In a sleepy little room in a house not incredibly uncommon in the world of the not-so-distant future absolutely nothing is happening. You shouldn’t find this too bizarre considering its only living inhabitant at this moment in time is a cat. This cat, so it seems, would be perfectly alright with nothing ever happened in that room again. Call it apathy. Call it laziness. Either way absolutely nothing was not the destiny of this particular room as a young woman walked through the door.
“Hi Luca,” the cheerful adolescent said causing the cat to perk up, “How was your day?” It was no surprise to Amy that the cat mewed at her in response. “What’s this”, she said as she looked at the computer sitting on the desk, smiling, she turned back at the cat “Have you been surfing the web again?” Luca mewed once more.
Amy looked back to the computer and idly scanned the page left on the monitor. It claimed to be a website for average citizens to voice their opinions on celebrities’ romances and potential couples. “It looks like a… a…” Her mouth dropped open slighty and her eyes went wide in surprise.
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“I can’t believe you talked me into this,” Amy’s teammate, Liz was eager to inform her. It wasn’t hard to figure out what exactly she had been talked into doing. As the two of them walked along the sidewalk Liz wore a blue windbreaker and a wig and some make-up that made her look like a guy. Most of it was at Liz’s request because of it being almost too easy to convince some of their test subjects of her masculinity.
“You’d better not back out now,” Amy told her companion.
Liz sighed, “At least remind me why we’re doing this…”
“You have to convince my parents that you are my boyfriend to keep them from setting me up with… a ‘nice boy’”
“And why’s that bad?”
“Can’t you remember?”
“Sure I can, but it made a lot more sense when you said it,”
“My parent’s idea of nice boy is a polo shirt-wearing, captain-of-every-club king-of-the… well you get it don’t you?”
“And you’re more of the ‘run away with a guitarist to piss off your over-protective parents’ kind of girl, eh?”
“Something like that… Well, we’re here. Don’t forget your lines, Leon…” Amy said and smiled at her cross-dressing faux-sweetheart.
Liz sighed and looked away, “I think I just might throw up,”
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“What about Leon?” Amy asked Liz only a few hours before, “It has the same ring to it…”
“Why not make Takeshi do it? He’s actually a guy,” Liz pleaded with Amy although in a tone seeming to convey that she had already been defeated.
“They’ll recognize him from his interviews,”
“And they won’t recognize me?”
“We’re going to dress you up…”
“Dress up Takeshi!”
“They’ll still recognize him, and besides he already said he couldn’t do it,”
“Don’t you know any other guys?”
“Uh… You didn’t answer the question! What do you think of Leon?”
“No. I’ll only do it if you call me Don Awesome,”
“No one’s going to believe that’s a real name,”
“Then I’m not going to do it,”
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“I can’t believe they bought it,” Amy said finally wiping the sweat off of her forehead, “Why didn’t you follow the script?”
“The what?” Liz questioned.
“You’re impossible…” Amy said and was quiet for a minute and then suddenly perked up as though a thought had just come to her. “You look tired, what happened to that gung ho attitude you had…”
Liz perked up an eyebrow and peered over at her shorter companion, “What are you talking about?”
“You know,” Liz continued on with a hint of mischief in her voice, “That gung ho attitude you had when you told the whole internet of a possible relationship between you and me,”
Liz stopped in her tracks and looked at the long-haired teenager inquisitively and then quickly composed herself. Smirking she replied, “You saw that did you?” she turned back at Amy and hastily questioned, “Wait, is that what this whole thing is about?”
Amy looked down embarrassed, “Well… kind of…”
“So you’re parents were in on it too?”
“Actually no…” Amy continued embarrassedly, “They actually did want to set me up with a ‘nice’ boy and I figured what the heck… I’d kill two birds with one stone,”
“Well I guess you wouldn’t go through all the trouble without good reason,” Liz said looking away for a minute and then returning her sights on Amy with added curiosity, “Which was?”
“Well I had to corner you to find out whether you were serious or not!” Amy said finally regaining her determination.
“Do you want me to show you how serious I am?” Liz said bringing her face really close to the shorter girl’s.
Amy jumped back in surprise and embarrassment, “No that’s okay!”
Liz pulled back and straightened out her back and laughed, “You’re easy, you know that?” She looked at Amy who was now covering up her reddened cheeks and it was her chance to smile. “In all serious, I really said ‘a better possibility than’ to, you know, make them shut up about what a ‘perfect couple’ me and Takeshi are. Blech… why’d it have to be Takeshi?”
“Oh…” Amy said looking even more embarrassed than before.
“I took the chance that you’d read it. It’s the internet after all… not exactly the place to hide secrets you know?” Liz went on and looked back at Amy who now looked like she wished she could will herself away from embarrassment. “I’ve said too much haven’t’ I?” Liz scratched the back of her neck wishing she hadn’t put her teammate in the spotlight, “Uh… how about… I bet I can lap you in the IGPX simulator!”
“What?” Amy questioned, then coming back to reality, “You’re on!” The two of them smiled and then walked on with their “date” had reborn in new light.
“Liz?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t ever try to kiss me again…”
“You say that now but—“
“Liz!”
“What? I’m being honest with you…”
Amy sighed, “You really are impossible…”
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