Both Kat and Mitch had ruined their best dresses fighting mud monsters on a cruise ship a few weeks ago. Suddenly they both seemed to realize that they didn't have anything to wear to the dance.
"Hey, Kat?" Mitch asked her twin as they got ready to go to bed. "Do you think you'll be going to the dance?"
"Of course, silly."
"Are you upset about me going with Jian?"
Kat just giggled, much to Mitch's relief. That was more like it. She had known that Kat was in a better mood than before, but this confirmed that she wasn't upset about them dating.
"We need to go buy new dresses. Do you think the 'Bank of Mom and Dad' will pay?"
"No way. I mean look at how we ruined the old ones. We're lucky they're letting us go to the dance!" Kat replied. They both giggled. They had gotten in trouble for disobeying Amy and going on the singles cruise, but Mitch had thought it was great fun, and they had kicked some serious monster butt.
The girls had changed and continued chattering on the way to the bathroom to brush their teeth.
"So should we go to the mall after school?" Kat asked
"Yeah, isn't it lucky that it's the only day that neither of us has an afterschool activity!"
"Totally. Hey, what happened?!"
"Huh, what are you talking about?" Mitch glanced at her sister who was looking at her palm in surprise. But Mitch couldn't see anything wrong with it at all. "What's wrong?"
Kat suddenly blushed. "Nothing. A wish came true, I guess. That's all." Mitch didn't understand, but she left it at that, sensing that Kat didn't want to comment on it further.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The next day at school, Kat kept hoping to see Angel, but naturally she was in a different year and their schedules never crossed. Kat had never checked to see if 10th grade ate lunch with the 12th grade, but she was grabbed by her twin and Jian to practice Kempo at lunch anyway. As usual, Jian and Mitch were flirting too much to do much anything else. After practicing some sidekicks, roundhouses, and spinning rear kicks, Kat excused herself to use the bathroom. She really didn't think they had noticed a thing. *Dude, she's going to have that kata down!*
She quickly glanced into the lunchroom as she passed by, but she couldn't really see anything. She turned around and almost ran right into someone.
"Oh, Angel!"
"Oh, hey, Kat. What are you doing here?"
Kat suddenly became very aware that she didn't exactly look her best right now. Her hair was a mess because she hadn't bothered to put it up, and she was just working out, so naturally, she was a little sweaty. Also she was dressed in some ratty old clothes that she liked to work out in. She blushed in embarrassment.
"Oh, well, I'm on lunch break. Are you too?"
"No, I was just on my way back to class from the restroom." They both stood there awkwardly for a second.
Kat struggled for something to talk about. "Uh, what are you wearing to the dance? Mitch and I have to go buy dresses because our old ones were, uh, ruined." Kat assumed Angel knew about the new Sailor Scouts, but she didn't know for sure. "If we're going to, uh, hang out at the dance, we, uh, probably shouldn't� clash." It's not exactly what she had wanted to say, but at least it was something that could possibly start up a conversation. Too bad she was so nervous about it. She looked up at the older girl.
"Oh, I was just going to borrow one of Mam- I mean, one of my mom's old tuxes. Then I don't have to buy a new dress."
"Oh!" Of course, her mom was Amara, so her mom and dad probably both wore tuxes to formal events. Kat hadn't considered the possibility that it'd be easier for Angel to just borrow one of those for the dance.
"But if you want to know my opinion, you should wear a red dress. It will go great with your eyes and hair."
"Oh, yeah, thanks." She could feel her face turning red again, both because now Angel was looking at her hair which was a mess, but also because the older girl was paying so much attention to her "Well, you know, I don't want to keep you from your class. I don't want you to get into trouble or miss something."
"Don't worry about it, it's just math." But she turned to leave. "See you around, Kat!"
~*~*~*~*~*~
*Why is this so hard?* Angel didn't know what to make of Kat. *She's younger than me, so why am I so stressed about becoming her friend? She seems like she wants to be my friend too, but maybe that's just wishful thinking. Or maybe she just feels pressured to agree to hang out with me because she thinks she ruined my car seat and has to make up for it, or even just because I'm older. Come on, Mama and Aunt Michelle managed to be friends with the younger Sailor Scouts even though they were younger. Did they ever feel like they were pressuring Serena and everyone?*
She thought about it, not paying any attention at all to class. She was trying to remember stories about when the earlier days of the Sailor Scouts. She knew that Uranus and Neptune had originally had problems with the Inner Scouts because of their mission, but that Amara and Michelle had initially got along with Serena and friends. She sighed. At least they knew right from the beginning that the girls had thought they were cool and wanted to hang out with them. Serena and Mina had started off by practically stalking Angel's mother.
*But I don't know how she really feels. All I have is that Kat really needed a ride yesterday and now she feels she has to make up for the stain on my car seat.*
Which reminded her that she had to get that cleaned this afternoon after school.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Kat and Mitch had spent all afternoon shopping. They were pleasantly surprised to be able to shop without finding any excessively huge (and therefore, evil) sales, but were able to find nice dresses at a reasonable price. Mitch never had any money, so this was always important to her, but Kat didn't know where she and Angel would be eating, and therefore had no idea how much it might cost. She considered calling her to ask, but she decided that this would seem too immature.
Mitch seemed to pick up on the fact that she was thinking about the dance. "So did you ever find a date?" she asked.
"No, I'm going to hang out with a friend from pole vault." *God, does Mitch only ever think about boys?*
As if answering, Mitch giggled her next question. "Is this friend cute?"
"Yeah," Kat smiled dreamily at the thought of her new idol. "Charming, cute, nice, athletic�."
"Ooh, look at you. Kat's got a crush."
"A crush? No way!"
"Oh, yeah, right. It's so cute!"
"Mitch, it's not a crush!"
"So, come on. Tell me your boyfriend's name!"
~*~*~*~*~*~
They walked into the house just as the phone rang.
"Yo, Kat, the phone's for you!" Kim called from the other room.
"Ooh, is it her new boyfriend?"
"I. Don't. Have. A. Boyfriend!" Kat was tired of this game now. But she didn't want to share Angel with Mitch yet. It was nice to have something all to herself for awhile. "Go make yourself a sub sandwich, why don't you?"
