Silent Voice

Chapter 11 - The Date

Morning

Claire bounces up and down in her bedroom. She could hardly sleep! She's going on a date today!

Ava picked a drama she said was called "enticing." Apparently it took like 2 hours for her to select a movie? But that's Ava. Claire bets it'll be great!

Claire goes through several purple outfits before selecting the perfect one. She brushes her clean hair, carefully applies lip gloss, and puts water on her eyelashes. (It encourages them to cling together, which looks prettier. Claire read that in a magazine once.)

Claire admires her look. She does a little twirl in front of the mirror. She's all ready for her date!

Her date is at 6 pm.

It's 7 am.

Claire is so full of excitement, she can barely stop herself from running around the house shrieking and waving her hands in the air! But screaming in the morning is not polite to her dads.

A muted happy shriek rises up like a very quiet siren. Claire's going on a date! She's going to see Ava! Maybe they will hold hands. Maybe even kiss! What does Ava smell like? What will Ava want to talk about? What does Ava think about the world? These are Very Important Questions and Claire is dying to know everything!

The excitement is getting too much and Claire must get herself under control, so she fills the sink up halfway with water, pinches her nose, and dunks her face in.

She emerges sputtering, water running down her face and dripping from the front of her hair, fumbling for a towel with her eyes squeezed shut. Perhaps this was not the best idea.

Then again, maybe it was. Claire feels a bit calmer as she looks at herself in the mirror again. She certainly gave herself a good distraction.

Claire walks over to her laptop and flips it open. She opens the draft of her essay and skims through it again. She's had so many ideas after the PosAutivity Network meeting, and she really hopes Angel will like it! She's been working almost nonstop.

Maybe her dads will like it too! She should show them!

Claire reads through it again. She spends the next hour fine-tuning, making the computer read it aloud so she can hear how it sounds, fixing awkward wording, clarifying points, and correcting a few stray typos. Now, it looks good.

She emails the first draft to Angel. Then she emails it to herself, and prances out of her room sideways, looking for a dad to present her work to.

Claire hops sideways into the dining room, where her pop is wiping down the table.

"Hey, Claire!" he says. "I'm working from home today. Dad went to the grocery store."

Claire gives a gasp of mock horror. "WITHOUT ME?" And she crosses her arms.

"Don't worry," Pop says. "I made him promise to bring home chocolate!"

Begging Dad to buy desserts is a very important grocery store tradition for Claire. He always caves in. He can't resist her face.

Claire purses her lips. She doesn't like being robbed of the opportunity to come along to the grocery store, with its magical bakery and freezer section. All those treats she could convince her dad to buy... automatically denied! She will have to see if her dad can earn her forgiveness.

"He better bring home the good chocolate," Claire finally types. "Not the icky 'adult' chocolate."

"I asked him to buy both," Pop says. "We icky adults need something to enjoy that you won't gobble up first!"