Average Jane |Lesbian Story|

Jane Waleski leaned over the sink and examined her face in the mirror. There was another pimple flourishing on her chin. She grimaced in disgust and wondered if she should just pop this hideous mega zit. But her mom said patience is the key.With a sigh, she got out of the bathroom and went to the kitchen.  As she passed the hall, she stopped and straightened her back against the measuring tape on the wall. She tried to make herself taller. She placed her hand on top of her brunette head. Then she turned around and checked where her fingers had touched the tape. Five feet, two inches. Still.She hadn't even grown a quarter of an inch since she had made the most recent mark on the chart back on her sixteenth birthday, six months before.Jane let her

Ms. Anderson explained more about how the science fair projects should be organized. Then she said, "Now I want you to form small groups for brainstorming about science fair ideas. I'll be circulating among your groups to begin talking with each of you individually."After they had counted off, Jane found herself in the first group, with three girls, including Lucy Adams —not Emily. Ms. Anderson pulled her chair over to join them."In science, we start out with questions," Ms. Anderson said in her low, throaty voice. "What questions about our physical world would any of you like to try to answer?"Jane had plenty of questions, but she kept them to herself. Why wasn't she growing taller? How come some people were better at things than other people? How could anybody have hair that

At lunch, Emily could talk of nothing but Grace Anderson."Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!" she moaned piteously to her ham sandwich. "I thought I was in love those other times, but they were nothing compared to this."Jane didn't want to talk about Ms. Anderson with Emily. She wished Emily hadn't seen her first. She wished Emily hadn't said that she was in love with her first."What do you want to do after school?" Jane asked to change the subject."Nothing," Emily said in the same lovesick voice that was beginning to get on Jane's nerves."We have to do something," Jane insisted."I guess we could mess around

Jane tried to think of a project for the science fair, but she didn't know how to begin. In elementary school, she and Emily had just done whatever project their dads suggested, from a library book Jane's mother checked out every year on award-winning science fair ideas. One year they had done something with magnets. Another year they had let mold grow on different foods: apples, bread, yogurt. That had been Jane's favorite project.She forgot what their hypothesis had been, but she still remembered how gross the food had looked when the project was displayed in the elementary-school gym.This year she wanted to do something different—not an experiment out of a book but one she thought up all by herself. She fantasized about the judges to be astonished that a sixteen-year-old could have thought up such a project and carried it out

Jane made up her mind to stick to her rules. After making a list of her dream goals, she made it her life mission to cross each one of them.But the hard part was crossing them.She felt a sense of optimism, almost excitement flooding through her. She was also slightly overwhelmed by the things she had to commit to. Things that were mostly her least favorite things, like studying instead of watching her TV shows or hanging out with Emily.But she believed that every great man and woman had to sacrifice a lot to reach their goals, so no more whining. She would have to do the same or die trying. That was how serious she was.Jane had been shooting baskets from five until seven. She only made 30 baskets out of 100. Compared to her usual