Chapter Two – The Girl's Plan
Two hours later, four girls sat at the sleek breakfast bar in Mimi's extravagant house, chatting and making plans over four steaming cups of Real Italian Mocha(tm).
"Mimi, this is such a cool idea!" gushed Yolei enthusiastically. "Just think about it! Us four girls spending an entire day shopping, in the sauna, at the hairdressers, having manicures and makeovers!"
"That's not the best bit." Mimi leaned forward, her eyes twinkling. "If any of the guys call you tonight and ask what you're doing Saturday, don't tell them. We'll arrange to meet them in the evening! By then we'll be totally made over and they won't be able to believe their eyes!"
"That's perfect!" Kari squealed, pitch rising high enough to make the glasses in the cupboard vibrate. "Then we can really show my jerk of a brother just how beautiful Sora is!"
Let's not get carried away, Sora thought with slight alarm. Kari was second only to Mimi in her eagerness to makeover her unsuspecting friends. "Er – thanks, Kari… but what about TK for you? Not to mention Daisuke!"
Now it was Kari's turn to blush. "TK wouldn't notice, he doesn't pay any attention to things like that."
"Oh yeah?" Yolei teased. "Well, he won't have much of a choice on Saturday night!"
"Yeah, and I bet you'll be hoping Izzy's knocked out by you…" Mimi said wickedly.
"Izzy? I'm not interested in Izzy!" protested Yolei, but her pink cheeks gave her away. "Anyway, what about you and Joe?"
"Joe? What about him?" Mimi said innocently, opening her golden eyes wide.
Kari laughed. "Ok, we all know we have people we want to impress. It makes Saturday even more important!"
Mimi beamed and hugged Sora. "Your first proper makeover, Sora… and it's going to knock Tai's socks off!"
"Hey, hey!" Sora warned. "He's my friend, I only want to prove to him I'm not such a boy, that's all!"
Yolei, Kari and Mimi exchanged knowing glances.
"What?" Sora gave them a glare.
"Right, Sora," Yolei conceded unconvincingly. "Anyhow, where are we going to meet the boys?"
"Yeah," Kari frowned. "There aren't really many places to go out round here. Should we find a nightclub, or what?"
"A restaurant, maybe?" Sora suggested.
Mimi considered. "We could-" suddenly she broke off, and her eyes widened. "Oh my God!" she shrieked.
"What?" Yolei cried, startled.
"I'd totally forgotten! Don't you remember what Saturday night is?"
"The day after the day after tomorrow?" Sora offered.
"How could we have forgotten?"
"Mimi!" Yolei shrieked, setting the wine-glasses off again. "Just tell us already!"
"Saturday night is the school half-term dance!"
"Oh my God!" shouted the othertwo girls simultaneously.
"Oh, this is soooo perfect!" squealed Mimi, bouncing up and down in excitement. "Just imagine! The perfect excuse for us to get dressed up formal and everything!" Getting off her stool, she started doing a little dance of happiness around the kitchen. Laughing, Yolei grabbed her hand and spinned her.
Sora couldn't help but laugh as Kari pulled her up to join in. Mimi's such a ditz, she thought fondly as they twirled around the room, helpless with laughter. But you just can't help loving her!
"Hey, didn't I see Sora with you earlier on?" Matt inquired as he and the others strolled through Odaiba after a game of football in the park.
"Yeah," Daisuke dribbled the ball along the sidewalk and kicked it to Tai, who caught it expertly on his foot. "She was at practice with us. Dunno where she went after, though, I thought she was coming with us."
"She went to meet Mimi at the shopping centre." Tai laughed. "Can you imagine Sora shopping? She'd be looking in the sports store windows and Mimi'd be trying to drag her to all the clothes stores' changing rooms!"
Matt shrugged. "Hey, she's a girl. She probably shops just like Mimi when us guys aren't around."
"Sora?" Tai scoffed. "No way!"
"She's a girl, Tai, no matter how much she likes soccer and hanging out with us," Matt reasoned. "God knows what they get up to when they're all together."
"I dunno about you lot, but girls in groups really freak me out," TK announced doubtfully. "The way they always whisper and giggle, you just know they're talking about you."
"Aw, you're just paranoid," said Daisuke scornfully, bouncing the ball on his knee.
"No way, Dai," Tai told him knowingly. "You should hear Kari on the phone. She always makes me go out of the room, but sometimes I listen in on the other extension-"
"You listen in on Kari's phone conversations?" Matt interrupted incredulously.
"What does she say?" TK and Daisuke demanded simultaneously.
"Does she talk about me?" Daisuke added hopefully.
Tai had an attentive audience now. "I heard her talking to Yolei once," he said casually.
"And?" TK pestered. "What about?"
Tai raised his eyebrows. "I don't know if I should tell you," he said, with maddening superiority.
"No way!" Daisuke complained. "You can't get that far and then just leave us hanging! Did she mention us or what?"
Tai grinned. "Yeah."
"What did she say?" TK and Daisuke practically screamed at him.
Matt was killing himself laughing by this time. "You two are pathetic," he gasped, wiping tears from his eyes.
Daisuke ignored him. "Well, what? Come on, Tai…"
"They were talking about who was cuter, you or TK," Tai said mischievously.
TK tried not to look too interested. "Yeah?"
"Well," Tai said slowly, grinning as he watched them squirm with impatience, "Yolei said, 'Daisuke has nice eyes, doesn't he? Kind of chocolaty-brown,' and Kari said, 'I know what you mean, they're a really rich colour.' And Yolei said, 'He should use eye-contact more, it'd really help him,' and Kari said 'But it is kinda cute the way he acts so confident but always seems just too shy to look you straight in the eye.'"
Daisuke grinned triumphantly while TK fumed. "Really…"
"Yep," Tai confirmed, thoroughly enjoying himself. In actual fact, he couldn't remember much of the original conversation, but the looks on his two friends' faces was more than a reward for pushing the boat out a bit. "But then Kari said, 'But TK has lovely eyes too, I mean, they're just a perfect shade of blue…' and Yolei said 'Blonde guys are pretty cute, TK has half of the school after him.' And then Kari sighed and said how it was good TK kept in shape playing basketball, and then Yolei pointed out that Daisuke played soccer too, and they agreed that it was pretty much a tie."
TK's cheeks glowed pink. Daisuke, blushing, mumbled something about never realising he had nice eyes. Tai was biting his lip to keep from laughing, but Matt hadn't even bothered to do that and was practically on the floor, crying with laughter.
"You two!" he wheezed, trying to get his breath back. "You are a true disgrace to everything manhood represents, you know that?"
"Stuff it, Yama," TK grumbled, reverting to the name he called his brother as a baby, just to annoy him.
Tai guffawed. "As if you'd ever catch older guys like me and Matt wrapped around some girl's little finger like that!"
Matt leant casually against the wall, an amused smirk flickering across his pale features. "Not us," he confirmed confidently.
"Bet you will," TK shot back.
Tai shook his head. "Not me. But I tell you what I would like to know – exactly what they talk about when they send us out the room and gossip."
"Yeah," Matt agreed. "I mean, why would they send us away if they weren't talking about us?"
"Unless they're talking about hair and clothes and makeup and stuff." Tai turned up his nose disdainfully.
TK shook his head distainfully. "Girls."
"Okaaay," Mimi said, chewing thoughtfully on a strand of pink hair. "We've narrowed it down to three choices of hairdresser. Riku's, Fringe Affairs or Toni & Guy." She sat up and tucked her hair behind her ears. "Which one d'you wanna go for?"
The girls were sprawled on Mimi's spacious bedroom floor, surrounded by flyers, pamphlets, magazines and the Tokyo Phone Book.
"I've never been to any of those," Sora said. "I usually just get a trim, so Mama just does it herself."
"I went to Toni & Guy when I got my layers done," offered Yolei. "It's kinda expensive, but you get the works – they even bring you drinks and magazines while you wait."
"Riku's is good," Kari put in. "I've been there twice."
"And my regular is Toni & Guy," Mimi said. "I've been going there for ages, it's just about the best you can get."
"So none of us have been to Fringe Affairs?" Sora asked. "We've only got it's reputation to go on." She sat back and took a cookie from the plate in the middle of the room. "I think we should go for Toni & Guy, Mimi and Yolei have both been there and sussed it out."
"Fine by me." Mimi looked at the other two. "Ok with you?"
"Yep," Yolei said happily. Kari nodded.
"Great!" Mimi beamed. She shuffled the magazines into a pile. "So, to recap – We meet here at 10:00 and start some serious shopping. Around 1:00 we lunch at Café Samba, then we drop off our stuff at my house and head to the gym, where we're booked for a Jacuzzi, sauna and massage, then to Toni & Guy, and finally at 4:00 we're due at Megami's Beauty Parlour for a facial, manicure and makeover. By the time that's finished it'll be dinner-time, so we come back here, grab something to eat and then get ready for the dance!"
"Oh my god, it's going to be so cool!" Kari clapped her hands.
"I can't wait!" Yolei grinned.
All four girls started squealing again.
Rumpleteasza: (sigh) Ok, so it's starting to sound lame. 'Lamy' is my nick name after all. (Glares at Kate) THANKS……… Anyhow, it'll get better. I promise. (cross fingers, touch wood...)
