Chatoyant College, Book 1: New Student Orientation

Chapter 37: Butterflies

She was feeling much better by the time Rico knocked on the door. Her friends had successfully gotten her laughing and relaxed. When they heard the knocking, Naomi got up to open the door, and Dawn heard Rico's voice. "Hi. Uh, Dawn's here, right?" She immediately sat up--she'd been laying on her back and laughing--and smoothed her clothing nervously. A different kind of anxiety flooded her at the sound of Rico's voice. She hadn't been on a date in a while; the last one had been her high school prom, and that hadn't exactly gone well. That had been her own fault, though, for waiting for a guy to ask her who ended up asking a blonde and brainless cheerleader, causing her to end up at the last minute with a brunette but equally brainless football player. While some might say she had come out ahead, it had not been an arrangement she was happy with.

"You have to wait," came Naomi's voice. "She's still putting on her makeup."

"I am not," said Dawn, standing up and walking toward the door. For a moment she wondered self-consciously if that had been a subtle hint from Naomi that she needed more makeup than the eyeliner and lip gloss she was already wearing, but pushed the thought firmly out of her mind. Rico had asked her out when she was wearing the same makeup, after all, and they were just going to an outdoor movie; even if it had been a formal situation, it was going to be too dark to see her face clearly anyway.

Naomi stepped out of the way to let Dawn take her place in the doorway. Rico smiled at her. "Ready to go?" He certainly wasn't dressed up; the only thing he had other than usual was a rolled-up blanket under his arm.

She nodded, trying to ignore the butterflies that flapped around in her throat. "Yeah."

They were quiet as they walked to the back field, being sure to follow the paths. Dawn admired the light of the setting sun as it illuminated the tops of the trees. From here, it almost made the forest look friendly. But she knew that if she were closer and looking around under the looming trees, it wouldn't look so appealing.

She saw the big movie screen when they rounded the gym. It was set up by the forest, leaving as big a space as possible for people to sit. Rico spotted an empty space big enough for them, and they threaded their way through the groups of people who were already set up to find it. Rico unrolled the blanket and they sat down on it, carefully leaving a little space between them.

"I wonder how often they do this," Rico said. "I doubt they'd bother with that big projector screen to show a movie once a year."

Dawn nodded. "There's probably movies once a month or something. This is set up by student council, right? I'm sure they want to see plenty of movies."

The movie wasn't starting yet, and she took the time to look around at the other moviegoers. There were a lot of people she didn't recognize even vaguely, most of them looking older--of course, the upperclassmen had started to move in today. And there, not too far away, was Ever, sitting and chatting with a group. A shiver ran down her spine at the sight of that now-familiar blue hair. The other girl didn't seem to notice her, but Dawn kept staring at her for a few moments. What was it about Ever that worried her?

She shook her head and turned back to Rico. Concentrate on the date, she reminded herself. This is hard enough without worrying about other people.

"So, uh. Have you seen The Princess Bride before?" Rico asked.

Dawn grinned. "Who hasn't? I could probably recite half the lines along with the movie. I even read the book it's based on."

"Yeah? How was that?"

"Surprisingly similar. The author claims it's real history and his book is an abridged version of the one written by a historian of Guilder."

Rico laughed. "That's great. More books should be written by historians of fictional countries. The Redwall books did that too, actually."

"I don't think I've heard of those. What are they about?" She decided not to mention the fact that she'd been fooled by William Goldman's claims of having abridged the book for a good while. Guilder just sounded like it should be a real country.

"Oh, they're these silly fantasy books about mice and other small creatures in a medieval monastery. The mice are the monks, they don't just live there."

"That's cool. Oh, the movie's starting." The people with the projector had finally gotten it set up and the movie started. There was the little curly-haired boy in his bed, getting ready to whine about how sick he was... but he was upside-down! She laughed out loud, hearing the rest of the audience doing the same. She turned to Rico, who was laughing too. They smiled at each other.

"Sorry, sorry," came the call from the projector. "Okay. Let's try this again." The light flicked off, then after a moment flicked on again. This time he was right-side up and the sound started as well. They turned back to the screen to watch the movie.