Heather looked around for Cody and found him in a game room. Geoff, Harold, Trent, DJ were in the room as well. Cody was playing some kind of video game against Geoff. "Hi Heather," Trent said. "What brings you here?"
"I want," Heather began, then stopped to correct herself. "No, I need to talk to Cody."
"He'll done in a while: he needs to finish kicking Geoff's ass in Soul Calibur first," Trent explained. "What exactly do you need to talk to Cody about?"
"You'll see," Heather said, not wanting to say anything Cody might overhear that would ruin the surprise. About one minute later, Cody had won his game with Geoff.
"All right, who's next," Cody said as he looked around for a new challenger. "Hey Heather. How long have you been here?"
"Not long," heather answered. "I just came here to ask you something."
"What is it?" Cody asked.
Heather took a big sigh as she readied herself for what was to come. She still had trouble believing she was about to do this, but decided to take the plunge and get this over with. "Would you like to go out with me tomorrow?" Heather asked.
Cody stood with his mouth open as he processed this. "Woo hoo," Geoff shouted, happy for Cody that finally a girl warmed up to him (who wasn't an insane fangirl) after three seasons of pining for Gwen and not getting anywhere.
"I do have some ground rules though," Heather continued. "First, if you try to f%k with me, I will make you regret it. Second, keep your perviness in check if you know what's good for you. Third, I am dragging you to go shopping with me before our date to make sure you're dressed well. Fourth, if you try to f%k with me, I will make you regret it."
"You said that last one twice," Harold pointed out.
"Because it's twice as important as the other ones," Heather explained with a malicious grin to indicate it was not an idol theat.
"Can you give us some time to talk this over," Trent said to Heather as he pushed her out of the room and locked her out.
Cody pinched his arm to see if he was dreaming. He wasn't. "That really happened, didn't it?" he asked.
"It sure did, dude," Geoff said.
"You are not seriously considering going out with her, are you?" Trent asked.
"And why shouldn't he?" DJ asked.
"You don't think it's a little suspicious that she just asks him out like that out of nowhere?" Trent countered.
"It's not out of nowhere," DJ said then told Trent about how he, Harold and Cody serenaded to her from the 'Karate Kid' soundtrack and explained how the asking out was likely her idea of gratitude.
"What?" Trent said in surprise, not knowing about that before. "Why didn't I know about that?"
"Because Cody only asked people he was reasonably sure did not completely hate Heather," Harold explained. "You were excluded due to the possibility of you harboring ill will from the whole 'her kissing you incident' back on the island."
"All right," Trent said, knowing they were right not to think he'd be forgiving of Heather for that very reason (which he wasn't). "But what about those threats she made to beat up Cody? Are you cool with that?"
"Heather has dealt with people being very strongly and very openly anti-her for a quite some time now," Harold began. "If you don't see how that might make her a little bit on guard, I can explain it to you in a way that covers all the details and intricacies."
"Please don't," Trent said with a hint of fear in his voice, afraid he was about to be on the receiving end of one of Harold's nerdy tangents. "I mean, you've made your point."
"Come on Trent," Geoff said. "This is a great opportunity for Cody. Isn't that right?" he asked as he nudged Cody.
"Yes," Cody said, going with a one word answer because he doubted his ability to form complete sentences while still reeling from the shock of being asked out by Heather. He had heard everything that his friends had said about Heather but he had chosen not to say anything to avoid making an incoherent fool out of himself.
"Fine," Trent said begrudgingly as he went to unlock the door. He opened the door and saw Heather standing there, waiting for the boys' deliberating to come to an end. "You know Heather," Trent said to her, "if you just want to date Cody as a way to piss off Gwen, you'd have better luck with her ex-boyfriend: me."
"That's not why I'm doing this so get out of my way," Heather said as pushed her way past the guitarist back into the room.
"That was a test, Heather," Trent explained. "You passed."
"Hooray for me," Heather said with sarcasm that would have made Noah proud.
"And as for ground rules, I have one of my own: if you try to f%k with Cody, I will make you regret it."
"Whatever."
"I'm serious," Trent said in a very stern voice as he stood right next to Heather's face. "Cody deserves better than being a disposable pawn in whatever plan you might be hatching."
"That's enough Trent," DJ said as he walked up to the two and pushed them away from each other.
"Thanks DJ," Heather said. "Two things I forgot to mention before: first, I will need someone to come with me and Cody for the first part of our date."
"The clothes shopping?" Geoff asked.
"Yes," Heather clarified. "Any volunteers?" she asked and looked for reactions. Trent raised his hand as a sign. "Any other volunteers?" Heather asked. She was not too keen of the idea of Trent's accompaniment if he was going to keep being so suspicious and distrusting. For all she knew, he was already planning to sabotage them out of sense of trying to save Cody. While she was thinking this over, DJ raised his hand to volunteer. "Perfect. The second thing is that I would really much like all of you to keep quiet about this: at least until the actual date is over and done with."
"Of course we'll keep this to ourselves for now Heather," DJ said and was met with nods from the guys, save one. "Right Trent?" he asked the musician and got no response. "Right Trent?" he asked again more forcefully and followed through with a bump to the shoulder. He regretted being so unusually violent but as much as this was a great dating opportunity for Cody, it was also a great opportunity for Heather to take the first steps in becoming a nicer person. He had no intention of sitting by while Trent tried to take that away from her.
"Fine," Trent said begrudgingly. He had made his warning to Heather and was pretty sure she wasn't using Cody to get at Gwen thanks to his test, so he decided to follow his friends' lead and give the Heather the benefit of the doubt. At least for now.
"Fantastic," Heather said. She spent the next few minutes going over her plans for tomorrow with Cody. "Bye Cody," Heather said when she was done. She turned around, walked for a while then waved flirtaciously.
Cody waited a while for Heather to be out of ear-shot. With that out of the way, he raised his arms started shouting uproariously in celebration of what had just transpired. He started exchanging high fives with the others who in turn praised him for his good luck. Even Trent joined in on the good times, deciding for now that he was going to be happy for Cody.
Heather had not walked far enough away to be oblivious to Cody's jubilation. She didn't mind: as far as she was concerned, all that showed was how enthusiastic he was about the date.
When she had made it back to her room, she lied down on the bed. She had had a very long day: the final challenge against Alejandro, fleeing from a volcanic eruption, the boat ride to another island, being checked into the hotel, Cody's serenade, the errand she had run and finally asking him out. She could now rest for a while.
I hope Cody's not going to be too excited to sleep tonight, Heather thought. Our date is going to suck if he has trouble staying awake on me.
