Just Call Me Grace

She put on her best poker face as she sat through her Driver's Ed class. It was the first day of her senior year of high school. A day that teenagers eagerly anticipate -- you feel that you have arrived and it's your time to rule the school. She felt quite confident that first day. Her 80s hair was adequately sculpted and sprayed. She was having a fairly "routine" day... that was until 5 minutes into her 4th period Driver's Ed class. Now, with her forced smile firmly planted, she had to figure out what she was going to do. How in the world was she going to get through these next 45 minutes.... and, more importantly, how was she going to leave the classroom with her head held high after what just transpired??

The source of her angst was all her own doing. As she entered the Driver's Ed class, she was busy chatting with a good friend. They walked over towards the simulated cars (little models of the driver's side of a car) where they remained until the teacher announced that everyone should get into the simulator.

As Beth slid into her simulated car, she was so intent on listening and talking to her friend, that her focus was not on the metal car she was entering. As she lowered herself into the car, the only sound she heard was a rip... a big rip!! What Beth didn't see while entering the simulator was that this was a manual car, not an automatic, so it had a huge metal stick shift protruding from the front of the dashboard area. Somehow, she managed to put a huge rip in her new jeans. The tear was so large that it was literally an L-shape. All she could see was her thigh and the little L-shape denim falling open in all the wrong places. Luckily, her friend was busy getting herself situated and didn't realize what had happened to Beth.

Somehow she managed not to slice open her leg... that would have just been the dead give away and she wouldn't be able to play this off. Why, or why did the rip have to happen on the upper part of her thigh? Why couldn't it have been on the knee or somewhere fashionable??

So, for the rest of 4th period, Beth plotted her escape. She realized that there was no way she was going to be able to stay in school the rest of the day with her thigh exposed... not the kind of attention she was looking for the first day of her senior year. So, the only option was to sit with her legs firmly pressed together the rest of the class, and when exiting the simulator to try to walk with her thighs literally rubbing together to keep the denim from flapping. She imagined she looked like quite the freak as she wobbled (with her knees pressed together for dear life) from the classroom, down 4 flights of stairs, out the door, into the Subway and onto the train and subsequent bus ride to her home. Her legs were killing her when she got home -- rub burn!!The only positive thing about this experience was that she did have a jacket with her so she at least wrapped that around her waist -- not that it helped much, but at least she felt somewhat covered.

Definitely a memorable first day of my last year of high school. Just call me Grace.