Chapter 6
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Bring on the Goths! thought Becky.
"You're late," said Akiza, charging up with her black jacket. "I've been out of the photo lab for twenty minutes already. You weren't trying to back out on me, were you?"
"No," said Becky, making sure she didn't bounce. "I just ran home to change. And I couldn't find my"- she hesitated and Akiza peered at her skeptically- "my leather backpack," Becky flushed.
Akiza's mouth dropped open. "You mean my leather backpack that you borrowed and never returned!"
Oops. "I guess that's the one," Becky said hoarsely.
"Well," said Akiza, "it is a killer fashion statement. You look deadly."
"Thank you," said Becky.
"So let's go." Akiza pushed her toward the sidewalk. "I don't want to be late!"
So far, so good, Becky thought with a rush of relief. If she could make it to the meeting without arousing Akiza's suspicions, everything else would be easy.
They cut across the school parking lot and turned Thornhill Road. Becky glanced over and caught Akiza sneaking a sideways look at her.
Shoot, Becky thought. She's onto me.
Akiza stopped and grabbed her arm. "We need to talk," she said seriously.
Becky held her breath and waited for the ax to fall.
"Listen, I know you're not going to enjoy this," Akiza said frowning. "In fact, you're going to hate it. But I really want to be on the planning committee."
Becky let herself breathe again. It seemed Akiza hadn't discovered her secret-yet! And Becky had been head of the planning committee for the spring carnival at her old school. It rocked. "Planning committee for what?" she asked curiously.
"The Hallows' Ball," Akiza said apologetically. She sounded like a little kid who knows she's in trouble. "Every year, they use the same lifeless professional photographer with a combover and candid. But we have to be on the planning committee first."
Becky blurted, "That sounds cool."
Akiza looked completely shocked, and Becky realized that Rebecca would not think party planning was cool. At all.
"I mean you taking the pictures sounds cool. Not party planning," Becky added hastily . Then she continued in a glum tone, meant to convey Goth resignation, "Just don't expect me to say anything in this meeting. I'll sit there, but that's it."
"Agreed," Akiza said, looking relieved. "Thanks, Rebecca."
As they walked, Becky wondered why she hadn't heard anything about the ball before. At her old school, there would have been posters everywhere.
The tree-lined streets had turned into a concrete thoroughfare, and they walked past Beef Bowl and a KN store. Akiza leaped up on a bench and tiptoed along it, jumping down. Becky struggled to limited her reaction to a close-lipped Goth smile, but it wasn't easy. Then noticed Akiza's metal object in her hair-a grey metal pin that holds her bangs up.
"Your metal pin is so cute!" Becky exclaimed.
"Don't be such a witch," Akiza replied dryly. She must have thought her friend was being sarcastic.
Becky mentally kicked herself. She had to stop using words like "cute" or she'd never make it though the afternoon in one piece.
Akiza veered into the parking lot of a giant FoodMart. Becky was little surprised, considering they were already running late, but she followed Rebeccca's friend inside without comment. Maybe they were supposed to bring food to the meeting, like cheez its or something.
But Akiza didn't even go to the snake aisle. Becky followed her past paper towels and laundry detergent to the back of the store. They stopped in front of a scruffy stock boy with jet-black hair and a red scar on his face were his right cheek is, who was stacking cases of orange juice on a cart..
Out of nowhere, Akiza said, "Wholewheat."
Well, that's a lame meeting snack, thought Becky. Without even looking at them, the boy silently pulled a key from a chain that hung from his belt loop and unlocked a gray door marked STAFF ONLY.
Akiza walked through, and Becky hustled after her.
This is weird, thought Becky.
They started down an impossibly steep, dimly lit staircase. There was no handrail, and Becky was scared she'd trip over her boots. Akiza barreled down fearlessly ahead ahead of her.
Clearly this thing was a total secret, Becky decided. But what kind of dance required a silent meeting in the basement of a supermarket?
The only thing Becky could think of was a TV special she'd seen about some girls in Europe who threw massive raves in warehouses. All their planning was top secret because the cops were always trying to bust them.
My mom will never let me go to this dance, thought Becky with a tinge of disappointed.
The stairs led to a long, narrow hallway. The girls passed an unmarked door, behind which Becky could have sworn a crowd of people was a laughing and talking. Finally, after squeezing past a stack of chairs, they reached the end of the hall and another nondescript door.
Akiza pushed it open, and Becky was surprised to find herself in a room that looked a lot like conference room at her dad's old office: dry-erase board, beige carpet, black imitation-leather office chairs. The only real difference was the huge round stone table in the center of the room.
There were some Goths standing around looking drinking cherry punch. A serious-looking girl with glasses was organizing papers on the table.
"Hi, Akiza," said a girl wearing a studded collar.
She nodded at Becky. "Hey, Rebecca. I can't believe you actually came."
Becky had no idea what the girl's name was. She shifted uncomfortably.
Luckily, the girl in the glass cleared her throat in an official way and bailed Becky out by saying, "We're five minutes late. Let's get started."
Becky was already lowering herself into a seat when she noticed that everyone else was simply standing behind the chairs. She jerked herself back up.
The room was silent. The girl in charge held her hands above the table like she was warming them over a fire and closed her eyes. "May the Secret be cloaked in darkness," she said solemly.
"And never see light of day," the group responded as one.
Becky was baffled. This must be the weird sense of humor Rebecca was talking about, she thought. She hoped on one had noticed that she hadn't joined in. They were now all sitting down, so she quickly slipped into her chair.
"Okay, people," the girl began. "We only have three weeks to pull off Domino High's two hundred and second annual All Hallows' Ball, and I'm determined to make it the best one ever. This is the first of three planning commitee meetings. Today we need to decide on the theme and who's going to be responsible for-"
She was interrupted by raucous laughter in the hallway, and suddenly the door swung open. In slouched four boys with dirty-looking hair and heavy metal T-shirts.
It was the boys who had cornered Becky in the hall at school, the ones Rebecca called the Hirutani's gang. Becky clutched her backpack nervously underneath the table. It's okay, she told herself. Rebecca isn't scared of them.
"What a surprise!" the girl leading the meeting said coolly. "You guys are late."
"Sorry, Carly," said the one of the Hirutani's sarcastically as he and his friends grabbed seats. "We had to, uh, grab a bite."
The other Hirutani's guffawed dumbly, but everyone else groaned.
"You wish," said a girl with dark green hair.
"As I was saying," Carly snapped, calling the meeting back to order. "The first thing we need to do is pick a theme. Let's brainstorm."
People started calling out ideas. A boy with a shaved head said, "What about a costume ball?"
"Or a forest party?" suggested the girl with the green hair. "Like where everybody dresses up as trees and things? We could do it in the woods."
"The Ball of the Future?"
"What if everybody to had wear something dark purple?"
"I once went to a sweet college party where there was an alcoholic drink, and people were seriously into it."
"I know! What about Domino High Star Search?"
Carly didn't look impressed.
Oh my gosh, Becky thought suddenly, I have the best idea! "How about a vampire theme?" she blurted. "You could do coffins instead of tables, and spiders and bats hanging everywhere. And...ooh, you could even get a big projector and show old Dracula movie-you know, the black-and-white one with the Bela guy? And someone could take black-and white photographs of all the guests!"
Nobody spoke for a long time. At last the boy with the shaved head said, "So you want to perpetuate the stereotype?"
Huh? thought Becky.
"No, Rebecca's onto something..." Carly decided, nodding slowly. "Retro is in."
"Can you imagine? Everyone in fangs and capes and stuff?" mused the girl with green hair. "That would be deadly."
"I agree," said the girl with the studded collar, turning to Becky. "This idea really sucks, Rebecca."
For a second, Becky thought she might get thrown out of the meeting, but then she remembered again that "suck" was good. She glanced over at Akiza, who was staring at her in shock but who still managed a small, surprised smile.
After the Ancient Egypt Exhibit they went to Gnome Restaurant, Rebecca fidgeted at a little table, watching as Yami Muto waited in line for a medium size box of chinese beef fried rice for two of them to share. A long silver chain looped around his neck with a upside down golden puzzle. He turned and smiled at her from under his long blond fringes. She gave a small breathless wave and continued stacking the restaurant menus on the table. Their date so far hadn't gone anything like Rebecca had imagined. The second thing Yami had done was lead her right to Kaiba Land, where he challenged her to a game of duel monsters.
For the next hour, the talking they did was in the game. Rebecca sacrificed millenium shield and cannon soldier in order to summon diamond dragon, when she order the attack kunai with chain caught diamond dragon, lowing it's attack points by 500. Yami used the magic card magic formula on Dark Magician and destroyed Diamond Dragon making him the winner.
Rebecca took 4 out of 7. "You let me win!" she had said, grinning and bravely nudging Yami's arm as they almost walked out of the arena.
"You think so?" he replied, spinning on his boot-like shoes and grabbing her hand. "Then let's make it best of eleven."
Yami had won that round by using slifer the sky dragon, but only just. He'd promised Rebecca they'd keep a running tally. Now she was watching as he got two cans of coffee out of the dispenser. When he comes back, she thought, remembering her sister's advice, I'm going to ask him about himself.
Yami approached carefully, his eyes on the coffee cans. Steam rose from the box of beef fried rice on his face. He set the food in front of Rebecca and looked at her.
"You know I've been scared to death," he said.
"Of spilling something?" Rebecca asked, pretending to be distracted by the balancing restuarant menus.
Across from her, Yami shook his head. "I have so many questions I want to ask you," he told her.
Rebecca blinked at her restaurant menu tower and prepared to put another one on top. "Like what?"
"I don't know?" He shrugged. "Everything."
Rebecca couldn't help recalling what Becky had said about boys who ask questions. Boyfriend Material!, she thought, her heart pounding. She tried not to seem excited.
Yami asked, "Do you have any brothers or sisters?"
Rebecca's hand jerked, and menu, knocked into another menu, and the entire tower of them collapsed, crashing right into Rebecca's open coffee can and sending it flying.
Yami was already on his feet. "Don't worry love," he said. "I'll get some napkins."
Rebecca immediately blashed like a tomatoe.
Pretty soon everybody at the planning committee meeting was talking about the theme Becky had suggested for the ball. Meanwhile, Hirutani's gang kept whispering and snickering to one another.
Finally Carly turned to them and said, "Care to share?"
They all looked up. One of them said, "Uh, yeah. We got an idea."
"Okay," said Carly.
"It's really excellent idea for a-what do you call it?-a decoration," the guy with the hoodie and glasses said.
His friends chuckled.
"Totally excellent," one guy with the short ponytail said.
"Okay," said Carly impatiently.
"A blood fountain," the leader of the Hirutani's gang announced.
"A what?" said Carly.
"You know. A fountain of blood." All the Hirutani's gang were totally cracking up now.
"As if," said Carly, rolling her eyes. "Talk about perpetuating stereotypes. Besides, fountains were last year's party feature."
Akiza whispered, "What loser!" in Becky's ear, and Becky felt relieved that Rebecca's friends didn't want to take her idea that far.
"All right," Carly continued effiently. "It looks like we've got our theme. The next big question on the agenda is where should we hold the ball? Any ideas? And,no"-she glared at the Hirutani's gang- "the graveyard is not an option!"
Becky felt a nudge under the table, and looked over to find Akiza looking at her intently.
"Anyone?" asked Carly.
Akiza was now pursing her lips and glaring at Becky, clearly trying to say something with her eyes, but Becky had no idea what it was.
Akiza sighed and turned to face the table. "How about Rebecca's house?" she suggested. "You know, that mansion on top of Undertaker Hill? It has a massive ballroom on the third floor. You can see all Domino High from up there."
Becky kicked Akiza under the table. "T'm not sure that's a good idea!" she put in hurriedly. "I don't think my parent... I mean, grandparents... I mean, Grandpa..." She shook her head wildly.
Everybody was looking at her. "Well, he won't like it," she finished lamely.
"Who are you kidding, Rebecca?" said the girl with long purple hair putted into a ponytail. "Your Grandpa loves this kind of thing. My parents still talk about the Rise of Winter fund-raiser he planned a few years back."
The girl with short brown hair nodded. "I'll bet he'd even be willing to help out with decorations," she added. "After all, he is one of the top interior designers."
"He redid my aunt's place last year," put in the black haired guy. "It looks killer."
Well, Becky thought, at least that explains the inside of Rebecca's house. "But a ball for the whole school is a lot of people," she pointed out.
"Don't be so dramatic, Rebecca," Miho said. "It's not the whole school. It's just the kids in our community from Domino middle and High school. More than a 100 peoples, tops."
Becky suddenly understood why she hadn't seen any posters at school: this was an exclusive all-Goth affair. How intense! she thought excitedly. Maybe that's why they're being so secretive.
"Since you came up with the theme and it's your house, Rebecca, I think it's only fair that you be head of decorations," Carly said.
"I still have to ask my grandpa," Becky muttered, while thinking, Head of decorations! How cool is that?
"All in favor, say aye," Carly commanded.
"Everyone said, "Aye," even Hirutani' gang.
"Great!" shouted Becky. Wait, her sister wouldn't be so excited. She rolled her eyes. "I mean, great," she said sarcastically.
Becky was still walking on air when she and Akiza emerged from the KN store after the meeting. Halfway across the parking lot, Akiza spun around to face her.
"That wasn't like you," said said in a quiet, firm voice
Becky's heart sank. Akiza's seen through the switch! she thought.
"That idea," Akiza went on slowly. "The way you spoke up. Really, the fact that you came at all." Her lips curled into a smile. "Thank you so much, Rebecca!" She started talking really fast. "It is such a seriously big deal to be on the planning committee for All Hallows" Ball at all, and my best friend"-she grabbed Becky's hand proudly-"my best friend came up with the theme, hosting it at her mansion, and is going to head of decoration! And guess who she is going to appoint head of photography? This is deadly!" Akiza concluded, throwing her arms around Becky in a huge hug.
Becky couldn't help smiling and leaping around with her, at least a little bit.
"Enough!" Akiza cried, throwing her scarf over her shoulder. "I must go home home and study algbra. But I will talk to you later." She gave a little wave and took off in the dimming autumn light.
Becky knew she should hurry home, too. She'd promised to be home by 8; her father was grilling meat and vggies on the new barbecue for dinner. But she decided it was okay if she paused for just a second. After all, she had made it through the meeting. Not only that, but she had really contributed. Her parents would be prould of her if they knew. She felt like she was really going to love Domino High. That is, as long as Rebecca didn't kill her.
As she stopped off in a restaurant's bathroom to change clothes, Becky prayed that her sister had a great date with Yami. Actually, she hoped Rebecca was more overjoyed than she'd ever been in her entire life, because, if not, she probably wasn't going to handle Becky's new very well. After all, not only was Rebecca-the official Antiperky-going to have to plan the All Hallows' Ball, she had to convince her father to host it, too!
End of chapter 6. Please review.