Chapter 3: The Date

June 20th
Sarah's house

It had been about three days since I had met pretty boy. I still hadn't told Sarah about it yet. Speaking of Sarah, she was officially "ungrounded" yesterday and went to the park to rejoice. Ms. Brown was at her office again and I was currently working on my latest drawing and waiting for Sarah, who would be bounding up the stairs any minute to get me ready for my date. I thought back to the night before and wondered why I agreed to this.

~flashback~

I was in my room drawing (as usual) when Sarah burst into my room after coming home from the park.

"Hey Miro, guess what?" She said excitedly. I sighed. I had enjoyed the quiet.

*What?* I asked her after looking up from my art book.

"Ok ok, so ya' know how I was just in the park, right?"

*Right...* I signed, moving to sit cross-legged on my bed.

"Well, while I was there I met this guy - who was super hot, by the way - and we started talking and stuff, you know?"

*Right...* I repeated.

"And as it turns out, he was single! So he asked if I was free tomorrow, and I said yes, and then he asked if I wanted to hang out with him - you know, like on a date- so of course I said yes, and then his friend came along - a single friend, to be exact - and we were all chatting and I might've mentioned that I had a single friend looking for somebody and-"

Realizing what she was saying, I shook my head. *No way. I'm not going on another one of your blind double dates.*

"Oh, come on, Miro! Please? Just this once?"

*No.*

"Welp, you're too late. I already arranged it and there's no escaping it this time."

*Not going.* I signed stubbornly.

"But you have to go! I already told them you would!"

*Sarah!*

She sighed. "Just this once?" She asked. "Please, just this once for me? It'll be the last time, I swear."

I squinted at her. *Pinkie promise?* I sighed, raising my pinkie.

"Pinkie promise." She swore, then we wrapped pinkies.

*Alright. I'll go.*

~End flashback~

Oh yeah. That was why. Well, I did promise her, and we did pinkie swear, so I can't back out now-

"Ok, I'm here." Sarah said, suddenly popping up into existence, accomplishing both scaring the hebbies out of me and yanking me from my thoughts. "Let's get you ready."

"There we go!" She said about an hour later, putting on the finishing touches. "You look great, Miro!"

Easy for you to say. I thought. You make everything look good. But nonetheless, I turned toward the mirror.

See, Sarah's a natural when it comes to fashion. She makes even a magenta tank top and a pair of faded jeans look stylish (which is what she was wearing for the date). She always knows how to make anyone beautiful, even with someone as hopeless of a cause as me. I was wearing a simple pale blue dress with matching sandals. My golden hair was tamed to neat flowing curls that were held back with a rose hair clip.

*It's just a date, Sarah, not prom.* I commented.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, whatever, you love it."

I smiled softly to myself. She was right, of course. I do love it.

All of the sudden, the doorbell rang. Sarah's eyes widened.

"They're here!" She squealed excitedly. "Hey, do I look ok?" She asked, looking worriedly down at her tank top and jeans.

I rolled my eyes. *You look fine, Sarah. Go on, I'll be down in a minute.*

She beamed and then bolted for the stairs. After she had left, I turned and walked over to my dresser. On my dresser was a picture of my mom, smiling in a background of roses. Next to the picture was a necklace, the same one she wore in the photo - an old fashioned key with a purple heart-shaped gem (most likely an amethyst) where the crest would be and wings (most likely angel wings) sprouted at the base of the heart as if in flight. The necklace itself was about the size of my hand and surprisingly light when I held it. I sighed and gently set it back down, looking at the photo.

Well, it can't be as bad as last time, right mom? I thought. Let's get this over with.

I grabbed my notebook and a pencil (you never know when you're gonna need it) and put it in my shoulder bag. Casting a final glance at the mirror, I headed downstairs.

I found Sarah in the living room with a boy around our age sitting awkwardly on the couch. His golden brown bangs fell in his (oddly feminine-looking) face, slightly obscuring his amber-green gaze. He was wearing a long-sleeve white shirt with the sleeves rolled up halfway and dark jeans. He was kinda cute.

He looked up as I entered the room and smiled at me, waving shyly. I smiled softly in return, tugging slightly at my hair to try and hide the currently visible part of my scar residing on my neck. Unfortunately he noticed, and I felt his eyes gaze down at my neck and his smile wavered momentarily, but was then quickly restored.

"There you are! I was wondering where you went." Sarah said after noticing that the boy had waved as I entered. Apparently she hadn't noticed his wavering smile, but if she did, she didn't show it. "Um, it's... Ethan, right?" She asked him. The boy - Ethan - nodded. "Ok, so Ethan, this is Miro. Miro, Ethan."

"Nice to meet you." Ethan said.

Before I could answer, another boy entered the living room. A quite familiar boy, to be exact.

"Hey, I'm back. What'd I-" Pretty boy stopped when he looked up and saw me. He looked the same as he did the other day when I met him, except now he had a large bruise from where I had punched him. "Oh." He said flatly. "It's you."

"You two know each other?" Ethan asked, looking back and forth between the both of us.

Pretty boy turned to look at him. "She punched me in the face."

"What?" Sarah and Ethan asked in unison, then they both looked at me. The surprise on their faces was undeniable. I simply shrugged.

*He wouldn't leave me alone.* I explained to Sarah.

"So you punched him?" She asked, crossing her arms.

*He kept on flirting with me.*

"You punched him because he was flirting with you?"

I nodded.

"Well you didn't say anyth-" Pretty boy started, but Ethan cut him off.

"That's because she's mute, Al." He said. Quickly he looked at me and said hurriedly "Sorry, I know that mute is kind of an offensive term but I don't mean any disrespect, I was just pointing it out to him."

I shook my head and smiled. *It's fine. Thank you.* I said.

"She says it's fine, thank you." Sarah translated.

"How do you know she's mute?" Pretty boy asked him.

"Sign language." Ethan said simply. After seeing the confused look on his face, he muttered "Nevermind."

Pretty boy shrugged. "Whatever. Are we gonna do the date or just sit here and chat like birds the entire time?"

Ethan shot him a look and snapped at him in French. Pretty boy responded with a slightly annoyed wave of the hand and a quick response (also in French). Since I didn't know French, I have no idea what was said.

"I have no clue what you guys just said, but yes, we're gonna do the date." Sarah said. "Let's go!" And with that, we left.

As we walked to... wherever it was we were going, pretty boy and Sarah ended up walking ahead, leaving Ethan and I behind a couple steps. For the first few minutes, not a word was passed between the two of us. Then he spoke up.

"Soooooooo…" he started creatively, rubbing the back of his neck, then trailed off. "Um," he said, sticking his hands in his pockets, "any hobbies?"

It was a start, at least. I grabbed my pencil and notebook out of my bag and jotted down my answer. Once I was finished, I presented it to him.

Painting, It read, drawing, art stuff, reading, watching YouTube.

"Painting?" he asked. "Really?"

I nodded.

"Are you any good?"

Not really sure. Sarah says I'm pretty amazing at it, so I'm gonna go with that.

He raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

I nodded again.

Sarah's laughter emerged, bright and bubbly and happy, at a thing that pretty boy had said, and I looked over towards her. Ahead of us, the two of them were chatting about seemingly anything and everything.

"Did you really punch him?" Ethan asked me suddenly. I turned to look at him, only to find that he was already looking back. "Alex, I mean."

I nodded, then wrote down a full response. Yes. He was being very persistent.

"Hm." he said, looking impressed. "He said he got in a fight with someone. He never mentioned that it was with a girl he was flirting with."

Well, it wasn't a fight, more like I just punched him in the face.

He chuckled. "Right."

"Hey guys, we're here!" Sarah exclaimed, pointing to a sign that read:

"Oaks Amusement Park"

I groaned. *Aren't we all a bit too old for an amusement park?* I asked her.

There was a Cheshire-like grin on her face. "You can never be too old for amusement parks!" She said, then ran inside like a little kid. Pretty boy rolled his eyes and followed her, Ethan and I a few steps behind.

"Do you not like amusement parks?" Ethan asked.

No, it's not that. I just think I might be too old or something.

"That's like saying you're too old for chocolate or Harry Potter."

I stopped, wrote something down, and then displayed it, and look at him with a frown. *You can NEVER be too old for chocolate and Harry Potter.*

He smiled. "Glad we agree. Come on, we're gonna lose them."

After about 5 and a half minutes of searching, we finally found them at one of those stands where you toss a baseball at a stack of cans - "knock them all over to win a prize!" the sign said. Sarah was probably going for the giant stuffed panda - it's one of her favorite animals, you know. Well, that and a mantis shrimp (don't ask).

Pretty boy grinned at Ethan as we walked toward where he and Sarah were.

"Hey." He said as we neared him.

"Hey." Ethan responded. A few feet away, Sarah "swore" loudly as she missed the target again (there were kids around, so the worst of it was "dang nabbit"). Ethan glanced at her before saying "Quite the firecracker, isn't she?"

"Oh you have no idea. When we passed this place she immediately wanted that panda thing. Practically broke my arm, dragging me here."

*Yeah, that sounds like Sarah all right.* I signed, mostly to myself.

"I don't speak hand motions, moon eyes, you're gonna have to translate." Pretty boy said.

Moon eyes? I thought, raising an eyebrow. Before I could write down what I had said, Sarah came up and said "Alex, hurry, I need your help getting this bear." Then she grabbed his arm and pulled him to the front of the stand.

"Is she always like this?" Ethan asked, watching Sarah drag him off, then looked back at me when they disappeared.

*shrug* basically

"Huh." He muttered. Then he asked "So whatcha wanna do?"

I shrugged and looked around. There was one thing that caught my eye. Ethan must've seen where I was looking because he said "Really? The merry-go-round?"

I raised an eyebrow at him, asking the silent question of "Is the a problem?"

He smiled (I noticed he did that a lot), seeming to get the message, and shook his head. "Not at all. Let's go."

After about 2 hours of games and prizes later, the 4 of us met back up and ended up at a fortune-teller's tent called "Miss Maggie's Inner Eye and Herbal Remedies."

"It'll be fun!" Sarah said when pretty boy had protested. So we went in.

Inside was a older woman, around 73, perhaps. She had long silver hair and gunmetal blue eyes. She sat cross legged on the floor on a pillow. The room was filled with all sorts of jars with herbs and things in them and smelled faintly of a warm fire, though there were no candles in sight (I hoped nothing was actually on fire). The woman smiled as we entered.

"Welcome." she said, spreading her arms. "Come in, sit." she gestured to the pillows across from her.

"I sense you're here to have your fortunes read." She said once we had all sat down.

"Yeah well, that's what the sign said." pretty boy told her.

The woman narrowed her eyes at him. "You don't really believe, do you?"

"In what, predicting the future? Not necessarily." he responded.

"Hm." she said, then turned to Sarah, Ethan, and I. "Who would like to go first?" She asked.

"Oh! Oh! I would!" Sarah said, practically jumping with excitement. I rolled my eyes at her and smiled a bit. She is, in all honesty, a 6 month old puppy.

The woman smiled, most likely amused by her enthusiasm. "Give me your hand, dear."

Sarah held out her hand. The woman took it palm up and examined it closely.

"Hmm..." She said, tracing her fingers along Sarah's palm. "Yes, I see great success in your future, dear." She looked up. "Just follow the butterfly." She told her.

The woman let go of Sarah's hand and turned to Ethan. "How about you dear?"

Ethan gave her his hand and she did the same thing. This time she said "You'll find the thing you want. Just not in the place that you'd expect."

Then she turned to pretty boy. He sighed. "Might as well, I guess."

She took his palm like she did with Ethan and Sarah. After a moment she looked up and said "The road you're looking down is a dead end. Try a different road—a more familiar one, perhaps."

Finally, she turned to me. I held out my hand and she took it, her cold hands tracing my veins.

"Oh." She said quietly. "Oh dear..."

"What is it?" Sarah asked.

The woman ignored her and looked at me. I could've sworn I saw her eyes change from gunmetal to violet. But if I had, it was gone within a second.

"I sense a great danger in your near future. I would be wary of the crow, if I were you."

About 10 minutes later we're outside of OAKS Park and walking back to Sarah's house. Sarah and pretty boy are walking in front again, Ethan and I a few steps behind. I was still a bit spooked by what the fortune-teller had said, though I could hear pretty boy rambling about how it was all just fortune cookie stuff.

Ethan must've seen the look on my face because he said "Hey, you ok?" I could hear the concern in his voice.

I looked up at him and shrugged, then looked back down at my feet.
"Are you worried about what the woman said after she read your palms or whatever?"

I nodded, avoiding his eyes.

"Well, don't be. I know that's kinda stupid advice, but it's also kinda right. If you worry about it too much then it's bound to come true. Like, what happened when Harry was given the golden egg in Goblet of Fire?"

I pulled out my notebook and pencil again and jotted down my response.

He put it off till the night before the next trial to open it up underwater.

"Right." he said. After about 5 seconds he smacked himself in the forehead. "Nope! Sorry, that's procrastination. Ok, wrong thing, sorry. Maybe that wasn't such a good example. But you get what I mean, right?"

I shrugged again.

Yeah, I guess I do.

I looked up at him and smiled half-heartedly, then made the motion for "thank you" in sign seemed to get the message and smiled.

"Anytime."