9. A Photo, A Box, and A Mirror

Luz Noceda sat on her bed in her room thinking. She had been doing a lot of that over the past few weeks. She had also spent a lot of time on the internet searching various terms and even chatting (anonymously) with various people online. Luz was asking a lot of questions about herself ever since that incident at the sleepover two weeks ago. She still couldn't quite explain it but somehow she found herself attracted to Anne.

What was most puzzling about this was the fact that she had never before felt an attraction to a girl before. Luz had watched a great deal of anime and had always found herself attracted to the guys in it, especially that one anime about alchemy. She had played many games and again was drawn to the male heroes especially that one where a great evil known as Sin was going to destroy the whole world. Heck she had even written a fanfiction in which her self insert OC character had made out with the Prince from Azura (in very long and descriptive detail). Why all of a sudden did she now find herself attracted to Anne?

These feelings had been weird, but what would be even weirder was that school would be starting tomorrow. It would be the first time Luz would see Anne since the sleepover. Luz wondered how she would react to her, would Anne say something to her? Should she say something to Anne? Many questions replayed in her head over and over. Luz turned her attention to her computer, she had read a few stories online about various people who had "come out" to their friends and family. Some stories were sad with their parents getting angry or even disowning them, some were happy with their parents and friends saying they already knew or they didn't care (in a good way). One particularly funny story had a parent reply to their son coming out as gay by responding, "Oh come on I don't care about that, I thought you were going to tell me you were a Republican!" Luz had chuckled at that one.

In her head Luz tried to think of what she would tell her mother. Luz was pretty certain she wasn't gay. Her research on the internet was leading her to believe that she was in fact bisexual, what would her mother think? Her mother was a pretty progressive person in her attitudes and politics, but she had also been raised Catholic and the Catholic Church was, at best trying to have it both ways saying gays were "god's children" but still refusing to honor or perform gay marriages. It seemed as though Luz's life had gotten a lot more complicated since that night at the sleep over.

One thing at a time, thought Luz, first I need to know for sure if what happened at the sleepover was a fluke or a one time thing, maybe when I see Anne tomorrow I won't feel anything. Maybe then this whole thing will be over and I won't have to worry about it anymore. With that Luz crawled into bed and did her best to purge the wild thoughts from her mind to try and go to sleep.

Luz and her mother arrived a bit early at her school, before Camila dropped her daughter off she handed her something.

"Oh Mija I meant to give this to you earlier, I saw it on sale during back to school shopping and thought you'd like it." she said. Luz took the objects, it was a sketch pad and a set of nice color pencils.

"Wow these are really good quality," said Luz in amazement as she examined the sketch book and pencils.

"I feel you've come a long way since getting expelled last year. I've seen how happy you are now that you have a group of friends to hang out with. You really have grown Mija, I think you deserve something like this to help cultivate your artistic talents." said Camila

"Gracias mama" said Luz.

"Have a great first day!" called her mother as she drove away. Luz opened her sketch book and immediately began experimenting with the pencils to see how they felt. She was so busy trying them out that she didn’t notice Anne approaching her.

"Hey Luz there you are. Are you ready for eighth grade?" asked Anne as she offered Luz a high five.

"Oh yeah," said Luz nervously, "Now we're finally at the top of the school!" Luz returned the high five only to be surprised as Anne grabbed her hand and spun her around like they were dancing. Luz almost fell over and tried to play it off, but could feel her cheeks blushing, though Anne seemed to not have noticed.

"You okay there Luz?" asked Anne.

"Oh yeah I'm great," said Luz, "how have you been since…." Luz trailed off realizing what she had said.

"The sleepover," Anne finished, "Oh I've been great. Thanks again for being my pillow. Hope It wasn't uncomfortable having me on top of you."

"Oh no, not at all," replied Luz rather quickly and nervously, "I'm glad I was able to help."

"Well here we are 8th grade, do you feel any different Luz?" asked Anne.

"Oh you could say that," said Luz nervously.

"Oh look there's Marcy and Sasha," Anne had noticed the other girls and waved the over.

Sasha was full of energy as she approached the girls, "Hey girls good to see you all here. Now I know it's the first day of school but there are two major events coming up that we have got to start planning for. The first being the fall dance."

"There's a dance coming up?" asked Luz rather loudly.

"Yes," replied Sasha, "it's in two weeks, and shortly after that is…."

"My birthday!" exclaimed Anne.

"Yes and it will be an excellent birthday for sure," said Sasha, "but first things first, the dance. Now I want all of you to send me pics of clothes so I can help coordinate what you'll be wearing for the dance. I'll also need to know what nail polish and lipstick colors you have. Don't any of you worry. I will make sure and help you look fine for this evening."

"I uh actually don’t have any make-up," said Luz somewhat embarrassingly. The girls all looked at her. For a brief second Luz felt small and insignificant.

"Oh don’t worry about that," said Sasha warmly, "I can lend you some, I have a lot."

"It's okay Luz," said Marcy, "I don't have a wide selection of polish either, I tend to stick with a few basic colors. Oh I have this real cool green though, it's called Emerald." Marcy showed off her fingers showing the emerald green polish on her nails.

"Eh you don't really need it," said Anne, "I don't really wear it either, I think we look good without it don’t you Luz."

Luz's stomach once again felt light and fluttery at hearing Anne say she didn't need make-up.

"In any case we still have two weeks to figure this out, but I also thought that to mark this occasion, the first day of 8th grade we should get a picture of the four of us. We are after all Best Friends Forever!, hey Margo get over here," Sasha called to a red headed girl standing a few feet away.

"Yeah what do you want Sasha?" asked the girl as she approached.

"I want you to take a picture of the four of us," said Sasha handing her, her phone, "Get close girls!"

Sasha, Anne, Marcy, and Luz all came together for the photo.  They all smiled for the camera all of them happy and all of them ready to capture this moment in a picture. Maggie took a few on the phone before handing it back to Sasha.

"I'll send you all a copy don't worry, but I think I'll also print one out for each of us, that way you have something to keep in your locker or keep with you as a memento and so that you remember that we are….. best friends FOREVER!!!." declared Sasha.

For most of the day Luz didn't see Anne, though at lunch she was surprised to see her sitting alone. Anne explained that Sasha was using her lunch break to practice for cheer tryouts and Marcy had said she was busy looking up something online.

"Sasha's real devoted to her cheer-leading," explained Anne, "she was training real hard over the summer. She really wants to make captain."

"You think she will?" asked Luz.

"The tryouts are today after school, so we'll see. That's why she wants to use any spare moment she has to train," said Anne.

"So Anne do you want anything for your birthday?" asked Luz.

"Eh I haven't thought about that too much," replied Anne, "my parents said they want to throw me a party, actually Marcy said she was trying to find me a gift online, but honestly it's cool you guys don't have to get me anything."

"But what if I want to," asked Luz.

"Nah don't worry about that dude," said Anne, "tell you what the four of us will hang out and do something later. That can be your birthday present to me."

"Yeah that would be great!" said Luz, "but well I still want to get you something."

"Aw that's sweet of you Luz," said Anne causing Luz to blush, "but it's cool. Besides we're still kids it's not like we have that much money."

Luz thought for a moment before saying, "What if I could get you something that didn't cost any money?"

"Huh?" asked Anne surprised.

Luz pulled out her new sketch book to show Anne, "My mom gave this to me today. And hey I need a subject to practice on…what if I drew a portrait of you?"

"What really?" asked Anne surprised at this offer, "I mean are you sure you want me to be the subject of your art?" Anne hesitated and looked away from Luz, a seed of self doubt forming in her, before continuing, "Plus I bet you could find a better looking model than me."

"No I couldn't!" said Luz rather quickly. Luz realized just how fast she had said it and tried to play it off, "I mean if you don't want to that's fine, but I think you'd make a great subject for me to try and draw. Can I get a good picture of your face?"

"Well I guess if you really want to," said Anne. She smiled and posed for the picture as Luz brought out her camera, being careful to take the best possible picture she could as she would need it as a reference for the portrait.

"Don't make me look ugly," joked Anne.

"That would be impossible," whispered Luz under her breath.

"Huh what did you say?" asked Anne.

"Nothing!" replied Luz quickly, though she tried to talk with Anne about something else, "So uh Anne, have you ever felt…..I don't know."

"Felt what now?" asked Anne.

"I uh, sorry I lost my train of thought there," said Luz, "what I meant to say was…..Have you ever….." Luz again stopped unable to finish her question.

"Are you okay Luz?" asked Anne concerned for her friend.

"I just…..I was having some thoughts about myself, I've been feeling…..weird feelings and….." Luz trailed off again not able to say what she wanted to say.

"Do you want to talk about it?" asked Anne concern in her face, "you know you once told me that friends should be able to talk about difficult things with each other. Well if there's something going on with you feel free to let me know." Anne put her hand on Luz's to try and comfort her, though this only served to make Luz even more nervous as she felt the warmth from Anne's hand and the tenderness of her touch.

Luz was glad that at that moment Marcy returned to the table telling the girls about something she had found online.

"So check this guys," began Marcy as she read something on her phone, "do you read creepy-pastas?"

"Yeah," said Luz and Anne together.

"I found this one about a cursed treasure box," said Marcy, "they say it's a box that has treasure and jewels in it, but every person who's ever owned it has mysteriously vanished. According to the story people would take posse ion of this box and then a few days later they would vanish without a trace. This box has shown up at various garage and estate sales as well as auctions and raffles. I'll send you the full story. But the craziest part is that according to the story the last person who owned it lived here in Los Angeles. It could be somewhere  here in this city waiting for the next person to find it. The story says its cursed but it also says that there may be a way to end the curse and then claim the treasure. With that treasure you could be rich beyond your wildest dreams!"

"Sounds like a Twilight Zone episode," said Luz, "the box has treasure in it which is what causes people to seek it out, but then they get ahold of it and suddenly they disappear. I think that creepy-pasta is trying to warn you against being greedy."

"I think you've been reading too many creepy-pastas Marcy," said Anne, "you know that they're all fake right?"

"I know some of them are fake, but how do we know that some of them aren't real?" asked Marcy.

"I mean even if that one were real it sounds like getting that box would be a bad idea," said Luz.

"Unless we could break the curse," suggested Marcy, "then we could have the treasure."

"Ha! that would be nice," said Anne, "now that would be a great birthday present."

At this statement Marcy's eyes lit up.

"But it will never happen," finished Anne, "though Mar-Mar if you’re into creepy-pastas I know a real good one about a video monster that traps you in its video if you watch it. Want me to send it to you?"

"Oh sure that's be great!" said Marcy somewhat distracted.

At the end of the day Marcy, Anne, and Luz waited by the gym for Sasha, she had her cheer captain tryout and they had wanted to hear how she did. It didn't take long for Sasha to emerge wearing her cheerleader uniform.

"So how'd it go Sasha?" asked Anne.

"Ahem that's Captain Sasha to you now!" said Sasha slyly.

All the girls cheered at this news and gave Sasha a series of high fives to congratulate her!

"Way to go Sasha!" said Anne

"Knew you could do it!" said Luz

"You're gonna be the best cheer captain ever!" said Marcy.

"Oh I already know that!" said Sasha, "but hey that's just the beginning for me. Can't wait to see what the rest of the year holds. Oh hey girls before I forget here, I got a friend from the computer lab to print us out copies of that picture I took this morning, here you go."

Sasha handed a copy of the picture to the other girls. Luz took her copy and smiled at it. She was standing next to Anne with her arm around her. Anne had closed her eyes for the picture but was still smiling and giving a peace sign. Sasha was on the other side of Anne and Marcy was next to Sasha. Luz wasn't sure what she'd do with this picture, maybe keep it in her locker or maybe keep it with her.

"Oh this is definitely a keeper," said Anne, with that she took a purple marker out from her bag and wrote on her picture, BFFS and drew a heart next to it for good measure. She handed the marker to Marcy who did the same with her photo before handing it to Sasha. Sasha then handed it to Luz when she was done. When the girls were done they brought their matching pictures together and looked at them.

"May this moment be the beginning of a great and wonderful year for the four of us," said Sasha.

"Here, here!" said the other girls in unison.

"So don’t forget girls send me the pictures of what clothes you want to wear to the dance and the type of makeup you have. And Luz I'll bring some of my makeup for you. A little bit of eye shadow, the right color lipstick and a good nail polish and then you won't look so plain for the dance; maybe I can even help you spice up your everyday look.

That statement hit Luz like a ton of bricks. She tried her best not to show it, but on the inside she was hurting. She tried to laugh it off though and not show any pain.

"Yeah ha right," she said, "thanks Sasha I appreciate you looking out for me."

When Luz got home she tried not to go and look at herself directly in the mirror, but unfortunately she found herself unable to resist. She opened her bathroom door and took a long look at herself especially her face in the mirror.

Am I plain? She thought, what does that even mean? Does Anne think I'm plain? I've never worn makeup before. If I wore it would Anne find me more attractive?

Luz continued to stare at herself in the mirror. As she had started growing up Luz had done her best to try and not succumb to body shaming. She had purposefully avoided reading any sort of beauty magazines and had always tried to be happy with the body she had, now however after Sasha's comment she found herself wondering if there was something wrong with her. Something she should change. These thoughts didn't last long though as new thoughts entered her mind allowing her to regain her confidence. She told herself that she had her own style and her own way of doing things. She had a look that worked for her and one that she was proud of. She reminded herself that Anne had actually said she looked fine without makeup. That feeling she had gotten around Anne it wasn't a fluke, it wasn't a one time thing. She now knew for certain she had a crush on her friend! All she had to do was come up with a plan for how to confess her feelings to Anne! And the upcoming dance would be the perfect setting for doing that, just like in all those teen movies!

Finally though Luz regained her composure and said to her reflection

Yo soy una chica fuerte, no importa lo que algien dice de ti!