Spinach in My Hair

The first day of sophomore year, I walked into homeroom with my hair dyed midnight blue—a literal midnight, with stars speckled through the bangs that I'd painstakingly applied with whiteout. Mom had practically disowned me in the driveway. Three hours later, I was regretting everything.

"What's up, Smurfette?" called Jared, whose social status was approximately equal to his confidence level: unearned and annoying.

"What's up, bull?" I shot back, then immediately cringed. Bull? Who says bull? The word had slipped out because my little brother had been obsessed with mechanical bulls after watching some country music video, and apparently my vocabulary had been contaminated.

The class laughed. At me, not with me. Classic.

But the real disaster struck at lunch. I'd finally worked up the nerve to sit across from Maya, who I'd been crushing on since seventh grade when she let me borrow her favorite pen and never asked for it back. I'd prepared for this moment all summer. I'd done the research: apparently, eating healthy made you seem mature and put-together.

So there I was, eating a spinach salad. A spinach salad. Freshman me would have rather died than be seen eating leaves for lunch, but Sophomore Me was supposedly sophisticated and health-conscious.

"Nice hair," Maya said, and I almost choked on a spinach leaf.

"Thanks!" I said, maybe too loudly. "I did it myself."

"Your bangs are—" She paused, making a weird face.

"What? My bangs?"

"You have..." She gestured to her own teeth.

I bolted to the bathroom. Staring back at me in the mirror was a horror show: a massive, bright green piece of spinach wedged squarely between my two front teeth. The white speckles in my hair looked like someone had sneezed chalk on me. And my face was that particular shade of crimson that only happens when your social life officially ends.

Sophomore year, day one, and I'd already peaked at rock bottom.

But then Maya appeared in the bathroom doorway.

"Everyone gets spinach in their teeth," she said. "Last year, I had broccoli in my braces for three periods. Three. No one told me because they were too scared of me."

"Wait, you?"

"I know, right? Terrible friend group." She handed me a piece of gum. "Your hair is actually kind of cool, by the way. The stars look like you caught constellations in your bangs."

Maybe sophomore year wouldn't be so bad after all.