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It's a Prom ThingChapter 2
They were both lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling and not saying anything.
Finally Tamao rolled over her stomach and poked Anna. "Hey, cut it out! I can't understand why you're so depressed. I'm the one who doesn't have a date here!"
Anna sat up and grabbed a pillow, clutching it tightly to her chest. "Why are you so okay with this?" she demanded, voice shaking slightly. "I'm 'depressed', as you say, because it's all my fault why you don't have a date! I – I stole you date from you!" A feeling of guilt washed over her. She hated feeling guilty. "Aren't you even the least bit upset over this?"
Well, to tell the truth, Tamao had felt utterly bewildered at Anna's hurried explanation of how Yoh came to be HER prom date instead of the other way around. But suddenly something clicked inside her brain. Things still didn't make sense, but she thinks she finally gets something about this…'phantom' relationship of her best friend and Yoh Asakura. So the question: was she upset? "No—I mean, yes…I guess I was upset, but—"
"You should be yelling at me and swearing that you don't want to see me ever again. What a normal girl would do in this situation," Anna cut in, muttering.
"Who's normal?" Tamao quipped. "Between you and me…well, I'd say neither. Come on, Anna! I told you I'm not mad – well, sad, yes, because you know how much I like—"
"I know!" Anna snapped, then felt guilty some more because it should be Tamao snapping at her.
"Yeah, well anyway, I've been thinking and I really find this situation—" Tamao felt laughter bubbling inside her and tried to stifle it. "Funny." Come to think of it, it is funny. She would have to know how Yoh managed to get the girl who hates his guts to go with him to the Prom. But…again, come to think of it…does Anna really hate Yoh?
Hey, you know the cliché, right? The more you hate, the more you love and all that?
"Ha, ha, ha," her friend huffed sarcastically. "I'm glad you're getting some entertainment here." She looked at Tamao. "Are you sure you don't want to clobber me to death right now?"
Tamao's face softened. "No. Because you did nothing wrong. You were trying to help me, and things just got…warped, along the way."
Anna shook her head, hugging the pillow tighter. "I don't get it how you can be so…forgiving."
"Do you like Yoh?" Tamao asked in a business-like manner. Oh my God. It was one of those burst-out-of-your-mouth things. She didn't mean to ask Anna that. But now that she thinks about it…now things seem a bit more clearer!
"NO!" was the immediate reply.
Uhm-hmm. "Well, I think he likes you."
"Oh shut up!" Anna threw the pillow at her. "How can you say that! Ugh."
"For someone who's so smart I can't believe you can't see it," Tamao taunted, trying not to grin like a hyena at her apparent discovery. How come I never saw this before? "It's like this, see? He asked you out. If he asked you out that means he likes you. I was the one who likes him while you were just the one who was going to ask him out for me. I mean—well, do you get it?"
"No," Anna said stonily.
"Whatever." Tamao sat up and stretched her arms to the ceiling. "It all makes sense to me. See, that's why I'm not that upset that you're going together. Even if you did manage to get him to take me…well, if I couldn't manage to ask him out myself, I don't think I can manage to spend a whole night with him by myself, either." She giggled. "I think I won't be able to say anything coherent to him."
"You're right," Anna agreed. "You're right, you're not normal. You like Yoh! Are you giving up on him?"
"Well…" Tamao was smiling. "Let's just say I just realized…maybe I never really liked him THAT much."
Anna stared at her, her brows furrowed and mouth slightly hanging open in disbelief.
Tamao grinned widely. "So! Want to come down with me for a snack, or should I bring some back in here for you?"
:skip:
Horo-horo glanced nervously at the cordless phone in his hand.
He wasn't one hundred percent sure that his plan will work. Or if his plan is right. But he could see no other way for Tamao to be his date if he didn't do this. If only girls weren't so frustrating, he inwardly moaned. He had tried every way he could think of to ask other girls out. He wrote a note and stuck it in the girl's locker; he went the roundabout way of asking ("Hey, the prom is almost near, eh? I don't have a date yet…what about you? Oh, really? Why don't we go together?"); he asked The Question right away; he even let his friend Ren Tao be a sort of bridge to this one girl; and yet none worked. Either they would have dates already, or they turned him down.
Anyway, Tamao was the one he really wanted to ask out. Being rejected by all those girls was good, in a way, so now he knew better than to ask Tamao in the same ways.
He took a deep breath and raised a finger to press the 'talk' button on the cordless phone.
"HOOOOROOOOOOOOO!" a piercing scream shattered the air, making Horo-horo almost fall off his bed. A few seconds later, his door flew open, revealing his sister with her hands on her hips, looking mad.
"Are you done yet?" Pilica demanded, walking in uninvited. "I'm waiting for a call!"
"So?" Horo-horo retorted. "I'm still using it, so get lost!"
She walked over to him and placed her hands around his neck, shaking him back and forth. "YOU'VE BEEN IN HERE FOR NEARLY AN HOUR AND I DON'T THINK YOU'VE EVEN CALLED ANYONE YET!" she screeched.
"AAAGH—LET GO OF ME—"
She let go, and he plopped on the bed, gasping for breath. She stomped her foot in frustration. "Fine, I'm leaving, but I'm going back in thirty minutes so you'd better be finished by then."
As she left the room, Horo yelled after her, "If it's a boy who's going to call you, I won't let him talk to you!"
Pilica stuck her tongue out at him before closing the door.
He was about to press 'talk' when the door opened again.
He groaned. "Pilicaaaaaaa…how am I going to finish this call if you keep interrupting!"
"Why on earth do you have both the cordless phone and the landline pulled into your room?" she asked.
Horo-horo flushed red. "W-Well…just so you won't be able to pick up either line and listen in on my call!"
She gasped in indignation. "How dare you! It's YOU who keeps eavesdropping in my phone conversations!"
"WHATEVER! Just leave, ok, I'll give you the phone as soon as I'm done!"
Pilica made a face at him before slamming the door behind her.
This time, he jumped off his bed and opened the door, peeking out just in time to see his sister enter her room.
He heaved a huge sigh and shut the door, making sure it was locked. Then before he could have second thoughts (or third or fourth, since he's been having second thoughts over and over), he pressed 'talk' and immediately dialed Tamao's number.
Riiiiiiiiiing. Riiiiiiiiiing.
Come on, please pick it up, he urged silently. A few more rings, and then someone said, "Hello?"
YES! "Hello, Mrs. Tamamura? This is Horo-horo, a classmate of Tamao's."
"Okay, hold on a second, I'll get her—"
"NO! I mean, well, it's you I really want to speak to," Horo said nervously.
"Oh?" her voice was full of curiosity. "Well then, what is it?"
"You see, ma'am, our promenade is almost coming up," he started to explain. "A-And…well, I guess I'm just informing you that…that I'm going to ask your daughter out."
There was no reaction from the other end of the line.
Horo was sweating visibly now. "S-S-So," he continued, stuttering, "W-What I'm really saying is, I'm asking your permission so I-I can…so that I can ask Tamao to the—to the p-p-prom."
More silence. He gulped soundly, wondering if she would start yelling and call him a pervert or something.
"OH!" Mrs. Tamamura suddenly exclaimed. "Really now! What a sweet young man you are! Of course, of course you'll take my precious daughter to your prom! This is lovely! How thoughtful of you to consider what I would think! Yes, yes, you two will go together!"
"Thank you, ma'am," he said, trying to keep himself from shouting in triumph.
"Oh, what an occasion this will be! You don't have to worry about Tamao, young man—Horo-horo, was it? You're her date and that's final. Well, goodbye now, I'm going off to tell her right now!" And she hung up.
"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!" Horo-horo started to jump up and down his bed, pumping a fist into the air. "I DID IT!"
Someone was trying to break down his door. "Hey, Horo!" Pilica yelled, knocking on the door furiously upon finding that it was locked. "Can I use the phone now!"
She was about to kick the door when it suddenly swung open, revealing her brother with an idiotic grin on his face. He thrust the cordless phone and the landline into her hands. "Sure thing, baby sis!" Then he hugged her, twirling her around in the hallway.
"HEY! Put me down, you idiot!" But his laughter was contagious, and soon Pilica was joining in, even though she had no idea what made her brother so happy.
:skip:
"Tamao! TAMAO!"
The pink-haired girl was walking morosely down the hallway to her homeroom, mindlessly bumping other students. She barely even noticed her best friend come right up to her and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Earth to Tamao, hello?" Anna pulled at her shoulder to make her stop walking. "What the hell are you—" her question died when she saw the expression on Tamao's face.
"Oh no," Anna whispered. "So you've finally realized you have to break off our friendship because of the grievous sin I committed against you?"
A shadow of a smile flittered across Tamao's face. "No, don't be silly! It's not that, it's…" she looked around, then started walking briskly towards her locker, pulling Anna along.
She hurriedly did the combination on her lock and opened the locker door, pulled Anna closer and began speaking in hushed tones. "I have a prom date."
"What!" Anna hissed in disbelief. "Who? When? How?"
"It's Horo-horo, last night, and apparently he talked to my motheeeeeeer!" The last word came out as a wail. Tamao narrated the whole story to a semi-shocked Anna.
"Wait," Anna said. "Don't you want to go out with him? To the prom, I mean?"
"He's okay, but the way he asked was so embarrassing—you KNOW how my mother gets over things like these! And what if some other guy asked me out? I mean, assuming," she got all defensive.
"If you don't want to go with him to the prom, then just say it to him!"
Tamao shook her head sadly. "It's not that easy," she said, her voice sounding desperate. "My mother has got it in her head that whoever asks me first will be my date for real and that I'll be going with Horo-horo to the prom or I won't be going at all, because she says rejecting people, especially on proms, will create this horrible atmosphere of depression which can possibly lead to teen suicide."
Anna fell silent. Then, "That has got to be the biggest load of bullshit I've heard in a long time."
"I know," Tamao said miserably. "But—well, you know Mom. She…um, reads too much women's magazines. So what do I do now?"
Suddenly someone stopped in front of them. "Good morning, Tamao," Horo-horo greeted cheerily. "Good morning, Anna!"
Anna's eyes narrowed into tiny slits, and her fists clenched. She leaned forward and grabbed Horo-horo by the collar.
"Anna!" Tamao exclaimed, making a move to stop her.
Anna raised her other hand. "Go to class, Tamao. I'll handle this." Turning to Horo, she said icily, "We are going to have a little talk, buster. I don't care if we miss homeroom, because you're gonna have a LOT of explaining to do."
With that she dragged an obedient Horo-horo off, leaving Tamao looking both gratified and worried. As they disappeared around the corner, Tamao couldn't help admitting to herself that the feeling of worry weighed more.
To be continued