Misjudging book covers

Yesterday I had a meeting at a remote office at noon. Usually these meetings take a while and I hadn't eaten lunch yet, so I thought that I would have to skip lunch.

The ear doctor HATES it when I skip lunch because I come home to him a grouchy, tired, frazzled mess.

So when my meeting ended early and I knew I was going to drive right by a Panera it seems the stars had aligned. There was nothing more in the world I wanted than a bowl of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich.

After I ate my $9 lunch (which would have cost me $.73 at home) I threw my purse over my shoulder and practically started sprinting across the parking lot to my car.

However, as I got about half way to my vehicle I passed a group of high school kids who looked a little rough around the edges. And since it was about 1:30 at this point I was pretty sure they were cutting class. I myself, never cut class in high school. My friends never skipped, so I never saw the point of missing out on the social interaction. How would I know what hilarious thing my crush said in English class?

The kids who stood around in the school sanctioned smoking area (yes, Spokane is ghetto and supports under aged smoking) and always ditched classes made me nervous.

And, despite being out of high school for over a decade, passing by this group of kids in the parking lot made me nervous. That old feeling of uncertainty bubbled up. I tried my best to seem confident and self assured so no one would know how I felt inside, but it was still there.

Until the last kid, the scraggliest one looked up at me, made eye contact and called out in a friendly voice, "good morning!"

On autopilot I responded, "you too!"

We passed.

I realized it was way passed noon and turned around and said, "actually, good afternoon, right?"


He turned around, gave me a big goofy nice smile and said, "yeah, I guess so."