Awkward start to an awkward first date

Once all the younger members of the group had caught their breath, they all sat up and looked at each other.

“So, what now?” Mina asked the group.

“Well, I was going to take Panos to grab some books from the book shop.” Iro said as she grabbed her little brother’s hand and began walking off. “Nik, why don’t you show Mina around to all your favorite spots?”

“I don’t-” Nik started, but Iro was already a few steps away.

“Great, see the two of you in a couple hours. Have fun, but not too much fun!” She called out as she turned the corner with Panos in hand.

And just like that, Mina and Nik were alone. A boy and a girl who were the same age, that didn’t exactly dislike each other, but had no interest in spending time together were it not for everyone else thinking they should spend time together. They were in essence being forced to spend time together, and neither had the heart to let people down and not do that.

Still, they stood there awkwardly for a good minute till one of them, Mina obviously, because she was the only one between them that seemed to actually have social experience despite her distaste for it, turned to the other.

“Well. Now that it’s just the two of us, anywhere you want to go?” She asked with her best friendly smile. “As you know, I literally know nothing about what’s around here. So, if there’s anything you think might be cool to show me, I’d be pretty interested to see it.”

Nik’s response was to turn to her and stare at her, looking half way like he was gaping like a fish. Clearly there wasn’t anything but Iro going through his head for the last minute. Mina wouldn’t even put it past him to have completely forgotten she was there till she spoke up again. Still, after a (frustrating) minute of waiting for him to think, Nik finally did respond.

“Um, yeah. I think there’s something cool I could show you.” He finally said.

“Alright, then lead the way.” Mina said, putting an extra bit of cheer into her words.

“Ah, ok. Um, follow me.”

Nik then started walking off down the road, Mina following close behind him feeling genuinely curious and excited. Sure, she wasn’t interested in hanging out with Nik, but learning more about this new world she was in certainly was interesting. So she was eager to see what Nik would consider cool to show her.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

‘And of course it’s sports. When it comes to boys, it’s almost always sports. At least this looks more interesting to play than any sport back home.’ Mina thought disappointedly.

“Here we are, the safaranos court!” Nik said excitedly as they approached. “The best game in the world!”

In front of them, the two came to a small field where people of almost all ages were playing something which Mina could only describe as trampoline ball. People were bouncing around on the field, flying high into the air while passing around a ball, the ball never touching the ground. People intercepted the passes or tried to bring the ball to one of two small circular nets on either side of the field that were a few meters off the ground.

“Well, what do you think? Looks pretty fun huh?” Nik asked as he turned to her.

“Yeah, it does. It looks a lot more fun than the sports back home.” Mina said, only half lying. However, Nik still managed to catch it, as his excitement fell slightly.

“You’re not really into stuff like this, are you?” He asked somewhat disappointedly.

“Ah, yeah. Sports aren’t really my thing.” Mina admitted, before quickly adding on. “But this really does look more fun than the ones back home.”

“You don’t have to pretend. Iro isn’t all that into playing safranos either.” Nik then said, his excitement now nearly gone. “We uh, we can go do something else if you really don’t want to do this.”

“No no no, I want to try.” Mina said, not at all lying. This new thing really was interesting to her, and if nothing else she wanted to try bouncing around on the field. “Who knows, I might actually enjoy it. It’s always good to try new things.”

Realizing Mina really was wanting to give the game a shot, Nik instantly brightened back up. Seemingly without thinking, he grabbed her hand and began pulling her to the entrance to the field.

“Alright, then come on, lets go grab some sky badges and start playing!” Nik said as he pulled her, and Mina let herself get dragged along.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A few minutes later, Nik and Mina were all equipped and set to go. As it turned out, the field was just padded to prevent injury. The real magic was in the sky badges, special equipment that allowed its wearer to jump extra high and fall much slower while in the area of the field, but they were useless outside the field. Mina was forced to sit through a surprisingly interesting 5-minute safety lecture on how to properly jump and bounce with the badges. This was then followed with an unsurprisingly boring explanation on the rules of safranos, Mina was free to go out and jump to her heart’s content.

“WEEEE! HAHAHAHAHA! THIS IS AWSOME!” Mina exclaimed as she bounced through the air almost like she was flying.

“Yeah, I know it’s fun, but come on and get over here so we can start the game.” Nik called out from his spot where he was impatiently waiting with a ball alongside two other kids about their age. Mina however didn’t listen as she continued to jump around.

“HAHAHA YEAH! WAHOOOO, OH YEAH! HAHAHA-GAH!” Mina exclaimed as she bounced around, only to abruptly get hit in the stomach with a ball.

“Nice shot Nik.” Boy 1 complimented Nik, who was looking at Mina with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.

“You coming?” He asked, and Mina rolled her eyes at him as she grabbed the ball and walked over.

“Alright alright, I’m coming already.” She said.

“Sweet, lets get this game started then.” One of the other kids said.

“Can’t wait to show you two how things work around here.” The other followed up with a smirk.

“Yeah yeah.” Mina sighed. “Just go easy on me please, it’s my first time playing.”

From the looks on the two’s faces, had no intention of doing so what so ever.