Disclaimer: I don't own anything, not summerland, not bradin, not the beach house crew, not America's funniest videos. Read on!
Callie and Lea are at the shopping mall, filtering through various stores, looking for appropriate dresses for Homecoming.
"Okay how about this one?" Callie holds up a long pastel pink dress with a flowing skirt made of mesh-like material.
Lea wrinkles her nose, "So I can look like I dyed my dress with pepto bismo?"
"Pink is in!" Callie widens her eyes.
"'In' is overrated," Lea mutters. Usually picking a dress for these school events didn't bother her so much. She'd enter, she'd decide, she'd pay, she'd leave.
Callie watches with interest as Lea flips through the clothes rack, irritated. The princess has fallen and she doesn't even know it! Callie is used to be the one getting moody about boys, and it's nice to change places for once.
"Why are we going to this dance again?" Lea scowls
"Because," Callie answers, "It's homecoming, we're teenagers, it's a rite of passage!"
"It's absurd. There is a plethora of better things that I could be doing with my time than perusing tailored pieces of fabric." Using big words makes her feel better, less like the insignificant adolescent who she fears that she is.
"Like what?"
"Like... like reading!"
"Gag me." Callie rolls her eyes.
"If you want,"
"Lea! Don't go drama queen on me. We all know that Bradin will think you look beautiful even if you do dye your dress with pepto bismo."
"Who said I cared what he thinks?"
"Denial is not a river in Egypt my dear"
Lea snorts lightly, "Touché! And for your information, the Nile is a river in Egypt, it also runs through Uganda and Sudan... well the Blue Nile at least... the White Nile on the other hand..." Lea starts to babble, trying to distract Callie's attention
"Yeah, tell me again when I go on my African safari, but right now we're talking about Bradin."
"I thought we were talking about geography..." Lea says weakly.
"So what's the deal?" Callie asks
"There is no deal. We're friends." Lea insists
"Right,"
"Right."
"That's why he stares at you whenever you walk in the room."
"I don't think so."
"Well, what can I say, love is blind. He also waits for you in the morning."
"He doesn't wait for me, our lockers are just next to each other."
"Even the fates are looking kindly upon you."
"Pin in haystack. Callie, you're grasping at straws. I'm not his type."
"Oh, so you know his type?"
"He dated Sarah, that's his type."
"Attention-craving-pathological-liar is not a type." Callie can't help her eyes from rolling.
"Callie that's mean. And it could be a type."
"Okay whatever, it's beside the point."
"You had a point?"
"The point is that Bradin likes you."
"Whatever." Lea turns away.
"Okay fine don't believe me. Do you like him though?" Callie turns to face Lea
"He doesn't like me!" Lea refuses to meet her gaze.
"That's not what I asked. How do you feel about him?"
"He's nice, he's funny, he's a friend!" Lea exclaims.
"Oh my god! The level of your abjuration is seriously astonishing."
"Abjuration, that's a good one Callie." Lea smirks, so she has been studying those vocabulary cards.
"Thanks, did I use it right?"
"I think so."
Callie sighs, "Lea, I don't know what you're so scared of."
"I'm not scared of anything."
"Yes you are."
"No I'm not."
"are"
"not"
"are"
"not!"
"Ostrich!"
"Where?"
"Don't play dumb, brainiac, I'm going to the dressing room." Callie carries her armful of clothes to the dressing room.
"Yeah, go! Dress!" Lea calls after her friend, trying to get the last word so she can count her victory.
Lea never really cared too much about dances. Well, that wouldn't be completely true. She is a girl, and no matter what anyone says, even the biggest tomboy likes to get dressed up once in a, long while.
This dance shouldn't be any different from the others. It's just Homecoming. J.B. will probably get all the attention, some people will arrive drunk, there'll be an after party at the beach that'll probably end in police intervention, her friends will be there... She's been to many of these events and not once has she been so... aware of the occasion.
Why should this time be any different? Just because Bradin Westerly will be there?
And there lies her problem.
Much to her dismay, and when J.B. finds out there might not be a Bradin but just several pieces of Bradin left, but that Westerly boy has stolen his way into her heart.
She likes the way his eyes twinkle whenever he teases her. She likes the fact that he'll make her explain her opinions on the main themes of Dickens' Hard Times in teenage slang so he can debate back at her quicker. She likes the way he jogs towards her when he sees her, but kind of drags his feet because his belt is too loose. She likes how his hair always looks so soft, and how he falls asleep in first period with the pen in his hand.
She likes him.
Lea thinks about this as she continues to sift through various dresses, pastel pink, hot pink, yellow, fuschia blue, bubble gum pink... What is with all this PINK! Lea has never really understood the color.
Ok, being this concerned about appearances is not healthy. She reprimands herself. Lea Noel, you are a vapid, superficial, shallow, transparent--
Lea's self-deprecating tirade came to an abrupt halt as she spotted it. Lea's got a vision.
She quickly snatched the dress off the clearance sales rack and headed towards the dressing room.
Who knows, maybe it'll be okay after all.
Homecoming. Is. Tonight.
Actually, technically, it was yesterday. The game was played Friday. The dance is on Saturday night. The Playa Linda Barracudas had won—it wasn't a particularly exciting seat-gripping game—they blew out their opponent. The big win definitely put the student body in good spirits, because any celebration of a defeat usually begins with heavy inebriation and ends in drunken stupor.
Bradin is amongst that population. He's been fidgety all day; basically watching the hands on the clock move. She'd been refusing to answer his calls and told him that if he kept messaging her she's going to pass him over to Samantha—and he definitely doesn't want to be at that dance with anyone else but her so he complied, which left him antsy, in a giddy kind of way, but antsy none the less. And this has been the case for the past 7 hours.
The beach house crew, Erica included since she's living with Jay now, gathers in the living room.
"If he doesn't stop pacing I'm going to go in there and tie him down to a chair!" The shuffling of feet on wood panels is driving Susannah insane.
"Aw, give him a break Susannah, the boy is in lurrrrve." Jay drawls
"Love?" Derrick always seems to perk up when he hears that word.
Before anyone can answer his question, Bradin rushes into the room holding two long pieces of fabric. He is still in board shorts but has on a dress shirt. He has a bewildered look in his eye, "Aunt Ava, which one do you think is better?"
Nikki stifles her giggles as Ava gives her a Look, and answers Bradin. "Um, honey, I think the uh, blue one, will uh bring out your eyes nicely."
Bradin looks at the two ties in his hand, gives a Yes-I-Thought-So-Too nods. "Okay, thanks Aunt Ava." He disappears back into his room again.
When Bradin's out of ear shot, Nikki bursts out in a guffaw. "I must be colorblind because they both looked blue to me!"
Erica nods in accordance, her face in a wide grin .
Johnny looks down at Derrick who's sitting next to him on the couch, "That, my young padowan, is love."
"Lurrrve," Jay drawls again, reaching to put his arms around Erica.
Nikki suddenly thinks of a good idea and giggles again. "Can we film him and then send the video into America's Funniest Videos?"
Ava frowns and is about to tell Nikki she shouldn't poke fun at her brother's anxiety but Johnny spoke up before she could.
"That show is still on?"
Jay looks at her with the same question in his eye.
"It is." Nikki answers confidently, but is suddenly unsure, "isn't it?"
"I don't think so," Erica asserts. "The Olsen twins may have stayed around but Bob Sagat definitely did not."
"But I think there's one just like it. But it might be on cable TV. But I think they still have prize money for the best videos!" Nikki argues.
"Really?" Jay is obviously interested, he and Johnny trade glances.
Susannah speaks up. "How much prize money?"
Ava casts a look of warning at her housemates before getting out of her seat. "No videos!" After that photograph leak, she isn't about to leave anything on record ever again. "I'm gonna go help him before he gives himself an early heart attack."
Lea is in her room, putting on the finishing touches. The dress she bought from the store was black, strapless, made of satin, with a long flowing skirt. The design itself is last year, and a little too formal for the Homecoming dance. Homecoming at Playa Linda High is more of a dress-up party event rather than a formal dance event. But the dress was perfect for what she had in mind.
After Lea bought the dress, she enlisted her mother's help for some alterations.
The long skirt was reduced to just at knee length. Under advice from her mom, they added the slightest taffeta touch to it, because "Lea, your hips simply have not filled out yet," which made Lea scowl slightly.
A pastel yellow satin sash was sewn on, at the high waist line, and Lea's mom created a criss-cross design at the top hem of the dress with yellow ribbons. Later, Lea found a plumeria design that she liked and reproduced it by copying the contour with pale yellow and light orange rhinestones at the bottom right side of her dress. It wasn't very flashy or showy, but elegant with a hint of fun.
The crown of her hair is arranged in two French braids, Lea had woven yellow ribbons into the embedded plaits so that it looked as though she was wearing a halo, securing it in the center with the ribbon. She curled the ends of her locks and let it fall down her back in romantic waves. As a finishing touch, Lea tucked a yellow plumeria she picked from the garden behind her ear, and began her make up.
Lea has never been one for a lot of make up—it always made her feel like she's wearing a mask, so she's opting for the natural look. She applies a shimmery bronzer to make her residual summer tan glow. A peach hue blush, brown eyeliner coupled with a peach eyeshadow with golden undertones to bring out the warmth in her eyes and a light coat of mascara. On her lips, she put on a lipgloss—nothing too sparkly or glittery—the greatest beauty comes in subtlety.
For all of her stressing, she's in a surprisingly good mood.
Lea had put a lot of thought about what Callie told her on the store. She caught on to the 'ostrich' comment—Callie was telling her to pull her head out of the sand. So she did. Fine, big deal, she's got a crush on Bradin Westerly.
Crushes are normal; Lea blames the hormones. Crushes aren't usually requited, which is half the fun, and Lea has accepted that as well. So you see, it's not as if she wants to be with him.
It's entirely coincidental that she has a crush on her friend, it happens to the best of them—it happened to Joey on Dawson's Creek.
It's not a thing.
At least that's what she told herself, and that's how she managed to rationalize her emotions.
As she examines herself in her bathroom mirror, she can hear footsteps approaching her door.
"Lealoha," her mother calls her by her baby name, meaning "beloved child" in her native Hawaiian.
"Yeah, Mom?" She answers to let her know that she's in the bathroom.
"Do you need any help?" She watches as Lea ties on a yellow ribbon choker with a cross charm—a present from her father a couple years ago.
"No, I'm about done."
"Your brother is ready to leave." Lea's mom informs her, hinting that she would like her to go say good bye to her brother. She knows that Lea and J.B. have been fighting, and she'd just feel so much better if her children are at least cordial to each other before they left the house.
"Yeah, okay." Lea finds it hard to say no to her mother. Plus J.B. did keep his word and leave Bradin alone.
Lea snaps her gold hoops earrings with plumerias dangling in the middle into place, and she moves briskly towards the living room where her father was adjusting J.B.'s tie. Her brother is wearing a dark green silk dress shirt under a light grey sweater vest, paired with black slacks. Both men turn as they hear Lea coming, and J.B. tucks his silver tie under his vest.
"Hey J," Lea starts to speak.
J.B. just gives his sister a grim look. Shouldn't she have a jacket to go with that outfit? "Lea, just be careful, look out for yourself, and if anything at all happens, tell me immediately."
"Sir, yes sir." Lea rolls her eyes at her brother. It's a dance, not guerilla combat for god's sake.
Lea's dad looks satisfied at his children as Lea's mother joins them in the living room—both parents beaming.
J.B. picks up the keys to the Noels' newest addition to their garage—a black Mercedes SLK 320, "alright, I gotta go."
"See ya later J!" Lea calls after him, and watches her parents follow him to the garage through the kitchen.
She glances at the clock made out of stained glass on the wall. Bradin should be here any minute now. She runs upstairs and checks herself in the mirror again, reapplying her lip gloss just out of nervousness. Rustling in her bag and going through a mental checklist—money, cell phone, credit card, lip gloss, kleenex, safety pin—
That's when the doorbell rang.
A/N: Does anything know anything about how to make the lines more spaced out on these things? I mean... too many words on the screen makes my eye water. If you feel the same, let me know as you kindly read/review. If you think i'm just desperate for something to write in an author's note, well you are correct as well.
dolphinchick2568 - Thank you for reviewing, one order of undying gratitude coming right up. and uh now that i logically thinking about it, it should have been obvious. Thank you for letting me know. so how are we going to make my little blooper plausible? well, hey, so bradin isn't the star of the football team, no big right? can't win 'em all... (or is here when you berate me because how can he not be the best at everything he does? [wince] i guess we can pretend that he has a REALLY REALLY good arm? or is a really really good receiver? i dunno take your pick and that's the right one. it's not a big deal in the story) But i'll make sure to put him on the basketball team as well...
beautyqueen321 - It's always nice to meet another lover of words! I mean, they didn't create a thesaurus for nothing right? I just wanted to create a young person who isn't simply concerned with keeping up with the latest MTV vocabulary-- not that there's anything wrong with that, because I'd be guilty of the same crime. But I've always believed that you don't have to be stupid to be "cool" and just because you're eloquent doesn't make you some uber-geek. Anyways, Thank you for reviewing, your compliments made me blush. I'm glad you enjoy the story, and hopefully I can live up to the expectations.
