Beast Wars

Chapter 20: Is it a Date?

Antigo Junior High School

It was another day at the high school, and everyone was as busy as ever to get to class. Most of the girls of the school were talking to each other. After PE, the girls were getting cleaned up and dressed to go to their next classes. Aelita was drying off and got to her locker to get dressed; as she finished dressing up, she heard one of the girls talking.

A brunette girl, still in her towel, along with her friends, was talking about something. A blonde asked, "He asked you out to the fair?" The Brunette answered, "He did, I almost melted after he did." The girls squealed as they heard that and one of them said, "You are so lucky; going on your first date."

She just listened from behind one of the lockers and wondered what they were talking about. She heard the word 'date' and wondered if that was some manner of activity that friends do. She decided that when she met up with Toni in Drama class she would ask her what it meant.

Drama Class
"A Date?"

Toni had just heard about what Aelita asked about, and just couldn't believe what her new friend was asking about. She thought, 'Is she really fifteen?' she just sat down as some of the students were performing a scene from the play, Tristan and Isolde. Justin and Alex were helping with the others; as soon as word got around that Justin slugged Josh Weldon in the face, a few of the students lightened up to him and Alex.

Toni sat down and motioned to do so next to her; as they sat down, she explained to her. "A date is sort of a special time for a boy and a girl who know each other to go out and have a fun time; a day or night to remember." She looked a little confused, so she asked, "What kind of things do you do on a date?"

Toni was surprised, and even she didn't know what the answer to that was; she also had never been on a date in a while; not after yesterday that her boyfriend had broken up with her. So she just winged it, "Well, I think you go somewhere you have a fun and wonderful time, like the fair for instance. After that, you go out to dinner to some restaurant. And I think for a finale, he walks or drives you home."

Aelita listened on and asked when the fair was opening up; Toni said they were opening this weekend. She asked, "Why, is there someone you want to ask out?" she got a sly smile on her face. Aelita shook her head 'no' but there was one person she wanted to ask out together.

After School
Justin and Aelita were walking back home after Alex went back home on his bike and Toni went her way. Justin had noticed that Aelita was a little quiet when Drama Class was over. He noticed that she was talking to Toni about something, so it was probably girl related. As they went on, he kept on thinking to what they were talking about.

When Justin opened the front door first to let Aelita in first, he didn't expect a bucket of cold water to fall on his face. He was now soaking wet with the bucket still on his head, Aelita came up to him and asked, "Are you alright?" He took the bucket off his face, which had a deadpan look on it, "A little wet, but okay nonetheless." They then heard some giggling coming from behind the couch as Justin slowly approached it; he reached down and picked up something that was kicking around, trying to get free. It was JackFoot in Beast Mode and pouting, "Aw man, I was hoping it was Rattrap." Aelita asked, "I don't think Rattrap was coming today; he said he was busy with Rhinox fixing the Gate again." JackFoot then was steaming mad when she heard that, "That lying sack of maggots; he said he was coming in at the front door." Justin and Aelita looked at each other and agreed in thought that JackFoot was a little too gullible for herself.

Just then, Rachel ran out the room, in her work clothes. She then spoke out very quickly as she grabbed her tool bag that was near the door, "Sorry Aelita, but I'm afraid I can't take you tonight." Aelita looked a little disappointed as she pouted, "But you promised…" Rachel cut her off, "I know but another job came up and it needs to be done quickly." Before she left, Justin asked, "Where were you going to take her?" She said, "the carnival; it was coming in tonight but unfortunately, due to current events I can't do it." Before she left she thought about it for a moment, and then said, "Hey! I've got it! Justin, why don't you take her to the carnival?"

Justin was a little taken by that and asked, "Me? Are you sure about that?" Rachel walked towards him, a little peeved off at the fact that he didn't think about it, "Listen, Justin Isaac Seyvont; Aelita's been dreaming about going to the carnival ever since she heard about it. She's been aching to go, and you're not even thinking about what she wants!" Justin was beat at this; when his sister was like this, and when she called him by his full name, you could tell she was getting miffed. Aelita was about to say he didn't have to but Justin beat her to the punch. "Okay, okay I'm sorry; I just thought she wanted to go out with you. You know, female sister bonding or something like that."

Rachel sighed, and ran for the door, "I know, but you know; duty calls and such." And then she was gone as she went to her truck. They heard the truck zoom out of there, and the tree teens just stood there and stared at each other. Justin asked, "What just happened?" JackFoot got a huge grin and laughed out loud, "I think you just got set up on a blind date, you two." Justin and Aelita turned to each other and for a moment, they blushed; they later snap out of it as Aelita said in a nervous tone, "Well…I better get ready; I'll be done in ten minutes." She then went to the stairs and ran up to go to her room to get ready.

Justin just stared for a moment, realizing of what was happening and plopped on the chair. He then grabbed his head and screamed in his head, 'THIS IS NOT A DATE! WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING TO ME!'

Ten Minutes Later

Justin was sitting on the chair, with his head leaning on the head of the chair; JackFoot was thinking on someway to get even with Rattrap. She saw that Justin was pretty quiet and decided to get his attention, "So I hear that Megatron's opened up a bakery and selling Predacon cookies." Justin just nodded, she then said, "I also heard that Aelita slept with you in her birthday suit." That got him out of his daze as he shouted, "WHAT!" She laughed saying, "That snapped you out of it."

She then transformed to Robot Mode and plopped herself in his lap. Justin ignored her for a moment, but she asked, "C'mon Justin. Would it really be so bad to go out with a girl for once in a while?" Justin turned to face her and said, "Not really, it's just that this isn't a date, and if it was, it would have to be my first." JackFoot's jaw nearly hit the floor when she heard that; she knew Justin wasn't popular, but she didn't realize he wasn't popular with girls. She thought to herself, 'What does he mean by that! He's got what most girls would want: brains, Peter Parkerish good looks, and kind, friendly, sincere. It's hard to believe he's still single!'

Justin then turned away to look at the stairs; JackFoot asked, "So what's on your mind now, Mechanic Master?" Justin turned and smiled at the nickname that JackFoot gave him. He answered, "Well, come to think of it, I haven't really been anywhere with just Aelita since we first met." JackFoot remembered that, Cheetor told her about that day. They then heard footsteps coming from the stairs and heard Aelita's cheerful voice, "I'm ready!" JackFoot jumped off Justin's lap as he got up. He said, "Well, let me get my backpack and…" He stopped talking as he saw her coming down the stairs and stop as she reached the floor.

She was wearing a silk like yellow, long sleeved shirt, and had over it a dress with the skirt that didn't cover her knees and had spaghetti straps holding it up. She was wearing light blue sandals that had a strap that held to her ankle. Her hair was pulled back into a pony tail, but a few strands of hair as well as her bangs coming down her face. Justin was a little speechless as he saw her; in fact, his jaw nearly dropped to the floor and bounced back. Aelita smiled and said, "I'm sorry I took so long, Justin. I wanted to be sure I looked presentable." She then twirled around and stopped for a moment, winking her left eye, "So how do I look?"

Justin tried to say something or at least give out a compliment, but the words never came out. Instead, he just spoke out a little nonsense as he tried to say something; to put it bluntly; his brain was on a temporary vacation. JackFoot smirked as she spoke out next to him, "I think what he's trying to say is that, 'you're so pretty, you broke my train of thought'." Aelita blushed at the thought; she had never thought of herself as the type to spin heads. She shyly spoke, "well, I guess we should be going." She quickly made her way to the door, but was stopped by Justin as he grabbed her hand gently and then said, "Well, we could always take the new Crawler for a spin."

JackFoot asked, "But I heard that the first was blown up when you slammed it into Grape-Face in the first battle?" It was true, he crashed it into Megatron and it blew up with the massive Energon crystals. Justin replied, "Yeah, but Alex, Rhinox, and I constructed a new one." He turned to Aelita, "it can get us to the carnival faster, if you want." She nodded in approval; she never got the chance to ride the first Mountain Crawler, so the second might have been her only chance. Plus, if Justin made it, then it was bound to be fun.

On the Other Side of Town

Rachel had gotten to the scrap point; what she was supposed to do was heave the car over to her scrapyard, but it proved difficult due to the fact that she remembered her tow cable was broken. She cursed to herself, "Darn it! How the heck am I supposed to get this back home now?" She then heard footsteps behind her, big footsteps. She didn't know if it was one of the Predacons, or if they decided to try anything that involved kidnapping in the open.

She whirled around to come almost fact to face with Bonecrusher; unfortunately he was taller than her, by three feet. He said, "I heard y'all needed a little help, so I came a runnin' here ta help." She sighed in relief, not only that it was Bonecrusher, but that no one else was around to see him. She said, "Okay, big guy, can you get this home for me" as she motioned to the scrapped up car. He just strolled on up to it, and without so much as breaking a leak, he lift the car up above his head with both his hands.

She was completely amazed at this maximal's strength, that she squealed in humor, "Oh Waiter, get me a side of that beef there!" Bonecrusher just took that as a compliment as he blushed a bit of embarrassment and just took the car to the truck, hooking it up for her. She walked up to him and asked, "So why are you really up here." He simply replied, "I went over to your house ta pick up JackFoot, along with Air-Razor. But we saw your brother and Aelita speedin' off on some homemade dune buggy. Couldn't find that little big eared rodent though."

Rachel shrugged and answered, "She must have gone to the carnival with those two. I was supposed to take Aelita, but I didn't get a chance due to this." He finished hooking up the car, "Sorry about that. Ya think she went along with them, now?" She turned to face to where the lights were at the carnival. She said, "Well if she is, I hope she's staying out of sight."

The Carnival

Justin had parked the new Crawler outside the Carnival in order to avoid attention. It was similar to the first one, but with one exception, the engine was now powered by not Gasoline and electricity, but Energon now. With the help of Rhinox, they had converted the engine into an Energon crystal converter; an engine that could utilize the Energon's power to make the car operational.

He and Aelita, who was still a little rattled from the sheer speed from the Crawler, went into the front gate. Aelita was immediately surprised at what she saw; there were people, some were couples, everywhere going on rides, playing games. So many lights, colors, sound and so on. She had never seen anything like it at all on her time here on Earth.

She ran to Justin, who was still staring at awe at the carnival from behind her, and linked her arm to his. She pulled him forward as she giggled, "Come on, Justin, let's go over there." She pointed to a haunted house that was near by, and Justin sweat dropped, "Are you sure you can handle it." She giggled as she ran up there with him as she pulled him along. "Don't worry, how scary can it be?"

Five Minutes Later

Justin walked out of the exit, with Aelita in his arms, her face buried in his shoulder as she shivered in fear. He simply replied, "I knew you would be afraid of it, but you should know that none of it was real." She replied in a shaky voice, "I know, but it was still scary. I should have listened to you." He just smiled as he said, "Well at least there's no one around to see us like this."

"Hey Justin!"

"J-Man, Whatcha' doin' here!"

Justin turned around to see Alex, who by surprise, was with Toni; they had come from the gaming area and Toni was holding a giant chicken. Toni saw him holding Aelita and smirked, "I was wondering when you'd sweep that girl off her feet." Justin and Aelita looked at each other and blushed as he put her down gently and she explained, "It's not what you guys think; I was just a little scared and felt like something crawled around my feet." The two just looked at each other and said, each with a sly look in their faces, "Rigght."

Justin just wanted to shoo himself right now, but a thought did cross his mind. So he decided to ask it, "So why are you two here? On a date yourselves?" The two stopped smiling and Toni explained, "Well to tell you the truth, Alex kind of invited me here. To kind of help me forget about my ex-boyfriend." Aelita asked, "Did he die?" "No, he dumped me. Though I do wish he did die." Aelita felt a little hurt that Toni was dumped, but then had an idea, "I know, how about you guys come with us; it'd be like a double-date."

Alex and Toni looked at each other considering this, and Justin insisted, "why not? The more the merrier, my dad always said." Truth be told, he just wanted the company so that he didn't do anything stupid. He also didn't want to be alone with Aelita, on the count that he might try something stupid. He also thought this would be a good chance to get to know each other. Toni was a little reluctant at first, but then she said, "Okay, why not." Alex concurred, "That sounds good." He then bit his finger in a comical way. Aelita asked, "Did that hurt, Alex?" He replied in humor, "No, I severed the nerve."

They all laughed at his little joke and then went on with their little get together date. Although Justin didn't think of it as a group date, he thought of it as a time for friends.

Later on

Justin and Aelita were at a shooting booth when she asked what it was. Well instead of explaining he showed her as they watched Alex win Toni a gothic stuffed bat toy. She squealed and asked, "Could you win me something, Justin?" He shrugged and walked up to the booth. He paid the guy and got a cork gun. He asked Aelita, "So which prize would you like?" She looked around to find what she wanted, but the one thing that caught her attention, was a little stuffed fox. She whispered to him, "it reminds me of Foxfire; I'm sure she'll like it as well."

He smiled as he remembered that Aelita always thought about others just as much as she did. He aimed for the fox, but tried something different. He spun quickly and fired off two shots; Aelita looked on in a mixture of amusement and disappointment as both shots went wide. "oh well" Justin smiled, "Just watch" the two corks bounced off the walls and hit the fox, as well as a stuffed 'Hello Kitty' doll. Justin gathered the two prizes form the awestruck vendor and handed the fox while he held on to the kitten, "Here you go, Aelita."

She laughed as she took the fox, "that 'Hello Kitty' doll is almost as big as me!" Toni went up and commented, "That was pretty cool, but how'd you do it?" He shrugged, "it's all in the angles, I guess." Alex sighed, "I guess it would be for a genius." They all laughed, but Justin and Alex remembered something. They grabbed their respectable party and ran towards what appeared to be the Ferris wheel.

They pushed and shoved to try and get to the front of the line. The two boys flashed their tickets to the attendant and both couples were boarded on in two separate carts; Justin and Aelita in the first cart, and Alex and Toni in the next one. Aelita looked out as the Ferris wheel stopped as they were in mid air, she asked, "This is a great view, Justin. But why were we in such a rush to get here?"

Justin ignored the question as he looked at his watch. Then he said to himself, "it's almost time." She looked confused and asked again, "time for what?" Then suddenly, the sky lit up with color and Aelita moved closer to the window in order to see. She had never seen anything like this as she gazed at it in spectacular awe. Justin scooted up beside her and explained, "When the carnival comes into town, they give a special fireworks display here."

She just stared in awe, and then turned around to face Justin. She gave him a gentle hug, which surprised him and said, "thank you, Justin; for everything this evening." She then thought to herself, 'I don't know why, but my heart is beating fast. Every time I'm near Justin. I asked Rachel if it was some kind of sickness, but she said it was just natural.' She thought a little harder, 'She said it what happens when you find a boy you really like. She also said that the one way to find out is to give that person a kiss and then you'll know.' Suddenly, a thought struck her, 'Does this mean I like Justin…not just as a friend?'

Justin looked at her and noticed she had been awful quiet for a moment; he asked her, "Aelita?" She looked up to him and she thought as she did, 'There might be one way to find out…' she slowly brought her face close to his. He was about to object to whatever she was doing, until she almost brought her lips close to his.

"Man, this is some show, huh!"

Aelita and Justin stopped themselves from whatever they were about to do and turned to see who it was that spoke out. They saw JackFoot, in Beast Mode, and popped out of Justin's backpack and looking out the window watching the fireworks show. They both blushed madly as they scooted away from one another. Justin thought, 'what was going on there for a second? Was Aelita trying to…?' He was interrupted out of his train of thought for a moment as JackFoot said, "by the way, I couldn't help but notice the almost lip-action moment there."

Aelita denied, "T-T-that's not true, JackFoot!" The little rabbit smiled, "Riiigghht." She then began to sing, "Justin and Aelita, sittin' in a tree: K-I-S-S-I…"

Both the teens shouted, "KNOCK IT OFF!" Aelita pouted as she thought; 'Now I'll never know if I like Justin more than a friend, now.' She just sighed as she watched out the window and continued to watch the fireworks display, while Justin was trying to get JackFoot back in the bag. But then she thought, 'though it wasn't a bad evening at all.' She turned to Justin, who grabbed JackFoot by the ears as she tried to wiggle free, 'I got to go on my first date with the one person I wanted to go out with.'

She watched outside and smiled as the carnival went on.

Next Chapter: A Plague of Insects