Settling In

There is maybe five minutes left until the movie starts, so we've got a bit of time. And the lights they've set up around the field to help people find their seats are illuminating things enough that even in spite of our place hidden off among the trees we don't quite have the cover to explore our position that darkness will afford us. So as we settle in on the blanket this whole thing starts to feel a little like a waiting game.

Rachel is on the left end, Blake beside her. Then, regrettably, comes me. With Jake finally bringing up the right end of the bench.

Girl, Boy, Girl, Boy and I can't help but wish that I had some distance between me and Blake. That there was a body or even a space between us.

But hey, at least he's focused all of his attentions on Rachel. For the moment I have peace.

Not quiet, though. Jake and I have gone through the niceties of him complimenting my look and me complimenting his and now we're both trying to stumble our way into a flirting conversation about interests and the like, the usual kind of thing that one does when one is on a first date which is really what this is starting to feel like more than anything else.

Jake, being the more experienced by far of the two of us, is far better at this than I am.

"So how did the rest of the fair go?" Jake asks, "I mean you didn't manage to sign up for the team. Did you get your name down for anything else?"

"I meant to sign up," I say, a weak smile, "Really I did. I was just a little... preoccupied. I mean I was in a bit of a state when I stumbled away."

"So was I," he grins, then raises an eyebrow.

"Oh!" I bounce a little, "Oh yeah. Other clubs. Yeah I signed up to a few. The... um... the LARP club for one."

"LARPS?" he asks, unfamiliar with it.

"LARP. Singular. Live Action Roleplay. It's kind of like Dungeons and Dragons and improv and drama all rolled into one. You pretend to be an elf and cast spells and all that kind of... stuff..."

"Sounds cool," he says, obviously not truly believing the lie that he was spewing but not quite ready to be fully honest with the girl he was trying to bed.

"Yeah," I say, suddenly seized by a need to redeem myself in his eyes as my memory goes back to the moment after... well after Blake abandoned me.

Once Rachel came around to help me clean up and make myself a little presentable she was disappointed with the fact that I hadn't managed to sign up for anything else but clearly pleased that I'd found my experiences in other ways. Nevertheless she didn't leave my side until I'd signed up for a few clubs, clearly keen on the idea that I would put myself out there a little bit more.

I wasn't going to follow her interests. I might be a woman now, but no power in the universe could get me to sign up for cheerleading or a sorority.

Still she managed to coax me into making a few choices and she even signed up for some of them herself, guaranteeing a social schedule for herself that would be damn near unbearable.

What I wanted was for some of those options were to be cool enough for Jake. I want to impress the guy, to get him to really like me. And from the inital reaction I got to the very idea of LARP club, I'm pretty sure his interests run a bit more to the conventional.

On that, though, there is a problem.

"I joined three other clubs," I stammer, "A board game club. The... uh... the music ensemble. And the... um... true crime and paranormal club, though how they're going to resolve the two of those when one is true and the other is bunk I'm not sure but hey I guess I'll find out!"

I smiled weakly, nervous with anticipation as I wait for his hopefully positive response.

"Well that's..." he says, disappointingly, "an interesting selection."

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