Layla and her friends arrived at the dance “fashionably late” because Honey had a minor melt down about her costume. But nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a couple a pep talks from Lexi. No wonder she was a cheerleader.
Lexi and Honey went straight to the dance floor so Layla followed their lead. They danced for a long time, with people Layla didn’t recognize joining them. Lexi seemed to know everybody though and hugged everyone she saw.
After a while Layla’s feet hurt so she excused herself from the dance floor and went to find a seat. Unknowingly she accidentally sat next to Thomas.
“Hey,” he said.
“Oh,” Layla said, “hi”
“You look crazy,” Thomas said.
“I’m a zombie,” Layla said, “duh. I want to eat your brains, that makes me sort of crazy.”
“Yeah?” Thomas laughed, “well my brains won’t be very helpful, I’m almost failing science.”
Layla laughed, “so what have you been up to?”
“School,” Thomas said, “haven’t found myself anything else to do. I’m a photographer for the school newspaper.”
“Cool,” Layla said. “I didn’t know you took pictures.”
“Well, you talked with me for about fifteen minutes,” Thomas said, “I’ll let that one slide.”
This guy’s sort of funny, Layla thought. Why exactly was she not hanging out with him? Oh yeah because he’s been ignoring her.
“What have you been up to with your friends,” Thomas said. Layla frowned, he said friends like it was a joke.
“Hanging out,” Layla said, “they’re really fun. You wouldn’t know since you jumped ship as soon as I met them.”
“Sorry ‘bout that,” Thomas said, looking sincere, “I don’t have good experiences with the Populars.”
“But they’re not Popular,” Layla said. Sure Lexi knew everyone in school, but that’s because she was a cheerleader last year.
Thomas shrugged, “maybe, but they want to be. Why else would they sit there?”
“It might just be their table,” Layla said, but she knew she was wrong. Lexi had just mentioned how their costume would be sure to get them some attention from the Populars.
“Yeah right,” Thomas said.
“Layla!” Honey said stumbling towards her.
“My feet are gonna fall off,” Lexi said right behind her. They collapsed next to Layla and took their shoes off.
“No way am I walking on this icky floor bare foot though,” Honey said, holding her feet up.
“You still have you tights,” Lexi said.
“Tight’s don’t count,” Honey said.
“Thomas?” Lexi said, finally noticing him.
“Are you guys friends again?” Honey asked.
Thomas shrugged, “I gotta go. See you later, Layla.”
“‘See you later, Layla,’” Honey and Lexi repeated at the same time when he was out of hearing range.
“He likes you,” Lexi said, poking Layla on the arm.
Layla blushed, maybe they were friends. Maybe he wasn’t ignoring her. Whatever it was, he wanted to see her again so that was good sign. But why did Layla care so much, it wasn’t like she actually knew or cared about him.
“You guys should totally dance together,” Honey said.
“Go, before it’s too late,” Lexi pushed Layla, causing her to almost fall.
Layla sighed, there’s no use trying to argue with them so she walked towards where she saw Thomas go. It hurt with every step she took, why had she let them talk her into heels?
“HI,” Layla said when she found him at the snack table.
“OH, hey,” Thomas said, “ditched your friends for me? How sweet.”
“Actually they told me to come and ask you to dance,” Layla said.
“Oh?” Thomas said, “Well then, I’m waiting,”
“I’m not gonna ask you to dance,” Layla said, “I don’t do everything they tell me to do.”
“You came over here,” Thomas said.
“Because there is no arguing with those two,” Layla said.
“Well, why not dance then?” Thomas asked.
“Are you asking me to dance?” Layla asked.
“I think I am,” Thomas said.
“Then why not?” Layla said.
So they went out to the dance floor and danced. Layla noticed Lexi and Honey pointing to them and giving her a thumbs up. Layla laughed and rolled her eyes, pointing them out to Thomas. He just shook his head, laughing.
After a while Lexi and Honey came to join them and Thomas mysteriously disappeared but Layla didn’t really care. He didn’t have to like her friends.
---
Purity waited in the living room with her family the night of the dance. She really didn’t want Daniel to meet her parents just yet, but they insisted on waiting with her. She tried to tell them that it wasn’t a big deal. But they said that they wanted to meet whoever she was going on a date with, even if it “wasn’t a big deal.”
So far the first impression wasn’t good, he was a good forty five minutes late.
The doorbell rung and Purity jumped up and ran to the door to get to it before her parents did. Daniel looked dashing in his costume, well as dashing as you can look as Frankenstein.
“Hi!” Purity said.
“You must be Daniel,” Philip said behind her.
“Yep,” Daniel said, looking nervous. Purity understood, it was only their first, sorta kinda, date.
“I’m Philip, Purity’s dad,” Philip said, offering his hand to shake. Daniel shook his hand.
“And I’m David, her other dad,” Her dad said.
“Uhm, hi,” Daniel said, shaking his hand to.
“”Let’s go, don’t wanna be late,” Purity said, although they already were.
“Okay,” Daniel said.
“See you guys later,” Purity said.
“Eleven o’clock,” Philip said.
Payton waved bye.
“Who was that other guy?” Daniel asked when they got in the car. Which was nice by the way, everyone who was old enough to drive at A.L. High had nice cars. Purity was pretty sure there wasn’t a single poor family in town.
”You mean Payton?” Purity said.
“Yeah?” Daniel said, “your twin right?”
“Yeah,” Purity said.
“He was silent,” Daniel said, “does he not like me?”
“Oh, no,” Purity said, “he’s mute. He hasn’t talked since last year.”
“Oh,” Daniel said, surely feeling awkward now.
As soon as they got to the dance Daniel ditched. At least he had the manners to tell her.
“Hey, look, I gotta go,” Daniel said when they parked the car outside of the gym. “I promised my friends I would do something with them tonight. I’ll be back by eleven to drive you home.”
Purity didn’t have anything to say, she was shocked. Why did he ask her to the dance if he was just gonna leave.
“I’m sorry, but I needed an excuse to go to the dance,” Daniel explained, “See, my parents weren’t gonna let me go, but when I told them I already asked someone they had to let me go. But I didn’t really want to go to the dance, it was just an excuse so I can go see this band that’s playing out of town.”
“Oh,” Purity said. So he didn’t really like her.
“Yeah, so can you... uhm, get out of my car?” Daniel asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Purity said, “Bye.”
“I’ll be back at ten forty.” Daniel said.
Now out of the car as Daniel drove away Purity felt like crying. She didn’t want to be at this dance, she hated Halloween. Her night was ruined. She sat down on the curb and sighed, it was cold. She couldn’t stay out here all night. The only other choice was the dance. That’s when she noticed someone else standing outside of the gym.
It was that Popular boy. Harriette’s twin brother. What was he doing out of the gym? Not inside hanging out with all of his friends. She pondered that as she passed him to go inside the dance.
Inside the dance was even worse. It was dark, with gimmicky Halloween decorations everywhere. Plus it was crowded and loud. She wandered over to the snack table and poured herself some punch. She heard some girls giggling and she was sure she was the cause. A lonely Bride of Frankenstein.
But looking back she saw that the girls were pointing to the middle of the dance floor, so she guessed it wasn’t about her. Gosh, how self centered was that thought?
“Uhm, excuse me?” someone said. It was the Populars.
“Oh, yeah,” Purity said, realising she was in front of the punch.
The petite asian one, DaeRi, rolled her eyes at her. Purity frowned, what had she done? She moved out of the way as soon as they asked, hadn’t she?
“You’re being the Bride of frankenstein, alone?” Harriette, the Queen Popular, asked. It didn’t sound like she was making fun of her, just like she was genuinely curious. So Purity decided to answer honestly.
“My date ditched me,” Purity said.
“Aw,” Harriette said, look honestly sympathetic. “Well, none of us has dates either, so it’s not like it matters.”
“Yeah,” The Indian one said. Purity thought Tamarai was her name, but she wasn’t sure. It’s not like she memorized the Popular’s names.
“Well, thanks for the pep talk,” Purity said, feeling slightly better. The Populars were talking to her. It’s not like she strived for popularity, but having the Populars notice her was good.
“You’re welcome,” Harriette said, then she turned to her friends, “Where’s Collin?”
Collin. That’s the guy outside.
“He’s outside,” Purity answered, though Harriette wasn’t really asking her.
“Really?” Harriette asked, turning back to her looking upset. “Oh god. I gotta go.”
Purity watched with Tamarai and DaeRi as Harriette rushed through to crowd to the door.
“What’s up with her?” Purity asked.
“Her and Collin’s relationship is falling apart,” DaeRi said.
“But their twins aren’t they?” Purity said.
“Yeah, their friendship is falling apart,” DaeRi said.
“It is not,” Tamarai said.
“Collin hates being Popular and Harriette lives for it,” DaeRi said, “they just don’t mesh as well as they used to.”
“I live with them,” Tamarai said, “I would notice if they weren’t meshing.”
“You don’t notice anything,” DaeRi said.
Tamarai frowned, “They’re perfectly fine.”
---
Out front Harriette found Collin sitting on the curb.
“What are you doing out here?” Harriette said.
“The dance is boring,” Collin said.
“But it’s even boring-er out here,” Harriette said.
Collin shrugged, “are you having fun?”
“Yeah,” Harriette said, “I would be having more fun if you were with me.”
“Sorry,” Collin said.
Harriette didn’t know what to do. She was borderline distressed. Collin was obviously upset and Harriette didn’t know who to fix it. She wanted everything to be okay and quite frankly she felt like crying.
She sat down next to Collin.
“What can I do to make you feel better?” she asked.
“I’m fine,” Collin said.
“You’re not, “ Harriette said, “I don’t even remember the last time I saw you really happy.”
“Harriette, I’m always happy,” Collin said, smiling at her.
That’s when Harriette couldn’t hold it anymore and just burst into tears. “But you’re not right now.”
Collin hugged her as she continued to sob, probably getting her makeup all over his shirt.
“It’s okay, I’m happy as long as you’re happy,” Collin said.
“Stop saying that,” Harriette sobbed.
A couple of people left the dance, giving them strange looks. This was gonna big a big topic of gossip on monday.
“Come on, let’s go home,” Collin said.
“We need a ride,” Harriette said, trying to calm down.
“I’ll go ask around,” Collin said.
“That’s embarrassing!,” Harriette said.
That’s when a group of girls came out, saw them, actually stopped and looked concerned.
“Are you guys okay?” the one with crazy blond hair, Collin recognized her as a cheerleader from last year.
“Uhm, yeah.” Collin said. harriette was covering her face, no doubt super embarrassed.
“Do you want a ride?” the girl with equally crazy brown hair who Collin didn’t recognize asked.
Harriette sniffed, “Okay.”
“Cool,” the brunette said. “Come on, our cars over here.”
Collin helped Harriette up, “I have to let our friends know we’re leaving.”
“Yeah,” Harriette said, “you go do that.”
Back in the dance Collin found Tamarai and DaeRi over at the snack table talking with someone he didn’t recognize.
“We’re leaving,” Collin said.
“Is mom here already?” Tamarai asked.
“Harriette doesn’t feel well so we’re getting a ride,” Collin explained.
“Oh, is she alright?” the other girl said.
“Yeah,” Collin said, “she just wants to go home.”
“We’ll wait for mom,” Tamarai said. “You guys go ahead.”
“Okay, see you later,” Collin said.
“Bye,” DaeRi said.
Outside the girls had pulled the car up and were waiting for him. He got into the the back seat with Harriette and saw that she had mostly fixed her makeup, borrowing some of the girls stuff.
“By the way, this is Lexi, Honey and Layla,” Harriette said, pointing them out respectively.
“Hi,” Collin said.
“You guys are so nice to do this for us,” Harriette said, obviously fully recovered from her breakdown now since there were other people around.
“You guys live on Victoria lane right?” Lexi asked.
“Yep,” Harriette said, “in the big yellow house. We just painted it this summer, I love the new color.”
“The Big Yellow house,” Honey laughed, “that’s what I'll call it from now on. Harriette and Collin live in the Big Yellow House.”
Harriette laughed, “that’s cute.”
It didn’t take too long to get to there house since everything in this town surrounded the schooled. when they arrived they thanked them again for the ride and then went inside.
“You guys are home early,” their mom said when they entered the kitchen.
“Had a minor meltdown,” Harriette said, “but I’m okay now, you still need to pick up Tamarai and DaeRi though. And take DaeRi back to her house, I don’t feel like a sleepover.”
“Okay,” her mom said, looking concerned, “if you need anything, you know where to find me.”
“Thanks mom,” Harriette said.
They went upstairs to Harriette room.
“I need to shower,” Harriette said, “you should too.”
“Uhm okay,” Collin said. He didn’t really want to shower, so he went to his room and changed into some pajamas and waited for Harriette. He wanted to make sure she was okay.
“I’m fine,” Harriette said when he checked on her later. “I’m tired and I want to go to sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Collin left the room and went back to his own. He didn’t feel like sleeping, everything from that night kept him awake. He didn’t ever want to see Harriette that upset ever again. He fell asleep eventually, thinking that he was just glad that this Halloween dance stuff was over.
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