Chapter 2: U + Me

"Hey guys!" The big dark skin boy said out loud when he approached the table that had Wade and George sat on for lunch.

"Lavon Hayes! Long time no see." Wade said happily while standing up and pat Lavon at his back couple times.

"Yeah. I'm busy, you know, It's almost opening season and the coach is so aggressive lately because our first game is going to be with our biggest rival…"

"Fillmore." The boys at that table said in unison with a disgusting face and a venom in their voice.

"What about you guys? Something interesting going on with your life so far?" Lavon said jokingly.

"Meh…Just my ma's birthday and my pop got her a new pearl necklace." George said boringly when he thought of his mother, Clora Tucker, all giddy-up when his father, Harold Tucker, tries to wear her with the necklace.

"What about you, Wade? Anything?" Lavon then turned his attention to Wade.

"Nope." Wade said casually like there was nothing going on just a few days ago.

George and Lavon looked at him with curiosity. Then George's head suddenly clicked when he remembered a couple days ago.

"Wade…I think I remember that you have finally had a gut to talk to the hottest girl in the school." George said sheepishly and the laughed hard when Wade's eyes almost out of his sockets and slightly blush on his cheeks.

"Uhh…It's not a big deal."

"Wade Kinsella. Tell me everything that you have said to her." Lavon said.

"Why do I have to do that? What are we? Girls? you talk like you are a girl, Lavon. I ain't gonna gossip with you." Wade chuckled. But only got Lavon and George gaped at him. They stared at Wade for a minute until Wade got really uncomfortable that he decided he was gonna said what they wanted to hear,

"Alright. Alright. Well…I was running and bumping into her."

"We don't want to know that. We want to know what are you two talking about." George said quickly.

"Umm…Ahhh.."

"Hey Wade…Can I talk to you for a second?" Then suddenly, the voice of an angel spoke behind him. He turned around just to see Zoe Wilkes stood behind him with a slight blush and bit her lower lip. Wade only stared at her and his face lit up like a kid on Christmas until she said again. "Umm…Wade, are you okay? Am I interrupting something? I'm sorry. I should have wait a bit longer. I didn't know that…."

"No! I mean no. It's okay. You are not interrupting something important. What do you want to talk about?" He snapped out of his trance and asked her back. He stood up from his seat and made a gesture with his hand that if she wanted to talk at another place. While George and Lavon were so interesting of what were they going to talk about. They totally saw that Wade's face had lit up and so was her.

"It will only take a minute. So what I want to ask you is when do you want me to pick you up?" Wade confused for a second before his face turned into a tomato when he knew what was going on.

The perks of being in the small town. Everybody knew everybody's houses and Kinsella's house happened to be the opposite of the Wilkes' houses which their houses only had a small road separate between them.

"Anytime would be fine." He smiled a little.

"Okay then, I think I will pick you up at 8 so we can have a dinner before we go to the gym."

"Sound good to me."

"And by the way, I just know a few minutes ago that prom this year theme will be a masquerade ball. So do you have a suit?"

"I think I have one" He, indeed, had one and he only wore it once for his mother's funeral.

"Great! What color is it?"

"Black."

"Okay. I think I have a black dress. Thank you for going with me."

"My pleasure."

"That's it. I'll see you later."

"Yeah, see you." Wade smiled back and waved a little at her. She waved back and bit her lower lip before turned around and went to her way. Wade turned around and sat on his chair again before looked up to his friends which they stared at him wide eyes.

"What?" Wade asked.

"Wade, you dawg! You got a date with the prettiest girl in the school and didn't tell us. Lavon and I are so disappointment in you. We thought you are our best friends." George said and touched his chest in a hurt way while Lavon pretended that he was crying.

"And we are since we are a toddler. It just that I was gonna tell y'all but didn't know how to tell." Wade chuckled.

All of the sudden, there was someone shoved Wade's right shoulder. When Wade turned around again, he became face to face with the Truitt brothers - Rudy, Rocket, and Chicken - and Rocket was the one who shoved him.

"Hey Kinsella! I heard that you got a hot date with Zoe Wilkes. Is that true?" Rudy asked Wade and hit Chicken's head when he saw that Chicken was fast asleep while he still stood beside his brothers. Chicken was awake for like millisecond before he dozed off again.

"It's none of your business. Who am I going with is not your concern, Rudy."

"Hey. Hey. Hey. I just wanna know that is it true or not? We just saw you talk to her and we all know she had never asked a guy to the prom before. Why this year is different, but most of all, why did she choose to go with you?"

"Because I…I…I don't know either."

"I know right. I don't know either why she choose you when you are just a scrawny and lanky with long messy hair." Rocket then said afterward.

"Shut up you guys. Wade said it's none of your business then it's none of yours. Go find your sister before she hit it off with that Scooter boy over there." Lavon spoke up and pointed to across the room where Tansy Truitt, their little sister, made out with Scooter McGreevy.

Truitt brothers walked away from their table and started to walk toward Tansy and Scooter from across the room.

"I should get going. I'm gonna be late for the next class." Wade said to his friend before he stood up from his chair and walked away from them. he headed to the hallway and beeline to his locker.

"His next class is Chemistry." George said to Lavon quietly and they both knew that Wade loathed that subject.

Wade was picking up his Chemistry textbook when someone poked at his left shoulder. Wade thought that it was one of his friend, George, because he had the same class as him next so he turned around ready to face whatever his friend wanted to say to him, when he turned, it was not the golden boy or the quarterback of the football team, but it was her.

"Hi…again." She said shyly while holding all of her books.

"Hi…." Wade said and he didn't know what to say next.

"Look. About the prom…"

"Oh about that. You find someone better and want to go with him instead right? Go ahead, I don't mind. I am just a nobody anyway." Wade said quietly.

"What are you saying, Wade? I came here because I heard what those Truitt brothers said to you and I want to make sure that you are okay."

"Oh. Sorry, I didn't know that…But why do you choose me?" Wade then remembered what Rudy and Rocket said and he couldn't even find an explanation why.

"Do you really want to know?" She asked.

"Of course, I wanna know. Or are your friends daring you to ask me? If it is then…."

"No! No, of course not. It's because….because I….I have a thing for a boy with braces." She whispered quietly and then blushed so hard that beyond just a tomato, maybe a tomato farm.

"You what?!"

"I like a boy with braces." She said quietly but louder than the last time. Wade started to grin like an idiot.

"Wait! Tom also has braces." Tom Long was almost 5 years younger than them and he was a good kid, but he was kind of a whiny boy.

"Umm…He's just a kid, he's younger than me and I prefer someone who has the same age as me." She said sheepishly.

"Judson is also had it on." Judson Lyons was a nice guy and also smart. Everyone knew that when he grew up, he wanna be a vet.

"Well…Let's just say that he's boring and always talk about animals' guts."

"It leaves me then." Now, Wade's face started to flush so hard and he couldn't contain his smile any longer that he had to show his braces.

"Yep! It leaves you." She blushed when she answered him and she even blushed harder when he showed off his braces. She got it bad and her knees almost buckled.

"Well, I have to say that I feel honor and I also have a thing for a doe eyes girl."

"So…" She then looked at her clock on her phone and saw that it almost time for the next class. "…I'll see you then. Oh! And this prom thing is also our business. Just you and me. No one else." She said and quickly kissed his right cheek softly before she ran to the other way for her next class and never look back to him.

Wade touched his cheek that still felt her soft lips pressed against it and smiled like a fool to himself.

"Yeah…you and me."