Section 36: Pick Ups Only

"Remember to be courteous and polite. Don't say anything to upset her. Don't bring up milord. Be attentive to what she's interested in. And whatever you do, don't mention milord again."

"You mentioned Thomas twice," Henry teased. He sat on the bottom step, tying the laces of his boots. Keith was standing at the top of the landing not far from him.

"That part's important. Remember how it ended for you last time you and Hilary discussed our host king?"

"Enough with the host king crap!" Henry said, standing up and feeling more than a little nervous, "I hate it when you call him that outside of the club. It's driving me crazy."

Keith shrugged. He knew his brother was only anxious about the date, so he merely replied, "Practice makes perfect. Now go out there and impress Hilary! And don't come back here until you've swept her off her feet!"

"It's only the second date!" Henry cried as he dashed out the door, red-faced from embarrassment. He knew his brother meant well, but with the commands Keith had been drilling into his head all morning, Henry felt more overwhelmed than excited for his date. Whatever happened to "be yourself and you'll be fine?"

The walk to Hilary's was slow and aggravating. His physical struggle through the mounting piles of un-shoveled snow mirrored his internal turmoil of his upcoming reunion with the girl he was desperately crushing on. He couldn't justify to himself the reason he felt so strongly about her. He'd had girlfriends before, but he felt differently about Hilary. Was it because she was so different from other girls he knew? That might explain why he didn't know how to act around her.

By the time Henry reached Hilary's home, he had decided that it would be best to just do as little talking as possible. That way, he would have less of a chance to make an ass of himself.

"A movie." Henry said when Hilary opened the door and greeted him.

"That sounds like a good idea," Hilary replied. With the memory of their last outing still fresh in her mind, she was herself still shy and unsure of herself around Henry, "Was there a particular one you wanted to see?"

"Actually, I was going to ask you if there was one you were interested in."

The pair smiled at each other tentatively, and with that their date was off to a slow, albeit friendly start.

"By the way," Hilary began as they made their way to the theater in Hilary's car, "Why did you have Keith pretend to be you?"

"What?" Henry asked. He was startled, but somehow still managed to sound casual, "What are you talking about?"

Hilary didn't look at him, she was focus on the road, but the corner of her mouth turned up very slightly, "When he asked me on a date. He was pretending to be you."

"Um. No he wasn't?"

Hilary burst into laughter then, although Henry couldn't see that anything was so very funny, "Henry, I'm not mad! I'm just curious. I'll admit that I was fooled at first. I mean, I really did think that Keith was you for a moment. But when I had a chance to think about it at home I couldn't believe how wrong I was. You guys are so different, you know?"

"Well… Yeah," Henry conceded finally. He was used to people drawing comparisons between himself and his twins, but they'd always acknowledged their differences easily, "We're different people."

"I know right?" Hilary agreed, nodding her head so furiously that Henry was afraid for her driving, "And that was easy to see before. I guess I was momentarily thrown off by your hair cuts." Here she spared him an indulging smile, "But I did figure it out. So, why did Keith invite me today instead of you?"

Henry was glad for the moment that Hilary was focused on the road. It spared him the need to make eye contact. He stared instead at his sneakers and mumbled, "Well, I couldn't… I mean… Keith's better at… We just figured Keith had a better chance of saying what I wanted to say."

They sat quietly for a time, listening to the radio and the sound of traffic rather than continuing their conversation. Hilary finally broke the silence as they turned into the theater parking lot, "Well, I'm just glad it's really you that came today, and not Keith."

Henry broke into a grin, relief spreading through him. "Hey now, that's my brother you're talking about," he teased, "What's so bad about him."

"Nothing bad," Hilary said, equally playful now, "It's just that… Well, you're the cuter twin."

Section 37: Audience

"Kyle… Either I'm seeing things, or that's Henry over there with Hilary."

"You aren't seeing things. I noticed them when we walked in."

Thomas continued to watch the pair as Kyle refreshments for their movie. Henry and Hilary were seated across the room from them, a large bucket of popcorn resting between them. They seemed to be enjoying themselves. Indeed, as Thomas watched, Hilary laughed uproariously at something Henry had said, and pushed him lightly on the arm. It was a playful gesture that struck Thomas as oddly intimate for two people who had previously never spoken outside of class.

"I didn't know they were close," he muttered, nursing the large drink Kyle had handed off to him.

Kyle shrugged and didn't seem willing to offer his own opinion on the development when Thomas added, "What movie do you suppose they're here to see? We could always invite them to sit with us."

"Somehow I don't think they'd be interested in Spell in the Snow," Kyle said, cringing as he pronounced the title of a popular new romance comedy. Regina had tagged along when she'd heard that Thomas and Kyle were going to the movies. Somehow she'd ended up picking the movie, and although Thomas's love of romance comedies nearly matched his love of shojo manga, Kyle's aspiration to see Nightmare of the Cannibalistic Demon Part III.

"You don't think so? Then we should at least say hi."

"Just leave then alone, Tom. It's obvious they're on a date."

"Really?" Thomas sounded as if he'd never even considered the idea, "So Henry likes Hilary… I wonder why he didn't say anything about it."

"You don't know that. Hilary could have asked Henry out."

"What?"

"I mean maybe she liked him first," Kyle gave another one of his characteristic shrugs, "In any case, it's obvious they both like each other, otherwise they wouldn't have come to the movies together."

After delivering this piece of wisdom, Kyle hustled off toward their theatre, worried lest Regina be put out from having to wait for them. Thomas lingered only a few seconds longer, thinking if only Hilary would look up and see him, he could go over on the pretense of just now noticing them. But Hilary didn't look up, and eventually Thomas had to go his own way.

"Hilary and Henry like each other," Thomas said aloud, testing the idea, "How did I miss that?"