Luckily, Josh seemed to understand, since he was swamped with most of the same work I was. But I wasn’t so sure about my old friend Nicole. It felt like we hadn’t talked in ages, and texting her a quick “Hey” once in a while just wasn’t cutting it for me – or for her, as I was pretty sure. Especially because she was going through all that trouble with Danny and Matt. I felt like such a horrible friend for not keeping up to date – heck, I had no idea if there had been any new developments in that conflict lately.

If there was one good thing about this whole situation, it was that school was finally out. I had two goals for the summer: to maintain my relationship with Josh and to rekindle the one with Nic. I hoped my friend would forgive me for getting so caught up in the hustle and bustle of my own life and consequently, forgetting all about hers.

On the other hand, my week had been an endless void of torture. I was trying to take Maya’s advice and just forget about Danny. That’s pretty hard to do though since I have three classes with Kendra and Danny together. In class, they do not stop talking. If he wants to hang out with Kendra, fine, but why must he rub it in my face all the time???

I stuffed my books in my locker angrily as these thoughts poured into my head. Right when I was about to leave for lunch, someone who I never imagined coming up to me at my locker surprised me.

“Hey Nic, it’s been a while,” Matt playfully said as he leaned up against the locker next to mine like all those cliche cool boys do in the movies. For a second things were silent because I was too shocked to speak.

“Yes, there’s a reason for that. I try to avoid conversing with guys that punch my boyfriend,” I shot back at him as I crossed my arms.

“Look, I’m sorry about that. He hasn’t really seemed like a great boyfriend this week though, if you don’t mind me saying,” he argued. The tone of Matt’s voice scared me. I could tell there was some kind of angle he was working from.

“We are having some disagreements right now but all couples do,” I told him. I hoped I sounded convincing despite how I felt.

“Whatever, I’m just going to cut to the chase here. Danny is in to Kendra, everyone can see that. Why she’s into that no good loser, I have no idea. Point is, I want Kendra and you want Danny. If the two of us start acting like they do together, we’ll get what we want,” he explained to me. I hated how awful and mean this sounded but I wasn’t an idiot. I knew that this plan had a serious possibility of working. I know that Danny isn’t the jerk that he’s acting like right now, Kendra just has this weird influence over him.

When I was quiet for too long, Matt added, “And if anything, I know it will work on your end of things. Yeah, Kendra does hate you but Danny hates me 5,000 times more. If he sees the two of us together, he won’t be able to stand it for 2 minutes.”

I knew he was right. Even though I would be helping Matt and Kendra who are absolutely despicable, I would be showing Danny the light at the same time. I nodded my head as Matt gave me a strange grin, put his arm around me and started steering me towards the cafeteria.

Speaking of advice, I could’ve used some myself back at the dance. Ella Simmons had already succeeded in ruining my arrival. Sensing my seething anger, Josh took me by the hand and led me into the doors of Hoffman High. I was determined not to let Ella rain on my parade for the rest of that night. So I sighed, flung my hair over my shoulder in a miniature act of defiance, and turned to Josh with a smile I hoped wasn’t too tight-lipped.

Luckily, Ella and her gang made my job a little bit easier by sticking mainly to the dance floor, while Josh and I lingered by the refreshments. He and I had both acknowledged that we hated to dance, so our game plan was to stay off the dance floor for as long as humanly possible. But inevitably, a slow song came on and Hope and Mason, who’d come to the dance together in coordinating aqua dress and tie, dragged me out with them. Josh trailed behind, offering me a small smile out of the corner of his mouth. Awkwardly, we shuffledour feet to the music, and we wwere left alone as Hope and Mason ducked behind the bleachers for an impromptu makeout session.

Josh and I both scoffed at the two lovebirds and continued our dance. Just as I was thinking how relieved I was that Ella had backed off and we’d both been able to enjoy the evening, Josh reached out, brushed a stray hair from my forehead, and leaned in for a kiss.

Kendra had put her books on the desk next to Danny’s of course but that is not where she was sitting. Oh no, she had to place herself on his lap!!! Her blonde curls bounced excitedly on her shoulders as she laughed at something Danny had said. I spotted a free desk in the front of the classroom and dropped my books down louder than I intentionally wanted to because everyone stopped talking when my books hit the floor. Our science teacher was out sick so instead we had a substitute teacher that was listening to her IPod and clearly didn’t care what we did 1st period.

“Hey Nikki, can you stop making so much racket over there, I can’t hear myself think,” Kendra snapped at me. When I looked over at Danny to see if he wanted to help his poor girlfriend, he just looked down at his shoes.

“My name is Nicole and my racket must be the reason you’re sitting on Danny’s lap because if you could think, which normally is not your strong suit by the way, you’d remember that he is my boyfriend!” I shot back at her. I was practically standing over the top of them by this point.

“What did you just say to me?” She said quietly yet fiercely as she got off Danny’s lap and stood directly in front of me. It wasn’t until now that I realized our entire science class had crowded around us to watch the big confrontation.

“I think you heard me,” I responded, still holding my ground. I noticed that standing right behind Kendra were her 3 old minions from before she transferred schools, Teresa, Shelby and Polly. If I wasn’t in the middle of a fight with Kendra, I would’ve smiled thinking about how the 3 of them really are nothing without her.

“Don’t you want to say something to her Danny?” Kendra randomly asked him with a hint of a flirt in her tone.

“Nic, I think you should go to the library or something for the rest of the period. All you’re doing here is causing more problems than you’re solving,” Danny weakly told me, not looking me in the eye once. I stormed out of the room as fast as I could. As soon as I got out of the room, I grabbed my phone and sent an angry text to Maya. This just got serious.

“Kendras bak, I cant blieve this. she says its so danny can help her with her singng more. ugh i hate her so mch”

I grimaced; my friend had been so beside herself that she’d even inserted multiple typos. I couldn’t say I blamed her, though. I knew what it was like to deal with girls like Kendra, and I braced myself for a run-in with Miss Ella Simmons herself. As I’d discovered, that was the only downside of going to the dance with Josh – I’d have to hang out with her and her little wannabe posse.

I was feeling pretty down about the whole dance thing because of Ella, but I figured at the very least Josh’s presence could sweeten the deal a bit.

So when the day of the Freshman Formal finally rolled around, I was feeling more than a bit nervous. Josh and I had made arrangements to ride to the dance together, so that part was fine. But as I stepped out of Josh’s mom’s Toyota, I couldn’t help but get butterflies in my stomach.

Why? Because I immediately spotted Queen Bee herself, draped all over that awful Drew Dunn. In a pink ballgown, Ella was way overdressed – after all, the dress code was “semi-formal” – and looked like either an obnoxious fairy princess or, with her bouffant hairdo, a luscious piece of cotton candy. As she gave me a cutesy little wave, beauty-pageant style, I was leaning more towards the obnoxious fairy princess. All she needed to complete the look was a tiara.

The Monday after Danny had performed, we still weren’t talking. I was seriously starting to get worried about our relationship but I was still very mad about him not telling me that he had been helping Kendra, of all people.

And then, as I was walking to my locker, I literally felt my heart sink so deep into my chest, I thought I was going to die because I saw Danny’s new talent putting her books into her old locker as if she had never switched schools.

There was no way I was letting this slide. I marched right over to her and fearlessly asked, “What are you doing here? You don’t even go to this school anymore!”

“Oh, I do now, Princess. Let me explain myself. Ever since my performance, I’ve realized how much I really do love singing, it’s what I want to do when I grow up. Danny has been so helpful and I thought if we went to the same school again, he could help me even more. My parents absolutely adored the idea, so here I am,” she said as she flipped a perfect blonde curl behind her shoulder. I was so mad, there was basically smoke coming out of my ears.

The bell rung but I was so dumbstruck, I couldn’t even move. With a gigantic smirk on her face, Kendra managed to add before she left, “See you in science. I’ll probably just talk to Danny though.”

I was so happy that Maya and I had arranged a Skype session. I was so excited to learn what had happened between Josh and Maya with the whole dance thing.
I was sitting at my desk when I heard the familiar chime of the Skype call from my computer. I anxiously clicked the “Answer” button.
“Hey Nicole, what’s up?” Maya asked almost immediately after I accepted the call.
“Hey girl, nothing much, Danny and I haven’t talked since our fight,” I explained as I looked down at my feet uncomfortably. I tried not to think about the “lovers quarrel” as Maya called it, too often, but it was hard to get my mind off of it.

“Sorry to hear that,” Maya said sympathetically. “I know he’ll come around. He has to.”

“I dunno…” I starts, trailing off. “So, what’s your big news?”

Maya took a deep breath. ”I feel weird talking about this while you’re having issues with Danny,” she began. But I must’ve sensed her hesitation; I egged me on, urging my friend to spill the beans.

 “Josh asked me to the dance.”

I perked up right away, blabbering on about how happy I was for Maya. Maya grinned at me, happy to see my bleak mood lifted.

“What happened?” “Where were you?” “What were you wearing?” “What time was it?” I anxiously ask.

“Slow down!” Maya cried. “It was simple. Just a question he asked me, really casual. Just they way I wanted it.”

I hoped Nicole would be able to get on Skype tonight; I needed a status update on the Danny situation. Plus, a lot had been happening in my little corner of the universe that I desparately wanted to clue her in on…

I couldn’t help replaying the whole night in my head. After Kendra sang an amazing rendition of Valerie by Amy Winehouse, I grabbed Danny aside since the show was over and I didn’t want him to go and start talking to people because what I had to say was going to take some time.

“Why didn’t you tell me she was going to be in this?” I inquired him as I led him into a hallway adjacent from the stage area.

“Who, Kendra?” He asked, trying to fake himself out as being clueless.

“No, Taylor Swift, of course Kendra!” I irritatedly shouted. I was amazed how I was able to keep my sarcasm alive even in times like this.

“I didn’t think it was such a big deal, I mean, she’s just another performer, isn’t she?” he innocently asked me.

“Not when you had been coaching her for this very concert!” I fought back defiantly.

“Okay Nicole, look, I know you don’t like her, but you have to admit, she has a lot of talent and she had never really performed before, so I was just helping her out a little bit.”

“Aren’t you the one who told me that she couldn’t be trusted when I was trying to help her out with Matt? Why are the rules different for you, huh?” I asked as I felt myself starting to choke up.

“Nic, you’re just being stupid and overreacting,” he snapped back. Right after he said that, there was a moment of silence between the two of us, probably because of the mutual shock that we both shared in that moment due to what he had just said.

“Stupid? You’re calling me stupid?? This coming from the guy who helped out his girlfriend’s enemy. I wouldn’t exactly call that an Albert Einstein move!” I insulted him without thinking.

“You know what?” he said this with an exhausted look on his face which actually kind of scared me. “Tell Brandon and Olivia that I’ll just walk home. I think the two of us need a break,” Danny declared as he turned on his heel and headed towards the back door.

“Danny!” I yelled right as the door slammed shut and right as the tears started streaming down my face.

The next day, I heard over the morning announcements that there was to be a spring dance the next week. I wondered whether or not Josh would want to go: as for myself, I was a bit hesitant after what had happened the last time I tried going to one of those. Part of me wished Josh wasn’t a dance-y type of guy - after all, he didn’t strike me as one – and part of me, in a weird sort of way, wanted to go so that I could redeem myself, as it were. I decided my official battle strategy would be to not make mention of the dreaded dance to Josh or anyone else, and leave it all up to him.