40)

My first official tournament, representing the underage category for the Itchiban family in a red Gi with a white belt, was in two weeks.

Normally a white belt is that of a beginner in martial arts. But supposedly the founder of my branch of the family considered himself an unnatural creature, the first and only magic working Onmyodo in the Ichiban family, but as capable of thriving as the oddly white Aodaisho snake of the Yamaguchi Prefecture.

So we used a white belt for the middle ranks. But I think it was really just to mess with people.

The Homecoming dance which Neal had just asked me to was in three weeks.

He just slunk into homeroom that morning, half asleep, sat at the desk next to me, then turned his head to me as he leaned forward and asked in a low voice. "Do you want to go to Homecoming with me?”

At first, I could not understand the words coming out of his mouth. The idea of going to a dance was so weird to me that I didn’t put the words home and coming together as an event.

While I stared blankly at him, he signed and looked away. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make it weird.” then he got up to move.

I got ahold of his sleeve and yanked him back down. "Are you asking me to a dance?”

Which I probably said way too loud as everyone in the class looked over at us. Del gave us a thumbs up. "I'll allow it."

I shot her a narrow eyed glare. I didn't recall needing her permission. She just gave me an evil grin in return as her two sidekicks started whispering to each other.

Neal blinked at me and looked down at the grip I had on his plaid shirt he was wearing like a jacket. "Ah, yeah. I went with Del last year so she could make an appearance, and I don't want to get roped into it again this year." then he shrugged. "Or have anyone else take you."

He blushed, and I could feel my own face burn. I hastily finally let go of his sleeve.

“I don’t know how to dance… and I need to focus on preparing for my tournament." I began twisting my hands together. "But I do want to go… I'm going to need to find the time to get a dress too."

Neal shrugged. “I know it’s going to be weird to say this, but you always look like you're dancing. Like every step you take is part of something deliberate and practiced. Even the first time I saw you putting your little brother in a shopping cart and playing with him as you pushed and picked out everything you were buying without even looking."

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I had never noticed all the little colored spots int the linoleum floor I was looking down at instead of looking at my just a friend. “Okay, I’ll go. But please stop talking?”

One day, I am so going to beat him up for springing this on me when the last thing I needed was a boy distracting me while I needed to focus on training. Where’s the technique for this Uncle Dave?

I called him later that night and asked him for real. He said, “Traditionally you should mediate underneath a waterfall still cold from the melting ice of the mountains in the spring to focus your mind.”

He let out an amused huff of breath. “I believe the modern recommendation is a cold shower. Goodnight Number One Student.”

My mind sort of drifted for the rest of my classes that day. Should I look for something in green? Maybe light green since the gym will have the lights dimmed down for a dance? What was Neal going to wear? Should I try to match? How were we getting to and from the dance? Do people still do the flowers on a wristband thing? Can Mom teach me how to dance? Does she dance? Should I have asked my parents before I accepted an invitation? It's not like we ever talked about dating rules.

Austin managed to get close enough to me to shove me hard enough that I had to take a step away from him to regain my balance as I knocked his hand away and nearly punched him in the throat. “What? What the heck was that for?”

Ryan started yanking on the larger boy's other arm, "You've been ignoring us for the last ten minutes, what's going on?"

I stared at the two of them blankly. “I got a date?”

Austin threw up his arms as he made a sort of angry “Graa.” sound and stomped off. Even Ryan rolled his eyes at me. “Already, I thought we could do cool stuff for at least another year, now it going to be just like Lourdes when she got all boy crazy and didn’t want to hang out anymore?"

The red headed girl on the bleaches looked up from her phone with an angry look. "Shut up Ryan, I'm not boy crazy, I'm just tired of doing little kid stuff."

The smaller boy shrugs and swept his hand up at the still fuming girl as if to say “See.”

I had thought Fuming meant smoking and being angry, but it specifically meant either irritating smoke or being so angry you couldn't think.

Crossing my arms I stared Ryan down. “I’m not boy crazy either. It’s just that Neal sprung it on me out of nowhere and I’m still trying to fit it into my head. I’m supposed to be in my first real tournament in not even two weeks, but it's more like a week and a half now, and I am under a bit of pressure since I'm representing my entire family and debuting as a person of interest to a whole bunch of shady, mysterious organizations."

Ryan stared at me for a moment, then turned to shout up at Lourdes. "That's a lot better reason to ignore your friends than saying video games are for little kids."

The red headed girl huffed at him and turned around on her bench to face away from him as much as she could.

I looked around at the three of them. “So you guys are friends?”

Austin made a disgusted sound as Ryan nodded. “Up until you got here we were the only supernatural people in our grade. And Lourdes got into it with Del back when she was in Elementary and her family had issues. So now she distancing herself from us since she’s on Deloris’s hate you forever list.”

The little guy, even I had a few inches on him, turned to give the staring red headed girl a determined look. “I don’t give up on my friends. Packrats Forever.”

He raised both his hands and rubbed his finger and thumb tips together like he was gesturing to get paid, while Lourdes stood and sniffed before shuffling out of the old gym.

Austin had crossed his arms and turned his back on her.

I walked over to sit down on the lowest bench of the bleachers. “Well, that made my teenage drama seem awfully silly.”

Austin nodded at me. “After seeing you fighting with your Uncle, you get a free pass to get all girly and emotional now and then. But if you’re done I want you to show me that hop and turn with your arms swinging thing you did.”

Ryan informed his friend that, "You're a dick Austin." Much to the larger boy's bafflement.

But Austin was right. I would have to talk to my parents about accepting a date without asking them about it, and I would have to talk to Neal about my dress, which I was sure he was going to get all boyish about having to participate in that conversation. But for now, my focus was going to be getting ready to fight highly trained teenage martial artists and show them how far me and my family was above them.

You know, the fun stuff.