The moment was interrupted when the Coach, now having climbed down from his ladder chair, walked over. Chandra sat up, unwilling to look weak for any longer, despite being decently tired. She hadn't been unconscious long enough to recover entirely, but most of the job was done.
"She's alright!" The coach checked her for fogginess. "Heroes win!" He looked over at the poor pair of boys. "Speed, Lash, hit the showers!"
Chandra, now fully herself, scoffed as Will looked at her in relief from the stands. He may have been worried, but he didn't even stand up to check on her, unlike the rest of the gang, who had migrated to her side after she had collapsed.
As Chandra was about to enter the bus for home behind Layla, Warren grabbed her from behind. She instinctively grabbed his arms and threw him over her shoulder, barely managing to redirect his flight course to the grass from the bus steps upon realizing it was him.
"Warren!" She grasped her chest, "Don't scare me like that. You could have been seriously injured."
He chuckled from his place in the grass, completely fine as he propped himself up on his elbows from where he had landed on his back and looked up at her. "Firey. I have a shift at the paper lantern after school today. Would you want to hang out during my break and after my shift?"
Chandra was surprised, and it clearly showed in her eyes. But then she began to smile and nodded. Warren smiled, then caught himself as he noticed a bunch of people staring. His smile faded but his eyes still held mirth. "See you then, Moongirl."
Once safely on the bus, Layla squealed and grabbed Chandra shoulder, shaking her arm in excitement. "Woah, Layla. Careful or you may seem more excited about me hanging out with Warren than your own date tonight."
"It's not a date!" Layla protested.
"Yes it is."
"No it isn't."
"Yes."
"No!"
"Agree to disagree?"
"Fine."
Chandra, though Layla pouted, could see that the girl was excited, and not daring to hope that it was a date. "You're going, just the two of you, to a romantically-lit restaurant where he does not like the food purely because he cares about you. And you call it not a date?"
"Will probably doesn't think it's a date."
Chandra couldn't argue there.
They got off the bus and Layla led Chandra to her house. Chandra's mother, while caring, had been reluctant to provide housing for a complete stranger to her. However, after Chandra offered to help heal any animals that needed healing that she could, Ms. Williams was more than willing to welcome her with open arms.
Layla was stressing out about her date. Chandra could see that as the poor girl threw item after item out of her closet, then picked them back up before throwing them again.
"Relax, girl!" Chandra stepped up to the mess. "Here. Wear this." Chandra held up a green dress that appeared to mimic the looking up through a tree canopy towards the sun, light peaking between and through the green leaves.
Layla gasped, but her face clouded. "That's too formal!"
Chandra sighed before putting it down and holding up a skirt that looked like the vines in the print were coming out of the woven fabric. Layla's eyes lit up. She couldn't believe that she had missed that. She grabbed it and put it on before looking around for a shirt. Chandra handed her a lilac blouse with billowy sleeves that rested above her belly button.
"I can't wear that! It shows too much skin!"
"Look, layla, this shows less skin than my longest croptop."
"Yeah, but…"
"Are you saying that my clothing is inappropriate?"
"N-n-no!" she stammered.
"Then put it on. Relax," Chandra said, seeing Layla's face pale, "you show more skin in your miniskirt than with this crop top. Plus, at least it's not a deep v-neck."
Layla looked at the clock before hurrying to the bathroom to change.
"Why are you going to the bathroom? You've already changed your skirts in front of me?"
Chandra could hear Layla choke from the bathroom before the coughing leveled out. She laughed. Chandra couldn't wait for Layla to realize how much Chandra had been wearing at the wrestling match. Extra clothing only allowed people to grab you.
Layla rushed to the front door, with her green eyeshadow a bit more prominent than usual and her eyes shining with excitement.
"Where do you think you're going without me? You can't drive, you know? And you certainly are not about to walk out like that in the dark. I'll drive."
"You can drive?"
"Of course, how do you think I will get to the further away meets?"
Layla looked confused before realizing that by 'meets' I meant the fights. Layla didn't even lecture Chandra, knowing that the girl was only fighting to save the one adult she considered family, even if Chandra had never told her who was sick.
"Okay, but I call shotgun!"