Survival Of The Fittest

Why was he doing this?

Jon tapped his steering wheel as he drove his Grandfather's old Pontiac Firebird through the neighborhood, looking for the number. He thought back to when he was asked. There he was, just sitting in class, waiting for the teacher, when Anna Chase asked him to prom. Oh well, she was a nice enough girl, a bit giddy but she was nice, and had a good taste in movies to boot.

Jon that night was wearing a tux like most people, his black with a black tie. The corsage he had bought was on the seat next to him as he turned onto Chase's street. Jon reached up and tried to brush his unruly hair down with his hand to no avail. At least it didn't look like a bird's nest. He stopped the car in front of her house as he grabbed the corsage and walked up to the door.

Rap! Rap! Rap! Jon knocked as he waited, tapping his foot and looking around at the neighborhood

Chase looked in the mirror, brushing her hair and overall finishing up her look.


Initially, she was not planning on going to Prom. What was the point really? After all, it wasn't really as big of a deal as people made it out to be. But... well, she was convinced. Even after much protesting, she finally gave in, with an air of reluctance. And so, her parents made her go dress shopping, and then she ended up asking someone out.

Namely, Jon Jarocki.

Yes, Anna Chase, who loved men but could never actually ask them out or do anything like that, actually did ask him out. Hey, it wasn't that bad. He accepted, right? It wasn't as if he said "NO! You may not!" and pushed her aside, or worse.

As she dabbed a bit of makeup on, Chase sighed to herself. Okay, so she didn't want to go initially, but she could have fun with Jon, right? Hopefully things would go well.

She smoothed out her dress a bit before exiting the bathroom. Chase had to admit, it was a nice dress, mostly black, though with a few white accents. As she headed down the stairs, she found her parents waiting for her. And what you would expect happened; they thought she looked nice, and made all sorts of comments, at one point even hugging her. But, she wasn't embarrassed at all. It was kind of fun in a way, to be this dressed up.

At that point, she heard knocking at the door. And here he was! Chase quickly opened the door, a smile forming on her face.

"Hello Jon!"

"Hello, Jon!"

Jon smiled as Anna walked out. She was wearing a black dress, which looked nice on her and reminded Jon why he came. Because despite his usualy demeanor, he was in love with her. It's like the quote said, you can't always pick who you fall in love with. So Jon Jarocki, relaitve cynic and assumed jerk had fallen in love with Anna Chase, the boy-crazy anime fan. Of course, that's what everyone else thought of them.

Jon held out the corsage, it was a dark purple, almost black but just enough so that it doesn't look like they're some gothic couple. "You look nice" Good one, Jon! His therapist would love him right now, being social, going to prom, being nice.

She looked great?

Chase kind of blushed under her makeup as she took the corsage and attached it to her clothing. She was... well, she was kind of nervous, since this was pretty much her first date and all, but she hoped this would go over fine. Heck, what could go wrong? Well, lots of things, actually, but it wasn't like the world would blow up if they did.

"Why, thank you."

At that moment, she had a feeling something needed to be done before they left. Like if they were forgetting something, or if her parents wanted her to do something-

"Hey Anna! Let him in so we can take a picture!" she heard her dad say.

That's right! Her father was a photographer, and loved taking pictures. He often took pictures for the local newspaper, but ever since he was hospitalized for his heart condition, at times he had trouble getting back into action. But, he still loved photography, both as a hobby and a job, and took them at every opportunity. So, it wasn't a surprise that he had told her earlier that he wanted to take pics.

"Come on, Jon. I-I think he wants to take a picture of us", she told the boy on her doorstep, inviting him in.

"Why, thank you."

Jon smiled as Anna looked around, confused. "You forget something?" he asked as a older male voice spoke

"Hey Anna! Let him in so we can take a picture!"

Jon nodded, as Anna invited him in, he walked through the door as he took a quick cursory glance. It seemed to be a nice enough place. He stopped when he spotted the man and woman sitting there, the man holding a camera. "Ah, you must be Chase's parents. Pleased to meet you" Jon said, holding out his hand as he noticed they had odd looks on their faces. Was something wrong? Did they look weird......maybe it was the height diffrence?

As Jon stepped in, Chase happily introduced him to her parents.

"Mom and Dad, th-this is Jon. B-but you probably knew that."

At that moment, Jon introduced himself to her parents. Chase's father looked at it suspiciously for a few seconds, and then reluctantly reached out to grab it.

"Nice to meet you too, kid", he replied, giving it a good shake despite his apparent concern.

She wasn't sure what was wrong, but hey. She was his daughter, after all. He probably didn't want her to end up with some kind of psycho, right? Sure, they existed. But how many of them did Chase know? Exactly. Not very many, huh? Ah well. Hopefully he'll realize that Jon probably wasn't going to hurt her.

At that point, her father pointed towards the wall to their side. "Here, you two. Stand over there", he told the two teenagers, indicating where for them to stand to take the picture. Aha! That was where he was planning on taking the picture. Hopefully he wouldn't have to take a thousand pictures, as he had told Chase that sometimes it was necessary to take tons of pictures in photography, to get the best shot.

And so, Chase walked on over to the wall. "Come on, Jon. He's been wanting to-to take pics", she mentioned.

"Come on, Jon. He's been wanting to-to take pics

Jon nodded as he walked over to stand next to Chase, clasping her soft hand in his as he stared forward at the camera, standing up straight as he smiled. He didn't belive it, here he was. The boy who criticized everyone, going to prom with the best girl in the school.

As she stood up against the wall with Jon, Chase felt him grab her hand. Wow, that was... unexpected. Seriously, who knew he was that kind of guy? She certainly did not know that. And now...

Chase felt herself blush even further, as her father fiddled with the camera.

Alright, let's see if we don't look like morons, she thought, smiling as her dad placed the camera towards his face, and clicked, the flash going off.

It took several more attempts at getting a good picture, before her father was finished. Chase ran towards him to see what they looked like. Glancing over his shoulder as he showed her how they looked, she watched as he flicked through the pictures. Some of them looked decent, while others... well, they didn't look so good, according to Chase, at least. But hey, apparently the reason for taking so many pics was to make sure that there would be a good picture.

Turning to Jon, she smiled again and said "Well! Some of them to h-have turned out well."

Hopefully, he would think so when he saw them, yes? If not, well, could more be taken? Chase hoped it wasn't necessary, as her eyes were still hurting slightly from the flash. Seriously, that thing was bright, and not in a good way. Ah well. You would think that her father would remember to turn it off, since he was into photography. But, they could simply fix the problem by taking the pictures into Photoshop and fixing any problems. It wasn't really as bad as people made it out to be, after all. In fact, apparently it was an important tool in Photography these days.

Well! Some of them to h-have turned out well."

Jon leaned over as he glanced at the pictures. "I see what you mean" he said as he glanced at his watch. Prom started in five minutes. he would need to get him and Anna there soon.

"Um, no offense, Mr. Chase. However, we must get going." he said, pointing at the watch. "I'll pick up the pics when I bring her home" he said as he felt Mr. Chase staring at him as if sizing him up, he then nodded.

Yay! He agreed with her! Now when was prom starting?

Chase noticed that Jon was now looking at his watch, as if he was wondering himself. And now, he seemed to think it was time to go, based on what he had told Papa Chase. Ah! It was just starting! Of course! And she need not worry about finding a way to give the pictures to him; he said he would pick them up once they got back. That was a relief. So, yeah. Time to go, huh?

Her father nodded, though still clearly unsure about Jon. After a few seconds, he kind of gave an awkward smiled, and said "Alright, children, take care".

Chase heard her mother also chime in with "You two have fun!".

She smiled at both of them, clearly cheerful. And so, she stepped towards the door, and, after briefly stopping, turned to Jon.

"Well, let's go, yes?"

And so, she headed outside, towards what she presumed to be Jon's car.

"Well, let's go, yes?"

Jon nodded as he followed Chase out to his grandfather's car. He was supposed to get it at graduation, for when he goes off to college. Jon reached over as he unlocked and opened Chase's door, before moving around the front to his own door.

As he got in, he glanced at Chase. "I don't think your dad likes me very much" he said as he flipped through the CD cases he had in place where people would put boxes and stuff between the seats and to the back. "You like Voltaire?"

As Chase approached the car, Jon unlocked her side, and then moved to the driver's side. She quickly got in, closing the door behind her.

"Alright, l-let's get this party started!", she cheerfully announced, as Jon looked through CD cases.

Apparently, he felt that her dad didn't really like him. What could she say? Well, again, she was his only daughter, and, well... parents were like that when it comes to their children. She guessed that he didn't want her to get hurt or anything, right? Ah well. Hopefully he'll understand. Eventually he will. Someday, she'll be away from home, and all sorts of things will happen to her, but she'll probably make it. Oh, she will. Chase will probably one day go to college, for example.

"Ah... I guess it-it's because he is my father, and-and they don't really want to have things happen to their children", she said, and then paused with a frown, blurting out the next sentence very quickly. "Butitisn'tlikeyouwouldhurtme!"

And now, he was asking about Voltaire, apparently. Of course Chase liked Voltaire. She had a fair amount of his songs on her iPod, actually. And he had a CD? Nice!

"Sure I do!" she mentioned, her frown turning back into her smile.

"Ah... I guess it-it's because he is my father, and-and they don't really want to have things happen to their children, Butitisn'tlikeyouwouldhurtme!"

Jon nodded, as he looked off to the distance, checking his mirrors as he started to pull out. "Yeah, that probaly is it. Course it might be the height diffrence" he said as he looked at her, smiling to show he was joking

"Sure I do!" she mentioned, her frown turning back into her smile.

Jon grinned as he laughed. "Ah, good to see someone with a good taste in music" he said as he put the CD in.

I can't forget, I won't forgive this sea
for the endless hurt it gave to me
I want to stab, I want to kill this sea
Took you away, took you away from me

as the songs played and Jon drove, he started talking. "So I checked out that Haruhi anime, I like Kyon"

As Jon pulled out, he kind of agreed with her... but kind of didn't. Apparently it was the major differences in size?

Chase... well, she never really grew as tall as some of her classmates, really. In fact, she only knew a handful of people who were around her size or shorter. This occasionally resulted in people thinking that she was younger than she was, but that wasn't the problem. Chase knew very well that some men loved short women, and there were occasionally some advantages to being short, like for example... limbo? Target practice?

Okay, Chase couldn't think of advantages to being short. But, the actual problem was that sometimes, it felt like walking amongst redwood trees when in a crowd. Sometimes people towered over her, causing her to have trouble seeing things if said people are in front of her. And it wasn't as if she would often be sat at the front of the class all the time, either. What didn't help matters was the fact that, for some reason, many people at Bayview were taller than the norm. Whatever they were feeding everyone, they either forgot to feed her some, or it somehow backfired and made her short instead. Ah well. You've got to live with what you've got, even if it means having people literally look down on you. Though, it wasn't as if she didn't have the right to be at least a little anxious about being tiny, right?


As the car drove along, she listened to the song now playing. "This Sea", was it? Yeah, pretty sure it was. Of course it was.

And now Jon was saying something about... Haruhi Suzumiya? Apparently, he had just watched it. And he likes Kyon? Huh. Chase kind of liked Kyon, too. In a way, his reactions were kind of how a normal person would react to someone like Haruhi, sort of.

"Kyon, huh? He-he thinks some funny stuff, huh?" she answered, saying the first thing that came to mind.

Great, Chase, now you probably sound like a dork, she thought to herself.

"Kyon, huh? He-he thinks some funny stuff, huh?"

Jon nodded, "Yeah, reminds me alot of..well me" he said as he laughed. He had noticed that she had seemed sad when he had mentioned the height diffrence. "Don't worry about being short, at least you don't have to worry about hitting your head on stuff." he joked as he turned the corner, the lights of the school in the distance.

Jon frowned as he thought of something else to say, he wasn't good at the whole talking thing, and judging from her silence, neither was she. "So Chase, see any good movies lately?" he asked as he turned again, one more turn and they'll be pulling into the parking lot