Meet Me By the 501st

 

This was bad! This was worse than beaming down with James Tiberius Kirk as a red shirt bad! He stared at the words in the IM box. “Let’s go together!”  He tried to stop his hands as he typed “OK”.

“Great” she answered “I’ll be dressed as Rukia from Bleach. Meet me at the 501st Legion’s booth at noon. See you then!”

Why the hell did he type OK? Terry grabbed his inhaler and took two hits to help his breathing. Why was this happening to him? “FanCon” was the single most premier geekfest on the eastern seaboard. He had waited for years to go to it. He had even joked that he picked his college based on the fact it was in the same city!

This was all Jay’s fault. Jay had been all concerned when he had left for school at the end of the summer. So, Jay had signed him up for the chat/games room. Only afterwards had he been consulted about the idea. But Jay had been his best friend since kindergarten, so he hadn’t been able to stay mad for long and had promised to actually use the account.

After a few “reminder” emails from Jay, he finally signed in. He still remembered the night he first talked to “her”. Her was Ruk1a_rule5. By the time they had stopped IM’ing several hours later, Terry was totally smitten. All winter long they talked and played online games. He really wanted to meet her but had been unsure how to actually go about meeting a girl you liked. Then he had mentioned the “FanCon” and suddenly he had a date! He really liked her, but now he just felt like dying.

Jay had to help him fix this. He grabbed the phone and dialed the number. After several rings the answering machine clicked on. The voice said “Hi I’m not here at the moment. Please leave a message”. Terry hung up and tried again. An hour later he hung his head in defeat. Like the condemned prisoner whose last appeal had been deigned, he knew he was doomed.

After a sleepless night, Terry got up and dressed in the Jedi costume he had made for FanCon. He decided he would face this challenge like Luke had confronted Vader. If Skywalker could do it, then so could he. Numbly he moved through the crowd, barely even paying attention to anything as he approached the meeting place. He spotted her right away. Even though she was facing the other way, he recognized the black hair and the Japanese school uniform. He took a breath and tapped her on the shoulder, and when she turned Terry found himself looking at… Jayme!

“I don’t understand” he stammered “You were Ruk1a_rule5 this whole time?”

“Yes” she smiled.

“But why?” he said still confused.

“Because” she giggled “I have a secret. I’m a geek too!”

Suddenly Terry didn’t feel so nervous. Taking her hand he asked “OK, what do you want to see first?”