On an early morning in the girls' bunk room on the Christa, the
Yensidian known as Suzee began to wake up. She stretched her legs and
arms out as she smiled happily, remembering what was to take place
today: her first date with Harlan. She asked the computer what time it
was, and she discovered it was an hour before her rendezvous with
Harlan.
The actual invitation had been a long, drawn out process. Suzee was eating her breakfast one morning a couple days ago, when Harlan had walked into the mess hall with an ear to ear grin on his face. Suzee continued eating her breakfast, figuring that whatever he was smiling about it had nothing to do with her. But then Harlan walked up to Suzee, looked down at her, and said rather slyly, "I heard what you and Rosie were talking about last night."
Suzee froze and started to chew her food more slowly, as if to delay the process of having to talk to Harlan about what he was bringing up.
Surely Harlan was referring to the conversation that Rosie and Suzee had the night before in the lounge about how,"cool it would be" if Harlan asked Suzee out on a date, but (in Suzee's words) it was,"surely impossible". Suzee had no idea until now that Harlan had been listening in on that conversation. How much had he heard?! But Suzee remained calm, and she knew that to trick Harlan and gain the upper hand, she had to respond with a motivation hat would seem unclear to Harlan. Think, girl, think! She told herself.
"What are you talking about, Harlan?" Suzee replied with a mouth full of scrambled eggs (a dish Ms. Davenport had recommended for a "good and well balanced breakfast"). She had to come up with a strategy to save herself from embarrassment.
Harlan grinned even more. "Oh you know," he began,"that little talk you and Rosie had in the lounge last night about a certain," Harlan leaned closer to her to emphasize the next word,"young man."
Suzee nervously began tracing her finger around the outside edge of her cup, unsure of what to say. But then she smiled, for she had thought of a plan.
"Oh!" She exclaimed,"THAT conversation," and eagerly waited for Harlan's response, since she had already cooked up a lie that would make him shut his mouth faster than you could say,"good move, Harlan."
Harlan's response consisted of him nodding his head and grinning even more.
Suzee then looked at Harlan, the excitement was so big she could feel it in her fingertips. Suzee could not wait to make Harlan feel like a fool! She responded, quick as a flash, with:
"Did you think we were actually talking about you?"
Harlan's grin faded. Suzee's plan was working perfectly.
"What do you mean?" He replied, confused.
"Well," Suzee began, walking past a stunned and very confused Harlan to put her empty dishes into the garbage, and then turned right around to face him again. "I was only rehearsing a duet I plan to perform for the drama class at my school in Yensid when I get back." Terrific lie, she told herself. Of course, she was fairly good at that.
"Oh," Harlan said, with a hint of disappointment in his speech. He had guessed wrong. Suzee WASN'T crazy about him after all.
"The names coinciding was . . . a coincidence!" Suzee said to make up for a question he might ask.
Suzee sensed his disappointment, and decided it might be wise to start with the second part of the plan. She did like Harlan, and she didn't want to loose him.
"Although," Suzee said, strolling up to Harlan and casually flirting with him,"IF you asked me out . . . that wouldn't be so bad." Suzee smiled at Harlan, and seductively raised an eyebrow.
"Well, then," Harlan began, relieved and still a bit flustered,"Suzee will you please give me the pleasure of spending an evening with you."
Suzee eyed him for a second. "NO!" She finally said, and plopped down onto a chair. Before Harlan could protest, she finished what she was going to say. "Let's make a DAY of it."
Harlan was a bit flabbergasted. "huh?" he simply stated. Poor Harlan, this was more than his brain could handle.
Suzee explained,"I've never gotten the point of the earth custom of simply going out for the night. Why not the whole day? It would be much more enjoyable. Don't you think?" Boy, Suzee thought, the looks on Harlan's face from when he first walked in to where he is now, are absolutely priceless.
Harlan just nodded, and said,"when's the next day you have off?"
"Tomorrow?" Suzee suggested.
"No good," Harlan replied,"I have to fill in for Bova that day . . . there's a nubuela we're nearing and Bova wants to spend the calculating deposits of such and such . . . things like that."
"Why?" Suzee asked, not understanding why that would be relevant to a 13 year old Uranian.
"He's doing some theory about the deposits of a certain substance in this part of the galaxy," Harlan explained.
"Oh," Suzee said. The two of them were in silence for a little while, when Harlan burst out, "What about two days from now?" He asked Suzee hopefully.
"Well . . . " she thought," . . . yeah! That's free for me!"
"Great!" Harlan exclaimed,"so, uh, pick you up, 07:00 hours?"
Suzee scrunched her nose in displeasement, she HATED waking up early,"how about 09:00 . . . I don't really like to wake up early when I have an off day."
"Oh," Harlan replied,"okay . . . I'll get you then." Harlan then turned around and started to head out of the mess hall.
"Wait!" Suzee said, and reached out her hand as if to stop Harlan by grabbing his shoulder, although he was a good 15 feet away, and she was sill sitting down. And realizing the awkwardness of her sitting down and trying to talk to him when he was many feet away, she stood up from her chair and walked over to him, stepping in stride with her speech.
"I was just wondering what we would wear." She stopped a few feet away from him. Harlan still looked confused. "Casual or formal?" Suzee said. A little louder than usual, as if to wake the male teenager from his hypnosis of constant confusion.
"Uhh . . . " Harlan searched for the right words to say. This was not his area of expertise. "I wear nice pants and shirt, you wear fairly nice skirt." Harlan than shook his head and the incredible illiteracy his speech in that sentence. It was fairly similar to,"me Tarzan, you Jane."
"Casual dress, then," Suzee said to herself,"see you in two days!" She said to Harlan, who was heading out the door. Perfect, Suzee thought to herself. Perfect.
That was two days ago, and she still applauded herself on the
complexity of the confusion she had given Harlan. Not every girl could
mess with a young boy's mind like she had done. After her hypo shower
(lasting only one minute), she dried her hair and wrapped a towel
around
her body. Just remembering the conversation with Harlan brought a
smile
to her face, and the feeling of happiness she had had for the past two
days. Even now, as she was brushing her rainbow streaked hair and
admiring herself in the mirror, she hummed a Yensidian love song she
had
always treasured. Normally she doesn't sing in her bunk, for fear of
embarrassment since she and Rosie share a room. But today Rosie had
engineering duty, and Suzee had the bunk all to herself. It was
something she rather liked. It was nice to have privacy every once in
a
while.
Putting down the brush, she strolled over to her closet. Although it's not the closet most Earthers have in their everyday lives. In actuality it was two bronze triangular shaped doors that, when she asks for a certain piece of clothing, open and reveal the item she requested.
Reminding herself that her date with Harlan was "casual dress," she asked the computer to give her her,"first dress". The computer responded by beeping and bleeping for a few seconds and finally opening and presenting the girl with a simple blue and green swirls dress, made out of a light, stretchy material. The dress was strapless and only came down mid thigh with a slit up the side. Some might have called it "slutty," but to Suzee it was perfect. She loved to show off her body and get the effects of it . . . especially from boys she liked.
She looked in her mirror and checked to make sure she looked as cute as possible for Harlan. Normally for her Yensidian dates she would put on make-up, but all of it had been left at home. Even so, Yensidian make-up was different than what Harlan was used to on Earth. Suzee would usually paint her lips a bright purple, and she would turn her eyes the color of neon green with the help of her color injectors she got for her 14th birthday from her best friend on Yensid, Colinia. She did know a little bit about Earth make up, and though she did have a lip gloss type goo she made in Bova's lab (she had to bribe him with a kiss), it had run out a week ago, and Suzee hadn't gotten around to making more.
"I'll go for the natural look today." She primped in front of the mirror for a few more seconds, admiring herself, before the chime of her bunk door sounded.
"Well, I wonder who that could be," she said sarcastically. She opened the room doors to find Harlan wearing a nice black shirt and khakis, and grinning like an idiot. This was fairly typical of Harlan, though. He knew he had something not all guys could claim there own (a beautiful girl who was crazy about him), and he loved to rub it in peoples faces.
Even if that face happened to be the girl he had.
"Good morning, Suzee," Harlan said with a smile on his face. Then casting his look downward he checked to see what Suzee was wearing. He responded with,"Wow. . . you look . . . real nice." He had never seen Suzee look more beautiful than tonight, and he couldn't take his eyes off her.
Suzee chuckled at the simple comment. "You look pretty nice yourself, Harlan Band." Suzee also knew she had something fairly rare for a woman too: a gorgeous guy who was at that moment putty in her hands. Harlan extended his arm, an open invitation for Suzee to link her arm in his. She did so, and they walked along the corridor for a few seconds, just enjoying the company of each other, until Suzee said, "So what are we going to do one this date of ours?" The thought had never come to Harlan before. He thought everything was cut and dry. He wasn't really a "planner" . . . he figure he had to come up with something, without offending the young girl with which his arm was intertwined. He came up with a wonderful response:
"Whatever you want." And smiled at her. How can she argue with THAT, he thought to himself.
Suzee stopped mid stride. "How about..." suddenly her eyes lit up and she bit her bottom lip as though she had come up with a brilliant idea.
"How about we-"
TO BE CONTINUED . . .