Survival Of The Fittest

Raine was just beginning to finish up her preparations. She stood there in her bedroom in the soft blue pastel dress she had picked out that day with Ridley in the mall. It was the same day that he had told her that perhaps after the prom they would need to talk. Her stomache twisted in a knot, wondering exactly what it meant for them to talk. Shaking her head, she brushed out her blond hair so it fell over one shoulder of her halter dress.

Makeup...check...Deodorant...check...Hair...check...

She gulped down a wad of air and slipped on her silver shaded heels. Teeth were freshly brushed, flossed, and Listerined. Raine picked up her silver hued clutch and exited her room, going downstairs.

"I-I'm going to the prom!"

She looked around the empty household. "I...I'm sure Ridley will have me home at a safe time..."

What's the use?

Raine walked out of the house and sat down on the porch swing to wait.

No matter how much he thought about it, it did not make any sense that his mother allowed him to drive her car to prom. Sure, it was shinier and didn't look like a piece of crap like his own car, but she hardly allowed him the opportunity to back her car into the driveway for her, let alone drive several miles to and from prom late at night. Ridley did not understand that woman when he was a child, and he sure as hell didn't understand her as he drove to Raine's house.

His father had lent him an off-white suit that the man had worn to several formal parties for his company. It was a little big on Ridley, but it more or less fit. Luckily, he had remembered to pick up the corsage that he had ordered for Raine at the local Safeway a few days earlier, which was placed on the passenger side seat next to him.

"This'll be a trip, won't it?" He said to himself as he turned onto the street Raine lived on. It would be his first dance since Junior High, and his heart was already pounding in his chest from the anxiety. It took him by surprise to see Raine sitting out in front of her house instead of waiting inside, but he managed to wave to her as he pulled up in front of the house.

Raine smiled and stood up, waving back at Ridley. She glanced into the window, making sure her reflection looked decent. The blue teardrop earrings helped to frame her face a little along with the matching teardrop necklace. I want Ridley to not be embarassed around me..., she thought before descending down the porch steps.

Once Ridley was within hearing range, Raine quickly tried to excuse her parents. "There was an important business meeting...and they couldn't back out of it. I decided to wait outside here because it's so nice out."

With a deep breath, Ridley unlatched his seat belt and stepped out of the car. His older brother had already gone over with him what to do over the phone a few hours prior to his arrival at her house. Just in case, he recalled his brother's words in his head, "Rule #1: be polite. #2: tell her she looks nice. #3: Don't fix your hair where she can see you. Let her tell you about it and laugh about it." He forgot the rest. Either way, he always fixed his own hair, and nobody was going to tell Ridley to do otherwise

"You look great!" Ridley said with a smile once he looked her over for a second. He unconsciously rubbed his chin, which he had shaved earlier to get a nice clean look. He even shaved off the short mustache and beard that he had going on for awhile.

"Thank you." Raine smiled back to him again, nervous though as she felt her own heart beating against her chest. A million thoughts were going through her mind.

Is the dress too short or too long? Am I showing too much or too little cleavage? What if I trip on these heels?

She walked over to him and looked at the car. "...This wasn't the one from before...Is it someone else's? N-Not that I mind!" she quickly added.

"It's my mom's car. She said that it would be impolite or something if I brought you to prom in my Jeep." He tried to crack a smile, but barely managed to do so. "Oh, right!" He scrambled over to the passenger side of the car and opened the door. With his quick hands, he grabbed the corsage and closed the door again. "This is for you."

He remembered what his family had told him, and took the flowery decoration out of it's plastic container, being careful not to mess it up too much. It had a red flower in the center of several bows and ribbons, which he may have seen as beautiful if he was able to stop worrying about what kinds of things could go wrong. Either way, he took her hand and did his best to get the correct ribbon to wrap around her wrist.

"Ridley..." Raine whispered his name as she watched, spellbound as he tied the corsage around her wrist. She could tell Ridley was nervous and she wanted to comfort him, to let him know she was just as nervous. Once the corsage was tied on, Raine gently took Ridley's hand into her own and squeezed it gently.

"I'm glad you asked me to the prom, Ridley." She said to him with a shaky but confident sounding voice.

He was a little surprised when she took his hand and said that. "Well, we are going out, right? It'd kind of defeat the purpose if we're dating in high school and we don't go to prom together." He wondered whether or not what he just said had any bad undertones. When he said that, could she take it as him saying that he did it out of a sense of responsibility to social norms rather than out of wanting? "A-and, uh, let's just say that I wouldn't do this for just anybody, 'kay?"

He wondered if she liked the corsage. He hadn't ever had an eye for flowers or anything like that, so he just picked whichever one he thought looked nice. Instead of dwelling on it, he decided to open the passenger side door for her.

Raine grinned, a bit embarassed about what she had said. Ridley was right, why wouldn't he? She sat in the passenger of his car and strapped on her seatbelt. Now that she was free to look at it, Raine raised her hand and examined the flower. She closed her eyes and sniffed it, taking in the lovely scent. It was sweet and brought a smile to her lips. Once she was home, she'd have to press it to keep it as a memento.

Ridley did his best to walk in a dignified manner as he crossed the front of the car over to the driver's side. He did not do as well once he opened the door and hopped in, but he decided not to notice. With a slam of the door, click of his seat belt, and rev of the engine, he put it into reverse and pulled out of the driveway. Once out, he put it back into drive, his hand bumping against something, and drove off down the street. He decided that if he did not find anything to talk about for the twenty-to-thirty seconds it took to get to the end of the court, he would put on music.

"So! How about some music?" He asked, his hand already reaching for the central console to turn it on. A topic just never came to him. Once he pressed the Power button for the radio to come on, he flinched at the sound of a familiar song.

"Whoa! Uh..." He grabbed for his iPod and unplugged it. That must have been what he had pumped against earlier. The music cut out, and he was left to continue driving.

"Eh?" Raine watched as Ridley panicked over the nice song. She tilted her head confused at his actions. Was he embarassed? It sounded like a nice song. "It's okay Ridley, it sounded like a good song." She told him, leaning back into her seat.

"Unless...you wanted to talk." Raine now recalled Ridley's warning that they needed to talk. It was what put such a good first date down in the dumps. Raine couldn't shake off the nervous feeling still.

Ridley remembered that Raine's German heritage was a pretty big part of her, realized what kind of language the song was in, and said, "If you think that it was good, then I'll turn it back on." And so he did, making sure that he was at a good stopping place on the road before he plugged his iPod back into the car. "It's actually from another one of the games that I like: a series called Ar Tonelico. It's... pretty hardcore. There are a lot of bad things about it that, quite frankly, simply shouldn't fly in this country. But there are enough good things about it that, to me anyway, make it worth it." He let the song play for awhile longer.

Ridley believed that he had just found the perfect conversation topic. "Believe it or not, it's a made-up language that they're singing in. It's called Hymnos, and it's made up of English, German, and Japanese, and it's writing system was inspired by Sanskrit. Like I said; it's pretty hardcore." He chuckled to himself and glanced over at Raine to see if she was impressed.

"Really?"

The thought of the talk disappeared from Raine's mind. She closed her eyes and listened to the lyrics. She could understand where some of the words came from in German and English. She grinned and glanced back over to Ridley. "You seem very into this. Maybe I should look into it as well. They put a lot of effort into this beautiful language that it should be appreciated. It's just as much art as the Mona Lisa."

Ridley cringed at the thought of her seeing some of the things in that series. "I, uh... I think that you should just stick with listening to the music. Like I said, the rest is pretty much reserved for Japanophiles like me." He must not have made it clear to her before, so he added, "There's a lot of pointless nudity, and pretty overtly sexual scenes. I honestly have no idea how this series as a whole has gotten a Teen rating so far."

He let the next song in the playlist begin, and let his eyes close slightly. "But like I said, the music is absolutely spectacular. I wouldn't be surprised if someone snuck these into a church choir. The singers would be none the wiser about it."

"You can communicate with music too. Gospels preach the word of God...Pop singers spread the joy of love and happiness...Rap singers like to talk about how much money they have and what they do with it."

Raine blushed suddenly and she looked down at her feet. "I...I listen to rap every now and then. My parents are strict about what I can listen to. So...whenever I can, I go online and listen to videos whenever they're away. Then I delete the cookies and cover my tracks."