an introduction. and well. i'm not asian.

He was playing around, like he always does. Our classroom desks formed a circle and we all faced the center. A single chair was there for our teacher to sit in. We were going to play a game. But not yet. The bell hadn't rung yet. I hear him say to the guy next to him, (in a joking tone), "Because you're the only Mexican here, I know I can say this: I HATE Mexicans!"
It was a joke. I thought it was funny, but---I still had to make something clear.
He was sitting across me and making his friends laugh, but I was quick and didn't skip a beat.
"WHAT?" I said.
They all stopped laughing and stared at me. It was the funniest shit I'd seen in a while. The shock in their faces was priceless and the awkward silence... it was like the icing on the cake. I caught them off guard real gooooood.
Suddenly they bust out laughing and our racist sits there staring at me in disbelief.
Finally he says, "I'm so sorry! I thought you were Asian!"
I laughed. It was funny. It made sense. I was used to it.
I've not always been proud of the way I look. I'm still not one hundred percent OK with it, but what teenager is? To this day, however, I like it. I like it a lot. It makes me feel unique.
There's only a good 15% of people who know I'm Hispanic when they first see me. That's not a lot, for those of you who don't know. I'm used to shocking them and speaking fluent Spanish, or giving away hints as to my race. Then they say things like, 'but....you don't have an accent,' and 'you speak perfect English,' or sometimes, 'but you act so white!'
I laugh because I have no reason to get angry. I like it.
But one of my Hispanic friends likes it more than I do. He gets a kick out of telling his friends that I'm not Asian. That I speak fluent Spanish. He makes it awkward. Gah.
The most recent one was a couple of weeks ago. We were sitting in class, he was on one side of the room, I was on another. He called me and asked me a question in Spanish and when I answered, he turned to the dude he was talking to and said:
"SEE?!"
How embarrassing. This dude was kind of shocked. I noticed he had been wondering it for a while, though. For some reason we always caught each other's eye. It was awkward and cute. I would actually feel that there was more to it if I wasn't bias and refused to like a short person.
Yes. This guy-that-didnt-know-i-was-hispanic-till-whatshisface-had-to-prove-it was cute. Cute face. Dresses nice. But he's short.
ER
than
me.
And most people.
God. I swear. THIS is why I have no current boyfriend right now...