Lita walked down the street looking out for her best friend as she neared the corner they always met on to walk to school. She stopped, looked down the street, and waited for a few minutes, used to Serena's tendencies to wake up late. Sure enough she saw a blond running towards her from the end of the street, pigtails bouncing as she went. "Come on Serena! We're going to be late again."
"Sorry Lita! I was up way too last night because Reni would not quit snoring!" Serena fumed. Lita smiled. "And I bet you forgot your lunch too huh?" The blonde quickly facepalmed. "Hey, remember you're lucky enough to have me. I had a feeling I would need to make two lunches this morning so I got up a little early."
"Have I ever told you how much I love you?"
"Morning, meatball head," Darien said as he came up behind the two girls.
"Oooh, Darien!" Serena squealed, leaping towards him. "If I weren't so glad to see you I would be absolutely steamed at that meatball head comment!"
Lita laughed at the both of them the trio walked to school. As they walked in Lita and Serena had to part ways with Darien as they had different home rooms, especially considering Darien was a senior and they were juniors. Thier homeroom teacher was a stuffy old man who would probably be better off as a college professor. With History being their first subject of the day Lita took notes and doodled cookies on the margins of her paper. Serena took this class as an opportunity to catch up on sleep. After an agonizing forty-five minutes of their teacher going over the Iwai Rebellion the bell rang signaling the end of class. "Mrs. Kino, would you mind waking your friend. If she won't pay attention in my class I certainly don't want her longer than I have to have her in here."
"Serena, get up!" Lita hissed to her blonde friend. "But I don't want to..." Serena pouted. "Well i'm not going to be late for Home Economics." Lita grabbed her bag and started walking to her next class. Lita looked at the time and saw that she had three minutes to get down the stairs and down the hall to her class. "Oh, crap!" She ran down the stairs and missed a step, causing her to tumble down. She hit something solid at the end of the stairs. That something wrapped it's arms around her and pulled her to her feet. "Are you alright?" Lita stood and looked up at a older boy with short blonde hair. "O-oh, I'm fine! Thank you." She stuttered out. "What's your name? Are you a senior?" The blonde asked. "Oh no! I'm a junior, my name its Lita Kino."
"Well Lita, it's nice to meet you. My name is Andrew Furuhata, and I'm a senior."
"It's nice to meet you as well Andrew." The bell rang and they both grew wide eyed. "Oh i'm sorry! I made you late for class," Lita apologized. "It's not a big deal really. I have an empty period right now. I can walk you to your class if you'd like."
"Oh, um sure, thank you again."
Andrew just smiled. "It's not a problem at all.
The bell that started the next class woke Serena, who hadn't listened when Lita tried waking her up. "Awh man I can't show up to Chemistry late again, I'll get detention!" She whined, stumbling out of the classroom and lazily making her way down the stairs. "I guess i have to go..." she sighed, hesitating before she slid the door open and went inside. Her lab partner Amy, looked disapprovingly at her through the safety goggles. "Late again, I see? Well, let's get to work, mix this hydrochloric acid with the base."
"You want me to touch that?"
"Don't touch it, you'll lose a hand!"
"Stilllllll!"
"Oh Serena put on some gloves before you hurt yourself."
"Oh no!" Lita cried as she opened the oven. "I haven't burnt anything in years!" She fumed. Since she was late getting to class she rushed through preparing the cookies and forgot to set the timer. "What happened Lita?" Mina asked as she picked up one of the black cookies. "I forgot to set the timer..." Lita sighed. "Today is not may day!" Mina pat Lita on the back. "We still have six periods to go Lita. Hang in there."
"Yes, finally my period with Darien!" Serena cheered, skipping to the stairwell, where all of their friends would meet.
"Oooooh Lita, what did you make in home ec todayyyy!? Something yummy?"
"Err...I burnt the cookies."
"Lita burning something..?" Darien mocked. "Shut it!" She retorted. "I was late to class and forgot to set the timer..."
"Wait, how were you late to class?" Serena asked.
"I tripped down the stairs into a senior named Andrew... and we talked and I was late."Hey, he's a friend of mine," Darien informed them. "Oh reeally? I think it's time for my matchmaking skills!"
"Serena..." Lita sighed.
"What? I absolutely must do it!"
"I bumped into him in the hallway and you want to make a relationship out of it?"
"There's a spark!"
"How would you know!"
"The gleaming in your gorgeous eyes that's how!"
"Oh please, he walked me to class get over it."
"Wait, you didn't tell me that part!"
"It's not a big deal!"
"That's adorable, we must set up a date immediately!"
"Well wait a minute Serena!" Mina spoke up. "I mean, we need a little more detail from Lita here. Do you think he's cute?"
Lita sighed and dropped her head. "Great i'm being teamed by two blondes..."
"Is that a no?" Rei asked. "What? No I didn't say that!"
"Sooooo you do think he's cute then?" Serena said excitedly.
Knowing that she had been defeated Lita gave in. "Yes I thought he was cute okay."
"Well, I knew it. Is he a movie kind of guy or a quiet restaurant kind of guy?"
"I met him for two seconds!"
"Psh, technicalities."
"Darein? You got any input? He's your friend after all." Rei asked.
"Andrew is more like an anything goes type of guy if you must have my opinion."
Lita unlocked the door to her apartment and flopped down on her couch. She checked her phone to see a text from Serena
[Serena]
Hey! Would you be willing to do a double date?
[Lita]
I guess so
[Serena]
Alright so Me, You, Darien and Andrew...midnight bowling.
[Lita]
That sounds good.
[Serena]
Great! See ya tonight!
Lita got up and walked into her kitchen. "Let's see. Sweet Potato Miso Soup sounds good for dinner, and since I plenty of time it wouldn't hurt to make some rice balls to go with it." She pulled out one sweet potato, red miso, and bonito soup stock and set them on the counter along with a box of rice and salt. She grabbed a pot and filled it with water. Setting the pot on the stove she turned on the burner and waited. Then she took another pot and added in her soup stock to let it boil. While she waited for the water and the stock to boil she took her potato and washed it before setting on her cutting board. She cut the potato into half inch slices. Once the soup stock began to boil she added the potato slices and covered the pot. She added the rice to the water and sat back against the counter to wait.
Her phone buzzed on the corner of the counter so Lita reached over to pick it up.
[?]
Hello Lita. This is Andrew, the guy you fell into at the stairs today. I got your phone number from Darien.
[Lita]
That's fine. So your okay with the double date thing right?
[Andrew]
I'm perfectly fine with it. I'm the one who picked bowling by the way.
[Lita]
Oh really? I thought this was all Serena's plan
[Andrew]
The date part yes, the bowling part was me.
[Lita]
Gotta get back to making dinner i'll text you back in like 10 if you'd like?
[Andrew]
Alright.
Lita took a ladle and added some more stock with 4 tablespoons of red miso and stirred it with a pair of chopsticks before adding it to her pot. She reduced the heat and left that pot alone to attend to the rice. She got her hands wet and put salt on her palm. Then she rubbed her hands together before taking the hot rice and forming it into little triangles. By the time she was done with the rice balls, the soup was done. She placed the rice balls onto a plate and then poured a bit of the soup into a bowl and carried them over to her dining room table.
"Itadakimasu!"
As she started eating her phone buzzed again.
[Andrew]
Just wondering. Do you have a ride for tonight?
[Lita]
Well I never really said anything to him but I just assumed Darien would take me and Serena. Why?
[Andrew]
I could come get you.
[Lita]
Are you sure?
[Andrew]
Of course. You are my date after all right?
[Lita]
Haha yea I guess your right.
[Andrew]
So i'll come by around 11:30?
[Lita]
Okay.
Lita texted Andrew her address and continued eating.