Chapter 4: Houston, This Suit's Too Small
While Alex and Justin sat in the principal's office, Harper walked into the cafeteria. She carried a long white garment bag in her left hand. She walked toward the table where the four usually had lunch. There, a lonely Zeke sat eating the less-than-appetizing cafeteria food.
"Hey there, loner. Mind if I join you?" Harper said as she took a seat across from him.
"Harper!" the boy said enthusiastically."Where have you been? Justin got taken to lunch detention with Alex!"
"Yeah, I know," Harper said dismissingly.
"Oh, you do? How? Were you detained too?"
"No, umm, Alex just texted me." She lied. Harper knew since that morning that Alex would try to get Justin stuck in lunch detention.
"Oh, so where were you, then?" Zeke asked.
"Well, I went home and thought about us," Harper said suspensefully, "and I figured out what you can do to make it up to me." she unzipped the garment bag she brought in and cheerily announced, "We're wearing matching outfits!" She pulled out a light grey suit with hand-painted bright and dark spots.
"Harper, I'm not really a fashion expert, but I don't think this matches what you're wearing." Zeke scratched his head.
"Of course it does, silly. It's a moon suit to go with my Earth dress. I skipped class this morning to go home and make it for you. See, these are the craters." She pointed to small, round, dark colorations on the suit that looked like stains. "These are the lunar seas, and this is the Apollo 11 landing site." Harper gestured to a small American flag that she had sewn on the right pant leg of the suit.
"Oh, I see it now!" Zeke said, nodding.
"Well, go on, try it on." She handed the suit to Zeke. "Oh, I couldn't find a light-colored suit your size at the thrift shop, though, so it might be just a teensy bit small on you." She indicated a small amount with her right thumb and index finger.
"Okay, I'll be right back, Finkle-Twinkle," Zeke said in a cooing tone.
He headed into the boy's restroom with the suit folded over his left forearm. Two minutes later, he emerged wearing the strangely designed, oddly fitting three-piece suit. The body of the coat barely reached Zeke's waistline and the sleeves stopped halfway down his forearms. The antiquated vest barely buttoned over his burgeoning chest. The pants were tight around his waist and thighs, they look more like capris than slacks on the tall teen.
There was pointing and snickering in the cafeteria as soon as he stepped out of the bathroom door, holding the normal clothes he usually wore. Although Zeke didn't seem to mind—or notice—that he was being laughed at, Harper was embarrassed for both of them.
"So, what do you think?" Zeke asked, gripping the lapels of the suit jacket.
"I'm sorry, Zeke, the design looked a lot better in my head, and I thought it'd be bigger than that! I don't really have much experience with guy clothes. You don't have to wear it. Go change back into your jeans and T-shirt," she advised, for both their sakes.
"I actually like it," he said, "very out of this world. I'll change back if you want me to, thought."
It was as if he existed only to please her.
The end-of-lunch bell rang and the students started heading back to class.
"I gotta get back to class," Zeke said, "I'll just change after next period."
Justin walked into the still-crowded cafeteria and spotted Zeke and Harper. He wasn't pleased to see Harper. She and Alex had gotten him into trouble instead of just asking him to give the couple some alone time. He forgot about that, though, when he saw Zeke's awkward clothes and noticed people making fun of him. He walked to where they stood.
"Zeke what are you wearing?" Justin asked, puzzled.
Before Zeke could answer, Harper cut in, "Oh, hey Justin. Alex told me what happened. How was your fist ever lunch detention?"
"Like you care," Justin coldly replied, staring blamefully.
Harper looked surprised.
Zeke stepped in. "Whoa, Justin. I know you're a little bummed because the man came down on you, but that is no way to speak to a lady. To my lady." His tone was stern, yet polite.
Justin was taken aback by Zeke's sudden assertiveness. He had never seen him jump at anyone's defense like he did for Harper. Justin didn't regret his comment, but he didn't want to make Zeke upset either. "You're right, I'm misdirecting my anger. Sorry, Harper. Sorry, Zeke."
There was a short awkward pause.
"So Justin, how do you like my dress? I know you're a big cartography nerd." Harper spun around twice, somewhat flirtatiously, so that Justin could appreciate the full splendor of her "masterpiece." She obviously still had a thing for the young wizard. Her parabolic hat continued to spin after the rest of her had stopped.
Justin spoke critically. "Well, the Yucatán Peninsula looks disproportionately large, New Zealand is too close to Australia, and it looks like your salad greens are starting to wilt."
Harper explained, "But the drying broccoli is meant to represent the quick destruction of the world's forests. You're an environmentalist, you should've gotten that."
Her unconventional medium for social commentary did impress Justin after she explained it, but he wouldn't admit it.
"Furthermore," Justin added, "you should've used the Gall-Peters projection instead of Mercator, it's a lot less distorted near the poles."
"I'll keep that in mind," Harper said, disappointed that Justin had only negative comments about the dress.
"What about my suit?" Zeke asked. "It's a map of the moon. Any pointers and/or comments?"
Yeah, it looks more like a bad cow costume that you outgrew five Halloweens ago, the wizard thought. He found it impossible to criticize Zeke, though, Justin just loved him too much to do so.
"It looks good. Turn around, let me see the 'far side of the moon.'"
Zeke spun around. He looked absolutely tragic. The pants were so tight on him that they had begun to ride further up his legs and into his butt crack, not that Justin minded it one bit. The hand-painted lunar features were surprisingly accurately positioned, though.
"Isn't that the suit you wore to your Bar Mitzvah?" Justin laughed, recalling the eventful occasion. "What'd your parents say when you painted all over it?"
"No, actually Harper picked this up for me in the morning and 'lunarized' it," Zeke said proudly.
"I didn't know you were into selenography!" Justin excitedly told Harper, his nerdiness momentarily overcoming his anger towards her.
"Yeah, I totally am," Harper said with a big smile.
Justin caught himself and put up his annoyed front once more. "Great, but the Copernicus Crater is actually smaller than that, and if that's supposed to be the Apollo 11 landsite, it should be a little closer to the southern edge of the Sea of Tranquility. Also, the Sea of Serenity is slightly rounder than that."
Harper was once again disappointed. She looked at the Captain Planet watch she wore on her left wrist. "Look at the time, I gotta get to class. See you two later." She kissed Zeke on the cheek and headed off.
Harper didn't kiss Zeke on the lips very often, not because PDA was banned at Tribeca Prep, not because her boyfriend regularly fainted when she did do it, but because she didn't really see him in a romantic light. She saw him more as a friend and a tool. A tool to finally get Justin to like her the way she still secretly liked him. So far, that plan was seriously backfiring.
Zeke and Justin were the last people standing in the deserted cafeteria.
"We should head to class too," Zeke said.
"Yeah, see you after next period."
The two started walking in opposite directions. Justin stopped and turned around to look at his friend. He once again took notice of his behind. Oh, the things he would do to that plump backside. Zeke proceeded to get a drink of water from a water fountain. The built up pressure in the machine caused a thick stream of water to splash all over his head, chest, and shoulders.
"Crap!" Justin heard Zeke say quietly.
Justin felt he had to help his friend out. He was awkward enough on his own without having to wear an embarrassing undersized suit, and the idea of Zeke being mocked upset Justin way more than it did Zeke himself.
Justin looked around to make sure no one was watching. He quickly pulled his wand out of his back pocket and waived it, reciting, "My friend's outfit needs some aid, make that suit look tailor-made."
The three pieces of the suit quickly grew to Zeke's size like a curtain dropping to cover a stage. The hand-painted lunar surface changed into intricate carefully sewn-in mountains, craters, and seas. The suit looked like a million bucks, and Zeke looked even better than that.
As he brushed off the water from his upper body, Zeke noticed the change. Justin worried his mortal friend would freak out or suspect something, but was relieved when he heard Zeke obliviously exclaim, "Wow! And I thought water shrunk clothes!"
Justin walked to his next class with a wide, satisfied grin that he would sport for the rest of the day.