getting my laundry… Nothing. I just noticed.

"Here's your laundry," she said, hauling my pants in a blue plastic and placing it on the counter.

Thank God! She took an eternity for a two-minute task!

I grabbed the laundry and headed out when I bumped into Harry. He blinked as he saw me. He was holding his laundry in his hands as well.

"Oh. Hi Harry!" I said, feeling a bit surprised.

Who would have thought we'd bump into each other at the laundry?

"Hey. What're you doing here?" he grinned at me.

I chuckled and hit him with my laundry. "Getting my laundry of course!"

Jeez.

"But… Those aren't your size…" he said as he peered into my plastic bag.

"Well… I never liked tight pants. So I got these from the men's section," I replied.

"Let me see the size."

He looked at the tags of one of my pants. His eyes widened.

"Jeez! These are only two sizes smaller than mine!" Harry exclaimed.

I shrugged. "Well, it's comfy. I use a belt. Thank God I got these. These are the only pants that I have. I usually wear walking shorts, you know?"

"Oh. Those are your only pants?"

"Yup."

"I see…"

I eyed him. Something was going on in his head.

"Why don't you get new pants? Pants that actually fit you?" Harry asked.

I made a face. "Eeew! No way Jose!"

"Well, didn't your mom buy you any set of pants that fit you?"

"I chucked those out."

"What?!"

"Yup. Then I got my cousin Ralph's pants."

"Jeez Kyleen. You're a weird one."

I chuckled. "Well… That's it. Plus I insisted my mom that the only time she'll buy me new clothes is when I run out of my old ones. Which'll never happen because these are still good." I waved the plastic bag at him.

He nodded. "Oh… I see."

I smiled.

All of a sudden, I felt the urge to run to the comfort room. I wanted to pee so badly. Darn it. I knew I shouldn't have drunk all of those Minute Maid bottles this morning.

I placed my laundry on the floor. "Harry, I need to go pee. I'll… leave this here. And… I really need to go."

I practically ran at record time as I searched for the comfort room. If I couldn't let it out, I'd probably pee on the spot.

When nature calls, I needed to act fast.

Harry was laughing as he saw me zoom away. I looked so funny to him. He even thought that I was more entertaining than his Ipod.

I don't know if I could ever take that as an insult or as a compliment.

Harry looked at the plastic bag beside him. The whirring of machines was practically bouncing off the walls now.

He had never met anyone like Kyleen before. What kind of girl wears oversized pants?

Make that pretty girl too.

He began to set himself deep in thoughts. Certainly these are no clothes for a girl, for any girl.

She should be wearing skirts. And her hair should be cut shorter. Maybe a bit of make-up would do her good as well. Some spray would do nice as well.

Harry stopped in his thoughts and slapped his head, feeling silly.

'Jeez. I'm like her mother,' he thought.

But still, new and proper clothes would do her a great deal of good.

These are her only pairs of pants… So…

He counted the number of pants in her laundry.

Six.

That's the exact number of pants that he had in his own set of laundry.

He looked at his own set of pants. They were practically the same as Kyleen's. No doubt that they had bought it from the same section.

He suddenly had an idea. He was lucky today. It might be risky, but he hoped that he'd get the results that he wanted.

Slowly, very slowly, he switched their laundry. The plastic bags were the same, so it would not have made any difference.

There.

If this doesn't compel her to buy new clothes, he didn't know what would.

Maybe his simple dream of seeing her in a skirt would actually come true. It's not like he was perverted or anything, he just thought that she would look positively lovely in one.

No one seemed to notice what he did. The lady at the counter was too bored to be totally aware of the place. Jeez. The place bores even the employees who work here.

Good. Things might actually work out for him.

I went out of the comfort room, feeling oh so relieved.

Never will I drink that much Minute Maid ever again. I might slowly kill my kidneys and I could never see my future children grow up.

In fact, it's taken me about twenty minutes in that comfort room. The tissue was jammed and I had to practically bang on the dispenser to get it. That consumed most of my time.

Or at least I think that's the main factor.

As I entered the place, I saw Harry humming a tune to himself.

"Harry!" I grinned as I approached him.

He turned around and smiled. "Oh. Hey. You took your time."

"Tissue was jammed. I had to destroy the dispenser."

He chuckled. "Really?"

"Yes! Really!"

"Oh… Cool I guess?"

He gave off a nervous laugh. I raised an eyebrow. He was acting weird.

He beamed. "Well, I've got to get going now. See you." He picked up his set of laundry, waved at me, and walked away.

I smiled. "Bye Harry. See you tomorrow at the tutoring center."