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Love at Fifth Sight


Part 3-4

February and March seemed to pass in a blur. Ami was almost glad that the fuss over prom took her mind off college decisions – minimally. Rei had come home to help her pick out a dress over spring break, and Kira had taken time out of her busy schedule to come with them. That shopping excursion had been one of Ami’s best memories from the year.

Another was the day she received her acceptance letter from Harvard. What seemed like ten seconds after she broke the seal and was staring at the stark printed words heralding her acceptance into her dream school, Zach’s battered car pulled into a spot in the lot.

“Hey!” he called cheerfully, retrieving his own mail from where it was scattered across the front seat. “I heard Harvard decisions are out today.”

She turned to him with shining eyes, and for an instant he was frightened that they had rejected her. But the smile broke across her face, as beautiful as the fragrant white flowers heavy on the dogwood trees that lined her drive. “Zach – I can’t believe it!”

He bounded up the steps and snatched the letter from her, skimming it before catching her in a tight hug. “Congrats! I’m really happy for you. You must be so psyched.”

“It’s still sinking in.”

“See? Didn’t I tell you things would be fine?” he demanded, grinning as widely as she was.

Ami laughed giddily as she stepped away from him. “Don’t let it get to your head.”

“Uh huh. Always worried about deflating my ego.”

“So are you going to open yours now?”

Zach glanced down in the direction of her gaze. “Oh, yeah. I didn’t really check if the online decisions came out, and all these letters came in the mail today, so I thought I’d come over and open them with you.”

He plopped himself down on the steps and starting ripping through the envelopes. Ami sat down on the step above him, glad that she was behind him now so he couldn’t see the look on her face. She knew that if she said anything about his actions being sweet, he would deny it to his deathbed.

His voice determinedly casual, he said, “So tell me, which schools will be receiving the devastating news that you won’t be matriculating in their illustrious institutions this fall?”

Ami glared at him, no longer feeling touched. With a sigh, she told him about the handful of first-tier schools that had also accepted her, and the other two which had wait-listed her. Then she prompted him, “Come on, it’s your turn now. What do they say??”

Zach shrugged, putting the I-don’t-care look on his face that she hated. “Oh, you know. I didn’t have high hopes anyway. I should have stuck with just applying to safety schools instead of aiming at better schools. It was a waste of time and money. Rejected from all of them…”

“Oh, Zach.” Her eyes began to swim with tears again, only they were sad this time.

“Except MIT.”

He burst into laughter at the shocked expression on her face.

“You jerk!” It was said without too much heat though, and she continued, “I really can’t believe it!”

Zach nodded, smiling at the pleasure that was evident in her eyes and voice. “Yeah, me neither. Guess they must have liked my mad computer science skills.” Those were the only classes he had actually performed well in on a consistent basis.

Ami rolled her eyes. “They like it when your grades improve, and your teacher recommendations were strong. And your standardized test scores blew everyone else’s away. Stop putting yourself down.”

He smiled at her and tugged at a stray lock of hair. “But then you wouldn’t compliment me anymore.”

When she frowned at him and then smiled a second later, too happy to stay mad at him, he said, “Come on, let’s go get ice cream to celebrate.”

“Okay. Just let me put my backpack inside; I’ll meet you in your car in a minute.”

Zach strolled back to his car, whistling cheerfully while she let herself in.

As she slid into the passenger seat of his car, Ami smiled at him so warmly he felt an odd pressure in his chest. “Oh, this is so exciting! Your parents will be thrilled. And we’ll be in Boston together, only ten minutes away from each other.”

“Yeah. It’ll be great.” To tell the truth, he was kind of excited about it himself, but he wasn’t going to show it.

Ami amended tentatively, “Well… I mean, not that we’ll be seeing each other so often. Just once in awhile. If you want.”

He rolled his eyes at her and made a rude gesture at the car that was tailgating him that made her squeak. “Chill, Ames. Have you not dedicated a good portion of this year to making sure I actually do my homework, and have I not committed myself to torturing you as often as possible?”

“Umm…”

“Are we friends or not?”

“Yes. We are.”

“Going to college isn’t going to change that.”

________________________________________


Despite a slight feeling of restlessness, Ami considered the tail end of her senior year infinitely better than the months that had preceded it. She chased away some of the restlessness by keeping up with her grades, as usual, and surfing Harvard’s website until she could navigate it effortlessly.

Prom snuck up on her on a rainy day in early June. Rei had insisted that she leave school early like most of the other girls to have her hair done. Mina, Rei’s college roommate, was visiting and had promised to do Ami’s make up. Mina had come to stay with Rei on breaks before since her parents lived in London, and she and Ami had also become close friends despite the fact that they seemed like polar opposites.

“I wish it weren’t raining,” Ami fretted as Rei and Mina fussed around her.

“I know, I know. But it’s okay. It’s supposed to clear up by the time you and Zach are supposed to head to Leah’s house for the photos,” Rei said encouragingly.

As she tested a shade of blusher on Ami’s skin, Mina asked, “Zach does know what color your dress is, right? And that he’s supposed to get you a corsage?”

“It’s a little late in the game for that,” Rei said dryly before Ami could answer. “Don’t worry about it. Jaden said he’ll take care of it. He’s been to proms before. He also said Zach is as vain as a peacock, so he’ll be looking his best.”

They all laughed as Ami confided, “He takes longer than I do to get ready in the morning. He’s not late to first period because he oversleeps but because of the time it takes him to get his hair just right!”

Forty minutes later, Rei and Mina had Ami at the door, even managing to get a photo in with Kira, who had rushed back from the hospital.

“Ami, you look beautiful,” Kira said, carefully touching her daughter’s hair. Part of it was caught up in a softly-sparkling clip, while the majority of it fell in soft, silky waves to her shoulders. Ami had insisted that her hair be styled in a more natural look rather than the high pompadour or teased ringlets

“Where is Zach?” Rei demanded in a harassed voice. “He was supposed to be here ten minutes ago.”

Mina patted her shoulder. “Calm down, Rei. They have plenty of time. I’m sure if there was a problem, he or Jaden would have called by now.”

“Hmph” was all she said. But she couldn’t help smiling as she looked over at Ami, who looked slightly nervous but very pretty.

“Rei? Are you sure I’m going to be able to walk in these heels?”

“You’ll be fine, I promise. And you can take them off to dance,” Rei assured her.

The blond-haired girl bounded away from the window to throw open the door. “They’re here!”

Jaden got out of the car first while Zach trailed behind him a little awkwardly. “Hi, Dr. Mizuno,” he said politely to Ami’s mother, who he had met several times before.

“Took you long enough,” Mina chided him, “Rei’s been pacing for the past fifteen minutes.”

He grinned at her, then kissed his girlfriend on the cheek. “Come on, have a little faith,” he told her. “The kid needed a little man-to-man talk, if you know what I mean. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this nervous before.”

Zach, who was in the process of greeting Ami’s mother and being introduced to Mina, tugged at his collar nervously.

Jaden stepped over to him and knocked his hand away. “No touching.”

“Hey–”

Sternly, his brother admonished, “You may be the god of hair, but you’re ruining the line of this tux.”

He only sulked for a minute because when he finally looked over at Ami, he felt his tongue tie itself into knots.

She smiled shyly at him. “You look nice.”

Zach tried to gather his thoughts to say something coherent, but he ended up shoving the frosted plastic container at her. “Uh, here.”

Ami opened it carefully as her mother exclaimed, “Oh, the corsage!” and came over to admire it. “It’s lovely, Zach. A wonderful choice.”

He smiled weakly, wishing he had been able to tell Ami that she was lovelier than the creamy flowers nestled among the dark green leaves and trailing silver ribbons. As she slid it onto her wrist, Mina opened the refrigerator and removed his boutonniere.

With a sly look in her eyes, the blonde said, “Okay, Ami, you have to put it on.”

“What? I do?”

“Yes. It’s tradition.” Mina looked over at Rei and Jaden for confirmation, and they nodded – Jaden after Rei dug her heel into his foot.

“Ouch – yeah. Just don’t stick him with the pin by accident,” Jaden said, looking at Rei pointedly. They had recently gone to a formal event together at college, and she had pricked him lightly with the long pin.

Rei glared at him as Mina moved over to supervise a blushing Ami. “That wasn’t by accident.”

“What?!”

“You were looking down my dress!” she hissed at him, making sure her aunt was out of earshot.

Jaden smiled at the memory. “Oh. Yeah.”

She smacked him on the arm just as Ami completed her ordeal and Zach, who had pasted a longsuffering look on his face, stepped away. “Ready to go?” he asked her.

“Wait! You can’t go yet – we have to take more pictures!” Mina exclaimed, brandishing the camera with enough zeal to make everyone wince.

________________________________________


By the time they made it through the whirlwind of pre-prom activities, Ami could have sworn the spots in her vision from the camera flashes would never fade. Of course, they did, and she found herself enjoying herself until she caught the disdainful looks Christy and her friends were shooting her.

She excused herself before dessert came out and headed for the ladies’ room. Once she was inside, she latched the door shut, thankful her dress wasn’t as poofy as some of the other girls’ dresses, which might have trouble fitting in the stalls.

A moment later, Christy and her friend Laura came in, chattering loudly as they fixed their lipstick.

Ami sighed, wondering if she would be able to make it out of the bathroom before fifteen minutes elapsed. She resigned herself to listening them give each other saccharinely sweet yet backhanded compliments and criticize other girls’ choices of dress, hairstyle, shoes, and even prom dates. The number of times she heard “EW, I can’t believe he’s here with HER” or “She’s way too pretty for him” exceeded the number of fingers she had.

Finally, Christy smiled maliciously as she said, “And did you see that Zach is here with Ami? How bogus is that?” She not only recognized that pair of white heels in the third stall, but she had also seen Ami going into the restroom and dragged Laura in after her.

Laura glanced at her uncertainly. “Well, they’re always hanging out now. It wasn’t really that much of a surprise.”

“I know, but it’s weird that he would want to spend so much time with her. She’s so boring, and her looks are just – blah.”

To Christy’s irritation, her friend just shrugged. “She looks all right tonight. Much better than that mousy friend of hers, what’s her name? Lane? Lena?”

“I don’t care about her friend, I was talking about Zach! He could do so much better than her.”

Laura sighed, bored with the way Christy’s conversation always seemed to circle back to Zach. “Okay, whatever. Besides, I don’t see what you’re so steamed about. It’s not like they’re going out, are they? I heard they were just going as friends.”

She smiled now, seeing that she had her opening. “Duh. As if that would ever happen. Who would want to go out with Ami? She’s not pretty at all, and she’s such a brain. Who knows if she could even find another nerd like her at Harvard? Zach probably just feels sorry for her. I bet he can’t wait to ditch her when he goes to college.”

Laura rolled her eyes, knowing that Christy just wanted to make herself feel better. She didn’t hear that hurt gasp from the stalls that Christy did. As they left the restroom, she retorted rudely, “So what if it’s true? What would you do about it anyway? It’s not like you got into MIT.”

Ami didn’t hear Laura’s parting shot, and it was doubtful whether that would have made her feel better. She drew back the lock with trembling fingers, certain that the room was empty now. She walked up to the mirror and examined her reflection carefully: her face was so white that her eyes looked larger and darker than normal, but she wasn’t crying.

She knew better to let Christy’s harsh words get to her, had heard enough of the same thing over the past year. But it hadn’t been quite so direct, hadn’t hit home quite as much as it did this night. It hurt her that someone who would say such nasty things about her, had even bothered to think of them in the first place.

She knew that many, if not all, the things Christy had said weren’t true. She had more faith in her friendship with Zach. But Ami felt that much more hopeless about her crush on Zach, the one that she hadn’t even been able to admit to herself.

When she stepped out of the ladies’ room, she was surprised to see Zach lurking in the hallway with his hands stuffed in his pockets as he pretended to examine a vase of flowers. His eyes lit up when he saw her, relieved that she seemed just the same as always. “Hey.”

“Hi. Sorry I was gone so long. Have they started the dancing?”

“Yeah.”

Seeing the concern in his eyes, Ami said quickly, “Well, come on. Didn’t you say you were going to teach me to dance?”

He grinned as she reminded him of his flippant remark a few weeks back. “So I did.” After they made their way onto the crowded dance floor, he raised his eyebrows and said, “I may have to take back what I said.”

“What?” she said loudly, trying to hear him over the music.

Zach moved closer to her. “I said, I may have to eat my words. Maybe you have a few things to teach me – where did you learn to dance like this?”

Ami’s blush was invisible in the dim lighting of the room, but her pearly teeth gleamed as she smiled shyly. “Mina and Rei taught me.”

“They’re good teachers.”

She jolted, realizing how close he was and that his mouth was right by her ear. His arms kept her in place as he said, “I didn’t get a chance to tell you before, but you look really beautiful, Ami.”

As she looked up at him, so startled but hoping against hope again, Zach had a feeling he knew what that funny feeling he had started to get whenever they hung out together was.

‘I really care about her,’ he realized, his heart pounding as they switched to a slow dance and her hands clasped behind his neck hesitantly.

‘I don’t want her to forget about me when we go to college. I don’t think I’ll ever meet anyone like her again, and I don’t think I want to.’

But as he looked down into her open, trusting face, he felt the icy fingers of fear run up his spine and his heart close off again. He couldn’t bring himself to tell her tonight, wondering if his words would wipe that soft smile off her face.

________________________________________

“So? How was it?” Rei prodded, having stayed up watching movies and eating ice cream with Mina while they waited for Ami to return. Ami’s friends weren’t keen on after prom activities, and she was happy enough to join Rei and Mina in their sleepover.

“It was really fun,” Ami answered, flushing slightly as she remembered the feeling of Zach’s arms around her while they danced. He had seemed to withdraw slightly towards the end of the night, become a bit quieter than usual, but he had chalked it up to tiredness.

He had seemed perfectly normal as he’d gotten into his car to drive home, flashed her that cheeky grin of his, and rolled down his window to tell her not to spend all night thinking about how much dreamier he was than Einstein.

Mina and Rei proceeded to drag all the details out of Ami, which she eventually provided – she talked about everything except the conversation she had overheard in the bathroom.

“Did he kiss you?”

“Rei!!”

“What? The answer is either ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ How could it be anything else?” Rei demanded.

“No!” she squeaked.

Mina and Rei exchanged exasperated looks that plainly meant “Stupid boy” and “I know.”

“So…when are you going to tell him you like him, Ames?” Mina asked, unwrapping a piece of candy and popping it in her mouth.

Ami turned red. “Um…I don’t…” She still wasn’t sure of herself, still wondered if anyone would find her attractive, especially after overhearing Christy’s words. But the look in Zach’s eyes when they had danced that night seemed to tip the balance in her favor. Unless she was reading things wrong, which she was terribly afraid was the case.

Rei, who was sure that Zach liked her back despite the time it was taking him to grow up and confront his feelings, said scathingly, “You’d think that with a brother as persistent as Jaden, Zach could just get his act together and ask you.”

Mina laughed lightly. “Don’t be so old-fashioned, Rei. Sometimes the girl can do the asking.”

“Old-fashioned? Me? I’ll have you know, Mina Aino, that I am not old-fashioned.”

Ami watched them bicker with a fond smile on her face, glad the spotlight was off of her.

“…oh yeah? So when you’re flirting with Kenneth all the time and waiting forever to ask him out, I’m sure that’s not being old-fashioned. Positively the height of modernity.”

Only slightly ruffled, Mina replied, “Oh, he’ll come around. You’ll see.”

Sometime just before dawn, as they were drifting off to sleep, Rei murmured sleepily, “If you want to, you should go for it, Ami.” She reached out tiredly to link her fingers through Ami’s and gave her hand a quick squeeze. “I promise I’ll stop bothering you about it now, though.”

Ami smiled, even though she knew Rei’s eyes were closed. “Maybe I will. Thank you, Rei.”

She stayed awake a little longer, letting the possibilities run through her mind, but soon fell into a sound sleep.

Love at Fifth Sight
Infinite Ice