“So wait, Sonya,” Jonghyun said as I entered the chorus room to put my folder there. I blinked, trying to shut away the sleep I had gained on the bus. “So what you’re saying is, that the writer is in band.”

I smiled. “The writer is the music program. I would think you would know that much.”

“So you know who the person is.”

“Yes I do.”

“Is it Alexis?”

“That’s for me to know and for you to figure out.”

“That’s what you said last night! So it is Alexis?” he called behind me as I walked out of the room.

“So, Sonya,” Elizabeth said as she found me in the lobby, “Sadie Hawkins tickets go on sale next week.”

I groaned. “Please, don’t remind me of that.”

“Sorry, kiddo, but I can’t. After all, I have to go to one of the school dances this year, and you promised me you would go with me.”

“When did you get the right to call me kiddo?”

“Ever since I was born 5 months before you.” Elizabeth smirked. “Doesn’t matter what height I am, I’m still older.”

“Touché. Anyway, I seriously don’t want to go. Our school dances .”

“You’ve been saying that since homecoming. And I didn’t get to go, even though we both promised we wouldn’t.”

I whirled around, leaning against the locker next to Emily’s as she twirled her combination. “Yeah, I guess that was my fault, but I had the worst dress ever for homecoming.” Yeah, as lovely as my sister’s dresses look, they definitely don’t look right on me. “Seriously though, the music is HORRIBLE,” I eunicated slowly, making my New Jersey accent sprawl across the words.

Which I didn’t know I had until Jeanine asked how they pronounced horrible. When I talked to my sister on the phone that evening, since she is the Queen of English, she said it the same way and laughed. “It’s what we get from living on the back doorstep of New York, honey.”

Seriously, though, who pronounces horrible as if the “horr” was part of “horror?” I get it, anything horrible probably makes you fill with horror, but it’s some much more fun to say horrible as if it was spelled “harrible”.

Go on. I’ll wait until you try saying it. It probably feels weird to you folks, but I grew up saying it that way.

“Oh, tell me about it.” Elizabeth shut her locker. “Middle school dances never had any good music.”

“At least the middle school dances had a good song out of ten most of the time. Here? Sometimes they just play beats from random songs. No words, and definitely no classic hits. It’s depressing.”

“You’re still going though,” she said, glaring at me for emphasis.

I held up my hands-well one hand, since my right hand was holding my French textbook- “Geez, I know, I’m going. What I’m saying is, if you don’t like the dance after one hour, can we go somewhere else?”

“Like where?” Elizabeth leaned on the lockers as I twirled my combination.

“Like an anti-Sadie Hawkins party. We’ll have fun. Julie is making one in the works ‘cuz she’s awesome like that.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

I slammed my locker door shut and faced Elizabeth. “Look, I can almost guarantee you that you will think Sadie’s is a waste of time after one hour. In fact, it will be so bad, any alternative will be worth it. But,” I put in, as Elizabeth opened to protest, “Remember I said that we will go only if after one hour, you’re sick of it. If you’re having fun, fine. But I seriously will doubt it.”

“Thanks for the warning,” she grumbled as we walked into the humanities department hallway.

“Come on.” I nudged her. “Julie is fun. And we’re going together, right? What’s better than a girl’s night out when we’re actually have a great time?”

Elizabeth grinned. “Don’t make me start on how you should have asked him,” she said, waving a finger, looking around to see if any of Onew’s friends were there.

I rolled my eyes. “If he has a half a brain, he would be doing the same thing as me.”