Secret Anime Junkie

Ivy barely managed to make it through her classes until it was time for the dance. She was already in her makeshift Brown Recluse costume and was on her way to Carson's house to pick him up. Since she had done the asking she had gotten permission to use her mom's car for the night.

She wondered what kind of thoughts Carson would have when they weren't at school. Up until very recently, she was under the impression that ever only ever thought about academics.

He had already proven himself to be more interesting than she first thought. What sort of things would he be thinking about outside of school hours?

When she pulled up in front of his house he was in the middle of watching something based on his thoughts. Anime? That was the only thing she knew of that he liked watching. It could be—it sounded like he was watching a fight sequence.

Ivy didn't know much about anime but she had heard that there were a ton of different subtypes that were completely different from each other. There was a lot of varying content under that larger genre.

She would ask him about it if the subject ever came up naturally. That was a problem with telepathy; you couldn't ever reference what you heard in people's heads.

Carson's thoughts changed as soon as she sent a text to let him know she had arrived. 'Ah crap, do I have everything? Shoes…phone…where's my student ID? They won't let me into the dance without it!'

He stumbled out the door two minutes later wearing a black t-shirt and pants with combat boots and a black eye mask. A utility belt, small pouch strapped to his thigh, and a bow and quiver of arrows completed his costume.

His costume was clearly homemade too but looked a lot better than her morph suit. Oh well.

He blinked at her after opening the passenger side door. "I almost didn't recognize you for a second with that wig on."

Ivy laughed. "Really?"

She felt a bit weird wearing it since she had never done anything like this before. Dark red definitely wasn't her color; it made her look even paler than she already did. But she was trying to be authentic as possible considering the cheap morph suit.

"Yeah. You definitely look like Brown Recluse though," he said.

'I'm glad I didn't go overboard on the costume. If I had tried to be more authentic than this I would have totally embarrassed myself. At least I had this thigh pouch from the time I went to a convention as Train Heartnet.'

Less than a minute of seeing him outside of school and Ivy already had a lot more information than she had bargained for. This guy whose brain was full of nothing but homework was a secret anime junkie to the point of going to conventions?

She wasn't completely out of touch with all things popular—there were a handful of people whose thoughts she had heard at school that went to those things too. Anime, superheroes, sci fi…all sorts of nerdy things were celebrated at conventions.

Ivy wasn't a huge fan of popular media because her entire life consisted of spoilers. If she did watch or read things they had to be obscure enough that other people wouldn't be thinking about them.

Sometimes her parents and brother dragged her to the movies against her will to see things she already knew the plot twist for. It wasn't like she had a valid excuse for not wanting to go either. At least she usually got movie theater snacks out of it.

"And you look like Eagle-Eye," she replied simply.

"So…are we meeting up with anyone else?" Carson asked.

'Ivy doesn't really talk to anyone in class but these things usually involve groups, don't they? She has to be friendly enough with someone to at least double…"

She nearly snorted. Yes, she was friendly enough with someone to double date. That was the only reason she had asked him in the first place. Lydia didn't want to go alone or with any of her other friends for whatever reason.

"My friend Lydia and her date. Not sure what his name is."

Lydia had never told her straight up who the boy she had asked out was. If Carson knew Adrian's name before they even met that would make both him and Ivy look weird.

She was fairly sure at this point that Lydia's Adrian and the oddly silent-minded Adrian she knew were the same guy but she really hoped she wasn't wrong. That would make this entire evening of torture pointless.

Ivy hadn't put her earplugs in yet—she still needed to be able to hear what people were saying at dinner—but they would have to go in before they made it into the dance hall. Hopefully, her lack of hearing what people might say to her could be explained by the loud music.

"Have you known Lydia long?" Carson asked casually.

"We've been friends since sixth grade," she said honestly. Though she wouldn't necessarily call them friends at that point. Lydia was more like an overly exuberant shadow in those days. She wore Ivy down over time.

'Wow, that's a while. I don't have any friends that have lasted that long. It makes sense though; Ivy is a lot better at social situations than I am,' he thought.

Ha! No she wasn't. She had the benefit of cheating so she could say what people wanted to hear. That was the only way she managed to fumble her way through social interactions. She wasn't any less anxious about talking to people than Carson, though her worries were more about accidentally giving herself away.

Ivy wasn't good at making friends or keeping them, despite what he may think. It still baffled her that Lydia had bothered to cling to her as long as she had. Most people would have given up after getting ignored too many times.