KISS: Casablanca High School

Ch 53: So Formal's Coming Up (Gene)

Stifling a yawn, I walked over to the tables, sitting next to Ace and stretching. "So who're you guys going to take to formal?"

"Gene, who do you think?" Paul mumbled. I stared at him in surprise as Ace looked up from doodling on his notebook. "GENE?! You're going to formal with GENE?!" "Yeah wait Paul when did we talk about this?" I asked, brow furrowing in confusion.

Paul laughed, face red. "Sheesh, I thought I was the one with hearing problems. I said 'Gee, who do you think?' I'm taking Ava, obviously. You know, my girlfriend? The one I've been dating since sophomore year?"

I let out a sigh, relieved smile spreading across my face. "That makes more sense. That's cute, you going with her group?"

He shrugged, going back to his phone with his face still slightly pink. "Not sure yet. Depending on who you guys are going with we can probably go with y'all. You going with Christine?"

I shrugged, trying to scan the sports court to find her. "I'd like to, I still have to ask. But probably, yeah. If she says no I might take Shandi."

"Hah, no you won't, I already asked her," Bruce said, flashing me a cocky grin. I laughed, holding up my hands. "Alright, alright, point taken. Hopefully Christie says yes then. What about you, Eric?"

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I dunno, man, I don't really know any girls here. I guess I could take someone from Devereaux but that's no fun. Also I think their dance is the same weekend."

"Ah no big deal, we'll hook you up!" Peter said, grinning as Eric's face grew red. "What about...uh...Lilah?" he asked, looking around the sports court. "She's dating the other Eric," Paul countered. "Bets?" "Taken."

"Oh, how about Carrie from our French class? She's not dating anyone," Bruce said, elbowing Eric with a smile.

"I mean...I guess I'll ask her," he mumbled. "She's nice."

Nodding, I turned to look at Peter and Ace, who were looking sappily at each other. "What about you two?"

Their smiles vanished and Ace shrugged, sitting upright. "I dunno, man. I mean...like obviously we wanna take each other but like I'm not...I'm not out to my parents so like I don't know how that's gonna work."

"And I'm not out to mine either so yeah," Peter chimed in, letting out a sigh that made his hair flutter.

"Simple, we'll just meet up at someone's house to take pictures and stuff before meeting up with our dates. That way just tell your parents that not all of us got a girl to go with them so we're going as a group. Then when we get to the actual dance or like to dinner beforehand you guys can do whatever the hell you want," Paul said, looking up from his notes.

A huge smile spread across Ace's face and he gave Peter a kiss. "Paulie you're a genius. We'll just do that. Speaking of, what do we want to do for dinner before the dance?"

As they started debating that, I looked around the court again, glancing at my phone. 7:53, I could do it, I have time. Just had to find her. Ah, jackpot.

She was sitting there with her friend group, chatting happily, red hair shining even though it was cloudy. My heart started to pound as I walked over to her. Oh man what was wrong with me? I've been totally fine with plenty of other girls before, why was Christie any different? Why did she make me so damn nervous?

Taking a deep breath, I ran a hand through my hair, drawing to a halt in front of her and trying to smile. "Hey, uh, Christie, can I...can I talk to you about something for a second?" I stammered, tripping over my words. "Sure! Is it something you can't say in front of my friends?" she asked, giving me a smile as she half-rose to her feet.

"Well I mean I don't think so I was just wondering if you wanted to go to formal with me?" I asked, ears burning. Her smile widened and she gave me a hug. "Yeah of course! I was wondering when you were going to ask me," she teased. I grinned, returning the side hug and ruffling her hair. "Alright, sweet! Thanks. We can talk later about what the plan is and stuff, like who we want to go with and all that. Anyway I gotta go to calc, I'll see you in English!" I babbled, reluctantly letting her go and walking back over to the table.

Paul gave me a huge smile as I sat next to him, face flushed. "Well, well, well, look who decided to just ditch the conversation to ask Christine to formal!" he cried, elbowing me in the ribs. "I'm assuming, actually hoping she said yes otherwise I'm going to feel bad."

"Yeah she said yes, which is a relief. So now the rest of you need to get everything all figured out so formal actually goes well. And I mean hey, if formal goes well then prom probably will too."

"Geez man, that's not until May! Once dance at a time. Which I guess I need to find a date for now," Eric said, letting out a sigh as the bell rang. Bruce laughed, grabbing his backpack. "I told you, I'll hook you up with Carrie. She's nice and she's already told me she thinks you're funny. Or maybe she said you were cute, I don't know. You want me to ask her in my gov class?"

"No! Maybe? I dunno, whatever you think is best. Just uh...just see if she has a date."

Peter finished saying goodbye to Ace and joined us in walking to math, shivering. "Geez it's cold. Why do we keep sitting outside in the snow before school again?"

"Because thanks to people doing drugs in their cars, we're not allowed to stay in those. I wonder who that could've been?" I retorted. He nodded slowly. "Yeah that's my bad. I guess we really are stuck outside then, not like I want to go hang out in a classroom."

"Don't worry, it'll warm up in a bit. We only have to wait until April for the snow to melt," Eric grumbled, tugging at his hood. "Well wait, how do you know that? You're new here!" Peter cried.

"To the school, not the city! What, you think Casablanca's in a different weather system than Devereaux?" Eric replied with a shocked grin, scooping up a handful of snow and throwing it at Peter. "Ah, stop! You're gonna get another detention!" he shrieked as Eric chucked another snowball at him.

Laughing, Bruce quickly packing a tight snowball and sent it splattering across Eric's face, Sputtering, cheeks turning red, he shot Bruce a wicked grin and filled his arms with snow, practically tackling him as he sent snow pouring down the inside of Bruce's jacket. "Ah! Shit, you foxy little bastard, that's cold!" he cried.

"Guys, guys, enough! We're gonna be late to class!" I said, struggling to keep the laughter out of my voice. Peter sent a handful of slush running down my back, soaking through my shirt. "Nice try but I'm serious! After class you're dead though!" I said. The three of them let out sighs and dropped their various snowballs to the floor. "Alright, alright, fine. Just be responsible or whatever I guess," Eric grumbled.

With a rueful grin, I shook my head, hefting my backpack. "Someone's gotta do it."

"Ooh maybe that's why Christie likes him, he's the only mature one in our class," Peter said, nudging me. "Nah, it's probably because she's desperate. I mean why else would you date Gene?" Bruce retorted, giving me a sly grin.

"Hah! They're not dating, he's too embarrassed to ask her out! You see how nervous he was this morning? Besides, Christie has standards." I shoved him into a snowbank, resulting in more laughter from the rest of them. Huge smile splitting his face, Bruce pulled Eric to his feet, dusting him off. "Word of advice, pipsqueak, don't pick fights with people a foot taller than you."

Teeth chattering, Eric gave me a grin, shrugging. "Just you wait Simmons, I'm gonna get my revenge at practice. I'm gonna mess you up so bad Christie's gonna dump you. Oh wait she'd have to be dating you first for that to happen!" he said, darting off toward class with a cackle, the rest of the knuckleheads close behind.

"Yeah we'll see about that!" I called after him, before shaking my head with a chuckle. "We'll see about that."

Damn I really wanted to date Christine.