Survival Of The Fittest

((Bianca Howard continued from Gotta Go Fast!))

Bianca checked her hair in the mirror one last time before stepping out of the bathroom. She'd opted for a low ponytail. She'd changed it up a bit by draping the ponytail over her left shoulder, partially obscuring the lettering on her navy blue Seahawks t-shirt. Blue jeans and white sneakers that matched her undershirt completed her outfit.

She walked to a nearby table and chairs after she rented her club and golf ball. As she waited her mind drifted back to last night's phone conversation. They'd been discussing homework, when the subject of voting for prom king and queen came up. After a fifteen minute discussion on the pros and cons of their classmates, the subject had then turned to dresses and dates.

Bianca had begun looking at dresses a couple of weeks ago, but technically didn't have a date yet. She'd been hoping that Josh would ask her, sooner rather than later. A girl needed time to get these things organized. She smiled to herself as she rolled the purple golf ball back and forth across the table.

[Joshua Edwards - Continued from So, there's this girl...]

"Just fucking ask her. That's it. That's all you need to do. Just ask her. Go in, give her the flowers, and ask her. Okay, don't ask her here. Ask her at dinner. Go in, play a little mini golf, take her out to dinner, and ask her then. Then maybe a movie," Joshua said as he stared in the rear view mirror of his car, sitting out in the parking lot. He could swear he was late, but he would rather be a little late than to show up looking like a hot mess. His hair was a mess and just didn't want to stay in place, he almost forgot to remove the piercings from his eyebrows, and as he stared at himself in the mirror, he started to think he was getting another outbreak of acne across his forehead. He was getting frustrated, and he even thought the flowers had started to wilt, but that had only been his imagination. He was nervous, terribly so, and he knew it. But that wasn't going to stop him from asking Bianca out. Mini golf had been the plan; dinner was going to be the surprise, as were the flowers, and the question he had for her then was something that he surely hoped would take her by surprise.

She knows. She knows everything, and it isn't going to be a surprise, and it won't even be special, he was thinking to himself as he tried to straighten out his clothes. He licked a finger and tried to straighten out what he thought were unruly hairs in his eyebrows, and tossed the piercings from them in his glove box. He still couldn't stand his hair, but when he spotted the tie in the glove box, he had an idea. Giving his hair a pass through with his fingers and pulling it back, he tied it back in to a ponytail and smoothed it out as best he could. Another look in the mirror, and he felt confident about his appearance. He didn't feel too confident about the rest of the evening, but at least he didn't feel too terribly about the way he looked. Right. Time to get in there. I just hope she didn't drive. Or had other plans. Damn it, I should have just told her before. I'll get in there and we'll play golf, and then she'll tell me she has to go and hang out with her friends and the dinner reservation will be wasted and damn it, damn it, damn it, he thought, digging his fingernails into his palms and feeling as if he wanted to slam his head into the dash a couple times. That wouldn't do him any good though, and he knew that would just make his forehead red and probably bruise it; the twisted ankle was bad enough, and the thought of an outbreak was even worse, so he didn't need another bruise or an actual red mark to worry about.

He took a couple deep breaths before he got out of the car, straightening out his clothes and brushing himself off before he headed for the door. He knew she was probably waiting inside, as he'd sworn she was walking in just as he arrived. He just hoped she wouldn't be mad that he was - and he checked his watch to confirm - a little under ten minutes late. The watch was something he borrowed, and the clothes were borrowed as well; when he pitched the idea past his uncle, the old man had insisted that Joshua dress nice. He didn't need to wear a suit, his uncle said, but he did need to wear something that at least looked like it had been ironed at least once in the past month. A nice pair of slacks and absolutely no piercings had been his other advice, and in the end, he ended up lending Joshua some old clothes. He felt a little bit like a penguin without a jacket, but as long as he looked nice and Bianca liked how he looked, he would wear anything. He'd wear a powder blue tuxedo with a neon green cummerbund to prom if that is what she liked; he hoped it wasn't. He was happy enough with the white button-down shirt and the khaki slacks, and he hoped she was happy with them too.

Joshua was inside and at the counter renting his club and ball before he realized that he'd forgotten the flowers in the back seat of the car. Again, he felt like slamming his head against a wall, but he decided against it; Bianca was right over there, and it wouldn't look good for him to go slamming body parts into anything, much less a wall. He was still nervous, but as he walked over to Bianca, doing his best to avoid letting her see him, he was smiling. He was still smiling when he walked up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder with the end of his club, clearing his throat and doing his best impression of Mr. Teitel's signature monotone. "Miss Howard, I trust that you've completed your assignment before coming here, and will have it for me on Monday? I'm sure if you've got the time to hang out that the work is done, and you can answer this equation for me, correct?" he said, trying not to lose the monotone and doing his best not to laugh at his attempt at Teitel's sleep-inducing droning. He was an alright teacher, but he knew that math wasn't Bianca's best subject and Teitel would probably be the last person she wanted to see.

Bianca started to turn at the tap on her shoulder and then stopped as the voice started lecturing her on her math homework. She tensed for a moment and scrambled to form an explanation before realizing that the voice wasn't quite right. She turned in her seat to find Joshua standing behind her.

She stood hitting him lightly on the shoulder. "You are so not funny," she said with a pout. Bianca was going to continue feigning anger when she noticed his appearance. He was without his piercings today, which combined with his choice of clothing, meant that he had something planned. She raised a perfectly arched eyebrow at him, but decided that instead of quizzing it on him, she'd let herself be surprised. If he was planning something she'd know soon enough.

"You look nice," she said reaching out to brush his smooth face.

"You look better," he said, wearing that ever present smile of his. He caressed her hand for a moment before giving it a peck and a gentle squeeze, and stole a second to get a better look at her outfit. She looked good in just about anything, and Joshua certainly enjoyed seeing her, no matter what she was wearing. When his mind slipped back to the backseat of his car and the flowers that sat back there, probably withering in their vase, he thought about prom and what she would look like in her prom dress. He didn't even know if she had a prom dress, but he imagined one for her; a long, beautiful, flowing gown that brought out the blue of her eyes, with her hair done up and radiant as gold silk.

For a moment, he just stared and smiled sweetly at her, but the images he conjured up in his head didn't last long. Soon enough, he was back to the nervous worry and panic that dominated his thoughts just a short while ago. What if she says no? What if she doesn't want to go to prom? What if she already gave up on waiting for him to ask her, and is going with someone else? He felt like shuddering at the thought, but didn't; he just kept on smiling and motioned with the club in his hand. "Where to? Shall we take a trip to wonderland, or maybe a world tour?"

Miniature golf was always fun, and as Joshua smiled at Bianca and thought idly of putting his arm around her, he went through the night in his head. A round of mini golf or two and then he springs the idea of dinner on her. They get out to the car and he presents the flowers he forgot, and they head for the restaurant where a table waits for them. They have a nice dinner, and he asks her out to prom, she says yes, and maybe they catch a movie afterward. On the way home, he could take her out somewhere nice for a walk under the stars. He hoped that wasn't too cliche, but even if it was, it still sounded nice. All he needed to do is get through mini golf and ask her out to dinner at the end, and hope that she didn't have plans. But as he stood there and waited for her to pick the course they were going to play, a dreadful thought crept in to his head. ...What if the reservation gets cancelled?

Bianca glowed at Joshua's compliment and thanked him. She kept her hand in his and started walking towards the courses. "I'm up for a trip around the world if you are," she said. Bianca led him down the small flight of stairs that led to the entrances of each of the courses. She set her ball down on the small rubber mat at the beginning of the course. Releasing Joshua's hand, she stepped into position and looked ahead to the hole.

"One of my goals is to make it over to Europe, at the very least, and see some of these in person. My mom's been to Paris a couple of times to check on the overseas operations. Mom says that the pictures of the Eiffel Tower don't do it justice and she keeps promising that the next time she goes that she'll take me," Bianca said while lining up her shot.

Checking to make sure that Joshua's wasn't directly behind her; Bianca swung and hit the ball sending it rolling towards the hole. When it stopped she turned to Joshua with a smile. "Your turn," she said stepping out of the way.

"Europe, huh?" he said with a smile on his face, and for a moment he stared off in to the distance, thinking to himself. He could certainly work out taking her to Paris, but it would be expensive. It would be very, very expensive, and he wondered if he could even afford it. He was surprised he was even considering it, but he thought seriously about it while Bianca took her shot at the hole. It would probably drain his entire checking account, his savings account, and even the stash he had hidden in his bedpost. He would need to take a lot of time off of work, and he worried about that; the owners of the gaming supply store were cool, and he liked working there, but he doubted they would like it very much if he asked for a week or two off of work suddenly.

As he watched Bianca swing, he wondered if thinking about the future was even a good idea at this point; after all, they had only been together for a couple months, and his brothers had warned him not to get too far ahead of himself before. As he stood there and thought on that, he rubbed his chest for a second and thought back on the addition he had been getting to his tattoo before winter break. Maybe they were right. Let's focus on one thing at a time. Prom first, then we'll think about Europe, he thought to himself, looking back to Bianca.

"Oh, right, my turn," he said, and it was obvious that he hadn't been paying much attention to the game. He stepped up to the platform, set his ball down, and looked out at the course. It was a typical mini golf course, and he'd played it before, but he was admittedly distracted. His thoughts were on Bianca, prom, her dress, the future; his thoughts were on everything but mini golf. But he stood, and looked down at the colorful little ball, carefully took hold of the putter, and took his swing. It bounce off a wall or two, went past the hole, and stopped far from the hole. It didn't look like Joshua was going to be scoring well today, but he didn't mind; he came to have fun with Bianca, not get the best score. "Well, damn."

The rest of the round went about as well as expected; Joshua scored poorly, but never stopped smiling, even when Bianca beat him handily. He asked about her mother, and her family, and if she'd ever gone anywhere on vacation. He talked about making his own guitar, and wanting to travel, and even some of the rumors he'd heard about their classmates. There was a lot of small talk between holes, and even more whenever Joshua missed his swing. And Joshua spent quite a bit of time watching Bianca, and enjoying the view; but even then, he was thinking about the rest of the night, and the things she said, and what he could do about it all. By the end of the night, he had a good idea about what to do about Prom, and maybe even what to do when he picked her up. But he still needed to ask her out, so when they reached the end of the round, Joshua smiled at Bianca as they turned in their clubs and balls, put his arm around her waist, and pulled her close. "What would you say to dinner, and maybe a movie?"

"I don't think you were even trying," Bianca teased lightly as they finished the round. She was halfway through tallying their scores and she was already way in front. "Something on your mind?" She was pleased with her victory, but was surprised that she'd beaten him by so much. He'd been distracted the whole game, and while she knew she looked good she didn't think it was just her outfit.

Thinking back on the game, she'd been carrying on a steady stream of conversation with only an occasional agreement or disagreement from him. It was time to prod him a little more about his dress. "I mean you got all dressed up to play miniature golf, what are you up to?" Bianca smiled sweetly and followed Joshua as he returned the golfing equipment.

She got her answer at Joshua's next question. Bianca leaned into Joshua's embrace as they moved towards the door. "Sounds great, but golfing, dinner, and a movie what's the occasion," she asked innocently. As they walked back through the arcade to the parking lot Bianca wondered if he was finally going to ask her. It seemed the most likely prospect, especially given his choice of attire. She smiled again and wrapped an arm around his waist as they walked towards his car.

"That's for me to know, and for you to find out," Joshua said with a playful little grin and a quick peck on the cheek. Standing that close to her and holding her the way he was made him think about the height difference between them. She had a good 6 inches on him, and when he stood next to her, he felt smaller than he normally did. He normally pushed it aside and forgot about it, but standing there with his arm around her made him realize just how much taller she was. As they walked out together, he started to feel a bit self-conscious about being so much shorter than Bianca, but once he was outside and saw his car sitting in the parking lot, his plans came back to him and he forgot about the height difference completely. It wasn't important and he felt silly that he had worried about it again. He had more important things to worry about. Like why he couldn't find his keys.

"...Huh. I could swear they were here a second ago," he said with a hint of worry in his voice. He dug his hands through his pockets. First the left pocket, then the right, but he still didn't find his keys. He found his wallet, so that was a bit of a relief, but no keys. He searched his back pockets, and even reached for a shirt pocket, only to realize that there was no pocket on the shirt he was wearing. He couldn't find his keys in any of his pockets, and he had gone beyond worrying and was now in full panic. He searched again, and again, and looked around on the ground, and looked under his car, and when he went to stand up and peered inside the car, he saw them. Sitting right there on the passenger seat were his car keys. He let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank god."

He reached for the handle and pulled, only to be met with resistance. The car was locked. For a second, he thought that maybe he did something wrong, so he tried it again. Again, the door didn't budge. He took a quick moment to circle around the car and try another door, only to be met with the same result. Locked. No, no no no no. This can't be happening, he thought to himself, feeling like he wanted to pull his hair out. After all his planning, this was the absolute last thing he wanted to happen. And as he stood there, staring at his car and tapping his forehead on the glass, he glanced in the back seat. Sitting there, right where he left them, were her flowers. They still looked perfect, just like Bianca, but there was no way to reach them.

"So... I seem to have locked my keys in the car," Joshua said as he turned to face Bianca, his ever present smile gone from his face and replaced by a look of absolute despair. Or as close to despair as Joshua could get. For a moment, he didn't say anything other than that, but something clicked in his head and a smile slowly crept back to his face. "Wait, I think... I may have a solution." He felt like an idiot for not thinking of it earlier, but as he dug around in his pockets, his heart dropped another couple feet. He had been thinking of calling his uncle, or his dad, and seeing if one of them could bring over a spare key or something. But as he dug through his pockets, he realized that he left his cellphone in the glove compartment. He didn't want anyone to interrupt his date with Bianca, and left it in the car... which was now locked, and everything inside it was inaccessible. "...Nevermind."

His shoulders sank, and he leaned back against the car door. "I suppose I could break the window?" he said with a shrug and a nervous chuckle. He sighed heavily, and looked at Bianca. "Well, I had planned on taking you out to dinner and a movie, but this sort of puts a damper on my plans." With another sigh, he sank further back against the car, and stuffed his hands into his pockets. Even if he had his cellphone, he wouldn't be able to call anyone. No one was home. His uncle's son had come out to visit, and the three of them would be out getting dinner. His parents wouldn't be home, as they had taken Katrina out to see a movie. He thought it was nice that he would have the house, and the night, all to himself... but not anymore.

"Well... it's not exactly how I wanted to ask you," he said as he pushed himself away from the car and took Bianca's hand. He smiled as best as he could given the circumstances, and leaned in to give her a kiss before he continued. "I had planned on taking you out tonight, and treating you to a really nice dinner, but since that's out the window now, I suppose I'll have to ask you here. So, Bianca, would you go to prom with me? I promise that prom will turn out better than this date did. Hopefully."

Bianca smiled as Josh kissed her cheek and made a mental note that she needed to wear flats to prom. If he ever got around to asking. She walked with him out to the car and watched with concern when he started searching his pockets for keys. She took a step forward, thinking he had found them, and caught a glimpse of them sitting in the car.

Bianca was going to tell him it was okay and moved to pull her own cell phone out of the small bag she was carrying. Before she could offer it to him, he rushed on. Bianca's eyes widened at Josh's uncharacteristic chattiness. A second later she got her explanation.

"Yes, I will," she said simply. "I'll make sure to remind you about your keys," she teased gently pulling him into a hug.

Releasing him, she stepped back and produced her phone. "Now about getting us out of the current situation, should we call my mom or yours?"

Joshua felt like shit. He felt worse than shit. He knew he disappointed her, and he knew that he would never be able to make it up to her. She didn't even smile when she answered him, but she did try to tease him a bit and make him feel better by making light of the situation. It didn't help. He still felt like absolute shit. Asking her out to prom was supposed to be special, but he managed to fuck it up and ruin the evening and it just ended up being a disappointment. He had to do something really special to make up for the disappointment that asking her out had become. As he stared at her and she slipped out of the brief hug to pull out her phone, he swore to himself that he would make it up to her if it was the last thing he did. He was already coming up with ideas for prom night.

"Yours. Everyone is out tonight," he said, and tried to smile a bit as he did. He didn't expect to feel much better by smiling, but he could either smile and try to make the best of a bad situation, or wallow in the disappointment and further ruin the evening. They probably couldn't make the restaurant in time for the reservations, but they could still see a movie. As he stood there and watched Bianca, he thought about a replacement for the restaurant. He ran through the names of places they could go in his head, and checked them off for various reasons. Most places wouldn't exactly be the best choice for date night dinner, and many others would be crowded, busy, or require reservations. If it came down to it, they could always pick up cheeseburgers and go sit somewhere. Not exactly the best choice, but better than nothing.

"I'm sorry about tonight," he said, and stepped up next to her, taking her hand and giving her the best smile he could manage. "We can probably still make the movie, and I suppose we could find someplace else to get dinner. I promise I'll make it up to you, though." He really felt terrible about how things turned out. It wasn't the end of the world, but he hated the thought that he might have disappointed Bianca. It probably wasn't the first time, and definitely wouldn't be the last, but he still felt terrible and he knew he had to make it up to her. But before he could do that, he had to salvage the evening. They could definitely make the movie, and they could pick up dinner somewhere else. It wouldn't be the date he had planned, but he could salvage something out of the evening, at least. "I know it isn't exactly what I had planned for you, but we could still salvage the date. If you're still up for it."

"Lighten up, drama king," Bianca said, nudging him with her shoulder. "Tonight is totally fine. I mean, you got beat in miniature golf, but you totally scored a date with one of the candidates from prom queen. And the night isn't even over yet. You are so not getting rid of me that easily. What's up with the grumpy face," she beamed at him.

"Let me call Mom and see what she's cool with and we'll go from there." She punched the speed dial for home and as she listened to it ring she was thought of something. "Just where were you planning on taking me to dinner tonight, that we can't show up fashionably late?"

As the home phone continued to ring, she hung up with a sigh and punched in her mom's cell.

"I suppose. I'm sorry, I just wanted tonight to be special. I wanted it to be something you would remember," he said, and eked out a smile for her. He was starting to feel a little better, but he still felt like he had disappointed her. But he realized that moping over it wasn't going to make anything better. He was still trying to think up ways to make it up to her when she asked about where he had planned on taking her to dinner. "Someplace nice, and maybe a little bit fancy. They've been booked up with reservations for a while now that prom is getting close, but I've had reservations in there for a couple weeks. Right about now, they're probably sounding last call for our table and giving it to someone else. And last I heard, they weren't very forgiving toward missed reservations."

He looked back at his car again and dug around in his pockets for a moment. He pulled out his wallet, which he was thankful to still have at this point, and a few other scattered items: one of those little golf pencils, some scattered cash, the receipt from the mini-golf. Not much, but it was enough to salvage the evening. As long as he had his wallet, he had money, and as long as he had money, he could do just about anything. He could make a date nice, he could give Bianca anything she wanted, and he could make any moment just a little bit more romantic. He planned on doing that earlier, but as he stood there, he looked back on his plan as it wilted in the back seat of the car. "Man... the flowers are going to die."

He sighed, but he turned back to Bianca with a smile. He could always get her more flowers. Home grown ones, to boot. The roses in the bouquet there were the best he could cut that afternoon, but there were always more. As he watched Bianca and waited for her to get off the cellphone, he idly rubbed at his left shoulder. He could give her all the roses, and he realized that meant himself as well; he would always have a rose to give. He thought about that for a moment, and watched Bianca with a smile. Maybe his brother was right.

Bianca explained the situation to her mom, who found the whole situation cute and promised to be their shortly. She rolled her eyes as she hung up the phone. "My mom's on the way. I apologize in advance for the embarrassment we're both going to have to endure," she said slipping the phone back into her pocket. "My mom's decided that this whole situation is terribly cute and will want all the details so she can share it with her colleagues." She reached over and looped her arm through his, lacing her fingers through his. "Don't worry about dinner, maybe we can try again around prom."

Bianca peered into the car looking at the abandoned flowers. "They're beautiful. You can make it up to me by bringing me a corsage for prom. My dress is black and white, in case you wanted to bring something to match or accentuate it. Although that doesn't solve the problem that fairly soon your car's going to smell like dead flowers." She made a face. "I hope someone can get out and unlock it soon for you."

She took a step forward and waved with her free hand as a silver sedan entered the parking lot. "There's my mom," she said pulling him gently towards the car.

((Bianca Howard continued elsewhere))

Joshua chuckled a bit when Bianca told him about her mom. He suspected his own mother would have reacted in much the same way, and was a little thankful that he couldn't call his family. He really didn't want to deal with that level of embarrassment after everything else that happened. She was always threatening to show off his baby pictures and tell the most embarrassing stories she had, and he really wanted to avoid that. Especially with Bianca, and especially after a date gone wrong. Bianca's mom picking them up and potentially embarrassing the two of them was a far better alternative than Joshua's mother picking them up and potentially telling terrible, terrible baby stories, so he was completely fine with her mom being the one to pick them up. Bianca snapped him out of his thoughts when she slipped her arm through his and grabbed his hand, and he smiled at her. "Yeah. I'll try and get us in at the same place, or set up something nicer," he said, that ever present smile of his coming back quickly.

When she looked in to the car, he did the same, and frowned slightly at the flowers sitting in the back. She was right, they were going to die and that might not be the best smell to have soaked in to the car like that. The other thing she mentioned had him thinking, though. What kind of flowers would go with a black and white dress? He had to think on that for a while to come up with the best flowers to present Bianca with. He smiled when she made a face though. "It'll be fine. My uncle should have a spare key, and I can get it from him sometime tomorrow," he said and looked back at the car one last time before her mother pulled up. He could get back in to the car tomorrow, but only if it was still there in the morning. He really hoped it would still be there.

"Well, let's go then. We've still a night to salvage," he said with a smile and followed her to the car.

[Joshua Edwards - Continued in Sweethearts, skirts, and small talk.]