Page 42 of Fostering Chemistry
"Yeah. You’re in the house, right? Go up to my room and I’ll tell you where everything is."
"Okay... what’s the costume?"
I listened for a moment.
"You’ve got to be kidding me."
The prize for this stupid scavenger hunt had better be a damn Lamborghini.
13
MIA
"Mia, are you ready?"Aaron called up the stairs.
I was. I was embarrassed to show them, but I couldn’t hide up here all afternoon.
I descended the stairs slowly, my white canvas sneakers nearly silent until the wood creaked. Then I saw them—Diego, Aaron, and Cody—all sitting in the living room waiting for me, all staring up in surprise.
"What?" I demanded, as I reached the bottom step. "It was all Jenna had."
"Are you a… princess?" Aaron asked, his eyes sweeping over me.
"A princess with her hair in a bun, wearing pink and white with a tutu?” I asked.
"She’s a ballerina," Diego said.
I did a double take when I looked at him. He was dressed as a referee with a black and white striped shirt, black shorts, knee socks, and sneakers. There was even a whistle around his neck.It didn’t make me feel any better that he had a real costume while I had a makeshift one.
"Do ballerinas wear tiaras?" Aaron asked.
Right now, my favorite roommate was Cody, because he was the only one not asking me questions. "Jenna said it was part of the costume," I said, a little self-consciously, leaning against the banister. "There’s not many women who are strong enough to resist wearing a tiara."
Aaron laughed, his eyes sweeping over the rest of my rather tight-fitting costume before he flushed and looked back at my face.
The white fluffy tutu was Jenna’s. It flounced around as I walked. It was the size of a very tiny mini skirt, but it covered even less since it was see-through. Above it, I wore a shiny pink camisole that looked a bit like a leotard except it was cropped at the waist. That was Jenna’s, too. The white leggings were my yoga pants, and they were skintight. All in all, it wasn’t the way I usually dressed to go out. But then again, at least I wasn’t drunk, wearing a little black dress, and making out with a stranger like at the last Halloween event I’d been to.
A strand of hair brushed my neck, and I slicked it back, trying to tuck it into the bun, or as much of a bun as my wavy hair would allow.
To me, I looked at least a little bit like a ballerina. And the tiara was just plain fun.
"Where’d you get your costume?" I asked Diego. Black was a good color on him. It emphasized his dark eyes and hair. Plus he had really great legs—something I’d noticed the other night in the kitchen.
"It’s a uniform. I refereed some games for a youth league over the summer."
"You did?"
"Yep, second year in a row. I didn’t even have to try out. They took one look at me and decided that since I was Latino, I must know everything there is to know about soccer." He smirked. "And they were right."
Aaron laughed.
Cody had still yet to say anything, which was par for the course, but he was staring at me intently. Finally, he snapped his fingers. "Wait here."
With that he left, leaving the rest of us looking at each other questioningly.
"He’s a man of few words," Aaron said.
We waited in slightly awkward silence, Diego checking the time on his phone. Then we heard Cody jogging up the stairs from the basement. He returned with something light gray and fuzzy in his grasp.
