Interlude: An interrupted date

Dates and gifts: If you date a girl, it is normal to bring her a little gift for a formal date (not if you are just hanging out after school) in the same manner as you would bring a little gift if you visit someone's house. If you are both girls that means both of you should bring a gift. Of course the date itself can be a gift too, like dinner, visiting a museum, shopping etc. In the case of the Prince and Claire's date, it was my intention that the prince was acting like a guy, that is why among other things, she insisted on paying for dinner.

Some people call the custom sexist, but I personally like it. The gift you get can tell a lot of how the other person sees you.

Interlude 17: An interrupted date

Elsa's point of view

Today was my first date with Tina. We already had had a very intimate moment in the locker room, but today would be our very first real date. The thought alone about a date with Tina filled my belly with butterflies.

Who would ever have thought that I would have to thank Claire for helping me get together with such a wonderful girl. I had always seen Claire as a rival, someone to beat, but ever since she and the girls of the FBY started to help me out, I started to consider her as a friend. I even joined the FBY because I wanted to spend more time with all of them.

Our tsundere condition had become better now that we were aware of it, but it hadn't gone completely away either. During our consultations, Ms. Lyst had taught us some techniques to recognize the tsundere pattern, and that the best way to react to it was to do something super bold that would wash the situation away. You could really tell she was a professional, with all that technical knowledge about conditions. I mean, I hadn't even heard of 'tsundere' before last week.

I was having more trouble with my old friends, Therese and Eve. They didn't even reply to my messages anymore, and after that incident on the playground, I was happy and reassured when Claire told us that we all at the FBY would be dealing with the situation. It made me feel not alone. Claire was actually meeting with bully Mia at her own house today for our sake. I would not let that vicious girl anywhere near my house, or would not want her knowing where I lived.

I had been trying out every outfit in my closet but could not decide on which one to wear. In the end when time was up, and I really had to leave I chose a frilly yellow and pink dress. It was the one I picked out last night, but then this morning I started doubting myself. My pink ribbon would accentuate it pretty nicely. It's not like I put it on especially for Tina but still I hoped she would say that I look cute in it.

Today we would be meeting at the “place Cinquantenaire'' at the entrance of the temple of human passions. Tina had proposed that meeting spot. I thought that was super romantic of her, but when I told her that she had said “It's not like I put a lot of research into it! ”

There was a metro stop nearby so getting there was pretty easy.

I spotted Tina from far. She was holding a flower. Oh no, I forgot to bring a gift. Stupid stupid stupid.

Tina spotted me and ran up to me. We both looked a bit embarrassed and for a second we stood there in front of each other, not looking each other in the eye. It was Tina that broke the ice.

“You look very cute!”

“It's not like I wore it especially for you, you idiot!” Oh no I went tsundere, why did I do that, I hope she won't hate me.

“Close your eyes.” she said shyly.

I closed my eyes and felt her doing something to my ribbon. Then I felt her lips briefly touch mine.

“Now you look even prettier, you can open them now.”

I opened my eyes. Tina held a little make-up mirror in front of me. She had put a self-made artificial purple lilac in the middle of my ribbon. It was pretty stylish.

I pushed beyond my embarrassment like Ms Lyst had taught me, gave her a hug, kissed her and then said “ I love it, It must've been a lot of work to make that. Sorry I did not bring a gift, let's pick one out together later, okay?”

I then took a moment to look at my date. Tina was wearing a white pants and a sweater vest. She was rocking that oversized look that was so in lately, and her wavy purple hair accentuated it perfectly. The same as I was going for cute, she came over as the chic and cool type.

I then forced myself to do something bold and took her arm. I pressed my body against her and said “You look really cool today. Please take good care of me.”

Tina flashed completely red at my words, said nothing and started leading me through the park in the direction of the exit closest to the shops.

I felt really protected walking arm in arm with such a cool girl. Tina was my girlfriend and the thought alone made me feel really happy.

After a few minutes we started to get over our initial embarrassment and started talking like we always did. I was already laughing and having a lot of fun and we had just walked for a bit.

We arrived in the shopping district and started to do some window shopping. We made a rule to only look for stuff for each other. Nobody was allowed to choose something for themselves. That way we could learn how we saw each other, or wanted each other to be.

Some stuff Tina suggested was rather explicit and made me blush, and immediately brought back memories to the locker room. But even during those moments I thought we were having a lot of fun.

We saw a street vendor selling all types of self-made accessories and I picked out a golden flower hairpin to give to Tina without her noticing.

When we got out of the busy part of the shopping street I made her stop and gave her my present. She opened the package and I could see by the look in her eyes that she loved it, so I took it out of her hand and pinned it to the side of her hair. “Now we match, we both have a flower in our hair.”

Tina gave me a thank you kiss on my lips, I was looking deeply into her eyes when suddenly Tina was hit on the back of her head. I saw the light go out of her eyes, she went weak and I was just in time to hold her before she fell.

“Dirty dykes!” It was my old friends, Eve and Therese. I could hardly call them friends by this point. Those dirty bitches.

“W-what have you done?” I was bowed over Tina trying to help her when I felt a kick in my stomach. It was probably stupid to take my eyes off of them, but I wanted to protect Tina and put my body over her to protect her while the two of them kept kicking me.

The pain was insufferable and I had taken quite the beating, when a group of police officers pinned our two attackers to the ground and arrested them. Tina and I were taken to a local hospital.

Tina was diagnosed with concussion, and I was kept under observation for the risk of internal bleeding. The doctors said I did a very good job preventing Tina from getting more hits on her head because that could have been fatal.

Because the story of me protecting Tina went around the ward, the hospital staff was nice enough to put us in the same room, so we were lying on the same bed watching television when both of our parents rushed in the second it was visiting hour.

That was really awkward since we both hadn't really come out of the closet. Luckily they seemed more worried about our well being. Well us being in a same-sex relationship was basically just ignored. Everyone was just happy that we seemed to be okay. When they were leaving I overheard both our parents making plans to meet up later. It seemed our dads knew each other. They were all getting along really well. So that was a bit of a relief.

That night our incident seemed to have made the news. Apparently somebody had filmed the entire incident. If they were there they should have interfered, instead of record, I thought. The video ended where you could see us being carried away by ambulance. When Tina saw how I had risked myself and took a serious beating to protect her she held me really tight.

They mentioned that we were all students of the Immaculate institute, and then there was an interview with Detective Menfroid who had been talking to Eve and Therese. I remembered him from the interviews about Louisa in school. After that they interviewed the mayor. Ms Polly Tick assured everyone that this was an exceptional case and that she had already taken up contact with our headmistress Ms Lourdes. She said that Ms Lourdes had assured her they were aware of the bullies, and that they had already been taking steps to address the matter, that they just hadn't anticipated that it would escalate so quickly.”

After that our phones started buzzing. All of our friends were worried about us. While the news continued, the both of us started dozing off in each other's arms, tired from the events, our condition and the painkillers.

Even though our first date met with disaster and ended not under ideal circumstances, I felt really happy that we ended up spending our first night together.

I could not help but feel closer, and loving Tina more than ever.