Trapped in School (Watty Awards 2012 Nominee)

Chapter Fourteen: Lunch Date

I’d never imagined that during my first date I’d be wearing a pair of gym clothes.

I sat on the couch, nervously crossing and uncrossing my legs. My fingers fiddled with the little Hetalia necklace I decided to put on after my shower. It was new, I bought it about a month ago online, a disk with a picture of Arthur on it. After my shower I decided that I might as well look a little different for my date, so I put on all of my jewelry and piled my long blonde hair into a ponytail.

After what felt like forever, the door swung open to reveal Lucas wearing a white button up shirt and his old jeans.

“Where did you find that shirt?” I asked. He smiled.

“The lost and found. I decided I might as well dress up for our--”

“Don’t say it.”

“….Date.”

“I hate you.”

“Well, this seems to be starting off nicely. Care to follow me, my lady?” said Lucas. He held out his arm like a prince wanting to escort a princess, and I responded by sticking out my tongue. I leapt up from the couch and followed him down the hallway.

“There better be food. I’m starving,” I said. Lucas only responded with a small smile as he led me through the maze of hallways. We went down four flights of stairs, and I was starting to get quite concerned as to why we had to go underground for our date. I shivered as we entered the mechanics wing, rubbing my hands over my arms briskly and looking around as we walked through the auto shop. Finally we reached the door to the pool.

“Um, Lucas, what are we….?”

He swung back the door to reveal our puddle of a pool. But the puddle was transformed, light dancing off the walls like ballerinas in the dark room. The pool lights were on. I didn’t even know the school pool had lights. Spread out on the floor was an emergency fire blanket from the Chemistry lab, and atop it sat two candles and an array of food. The water slapping against the side of the pool was like calming music, and the beautiful spectacle took my breath away.

All of this for me?

“Um…. Wow,” I said as Lucas led me across the pool to our picnic. He sat down, looking up at me with blue eyes that perfectly matched the aqua color of the pool, and patted the spot next to him. I lowered myself, taking in the food.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (crusts cut off), hard boiled eggs, a bowl of three different kinds of fruit snacks, more apples, milk, and orange juice. Okay, he wasn’t a galloping gourmet, but at least Lucas remembered I was vegetarian and didn’t make, like, bacon or something.

“I couldn’t find the keys to the Foods room,” said Lucas as I picked up a sandwich “Or else I would have made something I little more date-ey.”

I laughed, and the sound echoed off the walls. To my shock I saw Lucas blush and give a bashful smile. Huh. Weird.

I took a bite of my sandwich, and there was a lull in the conversation, the first sign of an awkward pause. Luckily, Lucas broke in before the silence I knew all too well fell over us.

“So I have to ask, what is up with all the jewelry?” he said with a teasing smile. I reached for the orange juice, taking a quick sip to wash down the peanut butter that would inevitably make me lisp.

“Well you said it was a date so I--”

“No, I mean like, it’s all anime stuff. What animes?” he asked. I gave him a look, squinting my eyes and crossing my arms. But there was not even a hint of a smile on Lucas’s face. “I’m serious,” he added. I felt a little unnerved by the real concern in his voice.

“Well,” I paused, picking up my necklace. “You’ve probably never heard of any of these. This one’s from Hetalia, the character is England. Or, well, Arthur I guess, that’s his human name. It’s kind of confusing….”

“No, it’s okay, go on,” he said. I pulled my hand back and held up my wrist, exposing my watch.

“This is Light from Death Note, um…” I held up my ring finger, looking like I was fake flipping off Lucas. He gave a knowing smile as if reading my mind. “This is my Nyan Cat ring. It was an internet hit of a cat--”

“Yeah, I know. Who doesn’t?” he smiled.

“I guess, yeah,” I said. To my surprise Lucas leaned foreword, plucking the ring off my finger. He brought it to his face and squinted in the dark.

“It’s cute,” he said, holding it back out to me. I took it and slipped it back on my naked finger.

“Uh, thanks?” I said, but it came out sounding like a question. Why was he being so nice to me? Uh, these date fumes were going to my head, or maybe that was just the chlorine.

We finished up our meal, with Lucas grilling me about anime. At first I answered in a confused voice but soon it turned into a full blown lesson. Before I knew it, I was laughing, talking animatedly about Vocaloids as Lucas nodded like he was legitimately interested in what I had to say.

“And the one with blue hair is called Miku, but I like Len and Rin a lot better, especially the song about Romeo and Cinderella,” I said.

“Wait, so Len and Rin are the twins, right?” he said.

“Well, kind of, they’re like, mirror images so they can be in love. Not that being brother and sister ever stopped anime writers before, but that’s a whole other story,” I said. Lucas burst into laughter, and I joined him. His laughter was contagious, the kind that filled the whole room with something warm and inviting. I was tempted to tell him he should laugh more often.

Once we quieted down again, Lucas stood up. He held out a hand for me and a took it, ignoring the little voice in my head insulting shivery. In retrospect, I should have listened, because to my shock Lucas pulled me up only to push me into the pool.

I hit the water, gasping as I slipped into the ice cold bath. Opening my stinging eyes, I looked down, pushing my feet off the floor once I got my wits. My head broke the surface.

“Lucas!” I screamed. I should have known he would pull something like this! Instantly, I felt a wave of self loathing hit me. Here I was able to balance Chemical equations, list all of the elements on the periodic table, do trigonometric cosign problems, and analyze Hemingway stylistic approaches, yet I didn’t have the brains enough to put two and two together to realize this date was just another device for Lucas to make fun of me.

But all of that melted away as I heard a splash beside me.

Lucas surfaced, spiting up water and wiping at his eyes. He was shirtless. Uh.

“What the hell were you--”

“I thought it would be fun to take a swim!” he laughed. He waded over to me as I gripped the sign of the pool, glaring with all of my might. His eyes glinted with mischief, but I could tell he really meant it.

“Well you could have given me a warning first!” I said. Lucas frowned.

“But then you would’ve said no,” he whined. I tried my best to glare harder, but this was a difficult task seeing as Lucas was giving me his best puppy dog eyes.

“Exactly!” I said. Lucas shrugged, wrapping an arm around my waist as my hands slipped off the side of the pool. I gripped it again, hastily pushing his hand off me.

“Well, we’re here now. Come on, let’s have a race!” he said. He sounded so giddy I couldn’t help but smile. With a very pointed sigh, I loosened my grip on the side, pulling off my jewelry piece by piece. Lucas gave a cheer and swam off to the other side of the pool.

“You’re just lucky my watch is waterproof!” I yelled over my shoulder.

A/N-- So yes, I couldn't help but include some anime fangirling. Yesterday I went to the mall with my two lovely friends and we went to this anime store that was so freaking amazing, I just had to include parts of it in my writing. Expect more nerd-bonding to come (I'm talking Zelda, Dr.Who, Pokemon, the whole bit). I'm open to suggestions as well, just message me. Part Two of their date coming tomorrow, please vote! Thanks!!!

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