Lloyd's POV
I guess Natalia was kind of my girlfriend now.
It felt really weird to think about - all my life, I had been doing everything I could to avoid girls. I wanted nothing to do with any of them, until she came along. Mom would say it's a part of growing up, Dad would go kind of a roundabout way and say it's "the order of things" and Uncle Sensei would sip his tea and go "hmmmmm."
But not important. What mattered was that I was happy, and I think she was happy too. We were good for each other; she made me laugh, and I made her laugh, and she made me feel like a normal guy, not just the Gold Ninja.
After the dance, I went back to school as usual. And as usual, Natalia was there. Even now that there were other girls at Darkly's, she still wanted to hang out with the guys.
She grinned when she saw me. "Hi, Lloyd."
"Hi, Natalia." I smiled shyly. "I had a lot of fun at the dance."
"Me too," she replied. She laughed, a nervous kind of laugh and not a "ha-ha-funny" kind of laugh. "Guess this means we're kind of a couple now."
My heart picked up. Are you serious, heart? Why did it keep doing that? "What d'you mean?"
"Well, that's just how it goes. When two people start going to dances together, and getting pizza together, and stuff like that, they're considered a couple. I don't really get it. I just hear the other girls talking about it, and that's about how it works."
"I don't mind," I blurted out. Great. First I couldn't control my heart, now my mouth. Et tu, tongue? I thought speech was supposed to follow thought, and not the other way around.
But Natalia wasn't mad. Thankfully, she didn't laugh at my stupidity either. Actually, she seemed pretty happy about the whole thing. "Honestly? I don't mind either. I...I really don't know if there's a right way to say this. I like you, Lloyd. I really do."
"Well, I like you too," I said. Eh, forget thinking before speaking anyway, right?
"Not just as a friend," she said, hastily correcting herself, "or as a totally cool guy. I like you. Like, in an 'I-actually-want-to-be-a-couple' way."
I took a deep breath. "That's...kinda what I meant."
Her smile got even wider, so wide it looked like it might grow right off her face. "I'm glad, Lloyd. I'm really, really glad."
"Do you, I dunno, maybe wanna get pizza again this weekend?"
"Sure! Same place as last time?"
"No," I said. "Don't you remember? I had to Spinjitzu you out of that place last time!"
"Oh, yeah. Right. How about ice cream instead, then? Hopefully that won't to lead to any incidents."
"Sure!"
With that, she skipped off down the hallway to class. I felt a bit dizzy. This was awesome. This was so, so very awesome. I practically danced to my first class.
So yeah. My views on girls were definitely changed a lot, over time. It wasn't all bad, though. In fact, I think I have to say most of it was pretty stinkin' great.