It had been about a week since Zach had started teaching Yuki how to ride a bike and she had made swift progress. This greatly annoyed Zach, as his progress with the karate videos was best described as ‘stunted’.

He attributed this to the fact that between the instructions, which tended to last five to ten minutes, the man who’d recorded it (on a very shaky camera nonetheless), would go out in the street for thirty minutes at least to pick fights with strangers.

In short, the movies weren’t great for Zach to learn karate, but had been excellent to teach him a lot of very colorful German cursing. Still, it was all he had, so he simply copied the man on the screen, who did win the fights with strangers generally. He simply rewound it every time the video cut to what, he assumed were, the streets of East-Berlin.

He heard a muffled giggle from the door and looked up to see Tara peek around the opening.

She quickly hid back behind the wall, which was odd. Recently, she had taken to yelling ‘jack on, jack off’ every time she saw her brother practicing. This time however she simply quietly headed into the kitchen.

With Sawyer and both their parents out, the youngest Brooks children had the house to themselves, so Tara was probably going for the phone.

Zach probably should have stopped her from wracking up the phone bill, but was too taken up in a learning move the instructor called a ‘Riesenschwanztritt’, the essence of which seemed to be kicking somebody in the family jewels.

“Und jetzt,” the German on the TV said, “Ein…”

Zach turned the video off to skip to the next lesson, which was the moment he could hear Tara’s voice coming from the kitchen. He couldn’t make out exactly what she said, but one phrase stood out like a sore thumb; ‘Fake ID’.

He stopped fast forwarding the video and let it play again, filling the living room with a lot of angry German yelling. He quietly snuck to the hallway and listened at the kitchen door.

Tara had switched to a whisper, talking about both the sleepover and a movie, though never explicitly said which one. Zach knew she’d be having a sleepover with Lucy, but wondered what sort of movie she wanted to get into.

“Okay, bye,” Tara whispered and hung up the phone. Zach bolted back to the living room, where he dropped to the floor to pretend he’d been doing push-ups.

Tara peeked into the room, making sure Zach was still there, then bolted upstairs.

Zach got to his feet, leaving the television running, and went to find the paper to see what the theaters near Lucy’s house were playing. All he could imagine coming out was that David Bowie thing he’d heard Tara about, but that wasn’t rated R…

He flicked through the papers and, to his confusion, only found a handful of horror movies. Tara could barely see a skeleton in a movie without screaming, let alone that she’d want to to commit to seeing something called ‘Murderlust’.

On the other hand, there was Lucy… Lucy had a well known taste for the gory and macabre and Tara did want her best friend to think she was cool…

Zach sighed, already imagining his sister running out of a movie theater, crying, and Lucy probably laughing at her afterwards.

He checked there were no ads for cars on the back of the page, then tore it out of the paper, rushing to his mother’s kitchen calendar to check when the sleepover was.

He took his clues and… He wasn’t sure what he’d do. He could hardly ‘happen to be’ at the movie theater. Tara would know he’d been interfering in her private business. He could however rat her out to their parents, but… Tara wouldn’t talk to him or Sawyer for at least a week.

“Not cool guys,’ he imitated her. Then suddenly it clicked.

A disguise. He could be there in disguise. A concerned movie-goer might check on her after all. Collecting his thoughts, he left the house, unsure where he was going but maybe some fresh air would help him figure it out.

Out of habit, he had wandered into the video store where he found Yuki stocking shelves. She was very deliberately ranking the comedy movies by which she thought was funniest. She was currently looking at Revenge of the Nerds with some distaste, before placing it on the bottom shelf.

“Yuki,” Zach said, “Am I glad to see you.”

“Like always?” she teased and got to her feet, “Need my help to find a movie?”

“No, I have an odd dilemma.”

She raised a brow to show she was listening and Zach to started to explain his issue with Tara.

When he was done, Yuki giggled.

“Big brother wants to protect his little sister. Cute.”

“...But do you know of a good disguise?”

“Trench coat and sunglasses.”

“I’m going to look like a pervert trying to hit on a minor…”

“Actually, Zach... How are you going to get into the movie when you are a minor?”

“I’ll wait in the lobby.”

“Mhmmm. Because that is not strange.”

Zach shrugged, “Any other suggestions?”

“Well…” Yuki said, a mischievous grin forming on her face.

“What?”

“Saki.”

“Saki?”

“Saki’s clothes!”

“The black uniform?”

“Blue,” Yuki corrected, “People will think you do not speak English and a girl comforting an other girl is not strange.”

Zach stared blankly at her, “You want me to be a transvestite?”

“Maybe,” she laughed, putting another video in the rack, “I think you would be a cute sukeban. A little makeup… A wig… you could borrow my uniform!”

“You took that along?”

“Mother thought I would need it when I go to school here. I told her, they do not wear uniforms in America, but she insists.”

Zach decided on another angle.

“Ah, but you know… I don’t have…”

He cupped his hands in front of his chest.

“So it would look weird.”

Yuki’s giggle became louder, “If that is your biggest concern with my plan… I can lend you my bra and some socks.”

She put the videos down, then felt Zach’s shoulders and hips.

“Might need a little work, but you are not Stallone or Schwarzenegger. It will fit you…”

“Did I say ‘yes’?”

“You did not say ‘no’,” she teased, then put her hands on her back and leaned in very close, “You do not want to be cool like Saki?”

Zach was trying to think of another protest, but Yuki so close to him was rather new. Her brown eyes sparkled with joyous anticipation… He didn’t have the heart to say no to her.

“Nobody would know it is you,” she said, returning to her work, “You are not a schoolgirl, right? And this way Tara does not know you spied on her.”

Zach looked away from her to rack of comedy movies. Tootsie was the number one at the moment.

“Fine, it’s not like I’m going to come up with anything better.”

Yuki clapped her hands in delight.

“Great. But who can alter the seifuku?”

“The what?”

“My uniform.”

“Oh. Well, definitely not the tailor. He talks to my mom…”

“How about, what was her name… Chelsea?”

Zach wasn’t too thrilled with that idea either. It was one thing to have your mother’s acquaintances think you were into cross dressing. …Your classmates would probably be worse. On the other hand, Chelsea was generally pretty discreet, especially since he never told anyone that she wet herself on the bus in third grade… As far as he was aware, nobody but he and her knew…

“Oh,” Yuki said, shifting him back to the present, “How are we going to get to the city?”

“We? You’re helping me?”

“I do not want to miss this…”

Zach gave her a placating smile, then thought for a moment, “I still have the money dad gave me to buy a car. New shipment should be coming to the junkyard today.”

“You buy a car from the junkyard?”

“It’s my dad’s, so I get a good price.”

“Ah…if you go tomorrow, can I come?”

“I was thinking of going now. I don’t really have anything to do…”

Yuki looked disappointed, but only for a second. A single index finger shot in the air and a bright smile played on her face, “You do have something to do!”

“Do I?”

“Wait…”

Yuki rushed to the back of the store, then returned with a single tape and a pile of loose papers taken from a binder.

“Episode one to three!” she said, pushing it into his hands, “With subtitles!”

“Oh! Neat!” he said, “Nobody’s going to be home except Tara, so I’ll go watch these now I have the chance.”

“Good. Pick me up tomorrow.”

“Ten?”

“Nine?”

“Can do!” Zach said, neatly tucking his new treasure under his arms, rushing to the door.

“Don’t forget!” Yuki called after, “Nine!”