13. Mia
MIA
"Mia, are you ready?" Aaron called up the stairs.
I was. I was embarrassed to show them, but I couldn’t hide up here all afternoon.
I descended the stairs slowly, my white canvas sneakers nearly silent until the wood creaked. Then I saw them—Diego, Aaron, and Cody—all sitting in the living room waiting for me, all staring up in surprise.
"What?" I demanded, as I reached the bottom step. "It was all Jenna had."
"Are you a… princess?" Aaron asked, his eyes sweeping over me.
"A princess with her hair in a bun, wearing pink and white with a tutu?” I asked.
"She’s a ballerina," Diego said.
I did a double take when I looked at him. He was dressed as a referee with a black and white striped shirt, black shorts, knee socks, and sneakers. There was even a whistle around his neck. It didn’t make me feel any better that he had a real costume while I had a makeshift one.
"Do ballerinas wear tiaras?" Aaron asked.
Right now, my favorite roommate was Cody, because he was the only one not asking me questions. "Jenna said it was part of the costume," I said, a little self-consciously, leaning against the banister. "There’s not many women who are strong enough to resist wearing a tiara."
Aaron laughed, his eyes sweeping over the rest of my rather tight-fitting costume before he flushed and looked back at my face.
The white fluffy tutu was Jenna’s. It flounced around as I walked.
It was the size of a very tiny mini skirt, but it covered even less since it was see-through.
Above it, I wore a shiny pink camisole that looked a bit like a leotard except it was cropped at the waist. That was Jenna’s, too.
The white leggings were my yoga pants, and they were skintight.
All in all, it wasn’t the way I usually dressed to go out.
But then again, at least I wasn’t drunk, wearing a little black dress, and making out with a stranger like at the last Halloween event I’d been to.
A strand of hair brushed my neck, and I slicked it back, trying to tuck it into the bun, or as much of a bun as my wavy hair would allow.
To me, I looked at least a little bit like a ballerina. And the tiara was just plain fun.
"Where’d you get your costume?" I asked Diego. Black was a good color on him. It emphasized his dark eyes and hair. Plus he had really great legs—something I’d noticed the other night in the kitchen.
"It’s a uniform. I refereed some games for a youth league over the summer."
"You did?"
"Yep, second year in a row. I didn’t even have to try out. They took one look at me and decided that since I was Latino, I must know everything there is to know about soccer." He smirked. "And they were right."
Aaron laughed.
Cody had still yet to say anything, which was par for the course, but he was staring at me intently. Finally, he snapped his fingers. "Wait here."
With that he left, leaving the rest of us looking at each other questioningly.
"He’s a man of few words," Aaron said.
We waited in slightly awkward silence, Diego checking the time on his phone. Then we heard Cody jogging up the stairs from the basement. He returned with something light gray and fuzzy in his grasp.
"These were in that lost-and-found box downstairs," he said.
Diego frowned. "I forgot that was down there."
Cody held up his hands, one fuzzy gray knitted object dangling from each one. Were they knee socks?
He shook them, and a little dust came out. "Leg warmers. For your costume. Like that dance movie from the 80s.”
Then it clicked. I had seen ballerinas wear leg warmers bunched up around their ankles and calves. Cody was right—it did kind of fit the costume.
“What decade are those from?” Diego muttered. "I need to clean that box out.”
I walked over to take the leg warmers from Cody, but to my surprise, he knelt down.
He gathered the length of one leg warmer in his hands, holding the opening wide.
Grabbing onto the railing of the stairs, I poked my foot through, and he smoothed it up into place.
It felt a little like I was Cinderella, and a prince was holding out a glass shipper for me to try on.
Or maybe that was just the tiara talking.
Cody did the same for the other leg. The feeling of his hands on my calves sent shivers through me. It made me wonder what it would be like to feel his hands on other parts of me.
"Thanks," I said, as he stood up.
"You’re welcome."
I don’t think he realized that Aaron and Diego were staring at him in surprise, but I did.
"Are we ready?" I asked.
"Yeah. I guess if we’re doing this, we should head out," Diego said.
"I’ll walk you to the quad,” Aaron said. “That’s where it starts, but after that, you’re on your own. Got your phones?"
We nodded. He’d told us earlier that the scavenger hunt would involve taking pictures of certain spots on campus and uploading them to the official site.
Aaron’s brow wrinkled for a moment as he stared at me. Then he spoke in a rush. “I think your charger’s in the dining room.”
“My phone’s at 95%, I think I’ll be?—”
“I’ll help you look for it.” To my shock, he grabbed my hand and pulled me into the other room. I caught Diego and Cody’s baffled expressions as we passed by.
“I’m sorry,” Aaron said, as soon as we were in the dining room.
“For what?”
“For not being able to go with you today.”
I frowned, not quite getting it. “That’s not your fault. I think it’s cool that you’re on the student council.” And it wasn’t his fault that I had a very awkward history with the guy who was going to be my new partner. I guess it was at least a relief that Diego had no memory of that history.
“Let me make it up to you,” Aaron said, brimming with a kind of nervous energy. “I mean—I’ve got this family thing in Chattanooga next weekend. I was wondering if you’d go with me.”
“To meet your family?” I wasn’t even entirely sure I remembered his last name, so meeting his family seemed like an odd choice.
“No, I’m saying it wrong. It’s my grandparents’ fiftieth anniversary, and they’ve rented this huge reception hall, and all my siblings will be there with their spouses, and I’m always the only guy who's alone, and I just… I was wondering if you’d go with me.”
There was tension on his face, and I wished I could erase it, but I needed to think it through.
To be honest, I’d kind of half thought—and maybe more than half hoped—that he’d ask me out at some point.
But a big family function wasn’t what I had in mind.
And I wasn’t entirely sure if this was about him wanting to go with me—or him not wanting to go alone. Those weren’t the same thing at all.
But either way, he was my friend, and he’d been there for me yesterday.
“Okay.”
“You don’t—really?” His smile transformed his face.
“That’s great!” Still smiling, he reached out and tucked a strand of my hair back into the ballerina’s bun.
“And I’ll take care of everything, the transportation, everything.
If you need any advice about getting a gown, I’ll have one of my sisters call you. ”
“Gown?” I echoed, as he grasped my arm and led me back into the living room. “Gown?” As in one of those floor-length formal dresses? Just how fancy was this party going to be? But Aaron looked so pleased that I didn’t have the heart to question him more right now.
Diego looked impatient when we returned. “We have to hurry.” He was doing this for Aaron’s sake, not mine, and it looked like he was eager to get it over with.
That made two of us. “I’m ready.”
I gave Cody a small smile and then followed the others out.
Adventure awaited the ballerina and the referee. But exactly what kind of adventure, I didn’t know.
Aaron wished us luck and parted ways with us at the far end of the quad near the courtyard. There were a couple dozen teams gathered—most in far more elaborate Halloween costumes than we had. But they’d probably had more notice.
Quite a few of the teams were same-sex, likely roommates. I guessed that’s what Diego and I were too, technically.
And then I saw another set of roommates, and my heart sank.
"Oh, crap," I muttered.
Diego, looking oddly authoritative in his referee uniform, raised an eyebrow. "What’s wrong?"
"My friends are over there."
He bit back a laugh. "My god, that’s horrible."
"Stop," I said. "It’s just that... Okay, see that couple over there dressed like Robin Hood and Maid Marian? That’s Tori and Jayden. And Jayden knows every inch of this campus."
Diego studied them. Jayden had on a tunic and green leggings with a bow slung over his shoulder. Tori had on a somewhat old-fashioned looking dress, but it ended above her knee, and she was wearing sneakers. “So that’s the crack team that’s going to beat us?" he asked.
"Yeah."
"They don’t look so tough."
As he said that, Tori looked up—though she couldn’t possibly have heard us—and spotted me. She shrieked, grabbed Jayden’s hand, and pulled him over.
Diego had a pleasant smile on his face as they approached, but suddenly my heart stopped completely, horror filling me.
Tori and Jayden knew who Diego was.
They were the ones who had found me at the party and pulled me off him—otherwise, who knows what might’ve happened.
Panic filled me. They knew he was the guy I made out with.
Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.
Diego noticed my discomfort. "Hey, we’re just here to have fun. Doesn’t matter if they win, or anyone else."
"Yes, you’re right,’ I said stiffly. As if that’s what I’d been worried about.
Then a glint sparked in Diego’s eye. "Although, if you do want to win, I know the perfect strategy."
The sly grin he gave me cut through some of the panic and made my pulse increase for a different reason.
"We’re not allowed to kill off other teams," I said. “Even if a referee could take out Robin Hood.”
"We’re not going to kill them," he replied. And then he gave me a grin that was downright devious. "We’re going to follow them."