Van had been nervous about calling the cute brunette from Times Square...so he hadn’t. Instead he’d shown up at Xavier’s Sister School, asked for Henrietta with the fancy hair, and ambushed her with his idea of a ‘perfect date’–namely the secret show of one of his favorite new electro pop bands. He figured she’d appreciate that kind of music better than some of the heavier stuff he was into. Not that he knew anything about her musical tastes, but he inferred by her performance at the streetlight that she’d enjoy something that provided more dancing than thrashing.

Their conversation had gone something like this:

“Hey Etta.” The young man was all smiles and cool confidence to hide the fact that inside his coat pockets his hands were shaking in fear of her rejecting his offer. “I was wondering if you’d accompany me to this show down in the Village that’s supposed to be awesome. It’s in a few hours...”

“Uh...sure.” She’d replied through her cute smile.

So now there they were–outside the tiny club that already had a line of people out front. In his ripped skinny jeans and his black and red striped tee-shirt Van looked a bit strange standing next to all the girls with their bright extensions and neon skirts and stockings. That was the fun thing about music, it brought the most random people together. Henri looked adorable next to all the fake looking prettiness and he was glad that she hadn’t dolled herself up too much.

“Guess what? Lines are not for the likes of us.” He grabbed the girls hand and headed for the door where a bored looking bouncer was stamping peoples hands with black light ink. “Hey Lou.” He patted the man on the shoulder. “Vany-boy!” The large man shot up to embrace the boy in a half hug. “Who’s the cutie?” Lou looked at the boy’s date approvingly. “Here to see the show? Of course you are, head on in cuz. I’ll see you for Sunday dinner at Nan’s.” And with that, the duo were stamped and sent through the small doors into a small room painted black with neon paint splattered across the walls. The set hadn’t started yet but a DJ was blasting some random techno through the room.

“I gots connections.” Van said to the girl , letting his accent thicken and flow through his mouth heavily.

Henrietta couldn’t believe that he had actually come to the Mansion to ask her out. It was something that she never thought could happen to her. She had run up to her room to change right away. At first she ran around her room frantically looking at all her options. Finally she decided what she was going to wear and changed into a simple black dress. She had black tights and flats on as well. She had quickly put on a little eyeliner and lip gloss, but that was all she did. Her only accessories were a silver necklace with an ‘H’ and a purse.

They had gone to a club where a band was supposed to be playing. Van seemed like he was excited for their performance. Henrietta guessed that he was a fan of their's. There were lots of girls in brightly colored outfits. They were pretty and had nice bodies. She would’ve felt more insecure if she wasn’t with Van. He had pulled her by the hand up to the bouncer. The bouncer asked him who the cutie was. Henri felt herself blush slightly. It sounded like the two were family, which got Van and her in quite easily. He said that he had connections once they were inside. The brunette smiled. “So he’s your cousin? He seems nice.”

Now that they were inside the club, she glanced around. It was a decently big place and the stage was on the other end of the building. She noticed that stuff had already been set up on the stage. Henri turned and looked at Van. “I’m really glad you decided to bring me with you. I was telling my friend Twyla about you. You should meet her sometime.” Maybe it would put her at ease a little...

“Lou? Yeah, he’s good people.” Van was one of the younger cousins but that worked out in his favor usually, especially when some of his cousins were old enough and big enough to bounce at some clubs in his rotation. Lou was his father’s brother’s son and they’d been close even through the age gap--so unless the show was almost at capacity he let Van in ahead of the line. Getting into shows was all about knowing people and the gangly teen liked to think that he knew plenty of people. Enough people to impress cute girls with, at least.

After she looked around a bit, Etta turned back to the boy and told him two very important things: she was glad he’d practically abducted her and that she was talking to her friends about him. It was really early in the game but those were good signs. Really good signs hopefully. “Well, I’m glad that you’re glad.” Suavity McSuave’s smile was back to hide the strange giddiness that was slowly filling the boy. “Sure, sure.” He replied to the meeting of her friend suggestion. First they’d have to see if they themselves worked meeting again and then he’d risk the mine field that was sure to be meeting other people in her life. First thing first was that he needed to get to know Etta to see if he wanted anymore of her world. Based on what he knew already...he hoped he did.

“So should we get something to drink before the set starts? I think we’ve got a few minutes before the roadies are done getting set up.” They could talk before the band started and he could try and figure her out by the way she jammed out (or didn’t) to one of his favorite bands). The mosh pit never lied...so the floor at an electro pop show wouldn’t exactly be the same as a mosh pit but the same rules applied. The truth was always in the dancing.

Van said that he was glad that she was glad. This made Henrietta grin happily. She hoped that it wasn’t a dumb look she had on her face. He was so cute and she was so nervous. He didn’t seem too scared. It made her wonder if he ever seemed to get shaken. At the café, he had maintained his cool after exposing his power. Henri knew that if it had been her, she most likely would’ve begun to panic. Having all of those people’s eyes on him didn’t seem to affect him at all.

Henrietta had always been afraid of what people thought of her. This boy seemed the opposite though. It seemed like he purposely drew attention to himself. She couldn’t help but think how cool that was. She found herself wondering if he had many friends at his school. The brunette wasn’t sure if he would be popular or not. Different schools had different kinds of popular. Her old schools’ type of popular was the really skinny, wealthy girls. The ‘cool’ boys were very athletic. Henri just fell into the background. In Springfield, that had been for the best.

The subject changed when he asked if she wanted to get a drink before the show started. She nodded and smiled. “That’d be great.” Blushing, she took his hand in her own. She glanced up at him quickly and then looked back forward. “Why don’t you lead the way, Van? I don’t know anything about this place for the most part.”

Henri agreed that getting something to drink would be a good idea and then she took his hand. This made the boy smile. That smiled widened when he saw her blush. I could get used to this. He thought smugly as he led her through the growing crowd towards the back of the room that had a long bar against the entire wall. There were the usual alcoholic beverages along with more 'kid friendly' options that catered to the younger and straight edge crowds. There weren't too many people at the bar yet, so it was relatively easy for Van to get the attention of the bar maid with the lip ring who had a heavy Indian accent that seemed strange coming out of such an 'Americanized' young woman. "Yes?" She asked trough her heavy black bangs. "Hey Chandra, a Coke for me and whatever this one wants." He motioned with his head at the girl whose hand he was still holding. Chandra smiled, revealing a gap between her front teeth and waited for Henrietta to give her something to fetch.

After they got whatever it was they were getting Van would find them a place to wait for the show to start where they could talk and he'd get to know the girl in the black dress better. She was confusing, to say the least. Sometimes Etta seemed very forward, like when she'd grabbed his hand but at the same time it seemed like she had a very shy nature. The enigmatic way she acted was very intriguing to the people watcher, and he found himself wondering how she'd react to the crazy, peppy band...hopefully she liked them and wasn't too embarrassed to dance in a crowd. Anxiously the boy waited for the girl to get their drinks--he wanted to find out as much as he could about the brunette before conversation was stalled by crazy jumping and pounding beats.

Let's see if she's cute inside and out.

Van led Henrietta to the bar. She took a second to look at its size. That's a big bar... Looking at Van, she waited to see what he would order. It didn't take him long to decide. He knew exactly what he wanted: a coke. She thought about it for a minute and then came up with her response. "I'll have one too, please." She waited a moment as the woman grabbed the drink. After she had handed it to Henri, the brunette smiled. "Thank you very much." She opened her Coke and took a drink. Once again, she stole a few glances at her surroundings. There were more and more people pouring in. It must be a good band. The pair were still holding hands and the girl turned her attention back to the stretchy boy. After looking at him, she realized she didn't pay for her Coke yet. "Do you want me to give you some money for mine or something?"

While she waited for his answer, the girl wondered if she'd be able to dance to this band. Henrietta wasn't sure if there was some sort of way to behave at this type of thing. She had seen people at shows on TV and she listened to some stuff that wasn't too easy to dance to. The girl just wasn't sure if it was quite the same thing as you saw on television. Henri had never seen a band or any other kind of musical performances live. Well, except in the 5th grade when they had to go watch an orchestra. If Henrietta was sure of one thing, it was that this kind of thing and classical music didn't require the same type of etiquette.The thought of old, stuffy, rich people at this type of concert made the girl smirk to herself. That's something I want to see some day, I think. I bet you'd have to set them up though.

Hmm...Now what? I'll see what Van says we're suppose to do so I don't embarrass myself.

Etta ordered a coke too and soon two were procured. They were the cool kind in the old looking bottles. By way of reply to her question about who should pay, Van put the appropriate cash on the counter, smiled and Chandra and said “Later C, see you Sunday.” To which the woman smiled and nodded as she helped another customer. Van grabbed his coke with the hand that wasn’t currently being used for holding and led Etta back out into the main of the club. Glancing around, he found a pretty empty space by the DJ station and made a beeline for it.

“So are you really a coke person, or were you just trying to appease me?” He asked after they had crossed the room. Deeper questions would be saved for later but there were some things–like pop preference that needed to be discussed pre-show so that Van had an idea of whether he wanted to spend more of his money (and time) on the girl with the black dress.

The club was getting more and more crowded by the minute and this crowd was mostly made up of raver looking guys and girls with neon clothes and matching hair. A few of the more hardcore kids looked at the pair as if they were the oddities. When he heard a group near them making comments on his ‘poser’ look and his ‘girlfriend’s lame outfit’ Van screwed his face up in his best ‘I’m-so-badass-I’ll-kick-your-ass-right-here’ look and stared them down until they walked away. Yeah that’s right, you take that. The funny thing was, if Van didn’t want to see this show so much and he had been alone, he probably would have gotten into it with the loud mouth with the blue dreads. Actually...on second thought, there were a lot more of them than there were of him.

Henrietta's date lead them to an empty spot. Van asked if she really liked Coke or not. Smiling, she gave the boy a nod. "I do like Coke. I pretty much enjoy anything with caffeine, really. I have to say that I'm a pretty big fan of Vanilla Coke. It tastes odd, but good at the same time. Of course, you could probably just add vanilla extract to a regular Coke, but that would be too easy." Henri laughed slightly until she heard some of the kids in neon talking about their appearances. Yeah, because we're the ones who's outfits sceam for attention... The girl wasn't looking for attention from anyone but her date and she didn't think her outfit told people to stare at her. Now seeing everyone else, maybe it did. She hadn't realized how they would all dress. Cool-guy Van was there to give them a look though. The kids walked away the brunette looked at her date. "Impressive. You didn't even have to say anything." There was no sarcasim anywhere in her voice. She really was impressed.

"So Van, is Coke your favorite soda or just what you felt like having tonight? I know some nights I'd rather have one thing over another." Henrietta smiled at Van and waited for his answer. While that was going on, some people were getting into a fight by the bar. She couldn't see exactly what was going on, since they were further away now, but that may have been for the best. All she could hear was some yelling. After that she noticed some people being dragged outside. It was a couple big guys that pulled the two apart. She couldn't help but notice how muscular they were. It wasn't the hot kind of muscles either. It was the overly huge kind. She wondered how hard it would be to get that ripped. Then remembering how creepy women bodybuilders could be, she scrunched her face. It was like they didn't even look girly anymore. Henri took a moment to try to picture herself with huge arms. After receiving the image, she blinked a few times, wishing she hadn't tried in thre first place.

Shaking her head slightly, she looked back in Van's direction. "I wonder what they were fighting over. Did you see those security guys or whatever they were? They were very, very muscley." Considering it was near the bar, she assumed somebody did or said something stupid to another somebody. Maybe they'd been drinking before arriving here. Who knows? Henrietta wasn't very concerned about what had happened, but was trying to make conversation with the cute boy who made threatening faces at the neon kids. She hoped that he didn't think she was being weird. Deciding to just clear everything up before making it worse, she started to talk once more. "I'm sorry if I seem a little odd or something. I've never been on a date before and I'm kind of nervous." Henri smiled and then laughed when she remembered why the comment about the men had come out in the first place. "I was picturing myself like a bodybuilder and then thought about the fight again." Raising her arm, she attempted to flex her bicep. It moved slightly and then she laughed again. "I don't think it's going to happen..."

The tall brunette began going off about Vanilla Coke at his simple question. He was surprised at the sudden flood and blinked a few times rapidly as she spoke. Well there you go, Etta. There you go. He thought to himself as a smirk found it’s way onto his lips. After he noticed that she stopped laughing when she heard the group talking he decided not to tease her for her rush of words. Instead of his semi-biting comment he replied with: “I don’t think vanilla extract with Coke would be able to compare to the gentle love that is a bottle of true vanilla Coke.” He let his voice become dreamy and he rolled his eyes at himself (on the inside of course).

“It is all in the presentation, young padawan .” Van used his most serious voice when he replied to the girl’s compliment. It really was. Besides his fashion (and other) tastes, Van wore the attitude that he wore and acted how he acted because of the image it presented to people. Most days he felt like he looked at least a little ‘don’t bother me’, which was really what he was thinking most of the time. If he was honest with himself, he knew he wasn’t nearly so intense as he seemed–honesty was the best policy, especially in his book, and he knew (but didn’t admit) that a lot of what he did was posturing. Although he liked to think he wasn’t a poser...posturing and posing were two different things--most of the time. It was posturing if you put an angry look on your face, it was posing if you went out to buy the perfect pants for a show so you should fit in with the crowd that was going to be there. Van didn’t try to conform to a ‘scene’ hence he just pretended to be badass and not emo or indie or punk or whatever.

“I just like the neat little bottles they come in.” The smile on his face was theatrical to match the sudden sing-song in his voice. Anything else he was going to say was swept from his mind when Lou and one of his equally large coworkers broke up a fight at the other end of the room. “That’s really weird...clubs like this don’t get violent usually. Someone must be having a bad trip...” Van was still staring at the door that the man had been dragged out through when he spoke and his tone was distracted. He’d have to ask his cousin about it later.

Suddenly, the girl started apologizing and revealing to the boy how nervous she was and how she pictured herself as a bodybuilder...or something. “Whoa, whoa, whoa kid. Hold up.” He put his hands up (even though she was done) to stop anything else from coming from her mouth. “Rule number one: Don’t let them see you sweat. And rule number two: Don’t ever apologize. Wimpy arms or no,” He looked at her flex and smiled slightly. “You’ve got nothing to be sorry to me for. And certainly nothing to be nervous about.” The accent that was always on the back burner was cooking with gas now. “In your life you’ll go on a hundred more and better dates or whatever than this, so if you think about it–what’s the point of stressing? Right? Chill out, Etta, no worries.” The boy took a drink of his Coke, successfully draining a third of the glass bottle.

The boy had put his hand up as if to make a barrier for her words. Henrietta clamped her mouth shut and listened to him talk. He was so nice about it and she felt stupid for even going off in the first place. Blushing, she glanced down at her shoes. What was I thinking? I can be so stupid sometimes…Looking back up, she gave Van an appreciative smile. “Thank you.” That was all there was to say about it. She decided to move off of the subject and was happy to do it. “So have you seen these people perform live before or have you just heard them? I’m excited to hear what they’re like. Is it kind of rave-ish?” She looked around at all the other people again. “Just guessing..”

Henrietta watched as some people moved on to the stage. Everyone started yelling and clapping in excitement. Being polite, the brunette clapped and smiled. She didn’t really want to yell at the people since she didn’t know what they sounded like. Henri had a feeling that they’d be decent because Van seemed like he had pretty good taste in things. She thought about how he said he just liked the ‘neat little bottle’ that the Coke came in. The bottle Coke came in was kind of neat, especially when you put it in front of a window. The light shined through beautifully.

“So Van, I’ll be able to dance to their music, right? As you’ve seen, I do like to dance.” She smiled at him jokingly. Dancing was her passion and she could pretty much dance to anything, but she wanted to see what he would say. Henri loved listening to Van’s witty comments. He made her smile and he was very smart, even if he she hadn’t seen his grades. By his wit, she knew he was intelligent.

Etta said thank you, and Van let the subject drop. He really didn’t feel like delving any deeper into whatever issues made her so meek and mild. The show was about to start and the stage was where his main focus was. “They’re pretty amazing live. They really keep the crowd going.” He’d answered her question without actually coming out and saying he’d been to one of their shows before. “They’re an electropop band–have you heard of Ke$ha or...what’s his name...Owl City?” he looked inquisitively at the girl, now they were talking music and music taste was important to the boy. “These guys are kinda like that...same general idea.”

Suddenly the lights went out and the stage lit up. Even though his date didn’t go crazy, the boy let himself holler and he even whistled with his fingers for a second before laughing and looking down at the girl in the black dress. “If you can’t dance to this, I don’t know what you can dance to.” Van himself wasn’t a very good dancer, he was too awkward. Jumping and thrashing he had down, but the kind of dancing he assumed she liked was way out of his range. So far out that he couldn’t touch the bottom of that pool.

After a second of ‘Test.Test.’ a loud keyboard chord resounded and the boy lost himself in the music. Nothing else mattered but the pounding beats of the synthesizers coming through the wall of speakers. This was music. This was where everything felt the way it was supposed to. This was home.

Van asked the brunette if she had heard of KeSha or Owl City. Henri turned and gave the boy a huge smile. “Yeah. They’re pretty cool. Both of them are.” He had said that this band was kind of like them. This made the girl more excited. She should be able to dance to this kind of stuff. It was probably have a good beat. Good beat=good dancing. Good dancing=good impression on the hot guy. Well, that was the theory at least. The lights went off and Van began to whistle. Henrietta smiled. It was a great way to see what he was into. She thought it was cool that he seemed so excited. The girl knew that if she saw a band she really loved live, she would be yelling at the top of her lungs too.

He had been right. The music was a lot like KeSha or something. She grinned as she danced around. Henrietta wasn’t doing anything overly complicated since the place was so packed. Not to mention that certain types of music also required certain kinds of dancing. This kind of music called for a bit of wild hair shaking here and there and a small type of jump. Between these things, she would do little spins. Once and a while she would stop to watch the band or watch Van jam out. He was the type who flailed and thrashed around. She grinned at how cute he was.

After the show, everyone began to exit the building. She stood next to Van and watched people leave. She felt a knot build up in her stomach. Was she just supposed to go home now? She really didn’t feel like it and she was having fun with the stretchy boy. Turning to him, she smiled. “They were great. Very fun to dance to.” Blushing, she looked him in the eyes. They were pretty, a gray-ish kind of color. “So, do you want to go home?”

Van let himself go into the music right away but as the show went on he came back up from the murky depths of thrashing to watch his date/dance partner/growing crush/cutie/ jumper girl as she flipped her hair and spun. Etta was getting down, Van liked people who let themselves get down. On the surface she didn’t look like a girl who’d get down. This girl was full of surprises and the boy couldn’t help but think in the back of his mind about how much he wanted to learn more of her secrets. I honestly want to know more about this girl...

A few times he caught her looking at him, once they even stopped and looked at each other for almost thirty seconds. That had been a cool moment, it was like everything around them was crazy and they were the only sane people in the world. They hadn’t danced close all night, but in that moment it felt like they were weirdly connected. Van pushed those thoughts from his mind during the last songs of the set. You don’t even know this girl–and noone but you thinks like that. She was staring at the dumba$$ look on your face.

All too soon the show was over and the party-hearty crowd dispersed almost immediately--probably to heading another show in the endless New York City night. Van had heard of a few more bands playing the later sets but none of them were really anything special, or anything he thought Etta would want to dance to. The boy grinned when his date told him that she liked the band. “I’m glad you approve, darling.” His tone was fake-y suave when he replied before looking out across the quickly thinning crowd. It’s like twelve thirty...I don’t want to– the boy was pulled from his thoughts by a question. “Funny thing, I was just thinking about that.” Turning back to the girl, he returned the eye contact–the better to check for ‘I wanna go home’ signs with. “Do you wanna go home, Etta?” If she wanted to go home that was fine, he’d ride the bus across town with her but if she didn’t...if she didn’t he had a place he could take her for more serious talking.

The boy asked the question right back. Henrietta felt herself grin at that and continued to look at him. "Well, I think it would be awesome if you'd want to hang out more, but I can understand if you can't or something. I know it's a little early in the morning and you may have to do something later today." The girl knew that sometimes people had stuff they had to do, but she was hoping he didn't. She wondered if he asked her the same question to check for the same things. Maybe he was liking her too. That would be really cool. If we ever went on another date, I know where we could go. She smiled to herself. She wanted to see how he did at her kind of dancing.

Henri had managed to not look like a complete idiot on the floor, well at least she didn't think she had. She wondered what he had thought of her attempt at thrashing and whatnot. The girl almost decided to ask him, but thought better of it in case he had thought she was a total doofus out there. If that was the case, she didn't want to know. She tried to picture the stretchy boy poppin' it and almost laughed. Boys poppin' it in general kind of made her want to giggle. It wasn't him. It definitely wasn't him. Everytime she looked at him, she couldn't help but think how hot he was. That was almost enough to make her blush all in itself, not to mention her getting nervous.

She watched more people walk out. She rubbed one foot on top of her other one and waited to see what he had to say. Henrietta really hoped it would be good news. Maybe they could go talk or something. She didn't know tons about his family or friends or anything. The girl really wanted to get to know him better. So far, she really liked him.

"Pfft As if I have a life." He rolled his eyes at Etta's worries. Van never went home early because he had 'something to do later'. A can of red bull or a power nap could usually take care of a late night if needed and it just so happened that Van had nothing going on for the rest of the day. "On that note..." He grabbed the girl's hand and took off running towards the door. Hopefully she knew the drill by now. "This game is so much more fun with more people." The couple charged towards the door, stretched out boy's arm wrapped a few times around the girl's middle to protect her from the other patrons who weren't very pleased with Van's 'game'. When they made it to the other side he released his hold, sending her out in almost a ballroom dance type spin as he laughed so hard he was almost crying. Lou was still at his post by the door and when he saw the boy and girl he smiled, showing a gap between his front teeth, and called to the duo: "You keep him out of trouble, now!"

"As if I get into trouble." Van whispered into Etta's ear once she recovered from the spin. "Come, power walk with me. We have a few buses to catch." A serious look found itself on the boy's face as he began to walk with an awkward step that looked not unlike a horse prancing. There was a place he wanted to show the tall girl and they were on a strict schedule, they had to get there before sunrise and before that they had to get across town.

The nice thing about Etta's meekness was that she didn't seem to mind the random detours he kept taking on. She'd tolerated running away from a man with a moustache and now she'd tolerated him turning up on her doorstep (in a sense) to whisk her off on some random date. It was fun, letting his randomness take them wherever and Van couldn't help wondering what kind of random places she'd take him if he let her hold the reins. They' have to try that sometime...

maybe...

Maybe things wouldn't work out for them this time, ending the possibility of 'sometime'. Van didn't like that train of thought and put it from his mind as he walked in his ridiculous fashion down the street.