Pointless story is pointless!

From the DeadGirl universe.

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When I was twelve I finally worked up the nerve to ask out the boy I liked. I suspected he only agreed because I offered to pay for it all, but it was my first date and I was too giddy to care.

I had liked this boy for months. His name was Dallas, and he had green hair and piercing, making him the coolest boy I knew. I spent a lot of time planning and preparing for our date. I carefully saved my allowance so I could pay for tacos and two movie tickets. I picked the opening weekend of a superhero movie. I thought all boys liked movies like that because Logan and Matthew were obsessed with them, and I thought I would look cool for knowing things about superheroes, even if it was only through my brothers.

I put on a dress and tried to style my hair.

My dad drove us to the mall. He didn’t say anything to us, but he kept grinning at me in the rearview mirror. I sat in the back with Dallas and tried to ignore him. I nervously asked all sorts of question to which Dallas gave monosyllabic answers. I think one of the questions was, “Have you ever tried eating butter raw?”

I spent a lot of time denying ever eating a stick of butter. My dad snickered quietly.

At the mall, I bought movie tickets first.

“In case it sells out,” I said. It was opening weekend. I hoped this made me seem well put-together and desirable.

I led him to my favorite Tex Mex place. I liked it because it was away from the noise of the food court and they had an entire salsa bar.

“I don’t like Mexican food,” Dallas said. He had his hands in the pockets of his baggy pants and had a casual, slouched posture. I thought he was so very cool.

“Okay,” I said brightly. We ended up ordering McDonald’s at the food court. At least I’d have some spare change at the end of this, I thought.

“Are those chicken nuggets?” he asked when we sat down.

“Uh… yes?”

He shook his head and picked the pickles off his hamburger. I sank a little in my chair. What self-respecting sixth grader ordered chicken nuggets? Those were for kids.

(I still order chicken nuggets.)

Then disaster struck.

“Juniper! Hey sweetheart!”

My mom was waving at me from across the food court, all three of my brothers in tow. She was expertly balancing a tray of sub sandwiches in one hand. I pretended not to hear. Dallas, however, looked up.

“Who’s that?” he asked.

I concentrated very hard on opening a packet of ketchup. “Who?” I said.

“There’s a woman calling for you,” he said. “Is she your mom?”

“I don’t hear anything,” I answered and very carefully squeezed ketchup over my french fries.

“She’s coming over,” Dallas said. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Chris picking his nose.

I refused to look up until Mom was looming over me and Matthew was poking my shoulder.

“Hi, I’m Juniper’s mother,” Mom said brightly and reached out to shake Dallas’s hand.

“Hey,” Dallas greeted, looking perplexed. “I’m Dallas.”

“Mooom,” I whined. “Leave us alone.”

“Nonsense,” she said, pulling a chair up to our table. “I like meeting your friends.”

“Yeah,” said Logan, flopping down into the seat next to mine. “You’re too young to date without a chaperone.” I kicked him.

“So, Dallas,” said Mom as she passed out sandwiches to the ravenous pack of trolls I happened to be related to. “How did you convince your mother to let you dye your hair?” Her tone was disapproving.

“Mooom,” I whined again, but she ignored me.

“Well,” said Dallas, patting his hair. “She’s not really into it, but I was with my Dad over winter break, and then she let me keep up with it…”

Mom had a miniscule frown on her face.

“So why are you here, Mom?” I said loudly, desperate to change the subject. I was ignored.

“And the piercings?” Mom asked. He had two in each ear and an eyebrow ring.

“Ha-ha-ha,” I said mechanically, raising my voice even more. “Aren't they cool, Mom? You should go get Logan’s ears done. Right. Now.”

Logan choked. Mom slapped his back on reflex but didn’t turn from Dallas.

“You know,” she said, “I’m not letting Juniper pierce her ears until she’s thirteen. And she’s most certainly not getting a tongue or a nose piercing.”

“Mom,” I wailed. Dallas was shifting back and forth in his chair, looking truly uncomfortable.

“I just thought you should know,” Mom said.

I decided to change my tactics. I turned Chris. “You’re a poop face,” I said. Chris burst into tears.

“Juniper!” Mom scolded, but her attention was redirected to the crying four-year-old.

“Maybe we should go to the movie now,” Dallas muttered even though he hadn’t finished his burger yet.

“What movie?” Matthew asked. I told him. An evil grin spread across Logan’s face and my stomach dropped.

“Oh good,” said Mom as she pulled the blubbering Chris into her lap. “That’s what we’re seeing too. We can come with you!”

Dallas picked up his tray and tried to escape. Mom intervened, “You didn’t finish your food. Sit back down and eat.”

Dallas wavered for a moment, apprehensive. The he shrugged and sat back down nonchalantly. He focused on his food and not on the troupe of Gards he’d been suddenly caught with. I was impressed with his ability to remain so cool and aloof when my mom was telling him off and bouncing Chris on her knee.

“Apologize to your brother,” she snapped. I wanted to shrink down to the size of a french fry and drown myself in ketchup. I mumbled an apology.

After a few intense moments which probably only seemed intense to me, Chris calmed down and Mom said, “Are you wearing make up?”

“I have to go to the bathroom,” I announced quickly and stood up. Then I realized escaping to the bathroom would mean leaving Dallas alone with them. I sat back down and put my face on the table, whimpering.

“Are you okay?” Dallas asked, sounding highly disgusted to me.

“Yes,” I answered shrilly. There had to be a way to escape this madness. I started scratching my bare calves.

“Juniper,” said my mother through a mouthful of sandwich, “eat your chicken nuggets.”

I sat back up and stared at my stupid, childish chicken nuggets. I should have told Mom the details of the date and made her swear not to show up, instead of some vague explanation about “hanging out at the mall.” I should have realized my brothers would want to see the new movie too. There had been a million ways to avoid this situation and now I was stuck and couldn’t figure out how to extract ourselves.

“Eat, Juniper,” Mom commanded and tried to push a chicken nugget into my mouth.

“Mom,” I groaned and turned my face away. Dallas was watching me in such away that made me turn red with shame. “I– I still have to go to the bathroom,” I said. “And Dallas does too.” I grab his arm and pulled him after me, mentally rejoicing at the prospect of touching him.

“Sorry,” I said after we’d escaped the food court.

“You have ketchup on your face,” he said. “And I’m still hungry.”

We went back to the Tex Mex place and I bought him a fried ice cream with the last of my money. I slipped into the bathroom and wiped the ketchup off with a wet paper towel.

“Maybe they have tickets for a different time,” I said to my reflection.

They didn’t. I had spent too much time rattling off more awkward questions to Dallas as I dragged him window shopping, and my family was waiting for us in the theatre.

“We saved you seats!” my mom called over the preview. Several people looked annoyed.

The only seats left were off to the side and not very good, so I lead Dallas to sit with my family. Also, I hadn’t even eaten half of my lunch and was starving. I asked Mom for money to buy popcorn.

“This is why you have an allowance,” she whispered back, but handed over a ten anyway. I had to crawl over Dallas to get out and accidentally elbowed him in the face. As I left, I heard Logan say, “Did Juniper tell you about how she ate a whole stick of butter once?”

I almost turned back around and screamed at Logan. Fortunately, his loud question was answered with a chorus of SSHHH! and I convinced my feet to take me to the concession stand and back.

I spent the whole movie scratching at my calves, worrying about Chris getting scared and starting to cry or Logan trying some stupid prank or Mom yelling at us to cover our eyes during a sex scene. But nothing happened and as we walked out I was even brave enough to try to hold Dallas’s hand. He pulled his away and shoved them back in his pockets. Mine were probably butter-slimy from the popcorn.

“Juniper!” Mom suddenly said, horrified. “What did you do to your legs?”

I looked down. My calves were red and bleeding in several places. It wasn’t the first time I’d done something like this, but it was the first time it had been severe enough for someone to notice.

“I guess my skin’s really dry…” I said. Dallas was wrinkling his nose as he stared down at my legs. I had wanted him to notice my legs, but not like that.

“Come on, Dallas,” my mom said, frowning down at me. “I’ll take you home. Juniper needs some first aid.”

And so ended my first date. Dallas never wanted to talk to me again. I had been devastated. Now, it was funny, and Mariano laughed with me over it.