Martina sat down on a park bench, crossed her legs, ensuring the tail of her dress was pulled down. She then sat back, relaxed, and began to people watch as she finished her fries.

It didn't take her long to notice as groups of teens walked by, none of them poked their friend, and started pointing and laughing like they did with Marty. No one was obviously talking about her as they passed. No one's actions made her feel like an uncomfortable outcast like what frequently happened to Marty. This was new to Martina and she loved it.

In fact, No one even gave Martina a second glance, other than an occasional guy who would either smile or quickly look away when she caught him looking.

Before long a young man in his mid-twenties, eating a foot long corn dog sat down on the bench next to her and struck up a conversation about how nice the day was for a festival.

Martina agreed with him, but that was the extent of her conversation skills, she didn't have any.

The guy continued trying to converse with her, making a self-depreciating joke about the size of his foot long corn dog, then asking about what she was eating and where she got it. Martina nervously responded with awkward short answers.

As soon as she was done eating she stood up to leave. The guy looked a little disappointed as he told her to have fun.

She shyly responded with, "you too," then crossed the street to a nearby trashcan.

I have got to do better at conversing with other people if I'm going to change who I am, she reminded herself.

She quickly glanced back over at the bench as she tossed her empty fry container and fork in the trash. She saw the guy was still watching her. He waved bye and she quickly looked away.

"Hey, you got a run," a female voice said from another direction.

"Huh," Martina asked, turning around.

"Your hose," replied a girl standing behind her, stuffing a bite of funnel cake in her face, a bit of strawberry jelly clinging to one corner of her mouth.

She tossed an enpty soda cup in the trash can and continued, "You've got a runner in your pantyhose, a long one."

She pointed down at Martin's leg.

"Oh," Martina replied, immediately twisting to look at the backside of the same leg she had snagged earlier while putting her hose on.

She discovered a rather large ladder that went up from inside her shoe, up her calf, all the way past her knee.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude. I just notice things like that and I would hope someone to tell me if I had one."

"That's okay," Martina offered before freezing up in a moment of awkward silence.

"Hey, thanks for telling me," she then added.

"I've never seen you around before, are you new in town or did you come in from Martinville? I'm Amy Malletti," the girl introduced herself.

Amy was very pretty, Martina observed. She had long, wavy blonde hair, piercing blue eyes, and wore a rather short jean skirt with a bib that came up in the front like overalls.

Martina had quickly noticed that Amy didn't have a shirt on under the bib; just a dark blue sports bra and Martina found her fashion choice very . . . attractive.

This girl ticked all the boxes on the list of who Marty considers to be his "type." The kind of girl he found irresistible, and always crushed on, hard, yet never had the balls to ever talk to.

Martina was nervous as heck, but excited to actually be talking to a girl like her.

"I'm Martin -uh . . . Martina . . ."

She quickly glanced around for a name to use and saw a sign for Houston's Feed and Seed, same name as her real last name.

Oh, well, she told herself before continuing, ". . . Martina Houston. Yeah, sort of new here. I'm visiting my, um, my . . . aunt."

"Cool. Nice to meet you Martina. Welcome to Lakeview. As you can see there's no lake and really nothing to view either. The only exciting thing to ever happen around here, is this, the annual fall festival. So, you came at the right time. Anyways, you going to the dance tonight? You just have to. Most everyone in Lakeview and a lot of people from Martinville will be there. And the best part, a bunch of the boys from Martinville High always show up, too. They're way more attractive than the plow boys we have here in Lakeview," Amy informed her with a sly grin. "So, you're going, right?"

"Well . . . I - I guess so. Yeah, sure, I wouldn't miss it," Martina answered nervously.

She would have said anything this girl wanted to hear just to get to talk to her longer.

"Good, you'll have a blast."

Amy paused to stuff another bite of funnel cake in her mouth before continuing. "Your hose are ruined though. You're going to need a new pair before that runner goes all the way up to your butt and starts to get wider. There's a drugstore on the next block where you can get some. Just go straight ahead that way," she instructed Martina while pointing down the street with a big bit of funnel cake in her fingers.

Martina looked in the direction Amy pointed, and replied, "Oh, okay. Thank you. I think I'll go get a pair now."

"Well . . . I'll see you at the dance, Martina. Look for me and I'll introduce you to my friends. You can hang out with us."

"Okay, bye," Martina replied before Amy began to cross the street.

Wow . . . this dance sounds like a big deal, Martina mused as she headed toward the drugstore.

I wonder if a guy will try to ask me for a dance? This might not be right, going to the dance while pretending to be a girl and possibly having guys want to dance with me. That would be just wrong for me to trick them like that, wouldn't it? Besides, I have to be home in plenty of time to get changed before mom gets off work, but . . . I already told two people I'd be there.

Truth be told, none of that mattered. Martina knew she would do anything to be able to hang out all night with a girl as attractive as Amy and she knew it would be easier, not having to be herself, so she decided she would go hang out at the dance for just a little while.

Besides, it's not likely she would get caught by her mom anyways, since she was working a double shift today and wouldn't be home till nearly midnight.