Robin, Boy Virgin: Original Series

Since I got, like, no sleep, on Thursday morning my eyes felt hot and sleep deprived. I made myself get dressed and I groaned when I looked in the mirror. I looked like shit and I really wanted to crawl back into bed. But Cora was going to need me and for once I was going to help someone else get through a tough time.

I went downstairs and glanced out the front window. Cora wasn’t there in her car. I wasn’t going to get a ride to school this morning. That’s ok. I was still going to be a great friend.

I walked to school and by the time I got there, I was exhausted. I bought a big bottle of water from the vending machine and went to Music Composition. I went into the big practice room and turned on the Macs. I was still a teensy bit excited about using the new software. I hoped Cora would be too. I unscrewed the bottle cap and tilted the water bottle upward. I turned around to look out the window and across the foyer.

I choked on the big gulp of water I had in my mouth and it dribbled down my chin and on to the carpet.

Have you ever seen someone strut in real life? And I don’t mean a prissy anorexic walking down a runway or even a popular queen bee waltzing around her high school. I mean a real, bonafide, rock star strut. Like a Mick Jagger strut. Or a Megan Fox strut. Well, I was witnessing one first hand, courtesy of Cora.

And, shit, did she ever have stuff to strut with. I saw her walking across the foyer, sex-infused blues music playing in my head, and she was practically moving in slow motion, to exaggerate my point. Cora had taken leave of her former comfy but still effortlessly edgy and sexy skin and was… well trying something different. She was wearing these skinny jeans that had to have been sewn on her long legs, with black, high-heeled shoes, and a skin tight, dark pink polo shirt. The closer that girl got, the better I could see her. She’d straightened her hair and pulled it back into a ponytail and had generically hott silver, circular earrings hanging from her ears.

I just stared. My motor functions had shut down. Except for the ones below my waist. Those were perking up, if you catch my drift.

Cora disappeared for a moment, entering the band room, and then gloriously reappeared in the practice room. Holy mother of God. She looked like an Abercrombie skank, escaped straight from a catalogue. She would have fit in with the popular bitches easy as anything. Hell, she’d have beaten them at their own gorgeously slutty game, hands down.

“Hey,” She said, bored. I just stared. Cora sat down in the spare chair and crossed those amazingly sexy legs. She pulled her cell phone out from her purse and then looked up at me when I hadn’t greeted her back. Wow. Whatever kind of make up stuff she’d put on her eyes was making them even more devastatingly beautiful then usual.

“Catching flies?” She asked me. My mouth was partly open so I closed it and blinked. I rubbed my chin, only now feeling embarrassed that I’d spit out my water. But my eyes just kept looking over at Cora.

“… uh hi,” I managed to get out. I think my voice cracked. Cora started pressing buttons on her cell phone.

“What’s, um, up?” I asked, still gaping at her.

“Nothing,” Cora said simply with a shrug. She glanced up at me, shocking me with those sex kitten eyes that were better suited for a high-end nightclub than a high school band room.

“So… you’re…” I couldn’t speak. I tried to say “So you’re ok?” but other words were coming into my head. Like so you’re a slut? So you’re fantastically sexy and nothing bothers you? So your bedroom has windows that face the street, right?

I couldn’t help it. If you had seen Cora, no matter who you are or what your orientation is, you’d be reacting the exact same freaking way. Cora just looked at me like I was a psycho (which, I’ll give you, I was acting like one), and then she nodded and went back to her cell phone.

My original game plan didn’t come into fruition. It never even left the drawing board. For the rest of Music Composition I fumbled around with the new software on the Mac, trying to make my heart and other organs of mine calm down, and Cora just sat in her chair, doing unknown things on her cell phone.

Throughout the rest of the day, Cora showed that she wasn’t only dressing differently, she was acting differently. For one thing, we didn’t talk to each other because she wasn’t walking around with me. I felt like an idiot, because I had always relied on her to be the initiator of all our conversations and encounters. Without her initiating, we had no relationship. Friendship, whatever. Either way, she just disappeared.

Until I spotted her in the hallway. I’d been walking down her hallway to find her, to try and find the balls to really talk to her, when I saw that, oh, she was already occupied. Brandon, Travis, and Carlton were all occupying her attention. And she was the worthy star. Since she was all gorgeous and interesting. Fuck she’s too sexy.

I glared at the situation and leaned against the lockers.

“Robin? I’m sorry, but you’re in the way… what’s wrong?” Minnie said. I just kept staring at Cora, being surrounded by those popular douche bags. Minnie looked down the hall too.

“Oh… Whoa. What, what happened to her?” She asked in a hushed voice. I shook my head.

“I don’t know,” I stated simply.

At lunch, I thought maybe Cora would come around. Well, if she sat next to me in that get up she had on, I’d probably have a minor stroke at first, but I’d get used to it. I mean, she was still the same Cora underneath, right?

Well I didn’t get a chance to test out my hypothesis because Cora was sitting at the popular table. Actually, the addition of Cora had created a stir of change. She was sitting at one end of the tables, encircled by Travis, Brandon, Carlton, Jake, and all the other popular boys. And then at the other end of the tables were all the girls. They were two separate groups. The boys conversed with Cora and the popular girls conversed amongst each other and ignored the boys and Cora.

“What is going on??” Harold asked, completely bewildered.

“I don’t know. But nothing good,” I said cryptically, just as confused by Cora’s baffling behaviour.

I couldn’t sit still in Geography. I hated being in that classroom, surrounded by a bunch of people when I wanted to be alone. At the front of the room, Erica and her girlfriends were talking non-stop, in a hushed, suspicious tone. I finished my assignment as quick as I could and then asked Mr. Jeffrey if I could be excused. Mr. Jeffrey is pretty chill, he dresses and talks like a teenager and still maintains that young mentality. He let me go.

I went straight to the band room. I knew Mr. Giraldi wouldn’t mind if I explored the new music software some more. I booted up the Mac and sighed, remembering the turbulence of the morning. I looked out the windows to the foyer.

I saw Cora walking toward the band room. Not strutting this time, just walking. Still, even when she just walks she looks too sexy. I was going to give her a small wave, a peace offering, since she probably wanted to check out the new music software too. She hadn’t done it this morning.

“Cora!” A voice called out from a ways behind Cora. I could hear it faintly through the thick glass of the window. Cora turned around and revealed the person walking toward her. It was Erica.

My first impulse was to drop down out of sight. Since I wasn’t firing on all cylinders because of sleep deprivation, I did just that. I gorilla walked over to the low bookcase near the window and peered up cautiously, dreading the scene that was about to unfold.

“Hey. You’re Erica right?” Cora said, cool as a freaking cucumber.

“Oh, so you do know who I am? Oh good, ok, then, um, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Erica demanded.

“What are you talking about?” Cora challenged.

“You can’t just come in here one day and decide to steal all of our guy friends,” Erica accused.

“I’m not stealing anything. And if I was, why not? I’m a slut right?” Cora said. Oh.

Ohhhhhhhh. Brilliant move, Cora. I never would have thought of that, embodying what they accused her of being and having it totally backfire on them. Well I guess that’s because Cora has an amazing set of proverbial, proactive balls and I am just a passive aggressive wimp.

“Well, if you weren’t a slut before, you definitely are one now,” Erica said. I frowned, my hackles raising. What a bitch.

“Why does it matter to you and your bitchy little friends if I’m a slut?” Cora demanded.

“Because, you fucked with Jenni and Brandon and Amanda and you need to know that there are consequences when you’re a bitch,” Erica threatened. Holy frick! That was really nasty. And what Erica had just said pretty much proved that she and her friends had vandalized Cora’s locker. I knew it, right?!

“Oh I’m the bitch? Yeah, ok, uh huh. What the hell are you talking about? I didn’t do a goddamn thing to Brandon or Amanda. Who the fuck is Amanda?” Cora said back. Atta girl. You’re way cooler than they are; you don’t need to remember their names.

“You started hitting on Brandon while leading Robin on,” Erica said. My jaw dropped. Why the hell was I being dragged into this?

“Just to be clear, I am not doing either of those things, cupcake. And even if I was, how is that any of your bitchy ass’s business?” Cora said.

“Brandon is our guy friend and Robin is ours if we choose to take him. You don’t have any social power to be playing games with us and stealing what is ours,” Erica said. What the fuck?? I am most definitely NOT nor would I EVER be their, their, their property. And who gives a crap about a stupid boy virgin music geek like me, anyway??

“Those boys don’t belong to you. They can do whatever they want and so can I,” Cora said, sounding so confident and self assured that, even though I was squarely on her side, I was still jealous of her attitude.

“Then I guess I’m going to have to explain it to you a little better,” Erica said and started slowly circling Cora. Uh oh.

“Are you sure you really want to get into this with me?” Cora asked her, giving her a legitimate chance to back out with a bitchy retreat. I wouldn’t get into it with her if I were you, Erica. I’d freaking run the other way. But you can’t hear my sound advice because I’m hiding and there’s no way I’d tell you, anyway, because I’d actually like nothing more than to see Cora beat the shit out of you.

Erica’s face turned livid and she suddenly stepped forward and slapped Cora across the face.

I stood up, yanked open the practice room’s door, and was at the band room door in fewer than three strides and under one two seconds. I stopped, though; when I saw through the glass panelling Cora retaliate with a reflexive shove. And what a fucking push. A laugh actually escaped out of me as Erica went stumbling backwards with a short scream and slammed her back against one of the foyer’s structural pillars.

“What’s going on here?!”

Me and the warring girls snapped our heads over to the speaker. Our hard ass, prison warden principal, Mrs. Hicks, came marching across the foyer.

“Oh nothing. We were just playing,” Erica said. What? She was pulling a move like the one Cora had pulled on Mr. Jeffrey.

“Yeah, sorry, if it looked bad,” Cora added, going along with it. As a teenager, I guess, we all can understand that no matter what’s going on in your life, if you can deal with your issues without adults, then you will avoid their intervention at all costs.

“I’d better go. Sorry about the scare Mrs. Hicks,” Erica said, stretching her hurt shoulder subtly. She looked at Cora. Their female relationship status was definitely another “nuclear war”, but this one was “we bombed the shit out of each others’ countries and this is done. But I still hate your guts”. Cora reciprocated the look.

“See you later Cora,” Erica said stiffly.

“Yeah. Bye, Erica,” Cora said back just as rigidly. Erica walked away. Mrs. Hicks looked shrewdly at Cora.

“Fighting is absolutely not permitted at this school, Miss Melaincamp. Be wise,” She said to Cora and then walked away, leaving Cora alone in the foyer.

I watched Cora stand there. I wondered if she would do a victory dance. I wondered if she would spit on the ground like the hero in a freaking awesome Western movie. I wondered if she’d run after Erica and tackle her to the ground and beat her ass up.

But Cora didn’t do any of those things. In fact, her face began to fall into that eye-darting stare. Her hand was absent-mindedly rubbing her hip. She looked… she looked like she was about to cry. And my heart began to pound as sadness and sympathy engulfed me. Cora was still a human. She couldn’t be doing the coolest, edgiest thing one hundred percent of the time.

Suddenly, Cora’s staring shifted and she noticed me looking at her through the glass panelling of the door. When she saw me, I opened the door a bit. Cora blinked and lifted her hand, making mixed signals. She was both kind of waving at me and asking me to stop at the same time. Then she looked away from me and turned and walked quickly out of the school.

The bell rang and school was finished for that Thursday.