by Amber Gaye

Created on: March 05, 2009   Last Updated: May 25, 2011

Jenny lived just four houses down from me. We had been best friends for years, spending every moment of our long summer days together, from early in the morning, until well after the street lights came on. Then, when the leaves turned, and school began, we would walk to and from school side by side. We talked about boys, and MTV, and which movie was better: Labyrinth or or The Dark Crystal. We shared secrets, successes, and failures. Our friendship was a sacred thing.

Then, one afternoon in the late summer of our eighth grade year, we met the "bike gang." This was a rather ominous title bestowed upon a rag-tag group of neighborhood high school boys who like to spend their days cruising the streets astride their BMX bicycles. These were the real "bad boys". Torn jeans, untied Nike high tops, and cut off AC/DC T-shirts completed their image; they were beautiful.

We fell in love immediately. I fell hopelessly in love with Tim, while Jenny not only fell in love with his best buddy Mike, but the whole "bad boy" lifestyle as well. These were exciting times; the days that determine the person you will become. Here we were, hanging with the coolest of the cool. There was only one problem though, I was not cool.

However hard I might try, I (and the world) soon discovered that I was destined to be a geek. I tried to hide the fact that I simply didn't fit in with this new "bad boy" crowd, but the surest way to stand out is to try too hard to fit in. When "geek" is written into your DNA, there's nothing more uncool than trying to prove how very cool you are.

Still, Tim must have really liked me because, even though he upheld the cold, and distant attitude toward me in front of his buddies, when we were alone, he was always sweet, sensitive and kind to me. One afternoon he even asked me to a party one his "bike gang" friends was having.

I was so excited! To think that I was going to attend an ultra cool party with the school's hottest bad boy was almost too much for me to believe. I told him then and there that I'd love to go with him, and when I wandered home that evening I was dancing on clouds.

However, it soon began to rain. My parents were of the strict and old fashioned variety. There was no possible way that they were going to allow their middle school daughter to attend an unchaperoned high school party with a "burn-out". Being a "good girl" (i.e. geek) I couldn't imagine ever going against the wishes of my parents. I was crushed. I cried all night long.

When morning

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