Perfectly Real

Part 1

Skyler opened the door to her dorm and flicked on the lights, walking in with Sunny and Poppy following close behind.

"Woo-hoo! That color block party was so great; you did an amazing job DJ-ing, Poppy!"

"Thanks Sunny! That was my first school gig and I'm still riding that high!"

"Yeah, the music was great, Poppy-"

"You know what else must've been great? Your date with Ruby!"

"Wait, what? Sunny I don't-"

"Well, maybe you'd describe it some other way. Unexpected? Spectacular? Life-changing!?"

"I just-"

"I'm sure Vi's gonna want to interview you two about it for The Vi Life, so you should get to thinkin' about how you'd describe the date! Oh! How about magical??"

"I DON'T THINK IT WAS A DATE!!"

"Oh."

"Damn, you had me fooled. In fact, everyone at the party was fooled; you two definitely looked like each other's dates, even all the way from the DJ table."

Skyler had been thinking about what her situation with Ruby was all night. She felt that they were in good terms after the whole Colin disaster, but that's about it; she still had doubts about all of it in the back of her mind.

"Well, it wasn't. It couldn't have been! Ruby probably didn't even think about it being a date."

"But she ran after you when you left. And she gave you that make-over!"

"She would've done that for anybody, Sunny, you know that."

"I don't know Sky, didn't she also go into detail about how amazing you are, that it's Colin's loss and-"

"Again, Poppy. She would've done that for anyone."

"And she painted your initials on her skirt, and hers on yours."

"Well-"

"You danced, specifically, together all night, Sky. That's a date!"

"She might've even outdone Jade and Bella's date; I didn't see them walking around with each other's initials on their outfits! Oh, but don't compete with them; you know Jade's competitive, and Bella is too, so that with Ruby's ambitious nature you're really in for-"

"Sunny! Please! I told you, it couldn't have been a date! Ruby couldn't have thought of it as one!"

"Why couldn't it have been a date?? It looked like one to me."

"Sky, are you sure that Ruby didn't think of it as a date, or you don't want to think of it as one?"

Poppy's question caught Skyler off guard.

"No! Well, yes. I just- look; I would love a date with Ruby, a real date. Tonight was messy and if it was a date then I just embarrassed myself and ruined it and was the worst date ever-"

"Okay, woah, I don't think Ruby saw it that way at all. I saw the way she looked at you, Sky, all throughout the night and on our walk back here; I don't think you 'ruined' anything."

"Why don't you just go talk to her about it? Ask her how she felt about the night and you'll get to know everything you need. Then we can help you start planning your secon-"

Poppy put her hand over Sunny's mouth.

"What Sunny means is that you need to go figure out Ruby's feelings before you let your assumptions ruin your own. They're probably still awake over there; I mean, we all just got back."

"Okay, okay, yes! I'll go talk to Ruby about our, well, 'date' and see how she felt. Maybe you're right, and I'm worrying for nothing."

"We'll be waiting for you!"

Skyler nodded, and went into the hall.