His date. Alex had never been on a date. And to think…his first date would be with Isabel Guerin, the most popular girl in school! And she had asked him!

He ran through the Crashdown Café, and through the back room, up the stairs, and tore into Liz’s room. She was lying in her bed, with the blankets pulled over her head. Alex tore the blankets off of her and threw them on the floor. Liz groaned and turned over.

“What do you want, Alex? I don’t feel good.”

“Isabel Guerin asked me out for tonight.”

Liz sat up quickly and looked at Alex. “Are you serious? You’re serious. You have a date with…Isabel?” Liz lay down again and shut her eyes. “I must be more sick than I thought.”

“Come on Liz, this is serious. I need you to help me decide what to wear…I can’t look geeky!”

“Ugh…ok…I’ll meet you in your room in twenty minutes. Let me get myself together first.”

“Ok.” Alex walked out of Liz’s room and down the hallway to his own room. He shut the door and turned on Garth Brooks on his stereo system. Ah…good old country music, just what he liked. He opened his closet and stared into it.

Nothing seemed to look right. Everything looked too dorky for a date with Isabel Guerin. He sighed and started pulling clothes off the hangers, throwing them onto his bed. The only way to find the right outfit was to try them all.

As he was modeling one outfit in front of the mirror, Liz came in. She burst out laughing.

“What?” he asked. “Is it that bad? It’s the pants, isn’t it? They make my butt look too big!”

Liz just laughed louder. When she could finally talk, she gasped out, “Alex, you look like a girl getting ready for a date. All the clothes on the bed…the comment about the pants…” She started laughing all over again.

“Liz, this isn’t funny. Help me, here! I can’t find anything good!”

“Here,” she said, walking over to the bed and picking up a shirt and some pants. “This will work.”

“Wow, you’re right. I don’t know why I didn’t see that before. Thanks, Liz.” “Welcome. Well, I feel a little better, so I’m gonna go grab a snack and see if dad needs me to work a shift in the Café. Oh, and Alex, listening to Garth Brooks isn’t exactly going to help out your image. See you later.”

Liz walked out of Alex’s room and went downstairs. She stopped at the fridge and pulled out a container of yogurt. She grabbed a spoon and hopped up on the counter. As she was eating the yogurt, her mom came into the kitchen.

“Hey, Liz,” she said. “Feeling better? I heard loud laughing before…”

“Yeah, I’m better now. I was laughing at Alex cause he’s freaking out about clothes.”

“Clothes? Why?”

“He’s got a date tonight with Isabel Guerin. You know her, she works in the Café.”

“Really?” asked Mrs. Parker. “Alex is going out with her? She just doesn’t seem like Alex’s type…but if that’s what he wants.”

Liz finished her yogurt and asked, “Does dad need me to work in the Café now?”

“Probably. It’s a zoo down there. Thanks honey.”

“Sure,” said Liz. She went down into the back room by the employee’s lockers and changed into her outfit. She grabbed her order pad and a pen, and walked out into the Café.

Her mom was right, it was a total zoo! Liz spotted Isabel and ran up to her. “Hey, Isabel. I can help you out now. Sorry I wasn’t here earlier, I wasn’t feeling too good today.”

“That’s too bad, glad you’re here now,” said Isabel, expertly balancing plates on her hands.

Liz started to wait on customers. As things started to calm down again, Michael Guerin, Tess Harding, and Maria and Max Evans walked into the Café and sat at a big booth. She wanted Isabel to wait on them, because they were her friends, plus, Max made her nervous. He always seemed to be staring at her. Isabel was really busy though, so Liz had to do it.

She walked reluctantly up to the group of people and said, “Can I get you some drinks?” They all ordered cokes and Liz went behind the counter to the soda machine to get them. As she was ready to serve the drinks, she turned around and walked right into Max. Soda went everywhere…on her, on him, on the floor.

“Oh my god,” she said. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you.”

“No, it’s ok, I probably surprised you. It’s my fault. Here, let me help you clean this up.”

They cleaned up the spilled soda together and then Max said, “I was standing behind you because I wanted to ask you something.”

“Ok,” said Liz. “What?”

“Well, I’m sure you know by now that Isabel and Alex are going out tonight, right?”

“Yeah, Alex told me…” Liz said, wondering what Max was getting at.

“Well, uh…I’ve been wanting to ask you out for a long time, but I never had the nerve. But then Isabel asked Alex, so I figured, you know, what the hell…”

Liz looked at Max, trying to tell if he was serious.

“So?” he asked. “Will you go out with me? Tonight maybe?”

“Um, Max, I really don’t think that’s such a good idea. We don’t even know each other…and well, you’re popular, and I’m not. It would just be really uncomfortable.”

“Oh,” said Max, feeling his stomach drop. “Well, if you don’t want to…I’ll talk to you later then.”

He walked out of the restaurant to go home and change out of his soda soaked clothes.

Liz got Isabel’s attention and asked her to get the drinks for her friends as she changed into a fresh outfit.