The noisy cafeteria was crowded with students chatting eagerly about the upcoming dance. At least, most of them were eager. Some students didn’t care about the dance one way or another.

“Hey, Ophelia!” AJ said, sitting beside her.

Ophelia looked up from her lunch. “Yeah? What?”

“Are you going to the dance on Friday?”

“No way. I never go to those idiotic events,” Ophelia responded, rolling her eyes.

“Maybe you should go this once,” AJ said.

“Yeah, sure,” Ophelia said dryly.


“Come on. You can go with me.”

“What about Tiffani?”

“She can’t come. Some family emergency,” AJ lied.

Ophelia rolled her eyes. “Look, screw boy, I have neither the desire to attend the dance-- with or without you-- nor the attire for it.”

“What if I found something for you to wear?”


Ophelia stood up. “You just don’t get it, do you?” she said. She walked away.

“What more can I do?” AJ cried out, following her. “I made a fool of myself in front of my friends for you. I have three weeks of detention for playing a song on the PA system, a song that I heard you liked.”

“Look, AJ,” she said. “That kind of stuff might work in movies, but it doesn’t work in real life. Give it a rest.”



Phoebe smoothed her hair, and then approached the bespectacled brown-haired boy.

“Hey, Louie,” she said cheerfully.

He smiled up at her. “Hello, Phoebe. How are things?”

“Great. Um… I was wondering…” Phoebe stammered a bit, nervous. “Uh… um… do you want to go to the dance with me?”

“Sorry, Phoebe, but I can’t,” Louie replied.

“What? Why not? You don’t have a girlfriend, so what’s the deal?” Phoebe cried out.

“I’m going with Emily.”


Phoebe scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Emily Desjardin? That nerd from the school news show?”

Louie frowned. “Emily is very sweet and fun to be around.”

Phoebe scowled. “I see how it is! You only like her because she’s on that stupid show!” she cried out accusingly. “I bet if she wasn’t on there, you wouldn’t want anything to do with her!”

“No, it’s not like that,” Louie replied.


Emily hurried over, looking concerned. “What’s going on over here, Louie?” she asked.

Phoebe slapped her. “Stay away from Louie, you phony! I see right through you!” she shrieked. “Do you think you’re better than me because you’re on that f****** show? You're no better than I am, Emily! Louie, you're making a huge mistake! You'll see!”

Louie grabbed Emily’s hand and pulled her away.

“You can run, but just wait till you’re alone, Emily!” Phoebe called out.



Tiffani watched the drama from across the room. “Wow,” she thought. “Nerd fight. You don’t see that every day.”

An attractive boy sat across from her and smiled. Tiffani eyed him. “Are you lost?” she asked.

“Not at all,” he replied. “My name’s Kenny. I’m one of AJ’s friends.”

“Yeah, so?”

“I was wondering if you’d like to go to the dance with me,” Kenny said, smiling charmingly.

“Oh, I can’t. I’m already going with AJ,” Tiffani replied. “Sorry.”

Kenny raised an eyebrow. “Is that so?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“Well, then why did I just see him flirting with Ophelia, asking her to go to the dance with him?” Kenny asked.

“What?” Tiffani cried out.


“Look, they’re talking over there!” Kenny said, pointing.

Tiffani looked over, where Ophelia and AJ were talking. It looked like AJ was flirting pretty heavily with Ophelia. She scowled to herself, her hands clenching tightly. Why was her boyfriend flirting with that freak?

“You can still go to the dance, Tiffani,” Kenny said softly. “You can go with me.”


Emotion. It is defined as agitation or disturbance of mind; vehement or excited mental state. It is also a powerful and irrational monster, and there seemed little doubt that Tiffani was, indeed its slave.

She gave Kenny a smile that slowly grew. It was an almost insane look. She looked at Kenny and said, “You’re asking me out? That’s so cute! What’s your name again?”