The Troubled Youth Inc.

Chapter 12

~TUESDAY~

“So we’re going to practice your blind date before actually meeting the girl of your choice through a simulation.” I explained to Cole.

“This is Ashley.”

“You’re kidding, right? How am I supposed to take this clown seriously?” Levin glared at us.

“Too much make-up?” Ash sighed. We debated on who was going to make him look pretty but the guy insisted to do it by himself which resulted into him looking like a drag queen.

“Think of it as a simulation game. You’re good at that, right?” I tried to convince him into cooperating with us.

“Whatever.” Levin rolled his blue eyes.

“Okay, think of it as your first meeting and be polite as much as possible.” I instructed him.

“Hi, I’m Ashley. Ooh, I love what you’re wearing.” Ash said in a girly voice which made it kind of hard not to laugh inside my head.

“Gee, thanks. I like what you’re wearing too…” Levin eyed his cousin from head to toe. Ash was wearing a yellow dress of mine which was too revealing for me because of the off-shoulders. I prefer the conservative type of clothing.

“Not!” Levin faked a gag.

“This feels wrong. I can’t picture him as a girl AT ALL because of the short hair and the muscles. It feels as if I’m going on a date with some dude who is obviously pretending to be a girl.” Levin added.

“I couldn’t find any wig…” Ash tried to reason out.

“No, it’s not just about the wig! I can’t act like I’m going out with a girl because first of all, you’re a guy and second, I’m not an actor. It’s just very hard.” Levin heavily sighed.

“Would you be okay role-playing with Clemmy then?” Ash asked his difficult cousin.

“Who’s that?”

“I am.” I raised my hand up.

“We’ll see.” Levin surprisingly agreed to the idea.

“Alright, Clemmy, let’s switch places. I’m the dating coach now or should I say, ‘dating guru’?” Ash giggled for no reason.

“Fine. Hello, I’m Clementine. Nice to meet you.” I said after sitting across Levin Cole from the table that we set-up like in a restaurant setting.

“Levin.”

“Okay you two, you’re doing great! Just act natural.” Ash made a comment.

“So… why are you here?” I asked.

“My mom forced me to consider seeing real life girls.” Cole stated.

“Okay, honesty is good but too much of it can also be a huge turn off. At least sound a bit more enthusiastic when meeting your dream girl.” Ash pointed out.

“She’s not my dream girl.” Levin stared at me then scoffed which is actually pretty rude if this were a real date.

“That’s not really my point but would it help if Clemmy were to dress up as your dream girl?” Oh boy. I can see where this is heading.

“I can’t really say I have a ‘dream girl’ but I really like this character in ‘Resident Evil’, which is one of my favorite games, and she’s called Jill Valentine.” Levin sounded like a fanboy.

“Do you have a picture of her as reference?” Ash asked.

“Here. It just happens that she’s my screen saver right now.” Levin showed his phone. Oh he’s a real fanboy alright.

“Look, I did not agree to cosplay.” I said after looking at the picture of the short haired 3D character who was wearing a tank top and fingerless gloves while carrying a g*n.

“I think you’ll pull this off really well…” Ash looked intensely at the picture. Was he even listening to me? I don’t think so.

~WEDNESDAY~

“I think this is the perfect day to go visit Seth’s university since he told me he can’t make it to his session today because of a project.” I told Ash in his office.

“Coincidence? I think not! He’s obviously expecting us to come and observe him today but let’s just go anyway since we have nothing else to do. Let’s do a quick stop at the mall for some disguises.” Ash got up.

“Just so we’re clear, we’re NOT dressing up as ‘Thelma & Louise’ like you suggested because we don’t want to stand out in the first place.” I broke it down to him.

“How about Sid and Nancy?” Ash made another reckless suggestion.

“You do realize that it will make us stand out all the more, right?” My voice was dipped with sarcasm.

“You’re no fun. Okay, let’s just dress up as a couple who are checking out the university for their children.” Ash sighed.

“Or we could just dress up as normal students who actually go there. That would be more believable considering our age, don’t you think?”

“Makes sense.” The guy nodded. He has the wildest ideas.

And so we went to Seth’s medical university and tried to look for the guy in the hallways by asking random people in there.

“Hey, do you happen to know where Seth Montgomery is?” Ash asked some random girl.

“No, sorry.”

“Do you know where Seth Montgomery is?” I tried to ask a random guy wearing a lab coat.

“No but the guy usually hangs out at the library so you should probably check there. Do you go here? I think it’s my first seeing your pretty face…” The stranger smirked.

“Wow, classic pick-up line but not going to happen. She’s with me.” Ash placed an arm around my shoulder and then we went on our way.

He’s like a living ‘flirting detector’ whenever we’re together in public places.

We headed to the library without further ado and luckily for us, Seth was there. He had a pile of books on his table and looked pretty immersed in whatever that he was reading.

“Okay, this is boring. He’s not really interacting with other people so how can we observe his behavior with others?” Ash complained.

“He’s just sitting there and looking all pretty.” He added bitterly.

“I totally get that you’re crushing on the guy but you did say that there’s a no dating policy between us and the clients. Let’s just come back another day.” I teased my boss.