Okay, I ditched the idea I talked about at the end of the last chapter, with the bus breaking down and stuff. This one just came to me quicker. Seriously, I got the idea and wrote the chapter in two days. So here's chapter eight.
Oh, and I don't own the song that Bee and Kori sing, "Do You Believe in Magic". I claim no ownership to this song. I'm being extra careful with things like this a story of my own ("Not Now, Not Ever", a tragic BB/Rae oneshot) got deleted because it had a song in it that wasn't mine. So yeah. I don't own the song an ANY WAY.
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Chpt. 8: Of Halloween and Double-Dating
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"They did the Mash; they did the Monster Mash."- Bobby "Boris" Pickett
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"Vick? The class is over. You might want to wake up now."
It was Friday, October 31st, eighty-six degrees outside (and close to that inside the school, as well) and Vick Stone was asleep on his desk in the front of his seventh period English class.
Bee Cox prodded her boyfriend in the forearm and watched as he slowly came to, blinking like a newborn baby. When he saw where he was, he hurriedly grabbed his binder and his backpack and literally hopped to his feet, saying, "I just closed my eyes for a second, no need to poke me."
"Whatever happened to your 'no more sleeping' resolution?" Bee said, raising an eyebrow and following Vick as he trudged sleepily into the hallway.
"It's not New Year's Eve or anything," Vick explained shortly. "I don't have to keep any promises." Bee threw her head back and let out her signature laugh, like that of a whinnying horse, where one could see all of her back molars, and her front teeth seemed to reflect the light from the large windows in the hallways. Honestly, it sort of scared Vick. He had been dating Bee for almost a month now, but he was doubtful that he would ever get used to her crazy attitude and her boisterous mannerisms. Every time Vick thought he had finally figured the girl out, she got some new, crazy obsession, or he found out something else weird about her.
"Come what may, come what may, I will love you until my dying day," Bee sang under her breath as the two traipsed through the crowd to the stairwell. Vick felt himself wince at Bee's newest obsession: Moulin Rouge. She had started up about it somewhere around a week ago, and had even showed Vick the movie. Unfortunately, as a fairly un-cultured guy, Vick hadn't understood what the movie was even about.
"We should go somewhere tonight," suggested Bee suddenly, bringing Vick's hand into her own. The students at Gotham Prep were allowed to leave campus on Friday through Sunday as long as they were back by eleven and didn't, like, go to a bar or anything.
"Like where?" Vick asked dumbly, with the faint hope that Bee wouldn't be able to think of anything, and he wouldn't be subjected to an entire evening alone with her. Unfortunately, Bee piped up almost immediately with, "We should go to Margarita's!"
Margarita's was a Mexican restaurant about fifteen minutes away from the school. Vick and his friends had taken Kori there for her birthday back in August, and she gotten indigestion from the nachos and resolved never to eat Mexican food for the rest of her life. However, Vick still liked it. He was pretty fond of Mexican cuisine, actually.
"Uh, sure," he answered reluctantly. I can't believe I'm doing this, he though frantically.
"Great!" Bee chirped. "Then what time will we go? Six? Six-thirty?"
"Six is fine," Vick replied.
"Then I'll meet you by your car at 6:00!" Glancing up at the digital wall-clock above the stairwell, Bee's eyebrows shot up and she giggled shrilly. "Gotta go," she said. "Cheerleading practice. Love ya, Sparky!" With that final message, she danced off down the stairs, leaving Vick alone. He was just about to turn and head in the direction of the guys' dorm when a sharp, piercing voice behind him shouted out, "Hey Vick!"
Vick felt as though he was having a heart attack when he whirled around to see Terra and Gar, looking rather pleased with themselves. Terra was decked out in some black capris and an equally black sweatshirt (It was dress-down day) in honor of the holiday. Gar was just wearing jeans and a collared shirt, but he had on a "Happy Halloween" party hat (From who-knows-where) and had even donned his special orange Pumas.
"I see you two got all dressed up," Vick noted.
"Yeah," answered Gar. "I see you didn't." Vick didn't answer that.
"Why do you look like you just swallowed a lit torch?" Terra wanted to know. Her dark clothing mixed with her skinny legs and her shapeless figure made her look quite a bit like Gar's younger sister.
"Bee just asked me out to dinner," Vick said, more to Gar, who, having a girlfriend as well, would probably understand.
"Well," Gar laughed. "She is your girlfriend, Vick, isn't she?"
"Yeah," replied Vick. "But you know I'm scared to death of her."
"Why?" Terra asked. "She's so nice! Once, she told off Katherine Moth for calling me a freak when I tripped over one of the yellow lines on the parking lot." Vick found this to be kind of sad, but felt a sense of gratitude towards Bee for defending his blonde companion.
"She's just so…" Vick searched for the right words. "Hard to understand." Gar nodded in understanding.
"I have just the perfect solution," he said after a second or two of deep thought. A devious grin fell across his face. Terra fidgeted with her sleeve and hummed a few bars of Ashlee Simpson's "Pieces of Me".
"We'll just ask Rob and Kori to tag along," Gar said with a grin.
"Like a double-date?" Terra chimed in excitedly.
"Oh my gosh," groaned Vick. "What did I get myself into by asking for help from you two?"
"C'mon," urged Gar, ignoring Vick's comment. "Let's go find Rob!"
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The trio located Rob in the boys' dorm room, where he was, off all things, brushing his teeth in front of the bathroom mirror.
"Gosh, don't you know a single thing about housekeeping?" Terra pinched her nose in an exaggerated manner when she entered the room behind Gar, who was behind Vick. All three used beds were unmade, and the fourth one was covered with all sorts of DVDs and schoolbooks and clothes. Saliva (the band, not the fluid) was blasting from a stereo perched atop the desk, which was nearly buried under CD cases and age-old homework. Terra felt a crunch as she stepped on a pencil and it broke beneath the weight of her black sandals.
"What are you all doing in here?" Rob nearly spit out his toothpaste in surprise when he saw three of his friends standing in the bathroom doorway, as he had been theatrically lip syncing to his music until just that moment.
"Why are you brushing your teeth at 3:19 in the afternoon?" Gar asked, wrinkling his brow.
"I was just freshening up to go meet Kori," Rob replied, wiping some toothpaste foam off of his face. Gar took this chance to throw a meaningful look at Vick, who sighed.
"Why don't you take her to Margarita's," he suggested quickly. "Like maybe at, say, 6:00? Sound good to you?" Rob raised one eyebrow and adjusted his sunglasses.
"But Kori hates Mexican food," he wasted no time in reminding Vick. "Don't tell me you forgot about her birthday…"
"No, I didn't forget," Vick interrupted. "But can't she just order French fries or something American this time? I mean, that indigestion was probably just because of all the hot sauce she put on her taco."
"You're just saying that because it was your idea to take us all there in the first place," Rob argued.
"You guys!" Gar nearly shouted, cutting off whatever follow-up insult Vick was about to launch. "This isn't helping us at all." He turned to Rob. "He just wants to and Kori to go on a date to Margarita's so he won't have to be completely alone with Bee for an entire evening, okay?" Rob just blinked in response.
"Please?" Vick added after a moment.
"Why?" was all Rob said.
"Because he's scared of Bee," Terra piped up, apparently having gotten over the whole "this-room-is-so-messy-I-might-actually-barf" feeling.
"She's right," admitted Vick. "I know she's my girlfriend, but she terrifies me."
Rob appeared to be considering it for a few moments, while Vick looked at his feet, Gar sat down on the closest bed, and Terra decided to try and thumb-wrestle herself (She was winning, lo and behold).
"Fine," Rob said at last. "But on one condition: you're paying for both me and Kori."
"Score!" Gar jumped up from the bed in joy.
"Okay, I'll pay, as long as you come," said Vick.
This was going to be one strange Halloween.
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Bee and Vick met by the latter's car (A bulky SUV) at exactly 6:03 PM. His heart was racing for the entirety of the time he was standing there, but when he saw Bee coming, he felt a little better. She was dressed in a pair of dark denim jeans and a butter yellow sweater set. Her black hair was in a straight, clean bun on the back of her head, and her feet were slipped into pearly, beaded slides. She actually looked normal and sort of sane, for once, like someone who was fairly bearable to look in the eye and talk to.
"Hey, Sparky," Bee called as she neared Vick, or "Sparky". "Let's get this show on the road!" Then, she threw her head back and let out another one of her maniacal laughs, and all of Vick's "Normal Evening" feelings vanished into thin air.
As Vick opened the passenger side door for Bee, he glanced over to where Rob and Kori sat patiently in Rob's car, waiting for Vick to pull out so they could follow him secretively to the restaurant. They had tried to convince Gar to bring Raven along as well, to make it a triple-date of sorts, but the couple had decided to stay behind and keep Terra company. They had had planned for weeks to spend Halloween in the girls' dorm room (It was cleaner and, thus, had more space) watching The Amityville Horror on the 10" TV and eating Dots.
"It feels so good to leave the campus," commented Bee as the SUV left the school's gates. She stretched her arms above her head and yawned. As subtly as possible, Vick looked in the rearview mirror to see Rob's car coming out the campus gates several yards behind them.
To fill the approaching awkward silence, Bee reached forwards and pressed the Power button on the car radio.
"Oh, I love this song," she laughed as "Stickwitu" began playing from the speakers. "Isn't it so sweet?" Vick nodded in fake agreement and concentrated un-movingly at the road in front of him. Bee changed the station.
"I love this song, too!" she exclaimed. It was "Move Along". In the next minute, Vick learned that Bee also "loved" or "totally loved" at least ten other songs, including but not limited to "SOS" (by Rhianna), "Fight For Your Right to Party" (by the Beastie Boys), and some 60s rock song Vick only pretended he had ever heard, while Bee knew every word, or at least the ones that played before she changed the station again.
They pulled into the Margarita's parking lot at 6:11 (Had Vick been driving faster than usual, or was it his imagination?), and Vick maneuvered the car into a parking space facing the restaurant. Out of the corner of his eye, as he ushered Bee into the building, Vick watched Rob drive past the entrance to Margarita's and circle the block before heading back, just as planned.
"Oh, I haven't been here in forever," Bee exclaimed as Vick opened the door for her. In the orange-y lights of the Mexican restaurant, Bee's sort of tribal-looking necklace (in contrast with her sweater set and bun) seemed to stand out more than usual. The Spanish-speaking, mustachioed busboy lead Vick and Bee across the dining area to a booth in the far corner. While Bee scanned her menu, Vick kept an eye on the door. When he saw Rob enter, followed by Kori (dressed in jeans and a loose-fitting T-shirt in order to avoid discomfort in the case of indigestion), Vick whirled around to face Bee, hoping she wouldn't notice. She didn't; she was presently attempting to pronounce all the Spanishly words on the menu.
"What are you gonna get?" she asked Vick, leaning over the table. He almost didn't hear her, as he was trying to distract himself with the football game on TV.
"Vick, what are you getting?" Bee repeated, putting her hand on her boyfriend's arm. Vick turned around quickly.
"Uhhh, I don't…know…" he responded lamely, looking down at the menu. "You?"
"I'm getting the special nachos, only minus the beef," said Bee. "'Cause I'm a vegetarian, I always have trouble finding things to eat." When Vick's jaw went slack, Bee only giggled in that Bee way.
"You did know I'm a vegetarian?" she asked. "Didn't you?"
"Yeah," lied Vick. "I knew." A very strange Halloween indeed, he mused to himself.
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"Three orders of French fries," Kori said a few minutes later as the waitress scribbled on her notepad. The girl's eyebrows went up at Kori's request, but apparently she had had weirder, as she hurried off saying, "I'll have that for you in a moment."
Rob leaned back in his seat so that it was balanced on two legs.
"You're going to fall one day and break something," Kori said simply, taking a sip of her Sprite, though she couldn't help but smile.
"Nonsense." Rob waved it off and turned to face the table so he could reach out and grab a few nachos. Drenching them in salsa beforehand, Rob stuffed them all into his mouth and chewed noisily.
"That's gross," laughed Kori as red juice dribbled onto Rob's chin.
"Why do you think I did it?" Rob was about to say, but at that moment his chair lost balance and began a backwards decent towards the fake tree placed conveniently behind the table he and Kori were sharing. For a split second, Kori started to jump up, possibly in an attempt to reach out and grab the tree before it hit anyone, However, she didn't make it in time; the tree landed right on the head of a rather large woman dining with her husband and small children. The woman shrieked at an octave no human should be able to reach, and immediately leapt out of her seat. However, she tripped over the tree and went sprawling towards her husband who was knocked over onto the floor by impact.
"Mommy got hit by a tree!" yelled one of the two children, a small girl with pigtails.
"Do it again! Do it again!" chirped the other, a rather pudgy little boy with no front teeth.
"Since when was there a tree there?" came Rob's voice from the floor.
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Across the dining area, Vick and Bee watched the whole scene play out before them, Vick with an expression of horror, and Bee with a sort of excited look.
"Hey!" she exclaimed matter-of-factly. "That's Rob and Kori! I didn't know they were coming here tonight on a date, too!" Vick rubbed his temples and tried to act as cool as possible; he ended up most likely looking distraught and prehistoric.
"Neither did I," he added, attempting to sound surprised that two of his best friends had just appeared a few yards away.
"I didn't know Kori liked Mexican food," Bee continued. "I thought it gave her acid reflux or something?"
"No," Vick said hurriedly. "Kori loves Mexican food! She's practically Mexican herself."
"I though she was mostly Irish," mused Bee. "Hmm… She doesn't look Mexican."
"No," Vick corrected himself. "I mean she just likes the food a whole lot."
"Oh." Bee took a long sip of her drink and watched as the chairs across the room near Rob and Kori got put back in order. "If she loves Mexican food so much," she said. "Then why did she order nothing but French fries?"
"She's just getting warmed up," Vick explained, wishing with all of his heart that Bee and Kori weren't such good friends, and that Bee wouldn't most likely bring this conversation up later on in the week. She was prone to doing things like this; she would repeat entire conversations of her and Vick's to other people, and Vick would hear about it later, usually morphed into something else. Knowing Bee, Kori would probably inform Vick about himself telling his girlfriend that Kori was Mexican, which she wasn't in any way. It was just one of the many things that came with dating Bee. Sort of like Moulin Rouge and the exotic, tribal jewelry.
"I sure wish this place had karaoke," Bee said randomly a few moments later, after the waiter left with their orders jotted down. Vick had ordered a couple of tacos; Bee had fancied the gigantic plate of nachos, specially ordered without beef.
"Oh," Vick said shortly. "Do you?"
"Yeah," Bee continued. "Did you know I sing?" Vick shook his head lamely, but wasn't really all that surprised; this was becoming routine.
"No, I didn't…" Vick trailed off; he couldn't finish his sentence, literally.
"I don't wanna hurt him anymore, I don't wanna be the reason why," Bee sang. "Every time I walk out the door, I see him die a little more inside…". Vick's jaw seemed to drop several inches, like in The Mummy, when Imotep spits all those flies out at Rick O'Connell. Only Vick wasn't a member of the undead.
"Wow," he gasped. "You're… you're really good. You should try out for, like, American Idol, or something."
"Ya think?" Bee chirped, tilting her head so that one of her oversized hoop earrings overlapped her cheek, like a round window. "I never thought about it before. I've just always been in church choirs back home, and stuff. And of course, I sing in the shower all the time!" This statement was apparently worthy of another toothy horse laugh. "Hey, I'll be right back, 'kay?" Without waiting for an answer, Bee dashed off, leaving her handbag on the table next to her drink. Guessing that his date was just going to the bathroom or something, Vick leaned back in his seat and looked up again at the football game on TV. He watched with a blank face as one team raced the ball up the field, and the crowd went wild.
Quick, said a voice in Vick's mind. Now's the time to get up and get outta here! What are you waiting for, idiot? She's probably on her way back right now
"Vick?"
Vick looked up at see Rob sitting in Bee's spot, a rushed and worried expression on his face. "Do you know what your girlfriend is up to?" Vick shook his head.
"I thought she was just going to the bathroom," he answered, but at that moment, a crackly voice with a heavy Spanish accent came over the PA system, and Vick felt his blood run icy cold.
"Excuse me, but I have an announcement," said the man's voice. "For the first time ever, we have a KARAOKE ACT!" The words were amplified in Vick's ears a hundred times louder than what the cruddy intercom could ever manage to belt out.
"Here's Bee, with 'Do You Believe in Magic', by The Lovin' Spoonful!"
"Omigosh, omigosh, omigosh," Vick breathed. Was this what heart failure felt like?
"Vick?" Rob started to say, but he was interrupted by the blaring background music blasting suddenly out from some unseen boom-box behind the row of tables Bee was climbing up on top of.
"Do you believe in magic in a young girl's heart, how the music can free her, whenever it starts, and it's magic, if the music is groovy, it makes you feel happy like an old-time movie."
Sure, Bee was an awesome singer, as Vick had just so recently discovered, but that didn't keep him from being completely and absolutely traumatized.
"I'll tell you about the magic, and it'll free your soul, but it's like trying to tell a stranger 'bout rock and roll." Bee looked over at where the boys were singing and waved; Vick felt like beating himself over the head with his cup of Coke.
"Hey, where's Kori?" Rob wondered out loud, his neck craning to see the members of the crowd gathering quickly around the makeshift stage. Vick started to shrug, but then something even more horrifying than before happened: Bee leaned over and helped someone else up onto the stage. Someone with red hair and a grey T-shirt from volleyball camp.
Rob used a rather un-Christian word at that moment, and dashed over to the crowd as fast as possible, all the while muttering something about "embarrassing me in public" and "what is it with girls and their fantasies". While he would have rather stayed in the shadows of the oversized booths, Vick felt obligated to join Rob out on the… well, it wasn't a dance floor. It was just a floor.
"If you believe in magic don't bother to choose, if it's jug band music or rhythm and blues," sang Kori, swinging her red hair back and forth. "Just go and listen it'll start with a smile, it won't wipe off your face no matter how hard you try." Though she lacked Bee's loud, confident belting, Kori still had a sweet, angelic voice that reminded Vick of Sweet Tarts and unicorns and Hilary Duff and all things cute and fluffy.
"Believe in the magic that can set you free," they both sang, prancing across the table-stage like rock-stars. "Ohh, talking 'bout magic."
When the song was over, Vick contemplated darting out of the restaurant as fast as possible, but Bee caught him and grabbed his arms to steady herself as she leapt off the table and onto the carpeted floor. She threw one arm around her neck and pushed her boyfriend back towards their table, where their order had been conveniently placed.
"Look," Bee giggled. "Our food's here!" She plopped down onto the cushioned seat, moved her purse aside, and immediately shoved a guacamole-covered nacho into her mouth. "Mmm!" she hummed when she finished chewing and swallowing it. "I'm starved!"
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Fifteen minutes later, the nacho platter was squeaky clean, and Vick's own meal was nearing its end. Bee reached into her purse and pulled out her wallet; it had Tinkerbell on it. From it she removed a ten dollar bill.
"I can pay if you need me to," she offered with a large smile.
"No," Vick argued quickly. "I can take care of it."
"If you say so, Sparky!" Bee put up her wallet and money and proceeded to check her reflection in a compact mirror. However, no matter what Bee did or what she said, Vick couldn't help but think about the karaoke. I mean, what kind of girl does that? a voice in Vick's mind asked.
Bee, that's who.
"So, are you ready to go?" Vick asked as he placed the correct amount of money for tip on the table next to his and Bee's empty plates.
"Yeah," Bee piped up. "I jus gotta go to the bathroom real quick, and we can hit the road!" She let out a horse-laugh as she skipped off the ladies' room, handbag in tow.
"Psst! Vick!" came a whisper of a voice which, oddly, was coming from right near Vick's butt. He turned ninety degrees to see Rob's head. The black-haired boy was on his hands and knees on the floor next to the booth.
"Rob?" replied Vick, one eyebrow shooting up.
"I just got a call on my cell phone," Rob continued. "It was Raven. She said that Terra got a Dot stuck up Gar's nose somehow, and in revenge he tried to flush Terra's Wolverine action figure down the toilet, and now our bathroom's flooded."
"Why did he flush it down our toilet?" Vick wanted to know. "I mean, it's all the way across the campus…"
"Would you have asked?" Rob retorted. "I just think that we'd all better get back there as soon as possible, so why don't you and Bee just finish up, and we'll go ahead and-"
"Why is Rob on the floor by our table, Sparky?"
Vick and Rob both nearly went into flight at this sudden remark, they were so surprised to see Bee standing there. Rob scrambled to his feet and started to make an excuse about looking for some change he dropped, but Vick beat him to it.
"He was looking for something," he explained. "But there's been an emergency back in our dorm room, and we have to go, so-"
"You and Kori go," Bee said to Rob. "I need to talk to Vick for a moment."
Rob nodded, and Vick wished him luck with whatever difficulties might await back at the school.
And then, Vick and Bee were alone.
"Let's go outside," suggested Bee, and the two left through the restaurant's double doors. The sun had almost vanished behind the mountains, so the air was a faint pink-ish orange. A convenience store across the street was blaring out "The Monster Mash". With dying hope of escape, Vick watched as Rob's hunter green car pulled into the traffic and disappeared down the road, back towards Gotham Prep.
"So," Vick began lamely. "You wanted to talk to me?"
"Rob and Kori weren't on a date tonight, were they?" Bee was quick to respond. "You asked them to come." There was no denying it on Vick's part.
"You're right," he sighed. "I asked them to, okay?" Vick suddenly felt tired and a bit naked standing out here with Bee.
"Why?" For the first time, Bee's face lost the intense, lively expression it usually wore.
"I don't know," Vick started to say, but he closed his mouth. It seemed an eternity before the words came to him.
"I didn't feel comfortable alone with you," he admitted at last. "So I asked my friends what to do, and Gar suggested that I ask Rob and Kori to come, too."
"So you're blaming it on Gar?" Bee had to laugh a little, but when she did, her teeth didn't show. It was more of a good-natured chuckle, like perhaps Bee was looking back on some fond memory.
"Not entirely," Vick went on. "It was my fault that he gave me the advice anyways. If I hadn't bee so intimidated…"
"So I intimidate you?" Vick couldn't tell if this girl was confused or angry.
"Uh…I guess… sort of…" Bee was staring Vick down. Her gaze was forcing each word out, like a toothpaste tube.
"Yes," Vick blurted out finally. "You scare the heck outta me, with your obsessions, and your intensity and…"
But he didn't get to go on, because Bee was laughing too hard. Her teeth showed, even the back molars, and her head was thrown back in joy. To be honest, Vick was almost glad.
"Well," she said after she had calmed down a little. "It's only me! Just keep that in mind, okay Sparky?"
Vick wasn't sure how to answer to this, but it didn't matter after all, because that was when Bee leaned up and over, pushed her earrings out of the way with the back of one hand, and kissed Vick, right on the lips. He felt it all the way down to his toes, down to the tips of his fingers, all the way to the pinpoint-sized tips of his buzzed hair.
When they were done, the sun had vanished, and the streets around Margarita's were dark, lit only by the streetlights. The cheesy Halloween music still blasted from the store across the street. Bee reached down and grabbed Vick's hand.
"Well, that wasn't so bad for a first kiss, now was it?" she asked boldly as the couple walked slowly across the parking lot to Vick's car. Vick only nodded and kept on smiling.
"Happy Halloween, Sparky," Bee said, resting her head on her boyfriend's shoulder.
And it was funny, because for a moment Vick had forgotten about the holiday, despite the fact that the person he feared most in the world was standing right beside him, holding his hand. Well, the person he'd feared most until just a few minutes ago. And as he climbed into the driver's seat of his SUV and Bee turned on the radio (Lo and behold, she loved the song that was on. Imagine that…), one little phrase kept going through Vick's head; five little words that would change his high school experience forevermore:
I just kissed Bee Cox.
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Chapter nine may or may not be a long wait. It's a concept I've been toying with for, like, three years. Seriously, when I came up with it, Teen Titans was still in its first season, so I really want chapter nine to be good. And there's a huge cliffhanger at the end of it, leading up to chapter ten, so I want to finish and post both at the same time. Please review!
-Giz