That One Moment...

Chapter 18

By the time Sarah recovered, Ryan was nowhere to be seen. She slowly got out of his truck, grabbed her bag, and locked the doors before walking towards the building. Had she heard him right? Did he ask her to a dance? She felt like she was in a bit of a daze as her mind replayed the last few minutes. She must have missed something in there. Her mind drifted as her feet continued to move forward.

"Earth to Sarah..."

Sarah blinked a few times and looked up. She must have been on auto-pilot since she was now in homeroom with Chris and Abby looking at her strange.

"Oh. Sorry. Did I miss something? Totally zoned out there."

"That was way more than zoning out!" Abby interjected. "You looked like you were in another world, but still moving around and sitting next to us. Like living dead style maybe."

"No way. Have you ever seen that movie? Nothing like that." Chris commented.

"There's a movie?" Abby questioned. "I was thinking more of like a zombie or something that was totally taken over from an alien maybe."

Sarah just stared at them as they debated what her behavior had most resembled. At least that distracted the pair from actually asking her any questions. Sarah's mind went out the window on her right. Ryan must have said something else. There wasn't any signs up for a dance, so that meant it did not exist. There would be, right? Sarah was pulled back into the conversation as she looked to her left where Chris sat. Abby was sitting in front of them, turned slightly to be able to talk while they waited for the announcements.

"Well, I think Lindsay looks more like the walking dead today with the amount of makeup she has caked on. Hopefully she takes it off before she tries to cheer or it will be running down her face even more."

"They don't work up a sweat. It's not like the competitive stuff they do down south."

"I shouldn't talk like that anyways. To each their own, right? If she thinks she looks good, more power to her. Go boujee."

Sarah just watched the back and forth, curious how they had moved to this topic. Just then, the announcements began and Sarah zoned back out.

Until she heard the principal mention the upcoming dance. He was talking about how it used to be a Sadie Hawkins dance in the past, when girls were allowed to invite their crushes, but that since the idea was outdated it was just called the autumn dance now, in contrast to the spring fling. As he delved into mentioning a winter formal and prom as the other key dance socials still put on at their high school, Sarah wondered if this was really happening. There was a dance coming up? It was called the autumn dance? Ryan had used that term this morning.

Just then, she heard Chris pipe up, "Oh yeah, almost forgot. Hey Abby, wanna go to the fall fling formal thing with me?"

"It's called the autumn dance, not the fall fling formal thing. Cringe." She snorted. "Sure, I'm game!" Abby added after a pause.

Sarah questioned, "Wait, there's a dance?" Still not putting things together.

Both of them, along with a few other students nearby, turned and gaped at her. Oops. 

Before anyone could point out her total social blunder, Mrs. Romero called the class to order and started discussing a new project that combined social literacy and a lit review that would be part of their first half wrap up. Sarah sighed and hoped the awkwardness would pass quickly. 

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Later in the day, Sarah trailed after Anna into lunch. Anna and Dylan had been debating what sport was the most challenging, soccer or basketball, during class. Sarah had, surprisingly, kept from more embarrassment after her social awkwardness in first period. She had pretty much stayed quiet and lucked out in classes. Mr. Gibson had been so annoyed at the presentations in computers that he had lectured incessantly on the importance of being able to concisely present ideas to others. While she and Chris had made annoyed faces at each other, there was no time to talk. Sarah had tried to be almost late to pre-calc so she couldn't sit next to Abby. She didn't want to talk about the dance and thought it was best to keep her distance.