One
“I’m not going,” I stated, yet again, to my friend, Caroline.
“Oh come on Alex, you can’t back out on me now!” She whined, flinging her dirty blond hair away from her face, “I’ve spent months, months Alex, preparing this, and you choose now to turn away from the girlish ways you have somewhere inside of you!?”
I sighed, “You’re such a drama queen Carol, it’s just one date, why don’t you and Zack just go by yourselves?” I said, Zack was her boyfriend for about 7 months, and for 7 months Carol’s been trying to convince me that I wanted a boyfriend. To say the least she’s failed…..miserably. She’s given me the ‘you’re 17 so you should want a boyfriend’ talk, the ‘you’re a bad friend for making me do this alone’ talk, and finally (the talk that got me to agree for her to find me a blind date) the ‘if you don’t go on a double date with me I’ll force you to wear a Barbie doll dress and take you to prom myself’ talk. That one was scary. So yeah, I agreed for her to find me one blind date, but just one, I made her agree specifically to that term. So basically, for the last…probably 4 or 5 months she’s been searching high and low for my ‘perfect match’, and she says that she's finally found it. I think she said his name was Cody or something.
“Because, Alex, that would be giving in to you. I am going to make you go on this date, and I’m going to make you like it.” She said, sitting me down in front of her dresser to fix “this mob of mud colored hair” as she calls it. I like my hair the way it is, it’s a little curly so it curls near the bottom, and it’s a rust color, brownish red. I usually just shower and let it dry naturally, it looks just fine, but apparently that wasn’t up to ‘dating standards’.
I sat for about 15 minutes as Carol smoothed and shined my hair, letting it curl at the bottom but smoothing it so that it looked more put together. I was pretty content actually, I was afraid she’d try to dye it or something; yeah, she’s that crazy. My happiness ended however, when she took out a little bag that I see her carry around.
“I’m not wearing that stuff,” I protested, she looked at me with a smug look.
“Why, my dear, I don’t believe you have a choice,” she whispered, I glared at her.
“And I believe I do, this is America.” I said, sliding out of the chair.
“No you don’t, you agreed to let me help you with getting ready, this is part of the deal.”
“Exactly, I said I’d let you help. I still get my choice, and I choose no. I’m not putting bat guano on my face for some dude I’ve never even met before.” I glanced at the clock and added “Besides, they’ll be here any minute and I still have to get dressed.” The moment she looked at the clock I bolted for her closet.
“No fair Alex! Come out, they really will be here in a few minutes!” ‘Duh’ I thought,
“Then you’d better get ready Carol!” I shouted through the door. I knew that she had picked out her clothes before hand and all she needed to do was her make up so I felt no guilt in staking out in her closet. I sighed when I heard her dump the contents out of her make up bag and sit down. “Hey Carol, what am I wearing?” I asked
“Um, just pick something,” She said. Did she really just give me license to pick out my own clothes?! I inwardly threw a party. Looking over myself I gave myself the okay. There was nothing wrong with what I was wearing, jeans, a Coco-cola tee-shirt and track shoes. I heard the door bell ring, “Could you get that Alex, I’m not quite done yet, tell them I’ll be down in a minute.” Her voice was coming from her bathroom.
“Sure,” I said, then I slipped out of the closet and down stairs to the front door. “Hey Zack,” I greeted him with a simple knuckle-touch.
“Hey Alex, this is Cody Santiago.” He said, stepping aside so I could see the dude behind him. He was a little taller than me, with brown, messy hair that reached just below his ears, he had brilliant blue eyes that stood out like a red coat in Alaska. ‘Not bad,’ I thought, but I wasn’t really interested.
“Hey Cody,” I said, giving him a half wave and then motioning for them to come in.
“Did Carol really let you wear that Alex?” Zack questioned with a smile when we sat down.
I coughed, “Well, she said that I could pick out my own clothes…”
“And you don’t have any make up on, how’d you get away?” He joked,
“I reminded her of the time, oh and she said she’d be down in a sec, she was so busy trying to make me a Barbie doll that she forgot to dress herself up.” I laughed with Zack, we both knew how girly Carol could be.
Zack and I had been friends before I introduced him to Carol, they hit it off right away, Zack and I always joke that we never would have guessed that they’d be each others perfect match.
“You know, Carol will probably have an apocalypse when she sees what you’re wearing.” Just as Zack said this Carol waltzed down the steps. She looked at me for 2 seconds then flew at me.
“What are you wearing!” She screeched, everyone clasped their hands over their ears.
“Clothes?” I joked, then winced when she screeched again.
“Excuse us boys, we’ll be right back.” Carol grabbed my ear and yanked my up the stairs with me mouthing ‘save me!’ to the boys behind her back the whole way.
Carol didn’t talk to me the whole time she flung clothes at me, but it didn’t really bother me, she would be back to herself in about an hour. I sighed and pulled on a green long sleeve top and dark jeans. I then slipped off my track shoes and pulled on the gold flats she’d flung at my head and the gold headband she’d tried to stick me with.
I sighed again and grabbed her hand before she could try to hang me with a thin gold chain belt. “Carol, I’m sorry, but you’ve got to give me some freedom,” I started, she glared at me, “I know I potentially ruined your date and all the energy you put into finding me a perfect match, so I’m sorry.” She glanced at me. “I’ll be on my best behavior during the date, I swear.” I got a half smile, but she still held the belt like a weapon, I sighed, “And….I’ll do this one more time. But just once.” I said, signing my death penalty.
“Yay!” She clasped her hands together and jumped up, thrusting the belt into my hands. “Put that on, we don’t want to be late!” that girl has some serious mood swings. I hung the belt slanted on my waist and followed her downstairs with a disgruntled face.
“But we’re writing out the terms of agreement next time,” I said, she nodded happily and grabbed Zack’s arm.
“I blame you,” I whispered to him, he laughed silently.
I motioned for Cody to exit first, then followed them out to the car, which was Zack's. Carol refused (and I mean flat out-with tears-and stomping her foot refused) to let me drive my truck; which I had desperately wanted to do. It's not that Zack's car is bad or anything, in fact, he own's a Ferrari. A flipp'n Ferrari! His parents own a TV business, they're channel 12 I think.
Zack and Carol had-conveniently- taken up the two front seats, and had crammed Cody and me into the back. Did I mention that the Ferrari is only meant for 3 passengers? Or 4 if you really squeeze together -hint hint-. Carol supplied most of the conversation during the trip to a restaurant we were eating at, don't ask me it's name, I don't know.
It seems a little odd to be that she would be completely be turned off of make-up and things like having a boyfriend. The hormones have to kick in, sometime. In the Hunger Games, Katniss doesn't want a boyfriend, because she's afraid that if she marries him, her kids will be in danger of getting selected for the hunger games. She has a genuine, understandable reason to hate men. It just seems a little awkward that she wouldn't want one for no apparent reason. I like how she puts comfort over fashion--I'm that way too--but she doesn't seem like a real person to me. 
Good luck revising, and PM if you have any questions.