“Hey, Daniel!”
She had uncanny timing. I was just putting the finishing touches on my latest video game when her voice floated across the fence. Volante de Rotelina has been my best friend ever since the day she moved in next door with her family fifteen years ago.
“Hey Volante!” I replied. “Want to come over and test my new game?”
“Sure, give me a few minutes.” She answered back.
That gave me a few minutes to get my emotions in check. One of these days, I’ll finally get the courage to tell her how I feel about her. But for now, I’m happy just being friends with her. As I organized my room to prepare for her arrival, I spotted my diary laying open on my bed. As I read what I had written, I started blushing. And before I could compose myself, Volante stormed in, ready to play some games.
“Yo Danny, where’s that game? I’m ready to kick some virtual ass” .
Panicking, I quickly tossed my diary into my dresser and slammed it shut.
“Hey, Volante. That was fast.” I said, laughing nervously.
“Right. I don’t know what you were doing, and I don’t think I want to know. All I want to know is where that game is that you wanted me to test.”
Nodding, I looked at my chair and beckoned for her to sit. Leaning over her right shoulder, I hit a short combo of keys that got the game running. In the process, I got a bit of a whiff of her air.
“Your hair smells nice.”
“Shut up. And you can thank Sylvana for that. I had to use her shampoo since mine ran out.”
Sensing that she didn’t want to talk about it any further, I shifted the discussion to the game that I had been working on tirelessly for the past three months.
“So, the beta demo I have here runs for roughly one hour,” I started while pulling up another chair. “As usual, there will be a notepad for you to take notes. I’ll also be making observations.”
“Yeah, yeah. Just pipe down so I can focus.”
I did as I was told. The last time I distracted her, let’s just say that it didn’t end well for me. It was back in the seventh grade and I was on a dare. Edward Ellington, a friend of mine at the time, had dared me to cut a locket of her. Knowing that asking her would be the easiest way, I said OK. Not like I had a choice; it was a dare after all. Then I heard the rest of the dare. I had to do it while she was at batting practice. So, not only did I have to cut a bit of her prized hair, I had to do it when she was at her most amped up. To cut a long story short, I got punched, hard. She later gave me a locket of her hair as an apology after she found out what happened. She also gave Edward an atomic wedgie for his role in all of this. Having a girl defend you is not good for your rep, but when the said girl is the most sought-after girl in the school, you learn to live with it. Anyway, the hour passed without a hitch. I was unharmed and she seemed to enjoy the game I had made.
“Danny, once again you’ve outdone yourself.” She said.
“Really?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she started, “but the controls need to be polished up a bit.”
I wrote down her suggestion and then looked at my notes. I had quite a lot of work to do, which meant another all-nighter. Or five. Geez, this was going to be a lot of work I continued jotting down ideas when…
“Hey Danny, can I ask you for a favor?”
I was puzzled. She’s never asked me for a favor before. Usually, I asked her for favors, normally revolving around her testing my games for me, but never the other way round.
“Sylvana’s going on a date and is insisting that we make it a double date.”
OK, not sure where this was going, but I was now curious. It was unlike Volante to be nervous about something. This was the same girl that signed up for the baseball team because she felt that she was better than any guy on the team already. I wanted to
“Cool. Who are you going with?”
“That’s the problem. No guy will agree to go without expecting something in return. Well, everyone except you.”
Knowing where this was going, I asked, “So you want me to come along as some sort of testosterone bodyguard?”
She nodded. “Will you come?”
I must be dreaming. Volante just asked me out, even though it’s a fake date.
“Sure,” I replied. “Just tell me the dress code and what time and I’ll be there.”
“Thanks. We’ll be meeting her guy at La Rochelle at eight.”
“Ooh, fancy. I’ll be at your door at seven-thirty and then we can head together.”
“Thanks again, I owe you one.” She said while giving me a quick hug. After jotting down the details for me, she left to get ready for this “date”. Taking a quick look at the clock, I saw that I had three hours to prepare. But first I had to do a bit of research on the restaurant. And I knew exactly who to ask. Heading downstairs, I made a beeline for the kitchen where my mom usually was.
“Hey, mom.”
“Hey, sweetheart. Want a cookie?”
That’s my mom for you. My mom, Artemis Defranto, was a celebrated chef when she was younger. Now, she’s a restaurant critic who travels all over the country for opening nights for some of the biggest restaurants. If you wanted to know anything about a restaurant within the U.S, she was the best person to ask.
“Uh-oh. I know that look.”
“What look?”
“The ‘I’m going to marry Volante de Rotelina’ look. You’ve had it ever since you were 13.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Uh-huh. Right. You can try to fool everyone else, but you can’t fool your mother.”
She had a point. But I want to get back on track to what I wanted from her.
“So, I was wondering, what do you know about La Rochelle?”
“Grab a seat as check my information. And grab a cookie while you’re here.”
As I sat down and grabbed a cookie, she went over to her laptop and brought up her file on La Rochelle. I have to say, it was pretty detailed. It even had the name of the head chef, who happened to be a good friend of hers, which was very convenient. Half an hour of perusing through the document and I had everything that I needed. Giving my mom a quick kiss on the cheek before rushing back to my room, I knew that I had to look my best not to embarrass not only Volante, but also my mom since she would most likely follow up on the dinner from the head chef. As soon as I was back in my room, I took a quick glance at my clock. I had more than enough time to get ready for tonight. So, I quickly pulled out a notebook and jotted down a few things that I needed to do after the dinner. As I was writing, I heard the door slam downstairs.
“Honey, I’m home.”
Crap, it seems like dad was home. The one day I needed him to work late, he comes home on time. I need to get ready quickly. I can always wait at the de Rotelina household.
Meanwhile at the de Rotelina household, things were getting heated.
“You have got to be kidding me!” shouted Volante. “There is no way I’m wearing that.”
She was shocked that Sylvana would even consider it. They may be twins, but they had different personalities.
“You’ll have to, otherwise you won’t be able to enter the restaurant,” she said, hiding her smirk behind the red dress, curlers in her brunette hair. “Anyway, you promised that you’ll go.”
That she did. And Volante never broke her promise to her sister, no matter how much she hated it. She grabbed the dress from Sylvana and looked it over. It was a red dress that ended above the knees. Not lying, Sylvana had some very good taste. It showed off more skin than she was used to showing, but nothing some stockings and some boots couldn’t fix. She dashed into the bathroom and changed into the dress. Once she came back out, she went to her drawer and pulled out a pair of black stockings and put them on. Reaching for her boots, Sylvana grabbed them before she could put them on.
“Nuh uh uh. You have to put these on,” she said handing over a pair of red stilettos.
“No way, nuh uh. I absolutely refuse. I agreed to the double date. I agreed to the dress. But I’m not going to wear a pair of leather with pins stuck to the bottom of it.”
The two of them argued over the stilettos for another ten minutes before Volante caved in and put them on.
“You owe me so much for this.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know already. While you’re at it, take out your hairband. That’s not going to fly either.”
She should have expected that. Normally she kept her shoulder-long auburn hair in a ponytail to avoid it from getting in her eyes while she played. After giving her head a few good shakes, her hair cascaded around her shoulders.
Taking one last look in the mirror, Volante gave a twirl and faced her twin.
“Well, how do I look?”
“Wow. You’re going to make some guy very happy.”
Yeah, he’s going to be reeaal happy when he sees me. A few minutes later, the doorbell rang, causing both girls to freeze. Volante took a quick glance at her watch, it was seven. Daniel shouldn’t be coming for another half an hour.
“Good evening Mrs. de Rotelina.”
Crap, Daniel’s early. That means his dad’s probably home.
“Hi Daniel. The girls aren’t ready yet, but you can wait for them in the living room. Would you like something to drink?”
“Water is fine thank you.”
If Volante was nervous, then Daniel was close to panic mode.
Comments