Awakening: Third Stage

Chapter Two

"Scenes From A Mall"

Friday

"Am I doing something stupid?" Lor wondered as she found herself purchasing the very outfit she had earlier rejected. She felt extremely nervous, almost as though she were doing something wrong. It was true that this action was by no means typical of her, but neither could she deny that Tish had been right. She needed to take her own stand, to go after what she wanted. Taking her bag and change from the cashier, Lor maneuvered out of the store and towards the food court. Carver was still busy trying to repackage Tino, and since Tish already had her outfit, she had moved on to the book store, agreeing to meet the others at the food court later.

Lor entered the open area and found a table take looked clean. Laying her cumbersome bag flat across the table, she stepped over to the adjacent Chug-A-Freez counter and placed her order. As she took her seat, she began to imagine herself in the dress once more. The thought still felt very foreign to her, invoking feelings that seemed to be a mixture of embarrassment and stubbornness. Just because she was a girl didn't mean she had to act so feminine. Yet at the same time, she knew she was denying a side of who she was. Did she sometimes take it too far? Lor found herself feeling more confused than ever, so of course it was at that moment when the object of her affections should pass by.

"Lor?" Thompson inquired as he saw his friend nursing her drink with a strange expression on her face. "Hey, it's been awhile! How's it goin'?"

"It's uh. . .really great!" Lor blushed, her face turning crimson. "I-I was just, um, shopping. Yeah. Just looking around with no real purpose. It's not like I have any real reason to buy anything." She giggled nervously.

"Well, it certainly seems like something caught your eye." Thompson indicated the large bag Lor had stretched across the table.

"What? This? Oh! Yeah, well, I, um, it's nothing. . .I mean. . ." Lor's face started to glow, she felt so hot and she could sense she was going into meltdown, that horrible phase when her mouth would stop working and she'd just make gargling noises and look like a freak. She pressed her hands to her temples and shook her head vigorously, trying to regain her composure.

"It's okay." Thompson smiled. "I'm glad I ran into you. There's something I've been meaning to ask." Again, Lor felt the dice rattling around in her head. "Lor. . .I have some news. I haven't really told anyone yet. I was going to announce it at school on Monday, but I was hoping I'd have the chance to talk to you first, even though it's been a little while since we've hung out."

Lor gulped involuntarily. "Is this…y'know, bad news?"

"Kinda. There isn't really an easy way to say this, so I guess I'll just get right to it. My family and I are moving away, Lor."

"Moving?" The word passed through Lor's lips as though it were some kind of curse. "But. . .but all your friends are here, your life. I thought that Bahia Bay is your home!"

"It is." Thompson sighed. "Buy my dad got this new position. So we have to go."

"How. . .how far?" Lor choked back a sob, clearing her throat as cover.

"New York." Thompson replied quietly, knowing the effect his words would have on the girl.

Lor felt as though someone had stabbed her in the gut and was now twisting the knife. "Oh. . .oh no. . ."

"I know, it's bad. But, I will get to spend my summers in California. I have an uncle who lives in Los Angeles, and I'm sure I can find someone to put me up here in Bahia Bay for a few nights here and there while I'm visiting. So I won't lose complete touch with this place. Besides, it's not all bad news I have. There's something else."

"Like what?" Lor spoke softly, all the spirit drained of her.

"I'm not leaving until the day after Homecoming. That means I still need a date for the dance. So. . .I was hoping that you might be interested in going with me."

"Me?" Lor asked, feeling like she really might choke. "But I-I. . .I'm not. . .I mean-"

"Oh, please." Thompson cut Lor off, chuckling at her discomfort. "This is no time for you to be your usual, macho self. I know how you feel about me, Lor."

Lor immediately turned around, burying her face in her hands. "Is it that obvious?" She definitely felt too emotional to get through this. It was just too much. Thompson, the guy she had spent over three years chasing, was asking her out on a date. Not just any date, but the Homecoming dance, where everyone would be sure to see them. But he couldn't just do that, could he? No, he had to drop this bomb that he was moving away and Lor would have very few chances to see him again once he left. He was going to go far beyond her reach, leave her. A part of her desperately wanted to reach out to Thompson and bury her face in his chest so she could sob and wail at the cruelty of it all, and to hell with anyone who would think her weak for it.

Wiping the tears out of her eyes, Lor found the strength to turn back towards Thompson . She had to be strong. "I'm sorry." She said, noting the puzzled look on his face. "Not about the dance. Of course I'll go with you! It's all I've ever really wanted! But. . .I'm sorry for never telling you how I really felt. For so long, I just wanted you to notice me. But. . .you know. . .I always messed it up somehow. But even on those times when we've just hung out, I've never been able to tell you. And now you're going to move away!" Lor half-succeeded in keeping the desperation out of her voice.

"Hey," Thompson smiled, "it's never too late to catch up. I always though you were really something else, Lor. A little tense at times, but you've always been cool in my book. I wasn't in a big hurry to get start seeing anybody, never have been. But when I found out I was moving, I knew I couldn't say goodbye and not go out with you even once. I owe you that much. And I have to admit, I'm curious."

"I. . .don't really know what to say. I'm not good at this kind of stuff. That's one of the many, many reasons I never told you. That, and I was afraid you'd laugh at me."

"I'm hurt." Thompson replied with an expression that showed anything but. "C'mon, Lor, you know me better than that. Did you really think I'd laugh?"

Lor found herself shuffling her feet, fumbling with her hands. "I guess that was pretty stupid of me. . ." She couldn't fathom how Thompson managed to make her feel so weak and helpless. Why couldn't she be herself around him now? Her secret was out, wasn't it? Yet she felt just as shy as ever around him.

"You're not stupid, Lor. I'd have been honored, really. I am honored."

Lor's face lit up with those words, and she began to feel like her old self again. "You'd better be!" she smirked. "We MacQuarries don't give our feelings away easily. We're really choosy! It's like a great honor to be found worthy of one of us."

"I don't doubt it." Thompson returned Lor's smile. "So, can an honored guy like me ask you to meet him at Funville on Sunday night, say, six o'clock?"

"You can ask, but you don't need to. I will so be there! Um, what did you have in mind?" Lor queried.

"Just a little pool, maybe we could go get something to eat. Sound like fun?"

"A chance to beat you at pool? It sounds great!"

"Great, it's a date, then. But I won't go easy on you!"

"A d-date?" Lor felt a momentary twinge of nervousness and anxiety appear, but she was able to stamp it down. "Yeah, that sounds perfect. I always wanted to go out on a date with you. Better late than never, right?"

"Absolutely. I guess we can just think of it as practice before the dance. Anyway, I need to get going. I promise to meet some of the guys, and tomorrow I have to make a dent in all the packing. I've got a lot of stuff. I'll see you Sunday night, Lor. Stay cool, okay?"

"I always do." Lor returned his smile. "Later days!" As Thompson continued on his way, Lor noted how free she suddenly felt. Indeed, a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She had finally admitted to Thompson that she liked him. Or rather, he had admitted it for her, but the end result was the same. Lor smirked once more, noting that the dice in her head had also stopped. Now laughing, she hoisted her left foot onto a chair and thrust her right arm towards the skylight. "Yahtzee!"

"I don't know about this, Carv." Tino expressed his lack of confidence in his friend. As Tino continued to look himself over in the mirror, he couldn't help but notice that there was something that felt very familiar about the look. "Wait a minute, this is the same outfit you put me in when you turned us into Tish's entourage. I was her bodyguard!"

"Please!" Carver scoffed. "That was over three years ago! Significant changes have been made to help you keep up with the times!"

"Like what?"

"It's sized bigger now, and I ditched the shade. If you're going to dance with Tish, you'll probably want to see what you're doing. I'm sure she'll appreciate it if you avoid stepping on her feet."

"I'll probably end up doing that even without the sunglasses" Tino sulked. "I'm really kinda worried about this whole thing!"

"Wait, I'm confused." Carver waved his arms in exasperation. "Are we talking about your dancing, or Tish's feet?"

Tino slapped himself in the head out of frustration. "Man, Carver, your obsession with shoes is bad enough! Don't tell me you're developing a foot fetish too?"

"I do not have an obsession with shoes! It's a hobby!" Carver insisted.

"Interesting." Tino quipped. "You rushed to deny the shoe remark, but you said nothing about the foot fetish comment."

"I'm not admitting to anything! I'm just. . .um, not going to dignify that with an answer. Yeah, that's it. Besides, we're supposed to be talking about you here! Leave my preferences out of this!"

"Way to take the fun out of the evening, Carver. I'm no good at this kind of thing! How can you possibly make me look good alongside the gorgeous number you put Tish into? Not to mention the outfits all the cooler kids will be wearing. And I can't even do any real dances! I'm going to wind up humiliating both of us!"

"Tino, you worry too much. You know perfectly well that Tish will forgive you if that happens. As long as you give it your best, she'll respect that. Besides, I thought she was gonna teach you!"

"She is, but you have no idea how bad I am! Teaching me to dance would be like. . .like teaching Lor about how the city of Rome was built! How am I ever going to get it right? The only dance I even know is the Twist! There's no way I can do this!"

"Okay T, just chill. It'll all be cool." Carver sighed. "You're forgetting what dancing is all about. Just have fun! It's about being close to your date, dancing side by side when the music is pumpin', arm in arm when it's slow and romantic. Just follow her lead. Besides, you know what Tish likes."

"No I don't! Not about dancing! I don't even know what I like!" Tino groaned.

Carver started laughing now. "This is a no brainer, man! You know Tish better than anyone. She's affectionate, she digs that kind of stuff, eats it up. She's a girl!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know that. So how does that help keep me from making us both look like dorks?"

Carver resisted the urge to mention that there was nothing that could save them from that fate, but he still couldn't keep from chuckling inwardly. "She likes to be close. Just be yourself, show her a good time, and move with the music. Hold her tight for the slow dances. I give you ten to one odds she'll be thrilled, and what's more, this is something you can handle. Sounds like a win-win situation to me."

"Okay, and how exactly do you know all of this? Did Tish have a little talk with you?" demanded Tino.

"What?!" Carver asked indignantly. "That's ridiculous! How can you even think that?! No, no, no. . .okay, yeah, she did. She was afraid you'd pull a Tino on her and freak out over this."

"I am not freaking out!" Carver gave Tino a look that perfectly illustrated how he begged to differ. "Okay, maybe sometimes I do." Tino relented. "But this is justified! What am I gonna do if I step on Tish's feet?"

"Um, apologize?" Carver answered sarcastically.

"While I would ordinarily agree with you, it's not nearly so simple! Tish hates her feet. She thinks they're her worst physical attribute. If I step on them, she's liable to start thinking they're too big or wide or whatever it is she thinks they are. I forget. But you know how she gets!"

"Wait, why does she obsess over her feet?"

"I don't know. I still haven't figured out why girls worry over lots of things!"

"Touché, Mr. Tonitini, touché. Well then, I guess you'll just have to be perfect. My grandfather loves to cook, do you know that?"

"Carver, what could that possibly have to do with my problem?!"

"Just listen. Anyway, he has a saying he's fond of. He taught it to me a couple of years ago when I stayed with him for a week. He had just made this soufflé, and he put it into the oven. I remember he said (here Carver did his best elderly man voice) 'Carver, making a soufflé is a lot like living. You can do all the preparation, plan everything out. But once you put it in the oven, it's out of your hands. The soufflé will either rise, or it won't. There's not a damn thing you can do about it, so you might as well get over it.' And you know what? He's right. There's no point in going crazy over this. Just take things as they come, and you'll be a lot happier.

"Maybe you're right." Tino sighed. "Okay, I'll play it your way."

"Good. Now you can help me find the perfect shoes."

"You've got to be joking. Don't you have enough already?!"

"Not for me, for Tish! I know this place that sells actual glass slippers. Might make a nice gift if you do screw things up. Think of it as insurance."

As Carver dragged him off, Tino shook his head, wondering where his friend came up with these things.

Tish had been happily walking along, thumbing through a fresh copy of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle," when she had turned into the food court and seen a rather unusual sight. Tish found that she had to blink, remove her glasses and wipe the lenses, then blink once more after reapplying them before she was able to believe in what she saw. Lor was talking to Thompson! Moreover, she wasn't totally choking. She was holding her own! Intrigued, Tish tried to close some of the distance without getting to close, she didn't want to risk being spotted and ruining Lor's moment. She couldn't help but notice the color in Lor's cheeks, and Tish smiled. Lor had a very cute look to her when she became flushed, it was probably working to her advantage. How could any guy resist a strong woman like Lor showing a bit of vulnerability. Thompson was probably playing right into Lor's hands! And no one deserved this more than Lor. She had been pining for Thompson for so long over three years now. That was devotion, not to mention romantic. Lor looked good standing beside Thompson, they would make a good couple if they really did get together.

As Tish continued to view the exchange, she noticed her thoughts drifting to Carver. If Lor went with Thompson, then he would be the only single one left in their group. She found that ironic, considering how she had always assumed that she would be the last one to find a partner. Who ever would've thought she would be the first?

Tish snapped back to attention as she finally saw Thompson moving off with a smile on his face. Tish backed up a bit to get out of Lor's earshot, then called his named and waved. As he acknowledged her, she trotted over, still smiling. "Hey, Thompson! What are you doing here, hmm?" Tish asked in a coy voice.

"Perhaps something I should've done a long time ago." Thompson replied.

"Oh really?"

"You saw the whole thing, didn't you." Thompson laughed.

"Maybe." Tish ducked the question. "So. . ."

"Yes, I asked her to the dance. It should be a blast! I hear that Lor is a lot of fun at parties!"

"Can't argue with that. Just. . .try to remember how she feels about you."

"Actually, that's one of the many reasons I asked. Anyway, I hate to run but I'm already late. Tell Lor I'll see her on Sunday, okay?"

I will. Take care, Thompson!" Tish called as her friend's new significant other moved off. Tish made her way over to where Lor now stood triumphantly with a foot on her seat. "What does Yahtzee have to do with anything?" Tish felt puzzled at Lor's choice of victory yell.

"Huh?" Lor asked, turning around to see Tish, with an eyebrow cocked and her forehead wrinkled. "Oh! Um, nothing. Nothing at all. I'm just, uh, excited about the great deal that I got on this dress for the dance! Yeah!"

Tish took a peak into Lor's bag, grinning. "Lor, this is the same dress you were refusing to wear before. Okay, what's going on?"

"Yeah, well, I changed my mind. I looked at it again and decided it actually looks good on me!"

"No denying that, but you can stop playing games. Lor, I saw you with Thompson. Looks to me like you did pretty well. Congratulations!"

Lor blinked for a moment before finally owning up to her new status "I can hardly believe it Tish! Any minute now I think I'm going to wake up!" Lor literally shook with excitement.

"Relax, you're doing fine. It's the next part that's hard."

"You mean remembering to breathe."

"Worse. Learning how to put up with him. Men and women get along famously, but it takes a lot of effort. Goodness knows Tino and I have tried to kill each other on occasion."

"How much effort are we talking here?"

"Don't worry!" Tish grinned mischievously. "I'll teach you all the tricks."

It took me awhile to finish this chapter, but I think it was worth it. Been a long time since I did something this monumental with Lor, so I hope that everyone here enjoyed that. This chapter ended up being a lot more work than I thought, but I like to make everyone appear as human as possible. Hopefully I'm still doing an adequate job of keeping their personalities in line. I've been tremendously distracted with work lately, a lot of changes coming on now. Plus with all the holiday preparations, writing just plain old fashioned hasn't been easy as of late. Nevertheless, my thanks once more to those of you who continuously look forward to my next chapter, it's really a big boost when I sit down to write and I'm just not sure if I have the energy. Knowing that there are people out there counting on me helps me know I'm not alone.

At this moment in time, I intend to drop in the second trailer that never got releases as a Christmas present to you folks. Look to see it appear as the 17th chapter of Second Stage on the Dec 25. Not much to say this time, it's probably because I'm so tired. Leave your reviews as always, and see below for contact info. See you next outing!

Lord Malachite

12/20/03

12:47AM, EST

E-mail: ranger_writer@yahoo.com

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