* * *
When Celine got home, she decided to call Delia. "Hello?"
"Hi, Del! I just did the dumbest thing! I got my hair cut!" Celine
exclaimed.
"Oh my God! How does it look?" Delia asked.
"You'd better come see for yourself," Celine instructed.
"Okay, I'll be right over," Delia answered, slamming the phone down. Five
minutes later, Delia appeared on the Summer's doorstep. Celine ran to
answer the door, and Del stared at her friend in amazement. "You cut your
hair!"
"No dip, Sherlock," Lina shot back sarcastically. Celine led her friend
into her room. Delia flicked on Celine's miniature TV and was soon
absorbed in a baseball game. Celine was lying on bed, reading The Silver
Wedding by Maeve Binchy. Both girls were very startled when the phone
rang. "Hello?" Celine asked politely.
"Hi, is this Celine?"
"Yes. Who is this?"
"This is Zac," he replied.
"Oh, hi Zac!" Celine greeted. "What's up?"
"Do you and Delia want to come over?"
"Oh, she's right here, hold on." Celine asked Delia, who shrugged in
response. "Okay, we'll be right over."
* * *
When the two girls arrived at the Hanson's, they were greeted by Taylor.
Tay appeared to be laughing at something, but stopped when he saw Celine.
He managed a small "wow" and stepped aside.
"Gee, thanks," Celine replied sarcastically, walking into the Hanson's
house. She was secretly pleased. Tay led Celine and Delia downstairs,
where Ike and Zac were absorbed in a Nintendo 64 game.
"Hey guys!" Celine shouted over the noise of the game. Ike paused the
game and turned around, as did Zac. When Zac saw Celine, his eyes got wide
and he jumped up. "Hey, Celine," he greeted. He then spotted Delia
standing slightly behind Celine, and mumbled, "hi'. Delia waved feebly and
managed a small smile. They all sat down and were about to engage in a
game of Mortal Combat, when Tay said, "Uh-oh, we don't have enough
controllers."
"I don't have to play. I'll just watch," Celine stated.
"Are you sure?" Tay asked, ready to give up his own controller.
"Yeah," Celine assured him.
After awhile of kicking butt, Zac got thirsty. "I'm going to go get
something to drink. Anybody want to come?" Zac asked.
"I'll come, Zac," Celine replied, standing up. "There's nothing better to
do."
"What does everyone want?" Zac demanded. Everybody shouted something
different, and Zac and Celine just stared at each other, amused. "Let's
just get a bottle of Dr. Pepper and some cups," they finally decided.
The two of them walked out of the room, side by side. They walked down
the hallway, chuckling at Zac's occasional jokes. When they got to the
kitchen, Zac proceeded to get the soda, while Celine got the cups out of
the cupboard. Zac turned to Celine, suddenly serious.
"What?" she inquired.
"Celine, I like you a lot. Will you go out with me?" Zac blurted out,
regretting he'd said it as soon as the words flew out of his mouth.
Celine's smile faded and was replaced with a look of shock and confusion.
"Well…" she began.
