There she is. Luna. Should I go talk to her? Of course I should. That is my plan, after all. All right, here I go. No. Wait. What am I thinking? I can’t just go over and talk to her. What am I, insane? No, an insane person wouldn’t be able to think this clearly. Or maybe an insane person would think they’re thinking clearly when they’re really not. Maybe I should just keep standing by the punch bowl and hope she comes over here. No, don’t be stupid. Why would she come over here? Why? To get some punch, probably. Or to see me. I mean, she did ask me if I was coming to the dance, right? Wait, where am I? What time is it? Why are my ears sweating? Am I wearing pants?
“You all right, Kelv? You don’t look so good.”
“What? Yeah. Huh?”
“Man, you better sit down. I’ll grab you some punch.”
All right, Kelvin. Calm down. I take a couple deep breaths and my mind starts to clear up. I grab Rand-El by the elbow. Safety in numbers and all.
“I’m okay. C’mon, Rand-El. Let’s go see if Luna and her friends want to dance.”
“Dance? I’d rather dunk my head in the punch bowl.”
“Well, just come along with me, then. I can’t go over there by myself.”
Rand-El lets out a ridiculously overblown sigh, drops his head, and shuffles along as I drag him toward the girls. “You owe me,” he says.
All right, Kelvin. Pull it together. Think of something cool to say. You don’t want to make a fool of yourself.
Ugh.
“Excuse me, what?”
“No, of course you’re not. I meant, uh, would you like to dance?”
“Not really. I think dancing’s kind of stupid.”
“I know, right?!”
“I mean, look at this hair. Would you want to jump around and get it all sweaty and messy?”
“Of course not!”
Well, I wasn’t expecting this. I don’t really have a backup plan for this situation. I barely had a regular plan. I decide to go straight to the big guns.
“I found this on our field trip. What do you think?”
“I think it’s a rock.”
“Well… you can have it if you want.”
“Gee, really? I can have a rock? From Larva Boy? How lucky am I?”
“Hey, you’re pretty funny. And kinda cute, too.”
Oh, man. I’ve got to get out of here.
“C’mon, Rand-El. Let’s go.”
“You go on, Kelvin. I’m going to hang out here for a while.”
Seriously? I put the stone back in my pack and walk away. King Kong on the Empire State Building wasn’t shot down as hard as I just was.
I see Zot standing by herself near the punch bowl, so I head on over to a friendly face. Well, what used to be a friendly face.
“Hey, Zot.”
“Kelvin? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be out there dancing with Luna?”
“It turns out she doesn’t like to dance. It also turns out she doesn’t like me.”
“You don’t say.”
“I do say. I don’t get it, either. I mean, she specifically asked me if I was coming to the dance.”
“She specifically asked everybody. She’s in charge of refreshments and needed to know how many cookies to order.”
“Well, how was I supposed to know that? Now I really feel like an idiot. I mean, she was hardly even paying attention when I was talking to her.”
“I could have told you that, Kelvin. Luna is all about Luna.”
“I don’t know about that.” I glance over toward Luna’s gang.
“She seems to be having a pretty good time with Rand-El,” I say.
“Yeah,” says Zot. “Probably because he has six eyes to stare at her with.”
We both chuckle at that one. Zot seems to be breaking out of her mood a bit.
“So, how come you’re not out there dancing?” I ask her.
“Nobody I want to dance with has asked me yet.”
“Wait a minute. You’re just standing around waiting for the right guy to ask you to dance? The Zot Totzie I know would just grab him and haul him out there.”
“You know what? You’re right!”
“Let’s see some of those moves I taught you.”
“Like that flip onto my head?”
“Yeah. Sorry about that.”
“That’s all right. I deserved it. Look, Zot. I’m really sorry. I had no idea you—”
“Kelvin?”
“Yeah?”
“Shut up and dance.”