Operation Beautiful

2: my boxers happen to be batman

my boxers happen to be batman

“We’re home!” Matt booms as we step inside the house. I’m an exchange student from Belgium, so while I’m here I’m staying with Matt. He leaps into the kitchen and leans over to give his little sister hug.

“Hey, I’m making coo-- AH!” She pushes him away in shock. “Please tell me you’re wet because you just stepped out of the shower.” He twirls her around so she can see his sweat-soaked practice clothes.

“I just stepped out of the shower,” he says with a wink, before bounding up the stairs. She shudders and sees me in the doorway.

“Hey, Corey.”

“Hey, Jessica.” Jessica’s just a year younger than us. “Are you making cookies?”

“Yup,” she says. “I’m having a sleepover tonight.” Oh. It’s Friday. I can feel my head start to pound. A bunch of crazy junior girls in our house...uy. “You can help if you want, since Matt’s probably already in the shower.”

“Sure.” I wash my hands with soap and dry all the way up my arms. She cuts out the shapes, I put them on the tray. We work in relative silence. I’m not very good with girls. Haley never made me nervous because she wasn’t very much like a girl in the first place. She was perfectly straight-forward. If we were at the mall and I noticed her staring at a particular dress and offered to buy it for her, a no meant no. It didn’t mean “I’m just being nice. In reality I do want it and if you aren’t smart enough to go buy it for me right now I am going to be in a pissy mood on the way home.”Then again...the old Haley never said what she really wanted. So she could have really wanted that dress. The point was that she never blamed me for taking her words at face value. And when I said something stupid or the words just came out wrong, she ignored it or just laughed. That definitely put me at ease. Other girls? Regular crazy hormonal ones? Ugh, they scare the crap out of me.

“All finished,” she says with a smile, popping the tray into the preheated oven. “The girls will probably want to make the next batch themselves.” I just nod.

“Uh, how many girls are coming?” I ask. Jessica counts on her fingers.

“Umm...about 15.” An involuntary shudder runs through me.

“I think I’ll go take a shower,” I say, edging towards the stairs. She nods and starts cleaning some of the baking supplies.

“Matt!” I yell, pounding on the door.

“What?” he asks finally, throwing open the door. He’s wearing nothing but a towel.

“There are fifteen junior girls coming for a sleepover,” I say breathlessly. His face goes pale and he clutches the towel tighter around his waist, as though afraid some girl will pop out from behind the corner and snatch it away.

“Are they here yet?” I shake my head. Matt disappears for a minute and then comes back, fully clothed. He bounds down the stairs yelling.

“Mom! Corey and I are going to sleepov--” He stops as he sees both his parents at the door, each with an overnight kit.

“Hey,” Mrs. Ramsey says with a smile. “Matt, honey, your dad and I thought it would be a great time to go visit my sister. She lives about twenty minutes away, but she’s having some trouble with the newborn baby so we thought we’d go help out a bit.”

“So you want us to monitor the sleepover,” Matt says with a sigh. You know it’s a bad omen when the parents would rather spend the evening with a screaming newborn that wasn’t theirs than be here with us.

Half an hour after they leave, the doorbell starts ringing. First is Jessica’s best friend, Emmaleigh. I’ve never actually talked to her, she’s about as shy with everyone as I am with girls. Then comes trouble. The Rangler twins. Really pretty, really talkative, really...annoying. These two are going to cause all the problems tonight, I can guarantee it. As the living room fills with more and more girls, Matt and I head upstairs to hide in the cover of the game room. Hours of homework and video gaming later we hear some squeals from downstairs.