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“Clyde!”
“Can’t talk now!”
Rani jumped the last step and rushed into the attic. Clyde was huddled in the corner, messing about with something. Sarah Jane was nowhere in sight, but Rani could see Mr Smith out and about and humming to himself - and probably keeping an eye on Clyde. Well, someone had to.
“But we’re supposed to go to dinner, remember?”
“I know, but I gotta take the penguin for a walk!”
“Gotta take - penguin?!”
Clyde finally got up, and now Rani could see what he was doing. He was, indeed, fixing a leash on a... penguin.
“Clyde Langer, why do you have a penguin on a leash?”
“Sarah Jane asked me to take it for a walk!”
Rani stopped for a moment and considered that statement. It was, in a way, an answer to the question she asked. “Okay, why do you have a penguin?” she tried again.
“It’s not really a penguin. It’s an alien.”
“It looks like a penguin.”
“That’s what Sarah Jane said,” Clyde said and gently pulled the penguin/alien towards the door. Rani followed him, undeterred, down the stairs, out through the door, and into the street.
“And we’re just supposed to walk it. All around Bannerman Road?”
“Well, I am, you’re welcome to come along,” he muttered and took the penguin round the corner. The old lady from Number 22 stared at them in confusion for a moment, then shrugged and walked on. By now, Rani realised, they could probably walk an alien-looking alien down the street and no one would as much as bat an eyelid.
Rani turned her full attention back to Clyde, who had started walking faster. But he wasn’t avoiding any old ladies. No - what he was avoiding was Rani.
“Clyde!” she said sternly. “You promised. I already told my parents I’m bringing my boyfriend for dinner and everything, I can’t show up alone, my dad will think I was lying to avoid getting set up with that bloke and my mum will not shut up.”
“But your dad hates me,” Clyde said.
“He doesn’t hate you, he just...” Rani struggled for a word that did not sound like hate. Like dislike. Or disapprove. In the end, she settled for, “He simply thinks you’re not living up to your full potential!”
“In other words, he hates me.”
“He’ll learn to love you. Trust me.”
She gave him a Look. Clyde tried to outstare her, but he never had a chance. “Oh, all right,” he said in the end. “Fine.”
“Good. Now we just need to put that penguin - ”
“ - Alien - ”
“ - Penguin-slash-alien back, and get you dressed.”
“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” Clyde protested.
Rani just rolled her eyes.
Fifteen minutes later, the penguin-slash-alien was back in the attic, and Rani and Clyde were in the Langer house. Rani was sitting on Clyde’s bed and going through his sketchbook while Clyde was putting on something - hopefully - decent. Her boyfriend had way too much unwarranted confidence in his fashion sense, Rani thought, but of course, said nothing. The last thing she needed was to give Clyde an excuse to stand her up, and after all, how bad could it possibly -
“You’re not wearing that, are you?!” She couldn’t quite leave the horror out of her voice.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“It’s a dinner at my parents’ house, it’s not a wedding!”
“I look smart in this suit!” he protested.
“You look like a penguin.”
Rani rolled her eyes and went to the wardrobe, out of which she pulled a decent shirt and a pair of trousers and threw them at Clyde. “There. Go change again.”
He looked at the clothes in doubt. “Are you sure?” he asked. “These look so... ordinary.”
“It’s an ordinary dinner! Come on, we’ll be late.”
“Okay, okay,” he returned to the bathroom, and she returned to the sketches.
Five minutes later, she heard his voice. “Don’t look at these,” he said, sounding even more anxious than he did when he asked her on that first date.
“Well, too late,” she closed the sketchbook. “Besides, they’re really good.” She couldn’t help but laugh when she saw how proud he looked. “And you look really good too. Come on, let’s go.”
The walk from Clyde’s house to hers had never been very long, but it was the first time they walked it in silence. For the first time since she had insisted she wanted to tell her parents that they were dating, she started wondering what would her dad say when he found out her boyfriend was Clyde. She told Clyde she wasn’t worried, of course, but in the end, if she wasn’t, why hadn’t she told her parents the truth yet?
Her dad didn’t hate Clyde, that was the truth, but it was also true that... well, he wasn’t going to be happy about this. She sneaked a sideways glance at Clyde, who looked like he was about to throw up.
“Anyway,” she said in a decidedly light tone, “you’ll always have the penguin to run to if things turn out really bad.”
“You think you could introduce the penguin as your boyfriend?” he asked, sounding only half joking.
“I’m not sure what would be worse,” she answered. “Saying my boyfriend is a penguin, or saying it’s an alien.”
Clyde never answered - they reached her house. “Well, here goes nothing,” she said and walked to the door. For a moment, she stood in front of the closed door - then went back to the gate, took Clyde’s hand, and dragged him forward to the door with her. “Ahem,” she said pointedly.
“Right.”
They walked inside.
Rani closed her eyes in horror the second they did. Her mother took - well, it looked like her mother took each and every flower from the shop and put it inside their living room. And there were candles. Candles!
“Mum,” she said, exasperated, “what are you doing?”
“Oh, I just decorated a bit, my lovely, I hope you don’t mind! I’m sure your boyfriend would love this! Look at these flowers, I just got them, only yesterday, and I said, well, I said, they’re so pretty, aren’t they! I had to bring them home, and what better occasion than this, and - oh, is this him?!” her mother had just noticed there was someone else there with them.
“Is this you, my dear? Oh,” she said once she recognised Clyde. “It’s you, Clyde, my lovely, but, Rani...” Gita was looking for a moment from Rani to Clyde, completely puzzled.
In the meantime, Rani’s father must have heard something was going on, because he walked into the living room, all excited - and then his gaze fell on Clyde. “Rani, weren’t you supposed to bring this new boyfriend of yours to dinner?”
“Yeah,” Rani and Clyde look at each other.
“Well, I don’t think it’s the best idea to have Clyde around here as well.”
“But, you see - ”
“After all - no offence, Clyde, but it is our first dinner with Rani’s boyfriend - ”
“Dad - ”
“And we don’t want you to feel like a fifth wheel or something, do we?”
“Dad - ”
“And it could be a bit uncomfortable for Rani as well, don’t you think?”
Rani had given up trying to stop the flow of her father’s words, and just exchanged another look with Clyde.
“So!” Haresh continued. “When is he coming? I’m starving.”
“Well, we could start eating now,” Rani said, rather pointedly, she thought.
“Oh,” her mother said.
“But, Rani, we’re supposed to wait for your boyfriend,” her father said sternly.
Well, at least one of them got it.
“And Clyde really should leave.”
“Dad - ”
“Haresh, I think - ”
“No, it’s okay, I’ll go and fetch him,” Clyde said all of a sudden, and a wicked smile appeared on his face. You wouldn’t! Rani mouthed at him, but Clyde, all smug smiles, walked out the door.
He wouldn’t, Rani tried to calm herself down as she watched him go - directly to Sarah Jane’s house. He wouldn’t, Rani tried to convince herself as they sat down at the table, her mother’s expression even more puzzled than before, her father looking slightly nervous. He wouldn’t, Rani gave it one last try when the door opened, and in came -
He did. Into the room walked Clyde, accompanied by the penguin-slash-alien. She closed her eyes in horror.
“I am going to kill you,” she hissed at Clyde, who just smiled innocently.
“What’s this?” her father said, while her mother started chattering excitedly about penguins.
“Well, I thought Rani’s boyfriend should bring something exciting to dinner, and since I don’t have any wine or anything, I brought - a penguin.”
“It is so adorable! Where did you find it? You didn’t steal it from a zoo, did you?” her mother was going on and on.
Her father, on the other hand, looked as if he had choked on something - which, of course, could not have been the case, seeing as they hadn’t even eaten anything yet.
“Hello, Mr Chandra,” Clyde said with a huge smile. “I’m Clyde, I’m Rani’s boyfriend.”
Her father made a gurgling sound.
After that, there was very little talking. Rani tried to pretend it was because of the excellent food. No one was buying it, and least of all Rani, but it was something to tell herself to feel less mortified. Forty-five minutes later, and Rani and Clyde were walking the penguin - or alien - back to the attic.
“Well, that went rather well,” Rani said with fake cheerfulness.
“Yeah, I really think your dad warmed up to the idea of having a penguin dating his daughter.”
“Or an alien!”
“Or an alien...”
“He’ll come round,” she said eventually. “You know him.”
“Yeah.” Through the door, up the stairs, and into the attic. Mr Smith was still calculating how to send the penguin back home, so Clyde just put him in his little basket. When he looked back at Rani, though, there was a smile on his face.
“What?”
“I just thought - d’you think we could convince Sarah Jane to keep the penguin until we tell Luke?”