There was just one more week until Homecoming. Tomi was feeling the same way she did when she was picked for Juliet. She was a nervous wreck. Now she had to go no matter what. Once again, AJ was the one to come by in her time of panic. "Hey Tomi, you go shopping for Homecoming yet?" asked AJ.
"No…" replied Tomi.
"What? There's only a few more days, Tomi. What are you waiting for?" asked AJ.
"I don't know what to get!" said Tomi.
"Tomi, it's not that hard. You get a nice dress, some makeup, shoes, and some jewelry. Come on, let's go now. I'll take you," said AJ.
"But…" said Tomi.
"No buts. Let's go," said AJ, grabbing her arm and dragging her to his car. They drove down to the mall and AJ said, "So, where should we start first?"
"I don't know," said Tomi.
"Believe it or not, the first part of this would be getting a dress," said AJ.
"AJ, I've never worn a dress in my life. Like I would know where to get one," said Tomi.
"That's why I'm here, come on," said AJ, dragging her by the arm through the mall. "Since it doesn't look like you're gonna be able to pick out a dress for yourself, I'll pick one out for you." He let go of Tomi's arm and stood about three feet in front of her. He studied her up and down and stopped at her chest. "Hmmm," said AJ, staring at her chest.
"Exactly how long do you plan to stare there, AJ?" asked Tomi, raising her eyebrows.
"You know, that area seems to have gotten bigger in the past few years," said AJ, still staring.
Tomi smacked him on the head and grabbed him by the collar. "Do you want to live long enough to go to the Homecoming?" asked Tomi.
"Okay, okay. I was just joking around, jeez," said AJ. Tomi let go of him. "But it's the truth…" mumbled AJ. Tomi just gave him a dirty look. He thought for a second. "I got just the place, come on." AJ grabbed her arm and dragged her to a store that sold popular teenage clothes. He started picking out dresses and skirts randomly. But then he stopped all of the sudden. "You know, I got a better idea," said AJ.
"Did I mention I'm scared when you get ideas?" asked Tomi.
AJ put all of the clothes back and grabbed Tomi by the arm again. "Come on." He once again dragged her through the mall and came upon a store that specialized in formal dresses. "Since this is your first dance, and since its Homecoming, you're gonna wear something formal."
"Like I would look good in a formal dress," said Tomi.
"Tomi, you would look good in anything. Now shut up and help me look," said AJ, sticking his tongue out. He picked out about ten dresses and had Tomi try them on. "Damn it, you're making this hard," said AJ.
"Exactly how am I making this hard?" asked Tomi.
"Because you look good in all the dresses you've tried on so far," said AJ.
Tomi blushed and said, "Oh shut up, AJ."
"I'm serious! I got an idea, what's your favorite color?" asked AJ.
"Crystal blue," said Tomi, "Just like Nick's eyes." She realized the second part really didn't need to be spoken so she covered her mouth.
AJ just smiled and said, "I'll be right back." He went looking for another dress. After a while, he found exactly what he was looking for. It was a sleeveless, shimmering, long crystal blue gown. It came with a matching pair of long gloves and a see through shawl. AJ brought it over to Tomi and said, "Try this on." Tomi came back out shortly and AJ literally was breath taken.
"How do I look?" asked Tomi.
"Truthfully?" asked AJ, turning a little red.
"Yes, truthfully," said Tomi.
"Dayam… You need to wear dresses more often," said AJ.
"Oh, shut up!" said Tomi, turning bright red.
"I'm dead serious, and you're getting that dress," said AJ.
Tomi looked down at the price tag. "Um, no I'm not," she said.
"Yes, you are," said AJ.
"This price tag says I'm not!" said Tomi.
"Well this card says you are," said AJ, pulling out a credit card.
"AJ, whose is that?" asked Tomi.
"Mine," said AJ, "What do you think I did? Steal it?"
"No, but," said Tomi.
"No buts, you're getting that dress. Come on," said AJ.
"AJ, you're not buying that dress," said Tomi.
"Too late, I already did," said AJ.
"What?!" asked Tomi.
"While you were trying on your first few dresses, I already picked it out. I thought you'd like this one," said AJ, "I'm glad you like it. Whew, I love it when I'm right."
"AJ, you can't buy this dress. How could you afford it?!" asked Tomi.
He pulled out a credit card again and said, "The miracles of plastic."
"But AJ," said Tomi.
"No buts, how many times are you going to make me say that? You like the dress right?" asked AJ.
"Yeah," answered Tomi.
"Then you're going to keep it. Think of it as an early birthday present," said AJ.
Tomi finally agreed and nodded. She went into the dressing room and changed. She came back out and kissed AJ on the cheek and said, "Thank you."
"Whoa, no problem," said AJ, turning a little red. They finished up their shopping by buying her some jewelry and some shoes. Once they were done, AJ drove her home. Tomi got out of the car and thanked him again. AJ smiled and said, "It's no problem. Just promise me you'll have fun at Homecoming…okay?"
"Alright, I'll talk to you later," said Tomi.
AJ pulled out of the driveway and then headed toward Nick's house. He went up to the door and rang the doorbell. Aaron answered the door. "Hey Shorty, is your brother here?" asked AJ.
"Yeah, he's upstairs playing with his playstation," said Aaron.
AJ picked up Aaron and put him on his shoulders and headed up to Nick's room. As AJ opened the door, Nick looked up from the game and said, "Hey, AJ."
AJ set Aaron down on the bed and sat down on the bed himself. "You read for Homecoming?" asked AJ.
"Yeah, somewhat," said Nick.
"By the way, you're gonna buy Tomi's corsage, alright?" said AJ.
"Sure, I guess. Is Tomi ready for Saturday?" asked Nick.
"She's somewhat ready. She'll be ready by Saturday," replied AJ.
"Tomi in a dress, that's a first," said Nick.
"Boy, will you be surprised," said AJ.
"Why's that?" asked Nick.
"You'll see on Saturday," said AJ.
Nick raised his eyebrow and said, "Okay… So how are the preparations for Homecoming going?"
"Everything is almost done. I already know who the Homecoming King and Queen are going to be too," said AJ.
"You do not," said Nick.
"Oh yes I do," argued AJ.
"Then tell me," said Nick.
"Yeah right, and ruin the surprise?" asked AJ.
"Tell me," said Aaron.
"Yeah, tell Aaron," said Nick.
"Yeah right. Go knows what you'll do to him to get the answer. Sorry, Shorty," said AJ.
Aaron stuck his tongue out and pulled out a picture. AJ peered over to see the picture. "Hey, what's that? A picture of your girlfriend?" asked AJ. He grabbed the picture and examined it. Nick went back to playing his game. "Nah, it's just a baby picture of you. Boy, what are you doing neked in this picture?!" AJ said with a laugh. He then examined the picture a little more. "Wait a minute, you don't have blue eyes do you, Shorty?" Nick froze.
Aaron shook his head and said, "No, mine are brown."
"So this would mean, that this is…" AJ broke off into laughter and fell back onto the bed. Nick quickly stood up, forgetting about the game and snatched the picture from AJ.
His mouth fell open. "Where did you get this?!" asked Nick, turning bright red.
"Mommy was looking through the photo album and she told me to bring this picture up," said Aaron.
"Hey Aaron, go ask your mom if we can see the album," said AJ.
"No, that's okay," said Nick, but Aaron already left. A few minutes later, Aaron came up with a royal blue photo album.
"Dang, that thing is huge," said AJ.
"This is just Nick's," said Aaron.
"Dang," said AJ, taking the photo album and flipping through. The first five pages were all baby pictures. "Aw, you were such a cute baby, what happened?" asked AJ.
"Shut up," said Nick, rolling his eyes.
AJ came upon a baby picture of Nick where he looked like Charlie Brown. "Hey look, it's Charlie Brown," laughed AJ.
"Yeah, well at least I grew some hair," said Nick, sticking his tongue out.
"Shut up, I have hair…" said AJ.
"Is that what you call hair?" asked Nick.
AJ mumbled something and turned the page. An evil grin showed itself on AJ's face. "Hey Nick," said AJ, pulling a picture out, "I wonder if Tomi's seen this picture?" It was another picture of Nick without his diapers on.
"Agh! How many pictures like this does Mom have?!" asked Nick, turning red again. "Give me that!" he said as he tried to snatch the picture out of AJ's hand.
AJ kept the picture out of Nick's reach. "I think Tomi would get a kick out of this picture," said AJ.
Nick froze and turned as red as he could possibly turn. "You wouldn't," he said.
"You know me better than that Nicky Nick," said AJ, with his grin getting wider.
Nick turned the page and pointed to a certain picture and grinned. "You aren't gonna show her that picture."
"AJ's eyes widened. "Where the he… heck did your mom get that picture?!"
"When she was babysitting us and we got into that big mud fight," said Nick. The picture was of AJ, at about two years old. He was sitting in a bathtub, obviously without any clothes on.
"I wonder if Tomi's seen this picture?" asked Nick, imitating AJ's grin.
"I'll make you a deal, you don't show Tomi that picture of me, and I won't show her this picture of you," said AJ.
"Agreed," said Nick, crossing his fingers behind his back. They kept going through the photo album and they came upon a lot of memories. There were pictures from all of Nick's birthday parties (AJ and Tomi were at all of them). For some odd reason, there were a lot of pictures of Nick getting hit in the head with a basketball. "I really need to talk to Mom about some of these pictures…" said Nick. About ten minutes later, they finally came upon some recent pictures. There were pictures of the sweet sixteen-birthday party. Pictures of Tomi and Nick, Tomi and AJ, Tomi and Brian, Tomi and Howie, Tomi and Kevin… it seemed like many of the pictures were of Tomi, which caught AJ's interest.
"Hey Nick, who took all of these?" asked AJ. AJ started to think that his job wouldn't be as hard as he thought.
"He pictures with me in them, probably my Mom, but the rest are taken by me," answered Nick, "Well, most of them at least. You and the other guys took some, but I took most of them."
"Why are there so many pictures of Tomi?" asked AJ.
"There are?" asked Nick.
"Yeah… quite a bit," said AJ.
Nick took the album from him and started to look through it. AJ was right, each page at least had two pictures of Tomi. "…Wow, you're right," said Nick, still looking through, "I wonder why that is…"
"I wonder…" said AJ, with a smile.
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Nick.
"Nothing," said AJ, still smiling.
"Uh huh," said Nick, raising his eyebrow at AJ.
"Boy will you be surprised on Saturday," said AJ.
"I think you've already said that," said Nick.
"I did? I did, didn't I?" said AJ, still smiling.
"Uh huh… you know for once, you're actually scaring me," said Nick.
"Me? Scare someone? Never," said AJ, "I'm not scary am I, Shorty?"
"Nope," said Aaron, "Kevin is though."
"Why is Kevin scary?" AJ asked with a laugh.
"Because he's so tall," said Aaron.
"He's about as tall as Nick," said AJ.
"Yeah but Nick's a wimp," said Aaron.
AJ started cracking up and Nick gave his little brother a look, "You're lucky I'm a very nice person and won't hit little kids," said Nick.
"Yeah right," said Aaron, sticking his tongue out.
Nick got up and tried to go after Aaron but AJ quickly grabbed him by the collar. "Okay you two, sit," said AJ.
"But he just called me a wimp!" said Nick.
"And he's also your little brother, and you just got done saying you don't hit little kids. Now sit," said AJ. Nick mumbled something under his breath and sat down on the bed. "Alright, I'm gonna head home, you better be ready by Saturday."
"I will be, jeez, it's just Homecoming," said Nick.
"Later Nick, Shorty," said AJ, walking out of the room.