CHAPTER 5. A DISAPPOINTING DATE.

10:00

"Let's see, Diana. You are dreaming, right?" Asked Aunt Antiope.

He instantly opened his eyes and sat up on his bed, as if he had had a bad dream. His alarm hadn't gone off yet, which meant it wasn't a school day, he was free for the day. But, this could not be enjoyed when he felt something wet slipping down both cheeks. He touched his cheeks with his hands and saw that they were tears.

"I'm crying. Why?" He asked to himself. Now this was strange. He rarely cried, and right now he didn't feel sad about anything, so crying right now had no reason at all.

His thoughts with his tears that came out for no reason were interrupted by the sound of his cell phone. It wasn't an alarm, it was a message. That message wasn't from Dick, or Tim, or Zatara, if not Zatanna.

"I'm almost there. I can't wait" That was what the message said.

"Almost where?" He asked in a normal voice.

He quickly realized that the answer must be in his personal cell phone diary, and he also remembered that only one person must be responsible for that message.

"Oh no, Diana. Now what did you do? He said as he accessed his diary. His eyes widened when she saw what she had written. "A date?!" He asked aloud.

Wasting no time, like a grasshopper, he jumped out of bed, put on the best clothes he had, a short-sleeved shirt, accompanied by a wine-colored sweater, blue pants, and black casual shoes. He put on lotion and deodorant, washed his face quickly, grabbed his wallet, his cell phone, and his keys and ran, but not before closing the door, to the place where he was told to go.

"You have a date tomorrow with Miss Zatara. At the gourmet Wonderland Restaurant on Park Row at 10:30." That was what her message in the newspaper told him.

XXX

6:50

In the town of Little Volos, she was in her bed, totally relaxed, and somewhat happy for the date she had managed to arrange between the person with whom she frequently switched bodies and the girl who liked both him and her.

She still had to go to school, but, on this day, she had a feeling that she would do well. She smiled as she recalled the details about the date she had orchestrated.

"Well, that's what I planned, but…" She said letting out a short laugh. She hoped that he could do it well. She couldn't pretend to be him every time she was around Miss Zatara.

With that thought, she got up and prepared to start her day.

XXX

10:29

Tired enough that he had to run to get to Park Row, the restaurant that the girl who had been in his body and the girl he liked had agreed to attend on this day, he crouched down and put his hands on his knees so that the air could reach his lungs faster. He was like that for a few seconds until he got up.

He checked his watch, noting that he had barely made it to a minute before Zatanna arrived. He sighed in relief, but now he wondered if she was going to make it in time. His reply came soon after.

"Hello, Bruce" Zatanna called from behind.

He turned around and saw the face of the girl he liked, she was very smiling and her eyes were bright.

"You've been here for a long time?" Zatanna asked, with a cheerful curiosity.

"Yeah. I mean… no" It was hard for him to answer. He was quite nervous about this appointment; but, that nervousness dissipated when he saw how she was dressed.

Zatanna was wearing a black top that hit her neckline with short dangling sleeves, a fairly short white skirt that covered part of her thighs, what joined the skirt and the shirt was a white belt with a buckle, she was wearing shoes with a bowl two centimeters white, and to that was added a hat to protect from the sun white with black edges and ribbon. She needed her outfit to be fuller to cover her hands, and the hat would need to be smaller so she could tell she was dressed like in the old movies.

"I just got here" He replied, this time more sure of what he was saying.

Zatanna said, taking him by the hand and leading him straight into the restaurant.

XXX

7:20

The morning had gone normal. Neither Donna nor Aunt Antiope had told her about something terrible that could have happened the day before, when he was in her body. But, from her memories, she knew that they had gone to the altar of the god Cronos to leave an offering, because that is what Antiope had told her the day before doing so. And, in the end, it had been he in her body who had placed the offering.

After breakfast, she went back to her room to comb her classic braid. When she was done doing that, she wanted to put her ribbon, like she always did. When she took it in her hands, she thought again about the boy with whom she exchanged bodies over and over again without any explanation. She must have thought her date with Zatanna was going well, so she gave a slight smile.

"It will be nice. They should be together now" She said to herself as she put her ribbon on the end of the braid to hold it. She didn't expect that, as she began to entangle him in that part, she would begin to feel something wet sliding down her cheeks.

She looked in the mirror and saw something incomprehensible. She was shedding tears. She was crying.

"Why am I…? Why?" She asked to herself.

She wanted to know what was the reason she was crying. She had been through a lot in her life, and what was going on with her and her thoughts about that boy were no reason to cry. Or were they?

XXX

10:45

Zatanna and her date were sitting at a table in the center of the gourmet restaurant. There wasn't a lot of clientele in those days, so they had walked in in a few minutes and the available table was the one they were sitting at. They soon ordered their plates, and were about to eat when Zatanna opened her mouth to try and start a conversation with the boy she had arranged the date with.

"Have you come here before with your parents, Bruce?" She asked, in a curious tone.

The response she received from him was not very encouraging.

"I came here a few times, but we haven't been here very often in a long time" He said with a slight smile, implying his social status, wanting to hide his nervousness about this appointment, and for everything to progress as he wanted it to.

However, Zatanna didn't take this answer very well, so her smile turned into a mixture of puzzlement and nervousness. She didn't know if she should ask him something else.

The two continued eating for a while, but when she was halfway through her plate, he decided to get up to go to the men's restroom. It wasn't because he needed to go, but he needed a breather so he could think of some way to salvage this date that was already going badly.

"I don't know what to tell her" He said to himself as he leaned against the wall. His mind was going in thousands of different directions during the time he was in that position, until he remembered that the girl he was swapping bodies with had only written a sentence in the diary, something atypical of her, she always tends to be more descriptive or extend more her story. Therefore, he took out his cell phone and went to his diary and found that, indeed, she had written to him more than just one sentence.

"I wanted to go on the date, but if you end up going at the end, you better enjoy it" It was the next sentence she had written to him.

Too bad she didn't know that he wasn't enjoying the date at all, but because of difficulties with communication and possible differences that he didn't know they had.

"However, I'm pretty sure you've never dated. That's why I'm adding some links that will help you, newbie" It was another sentence that she had written to him.

"Oh really?" He asked to himself. This situation was already too delicate to be mocked by a girl he didn't know well.

He checked what the links said. They were humorous titles but they helped a lot of nervous and skittish guys who had gotten a date with the girl they liked but still needed an instruction manual. The titles were: I'm crazy, but I have a girlfriend; Help for the most important date of your life, You can also have a girlfriend, How to send her messages, What to do and what not to do on a date and What you should never do on a date.

"She's making fun of me" He said angrily. He could already tell how happy she had been when he sent her those links.

In order not to continue making everything worse, he turned off her cell phone and returned to Zatanna at the table. Despite his best attempts, the date was not progressing well. Zatanna missed the feminine persona he displayed from time to time, while he still couldn't find a way to like her other than the way the girl he swapped bodies with had managed.

Despite this, he decided to take her to the area known as ' Amusement Mile ' to spend some time walking through the commercial area of the city, which could be said to be the most pleasant in the city so that they could walk without any problem. During that walk, Zatanna was attracted to the gallery, so she asked him if they could go inside, to which he answered in the affirmative.

The gallery could be what would revive the date, but it ended up being the opposite, since neither she was able to match his personality, and he was distancing himself more and more. The climax of this disappointing date was when he saw a photo posted on a wall, that photo was quite similar to the large circular lake in the town where he had been for several days when he was exchanging bodies with that girl. He didn't know why, but he was hypnotized by that photo, as if he wanted to go to that place immediately.

"Shall I tell you something, Bruce?" Zatanna asked in a delicate voice, which brought him out of his thoughts with that photo, making him glance at her slightly. "Today you are a different person" She told him, stepping back a bit.

Shortly after they left the gallery, and were now crossing a bridge for people. He felt guilty that the date turned out that way, so he tried to make amends.

"Are you alright, Miss Zatara? We could go to dinner" He said, somewhat nervous. Unfortunately, the die was thrown, the girl's response confirmed it.

"It's better for everyone to go home" Was her answer, making him stop.

"Okay" He said, somewhat perplexed by the answer. But, that was little with what she was going to tell him.

"Bruce, you... Sorry if I'm wrong" She said to start.

"About what?" Asked. He didn't understand what she meant.

"You liked me. It isn't true?" She asked.

He just squeezed his hands, this had made him uncomfortable. He didn't like to talk so openly with anyone except her, but the situation he had gotten himself into with this date had made him react like that.

"But now, you like someone else" Zatanna said.

Immediately, he did not want to say it, because it was not to say it there, and he was not in love with another person.

"No, of course not" He said, keeping his gaze fixed, but putting his hands in his pockets.

"Oh really?" She asked quite curious. She was sure he was lying to her.

"Yeah, that's not the case, Zanna" He said, wanting to look away, but not to stop her from saying something else, like she thought he was lying.

"Are you sure about that?" Zatanna asked getting quite close to his face.

"Yes, I'm sure" He answered, still trying to keep his gaze fixed on her.

"Well, thanks for today" She said and started to walk away. "See you at work" She added.

Just like that, he watched her walk away, growing smaller with every second she was away from him.

When he stopped seeing her, he stood on the bridge for a while. He kept thinking that he had screwed up something with Zatanna too quickly, and he was nervous about what was going to happen next. He calmed down a bit seeing the way he had said goodbye to her, it had been friendly, so at least they would remain friends.

When he calmed down, he checked his cell phone again, in the diary in which she had written what they were going to do today, it still hadn't finished. She had written one last sentence. This wasn't teasing or dating advice, she was informing him about something he couldn't have predicted.

"When the date is over, you should be able to see the comet in the sky" Was what the last sentence said.

"The comet?" He asked in his mind. Ignoring her, he looked up at the sky, hoping to see what she told him he should be able to see, but there was nothing like it, just a plane going to who knows where, and the moon starting to become visible. "Why does she also say that? There's no comet" He asked to himself again.

There being no response, a thought arose in his mind.

Out of curiosity, he decided to check his address book, but the contact list, not the call history, hoping to find her number on the list. In all this time, both he and she had only agreed to continue leading each other's lives as normal as possible while they changed bodies, and in all this time, neither had been interested in speaking to the other on the phone, and less to see each other in person. That was the reason why until now he was wishing that she had written down her cell phone number for him.

Fortunately, the number was there, and she had even put her first and last name, Diana Galanis, in the phonebook. He hesitated for a moment, but decided to call her, so he pressed the call button, and now he was waiting for her to answer.