So is it a Date?

Who: Jessalyn and Madock
When: Nighttime
Where: Textyland/Phoneville

After Jessalyn was home and had eaten dinner with her family, she did the dishes with her mom and then played Candyland with her younger sister. It had been hard to concentrate, given she wanted to run up to her room and play on her cell phone, but she managed to get through the night without acting strangely and prompting her mom or dad to ask questions. She didn't want to start gushing about a boy to her parents after all. Once she got up to her room, though, she pulled her cell phone out of her bag and checked the messages, of which she had none. Setting the phone down beside her sewing machine, Jessalyn forced herself into distraction by working on the new skirt she had been making herself. That lasted about thirty minutes before she'd decided she'd had enough craftyness, and she grabbed her cell phone before crawling into bed and staring at it. Madock had said to call him, but then again he had mentioned texting too. She wasn't sure if one meant one thing, and the other another...? Did calling mean she liked him and texting mean she only liked him as a friend? And why hadn't she asked Ransom this along with everything else?

Finally, Jessalyn shook off her thoughts and texted a message. It took her a few tries to get a complete, proper message sent out, but once she did, she sucked in a breath and held it, wondering if he would text her back. not too late is it? :):):) Okay, so it wasn't poetry, but she wasn't sure what else to say. Texting seemed so... impersonal. Just like email. It's why she preferred writing longhand her homework, her letters, her journal entries. But she was willing to give texting a try for a cute boy.

When his phone went off on his dresser, he practically leaped off the bed to snatch it up before it made too much noise and got any unwanted attention from any of his siblings. He grinned when he read the messages. Even her texts were smiley and almost bouncy even. He shook his head and texted out a reply. Nah. Not 2 late. How r u? After his conversation with Breezy he really wanted to know if they had a date or not a date, but he wasn't going to ask in the first text. He did turn his ringer down though so he could text to her without getting too much attention drawn to himself.

Her phone released a soft jingle, and the front window said she had a message. Her heart leapt into her throat and in her haste to read it, she turned the phone off. Growling, she punched the green button again, and again, until the phone company logo popped back up. She tried to hit the buttons a bit more patiently this time, and when she got to his message, she grinned. good! had hot choc so 2 much sugar? driving my mom crazy. never play board games with your siblings when ur on a sugar high!

She wanted to ask him when he wanted to go ice skating. Make it like, official or something, so she could stop thinking about it. Although if they made it official, she would probably think about it more.

As if she wasn't bouncy enough without a bunch of sugar he couldn't help but think when he read over her message. He half wondered if his button punching was going to annoy anyone, or get his brothers and sisters asking questions, so to avoid all that, he got up and headed down the hallway, locking himself in the bathroom and plopping down on the floor. At least there was privacy in there.

Bouncy are we? :) I don't do much board gaming but I'll keep it in mind 2 not play 'em when I'm sugar rushing.

not overly bouncy. just enough to annoy my sister. but will probly crash sooner than later. Jessalyn sent the message and debated for a few minutes before shrugging and sending off another. so did u really want to skate with me? maybe its weird to ask with everything going on w ghosts and stuff. She knew she would feel much better if she got an answer on that. If he said no, well, then she could stop worrying about it. If he said yes? Then she could go to bed really happy.

"Yes!" he said aloud before realizing it was a bit too loud and he whispered another, quieter 'yes' before texting back. Yeah. I really did. And like she had, he debated for a moment and sent her another message. If u did. You don't have 2 though. It's cool. Well he'd deal, might not really be cool but he'd learn to live with it.

Jessalyn beamed when she got his response and lifted her arms up in victory, though she kept her stupid, girly shriek to a muffled, happy sigh. No reason to get all stupid now, was there? She lowered her arms when she got his next message and then wondered if maybe he didn't want to skate with her? But didn't want to be mean and say no. But she thought if he didn't, then he probably could have said so. It seemed like text would be an easy way to reject someone without dealing with them face to face. Or on the phone. i really do too. friday night maybe? as long as everything is okay around town? There, she was being decisive rather than flaky for once.

He grinned at the message and leaned back against the bathroom door. "Fuck yes." he grinned, keeping his voice quiet this time. Friday sounds gr8. Granted there's no craziness. Maybe even if there is. ;) I think we can handle ghosts.

me too! She smiled again, thinking maybe she wouldn't be able to sleep that night. She was too excited. She'd never had a real date before. If that's what this was. Was it? Jessalyn scooted back against the bed to lean against her wall. so then it's a date! do u drive or i can? or we can walk, if it's not too cold? She didn't mind either way. She was sure she would be feeling flushed the whole time with him anyway.

Drive. Crap. He could drive, but he'd have to make sure that Breezy and Bruce weren't needing the van. And that would mean he'd have to tell them he had a date. And that? Not smart if he didn't want a constant sing-song chorus of 'Madock's got a girlfriend' ringing through the house. He shook his head. I think my sis or bro might have the car this fri. We could walk, or if you wanna drive. Whichever u think is better. "God you're a goof."

She didn't really mind if he couldn't drive. As long as they could get from point A to point B, Jessalyn was happy, no matter how they did it. i can borrow my mom's car! that way if its really cold or snowing, we won't be freezing our you know whats off :) Sure, her mom's car was a beat up Toyota, but it was really all they could afford - which was why Jessalyn didn't have her own car. that is if u trust me behind the wheel ;) Look, she could even do winkies!

He smiled at that message too. I think I can trust u enough for the ride though I will say I could keep u warm if I needed 2 ;) Madock could give a crap less what kind of car she drove. She could have a bicycle for crying out loud and he'd be just perfectly fine. U going 2 b up for a while? Could I maybe call u? Okay, so maybe he just wanted to hear her voice. Make sure he wasn't dreaming or something. He contemplated pinching himself to see if it could hurt.

She wasn't really used to anyone flirting so blatantly with her, that it was constantly throwing her off. But Ransom seemed to think it was a good thing, so she was going to go with it. Who cared if she had a higher body heat than most? If a cute boy wanted to keep her warm, she would pretend shiver all night. you can be my personl heater :) Was that too forward? Was any of this too forward? She didn't know. Or care, really. She saw her fellow students doing this kind of thing with one another practically all day, every day. u can call me. pleas do! She was much better at talking on the phone than this texting thing. Plus, he had such a nice voice. She couldn't get that through written words.

The thought occurred to him that if he kept smiling so much, he might never stop. But of course that didn't matter because she said that he could call so he texted out a quick calling now and found her name in the contacts and pressed talk. Calling was much better than texting in his opinion. Hearing was more fun that reading. "Jessalyn?" he said as soon as she picked up the phone.

When she picked up the phone, she grinned again. "It's me," she said, as though he might not be entirely sure, despite the fact that he had just dialed her number. "Texting isn't as hard as I thought it would be! As long as you don't go too fast." Originally she had gotten the phone for emergencies, since she rarely chatted on the phone with anyone, but this seemed like just as good an excuse as any to use it. "But it's much easier to actually talk. I think we could have gone through a multitude of topics in the amount of time it took us to write all that out."

He couldn't help but grin at her near excitement about texting. Such a simple thing that could make her so bouncy. It was cute and he wanted to tell her that, but he kept his opinion to himself, for now at least. He'd probably end up telling her a billion times over the course of the conversation anyways. "Yeah, much easier to talk." he agreed. "And we totally could have gone through like a ton of stuff. Sooo, what should we talk about?"

There was so much she could talk to him about, but a lot of that meant he had to know what she was. Which she was sure she could trust him with yet. Maybe someday soon. "Well, you said you had a brother and sister," she told him as she rested down on her pillow. "You can tell me about your family! I mean, if you like them and everything, since not everyone does, and not everyone likes talking about them. I think I would rather hear about them than talk about the ghosts right now."

"Um... okay well, there's Eleven of us. Breezy and Bruce are twins, you've probably seen them around school and stuff. I'm not really sure what to say about my family. I mean it's big and interesting." We have arranged marriages too, but that would be something I'm totally not telling you. At least not right now..

"Eleven?" Jessalyn exclaimed, trying to imagine having such a huge family. She would have loved to have a family of Eleven. "My friend Ransom has eight brothers and sisters... and I thought that was a lot! Do you have a brother or sister you're closer to? I imagine sometimes in a big family it's easy to feel like you kind of get lost in the shuffle..." She knew the name Breezy... but she couldn't quite put a face with the name. "I have a brother and sister, and my mom's pregnant again with twins, but I still have quite a ways to go to catch up with you."

He smiled and shook his head. "Most of us are pretty close. Breezy and me get along pretty well, and Bruce, so I guess out of all of us, it'd be them that I'm closest to. I share a room with Bruce... which is why I'm probably all echoing and stuff. I'm in the bathroom because I'd rather not have a slew of people listening to my conversation." he told her. "Not that I'm like ashamed of talking to you or anything." he added. "Just like privacy." Not like he got a lot of it in this house.

"You're in the bathroom?" Jessalyn giggled and glanced toward her door. "I guess I was lucky enough to get my own room. I think if my mom heard me talking in the bathroom, she would think I was beginning to lose it or something." It hadn't crossed her mind that he might be ashamed of her, but it was still nice to hear regardless. "It's nice to hear your family is close though. I've always wanted a big family myself. I like being around people. Do they all come watch you play football?"

"Yeah, I'm in the bathroom. I know, total dork right?" He paused for a moment so she could answer, but if she did, he didn't hear it because he was too busy letting his finger trace across the line in the tile beneath him. Then he realized belatedly that she'd asked him a question. "Oh, crap. Yeah, sometimes." he chuckled. "When they don't have a billion other things going on."

"Not a dork at all... sometimes you gotta go where you'll get privacy. I think I would have to hide in a closest or something, myself... if I didn't have my own room." She didn't really notice that he'd gotten distracted, as she was pulling a bit at her comforter - that she had made herself - and still trying to get over the fact that a cute boy was actually showing interest in her. "Everything okay?" she asked. "No one pounding on the bathroom door?"

"Hmm? Oh, no, not yet." he grinned. "I don't think they've realized I'm not in my room yet." They probably thought - if they had noticed - that he was just taking a long time in the bathroom. Course he wasn't about to tell her that. That would just be disgusting. At least he was smart enough not to let that slip. "So, Friday?" he questioned, making sure he'd not imagined that whole thing, even if he did have texted proof. "Skating. Anything else you might wanna do?"

"Friday," Jessalyn agreed, wishing it were Friday already. Hopefully by then she could come up with some interesting things to talk to him about so he wouldn't think she was a total goober. It was one thing to flirt in the halls, but it was another thing to talk. And some people thought she was weird when it got to that point. She just needed to read up on football, or something with sports. "Oh! Uhm... something else?" Jessalyn paused thoughtfully. "Sure! We could... maybe get food? Or something else. I mean, we could do whatever you want!" There she was, acting like a goober again. Why couldn't she just be decisive? "Or, there's this small coffee place with a fireplace and really good hot chocolate we could go to after?"

He realized that he kept saying 'Friday' like it was an eternity when it was, well tomorrow. He grinned at that realization. "Ya know. I totally forgot today was Thursday for a while there. So yeah, hot chocolate after skating sounds like fun. We could definitely do that. So... skating and hot chocolate, sounds good to me." Sounded damn good. More than that even but he didn't want to seem like too much of a dork or too excited.

Oh! It was Thursday! Der. Jessalyn rolled her eyes at herself before grinning. It was Thursday! Friday just felt so far when they had first decided to go... but it was tomorrow! She would go to bed in an hour or two and wake up and it would be Friday. She was such a dork. "Skating and hot chocolate... yes. I think we'll have fun. Uhm. Do you want to go after school? Or would you like me to come pick you up a little while after?" If they went right after school, she would have to prepare herself in the morning, which she didn't mind. She would remember to do something with her hair.

He bit his lip and tried really hard to hold back just blurting out 'after school!'. He managed to keep those words at bay for at least a few seconds. "Um... we could go after school if you want." he told her. "Unless you've got stuff to do first and then if that's the case I could just come home and stuff. I doubt we'll have any football stuff going on with all the... ghost stuff." he told her. Even if they did he'd so figure out a way to get around it and still get to go out with her. Which drew his mind to that question, was it a date, or just hanging out? "So, um... is this like..." he paused and held his breath and spoke the words out pretty soft. He half thought she might not even hear him. "A date?" Before she could answer, the thought occurred to him that he had gym class the next day and despite showers and such, he wanted to smell better than a gym shower could really make him smell. "Actually... how bout you pick me up here like... an hour after school?" he suggested. That'd give him time to change clothes and get a shower and work up the courage to go on this maybe date?

Jessalyn had to pause, since he seemed to shift gears pretty quickly and she wasn't sure which part to address first. She wondered if this was what it was like for other people when she talked to them. "I can pick you up after school... an hour after, I mean." That would give her time to come home and change too, after dumping her bags and schoolwork. Plus, she was sure she could convince her mom to lend her the car after school, rather than prior to. She bit her lip in the midst of a smile, and debated telling him that she thought it was a date. But maybe he didn't want to use that word or something. "Uhm, I think it's... it could be a date? If you want it to be! If not, then it's just a social gathering of sorts, er, between two people?" What was she even talking about? Maybe it made sense.

"I kinda want it to be a date." he practically whispered. "I mean... if that's okay. If not it's totally cool." he added on. God you're such a dweeb. he thought to himself. Seemed the more he talked the stupider he felt. Couldn't he just be cool about this? God.

"No, no, it's totally cool," Jessalyn was quick to assure him. She could hear him just fine, even when he whispered. Supersonic hearing came with being what she was, after all. "I want it to be too." Then she wouldn't feel so weird at the end of it if she tried to kiss him. Assuming everything went okay and stuff. "So, then, I'll see you tomorrow? Maybe I'll see you in school too..." That would be nice. She would try hard not to catch his scent in the halls and stalk him.

Yes!!!! his inner self screamed. So loud he wondered if she heard that too. "Yeah, cool. Tomorrow then." he said, grinning widely. So much so that his mouth almost hurt because of it. "Awesome. So, after school and stuff. Um... I can give you my address." he told her, and so he did. "If you wanna... text me before you get here I'll be downstairs waiting outside so we don't get pummeled with singing about me having a girlfriend or a date or something... I'd rather not blush myself to death if I can help it."

Jessalyn practically fell off her bed in her haste to grab a pencil to write his address down. She used a sketch pencil instead, and used the back of her math homework to write down the information. She was grinning like a doofus the entire time. "Okay! Yes, I'll text you... though who knows? Maybe your family is full of wonderful singers, and you can all go on the road like the Partridge Family." She giggled at the thought of Madock in bell bottoms. "And there's a no blush rule tomorrow! If we can help it." She was going to try really hard.

He was still grinning when she said that. "Yeah, we can try at least." he told her. "Can't give you any guarantees, but, yeah... I should probably let you get to sleep and stuff." he said reluctantly. "But definitely see you tomorrow."

She set her pencil and paper to the side before smiling. "Yes, definitely see you tomorrow. 'night Madock." She could hear the smile in his voice too, which was nice. She wasn't the only one excited, it seemed. Reluctantly she hung up the phone and wondered how in a day full of ghosts and stuff she managed to get a date. But she definitely wasn't going to complain. No way.