It was the 10th or the nth times Wilson shushed Renata. Everybody knew the third-floor rules, any student who chose to study on the third floor was expected to abide by the silence rule, low whispering was permitted. Despite this, she had been whistling quite loudly for an hour; Wilson had reminded her several times, but she would forget it in a matter of minutes.
"What is the matter with you?" Wilson spoke in a whisper as they usually did.
Renata faced him with apologetic eyes. "I'm sorry, I always whistle when I am overjoyed."
"That is still unacceptable. We could be banned from the library."
"Sowrryy...." She pressed her palms together, trying to be cute to appease the irritated ogre.
Wilson sighed and asked her, "You have been in a good mood since you showed me your test results last week. They were good but not unexpected, why does it make you so overjoyed for a week?"
Renata grinned while shaking her head, " No, it wasn't just that. I'm going on a date tomorrow. " She stroked a fist in the air.
Wilson stared at her with his skeptical eyes. "Who would, in their right mind, ask a little kid for a date?"
Renata was too over the moon to retaliate and was pretty used to his sarcasm, "I am going with Lyle on a date. Lyle asked me last week, I still couldn't believe it. Can you believe it?"
"I can not believe such an idiot exists. Which village is missing him?" Wilson replied with his deadpan signature as he continued working on his laptop.
"Ri~ght? Wait, what!!??"
Wilson replied nonchalantly, "There is nothing special about having a date with Lyle. He dates different girls every weekend. He changes his girls like he changes his gruds on a daily basis. Chances are most girls here have dated him at least once."
Renata's blank face stared at Wilson. She seemed to be so disappointed that it made Wilson feel a little sorry. "What is gruds? Is that a New Zealander word?"
Perhaps Wilson thought too much; the girl in front of him was too deep in cloud nine to be aware of any danger.
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She had spent the last hour picking her outfits, Renata had planned to wear a baby pink turtleneck mohair sweater, a dark grey slouchy beanie, a pair of dark grey Chelsea boots, a double strand necklace, and a hoop earring. The only thing left was to decide on the skirt, between a circle or rumpled mini skirt, or mini pants, or trousers, or jeans. The choice was endless, which gave her a mini panic attack. It was a good thing that Millie had gone home yesterday, so she could spread her entire wardrobe on her bed, almost the entire wardrobe.
The school bus would be leaving in 10 minutes, and Lyle had pinged her since 5 minutes ago. She actually wanted to wear a mini black circle skirt, but there was a certain nagging voice in the back of her head clouding her decision. Besides, the weather seemed to be cold that day, and her body was still recovering anyway. So she convinced herself that the weather was the sole reason she didn't choose to wear the mini skirt at the end. Renata picked the safest choice, normal black skinny jeans. After she put that on and inserted the front of her sweater into the jeans, she slung her favorite mini pink bucket bag over her shoulder and left her room.
Renata posted her signed permission slip on the clipboard near the permission box in her dormitory foyer before running to the shuttle bus. Lyle was already on the bus, he was chatting with James and his girlfriend, Meghan. James had introduced her to Meghan before. In her opinion, Meghan was a cute unassuming girl-next-door type, she might have gotten swept away by the wind if James hadn't held her tightly.
James's breath hitched. If his eyes could get any bigger, he would pass as a lemur. "Whoah, Ren....." Before Renata could stop him, he snapped a few pictures of her with his BlackBerry.
"Why are you taking my pictures?" Renata glanced at Meghan, she didn't seem bothered by what her boyfriend just did.
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"No reason. I will keep it just in case." Renata rolled her eyes at him.
"Little Rabbit, you look so damn good today.... you must have just walked out of Teen Vogue or something........I'm honored to be your date today.... I guess the wait was worthed....." Lyle took her hand and led her to the seat between James and him.
Renata blushed at Lyle's praise. "I'm glad you approved." She grinned.
"Even a blind man will approve, Ren. You are wasting yourself with this local Casava, I mean Casanova." Renata glared at James's uncouth remark.
Apparently, they were not the only couples(?) who dated on the weekend. The shuttle bus was full of students, and thank gosh Lyle saved a seat for her, she could be standing if he didn't. Some students were going on dates like them, some were going home. The school bus only took them out of the school grounds to the nearest bus station, stopping by at the motor vehicle parking lot. The road to the parking lot was adorned by millions of yellowing trees on each side, she could imagine herself having a romantic autumn picnic under one of the trees. Perhaps the school carved out the road in the middle of a dense forest when they built the school in the past.
They reached the parking lot 5 minutes later. James immediately dragged Renata away while Lyle warmed up his black matte Porsche 911 GT2.
"Don't do anything stupid with him." James tossed her a black thin square package and left with Meghan in his old brandy mica Lexus RX 350.
Renata observed the thin package on her hand; she felt a jelly-like substance inside when she pinched it, "Trojan" was written on it.
As she finally realized what it was, her face contorted in embarrassment and she shouted at James's car, "YOU IDIOT!!!!" But she was too late; he was already far away.
"Something wrong, Little Rabbit?" Lyle was startled by her screaming.
"NO....I-I mean, n-nothing.... nothing is wrong. Should we go now?" Lyle smiled and nodded at her as she walked into the passenger seat.
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It was Renata's first time inside a car that purred like a cat in heat, especially when he revved up the engine. The car could run so fast, like really fast, that everything outside looked like blurred lines. Lyle told her that he had been driving for almost 3 years by then, but his parents gave him permission to bring his car a year ago. Still, her hands were unwilling to part with the car's ceiling handle atop her head.
The little thin gift that burned her back pocket from James earlier was long forgotten. It had never occurred to her that a date with Lyle would go beyond sightseeing; they were teenagers, after all, though a little touch of second base could probably take place sometime later in the day. But never did she have any intention of doing something using the damn thing inside the black thin foil. She should have thrown it when she got a chance, but she couldn't, could she? What if things got raunchy between them, shouldn't she be armed? Either way, she mightn't have had the chance to use it in this lifetime. Either because she had not considered doing anything that daring with Lyle or because she might die first in this death trap.
One of these days, Renata should learn when to shut her mouth up. Out of politeness, she complimented his car, which triggered his monologue about his love for this "baby". He said that his car used a 911 turbo as its engine, which is similar to a twin-turbocharged engine, whatever that means. And boy, Could.He.Talk. He was mansplaining about the engine on and on and on and on, not stopping for the past half hour, which literally made her dry. It was like listening to him preach in a non-English language (or non-Cantonese language). She wanted to tell him to just focus on the road lest she shoved one of her shoes on reflex to plug his mouth.
At a time like this, she wanted nothing but silence, just like the serenity in the library for the past weeks. She blamed Wilson for brainwashing her. Renata became used to, accustomed to each other companion even with no words exchanged.
It felt like an eternity before they finally arrived at the first location, Mystic Aquarium. Lyle parked the car, and after several times revving the engine, he turned off the car. The last time she went to a giant aquarium was when she was 6, and it wasn't this huge. Renata was so excited about taking many pictures that she came prepared, she brought her digital camera, the pink Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T100.
Lyle paid for the entrance tickets, which was around $62 for two. They were considered kids, so they got a little discount. Renata was so excited to see the animals that she felt like a little kid again. Well, technically she was a kid. The beluga whales, sea lions, penguins, sharks, tons of different kinds of jellyfish, sting rays, and turtles, she snapped away here and there. Lyle, when he rested his blackberry, also occasionally took photos of her with many sea creatures with her camera. She wished she could touch the penguin, but she would need to pay around $200. That was what she called daylight robbery. Maybe one day, if she really wanted to, or if she shot her brain with morphine.
"I don't mind pay for you if you really want to touch the penguins....... It's just $200........" Lyle offered as he handed over her camera back.
"I do mind..... It's not that I don't have the money; I just don't think it was worth the price." Her bag was worth around $200 and could be used for a long time. Being with penguins for freakin' 30 minutes and it cost her $200, like hell she would pay for it.
"Well, if you say so..... Are we done here? Should we go to Olde Mistick Village now?" Renata nodded at Lyle's suggestion, she had plenty of pictures taken anyway.
They walked for about 10 minutes to Olde Mistick Village. Picturesque—that's the first word she could think of after seeing the cute old houses. It was basically a shopping mall, but instead of a large building or series of connected buildings containing a variety of retail stores, each shop was situated in an individual old house. The buildings were inspired by the 1700s Colonial period. They were designed so that no two buildings were alike.
Lyle took her to a little pizza house before they roamed the village. Renata's stomach grumbled as the aroma of pizza wafted out. Upon their arrival, one of the servers politely assisted them to a table for two. He recommended their house special, Bootlegger pizza; a mozzarella pizza topped with crispy bacon, pepperoni, and Italian sausage.
"Then we will have a 16" Bootlegger pizza, one Classic Italian Sandwich for him, and two Foxon Park Sodas. I think that would be all." This time, she paid for the lunch, $70 tips included.
"And make it quick, Skippy. I'm here to eat, not to wait..." Lyle said to the server before he took the orders and left with a sour face.
Renata instantly felt bad for Kenneth, who had his name written on the nametag he wore. 'That's....ru~de.... perhaps he is just too hungry....Yeah, that must be it... I shouldn't dawdle too long at the Aquarium; he must have been starving since then...' Renata thought to herself.
"Are you sure you don't want to eat anything else? Aren't you going to be hungry later, Little Rabbit?" Lyle asked her with his eyes glued to his BlackBerry. His fingers rarely stopped texting from the time they arrived at the Aquarium.
"I don't think I can eat more than three slices; I might be full at two. Do you want to order anything else?"
"Um... I might...." He raised his hand, and the waiter scurried over to him. "Hey, Skippy, where's my food!!??" Lyle's loud voice was enough to draw everybody's attention to their table.