Anime Madness - Dena attn Caitlin

[Dena Zouvelekis]

It was the first of two glorious days of not going to school, and Dena was planning on making the most of them. She and Celest made their way to the mall, Dena then quickly making her way away from her sister, yelling out plans to meet her for lunch. Not that she minded spending time with Celest, she just wanted to spend the morning wasting time and money on dancing arcade machines filled with flashing lights and loud music, and she couldn’t imagine her sister joining in. Which was perfectly fine, there was usually always a like minded individual not too far away to join in a dance off, or if it came down to it, she was perfectly happy spending an hour by herself, looking funny doing it.

And after that, the next logical time waster was the comic book store. It was one of her favourite places to hang around, despite the lack of cute girls. Which meant that she was counted as one of the cute girls whenever she stepped inside its doors, despite the fact that all the regulars, the male regulars, were well aware that she would never actually date them. She liked the attention though, how could she not, when it meant the occasional free comic?

Giving a quick wave to the teenager behind the counter, it only took a second for Dena to see the girl who was currently occupying a lot of her thoughts. Caitlin was very hard to miss after all, and there weren’t many others who went through the anime section as studiously as her. “Hi, mind company cutie?”

[Caitlin Alderman]

Caitlin held the first volume of the Strawberry Panic light novel in her hands, trying to decide if she really needed this story in a third format -- she already owned the anime (fansub; she was still waiting for the official release) and the manga, but she so adored the relationship between Nagisa and Shizuma. They were so cute together!

She almost dropped the thin book when someone came up behind her. "Omigod, Dena!!" She beamed, throwing her arms around the other girl. "Course I don't mind! Hey, so do you think I should get this book?" She asked seriously, waving the product in question in Dena's face, "I already have the manga and the anime....but I just love it sooooo much..." She sighed, "It's almost as good as MariMite...."

She frowned down at the book before shoving it back on the shelf. "Okay, no, I need to save my money for tomorrow. Did you hear about tomorrow? There's this bowling thingy that some upperclassmen are doing and I totally wanna crash it! Will and I were talking about it, and we were thinking in costume and all, we're gonna meet at the arcade so we can all show up together. And he wanted to get together for lunch first so we can discuss strategy, wanna come?"

[Dena Zouvelekis]

Dena was sure she heard the sound of a few male teenage jaws hitting the ground and Caitlin threw her arms around her. Which made her grin, wrapping one arm around her girlfriend/possible girlfriend/girl she was crushing on in return. She just managed to read the title of the book Cait waved around, being slightly familiar with it. Well, she knew that Cait loved that series anyway. She hadn’t even heard of it before she knew the long haired girl.

“Sure, you should get it then. I mean, you don’t have that version, so it’s completely different.” she laughed, and when it was shelved, she reached out sneakily to grab it, hiding it discretely behind her back. It could be a present, she figured, like buying flowers for the girl you liked, but she knew anime would be much more effective than some pretty petals.

“I know! I was kinda invited. Well, that Evan guy grabbed me and yelled at me to come. He’s kinda weird.” she laughed, knowing she was not one to comment on weird. “I’m so gonna be there, even managed to get Celest to agree to go to. You know that wasn’t easy. Really glad you’re going to come.” She was really, really glad, especially with the costume idea. Hopefully it would be a skimpy costume. She could dream.

“I’d love to! Oh, but I’m gonna have lunch with Celest.” Dena remembered, before a grin lit her face. “That’ll be perfect! I’ll drag her along too! She’s really good with that sort of stuff, costumes, so maybe she could help out with ideas. What were you thinking of dressing as?” she asked, leaning a little bit closer to the really cute girl than was necessary.

[Caitlin Alderman]

"Yeah, that'll be great!!" Caitlin enthused when Dena mentioned bringing Celest along. "But if we're meeting before we crash it...I think everyone kind of already needs to have their costumes ready. But she could bring a bunch of stuff for people who don't have many costume-y supplies." She decided. "Make sure to ask your brothers, too, they're hilarious!" And just the sort of people one would want to invite to a party crashing event.

"I dunno about costume," She admitted. She had far too many costume pieces in her closet, but actually choosing something was always difficult. "I hate making decisions. I was thinking maybe Rabi-en-Rose from Digi Charat. Or maybe I should break out the Rikku costume...." She mused. Rikku was much skimpier than Rabi-en-Rose, which meant that she was likely to get more attention in that -- as though a rabbit-eared girl with a pink sweet Lolita style dress and giant dice in her hair wouldn't get attention -- but also Dena would (probably) appreciate the bikini top with mini skirt more than the dress, pretty as it was.

"What about you? You can borrow something of mine if you want." She offered, because helping Dena try on clothes would be fun!

[Dena Zouvelekis]

“Sure, she can do that.” Dena nodded, very kindly volunteering her sister for whatever costume-y stuff there might be to do. Really, she was doing Celest a favour, the way she figured it, trying to help her sister get out of the house more, meet new people, broaden her horizons etc etc. And, if a group, small or not, rocked up to bowling in costumes, then maybe anyone there who was also interested in costumes would come up to say hi, and if any of them made their own, like her dear sister, Dena would strike! And by strike, she would get them talking of course. She wouldn’t actually hit them, mainly because she was pretty sure hitting prospective fellow costume makers / friends wouldn’t do any good, and also because Dena wasn’t the most blessed when it came to upper body strength. She was a great sister though.

Her brothers were exactly the kind of people you would bring somewhere to make sure things stayed...lively, but at Caitlin’s suggestion to bring them, she made a face. “I told Celest I wouldn’t invite them, you know, to try to persuade her to go. They skipped on school yesterday afternoon, she wasn’t impressed.” Dena laughed. “So I can’t say anything to them. But if they found out another way and came, well, I wouldn’t be responsible.”

It took only a couple of seconds for her to bring to mind the image of both of Caitlin’s costume ideas, she’d been getting a good education in anime as of late, and only a fraction of a second to work out which one she would pick for her. “I think Rikku’s a good idea.” she smiled, trying not to smile too much, and also trying not to drool at the thought of Caitlin in that costume, attempting to bowl. This was going to make Sunday even better than she had thought!

“Oh, look at that, pretty.” Dena pointed to some random anime in a direction that happened to be facing away from the counter behind them, distracting Caitlin just enough so that she could hand the novel over, followed by the novel (which was a lot more than Dena had figured, but Caitlin in a mini skirt was well worth it), before grabbing the now bagged book off the counter.

“I’d love that! Maybe I could come over tonight, we could play around.” Dena grinned, costumes not the only thing in her mind for play time. “Maybe get dinner too?” She realised now that she hadn’t had anything that could actually be counted as a date with Caitlin. Maybe it was time to change that.

[Caitlin Alderman]

"Okay, fine, I'll invite them." Caitlin agreed, rolling her eyes at Celest's un-fun maturity. "God, your sister is such a wet blanket sometimes. She needs to lighten up. Your brothers have to come, they're perfect for running around in costume with. And Seth could help Palmer film!" She explained, as though Dena needed convincing.

"Okay, what's Brandon's number?" She asked, whipping out her cell-phone. She listened to her girlfriend's instructions before typing off a text to the other quintuplet. "Okay, sent. Celest doesn't have to know either of us were involved." Though she probably would realize once the boys showed up at their impromptu costuming group.

"Huh? Pretty?!" She squeaked, grabbing the title Dena pointed out. "Haha, silly Dena! I already have Excel Saga!" She laughed, turning back around. "Yes! Come over tonight! Oh! I know! You should be Yuna! I think you'll fit okay in my Yuna costume. It's based off Final Fantasy X, so it's really, really cute and sexy." She added, hoping that if she was wearing a mini skirt that Dena would return the favor.

"Oh, dinner sounds awesome! Umm, what should we get? Wendy's or something?" She didn't realize that Dena was suggesting a date, otherwise she would have brought up something slightly more impressive than fast food.

[Dena Zouvelekis]

“She’s okay. Just really doesn’t like getting into trouble, especially as it’s always our brothers, and never her, who does the things that gets us all in trouble!” Dena laughed brightly, making it obvious that she didn’t mind a bit of trouble. It was all in good fun after all.

Reciting her brother’s phone number, she watched Caitlin send off the message, not quite so sure that Celest wouldn’t be able to work out who was involved when they all showed up, her sister was probably the smartest of them all. Still, the idea of them all turning up in costume was far too tempting and hilarious to resist. And maybe if she convinced Celest to go in costume too, she wouldn’t mind so much, and might even enjoy herself more. It was a win-win situation.

Dena knew exactly what a Yuna costume would look like, she liked to keep herself in the know about all the hot animated characters, whether on DVD, comic, manga or video game. And it was a costume she wouldn’t have minded if Caitlin wanted to wear. She had to admit though, with her as Yuna and Caitlin as Rikku, they would look really good together. And Caitlin would look really good, which was the most important bit.

“Okay, I’ll try that one on first.” she eagerly agreed, her eagerness largely brought on by the thought of them playing ‘dress ups’ that night. “But only if you try on your costume for me first, it’s only fair I get to perve...I mean, see you dressed up first.” she teased lightly.

Wendy’s was yummy, there was no denying that. But it wasn’t quite what Dena had in mind. “Nah, if I’m taking my girlfriend out to dinner, we’re going somewhere nicer.” she grinned, taking one of Caitlin’s hands in her own free one. “Was there anything else you wanted to look at here?”

[Caitlin Alderman]

“Hooray!!!” Caitlin celebrated when Dena agreed to be Yuna. If Dena did fit in the costume (or well enough that Celest or someone could alter it) then she’d be sure to drag her girlfriend with her next convention that rolled around. She was confident that they’d be stopped for photos every couple of feet, but that was part of the fun of costuming.

She grinned when the other girl suggested they go somewhere nicer. “A date? Sweet! You’re the best girlfriend ever! I mean, since you said it and I agreed, that makes it official, right?” She hoped so, because official recognition of a relationship she already privately considered girlfriend/girlfriend was definitely nice, made her feel less delusional.

“Nope! All done here!” She sang, pulling the brunette out the door with her and calling goodbye to the poor teen boys who worked there; neither she nor Dena would ever give them a second glance.

“So if we’re not trying on costumes ‘til after dinner, what’re we doing before then?” She inquired. It wasn’t even lunch time yet, so that was out, unless they wanted to start off early. “Go bug your fam?” Quintuplets or triplets, either way the Zouvelekis were entertaining. Maybe their Nana would even provide cookies, or candy, or some other type of junk food; she was good that way.

[Dena Zouvelekis]

“Yep, guess it makes it official.” Dena grinned, Caitlin’s cheery enthusiasm easily rubbing off on her. She supposed that now they were official, she should tone down on her perving and flirting with other girls, at least somewhat. It was pretty much worth it, Caitlin was one of the cutest girls in both schools, so to have her as her girlfriend, have all that lovely cuteness to herself, that was obviously a good thing. And the fact that she was more than just cute made it even better. So Dena couldn’t help but smile more and more at the idea.

Laughing as she was pulled out of the store, she managed to get a quick wave in to the boys staring at them as they left. “Sure, we could do that.” Dena agreed, thinking it was actually a good idea. “Yeah, after lunch, Celest would probably be ready to go home, so we could all head back, start annoying everyone. Not that we could ever be annoying.” she giggled. “Then when we’re ready for dinner, we can just take off and head back to your house afterwards.” She grinned a little more than needed at this. “Do you think your parents would mind if you had a friend sleep over?”

“While we’re waiting for lunch, let’s just look around.” she suggested, “Or we could go to the arcade. I just came from there, it was fun.” She didn’t think of herself as a bad actress, so she plastered a completely innocent look on her face as she held the bag out. “Oh, you forgot this.”

[Caitlin Alderman]

"No way! They won't mind!" Caitlin didn't feel the need to actually pose this question to her parents. After all, she wanted Dena to spend the night, and she couldn't think of any good objection her parents might be able to make. They didn't really pay much attention to the books she read or the anime she watched or the websites she visited, or if they had they hadn't commented; they were currently too caught up in their own relationship drama to notice anything going on with their children. "Think they're both at counseling tonight anyway, so they won't notice. Probably. But they wouldn't mind anyway! So it's all good."

She skipped for a few steps, pulling Dena along with her. "Oooooh, the arcade! Good idea! Gotta practice before we use it for our base tomorrow!" She laughed, digging in her pockets to see if she had any change, but coming up short.

"Ummm, you have any quarte---huh? I forgot what?" She took the bag in confusion. She hadn't bought anything, so she was pretty sure she couldn't have left anything. "It must be someone else's." She deduced, but this thought didn't prevent her from peering into the bag to see what this mysterious other person had purchased. "Oh, the first StrawPani light novel! Someone has good taste....wait. You bought this, didn't you?" She accused, then flung herself around Dena for the second time that morning. "Thank you sooooooo much! You're the best girlfriend ever!"