McKenzie’s hearing was blocked out by the sounds of the hair
dryer. Jill was getting McKenzie hyped up for her blind date. McKenzie was
wearing an oversized lacrosse jersey with her name on it and dark blue tight
jeans. She wasn’t really the type who cared much about her looks, but Jill
ignored that fact and tried to pizzazz McKenzie’s hair. By the time Jill
finished tossing and turning McKenzie’s hair it was glistening and bouncing.
“Perfecto!”
Jill jumped with excitement. She herself was getting hyped up for the date. She
wore an orange sweater with navy-sparkled pants.
Jill
turned McKenzie around in her stool so that she could get a look of herself in
the mirror. McKenzie’s eyes widened.
“Wow,”
McKenzie picked up a strand of her curly, bouncy, red hair.
“I
know! Isn’t it just…great?” Jill cried.
When
McKenzie and Jill were done “pizzazzing” themselves they called a cab to bring
them to Sunny’s Diner. The whole ride there, McKenzie kept on hoping that Dean
wouldn’t mind too much about the blind date. He knew that McKenzie was only
doing it for the sake of Jill being able to see Greg again. When McKenzie
stumbled out of the cab, her stomach began to turn. She felt something that she
thought she’d never feel before a blind date. Nervousness. Jill turned to face
McKenzie.
“You
look nauseated, McKenzie. Are you okay?”
“I-I-I’ll
be right back,” McKenzie stammered back.
McKenzie
took off into the diner and rushed to the bathroom. She felt like barfing up
her lunch. Before she could stop herself, she knocked into a young boy standing
next to the Men’s bathroom.
“Hey!”
a familiar voice said.
McKenzie
looked up at the boy she knocked into. It was Matt Ballinger. He was wearing a
large maroon sweater and baggy black pants. His hair was parted differently
than she had seen before.
“Oh
hi,” McKenzie answered while blushing. She had this horrible habit of blushing
to a bright red.
“What’s
up?” Matt asked cheerfully.
“Umm...nothing,”
McKenzie murmured.
“Oh.
I’m waiting for my friend to get here.”
“Okay,
see you later,” McKenzie waved to him as she rushed away to find Jill. She
didn’t feel like barfing anymore.
When
McKenzie found Jill, she was already seated at the table set for four. McKenzie
calmly took her seat across from Jill. Jill observed McKenzie closely.
“Did
you barf already?” Jill asked while giggling.
McKenzie
joined her in laughing. She had to admit that it was pretty funny that she was
going to barf before a blind date.
“Not
yet!” She could hardly stop herself from laughing that she spilt her water on
her lacrosse jersey. “Snap!” McKenzie suddenly stopped laughing and reached for
a bunch of napkins. She frantically started to scrub her jersey. Jill pulled
back her chair and stood up straight.
“Hey!
McKenzie, our dates are here,” she said aloud.
“You
came at the right time,” McKenzie said under her breath without looking up. She
was still cleansing her jersey with five napkins. Jill elbowed McKenzie to
stand up and greet her blind date. McKenzie rolled her eyes and blew her hair
out of her face. She then pushed back her chair and looked up to see her blind
date. Her eyes widened as she took a big gulp.
“McKenzie,
this is Matt Ballinger, your blind date,” Jill introduced the two. Little did
she know that they didn’t need any introduction.
Matt
started to laugh, though he was trying hard to hold it in. McKenzie just stared
wide-eyed at him. How could Matt Ballinger be her blind date? He
couldn’t have been!
“Matt
are you okay?” Greg questioned weirdly. Matt could hardly answer him. He was
too busy laughing at himself.
“Shake
hands!” Jill urged Matt and McKenzie.
McKenzie
bit her lip and stuck out her hand. Matt took a deep breath to stop him from
laughing and stretched out his hand, too. They both stared at each other like they
were idiots. Jill leaned over to whisper in McKenzie’s ear.
“McKenzie,
what’s the matter? You’re looking at him like he’s the ugliest thing you’ve
seen. I think he’s pretty adorable,” Jill said, “but nothing beats Greg. Isn’t
he just perfect?”
“Yeah…”
Jill responded in a distant voice. She didn’t even know what she was saying.
“Well,
we’ll leave you two love birds to enjoy your meal/ Jill and I are gunna…” Greg
stumbled, “Uhh…go eat at another table. Peace people!” Greg pushed Jill ahead
of him and the two of them walked to a table across the room.
“I
didn’t know that this was part of the plan,” Jill smiled as she sat down at table
set for two. On the table were two plates filled with chicken marsala.
“I’m
full of surprises,” Greg responded slyly. He took his seat across from Jill. “How
do you think Matt and McKenzie are making it?”
Jill
turned around to glance at Matt and McKenzie. Surprisingly, they were already
laughing and smiling at all angles. They sure looked cute together. “Just fine,”
Jill turned around again to face Greg.
“I
know. But I don’t know what was up with Matt. He was laughing so hard at first,”
Greg admitted.
“Weird,”
Jill rolled her eyes.
“So
I gave my manager your tape,” Greg declared. He could see Jill’s eyes grow with
excitement.
“And…”
“He
didn’t listen to it yet, but I promise you he will,” Greg reassured Jill. He
could see her excitement die down.
“Oh,”
Jill sadly responded. “That’s okay. Let him take his time. I’m not rushing
anybody,” Jill smiled.
“I
think you guys sound great,” Greg complemented.
“You’re
just saying that,” Jill responded doubtfully with a smile.
Greg
frowned. “No I’m serious. I mean, Granted Wish sounds great. But you’re…amazing.”
Jill
looked down at her plate to prevent Greg from seeing her blush. Fortunately, Sunny
came over to them to offer them drinks, so Jill didn’t have to reply.
Matt
looked at McKenzie out of the corner of his eye. “At least we know that we
stuck to our promise,” Matt laughed.
“I
didn’t know you were in a boy band,” McKenzie played with her napkin while
laughing.
“I
didn’t know you played lacrosse,” Matt smiled at McKenzie. He had this smile
that McKenzie couldn’t stand but look at. He had perfect teeth and his upper
lip curved perfectly. “And you also have a boyfriend?” Matt asked.
“Yeah,”
McKenzie sighed and looked away from Matt.
“So
are you hungry? I’m starved!”
It
took McKenzie a while before she realized what Matt just said. She blinked her
eyes and started to laugh. Although, she wasn’t really laughing in the inside.
It was funny how her insides and outsides showed completely different feelings.
A
waiter approached their table and pulled out a pad from his belt. He lifted his
pencil off his right ear.
“Ready
for your order, Mam?” the tall waiter asked towards McKenzie.
McKenzie’s
been to Sunny’s Diner over a hundred times. After all, Sunny was one of the assistant
coaches for her lacrosse team. But every time McKenzie came to Sunny’s Diner,
she ordered the same exact thing.
“I’ll
just have two tacos and fries,” McKenzie announced clearly, “and a Pepsi.”
McKenzie
raised her eyebrow and looked across the table at Matt. She didn’t have to say
anymore for Matt to get the hint to order his food.
“Tacos
and fries?” Matt asked towards McKenzie. He disregarded the waiter.
“Yeah.
It’s one of the only things I’ll eat,” McKenzie quickly explained, “Aren’t you
going to order?”
“Get
out,” Matt seemed surprised. “Tacos and fries are my favorite, too.” Matt
gestured to himself. It was amusing how much him and McKenzie had in common
already.
“I
know, aren’t they the best?” McKenzie laughed enthusiastically.
Matt
chuckled a little before ordering the same thing as McKenzie. It only took 10
minutes for their food to arrive. McKenzie and Matt hardly seemed to notice the
time, though. For 5 minutes McKenzie talked about her group, Granted Wish. The
next five minutes Matt was chatting about his undefeated lacrosse team. When
their food came, McKenzie quickly ate it all up, eager to continue her chat
with Matt.
Greg
stirred his pointer finger in his full glass of Coke. He kept on stirring his
finger until he suddenly stopped. He licked his finger carefully.
“What
are you doing?” Jill whispered.
“Stirring
my Coke,” Greg responded easily.
“Because?”
“If
I stir my coke, all the bubbles will go away. Since the bubbles float up in the
coke, it makes the bubbles float up in your stomach. That makes you burp.”
Jill
shook her head and smiled. “Cute,” Jill shrugged her shoulders.
“Cute?”
Greg questioned worriedly. “Noooo. Greg Raposo is never cute. Greg Raposo is a
buff manly man,” Greg said in a deep voice.
“If
that’s your idea of cute, then okay,” Jill sighed. She looked down at her plate
and noticed her chicken marsala was gone. She looked across the table at Greg.
He had a napkin tucked in his shirt and had a fork and knife in his hands. He
was slicing Jill’s chicken marsala in little cubes and chowing them down.
“You
weren’t going to eat these, were you?” Greg asked while chunks of chicken flew
out of his mouth.
“Eww!
Greeeeeg! You’re getting chicken on me!” Jill screeched. She grinned and slyly
picked up her apple pie. She leaned across the table and smacked Greg with it.
Greg
screamed and flung his coke directly on Jill’s jean pants. “Hahahahaha!” Greg
pointed at Jill’s ruined pants as chunks of pie fell off his face.
“Food
fight!” Matt suddenly screamed from across the room. Him and McKenzie picked up
their bottles of ketchup and squirted Greg with them. They were in the middle
of rolling on the floor when a grouchy waiter pulled on McKenzie’s and Matt’s
ears. Another waitress picked Greg and Jill off the floor. All four of them
were thrown out of Sunny’s Diner.
Greg
stumbled out the doorway with Jill in front of him. Matt was literally thrown
out of the diner. McKenzie and Jill were banging on the door to let them back
in.
“Forget
it!” Greg cried out, “They’re not letting us back in.”
McKenzie
stopped banging on the diner’s doors. Her beeper started to sing the ice cream
man song. She looked down at her pocket, where her beeper hung. McKenzie
stomped her foot on the cement ground.
“Aww
man! Dean needs me now,” McKenzie wailed.
“Ugh!
AGAIN?” Jill questioned, “All right. I’ll see you later, McKenzie.”
Matt
turned to face McKenzie. “Dean’s your boyfriend, huh?”
“Got
that right,” McKenzie rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.
“Okay,
well I guess I’ll see you around,” Matt sighed. He made half a smile.
“Yeah,
definitely. Tonight was fun. We should do it again.”
“Yeah,
except it won’t be a blind date anymore,” Matt pointed out.
“It
never was one! Haha! And there won’t be any surprises this time, either,”
McKenzie laughed.
She
gave Matt a quick hug and decided to walk herself to Dean’s apartment. She was
definitely bummed out. Just when the night was getting good, Dean had to barge
on in and make her run another errand. Just yesterday he made McKenzie buy him
a new radio for his room. The day before that, McKenzie had to stop in the
middle of her lacrosse game just because Dean didn’t know how to do his history
homework. They never were considered the perfect couple. In fact, the only
reason McKenzie stayed with Dean was because no one else would ever go out with
her. All the other boys thought she was weird because she played lacrosse. They
all thought that she was a boy wannabe.
“I
think I should go,” Matt declared after McKenzie left, “My parents are sort of
making me come home early as a punishment for my bad grades.” Matt walked away
quickly, leaving Greg and Jill behind.
“Soo…you
want to get cleaned up?” Greg asked Jill.
“There’s
nothing else to do,” Jill replied.
The
two of them walked across the street to the nearest gas station. Luckily, there
were clean bathrooms where they could freshen up. Jill spent only a little
while in the girl’s bathroom since most of the Coke on her pants had already
dried up. It surprised Jill that Greg spent almost a half hour more than she
did in the boy’s bathroom. But she had to admit that when he came out, he
looked better than new.
Greg
walked the walk out of the bathroom door and posed like Elvis in front of Jill.
“Wow,
Elvis. You sure look younger in person,” Jill rolled her eyes.
Greg
ignored Jill’s complement. He put his hand on his hip, leaving an empty space
for Jill to hand her arm. Jill immediately hung her arm around Greg’s and began
to stroll out of the gas station.
“Mission
accomplished,” Greg suddenly spoke up, satisfied.
“What
mission?” Jill asked peculiarly.
“The
blind date,” Greg reminded Jill.
“Ohh…that,”
Jill replied. “Yeah. I think McKenzie is starting to dig Matt.”
“They’re
perfect for each other,” Greg paused and started to think. He opened his mouth
and then closed it again, as if he couldn’t get words out of his mouth.
Finally, his mouth decided to stay open. “Do you think it’s possible to like someone
you just met?”
Jill
stopped walking and turned to face Greg. “I’d say it’s a possibility. I mean,
look at McKenzie and Matt. Why?” Jill looked deeply in Greg’s eyes, expecting
an answer.
“Just
wondering,” Greg shrugged his shoulders at Jill and started to walk again.