Sigma/Star

Chapter 45: Friendship

Porter took in a deep breath as he stood outside Riya's door. She was in there, he knew it. She would be getting ready to come watch the bowling practice. Soon she would come out and run into him and he would finally make the move he had been planning and would ask her out to the dance.

The nervous teenager wiped his sweaty palms down his pants, leaving little shimmering streaks of salty water on the clothing. He had gotten through the test today after studying hard with Ardwen last night. It was a bit of a forced study session as Ardwen, Raul, and Chase had managed to trap Porter like an animal in a cage and put him in Ardwen's room, so that they could get to Nami without her crush around. So Ardwen had been left to watch Porter while the other two went off to try and woo Nami and the captive and guard decided they might as well pass time studying. That was the first time Porter had really felt prepared and competent during a test. He liked the feeling.

Tonight was the final practice for the bowling team before their first official match against Ms. Sakura's year six class tomorrow. Riya had begun coming out to cheer on captain Porter and the gang but they had only barely improved over the last little while, if at all, and Mr. Toriyama had openly expressed his dismay at this. Still the practice at least gave Porter a reason to run into Riya. A reason coming to fruition at that moment.

The door slid open with a hiss and Riya's slender, feminine form stood still in the doorway. "Porter? Is that you?" Her eyes were still adjusting to the darkness in her room compared to the light of the hallway.

"Oh um yes I..." Porter's voice cracked and shot up an octave. He had to cough a bit and turn away until his throat was cleared. "Yes I thought you would be coming to practice with us so I uh....yes well I came to...umm..."

"Of course I'm coming to the practice! I wouldn't miss the last one before their big match tomorrow. You guys are going to win right?" Riya looped her arm through Porter's and started off down the hall, dragging along the red-faced boy behind her.

"Yeah I hope we win." Porter thought of Chase and his consistent ability to be the worst player on the team. How they would get past that he had no idea. "But I was kind of hoping to ask you something Riya."

"Sure Porter, you can ask me anything."

"Do you...I mean only if you wanted and you had nothing better to do and I mean I know we don't talk a lot so maybe this is a bit, like, well I mean I don't want to scare you away and maybe you don't even want to go to it but umm..." Porter stumbled through the question. How hard could this be? He had it all planned out before. In his mind he had replayed every different answer and way to ask and situation but this had never been one of them! "Riya would you like to go to the dance with me?"

"I'd love to Porter..." The young man nearly flipped but managed to contain himself by focusing on just walking forward and making sure he didn't trip. "But I'm already going with Fritz. He asked me this morning." Riya looked up at Porter and gave him a very innocent smile.

"Say what?!" Porter's face cracked like a window pane and shattered into pieces, revealing a stunned, Porter, with jaw dropped and eyes popped out. Riya giggled a little and the two walked the rest of the way to the bowling alley, with Porter still frozen in his expression.

The other members of the Crisis Rescue Unit were all already there, and turned to see the pair walk in. Riya immediately flew to join Nami and begin a flurry of girl chatter, while Porter still stood there, dumbfounded. Ardwen, Raul, and Chase quickly gathered together at seeing Porter enter with Riya around his arm and had a discussion on what this could mean. Eventually they came to a conclusion that caused a cheer to go up from them and high-fives to be exchanged. They then rushed over and began congratulating Porter on asking out Riya.