Chapter 10
Dinner Plans
September 5th, 2013. High school. A new and scary experience for the gang. There was a sense of uncertainty, and the fear of the unknown. None of them knew what to expect, but they knew that it was going to be something to remember. At least, that's what their parents told them. Whether there was any truth to that they had no idea.
"I have no idea where the hell I'm going," Micah mumbled to himself as he wandered the halls of the school, desperately looking for his first period class. The tour they had taken just a couple weeks prior did little to help him remember where things were. It was the first day of school and he was going to be late, which was going to give off a very bad first impression.
The bell rang for class to start and he panicked. He was nowhere near where he was supposed to be, and he wasn't even sure where that was anyway. There were two floors to the school, and he had no idea what floor it was on. Wandering back towards where the office was, he noticed a map of the school on the wall that was split up just for people like him. It took him a matter of seconds to locate his class, which was on the second floor on the far end of the building from where he was. Sighing and rolling his eyes, primarily at himself, he took off as fast as he could without outright sprinting down the hallways.
Once there, he slid to a halt before entering the class, then waltzed in as if he knew where he was going all along. There was only one seat left in the back of the class, and before the teacher could say anything, he made a beeline straight for it. Most of the other students were watching him as he found his seat, and his face was slightly blushed. He was trying hard not to look back, and stared straight ahead at the teacher, who was standing there looking at him impatiently.
"You must be Micah Aldrin then," the teacher said.
"Um, yes sir," Micah replied shakily. "Sorry for being late. I got lost."
"Class starts at 7:45 am. Next time make sure you're here. Everyone else is."
Micah swallowed hard as he looked around the room nervously. Everyone was staring at him now.
"Sorry sir. It won't happen again."
The rest of class was mostly just going over expectations and rules. Typical beginning of the year procedure. Second and third period went about pretty much the same. Micah would run in several minutes late, apologize to the teacher, get reprimanded, and have everyone in the class stare at him and laugh. By the time lunch rolled around, Micah was ready to head home. It was tiring running across the building to each class, and he hadn't seen any of his friends yet. He didn't have a need to stop by his locker just yet, so he hadn't even run into Elsa. He knew that was likely going to be the case anyway.
When he entered the cafeteria, he saw that Kristoff and Rose were already there waiting. Just seeing his friends was a massive relief to his psyche. He felt drained already, and the day was only half over. There was no way he was going to make it the rest of the day if the pace kept up.
"Oh my god, am I glad to see you guys," he said as he slid into a chair across from them.
"Overwhelming isn't it?" Kristoff said around a mouthful of gross-looking lunchroom pizza.
"Just a little. How are you guys doing? And where is Elsa?"
"No idea. Haven't seen her all morning," Rose said.
"Hopefully she has the same schedule we do. There's only one lunch period right?"
"As far as I know there is. Don't worry though, she'll be here."
Nearly ten minutes passed by, and Elsa was still a no-show. The gang was about to give up on her. Soon lunch was almost over, and when she did finally enter the cafeteria, she ran as fast as she could to their table.
"I am so sorry I'm late guys," she breathed. "I just ran here."
"Where the hell have you been? There's only about ten minutes left of lunch," Micah said, annoyed.
"Again, I'm sorry. I met someone and we were chatting about global politics and-"
"Whoa, hold on," Rose interrupted. "You met someone?"
"Well, yeah. I mean, it's not like that, but he was in my world history class and we just started talking. Or he started talking to me, rather."
"So some random guy just started talking to you, causing you to miss lunch?" Micah asked. He was a little peeved and jealous.
"Yeah, I guess so. I mean, you guys know me. I don't just strike up a conversation with anyone. So when he approached me, it was kind of weird."
"Does this tall, dark, and handsome stranger have a name?" Rose asked with a wicked grin.
"Yeah, Jeremy. I don't remember his last name. But he was nice, and he's kind of cute, I guess."
"Ooh, Elsa, you go girl!"
"Rose, you aren't helping things any at all. Please don't do that," Micah demanded.
Elsa turned to her friend with a questioning look. She was a little puzzled by his attitude. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," he lied.
"Why don't I believe you?"
"Look, I said nothing is wrong. Can we just drop it?"
"Okay, I'm sorry."
"Micah, we have German after lunch. Just follow me so you don't get lost any more," Kristoff told him.
"How did you know I was getting lost?"
"Because you couldn't find yourself out of a wet paper bag," Rose teased.
"I hate you guys."
Soon the lunch bell rang, and everyone had to split up and head to class. When they left the cafeteria, Micah saw Elsa walking off in the opposite direction with some guy he didn't recognize. He immediately knew it had to be this Jeremy that she was talking about. He hoped it was nothing serious, but he was still becoming rather jealous.
"Hey, are you coming?" Kristoff asked him, snapping him out of his distracted stare.
"Yeah. Sorry."
"Dude, relax. They aren't dating. She just met the guy and they're talking. She's allowed to have other friends."
"Yeah, I guess."
"You're jealous."
"I am not," Micah said defiantly.
"It is incredibly obvious that you are. You were making an ass out of yourself during lunch."
"Let's just get to class. I don't want to talk about it anymore."
"Alright. I'm just saying there is nothing to worry about."
00000
The first day of school was over, and the gang was headed home for the afternoon. Micah ended up getting a ride with Elsa as usual, and on the way to her place they talked about everything that happened throughout the day. Elsa already had three homework assignments that would take her a little time to take care of, and Micah ended up with some math homework that he wasn't thrilled with at all. By the time they got back to Elsa's place, he was already ready to call it quits.
They headed upstairs to Elsa's room, tossed their bags in the corner, and went to grab snacks from the kitchen. A healthy dose of Pepsi and leftover pizza was their food of choice, and then they started in on their homework. Micah had an algebra assignment that completely confused him. He barely managed to pass last year, and the teacher was already handing out impossible work for them to do. He had to beg Elsa to help him out, which she did graciously. It took him all of fifteen minutes to finish with her guidance. There was no way he could have done it that fast without her.
It took Elsa roughly an hour to finish her assignments, but she considered them pretty simplistic. The hardest one was French, since they didn't really cover much in class. She was mostly just learning how to pronounce a few simple words and phrases, and explain the definition of each one. It wasn't difficult, but it was a bit more time consuming than the rest of her work. As soon as she was done, she tossed her things aside and looked at her friend.
"Okay, it's just us now. Can you please tell me what was wrong earlier?" she begged.
"Nothing was wrong. I was just stressed out, that's all."
"Micah, you don't act that way when you're stressed. Not once in the nine years we've been friends have you ever acted like that before. So please, don't lie to me."
"I swear nothing was wrong."
"Micah."
"What?"
"That is absolute bullshit and you know it."
"Maybe I should just go home."
"Why are you acting like this? What did I do?"
"... It's Kyle all over again," Micah said.
"What?" Elsa asked, completely perplexed.
"This Jeremy guy. You have a thing for the guy, and if something happens between you two then you're going to ignore all of us again. That's what's wrong."
"Wait," she said, shaking her head. "You think I have a thing for Jeremy? Micah, I just met him. He's in a couple of my honors classes. We were just talking about the material, okay? Nothing is happening. It's the first day of school for Christ's sake."
"You said he is cute."
"So? There are lots of people that are cute. Big deal."
"You don't say that about anyone. Except for Kyle."
"You are being ridiculous right now. You know that? Nothing is going on with us. Nothing is going to go on with us. I just met him today. I barely know him. It's not like we discussed anything personal. It was all school related."
"You're sure about this?" Micah asked, not really believing her.
"Yes, I am. Now please, settle down. I don't want to fight with you."
With a heavy sigh, Micah sat back down on the bed next to his friend and looked at her. The guilt was plastered onto his face.
"Look, I'm sorry. I worry about you. I don't want to see things repeat themselves. And I don't want to see you end up getting hurt somehow."
Elsa was looking down at her hands, fidgeting with her shirt like she always did when she was nervous or down. "I know. I will never let that happen again. I swear. I'm not even interested in dating. At least not right now. I mean, who knows what will happen in the future. But for right now, I'm perfectly happy spending my time with you doing stupid stuff like we always do. Playing games, watching movies, whatever. We've done this since we were little. I've already screwed that up once. I am not about to do that again. You guys mean way too much to me. Besides, who would help you with your homework if we weren't friends anymore?"
"Just promise me that you won't let anyone take advantage of you."
"Of course I promise. Why would I let that happen?"
"Because you're too nice for your own good sometimes."
"I can't help that I'm not a mean person."
"We wouldn't be friends if you were."
"Do you want to do something?" Elsa asked, changing the subject.
Micah shrugged, not really interested in doing much of anything. "I dunno. I'm not sure I'm really in the mood."
"Then what are we going to do? I mean, we can sit her and just talk, but we don't have a lot to talk about."
"Actually, there is something I thought about. But it's probably stupid and something you'd never be interested in."
"How do you know? I'm interested in a lot of stuff."
"Because it's nerd stuff."
"Micah, look at who you're talking to. I'm the biggest nerd of the group."
"Yeah, true. Okay, well here goes," he said, taking a deep breath. "There's this kid in my biology class that is into something called Dungeons and Dragons. It's like this game where you play as any character you want, and you go on adventures and search for treasure and stuff. It uses your imagination to play, but you can act out what your character says and does if you want to really get into it. There are rulebooks for it, and it's apparently pretty popular. I thought maybe we could look into it with the others and try it out if everyone was interested."
"I know what the game is. Some people talk about it on one of the forums I go to a lot. I've looked into it, and it sounded kind of cool. I just didn't expect you to be into it."
"Oh. So, do you want to give it a try?" Micah asked.
"Maybe. We can talk to Kristoff and Rose and see what they say. Rose would probably have a blast with it. Kristoff... I don't know. It doesn't really seem like something he'd do, but he'd probably go along with the rest of us."
"Okay, cool. We can talk to them tonight then. If they say their interested, we can go check out the books and stuff this weekend. I think it uses some funky dice too. That's what the guy I talked to said. I don't remember what kind though."
"I know what he's talking about, don't worry," Elsa told him. "When I said I looked into it, I made sure to see what kind of stuff there was that we needed to play. There's a twenty-sided die, twelve-sided, ten-sided... you get the idea. The books aren't cheap though."
"Well whatever. I thought it'd be something we could check out. And now that I know you're on board, I don't feel so weird about it."
"Why would you feel weird about it? You act as if I'm going to judge you or something."
"Well no, I don't know. I guess I just didn't think it would be something that you'd be into. You're pretty quiet, even when the rest of us are around. This game kind of forces you to be someone you're not."
"I have no problem talking and being stupid with you guys. You know that. I've just always been shy and quiet. And I let you guys do all the talking anyway."
"Okay, if you're sure about all this, then we can talk to them tonight about it."
"Okay, sounds good."
00000
A month passed and school was heavily underway. Everyone was finally getting into the groove of things, and life was balancing itself out. Classes were still overwhelming, but not nearly as much as they were the first couple weeks. The kids knew what to expect now, and their high school life was finally beginning to take shape. Micah's classes in particular were starting to take their toll on him, and he had no idea how he was going to survive ninth grade. If he didn't have his friends there to help him with his schoolwork, he wasn't sure how he was going to manage.
It was early in the morning, just before school was to start, and the gang was gathered around a table in the cafeteria waiting for the bell to ring. They still had some time, and were enjoying a healthy breakfast of french toast sticks and rubbery scrambled eggs. It wasn't particularly appetizing, but it beat no food at all. It was warm at least, so that was something.
"Did you get your German homework done, Micah?" Kristoff asked around a mouthful of egg and milk.
"Yeah, thankfully. Elsa helped me with it. I dunno how you do it, by the way. You're not even taking German," Micah said.
"It's not hard. English is primarily Germanic and Latin, so it's not that different really. Plus I've been helping you since the first day of class, so I'm kind of learning it with you. The only hard part is remembering how to spell everything, which also isn't that bad," Elsa said knowingly. She was busy dipping a piece of french toast into some cold syrup. If you could call it syrup.
"Look at you, being all smart and learning two languages at once," Rose teased. "I'm having enough trouble with just one."
"French is easy. So is German to be honest. And since English is made up of French, German, and Latin, among a few others, it's kind of just a natural process. For example, happy in German is glücklich, whereas in French it is content. Neither is difficult to remember or pronounce, and they mean the exact same thing. Sentence structure isn't that different from ours either."
"This girl," Kristoff said, jabbing a thumb towards Elsa. "This is why she's the smartest one in the group. Want to do our computer science work for us too?"
"Not particularly. That's probably the one thing I can't help you guys with. I don't know any programming languages."
"Neither do we. We've just barely started programming simple commands," Micah said. "It's not all that easy. You have to learn the syntax, what the different variables are, how to toggle between yes/no commands... I don't know how I'm going to keep up."
"You have Kristoff with you. You should do fine as long as you guys work together. You're both very intelligent, you just don't apply yourselves nearly as much as you should."
"It's not that. We just prefer to be laid back about things. We don't have the same drive and discipline you do," Kristoff replied.
"Yeah. I mean, it's hard enough as it is putting in the effort we do give it. I don't know how I could possibly get any better than what I am right now," Micah added.
"This is exactly why I worry about you guys," Elsa stressed.
Just then, the tall boy that Micah had seen Elsa walking with several times walked up to their table. He had never been formally introduced, but they all knew who he was. Elsa walked with him every morning to class.
"Hey, Elsa, come on. Class is gonna start soon," the boy said, interrupting their conversation.
"Oh, okay," Elsa replied as she looked up at him briefly. "Oh, guys, this is Jeremy. The guy I've told you about. He's in four of my classes. Jeremy, this is the gang. This is Micah, that's Rose, and the big guy to her right is Kristoff."
Everyone except Micah waved at Jeremy, and Jeremy barely acknowledged them. "Yeah, that's great. Now come on. We're going to be late."
"Alright, bye guys. See you at lunch."
As she got up and walked off with Jeremy, Micah looked after them and shook his head. His eyes were narrowed, and he was clenching his teeth. Kristoff and Rose both noticed.
"Micah, what the hell is wrong with you?" Rose asked.
"Nothing," he said.
"Bro, that is not true. We can both see how this is effecting you. They're just classmates," Kristoff added reassuringly.
"I don't like him. Did you see the way he was telling her what to do?"
"No. What are you talking about?"
"He was ordering her to get up and follow him to class."
"No, Micah, he wasn't," Rose said, annoyed. "Why are you acting like this?"
"Acting like what?"
"Jealous," Kristoff and Rose said in unison.
"I am not jealous," Micah said defensively.
"Yeah you are, man. Just because you have a thing for her doesn't mean she can't have other friends," Kristoff reminded him. He could hear Rose let out a gasp.
"Wait, let me get this straight. You have a thing for Elsa?" Rose asked.
"Kristoff, I am going to kill you," Micah threatened.
"Hey, it's not my fault you're acting like this," Kristoff countered with a smirk.
"Rose, I swear to God, if you tell Elsa anything, I will kill you too."
"Don't worry, hon. These lips are sealed," she promised. "But I do think you should totally go after her. You never know what could come of it."
"I am not going to throw my friendship with Elsa away simply because I feel something she doesn't."
Rose was dying to tell him the truth. But she had sworn to Elsa that she wouldn't. She couldn't even tell Kristoff, because he couldn't keep his mouth shut. If he could, she wouldn't have found out. So now she was contemplating just how she was going to set the two of them up without them realizing it was her. She had no idea how that was going to work, but she was going to try anyway. It was her duty as their friend. All she had to do was keep this secret from Kristoff, because he would blow the whole thing.
00000
A couple more weeks pass by, and it's nearly time for Halloween again. Elsa had begun to hang out with Jeremy outside of school, primarily because they were partnered together for a science project in their biology class. They mostly spent time at his house, which she found out that it was just him, his father, and older brother. His mother had run off when he was younger, and had no idea where she was. Elsa felt bad for him.
They had slowly become friends, although Elsa was a little apprehensive about it at first. She had a hard time making friends as it was, and Jeremy was different from the others. Her other friends sort of just forced themselves onto her, and for whatever reason it worked out. Jeremy wasn't doing that. He was slowly working on things with her, and the more time they spent together the easier it was to open up to him. Which was something she never thought she'd do.
After a few days of working on their presentation, Jeremy finally asked her if she wanted to hang out sometime that didn't involve schoolwork. At first, she wasn't sure. She normally had plans with her other friends, and she still had the commitment to Micah to help him out with his work as well. But she had coordinated efforts with Kristoff and Rose to help Micah with his homework while she was busy working on this project with Jeremy. It was a mock-up of the parts of an atom, and then a report on each of those parts and how they interacted with one another. The model was simple enough to finish in a day, but the report itself took a little time. Elsa had been tasked with doing the research and writing up the report, while Jeremy was the one to gather the materials for the atom that they had crafted.
Eventually, after enough begging, she said yes. So they chose the Saturday before Halloween to get together and hang out. They decided to go see a movie, something Elsa typically did with her friends when there was something worth seeing. The newest Star Trek movie was still in the theater, so they decided on that. It turned out to be fairly good, at least by her standards, having never seen the older movies. Once the movie let out, they chose to wander across the street to where the mall was and walk around.
They mostly talked about school stuff, and discussed who was going to do the presentation of their project. It was decided that Jeremy would actually do the reading since he was perfectly comfortable in front of the class, and Elsa would hold up their model atom and poster board with diagrams on it. She was perfectly fine with that. The less she had to talk, the better.
It didn't take Jeremy long to pick up on her shyness. He had noticed as soon as they met how reserved and quiet Elsa was. For some reason, that drew him to her. There was something about her that he liked, and he wasn't entirely sure what. At least not yet. There was something there though. That much he knew.
They didn't really look at the stores as they passed by, most of them being clothing outlets. Elsa wasn't the type of girl who dressed up to look pretty. She wore tight-fitting jeans, sneakers, and just regular t-shirts. A lot of the shirts she had accumulated over the last couple years were band shirts, such as Rage Against The Machine and Tool. She didn't wear any jewelry really. Her ears were pierced of course, but beyond that she didn't wear anything. Overall, she considered herself pretty plain.
Eventually they found their way to the food court, and he insisted on buying them lunch. He decided they were going to have pizza, and got Elsa a Coke. She preferred Pepsi, but decided it wasn't worth mentioning. The pizza wasn't the greatest, but she didn't mind. It was basically free food, and she had had worse. Besides, Jeremy was being nice enough to treat her to lunch, so she really had no right to complain. In fact, he had been really nice to her the whole time. The movie was his treat too.
"You know, I've been meaning to tell you for a couple weeks now," he said as he took a sip of his Coke. "You're pretty cool. You're nothing like I had first imagined."
The compliment made Elsa blush, and she tried her best to hide it. She was almost positive that she failed miserably. "Um, thanks. I guess. I mean, that's really nice of you, but I'm not cool in any way."
"Sure you are. You're smart, you're pretty, you like some interesting music, you're well-read, and your a hard ass worker. That makes you pretty cool in my book," he said with a grin.
This only caused her to blush even more than she already was, and she had no idea how to look away from him without seeming rude. "You really believe all that? I mean, you actually think I'm pretty?"
"Of course I do. Anyone with a pair of eyes could see that."
"Well, um, if you don't mind me saying, I think you're kind of cute too," Elsa awkwardly said. "Oh God, why did I just say that?"
Jeremy grinned even harder at that, and eyed her up and down. Humming to himself, he took another bite of his pizza, not taking his eyes off of her. "You should let me take you out. On a date, I mean. You'd have a lot of fun."
Elsa's eyes bulged in their sockets at his request. "Wait, you want to take me on a date? Me? Why?"
"Like I said, I think you're pretty cool and I'd like to get to know you on a more personal level."
"Oh. I don't know, Jeremy. I mean, you're really nice and all that, but I kind of have zero desire to date anyone."
"It's just dinner. Or lunch. Whichever."
"Well, neither of us can drive, so that would be pretty difficult. I mean, I could meet you somewhere by bus, mostly because I don't think you'd want me getting dropped off by my mom and-"
"Elsa, it's fine. If you don't want to, we don't have to. I just think you'd enjoy it. Besides, I'll be able to drive in a few months."
"I didn't say I didn't want to. I just don't know how it would work," she said with a shrug. "Wait, in a few months? When is your birthday?"
"January. So real soon."
"Oh. Well, um, I don't know what to say to that."
"Say yes."
"I don't know..."
"Just say yes. You want to, you know it."
Swallowing hard, Elsa looked away from him briefly before returning her attention to him. She was incredibly nervous. "Um... Okay. You can take me on a date."
"Perfect. Next Friday night. Do you know where Hannigan's is?"
"Yeah. My dad used to take us there once in a while."
"That's where you'll meet me. 7 pm. Dress nice."
00000
The ride home was awkward. Her mother questioned her on what they had done, and when she found out Elsa had a date she got excited. She couldn't believe her little girl was going out on her first date. It embarrassed Elsa to no end, and it was made even worse when her mother said that they were going to go shopping for some nice clothes for her to wear. That made sense, she guessed, since that's what Jeremy wanted her to do anyway.
So instead of heading home and hopping online with her friends like she had planned, she was instead spending the afternoon looking for something that wasn't band t-shirts and jeans to wear next Friday night. She ended up trying on several different dresses, none of which she liked. It frustrated her mother since she said Elsa looked great in all of them. The problem was, as far as Elsa was concerned, that she hadn't worn a dress since she was little. After about second grade she had switched over to pants exclusively. Now she just didn't like feeling exposed in one.
After a couple hours of moving from store to store, Elsa finally settled on a nice dark blue dress. It was sleek and moved easily enough, was a decent enough length that she wouldn't feel like the whole world could see underneath, and it wasn't so low cut that she felt like she was exposing her chest. It even had a fake belt to make it look like it had an accessory. She still wasn't too terribly fond of it, but she had to admit she looked pretty good in it. So once she decided that that was what she was going to wear, it was time to pick out some dress shoes.
Typically, girls her age didn't wear heels very often, but she decided she wanted to be a couple inches taller than she was. Unfortunately, most women's shoes were uncomfortable as hell. But the pair of heels she did find that she liked had thin laces and was a shiny black. They admittedly went very well with the dress. Her mother seemed to have no problem buying all of this for her, and was actually the one kind of coaxing her into getting it. Melissa even talked her into getting some jewelry to wear, even if it was cheap. Elsa didn't have any at home, and didn't really care for it. But Jeremy did say to dress nice. So she knew she had to at least put forth some effort.
Once all that nonsense was out of the way, they headed home. Her mother was telling her that she would show Elsa how to put on make-up and get really prepared for this date. Elsa thought that she was making too big of a deal out of nothing. It was only dinner. They weren't even doing anything fancy really. Neither could drink or drive, and their parents were basically paying for the whole thing. But she just went along with it, not really arguing about any of it. She still had no idea why she even agreed to it. Jeremy was just so convincing.
Eventually she made it home and headed straight to her room, exhausted from shopping and trying to piece together some sort of outfit. At first she just plopped down on her bed, ready for the day to be over with. But she had promised her friends that she'd be online so they could do something together. So, instead of crawling under the covers and trying to forget about all the embarrassment she had suffered through, she dragged herself over to her desk and flipped open her laptop. As soon it was booted up and Skype was open, her friends all bombarded her at once.
Raging Rajang: There you are.
Mikasa Ackerman: You're late, Missy.
Dominator: We were beginning to wonder if you were going to join us.
Frosty Soul: I'm really sorry guys. I went to the movies with Jeremy, then we walked around the mall for a bit before our parents picked us up.
Mikasa Ackerman: A movie, you say? Like a date?
Raging Rajang: Do not start with that crap Rose.
Mikasa Ackerman: Stop being so jealous.
Raging Rajang: I am not jealous. I just don't want to see you trying to hook her up again.
Dominator: I don't think she really needs help with that.
Frosty Soul: Guys, I'm right here. At least act like my presence matters.
Mikasa Ackerman: Sorry, babe. How was your not-date?
Frosty Soul: It was alright. I actually had some fun, which is a change. I was nervous as hell meeting up with him for something other than schoolwork. But the movie was actually pretty good, and then lunch was decent. Well, the chitchat was nice. The food was meh.
Dominator: So when is the real date then? Just kidding.
Frosty Soul: Next Friday, actually.
Silence. The chat died instantly. Elsa had no idea why they stopped talking, and she started feeling awkward again.
Frosty Soul: Um, guys?
Mikasa Ackerman: You didn't.
Frosty Soul: Didn't what?
Dominator: You didn't just say you're going on a date. Did you?
Frosty Soul: Yeah, I did. Why? It's not a big deal.
Mikasa Ackerman: Yes, Elsa, it's a very big deal! Our little girl is going on a date!
Raging Rajang: Joy.
Dominator: You could at least try to be happy for her, Micah.
Raging Rajang: What's there to be happy about?
Mikasa Ackerman: You are not going to start that crap again, Micah. Elsa doesn't deserve that.
Frosty Soul: Guys, it's fine. And he's right, you don't have to be happy or anything. It's just a date.
Mikasa Ackerman: Elsa, you've never been on a date before. You and Kyle played video games. That was your entire relationship.
Raging Rajang: Never mind the fact that she completely ignored us.
Dominator: Dude, let it go already. She more than made up for it by now. That was two years ago.
Frosty Soul: He's right though. I basically ditched you guys for Kyle, and it was a stupid thing to do. We didn't even stay friends like we had planned. I have no idea where he is now, and I honestly don't really care. But this is different. It's just a date. It's not a commitment. We're just going to Hannigan's for dinner and that's it. The only thing that is even making this a real date is he told me to dress nice. So I had to go out and actually buy a dress.
Mikasa Ackerman: You are so sending me a pic of you in it.
Frosty Soul: When hell freezes over, maybe.
Dominator: So what are you doing after that then?
Frosty Soul: I have no idea to be honest. I didn't think to ask him. I assume we're just eating then that's it.
Mikasa Ackerman: Elsa, sweetheart, I love you, but you are naive as hell.
Frosty Soul: I don't follow.
Mikasa Ackerman: You guys are obviously going to be talking, and I doubt it'll be about school. So you're going to have to come up with some personal stuff you're going to want to talk about. Just avoid all that shit with your dad. He doesn't need to know any of that.
Frosty Soul: I am well aware of that.
Mikasa Ackerman: Good. Then just talk about stuff like your favorite color, where you went to school before now, what kind of shows you like to watch... That sort of thing. Get to know each other.
Frosty Soul: Okay. That shouldn't be too difficult.
Mikasa Ackerman: Just try not to sound bored or anything while doing it.
Raging Rajang: Why are you giving her dating advice?
Dominator: Why shouldn't she? Elsa needs to know this stuff.
Raging Rajang: You guys are acting like they're going to be in some committed relationship or something. She doesn't need to put all this effort into a dinner.
Frosty Soul: Micah is sort of right. I mean, we're just going for food. I'm not looking for a boyfriend.
Mikasa Ackerman: Elsa, sweetie, you're doing the naive thing again. He is clearly interested in you, and I can tell that you're slightly interested in him. So just go to that dinner, do what I told you to do, and see what happens. If nothing comes of it, no harm done.
Frosty Soul: Yeah, okay. I think I can do that. Now I'm nervous. Thanks.
Dominator: Don't be. Just try to have a good time.
Raging Rajang: It's an entire week away. She can back out of it at any time.
Mikasa Ackerman: Micah, stop being such a killjoy. It's honestly getting annoying.
Frosty Soul: Please, don't start fighting over this. It's not important enough for that. And again, Micah is right. If I don't feel this is a good idea, I'll cancel it. I have all week to think it over. Anyway, I'm ready to change the subject. We should play something so we can focus on something other than my love life. Anyone up for Starcraft?