Monday, March 1, 2010 | 1:42 PM |

Chapter 9

After practice I went home and checked my e-mail. Nothing from Dan about my surprise, whatever it was. More important, no response from Genie. "Thanks a lot, Genie," I muttered.I called her house. "Hi, Mom," I joked with Mrs. Zhuo. I spend a lot of time over there. "Is your other daughter home?"
"Rainie! Haven't seen you in days--- we miss you!" Mrs. Zhuo said. "Genie's still at the university, working on a sociology project. She had to meet with some other students."
"Oh, right," I said, disappointed. "I sort of remember her mentioning something about it. Thanks, Mrs. Z. Take care."
I hung up and headed toward the kitchen to get something to eat. As I passed Dan's room I noticed that it was dark--- no glowing monitor. In the living room, Mom and her boyfriend were reading tarot cards at the coffee table. "Where's Dan?" I asked her.
"Gone to a movie," she replied without lifting her head.
"Did you guys eat?" I asked.
Mom's boyfriend glanced up from the cards, and smoothed his long scraggly ponytail.
I wish he'd just cut that thing off already, I thought.
"There's some dinner left in the fridge," he said. "Delicious."
We'll see about that, I thought heading toward the kitchen. I eyed the empty tofu package in the garbage. Ugh. Way too healthy for me. Reaching past the tofu and brown rice in the fridge, I scrounged up some cottage cheese and fresh pineapple, then fixed some buttered toast for dinner. Then I went back to my room.
Lining up my bowls and plate around my computer, I saw that I had an e-mail from Ella. I clicked it open and read:
REMINDER TO ALL---
RAINIE'S BET COMES DUE TOMORROW. SO... SINCE SOMEONE IS GOING TO BUY DINNER FOR ALL OF US, LET'S MEET AT THE CLUB TOMORROW NIGHT AT 7:30. AGREED?
The bet? I had forgotten all about it. Actually, it didn't matter to me. But since Jiro hadn't asked me out, I was going to need something to do tomorrow night--- and every other night this year. I wrote back:
BE THERE OR BE SQUARE.
XXXOO, R
I sent the message. "Better make sure I have plenty of cash,"I muttered. "Looks like I'm buying tomorrow night."

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