Chapter 63

              On Saturday afternoon, Alicia drives Karina to Zoey’s house, the modified dress with them.

            “Oh, Karina, it looks amazing!” Zoey says as she holds the dress up in front of her. “How’d you pull it off?”

            “Yímā Coraline helped,” Alicia says. “And we owe her, so we’ll be helping her in her shop for Spring Break.”

            “Well, that’s okay,” Zoey says. “We won’t need to do our road trip down to Santa Cruz because Seth and Jeff are back up here.”

            “Try it on!” Karina says, motioning to the dress. “We need to make sure the skirt was placed right.”

Zoey hurries into her walk-in closet to change, and even brings out her selection of shoes.

“Subarashi? <Lovely?>” Zoey smiles coyly as she models the dress with a turn to the side.

“Utsukushi! <Beautiful!>” Karina says with applause. “Hijo ni utsukushi! <Very beautiful!>”

Zoey pretends to be bashful, then looks at herself in the mirror.

“Oh, yes,” Zoey says as she turns side to side and even looks at herself over the shoulder. “This is great work. Thank your aunt for me, too.”

“Definitely,” Karina says. “And definitely go with the heels.”

“I dunno,” Alicia says. “If she’s going to dance, shouldn’t she have more like flats?”

“No, that dress says, ‘Wear heels,’” Karina says.

“Yeah, I’m definitely wearing heels,” Zoey says as she looks between her choices. “And obviously closed toe.”

“Obviously,” Karina says. “Oh, but with a strap?”

“Yeah,” Zoey says, getting defensive. “What’s wrong with the strap?”

“Well, are you going to be wearing long socks with them?” Karina asks. “The straps only work if they stand out.”

“Hontoda <That’s true>,” Zoey says as she looks at them then looks at her legs. “I was hoping to wear knee high or more, cuz I have those nice black ones.”

“Now those would look nice with that one pair of dress shoes,” Alicia says. “The ones with the little buckle on them.”

“Oh, you’re right!” Zoey says. “And the heel isn’t too long, so they’ll still be good for dancing.”

“Desu yo ne,” Alicia says with a small but proud smile.

“And we obviously have to take pictures,” Karina says as she brings out a digital camera.

“Eh? Hontoni? <What? Really?>” Zoey says.

“We won’t be seeing you on Tuesday, so we’ve gotta show Chloe and Marina what you look like,” Karina says. “And phone cameras just aren’t good enough yet, even on a smartphone.”

“Plus, don’t act like you don’t want to model more,” Alicia adds.

Zoey giggles with her coy smile returning, and after putting on the knee high black socks and dress shoes with silver buckles, she models for Karina the photographer.

“Make sure to email those to me,” Zoey says. “Then I can post them to Facebook.”

“Mochiron <Of course,>” Karina says. “Okay, now really get those shoulders into it. Get really sassy.”

Zoey giggles as she puts her hands on her hips, then turns to have her right shoulder and leg out in front, then does the same with the left side in front.

 

Sunday morning at church, Simon and Zoey walk up the stairs to the balcony to find her friends are already there.

“Wow~,” Chloe says. “You did a great job on the dress.”

“Thank you,” Karina says with a big smile.

“And a pretty good job on taking pictures,” Marina says.

“Well, the ceiling light in there isn’t as good as Zoey’s old room,” Karina says.

“It’s definitely not,” Zoey says as she and Simon walk up. “Do I at least look good on mobile?”

“Yes, obviously,” Chloe says with a little laugh.

“I bet Tobey wants to see,” Marina says as she holds up her smartphone.

“Don’t show him the pictures,” Zoey says quickly as she ushers Simon to the aisle seat. “He’ll get to see on Tuesday.”

“And this is that dress,” Simon says.

“Yes,” Zoey says.

“That you then modified so it’s like a new dress,” Simon continues.

“Yes,” Zoey says again.

“Wait,” Shaun says as he walks up. “He’s seen that dress?”

“Uh,” Zoey says, caught by surprise.

“No, but I’ve heard about it,” Simon says, sitting back. “You’ve seen that dress?”

“Uh, yeah,” Shaun says. “This Christmas party we went to.”

“Oh, right, I heard about that, too,” Simon says. “So, how’d she look in it?”

“Simon…” Zoey says quietly with a nervous smile.

“What? I’m just asking,” Simon shrugs.

“I-I’m not sure I should really say,” Shaun stammers.

“Alright, just a number from one to ten, then,” Simon says as Shaun takes the other aisle seat.

“Simon…!” Zoey says again.

“Oh, then definitely a nine,” Shaun says quickly.

“Oh…!” Simon says with some pretend surprise.

“Really?” Zoey says as she looks past Simon to look at Shaun. “Oh. Well, thank you, Shaun.”

“You’re welcome,” Shaun says.

“For the record,” Simon whispers to her, “even nine seems a little low.”

“Simon…” Zoey says with a nervous smile and a strong blush.

 

            After Praise & Worship, the children and youth are excused to their Sunday School classes. As usual, Zoey sits with Simon while her cousins sit with Alicia and Karina behind them. Chloe and Marina sit on Zoey’s left so that they have the aisle seats.

            “Well,” Mr. Rivera says nervously. “I’m sure you’re all very aware that Valentine’s Day is this Tuesday. And we all know Valentine’s Day is all about romance and love. But let’s remember, there’s a line you shouldn’t cross. You’ll be tempted to cross that line, but you shouldn’t.

“There are a few verses to keep in mind here. Paul wrote in 1st Corinthians, Chapter 10, Verse 13, ‘There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.’

“Again, old English is a bit tricky, but what Paul means is that everyone faces the same temptations. God won’t give you more than you can handle, and he will always give you a way out.

“Then there’s James 1, verses 12 through 15. ‘Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.’

“Here, James backs up what Paul said. God doesn’t tempt us because he isn’t the one who wants us to fail. But God will reward those who endure temptation, who withstand temptations, who resist temptations. If you can do that, you’ll have a much better walk with him and a much better life.

“And perhaps more directly, Matthew 26:41. ‘Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ If you pray faithfully, and keep your mind on God, you can overcome the appetites of the flesh.”

Mr. Rivera writes these verses on the board for students to take note.

“Now temptation isn’t limited to lust in relationships,” he continues. “This is temptation to do anything bad. To act out, lash out, be mean, say or do things to someone you don’t like. Basically, temptation to sin.”

Zoey thinks back to Gina defacing her locker while Simon thinks about everything with Craig Foster. Zoey silently asks for forgiveness, but Simon sulks for a bit. He’s still resistant to letting Craig off the hook for his behavior.

“The full context of James Chapter 1 is James going into detail that you can always go to God for help in fighting temptation,” Mr. Rivera adds. “Verses 5 and 6 say, ‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.’

“I know we associate wisdom with knowledge, like book smarts, but wisdom is more like street smarts, y’know? Having life experience and good judgment. God has the best judgment, so if you don’t know what to do in a situation, ask him in prayer and he’ll give you the answer.

“But at the same time, to ‘ask in faith’ is to ask with honesty, effort, commitment, and persistence. ‘Nothing wavering,’ right? To waver is to falter, to hesitate or be undecided. You have to mean it, and you have to trust in God completely.”

A few of the others say, “Amen,” as does Zoey, but Simon feels a tightening in his chest.

 

Because it’s almost Valentine’s Day, the refreshments for fellowship after the service and classes are heart shaped sugar cookies with pink and red frosting. Simon has one with a cup of pink lemonade while he sits with Zoey and her friends.

“So have Seth and Jeff figured out where you’re going for Valentine’s Day?” Zoey asks Karina.

“Almost,” Karina says. “I think they’re keeping the final decision a surprise.”

“Do they at least have a time in mind? Are you going to be having dinner before or after the dance?”

“After,” Seth says as he walks over. “Less stress about making a mess.”

“Nice rhyme, bro,” Jeff says, and the two fist bump.

“How about you two?” Marina asks Zoey and Simon. “You guys going anywhere?”

“No,” Zoey says, “but neither of us can drive, we’re not even 16 yet.”

“Well, actually, I am,” Simon says. “But I haven’t started learning how to drive yet.”

“You’re 16 already?” Zoey says.

“Yeah, my birthday was back in November.”

“Oh, duh! I just thought I was a few months older than you.”

“Simon, c’mon,” Mr. Michaels calls.

“See you tomorrow,” Simon says to Zoey before he gets up and walks to the exit.

“See you tomorrow,” Zoey says back.

“Zoey, let’s go,” Mr. Mizaki says.

“See you Wednesday,” Zoey says to her friends before she gets up and walks to the exit.

 

Later that day, both Zoey and Simon work on Valentine’s Day cards for each other.

Zoey takes red construction paper and folds it. She cuts a heart out of it, and so the card opens into two hearts. She then takes pink construction paper, folds it, and then cuts a heart closer to center. This makes for two loose hearts.

She does her best cursive to write Happy Valentine’s Day on each of them, and she’s really only satisfied with her third try on the one side of the second heart.

Zoey frowns at the first heart, then scraps it completely before she pastes the good heart onto the inside of the red heart on the right side. The pink heart is smaller than the red heart, so there’s extra space that acts like a border. Zoey creates an intricate design inside that space with black pen.

On the outside, Zoey simply puts “To Simon, From Zoey” in standard lettering, but she does add color to them with the marker pens, too.

As for Simon, he uses an index card leftover from Spanish class. It’s completely clean and a nice 4 by 6 inches. He uses colored pencils and markers to write “To Zoey, From Simon” on one side, then “Happy Valentine’s Day!” on the other. Then, in mostly random fashion, he draws hearts all over the card, in different sizes and shades of red and pink.

He looks at both sides, and likes it for the most part, but feels like there should be something more. He looks through all his different art supplies and other things and finds his metallic gel pens still have some ink in them. He brings out the red and purple pens and uses their shining, almost sparkling ink to add some flair to the letters.

Now it’s perfect, they each think as they admire their finished products.

 

Monday happens without incident, as Craig stays away from San Leandro High. The school’s buzzing about the Valentine’s Day dance being just a day away, and some decorations are already being put up in the hallways.

It’s the same at Encinal High, and Chloe takes pride in how the decorations she helped with look on the walls. Except when a couple troublemakers rip the poster down and laugh as they stomp it.

“Hey!” Chloe says.

Chloe picks up the poster as the two other students run off while laughing. On top of being crumpled and having shoe prints all over the place, there’s a huge tear along the right side. That right side is still taped to the wall, too. Chloe looks back and forth between the two pieces. She has tape in her arts ‘n’ crafts bag, but just picturing the horrible gash that’ll be there after taping it together makes Chloe cringe.

“Those stupid jerks.”

Chloe turns around to see who said that, and it was Eugene.

“Oh, hi, Eugene,” she says. “And yeah, they definitely are. How could they do this to Valentine’s Day? It’s like, the second best holiday.”

“Well, I dunno about that,” Eugene says. “But people shouldn’t ruin the fun for others.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Chloe says. “I’m just not sure what to do about the poster.”

“Even if you put it back up, they might just tear it down again,” Eugene says.

“I know,” she sighs. “That’s why I’m not sure what to do.”

“And it’s not like the Blackout Boys can go around protecting these,” he says. “Honestly, they spend so much time stopping thugs from fighting, but the thugs keep trying.”

“Well, sometimes there’s just no stopping bad people from behaving badly,” Chloe says.

“Maybe there just needs to be more good people to stop the bad people,” Eugene says.

“Maybe,” Chloe says. “For now, this poster will just have to be laid to rest.”

Chloe takes down the piece left stuck to the wall and throws it all in the trash.

“See you around, Eugene,” Chloe says with a wave as she heads out.

“See ya,” he replies with a quick wave.

Eugene takes one last look at the poster in the trash and frowns at how someone’s hard work just went to waste.

 

Tuesday morning, Simon walks up to Zoey’s house on Maud Avenue, but she seems to be running late. He waits, and wonders if he should give her the Valentine’s Day card when she walks out. He shifts his lunchbox and backpack around, but then Zoey walks down the stairs, and he looks up to see her.

Zoey is wearing a cream colored sweater with a slight turtleneck, a plaid skirt in black, red and white, with a couple belt straps on the hip, and then knee-high socks with black stripes at the top.

“Wow,” slips out of his mouth.

Zoey giggles and blushes a bit.

“You really think so?” she asks as she looks at herself while turning side to side.

“Uh,” he says, realizing he said something at all. “Yeah, obviously.”

Zoey smiles and joins Simon on the sidewalk.

“You don’t look too bad, either,” she says.

“Oh, yeah,” he says. “I just kinda went with a red shirt because it’s Valentine’s Day.”

Simon gets his backpack back up and the two walk together.

“Something about that outfit looks familiar,” he says.

“You recognize it?” she says with a smile.

“Yeah,” he says. “Um, I want to say a TV show.”

“Yes! It’s from Friends! Rachel wore it in season one.”

“Oh, yeah, now I remember it. It was uh… Which episode was that again?”

“The One Where the Monkey Gets Away.”

“Right, right,” he says. “Ross’ monkey. What was that one called?”

“The One Where the Monkey Gets Away,” Zoey says again with a bit of a giggle.

“What?”

“That’s the title! They named all their episodes like that. ‘The One Where’ something-something, or sometimes ‘The One With.’ It was because that’s how people were going to talk about them anyway.”

“Whoa, really? That’s so meta.”

“Yeah, it’s really fun. But yeah, I really liked her outfit in that one, so I did my best to recreate it. Other than my shoes, because I went with sneakers, the socks are really the only thing off from the outfit in the show. She had one-striped knee socks while I have two-striped.”

Simon looks down at Zoey’s legs and sees the second stripe.

“Oh, yeah,” he says.

“Simon…” Zoey says with another smile and blush. “Stop staring at my legs.”

“What? I wasn’t staring.”

“I think you were,” she teases.

“Ehh. Okay, maybe.”

Zoey laughs and he chuckles as San Leandro High comes into view.

The two go to Ms. B’s room and take their seats.

“And now that we’re sitting down…” Zoey says. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Zoey presents Simon with her heart shaped Valentine’s Day card.

“Oh, thanks,” he says. “Hold on.”

He goes to his lunchbox and takes the index card out of the pocket on the outside. He hands that to Zoey while taking the heart shaped card.

“Aw, this is really cute,” she says. “It’s like, practical, too.”

“I like the pattern you did in the border here,” he says.

“Thanks. Did you use gel pen to do the highlights?”

“Yeah. I have this like pastel color pack leftover from middle school, so I thought they’d be a nice touch.”

Zoey and Simon carefully put the Valentine’s Day cards away inside their history textbooks, knowing the cards will stay nice and flat between the pages.

 

On the way to Second Block, Zoey grows nervous as she approaches the Science Wing.

“Can we take the elevator instead?” she asks.

“Why?” Simon asks.

“Because I’m wearing a skirt…” she whispers.

“Right. Duh. We better hurry, then. If we miss it, we won’t have time to wait.”

“Right,” Zoey says.

They hurry to the far side of the Science Wing. The elevator opens as it arrives, and a handful of other students get in the moment they see it!

“Wait!” Simon and Zoey both say as they almost run the rest of the way.

One of the students inside keeps the doors open for Zoey and Simon and they squeeze in at the front, near the middle.

“Sorry,” Simon says as his stuffed backpack comes close to bumping into the others. “Sorry.”

“What all is in there?” someone asks as the doors close.

“My books,” he says as the elevator gets moving. “And notebooks.”

“All of ’em?”

“Y-Yeah…”

“Why not put them in your locker?”

“It’s in B Hall.”

“Aw man, I definitely feel you on that. Worst spot for a locker.”

“Y’know,” Zoey says, “we could just share books. We’re in all the same classes, anyway.”

“Huh,” Simon says; the thought never occurred to him. “Yeah, I guess we could do that. So who’s carrying what?”

“You can take care of the first half, and I’ll take care of the second.”

“But we have PE third. You’d only be carrying the one textbook.”

“Uh-huh.”

The other students look at Simon, wondering how he’ll respond.

“Yeah, I guess that’s fine,” he says.

Zoey smiles, the elevator arrives on the second floor and the doors open. Zoey is first out, and Simon follows behind. The others exit the elevator, each of them thinking Simon’s somewhere between a gentleman and a lovesick puppy.

Science class goes by, and to many people’s relief, no homework is assigned. After all, tonight is the school dance. Then the lunch bell rings, and Zoey sits close to Simon on the bleachers as they eat.

“Um, hey,” Zoey says nervously. “Do you want to come by my house first and then my dad drops us off here at the school? Or do you just want to meet up at the school?”

“Uh, well,” he says, “it’s probably the more… traditional move for me as the guy to go to your house and then we go together.”

“Alright,” Zoey says. “I’ll let my parents know you’ll be over before 6.”

*SPLASH* A water balloon hits and explodes at their feet!

Zoey, Simon, and his friends all shout out, but the splash zone is mostly Simon and Zoey.

“Who the hell…!?” Bryan says.

“Is that them?” Julian says from the second row, looking towards the gym.

A handful of girls are running off, laughing as they go.

“I bet that was Gina and her friends,” Simon says. “They’ve been messing with Zoey this whole time. Right, Zoey? … Zoey?”

Simon looks over and Zoey is holding back tears while putting her lunch aside. She looks at her socks and shoes. Simon notices the coloring of the stains on her socks and then looks at his pants, as well as the spot where the balloon landed.

“Are you kidding me?” he blurts out.

“What?” Alex asks. “What’s wrong?”

“They didn’t fill the balloons with water,” Simon says, “they filled it with some kind of soda!”

“Oh no…” Erin and Michelle say from behind Zoey.

“It’s alright,” Zoey says, though her wavering voice gives away it’s not. “They only stained these socks that I was searching forever for, and thereby ruined my Rachel Green cosplay I was saving for Valentine’s Day.”

Zoey grits her teeth and seethes, and Simon is at a loss for words. He wants to say something, but his own emotions get in the way.

Zoey wipes her tears, and then her hand brushes against Simon’s hand as she sits it down on the bleacher.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she says.

But before she can move it away, Simon takes hold of her hand. Zoey looks up at him and he does his best not to shy away. She smiles, and that makes him smile.

After lunch comes Third Block, and for Simon and Zoey, that means Phys. Ed. And PE means having to deal with Gina and her clique. But Zoey ignores them to get dressed and ready.

“Oh, no,” Gina says with fake concern. “What happened to your socks?”

Zoey doesn’t respond, she just brings out the gray sweatpants and pulls those on before putting her skirt away. Then she thinks about what Gina did to her outfit just with a water balloon full of soda, and she stuffs her skirt and top into her backpack.

As for Simon, he thinks about confronting Robby over what his sister did, but he thinks better of it. It’ll only turn into an argument, and Simon knows Zoey wouldn’t want that, so he holds back.

 

In Fourth Block Precalculus, Mr. de la Rosa is merciful and doesn’t give a lot of homework. He simply assigns three problems from the section covered today on converting Cartesian, or standard (x, y) coordinates, into polar coordinates, which are (r, θ), or radius and theta. That seems easy enough to Simon and Zoey, so they don’t worry about doing homework together before getting ready for the dance.

 

In Alameda, Marina joins the Osou Sisters at their house as they all make their preparations.

“I hope Chloe can get back home to get dressed for the dance,” Karina says. “I can’t believe the Events Committee didn’t finish the decorations yet.”

“Right?” Marina adds.

Karina speed dials Zoey and puts the call on speaker phone.

“Hi, Kari-chan,” Zoey responds. “Is everyone there?”

“Chloe’s still at school, helping decorate,” Karina says.

“Seriously? Shouldn’t they have had it all done yesterday?”

“You’d think so, huh?” Karina says.

“Maybe what old people say about our generation is right,” Marina says. “Maybe we do just waste time and aren’t responsible about stuff. At least, that’s what my grandpa says about me and my cousins when we waste time and aren’t responsible about stuff.”

“How’re you, Zoey?” Alicia asks.

“Well, the socks for my Rachel Green cosplay are stained with soda because of that stupid jealous Gina I’ve been telling you guys about.”

“What?” all three on the other side say.

“How?” Marina asks.

“Soda filled water balloon.”

“What’d you do about it?” Karina asks.

“What could I do? I didn’t see who threw the thing, so it might’ve been one of her friends. And I didn’t have anything to work on the stains at school, so I’ll just have to hope the bleach can get that stuff out.”

“Any good things happen?” Alicia asks.

“Well, Simon and I did exchange Valentine’s Day cards,” Zoey says. “He made one out of an index card, it-”

“An index card?” Karina says. “That’s kinda cheap.”

“No, he did really good with these metallic pastel gel pens, it looks really cute. Anyway, I’m not sure what to do with my hair, you guys. I don’t think I can just leave it down, because someone might recognize me when Catgirl has it down, y’know?”

“Why?” Karina asks.

“Yeah, it’s not like it’s going to be strawberry ice cream pink for the dance, right?” Marina says.

“Well, true,” Zoey says. “But I dunno, it just doesn’t feel special.”

All four girls think quietly while Zoey looks at herself in the mirror.

“Just pull your hair back into one big poofy ponytail,” Karina says.

Zoey gathers up all her hair, even her bangs, and forms a ponytail.

“Wow, yeah,” Zoey says as she turns her head to see all sides. “This looks great. Great idea, Karina, thank you.”

“Take plenty of pics to share with us,” Karina says.

“Oh, I’m sure my mom will take plenty,” Zoey says. “Okay, enough about me. What’re you girls up to?”

“Marina finished having a snack and brushing her teeth,” Karina says. “Since she and… Who was it again?”

“Mark,” Marina says. “But yeah, he’s not taking me anywhere before or after the dance, so I won’t be having dinner until later tonight.”

“Right,” Karina says. “Anyway, our hair’s drying, and then Alicia’s going to help me with my ox horns.”

“Oh, you’re going to look adorable,” Zoey says. “Make sure you take plenty of pics, too.”

“Mochiron,” Karina says. “Okay, talk to you later.”

“Bai-bai~,” Zoey says before she hangs up.