At lunch the next day Al was grinning a lot. He kept looking around at everyone, but everyone looked away whenever he looked at them.

Toni smiled at Al. "So, how'd—"

Lovi slapped his hand over Toni's mouth. "Don't you dare."

There was silence for another few minutes.

Finally Artie sighed and put down his book. "I'm sorry, everyone, but I believe that he is going to explode if someone doesn't do it. So . . ." he looked at Al. "Alfred, how did it go?"

"I DID IT!" Al yelled. Everyone jumped.

"How did you manage that?" Francis asked. "We are talking about Mr. Say-Hi-and-Run."

Al just grinned. "Well, see, after class when everyone was cleaning up, Mr. L asked Mei to clean up the board since he was going to a meeting or some shit like that—"

"Get to the point!" Gil said.

"Shut up! Anyway, I stayed back and I was like 'Hey, I'll help you' and she was like 'Oh, okay' and then when we were wiping off the equations and stuff and then I remembered what Kiku here said—" he pointed to Kiku, who looked a bit confused, maybe because Al was talking so fast. "—And then when everything was clean and she went to get her stuff and I said 'Hey, Mei?' and she was like 'Yeah?' and she was so goddamn cute when she said it—uh, anyway, I said—you guys better think I'm a hero, 'cause I was real scared and I still dunno how I managed to say it—I said 'Y'know, I was thinking . . . wouldn't it be interesting if we woke up tomorrow . . . and we could say that we're dating?' and she kind of turned red and stared at me and I said 'Uh, what I mean is . . . Mei, will you go out with me?' and she started laughing and I got kinda depressed, like I thought she was making fun of me, and then she said 'How long did it take you to think that up?' and I was like 'Uh . . . well, someone helped . . .' and she laughed and smiled and she was so cute and then SHE SAID THAT SHE WOULD LOVE TO GO OUT WITH ME AND THEN SHE HUGGED ME AND LEFT!"

He finally stopped talking and grinned.

"Okay, I only got like half of that," Gil said finally.

I heard Herc say to Kiku "I'll tell you . . . what he said later." Kiku quietly thanked him.

"So . . . success?" Toni said. "You two are going out?"

"Yeah!" Al said loudly. "It's totally awesome!"

"Hey, that word is reserved for me!" Gil said.

"It is not," Al said cheerfully. "Also, Artie, you totally owe me five dollars."

"No, I don't," Artie corrected him. "You never accepted the bet."

". . . I want my five dollars."

Artie ignored him. Al turned away and pouted.

"Oh yeah," he said, "so, uh, Mattie—weren't you gonna tell everyone?"

Matt looked down. "Yeah . . ."

"Well, I changed my mind about that. You don't have to."

Matt seemed flustered. "I—uh—okay."

Gil smacked Al's head. "Don't put your bro in a situation like that again!"

"Oh, fine. Sorry, Mattie."

"It's okay," Matt whispered. I could barely hear him.

"Do you have . . . a date planned?" Herc asked.

"What?" Al said.

Herc repeated himself.

"Uh . . . shit, forgot about that part."

Gil laughed. "Someone here is competent."

"I am not competent!" Al protested. "What does 'competent' mean?"

"Don't worry, Alfred," Artie said. "I can assure you that you are most definitely incompetent."

"Thank you!" Al said. "See, he's sticking up for me."

Lovi smirked. "Someone's gotta tell him."

"Tell him what?" Toni said.

". . . I forgot, you're just as much of an idiot as he is."

"Both your heads are empty," Ludwig muttered.

"Their heads could do with filling, with some interesting stuff," Lovi said. "For now they're bare and full of air, dead flies and bits of fluff."

Everyone stared at him. He glared at them. "What!? Look, I was reading a book last night and that line got stuck in my head, okay!? Shut up!"

Artie smiled. "You do know that there are seven books total in that series, don't you?"

"Seven?" Lovi said. "Wait, how the hell do you know which one I'm talking about?"

"I myself have read them numerous times," Artie said. "I could recite the entire song if you like."

"Uh . . ." Lovi said. "No thanks."

Artie shrugged. "Suit yourself."