by Carol Taylor
***
The Experiment
“A Psychology project that involves us..” Brian muttered. The others nodded their heads but offered no suggestions. “Hmm…I suppose we could see how much pain we could endure…” he grinned at the other six guys. “Naw…that’s surely already been done a hundred times,” he said, shaking his head. The other guys breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, come on, get busy. We have to think of something. I don’t want to waste my whole afternoon in the Library,” Brian said peevishly.
“What say we look in the psychology books?” ventured Greg. “No, really?” Brian said sarcastically, “And I was going to look through the cookbooks!” Greg grinned good-naturedly as they headed for the 701 section. They were busy thumbing through books when Brian whispered a loud, “Eureka!” Larry was the first to respond, “Is that some kind of disease, or something?” he said stupidly. Brian frowned at him, “No, knucklehead, that means I’ve found something!” When the other guys huddled round, Brian told them his idea.
“So,” he finished, “Is this the perfect project, or what? It involves all seven of us, we all have a very important part to play, and it’s easy as pie. Should be fun too!” he added. “What do you say?” he stated more than asked. ‘Yeah’ ‘Why not?’ ‘I like it’ and other such comments meant full approval had been given. They spent another fifteen minutes working out the details and assigning everyone jobs and the project was off and running.
Maryanne was a drab sort of girl. You didn’t notice her—the kind of girl that one day everyone would be surprised ‘had been in their class.’ She had a few friends of the computer nerd type and she just kept herself to herself. So she was surprised to the point of near-panic when Larry stopped her in the hall one day to ask her where her friend, Peter (the computer nerd) was. She didn’t know and had said so and was wishing Larry a million miles away. She wasn’t of his set. He was bronze and built, good looking and popular. She belonged to the nerds and she knew it. But Larry was persistent. He said he needed to talk to Peter right away and couldn’t she help him? She had stumbled over her words and guessed several places in her panic and then remembered that he’d said he would be studying in the library. She was glad to see that he was finally satisfied. She let herself breathe normally again and went away shaking her head.
The next day when captain of the football team, Jim Snyder, asked her what their homework was for math, she nearly lost it. She’d picked Jim as the most handsome man on campus from day one. And here he was talking to her! She felt giddy. She didn’t know what crazy answer she’d given but he’d nodded his head, wrote something down and left. Her heart was beating so wildly she was afraid he might have heard it. She stood for a long time afterwards in total disbelief.
When Brian got together with his group the following week, he asked for a status report. “All going according to plan,” Larry reported, saluting. “Jim?” questioned Brian.
“Yep, no hitches so far. Don’t reckon we’ll see any progress yet, but it’s early days I guess.”
“Yeah,” Brian replied, “The book said it might take a couple months or so. We have plenty of time. Just keep it up boys!” he said cheerfully, “And, remember--this is top secret! Don’t even tell your girlfriends!”
“Aye, aye captain,” they all said, grinning.
The following week Jim again spoke to Maryanne. “Hey,” he said, “I really appreciate you giving me that math assignment. I would have been in real trouble if I hadn’t done it. You’re a peach!” and he smiled a smile that made Maryanne go weak in the knees.
“You’..re uh… welcome,” she stuttered, not quite believing what was happening. But he didn’t stop there.
“Maryanne, you’re real good at this stuff, aren’t you?” he stated rather than asked with that heart-stopping smile.
“Um..” she muttered.
“You always get straight ‘A’s, I know,” he continued. She nodded reluctantly. “I was wondering…” he went on, fully aware of Maryanne’s discomfort, “Would you mind helping me with that algebra stuff? I’m really struggling and I think if someone explained it to me, I’d get it. Would you mind?” he begged.
“Well…” she hesitated in absolute nervousness and awe.
“I’m going to take that for a yes!” he interrupted. “Would today after school be OK? We could meet outside the library,” and he looked at her hopefully. Maryanne could only manage to nod her head in disbelief. What was going on?
When he left, she ran to the girl’s restroom and combed her hair, looking critically at herself in the mirror. She dabbed at her scanty makeup and headed for class. She cursed herself for not bringing any makeup to school. She knew she looked like a dweeb and she’d have no opportunity to fix herself up before meeting Jim again. The thought made her feel faint again.
But Jim wasn’t the only one paying attention to Maryanne. After history class, Greg walked by her and said, “Hey that was a great comment about Rome today!” Maryanne had blushed. She was completely bewildered. Then Steven passed her in the hall between classes and smiled at her. He’d never done that before! These guys were only the most popular, gorgeous guys on campus! What was going on? Her girlfriend, Jackie, was as bewildered as Maryanne, but all she did was to tell her to ‘enjoy it while it lasted’!
The next day Maryanne was again ‘noticed.’ This time it was Brian. He’d merely said, “Say, don’t you sit in front of me in English?” and when she’d nodded, he’d said, “Thought so.” And she’d thought, ‘And your point is…???’ but naturally didn’t say it. When the quarterback of Albany High speaks to you, and you’re a nobody, you don’t ask why. But when Maryanne got to English class that day she couldn’t help but look his way. And he gave her such a friendly smile she couldn’t help but smile back. She didn’t get much out of English class after that!
After school she’d gone home and looked at herself a long time in the mirror. Then she’d brushed her hair and pulled it this way and that and sighed. But the next morning she did look a little different. She was trying a new hairstyle she’d seen in a glamour book and was secretly pleased with the results. She’d also added a little more makeup. Larry was the first to notice. He saw her just as she was going into history and gave a low whistle. Maryanne blushed right up to her hairline. Later Jim also made a comment and asked again if she would help him. She had actually been able to speak this time and they’d agreed on the library again.
When Brian and the boys met again, they were all enthusiastic. “It’s working already!” they all chorused. Brian beamed and sat back with his hands behind his head. “No one would have guessed that a psychology project could be so easy!” he said smugly. But Jim added, “You don’t think it might hurt Maryanne, do you?” And everyone had made fun of him. Brian had added matter-of-factly but sarcastically, “We do a good deed and it’s going to hurt?!” So Jim let the matter drop but he was a little uneasy. Maryanne was a nice girl. He didn’t want to see her get hurt.
As the weeks passed and the experiment continued, Maryanne was slowly but surely changing. She went to the library and got out all the books she could find on fashion and beauty. She experimented with different hairstyles, makeup, colors. And it seemed no matter what she tried, it always got her an appreciative comment or a whistle from the best-looking guys in Albany High. She just couldn’t understand it and none of her friends could come up with any explanation either.
She could see that the big-shot cheerleaders were also noticing and was quite certain they were talking about her. At first she’d been mortified, but as her best friend, Jackie had pointed out, “Look, dearie, if you weren’t a threat to them they wouldn’t bother with you! Take it as a compliment!” Maryanne had smiled broadly at that. The cheerleaders jealous of her?! That was a good one, but it didn’t harm her growing self-confidence.
Three months into the experiment Jamie, the se
nior class president, stopped to talk to her. She had been struck dumb and had only been able to nod to his every question. Jamie was more scholastic than sports-minded but was nonetheless a very popular guy at school. Maryanne couldn’t wait to tell Jackie. “Jackie,” she’d cried in disbelief, “I can’t believe this is happening. Why me?” but she was smiling a happy smile.
“Have you had a good look in the mirror lately?” Jackie asked dryly. “I’ve watched you change your dress style, your hairstyle, your makeup—don’t you know how pretty you are?!” she said, eyeing Maryanne jealously. Maryanne only shook her head smiling.
“Well,” said Brian at their final ‘project meeting’, “I think we can say that the experiment was a complete success. Time to celebrate! Dibs on Maryanne!” he’d joked, and they’d all laughed with him. Except Jim. He frowned a little and asked seriously, “So now that our ‘experiment’ is over, what happens to Maryanne?” All the guys looked at him. They hadn’t thought of that.
“Hey,” Brian said, poking fun, “Are you getting attached to our little lab mouse?” But Jim only glared at him and Brian went on, “Look, my girlfriend was starting to get jealous. I, for one, am going to be relieved to get out of the hot water I’ve been in!” The rest of the guys nodded and the subject was dropped.
After the project was handed in and the experiment officially at an end, Brian confessed the whole thing to his girlfriend, Linda. And Linda had been mollified but, to unfairly get back at Maryanne for making her feel jealous, she found her in the hall soon after and said maliciously, “So, how does it feel to be a psychology project?” and that was all. Maryanne didn’t understand but she knew Linda was Brian’s girlfriend.
She told Jackie of the interchange and begged her to find out what she could. In a few days Jackie had the answer. “Maryanne, you’re not going to like this,” she started out ominously. “Apparently the gang that hangs around Brian Stillman were all in it,” she paused, not wanting to tell her best friend the truth. But she had to. “You have been an experiment,” she stated flatly.
“An experiment?” exclaimed Maryanne in horror.
“Yeah. It seems a group of guys in the Psychology class had to come up with a project. They heard about some college guys getting a quiet, mousy-kind of girl to change everything about herself simply by paying her attention. They used you for their ‘project’!” Jackie said apprehensively. Maryanne was devastated.
“Oh no…” she said softly, “Why would they?…” but the damage was done. It would be all over school that she had been a ‘project’. Then she thought of Jim and her eyes burned with anger. ‘And he’d always seemed so sincere,’ she thought bitterly. Well, she’d show them…. But how? She didn’t want to go back to her old self, besides that would just make it more obvious. And she really liked the new girl she’d become. The best she could do was ignore them. It seemed pretty feeble but what else could she do? She hated them all, that’s for sure. So when Jamie asked her to go with him on the class field trip, she’d haughtily said, “No, thank you!” And she avoided Jim like the plague.
Three weeks went by and Maryanne had acted as snobbish as she possibly could. She was pretty sure that all the guys that tried to talk to her were part of Brian’s ‘gang’, and she refused to even speak to them. And most of them at least had the decency to look guilty. Except Jim. After being snubbed time and again, he finally managed to corner her outside her last class of the day. She was surprised to see him leaning against the wall when she came out but she walked by him pretending not to notice. He was having none of it. He grabbed her arm and demanded, “You’re going to hear me out!” and had directed her to a quiet bench by the track.
“Ok,” he admitted, “You have every right to be angry with us,” and Maryanne’s eyes had glittered dangerously. “We’re a bunch of immature, overgrown jerks, ok?” he added and was glad to see a reluctant smile. “Look,” he continued gently, “we weren’t thinking of what would happen after the ‘experiment’…we...just didn’t think,” and he didn’t wait for any response. “But I for one think we did a great job!” Maryanne jerked her head up with fire dancing from her eyes again. She started to get up and he gently but firmly pushed her down again. “Maryanne, I like what I see and, what’s more, I like the person underneath. You may think I’ve been a cad, but would you overlook that and take in a movie this Saturday night with me?” he pleaded.
“As part of your experiment?” she hissed venomously.
“The experiment’s been over for nearly a month,” he pointed out quietly.
“Well then, maybe you’re just trying to ease your guilty conscience,” she said, unmoved, “Like Jamie, big class president. He asked me out just a few weeks ago!” she said derisively.
“Maryanne,” Jim said, taking her hands in his, “Jamie was never part of the experiment!” and he was smiling that killer smile.
“H…he…wasn’t?!” Maryanne stuttered.
“Nope. There were seven of us and he didn’t even know about the experiment!”
“Oh my gosh,” she exclaimed, her hand flying to her mouth, “and I was so rude to him!”
Jim smiled. “Look,” he said, “We guys can’t help it if we’re attracted to beauty and you’ve blossomed before our very eyes. It isn’t any wonder at all that ‘big’ Jamie would want to take you out. We all do!” he said dramatically. Maryanne blushed. “And now that I know what’s inside, I can’t believe I never noticed you before. You were hiding, I guess,” he said with that smile. “So, will you reconsider?” he pleaded.
Maryanne looked at him for a very long time, thoughts tumbling over in her mind. Finally she said, “Yes,” and, looking up into those handsome eyes, felt sure he was experiencing the same thrill she was.
“Really?!” Jim grinned, and he pulled her to her feet and gave her a knee-weakening hug. “Then,” he said, “there’s one more thing,” and Maryanne looked at him quizzically. “I know I’m really pushing it, but if you won’t go with me, I’m not going!” he stated emphatically.
“Not going where!?” she asked, puzzled. He paused, looking down into her eyes for a long, sweet moment.
“The Prom!” he finally said, softly. And Maryanne’s shining eyes gave him all the answer he needed.
There’s a buzz all over campus that a bunch of not-too-bright sports heroes all got ‘A’s on a psychology project and that some new girl called Maryanne is now wearing the football captain’s class ring.
