Make It A Date?

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine walked through the gardens, looking at the flowers around the place.
The gardens were pretty, with all their rows of hedges and pretty feminine flowers, with the fountain and benches... it was all beautiful. But Madeleine missed the wild, unstructured beauty of the forests beside the camps, with their rivers and waterfalls and trees...
She sat down on the bench and plugged in her iPod, just tuning out.
Just as the song ended, she heard footsteps coming up behind her, and immediately turned around.
It was Lee, Kira's cute cousin.
"Hey," she smiled, taking her earphones out.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Lee felt as though he'd just walked through a cascade of cold water. He stared across the gardens for a few moments, and then felt that same strange tug of the stomach.
Great. Just great.
Madeleine was sitting on one of the benches, lost in her own little world. He recognised that vague, dreamy expression well. Kira often wore it when she was meant to be doing her maths homework. Lee felt himself smile at the thought, and felt a sudden, inexplicable upsurge of affection for his cousin.
And for Madeleine.
He hovered for a few moments, unsure of what to do. Well, he knew what he wanted to do. After last night's chess game, he and Madeleine had hung around all night talking. Kira had disappeared and Matt had spent his time drooling absent-mindedly at Lydia, and because he blocked their view of the rest of the Common Room, they'd spent the whole night in complete privacy. She kept making him laugh. It was weird.
Ow. The tug.
So after going for a little thought trek, as Kira had fondly dubbed them, he'd come to one simple conclusion.
Ask her to the dance.
Easier thought than done.
Suddenly, Madeleine turned and around, and smiled at him.
"Hey," she grinned.
It was now or never.
"Madeleine-" he began, then paused and struggled for a few moments. "What music are you listening to?"
d**n!

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

"Emmm..."
She stalled for a minute, having to check her iPod to see what she was listening to; she'd been so surprised to see Lee.
Not that she wasn't pleased. She and Lee had spent nearly all of last night talking about things important and not so important, and laughing. Kira had been right, Lee really was brilliant. He was polite, and wasn't afraid to give his opinion - but he did it tactfully. He admitted what he felt, and he smiled a lot. and He had a fantastic sense of humour, and had Madeleine laughing most of the night. And when she made him laugh, she felt a little jolt in her stomach, and an intensely happy feeling.
She was feeling that little jolt now, but now, it was accompainied by an excited anxiety. He was making her nervous, looking at her like that with his sapphire eyes, and it was an alien feeling to her.
Not an entirely unwelcome one, though.
She'd enjoyed talking to him so much last night, that she thought that the dance might be a little more bearable if he went with her. Honestly, a Badelaire Head of the Warriors, worried about a dance? Pssh. It was ridiculous. But she knew that if Lee was there, he'd make her feel a little more at ease. Well, a lot more...
She looked at her iPod and found the name of the song she was listening to. "Um, Down And Out, by The Academy Is... have you heard it?"
He was looking at her again, and she felt a shiver run down her spine.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Lee's mind blanked for a few moments. This wasn't fair. He'd never really understood the tradition of the guy asking the girl. It was just awkward. Really, really awkward. His throat seemed to have constricted, and his stomach kept fluttering unhelpfully. He was torn between anguish and amusement at his current predicament. All he had to do was say a few words. He just had to open his mouth and...
"Err..."
Wow. Smooth, Romeo.
Something seemed to register in his cloudy mind.
"The Academy Is?" he said in relief, latching onto the topic with surprising ease. "Yeah. Music. Good, isn't it?"
He was feeling increasingly more pathetic by the second. It was like he was shrivelling up, like a little wrinkled prune; resembling his old Uncle Gregory in his mind's eye. Unfortunately, this image of himself was not bolstering his confidence. It was weird. Usually, he had lots of it. He wasn't cocky- he was pretty certain of that- but he'd always had a pretty reasonable opinion of himself. There was nothing wrong with that.
Heck, plenty of people needed that.
But now, faced with this... this girl, Madeleine, a strange sense of defeat had settled over him. Not only that- of complete hopelessness. Like... like it wasn't going to work. He was on a fool's errand. A pretty girl like Madeleine... she was bound to have hordes of guys chasing at her.
But what was he to her? The weirdo chess champion who just happened to be related to Kira.
Ugh.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

"I love them," Madeleine said shyly. "They're... they're pretty awesome."
She just wished her stomach would stop jolting the way it was. It was pretty uncomfortable, and Lee was making her nervous, so nervous.
She wished she'd put on a little more eyeliner before leaving her dorm this morning. She really didn't have much on. Usually, she didn't care, but she felt like her appearance was just bad right now...
What was this guy doing to her?
She really, really wished that he would ask her to this dance but... Madeleine was weird, she knew that. She had that look sometimes of someone who'd seen too much too young and was hardened by it. No one knew anything about her other than that she was a Warrior, and that she'd been taught how to control her powers. She was a mystery. Lee... they shared so many interests, he was so smart, and she really did like him - even with just one meeting! - but she knew that to him, she was only his cousins friend.
She looked up at him and shivered, which had nothing to do with the cold. "So what are you doing out here on this cold morning?" she smiled brightly, if only to end the pause.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

"Just... walking about... you know..." he said vaguely, waving his arms at the surrounding gardens.
He had to do it soon, he knew that. Madeleine was probably really confused. He was just... standing there, staring awkwardly and pointedly away from her face. It was her eyes. He didn't think he could quite face their soft blue brilliance and say it aloud.
"Thing is, Madeleine..."
D**n. He'd made the mistake of facing her. There was no avoiding it now. He took a deep breath, hoping to sound light-hearted... casual... as if it was no big deal.
But his heart was pouding.
"This dance... I never really like those sort of things anyway. I mean... no good music, nothing to do but sit around and watch people dance. Boring! But... I thought, well I hoped, that if we went together you could... help kill the boredom?"
That sounded really bad. She probably hated him right now. Automatically, before she had a chance to respond, he leapt in again, trying to redeem himself.
"Sorry! I'm no smooth-talker!" he laughed. "Look, Madeleine, would you like to go to the dance with me, and turn one of the lamest events of the year into an evening of sarcasm and punch? Because if you do, it'll rock."
Em... how was that sounding?

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeline's jaw dropped.
Oh, my...
Did he...? No, he didn't. She'd misheard him. She had to have misheard him, right?
But there he was, smiling at her, his sapphire blue eyes looking nervous.
Could he really want her to come with him? She was nothing special, Lee probably had loads of girls queuing up for him.
But there it was. He'd asked her. And now he was looking nervous because of her hesistation in answering.
"I'd... I'd love to," she said. She could feel herself blushing, but her voice was amazingly at it's normal pitch. She'd been worried about that. "That would be awesome. It would rock," she smiled. "I'm sorry, I'm not the smoothest person in the world either, but you did pretty well."
She sounded normal, but inside her head, the little voices of her conscience and inspiration and the little devil on her shoulder were all throwing one hell of a party.
"So... yes," she said, smiling confidently at Lee. "I'd love to be your sarcasm-and-punch partner."
Then, a sudden thought struck her, dampening her exhilaration slightly.
"Will Kira mind?" she asked worriedly.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Lee felt an indescribable feeling of complete and total exhilaration. He could barely hear her words over the roaring triumph in his ears, pounding around his own head. He stood stock still for a few moments, letting the whole magnitude of the thing wash over him for a few moments.
His sarcasm-and-punch partner.
His.
That word just seemed to make it all so much better.
Any unbidden thoughts of Madeleine arriving with a dark, faceless stranger were gone in an instant, crawling out from the darkest closets of his mind and evaporating into a puff of smoke. The world suddenly seemed so much brighter, the rippling sunlight on Madeleine's curls so much pleasenter. He admired her for a few seconds, blatantly unbashful.
"Will Kira mind?"
The words were like a jolt to his system.
"Kira?" he repeated, a little shaken.
He hadn't thought of her before now, but if he was honest, he didn't really see why she would. After all, his cousin had never much seemed to care what he got up to. She floated in and out of her own dreamy existance, only to smile kindly at him every so often, and to have one of their strange conversations that littered their friendship, bringing them closer all the time.
"Of course not," he smiled at Madeleine. "Why would she?"

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

"I don't know," she said, still unable to take the smile off her face, but she was a little nervous about Kira. "She's your cousin, and I'm her friend... oh, I don't know. I just think that I should maybe talk to her, or you should. You're closer to her."
She was going to the dance with Lee. The hot guy that she'd sat up all night with, playing chess and talking about things big and small, important and unimportant, and finding out that other people did think like her.
Lee, who was all those things that Kira had said and more. She didn't want to count her chickens, but she'd met a nice, genuine, lovely guy, so unlike all of the ones that she'd known back in her life as a gypsy. Lee made her feel special, like... like she mattered. Like she wasn't just some "chick" with nice eyes and curly hair. Like she was a person.
And she knew that she'd met him less than twenty-four hours ago, but in fairness, she'd spent a lot of time talking to him. He was just... different, and Madeleine liked that.
She looked up at him and watched his blue eyes sparkle, feeling a rush of affection for him. He liked her. Who would have thought it?
"I really would love to be your sarcasm-and-punch partner, but I'd feel a lot more comfortable about it if she was okay about it. And I know her, but not very well, I'm afraid," she confessed.
Still...

[Kira & Lee Norris]

"Sure, I'll text her now, if you like," he said happily, pulling his mobile out of his pocket.
He'd learnt from his elder sister, Bethany, that it was always best to go along with the flow. He supposed Madeleine could potentially feel a bit awkward since his cousin was in her Dorm, but he was fairly confident that Kira wouldn't be awkward about it at all. On the contrary, she'd be positively thrilled at the news.
As long as he was happy, so was she.
"There," he smiled, pocketing it once more. "All done."
His eyes drifted involuntarily back to the dancing sunlight in her hair. It was a little hypnotic. For a few seconds, he concentrated on this, and only this, as vague thoughts of being in desperate need of a tux swam lazily around his head.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine smiled, feeling relieved, and really happy. Happy happy happy.
It felt weird!
She was on this natural high, and she was actually enjoying it. Right now, she could forget about the war. Right now, she could forget about Shaun. Right now, she could forget about Levi, and all of the other doubts that being made Head had made her feel.
She could just be happy, looking at Lee.
Then, her mobile alarm beeped and she groaned, being called back to earth as the moment was ruined.
She didn't need to check it to know what it was. There was a special assembly being held, and everyone in the school had to go. So to make sure that she wouldn't forget, she'd keyed the time into her phone.
She signed, looking up at Lee again. "We need to go to assembly, I guess."

[Kira & Lee Norris]

His happiness faltered momentarily. "What?"
God, no. He hated assemblies at the best of times, and if there was anything worse than an assembly, it was a special assembly. It always meant they were going to be given some boring, useless information they already knew, but the teachers felt it neccessary to remind them of anyway, because, quite frankly, teachers are idiots.
Well, he could name a few.
"Sure," he said miserably, "let's- oh, hang on..."
He pulled his mobile from his pocket, and read the message through quickly. He stopped, and shook himself, then tried reading it again.
'Yea, i already kno. F off, im busy.'
What the...?

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

"Is that Kira?" Madeleine asked, concerned. Lee was frowning, and his mood seemed to have shifted. "Does she mind?"
Eugh, she hoped that she didn't. She really wanted to go to this dance with Lee, and yet, if Kira didn't like it, then rules of friendship basically stated that Lee had a hands-off sign on him.
Oh, no. Madeleine remembered the forlorn look on Kira's face in the dorm yesterday as she said, Lee will probably find one...

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Lee shook his head, smiling at her. "Nah, course not. She's just a little grumpy at the moment, that's all..."
As he said it, his stomach gave a uncomfortable squirm. He was saying it as much to himself as to Madeleine- giving himself false hope. He really liked Madeleine, but... if it came down to a choice between her and his cousin...
Well, that goes without saying.
Problem was, he didn't want to have to make that choice. He didn't see why he couldn't have them both; after all, if Kira dated one of his friends, he'd be supportive! Well, he threaten the guy, but the support would still be there...
He shook himself slightly. He just wasn't used to Kira talking to him like that. He was probably reading far too deeply into this whole thing. She said she already knew- wait, how was that? Had she worked it out? Was this part of the whole 'new powers' thing that the Heads got?
Lee sighed, looking up at the school. "Let's go," he said, with a brave stab at cheerful tones, "We'll see her there, and besides, we're gonna be late!"
It was odd... if you didn't know him all that well, you'd almost think he wanted to go to the assembly.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

"That's good," Madeleine said, wriggling her toes inside her Converse happily.
Kira was fine about it. She didn't mind!
That was great. Awesome. Madeleine was happy.
She jumped up from her bench. "Right, let's go..."