Chapter 3:

First Date

When Stacy woke up the next day, the first thing that she noticed was that Rei was already gone. She must have left for school already. Why did she leave without me? Was it something I said? Was it something I did? She silently resolved to talk to her about it later.

She went through her morning routine with more ease than yesterday. I must be getting used to being here now, thought Stacy. With everything done, she went out the door. The trip to school was uneventful, and soon she sat at her desk, eagerly awaiting the arrival of Rei.

Asuka and Shinji walked in together. "Oh look, Shinji, it's your pet Sailor Scout, pigtails and all!" Asuka taunted.

"Aw, knock it off!" cried Shinji. "Just because no man would touch you with a ten foot pole…"

"What?" shrilled Asuka. "Are you saying that I'm ugly?"

"N-no, of course not!" stammered Shinji, thrown off balance by Asuka's question.

Asuka ignored him, and whirled her sharp, cutting reverse knife edge. As Shinji rubbed his burning cheek, Asuka stalked to her seat with a disgusted grunt. Stacy and Shinji looked at her, and then back at each other. They both shrugged at the same time and Shinji walked back to his seat. It couldn't be her personality that's a turn off, thought Stacy. Of course not! That'd be too easy.

The old teacher once again doddered into the room. "Stand up!" ordered Hikari. "Bow! Be seated!"

As the old man plunged once again into his incomprehensible lectures, Stacy inwardly groaned. Mr. DeMartino would have this guy's head on a plate. All he ever talked about was Second Impact! You'd think that nothing ever happened before the twenty-first century. Granted, the Clinton scandals of '98 and '99 weren't the most important things to have happened in the world, but they sure were a lot more interesting. Stacy sighed as the senile sensei began to repeat himself.

Then her laptop beeped. All students had laptops these days. After all, when half the world's trees had been drowned, taking notes by laptop word processors were the best way to conserve paper that anyone could think of. They were also networked together so that students working in group projects could chat without having to move around the classroom. But the best side effect to the classroom-wide LAN was the fact that it provided a way of passing notes with a smaller risk of being noticed by the teacher, or having a nosy peer read something that was not for them. Of course, this guy probably wouldn't even notice if someone was land-mining the floors, much less discreetly passing around a slip of paper.

Stacy tapped her finger at the call button on the screen and reflexively jerked her hand back.

Stacy touched the reply button.

Stacy sent the message. After another thirty seconds, she got a reply.

Stacy winced at the venomous interrupter page. She glanced at the other side of the classroom. Shinji's was on the verge of apoplexy as he shot Asuka a laser-eyed look. Then he began to bash away at his keyboard. Angrily, he tapped the screen. Asuka recoiled from whatever he had sent, and then, surpressing a growl, she too began to hammer a reply with her keyboard. Stacy caught Shinji mouthing the words "chat room" over to Touji. Touji also began to type excitedly. Stacy tapped her chat room icon on the monitor.

Stacy held her breath. Here was the most important part of the conversation.

Stacy watched from across the room as Touji began to sweat visibly. She strained to look at Hikari's face, but all she could see was the back of her head. It was like looking at Cousin It from The Addams Family.

Stacy reflexively covered her hands with her mouth. She had never been so assertive before in her life. Slowly, Hikari turned back to look at Stacy. And it was mostly lies! Then her eyes slowly trailed over to Touji. The both of them slowly began to blush.

With that, the students exited the chat room.

Stacy and Shinji both lifted the desk and stacked it on top of the first one against the wall. "You're not mad at me for telling Hikari about us passing notes, are you?" she asked.

"No. I guess I deserve it. After all, I should have waited for class to end. But our teacher's so…boring. Besides, I was the one who started it."

"Oh, no," Stacy laughed, taking a mop. "I'm just as much to blame as you. After all, I could have just ignored you."

"I guess. But it's just that I was wondering where Rei went to. She's absent a lot, you know."

"I do now. C-can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Are you and Rei…" She trailed off.

Shinji laughed, also grabbing a mop. "No, we're just friends…sort of. I mean, we don't talk much, but she isn't cruel the way Asuka is."

"Yeah, I sort of noticed that." Great! He's single! Now how do I get him to ask me out? Wait a minute. He's as callow as I am! It won't happen. Now I'll be stuck in that dump of an apartment…that's it! "Um…You're pretty good at this. All this cleaning and stuff."

Shinji shrugged. "I sort of have to be. Misato's such a slob, and Asuka won't clean, so I've got to do it at home."

"Well, I'd really like it if you'd…do me a favor."

"A favor?"

Stacy nodded and began to explain the things that she needed and services that she required.

It had been a half hour since Shinji and Stacy had come from detention, and Stacy was waiting for him to show up at the apartment. What could be taking so long? Maybe he needed to get some more money for the supplies. Maybe he was having trouble lugging it all the way from the store. Or maybe he stood me up, thought Stacy glumly.

The doorbell rang, and Stacy leapt up from the bed and sprinted to the door. There he was, carrying the front of ladder. "Hi," he greeted cheerfully. "I hope you don't mind, but I brought some help along. I know we've got a lot of work to do."

Stacy tried to keep the look of disappointment off her face. She had hoped for just the two of them and a nice, romantic evening of…wall painting. Okay, so painting the apartment wasn't very romantic, but it was the best she could do short of the embarrassing act of asking him out on a real date.

However, Stacy let out a squeal of joy when "some help" turned out to be an adorable warm-water penguin carrying the other end of the ladder, dressed in a construction hat no less. Stacy loved warm-water penguins. The mutants scored about a .95 on the sentient being scale, higher even than dolphins. They could read, understand the human language, and could even do most simple jobs. And, just like their pre-Second Impact ancestors, when a female laid eggs, it was the male's job to baby-sit while said female went off to do whatever she pleased. "He's so cute!" cried Stacy. "What's his name?"

"His name's Pen-Pen. All of this stuff is his," replied Shinji.

"He's adorable!" Stacy squealed. Meanwhile, Pen-Pen let out a squawk.

"Don't tell Hikari you said that," Shinji laughed. "She'll probably get jealous."

With that, the threesome got to work.

About an hour later, a sufficiently paint-stained Stacy and Shinji sat on the bed—for lack of any other furniture—and watched Pen-Pen as he got a can of soda from the icebox. He quickly opened it, took a huge swig, and spat it out. Stacy's jaw dropped. "Why did he do that?" she asked.

"I think he thought it was beer," observed Shinji. Pen-Pen waddled out the door, obviously in search of something harder. Shinji sighed. "Good grief. Why can't I have a normal penguin like everyone else?"

Abruptly, Stacy laughed. She looked around. "Well, it certainly looks better than it was." The walls were now painted aqua, and the trash on the floor had been cleaned up. The icebox was now clean, and Stacy had changed the water in the pitcher. "Thanks for helping me out."

Shinji shrugged. "No problem. It beats staying home and letting Asuka tease me."

He obviously doesn't want to go home yet, thought Stacy. "Um… Shinji? Do you play tic-tac-toe?"

"Are you kidding? I'm the grandmaster!"

Stacy smiled devilishly. "We'll see about that."

Two minutes later, Stacy got out a pen and some paper and she and Shinji began to move their respective X's and O's in a heated quest for dominance of the pound-shaped board.

"I can't believe it!" cried Stacy as Shinji slashed his three X's in through the first column. "You beat me again! And I'm the Lawndale tic-tac-toe champion! How do you do it?"

"Well, it takes a lot of practice."

"I do that!" Stacy sighed. "This is so embarrassing."

"I'm sorry," replied Shinji.

"That's okay." Stacy looked at him. "Shinji, what was your most embarrassing moment?"

Shinji began to blush. "Umm…well…I…it's really not proper."

Stacy's eyes widened. "That bad?"

Shinji nodded. "Yeah."

"Don't worry. I won't be offended."

"Okay," Shinji said dubiously. He took a deep breath. "I saw Rei naked. That's my most embarrassing moment."

"Oh no!" Stacy laughed. "How did that happen?"

"Her security pass had expired, so Ritsuko asked me to deliver her a new one. I knocked, but no one answered, so I went in. I was looking around, when I saw those glasses." He gestured to the pair of broken spectacles on the desk. "I don't know what came over me, but I tried them on. Then Rei came out of the bathroom and…there she was."

Stacy was still laughing. "That's awful! She didn't slap you, did she?"

"No. For some reason, it didn't bother her that I was staring at her while she was naked. But it did bother her that I was wearing her glasses. She walked right up to me and grabbed them right off my face. That's when the worst part happened."

"What could be worse than seeing someone naked?" asked Stacy.

"Well, I lost my balance and fell right on top of her. And then, as if that weren't enough, my bag handle got caught on her underwear drawer, and pulled it out." Shinji joined Stacy laughing. "You know, you're the first person I've ever told that story to." He smiled at her. "Now what about you?"

"Well, it doesn't compare to your most embarrassing moment," remarked Stacy.

"That's just too bad," said Shinji mock-sternly. "I did mine, now you've got to do yours. And you can't do when you first landed. That's too easy."

"Oh, alright." Stacy frowned in thought. "Last month, we had this alternative rock music festival called Alternapalooza, and everyone in The Fashion Club decided to go. We all dressed in these really nasty clothes so that we'd blend in and stuff. So we're on the road, and we stop in at this diner, and as soon as we're in the door Tiffany gets grossed out because everyone's wearing stretch-pants. And I looked down, and I realized that I was wearing stretch pants. So I start screaming, 'Stretch-pants! I'm wearing stretch-pants!' and I go into a hyperventilating fit. By the time Sandi got me calmed down, everyone in the diner was just staring at us."

"You went into a hyperventilating fit over something you were wearing?" repeated Shinji incredulously.

Stacy laughed. "Yeah, I know. Stupid, isn't it?"

Shinji blushed. "Well, not really. I mean, it means something to you, doesn't it?"

Stacy looked deep into Shinji's eyes. "Well, yeah…I guess…sort of." They drew closer to each other. Shinji put his hand out and caressed Stacy's cheek. Their eyes closed, and Stacy readied herself for the kiss.

It never happened. Shinji abruptly pulled away as the door opened and Rei walked in. Great timing, thought Stacy sourly.

"Hi, Rei," greeted Shinji. "Do you like the new paint job?"

Rei looked around as if she'd just noticed it for the first time. "It is…pleasant."

Stacy smiled. "Yeah. Me, Shinji, and Pen-Pen did it. I thought a shade of blue would be nice, since it matches your hair."

Rei blushed. "Thank you," she said simply.

Shinji got off the bed. "I think I'd better be going. I wouldn't want Misato to worry. Thanks for having me over."

"Sure!" replied Stacy. "Come back anytime!"

Shinji smiled at her and walked out the door.

The dream was always the same. Stacy ran through the halls of the school. Terror wracked her mind as she tried madly to get away from the psychotic Fashion Club President. She could only see the lockers on the walls; she could only hear the sound of her own heartbeat. There was nowhere to hide, and she knew that Sandi was right behind her. She had killed all of the geeks in school, and then denounced Stacy as a traitor. Now she ran for her life in a vain attempt to evade death.

But just as Sandi swung the bloody tool, something happened. The chainsaw stopped inches away from her neck. Sparks flew as it met with the light of her soul; the barrier that separated all beings from oneness. The AT Field. Her AT Field.

Rei had always been a light sleeper, and she awoke in the middle of the night, as she was often wont to do. The first thought that she had was to check on Stacy. She got up from her futon and looked at the girl sleeping contentedly with a smile on her face. She looks so peaceful, thought Rei. It was hard to believe that just two days ago she'd been afraid of the dark. Then she noticed that the covers had slipped down on her a bit. Rei gently tucked her in, got a drink of water, and then went back to bed.

In Ritsuko's office at NERV Headquarters, Misato studied Stacy's file. "I don't believe it!" she cried.

"I know," replied Ritsuko. "It's a first, all right."

"Do any of the other pilots know? About…Stacy's mother?"

"The commander and I decided to let Stacy decide if she wants to tell them."

Misato pulled the other three children's files and studied them. "Rei will be okay. She's never been bothered by parentage issues. And Shinji is getting along too well with Stacy to let something like this bother him. Asuka, though…she's had some tough experiences in this area."

"Tough? That's a mild term," noted Ritsuko. "Try 'traumatic.'"

Misato nodded. If Stacy mentioned her mother while Asuka was around, all hell could break loose.