Siro uploads a new video early on Thursday morning.
YØU CØWARD
“You let Hardwire stand up to the Masqueraders,” he says.
“Coward. You got yourself disqualified so you wouldn’t actually lose. Coward!
You stayed hidden while Catgirl faced Lima. COWARD!
“And don’t get twisted. It’s not about Catgirl being a girl. It’s about The Spektrum not showing
his face! He doesn’t want to fight me, so he avoids me. But he cannot avoid me.
Not forever.”
The camera slowly zooms in as he continues speaking.
“If The Spektrum keeps avoiding me, if he keeps hiding,
if he keeps being a coward, I’m going to force his hand, and break it.”
The camera stops with the frame focused on his face, so
that his furrowed brow is clear even through his mask. Then the video ends, and
YouTube recommendations come up.
“To his credit,” Caitlyn says to Cyndi during lunch and
the Spektrum Fan Club meeting, “he did make sure to say he isn’t sexist.”
Obviously, everyone has at least heard of Siro’s newest
upload. It stirs up another buzz that only annoys Simon.
“He’s totally showing up today,” he says as he sticks the
straw in his Capri Sun.
“Why do you say that?” Alex asks.
“The only reason he’d put out a video is if he was either
going to make a move, or has already made one,” Simon says. “He hasn’t done
anything since yesterday, so he’s definitely going to show up today.”
The entire lunch period goes by, but not one single beam
of light hits the school.
“Well, the day’s not over yet,” Simon says as he packs up
for class. “He’ll show.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t upload that sooner,” Zorb says
to Siro.
“I had a hard time deciding on the way to end it,” Siro
says as he sits back. “I thought about going from ‘force his hand’ into
breaking his arm, but I kept it simple.”
“But how are
you going to force his hand?” Zorb asks.
“The two of us being the same person, I know what he
knows and remember what he remembers. Like his real name and identity.”
“You’d reveal that to the world? And reveal his family in
the process?”
“Hmm… Let’s call that the ‘last resort.’ But no, it’s far
simpler than that. He’s hiding in plain sight, so I’ll drag him out into the
open. Then he’ll have no choice but to fight me, actually lose the fight, and
then actually stay dead.”
“That’s a good plan,” Zorb says with a raise of his
glass. “But how long are you going to wait?”
“What do you take me for?” Siro asks with a chuckle. “I’m
going after their lunch period.”
Third Block begins and the PE classes file out of the
locker rooms to line up on the black top. Teachers take roll call when *WHOOMF*
a pillar of light hits again. Not in the PE field, but in the square where
everyone just came from.
Come and get me,
coward, Siro thinks with a sneer.
Are you kidding me?
Zoey thinks as all the other students rush past the gymnasium building.
Knew it, Simon
thinks as he hangs back.
“Simon…” Zoey says with trepidation as she hurries over.
“You confronted him last time, Zoey,” Simon says. “Now
it’s my turn.”
“And respond to his goading?”
“I was going to show up no matter what he said,” Simon
says as he heads for the square.
“So you’re going to fight him?” Zoey says as they both
transform on the go.
“Ohhh yeah,” he says, now Spektrum Code Green.
Zoey, now Catgirl, sighs and her ears droop slightly from
the exasperation.
“I think Green is your stubborn side, too,” she says as he
pulls ahead.
The Spektrum rounds the corner and sees the crowd that
has gathered. The crowd parts and gives both The Spektrum and Siro a clear path
to each other.
“Spektrum! Spektrum!” students chant as he heads for
Siro.
“And Catgirl!” another says as she hustles up behind him.
“Spek-Cat! Spek-Cat!” some students start chanting.
“They’re not together!” someone else shouts them down.
“Actually…” Spektrum says.
“Is that really what’s important here?” Catgirl says to
everyone.
Siro stands facing The Spektrum head on. This is the
first time Siro sees Code Green with his own eyes, and he sees the tights with
the boots.
“Trying to steal my look?” he asks with some sarcasm.
“That’s funny,” Green chuckles. “The copy accusing me of
copying him.”
“None of that will matter when there’s only one of us,”
Siro says.
Siro moves to meet The Spektrum partway. The two stop
short of being in each other’s face and Green immediately SLAPS Siro!
“Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot to give you fair warning on
that,” Green says flatly.
Siro seethes as he stands up straight, and SLAPS The
Spektrum back! He adjusts his mask while The Spektrum actually smugly smiles
and chuckles. The two step closer and stare each other down.
“Fight! Fight! Fight!” some students start chanting.
“Get ‘im, Spektrum!” other students shout.
Catgirl stays back as tension mounts between The Spektrum
and Siro. The chanting continues and gets louder, and louder, and louder. But
then it dies down a bit when the students see neither one makes a move.
“And you called me
the coward,” The Spektrum says. “You called me out but won’t-”
Siro turns Red and throws a punch! Green moves just in
time and counters with a judo style throw! Siro hits the ground but pops right
up to his feet, only for Green to back hand CHOP him in the chest. Siro
clenches his jaw while his chest stings from the impact. He turns Yellow to use
the momentum from the chop to spin, and he elbows The Spektrum in the chin.
Green staggers but he stays up, moving his jaw around to find that it’s not
dislocated.
“Seems Green’s pretty tough,” The Spektrum says. “Not
Blue tough, but still pretty good.”
“Good to know!”
Siro says as Blue, emphasizing his words with a boot to The Spektrum’s face!
The Spektrum hits the ground and Siro grabs an arm. Siro
turns Silver and yanks The Spektrum up for the ripcord dead lift! But Spektrum
shifts in midair to grab Siro around the head! The Spektrum wants to drive Siro
into the ground with a DDT, but Siro manage to block that with pure strength!
Siro stands up but The Spektrum slips up and over! The
Spektrum wraps his arms around Siro’s waist and uses momentum to pull Siro
backwards! Siro falls over, and The Spektrum hooks his legs over Siro’s
shoulders, completing the “sunset flip” takedown! But before any kind of count
begins, Siro Yellow kicks with his legs and props himself up with his arms!
This tips the flip and flips the pinfall onto The Spektrum with Siro sitting on
him!
“One,” Computer finally chimes in.
The Spektrum brings Siro back down with what is
essentially a thrust of the hips and gets the pinfall back.
“One,” Computer says again.
Siro again kicks, props and flips things back onto The
Spektrum! But this time, The Spektrum pushes up with just one side, rolling
them both over. The Spektrum grabs each of Siro’s ankles and brings them up. He
hooks his arms around the legs and traps the ankles under each armpit!
“Full Boston Crab!” The Spektrum shouts as he pulls.
Siro shouts from the pain in both legs and even his lower
back. The Spektrum digs his knees in while squatting for maximum pressure!
Catgirl recognizes the move from what The Spektrum used
during training, but that was just the single leg version. It makes sense that
the next step would be to go after both legs.
Siro grits his teeth and turns Silver. He pushes up off
the ground and even gets his leg muscles fighting back against the bending. The
Spektrum changes from Green to Silver to match, but then Siro turns Red to
quickly duck and roll through the gap between The Spektrum’s legs! Siro then
turns Yellow and uses both legs to push The Spektrum away! But Spektrum turns
Black to keep the grip!
The Spektrum drags Siro by the leg, but Siro digs in a
heel, and he ends up standing on that one free leg. But Spektrum spins with the
captured leg for a dragon screw! Siro lets out a new pained shout, and he drops
to his knees.
Just like last
time, he thinks while growling.
Siro forces himself to stand up, but The Spektrum turns
Silver and ROCKS him with one right hand! Siro tries to support himself, but
between his right leg still recovering and now his left leg taking the beating,
he hobbles and falls on his face. He grits his teeth again as he pushes up with
his arms, but The Spektrum just sighs.
“Huh?!” Siro snarls. “Napabuntong hininga ka ba?! <Did
you just sigh?!>”
“Napa boon tongue…?” some students murmur.
“You’re not 100%,” The Spektrum says. “Even before we
started fighting, you weren’t. It’s… disappointing.”
“Unsa!? <What!?>”
“Hey, you were a bit disappointed when I didn’t have all
the Color Codes,” The Spektrum shrugs. “Now I’m disappointed you didn’t wait
until you fully recovered.”
Siro seethes but he concedes that point.
“So now what?” he asks as he sits up. “We leave it at
this for now?”
“That’s mostly up to you,” The Spektrum says with a
shrug. “You didn’t like winning by disqualification. I don’t really like the
idea of winning when it isn’t even.”
“Then how about this?” Catgirl says as she walks over.
“You both wait until things are even.”
She stands between the two as Siro makes it back to his
feet.
“Siro needs to rest his legs until he’s back to 100%,”
she continues. “And in that time, The Spektrum will work to regain the Codes.
Then, and only then, will a proper rematch happen.”
“That’s if he ever gets the other colors back,” Siro
says. “I’m not going to wait that long.”
“Who’s to say I don’t get them back before your legs get
better?” The Spektrum, now Green again, counters.
“Then we’ll decide on a day and time,” Catgirl says,
getting louder. “Today is February 2nd. We’ll take the rest of the
month, and… Y’know what? Let’s make it March 17th, St. Patrick’s
Day! After school because it’ll be a
Friday. That means six weeks for Siro to rest, and six weeks for The Spektrum
to Level Up. Sound fair?”
Siro and The Spektrum glare at each other, but then they
both scoff.
“Fine,” they both say at the same time.
“Six weeks is plenty of time,” The Spektrum says.
“For you to say your good-byes,” Siro says.
Siro steps back and signals to Zorb and Zita. With
another *WHOOMF* and pillar of light, Siro returns to their ship.
After school and walking home with Simon, Zoey arranges a
call with her friends and cousins. Alicia puts her phone on speaker as she sits
with Seth, Jeff, Karina, Marina and Chloe in the Osou family living room.
“Okay, we’re all here,” Alicia says as she sets the phone
down on the coffee table.
“So, I’m sure it’s all over the internet by now,” Zoey
says, “but I totally mediated a fight between The Spektrum and Siro.”
“There’s footage of that,” Jeff says. “Grainy but it’s
still pretty clear who is who. You could’ve mediated a lot sooner.”
“I would have if Siro
was winning,” Zoey defends. “But then there would’ve been no way to stop the
fight and he’d be even angrier. It worked out better this way.”
“So are we going to do more training with him this
weekend to help prepare?” Seth asks.
“No, not this weekend,” Karina says. “We need to use this
weekend to prepare for Valentine’s Day.”
“But there’s a whole extra week for that,” Jeff says.
“Which we need to use to put things into action,” Karina
says. “For one, our outfits. We need to figure out what we’re going to wear,
maybe go shopping for something new.”
“We have plenty of good outfits to choose from,” Alicia
says. “We don’t need to go burning money.”
“We won’t be burning money if it’s for good reason,”
Karina says. “But for Zoey, I have a different plan.”
“You do?” pretty much everyone else asks.
“Yes,” Karina says. “But I’ll explain better when we girls
can spend time together at Zoey’s house. Do you want to meet Friday or
Saturday?”
“Let’s go with Saturday,” Zoey says. “It’ll be easier for
everyone.”
“So we’re not invited?” Jeff asks.
“Well you boys can help Simon if you want,” Karina
counters.
“I’ll ask him about it tomorrow,” Zoey says. “Oh, wait.
Chloe and Marina, do you girls have dates?”
“Don’t worry,” Marina says as she reclines back. “I’ve
got a plan.”
After school on Friday, the tennis team meets on the
courts. While most of the team members are practicing, Bobby and Mark stand
together on one side of the net.
“Alright, boys,” Marina says as she walks onto the court,
racket in one hand and tennis ball in the other. “I heard through the grapevine
that there’s a jungle cat on the loose, and you think you can tame her.”
“W-What?” Bobby asks. “I, uh, pfff, what? I don’t know
what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah,” Mark says. “We didn’t say that.”
“Dude!” Bobby says, upset with Mark. “You practically
just confirmed it!”
“No, I didn’t!” Mark counters.
“Boys, boys,” Marina says. “It doesn’t matter. I’m
willing to go with one of you to the dance.”
“Oh,” Mark says. “O-Okay. But, which one?”
“Well that’s why we’re here,” Marina says, motioning to
the whole court. “We’re going to have a little try-out of sorts. The one who
survives gets to take me to the dance.”
“S-Survives?” Bobby says, growing concerned.
“Yeah,” Marina says, spinning her racket. “And Bobby,
you’re up first.”
Marina starts bouncing the ball. Mark immediately sees
what’s about to happen and bolts off the court.
“Oh no,” Bobby says under his breath.
Marina tosses the ball up into the air, racket at the
ready.
“Oh no,” Bobby says a bit louder.
*THWOCK* “HRAHR!” and “OH NO!” all happen at the same
time.
Simon and Zoey finish walking home and arrive at his
house.
“So uh,” Zoey says as Simon brings out his house key. “I
was talking with everybody in Alameda, and tomorrow, the girls and I are going
to meet at my place. We’ll have a sorta Valentine’s Day planning day.”
“Huh,” he says. “Sounds fun.”
“Yeah,” she smiles. “But also, if you want to, you and my
cousins could have like a boys’ planning day at the same time.”
“Really?” he says as he turns the key. “Why? What would
we even need to plan? We go to different schools.”
“Well, true,” she says. “But in the case of us girls,
we’re working on outfits to wear, so maybe you boys could do the same.”
“Oh, that’s true,” Simon says, pushing the door open
slowly. “I don’t actually have a suit of my own. I always just had the band
rental, and I only ever worn it for, well, band concerts.”
“Well then they can help you find something,” she says.
“They’ll come over tomorrow at the same time as the girls, and we’ll just make
a whole day out of it.”
“But what about homework?” he asks as he lets her enter
first.
“Uh, why do you think I walked all the way here with
you?” she says as she goes to the dining room table.
“Y’know, you say you’re not a nerd,” Simon says, “and I’m
willing to admit I’m up there. But I have never
done homework on a Friday. Ever.”
“Why would you wait to do it on Saturday?” she says. “Get
it out of the way now so you can rest on the weekend.”
“Nnnneerrrrr-”
“Don’t even,” Zoey laughs as she takes a seat.
“-rrrrrd!” he finishes as he joins her at the table.
Zoey smirks as she tilts her head slightly before
bringing out textbooks.
On Saturday morning, Simon walks over to Zoey’s after
breakfast. He walks up the stairs and knocks on the door, but it’s Zoey’s
mother who answers.
“Oh, hello, Simon,” she says.
“Good morning, Mrs. Mizaki,” he says. “Did Zoey tell
you-”
“Yes, her cousins and friends are all on their way,” she
says as she moves aside. “Come on in, you can wait for the boys in the living
room.”
“Thank you,” he says as he steps inside.
“Zoey,” Mrs. Mizaki calls down the stairs. “Simon’s
here.”
“Wha?” Zoey says from her room.
She checks the clock and sees its already past 10:30.
“Oh… darn it…!”
She quickly finishes brushing her hair, but just leaves
it down. She doesn’t want Simon to be waiting too long so she also hastily
changes from sweatpants to jeans but stays with the t-shirt she chose. She
hurries upstairs to join her mom and Simon in the living room.
“Good morning,” she greets them as she walks over.
“Morning,” Simon says as he looks over from his seat on
the couch. “Oh, you went back to red.”
“Yep,” Zoey giggles and smiles as she brushes her
red-again behind her ear. “Did I do a good job? Is it even? Like, one side
isn’t redder than the other?”
“No, it’s perfect,” he says. “Er, uh, you did a great
job.”
“Thanks,” she says as she takes a seat.
Simon then notices the shirt. She notices him notice and
covers up.
“Oh, s-sorry,” he says. “I wasn’t looking at your chest.
I was looking at the Powerpuff Girls design.”
“Oh,” she says, feeling a little bad for assuming. “Wait,
you know the Powerpuff Girls?”
“Well, yes,” he says. “It’s not weird, right? Powerpuff
Girls was actually a good cartoon.”
“You’re right, it’s not weird,” she says. “Unless you had
your own PPG shirt.”
Simon does his best not to completely bust up laughing
but he does laugh strongly.
“Yeah, maybe then,” he
says, still chuckling.
“Simon,” Mrs. Mizaki asks, “would you like something to
drink? Or maybe a snack?”
“No, thank you,” he says. “I’m fine.”
“Alright,” she says. “Well, I’ll be in the kitchen if
anyone needs me.”
Mrs. Mizaki goes to the kitchen and washes the dishes. Zoey
watches the doorway for just a few moments before suddenly scooting over to
close the considerable gap between her and Simon.
“Do you have everything you’ll need?” she asks him.
“Yep,” he says as he pats his pants pocket. “Wallet’s
right here, and my dad gave me $100 for the suit.”
“Just 100?”
“Well, yeah,” Simon says, starting to feel unsure. “For a
rental.”
“A rental?” Zoey says, disappointed. “No, you need to buy
a suit.”
“Why would I buy one?”
“Because there’ll be more than just the Valentine’s Day
Dance,” Zoey says. “Things like junior prom next year, or maybe just some nice
formal dates.”
“We can go on dates without me buying a suit,” Simon
defends. “We just don’t have the money to do more than rent right now.”
“Well, alright,” she says. “But!”
Zoey leans in, her hands close to Simon’s leg.
“Make sure you rent the best one you can,” she says.
“Okay?”
Simon looks into her eyes as she’s not even six inches
away.
“O-Of course,” he says nervously. “O-Obviously.”
Zoey smiles as she sits up straight.
A couple cars pull up in front of the Mizaki house and
Zoey recognizes Alicia’s just by the noise of the engine. She goes to the door
and opens it up before her friends and cousins are even on the sidewalk. She
goes to the porch and the stairs, and waves as they all look up.
“You went back to red already?” Karina says.
Zoey smiles and giggles as she turns her head to swish
her hair.
“Simon’s already here, by the way,” she says as the
others head up the stairs.
“Sweet, we can get this over with sooner,” Jeff says.
“Jeff…” Karina reprimands though smirking.
Simon gets up from the couch as Zoey leads her friends
and cousins inside. Everyone says hi and then divide into boys and girls.
“Alright,” Seth says, “we’ll make sure to be back around…
Two?”
“Try for around one,” Zoey says. “We can all have lunch
together.”
“Okay. See you in a little bit.”
Everyone says quick farewells before Simon heads outside
with Jeff and Seth. While the boys go downstairs on the outside, the girls
hurry downstairs on the inside.
“You barely had your natural color back for a month, why
did you go back?” Karina asks.
“Oh, it’s obvious why,” Marina says. “It’s because she’s
back, baby!”
“What?” Zoey says, laughing along with the group.
“Oh c’mon, Zo,” Marina says as they make their way down
the hallway. “You didn’t dye your hair until you were dating Shaun in high
school. When the two of you broke up, you ditched the red. Now you are going to
the Valentine’s Day Dance with Simon ‘The Spektrum’ Michaels, and you bring the
red back. Red is your ‘in love slash in a relationship’ hair color.”
Zoey wants to counter that, but she can’t because she’s
realizing it’s all true.
The girls go inside Zoey’s room and Karina heads right
for Zoey’s closet.
“Okay,” Karina says. “I can finally share my secret plan
for you, Zo.”
“And what is that?” Zoey asks as she follows Karina
inside the closet.
“Well, Encinal announced it on Friday,” Karina says, “but
we’re having a Valentine’s Day Dance just like San Leandro!”
“Oh, really?” Zoey says, pretending to be surprised.
“Yeah, and Chloe gets to be on the design team for the
Events Committee!” Marina adds.
“Wow!” Zoey says, still pretending.
“And it’s a great theme, actually,” Chloe says. “It’ll be
a ‘Roaring Twenties’ theme, so like big jazz band and really glamorous dresses.”
“Oooh~!” Zoey says, genuinely reacting this time.
“Yeah, we’re going to look so good,” Karina says
as she walks into the closet. “Shining, glittery dresses. Shoulderless, with
the slit way up the side.”
Karina pretends to show off a lot of leg though she’s
wearing jeans.
“Karina,” Zoey says with a smiling scoff and swipe of the
hand. “It’s
called Valentine’s Day, not ‘Slut It Up’ Day!”
“Excuse me,” Karina says with the same smile and scoff.
“Um, the dresses Alicia and I are going to be wearing aren’t any showier than…”
Karina takes that dress off the rack and holds it
against Zoey’s body.
“She kinda got you there,” Marina chuckles from the
doorway.
“Okay, okay,” Zoey says, taking the dress from Karina. “I
definitely shouldn’t have worn this to the Christmas party. But I’m not going
to wear it this time.”
“Well, hold on,” Karina says as she takes the dress back.
“I think…”
She holds it up in front of her and looks it over.
“Yeah, we can definitely do something with this.”
“Do something? What do you mean?”
“We can basically redesign it,” Karina says. “Add to it.
Change it up so that it’s less ‘skimpy’ and more ‘cute and fun.’ First, we’ll
add some spaghetti straps so that you’re not completely shoulderless.”
“Y’know, I didn’t say
this at the time because of, well, how the night turned out,” Chloe says. “But
I’m surprised you had any strapless bras to go with that outfit.”
“Yeah, but even with spaghetti straps, I’d still have to
go strapless, right?” Zoey says. “Otherwise, it’d be tacky.”
“Super tacky,” Karina says while looking around at the
other things hanging in Zoey’s closet. “Oh! And we’ll change the skirt. This is
actually rather short but… If we add a skirt like this one, you’ll be much
better off.”
Karina motions to the pink magical girl costume for Tokyo
Mew Mew Power.
“Oh, that’ll look so cute,” Zoey says. “But, um, for the
dress…”
Zoey steps closer to motion to the top.
“Could we add a bit of frills or something for coverage?
It gets kinda low…”
“Well that’s the beauty of adding a different skirt,”
Karina says. “We’ll basically make the dress longer and move some of it up so
that it’ll naturally cover you anyway.”
“Oh, that’s so smart,” Zoey says.
“Right?”
Karina holds onto the dress as she heads for the exit.
“Onee-san~!” Karina calls.
“Good night, what are you up to now?” Alicia asks as
Karina and Zoey exit the closet.
“Could you ask Mrs. Mizaki for some sewing supplies?”
Karina asks. “Mostly the measuring tape.”
“I could ask my mom for that stuff,” Zoey says.
“No, you are the model,” Karina says. “We have no time to
spare so we need to get going. Change into this and we can start working on the
altercations.”
Karina gives Zoey the dress and ushers her to the closet.
Alicia goes back upstairs while Zoey changes inside her closet. She then walks
out, rather unsure of things.
“Oh, don’t forget the skirt,” Karina says. “The Ichigo
one.”
“Oh, right,” Zoey says before going back inside.
Zoey takes just the skirt from the pink costume and walks
back out of the closet. The girls help her wiggle the pink skirt up and over
the dress.
“See?” Karina says. “It looks better even now.”
“Yeah, it does look nice,” Zoey says as she looks at
herself in the mirror. “But it seems a shame to give up this skirt.”
“Oh no, we’re not sticking that skirt to this dress,”
Karina says. “I’ll recreate it in black and stick that to the dress.”
“Really? You can do that?”
“Well, with some help,” Karina says. “But yeah, we’ll get
this done by next Saturday. Now, c’mon, we gotta see how bringing this up
works.”
Karina and Zoey tug at the top of the dress, but as the
dress rises, the pink skirt moves with it.
“Hold on, we’ve got it,” Chloe says.
Chloe and Marina hold
the skirt in place as Karina tugs more. Zoey keeps her arms up to give everyone
else’s heads room around her.
“Don’t go too high,”
Zoey says. “I think the dress is going to come out from under the skirt.”
“I think we have the
coverage we need, anyway,” Karina says as she looks at Zoey’s chest. “Turn
around so we can see all sides.”
Zoey does a full turn
and Karina watches the bodice.
“Not bad, not bad,” she
says. “How are the underarms?”
“Umm… Better, actually,”
Zoey says. “They’re not itchy, at least.”
“This is pretty tight
on you, though,” Marina says as she hovers her hands around Zoey’s stomach and
sides.
“I think there are two
big reasons why,” Karina says, still looking at Zoey’s chest.
Zoey grumbles and
playfully smacks Karina in the shoulder.
“Okay, here’s the
measuring tape,” Alicia says as she returns.
“Thank you,” Karina
says as Alicia hands it to her. “Someone, write these numbers down.”
Chloe borrows a notepad
and pen from Zoey’s desk. Karina puts the measuring tape over Zoey’s shoulder,
going in line with a shoulder blade.
“15 inches for the
shoulder straps,” she says. “Actually, make it 16, just in case.”
Chloe writes that down
while Karina measures the rest of Zoey.
“Wow,” Karina says.
“38, 26, 36.”
“Brick, bada da da,”
Chloe quietly sings while writing it down.
“Oh stop that,” Zoey says
quickly, to which Chloe giggles.
“I’m going to borrow
this skirt after this,” Karina says. “I still want to know how much fabric
actually goes into making this.”
“Wow, you’re really
going all out for this,” Alicia says. “That’s good, I like that.”
Karina smiles, enjoying
her sister giving her praise.
“Okay, while I’m on a
roll,” Karina says, “let’s come up with something for these two.”
Karina holds the
measuring tape up and holds it at a length so that she can point at both Chloe
and Marina at the same time.
“What?” Marina says,
suddenly uncomfortable. “A custom dress? Why?”
Karina takes Marina by
surprise as she lunges and wraps her up with the measuring tape.
“Wait, you don’t need
to do that!” Marina says. “I can just tell you my pants size!”
“No, if you’re going to
cosplay as a flapper girl, the dress needs to be precise.”
“Flapper girl?!”
The boys arrive at Southland
Mall, which was only half an hour away. Seth finds a place to park just close
enough to the entrance. The directory helps them find a clothing store.
“Yes, this is what we
need,” Jeff says as the three of them walk inside.
“Wow, these are really
nice,” Simon says as he follows behind Zoey’s cousins.
He then sees a price
tag for $350 and he has a spit-take like reaction.
“So, where’re the
rentals?” he asks quickly.
The boys make their way to an area with the sign “FOR RENT” and see the selection. As they get closer, they see a smaller sign that explains the rental policy.
IT IS THIS STORE’S
POLICY THAT ALL RENTED ITEMS
ARE TO BE RETURNED
IN THE SAME CONDITION
AS WHEN THEY WERE FIRST TAKEN OFF THE PREMISES
The three go down the line and see the prices go all the
way up to $150.
“I have $100,” Simon says.
“Which after factoring in taxes,” Seth says, “is more
like 90.”
“Oh, true,” Simon says. “So instead of these…”
“You’ll have to choose from these,” Jeff says as he goes
down a little further.
All the suits from the $90 mark and below have jackets
that resemble the Wind Ensemble collection and are otherwise rather plain.
“I’m actually okay with these not having a vest,” Simon
says. “I was never very comfortable in them during concerts.”
“Concerts?” Jeff repeats. “Oh, that’s right, you were in
band class.”
“Let’s find one your size,” Seth says.
For as slim as Simon is, his height and shoulder width
still bring him up to a large. The three boys find a few men’s larges within
the price range. Simon goes with the one with the blue bowtie since blue is Simon’s
favorite color. He tries it on quickly in the changing area, and everything
fits just right. And luckily, the price is manageable at $80.
“What about you guys?” Simon asks after changing back.
“Do you guys need suits?”
“No, I’ve still got a suit from Junior Prom,” Seth says.
“But Jeff, you do need a new jacket, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” Jeff says. “My other’s too small for me now. Been
getting pretty big these last few months.”
Jeff flexes his arms and lets off a small spark.
“Careful with that,” Seth says. “But maybe just a rental
for the jacket for now?”
“I dunno, I think buying would pay for itself at some
point,” Jeff says. “I mean, our Junior proms will be coming up some day,
right?”
Jeff motions to himself and Simon since they’re both
Sophomores.
“Well, if that were true, I’d be buying something, too,” Simon
says.
“Buying just the jacket is different than buying the
whole suit,” Jeff says.
The three go to where jackets hang all by themselves and
Jeff looks through the selection.
“Y’know, that Tiger Garrett’s a punk but he had great
suits,” Jeff says.
“Ugh, please don’t make me think about him,” Simon says.
“I still need to buy this suit and I don’t think they’d appreciate me barfing
on it.”
The three chuckle while Jeff goes down the line.
“This one should be good, right?” Jeff says.
He pulls out a white tuxedo jacket with black lapel and
looks it over front and back.
“Careful not to have the light directly on you,” Simon
says. “You might blind someone.”
“I think it’ll be fine,” Seth chuckles. “What’s the
price?”
Jeff looks at it and his eyebrows raise slightly.
“$170,” he says.
Simon barely contains his spit take cough and Seth
breathes through his teeth in a wince.
“It’s not that bad, when you think about it,” Jeff says.
“We saved a lot of money in the move up here because Reciprocity helped us.”
“That doesn’t mean it should go to your new suit jacket,”
Seth says. “Try for under $150.”
Jeff sighs, puts the white jacket back and goes down the
line.
“A lot of these are basically the same,” Jeff says. “I’ll
just go with this one.”
Jeff takes a black jacket off the rack and the three of
them go to the registers. Simon still comes away with $10 and change after the
sales tax and adding a garment bag to the rental. Jeff’s stays under the $150
mark while also getting a garment bag. The cashier gets their phone numbers for
the sake of keeping tabs on the rentals.
“Now, because of the
Valentine’s Day special, you can bring these back as late as the Saturday
after, the 18th. But bring these back in the condition you bought
them, or you’ll have to pay another $50.”
“50 bucks!?” Jeff says
in a sharp whisper.
“You should probably
put that on the sign…” Simon mutters.
“If we did, people
wouldn’t feel like renting them,” the cashier counters.
As they return to the
parking lot with Seth, Jeff and Simon are extra careful with the garment bags.
Before getting in the car, Seth texts Zoey.
Seth: Heading
back now
Seth barely gets in the driver’s seat when a response
comes in.
Zoey: OK. Get
lunch plz?
Seth sighs as he types his response.
Seth: Sure. What yall want?
“We’re getting lunch on
the way back, apparently,” Seth tells Jeff and Simon.
“Waiting on a
response.”
And they wait. A minute
passes but no response.
“Well,” Simon speaks
up. “I’ve got my $10.”
“I’ve got about the
same actually,” Jeff says. “Guess it’s a good thing you didn’t buy anything,
bro.”
“Yeah, because I’m
going to be shouldering most of it,” Seth sighs.
Zoey: McD’s. 1 Quarter
pounder w/o cheese, 6 piece McNuggets, 4 McChickens
Seth does the math and
that’s six items but there’s five girls. Someone must be eating multiple
chicken sandwiches.
“Where’s a McDonald’s
around here?” Seth asks Simon.
“Umm… Oh, Washington
Avenue,” he says. “The shopping center there. Just head back and go to East 14th
Street.”
Seth starts the car and
follows those directions. They make good time in finding the shopping strip on
the cross section of Washington and Joaquin Avenue. The McDonald’s is on the
north end, which is the far side from where they enter. They pull up right in
front and exit the car. Simon makes sure his garment bag is on his seat so it
isn’t confused with Jeff’s bag.
“Oh wait, we didn’t ask
about drinks,” Seth says.
He quickly sends
another message to Zoey.
“It’s probably Cokes
all around, right?” Simon says.
Zoey: 4 Cokes, 1
Hi-C, all medium
“Well you had a close
guess,” Seth says.
The three go inside and
to the counter. Seth gives the girls’ orders, plus the guys’ orders. The cups
are given first, and Jeff and Simon work together to fill the girls’ drink
orders. The boys have larges and take care of themselves after.
Eight drinks make for
two cup trays. Eight meals make for three bags. Seth takes just one bag while Simon
and Jeff each bring a bag and a drink tray. They go back to the car and face a
bit of a puzzle of how Jeff and Simon get in the car while not spilling drinks.
It only takes a second for Seth to unlock and open doors from the inside.
“Oh, hold on,” Simon
says as he nudges his garment bag over. “Okay.”
Once food and drinks
are secure, as well as the three of them with their seatbelts, Seth finds his
way from Washington Avenue back to Bancroft, and from there, Zoey’s house.
“Why’re you bringing
the suit in?” Jeff asks Simon.
“Well I’ve gotta have
it anyway, right?” he says. “I’ll just head straight home after lunch.”
They go upstairs and
Zoey answers the door when Seth knocks.
“Oh, do you need some help there?” she chuckles.
“Yes, please,” the boys all say.
Zoey takes the drinks Simon is carrying and brings them
to the coffee table while the boys file in.
“And you found something?” she asks as she points to the
garment bag.
“I did,” Simon says as he hands off the food to Seth.
“Show me, show me,” Zoey says excitedly.
“Okay, hold on,” he says.
Simon carefully sets the bag down on the armchair and
unzips it.
“Oh, that’s not bad,” Zoey says.
“What about you guys?” she asks her cousins.
“I only needed a jacket,” Jeff says. “It’s in the car.”
“Did you get a sharp white one?” Karina asks, also
excitedly.
“I would have, but the one there was a little too
expensive.”
“Aww…”
“I almost forgot,” Zoey says as Simon zips the bag back
up. “Marina, how did that plan of yours go yesterday?”
“Oh, ho-ho-ho,” Marina chuckles from her seat on the
couch. “Not as planned, actually.”
“Did they both fail?” Chloe says as she scoots over to
make room for Karina and Jeff.
“Big, bold, italic F’s,” Marina says. “At first it was to
see who could return the most serves out of five. Neither of them could do it.
So, I gave them each five more to see if they could even get one. Neither of
them could do it. So instead of tiring myself out, I let them play each other
in a one set match.”
“Who won?” Karina asks.
“I did, because I’m going with the better player,” Marina
says. “But in seriousness, Mark, 6 to 2. Bobby’s two wins came in the sixth and
seventh games, but Mark was able to finish him off. Oh, and Chloe, if neither
of you find someone to go with by next Friday, obviously Bobby is available.”
“You don’t need to find me a date, Marina,” Chloe says
with a laugh.
“Then you’ve already been asked?” Karina asks.
“No, but-”
“Then you already asked a guy?” Zoey interrupts.
“No, but it’s fine. I’m busy with the preparations, but
I’m sure someone will still be available next weekend.”
“Well, if you say so,” Marina says.
Zoey gets paper plates for everyone from the kitchen and
the group finally sorts out the fast food.
“Okay, let’s see here,”
Alicia says as she goes to the drinks. “Hi-C.”
“Yes, please,” Marina says.
“So you’re the one who chose juice,” Simon says.
“Tennis season, yo,” she says as she sticks a straw in.
“Gotta cut out sugars and unhealthier things for a bit.”
“Doesn’t Hi-C still have sugar though?”
“Well, yeah, but like, less,” Marina says as she thinks
through it herself.
Everyone else gets a cola and sticks the straws in.
“Chicken nuggets,” Alicia says as she hands them to
Karina, along with sauce cups. “Here are our chicken sandwiches.”
Alicia and Chloe each take one, Marina gets two.
“Also because its tennis season,” Marina says with a nod
to the second sandwich.
Seth and Jeff get their Big Macs while Simon and Zoey
both have their quarter pounders.
With Jeff having taken
the last possible spot on the main couch, Zoey sits in the armchair and the
loveseat goes to Alicia and Seth. Alicia is a little nervous about it, but she
keeps calm. This leaves Simon unsure of where to sit. He settles for sitting on
the floor.
“Oh, Simon, no, you can
bring a dining room chair over,” Zoey says with a little giggle.
“Oh, duh,” he says,
getting back up.
He tries not to feel
too stupid while the others giggle, chuckle, and snicker. He goes to the dining
table and carries one of the chairs over. He sets it down by the armchair and
takes his seat to finally set things on a plate.
“We got the same order,” Zoey says with a smile. “Right
down to not having cheese.”
“Yeah, I can’t have cheese on my burgers,” Simon says.
“Just gets in the way of the meat.”
“Yeah, same here,” Zoey says.
“So, Simon likes ‘em big,” Marina says with a smirk.
Simon looks at the quarter pounder and considers that,
being a quarter pounder, it is bigger than the other sandwiches.
“Well, yeah,” he shrugs. “I’m hungry, so a smaller burger
wouldn’t be enough.”
“Uh-huh,” Marina says, her smirk becoming a smile.
“Bigger the better.”
“Marina,” Zoey says, seeing what she is doing. “Stop.”
Marina still smirks and Simon is confused.
“I thought we were just talking about burgers,” he says,
picking up a fry.
Well,” Zoey says, “knowing Marina… There’s always a
chance there’s a double meaning.”
Marina’s smirk becomes a big smile while she chews on
chicken sandwich.
Simon thinks for a moment while chewing the French fry,
and the realization is clear on his face.
“Mmm…!” he says as a muffled form of, “Ohh…!”
The others giggle while he swallows the fry.
“This is like how in grade school, somebody asked me if I
liked chocolate with nuts,” he says. “And I was like, ‘No, I don’t like nuts,’
so I think I foiled his plans.”
The group laughs a little more.
“It would’ve been easier if we had Burger King,” Marina
says. “Then I could’ve just said Simon likes Whoppers.”
Simon’s face scrunches up from stifling laughter while
both Karina and Zoey look at Marina with wide-eyed smiles. Jeff is snickering
while Chloe is staring straight ahead to avoid eye contact, for fear she might
lose it. Seth has paused in place with his drink near his mouth. Alicia sits
with eyes closed as if to say, “I can’t believe you said that,” but she smirks
nonetheless.
“Can we please talk about something more serious?” Alicia
says as she calms down.
“Yes, let’s do that,” Zoey says. “So, um… Oh, how’s
kicking gangsta butt in my place going?”
“‘Gangsta?’” Simon chuckles.
“Pretty good actually,” Jeff says. “It’s lessening,
even.”
“Really?” Zoey says. “What’s different about you guys
beating them up versus me beating them up?”
“I’m a taser and Seth’s an aluminum bat,” Jeff says.
“That would do it,” Simon says.
“There is something we should discuss,” Seth says. “The
rematch you apparently set up for The Spektrum and Siro.”
“We gonna train some more?” Jeff asks.
“Well, I don’t think that’ll be so easy these next few
weeks,” Seth says.
“Yeah, seniors are going to be facing our midterms,”
Alicia says, “and Haft is really tough on us.”
“He really is,” Seth says as he looks at her.
“It’s like he doesn’t get we also have AP classes,”
Alicia says.
“AP is above Honors, right?” Simon asks, using his hand
to gesture a level above.
“Yeah, it stands for Advanced Placement,” Seth says.
“Okay but why would midterms keep you from helping in the
training?” Zoey asks.
“Well, between homework and studying, I won’t have a lot
of time to drive people around,” Seth says.
“Oh, true,” Zoey says.
“I could start driving,” Jeff says.
“In another few months when you’ve done the needed
driving hours,” Seth says.
“Y’know, it’s fine,” Zoey says. “We can just train on our
own.”
“Just the two of us?” Simon asks at the same time her
cousins ask, “Just the two of you?”
“Well, yeah,” Zoey says. “If anything, it’ll be better.
We won’t lose time driving anywhere, because we’ll just be here, or at Simon’s.”
“That is a more efficient plan,” Seth says. “But
is it a safe one?”
“I’m safe,” Simon defends. “You guys know me.”
“Do we?” Jeff says. “Do we?”
“Well, you know me,” Zoey says. “Nothing’s going to
happen. And if Simon does step out of line, I’ll claw his face.”
Zoey giggles as she scratches the air. Simon’s eyes widen
and that makes her laugh more, which makes the group laugh, too.
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