Cherish could not believe what she had just heard. Blinking, she stared blankly at her sister's grinning face, wishing for an alarm clock to go off, so this could all be a strange, strange dream. She could barely fathom that she was standing up on the stage in front of the entire school. Beside him, no less! Seven looked so out of place up there, awkwardly shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

Cherish folded her arms over her chest stubbornly, refusing to return Ari's smile. She barely listened as Ari babbled on, content instead to glare angrily at her deluded sister. It dawned on her after a minute that her dear twin was prattling on about last year's Harvest Dance King and Queen. She wanted to believe that her sister would not say what she said next, but it was not so!

"Everyone's always complaining that the nominees are just determined by popularity, so this year we let the the I-match results chose, so everyone got a fair chance to run. So, these are your nominees for James Chelten Meyers' Masquerade Ball King and Queen 2016!"

"Dear God no!" Cherish groaned a little too loudly, apparent by the snickers that erupted from the first few rows.

Seven glanced at her, irritation on his features; he too had guessed where this was going. "You're no picnic either, dearest," his words were sickly sweet, heavily tinged with sarcasm, and much too loud as he grabbed her hand. "But, that's why you're perfect for me!"

Try as she might she was unable to pull her hand free of his.

"As nominees for King and Queen, they will be doing their best to earn your votes by attending all Spirit Week events, including the Ball, together!"

-.-

"Well, hello there, Queenie!"

Cherish groaned as Juss bowed at her as she passed the guys to sit at the far end of the veranda.

"Ow, fuck!" Juss cried out.

"S'not funny!" Seven growled.

Ian hadn't said anything yet, which Cherish found curious, and she glanced over at him. He was grinning, altogether too stupidly and she assumed it had to do with the piece of paper he was unfolding and folding repeatedly. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she called out to him, "Hey, Ian! What's that?"

He looked up suddenly, blushing a fierce shade of red as he quickly refolded it, "Oh! Hi, Cherry!"

Noticing he hadn't answered her question, she scooted closer to the boys, "What're you reading?"

"Nothin'." He replied too quickly, and before he could stuff the paper into his pocket, Cherish plucked it from his fingers. He tried to grab it back from her, but she managed to hold him back, her foot against his chest, as Seven had done to her a few days ago. Balanced precariously on one foot, she carefully unfolded the paper and wasn't surprised to see it was his I-match results.

Number one was some girl named Tracy Severin and Cherish by-passed her name without a thought; she didn't matter. Number two was the one she was looking for; Delia Higashimore. With a slight grin, she hummed, and refolding the paper she tucked it into the pocket on the front of his shirt.

Juss began cackling and he nudged Seven in the side, "Ian's number one is Tracy!"

Seven who had looked very disgruntled prior to those words, now guffawed, unwittingly showing Cherish the half masticated contents of his mouth. Ian, however looked thoroughly pissed off. Cherish frowned; whoever this poor Tracy girl was, she was sure she did not deserve to be laughed at so rudely.

She knew Seven and Juss were idiots, she just never thought them so unabashedly cruel. Even Ian who was normally agreeable to everyone seemed to find the prospect of Tracy hideous. Before Cherish could open her mouth to ask what was wrong with this girl, Ari cautiously poked her head around the corner.

"What do you want?" Cherish demanded with a touch of hostility.

Ari looked slightly unsure of how to respond, but she stepped around the corner. "You're needed in the caf," she glanced at Seven. "Both of you."

For his part, Seven did a great job of ignoring Ari's presence. Cherish however glared at her sister, "What makes you think I'm coming?"

"Look, apparently you two hate each other and I am, like, the last person alive to know. But, for hating each other so much, you guys spend a lot of time together."

Seven stared up at her, a look that would make milk curdle, then returned to his lunch.

"Oh, come on! Just this once, after today no one will vote for you anyways, and you can just drop out!"

Cherish set her mouth in a thin line; did her sister think her so stupid that she couldn't see through that lie? With a shake of her head she walked away, only to have Ari grab her wrist and pull her back. "Please, Rish?"

"Uh... Mmm... I think... maybe... No!"

Ari grabbed Seven's hand now, bringing it up to meet Cherish's; for a scrawny waif of a girl, she was strong!

"It's not going to kill you guys! Come on, Seven you show up every year!"

"Yeah, to make fun of the people stupid enough to do that shit," he grumbled. While Ari was occupied with his answer, Cherish pried her wrist free.

"I can't believe you, Ari," she muttered making another attempt to leave. But, Ari was fast and for a second time, she pulled Cherish back. Only this time there was a loud telltale click.

"What the?!"

Ari grinned, "Be in the caf in ten minutes."

"You can't just-" Cherish gaped at her sister. "Ari! You can't do this!"

Ari was not listening, however, she was too busy disappearing around the side of the building.

"Ari! Arida, you-" as Cherish angrily stormed after her sister, she succeeded in taking only three steps. Three purpose filled steps before the cool, slick metal of the handcuffs bit into her skin and snapped her back. She fell hard on the floor in front of Seven, "Bitch!" she yelled, lying back in defeat. There was no noise for some time, everyone too stunned to say anything.

As always, it was Juss who eventually broke the uncomfortable silence, nodding his head at Cherish, "Sev, you might wanna watch you arm, Man!"

From where she lay on the floor, Cherish was examining Seven's wrist as if pondering how important his right hand was to him. Raising an eyebrow, she pulled her hand up, watching as Seven's hand followed it, encased by the silver band of the handcuffs. "You don't really need this, do you?"

As if finally realising the severity of being chained to Cherish, he growled, standing abruptly, and in doing so yanked her up with him. Without a word, and before she had a chance to gain her balance, he stalked into the school roughly dragging her behind him. From time to time, he would sharply twitch his arm forward so she wouldn't lag too far behind. As he burst into the cafeteria, Cherish stumbling awkwardly after him, people began applauding.

"Oh, good! You're here!" Ari beamed as she pushed them up onto a platform of tables with the other two couples.

"Ari. Seriously-" she began to say, but was cut off.

"I'll undo them after."

Closing her eyes, Cherish cursed the day anyone saw fit to give Ari an amplifier and an audience.

"The name of the game is How Well Do You Know Me?! We ask the couples questions about each other and they answer on the cards provided. All the couples have had a chance to get to know each other. The couple with the most correctly answered questions wins!"

At the end of the table, Camille looked at Ari in shock; only Brooklyn and Michael were a real couple and stood any chance at winning! "Don't worry, these questions are actually really easy for anyone to answer. Any of you could win!"

Seven meanwhile, was trying to get Ari's attention; Cherish had accepted that this was happening and sat back to watch. Her only consolation was the fact that she had a reputation for being both friendless and a bitch so most people would only take the other two couples seriously. "Ari," Seven snarled. When Ari finally looked at him, he flung out his right arm, indicating the cuffs with the other, "I'm not fucking doing this."

Unfortunately for him, he didn't say it nearly loudly enough and she winked at him, "You can go pee later, Sunshine!"

Ian who now sat front and center, cackled hysterically, ignoring Seven's death glare. He continued to laugh as Ari positioned them all so they couldn't see each others answers, back to back.

"Okay couples! Get ready! Go!"

Each person had a sheet of questions laid out before them, a marker and a pile of cards to write the answers on. She heard Michael scoff after a minute, putting his marker down with a loud thump as if he could answer questions about Brooklyn in his sleep. Cherish looked over in time to see him sneer as he shook his head at Seven. She found it odd that it was this that made Seven pick up his marker and scribble on his cards. She winced in discomfort as her arm was pulled backwards and dragged around as he wrote. As easy as that; he was 'fucking doing this'!

Brooklyn's face read, "You'd better let me win this, loser!" as she stared Cherish down. Smiling, to benefit Brooklyn, she slowly picked up her marker and took her time neatly writing out her answers. Gathering her cards together, she tapped them on the table to align them and then shuffled her chair so she was sitting beside Seven.

"Okay- time for the fun part!" Ari beamed.

She supposed it was kind of amusing, watching the reactions of the other couples as they got answers right or wrong. Most of all she loved watching Brooklyn and Michael getting things, that as a couple they should have known, wrong. Like eye colours. She was more than surprised at what she and Seven had managed to get right. Like eye colours.

And somehow when all the points had been tallied, Ari proclaimed, all too excited, "Seven and Cherish win!"

Cherish did not understand how they'd managed it. Seven's shock was short lived and he cleared his throat, grabbing Ari as she skipped by.

"OMG!" she squealed, "Who knew you knew all that, huh?"

"Yeah, whatever," Seven muttered. "Can you undo this now?"

Ari stopped, dipping her head as she dug into her pocket. When she peered out at them from under her bangs, Cherish felt her heart drop. "Oh no! I can't find the key!

-.-

Of all the confoundedly stupid things that girl could have done, it was this! Of all the words that could have fallen out of Ari's mouth! Cherish had actually screamed! Then, doing the most logical and mature thing she could think of, she shoved Ari to the ground before stalking out of the cafeteria. As she thought of it, she wished she had had the presence of mind to at least check Ari's pockets herself. Either that or pull her hair.

As she sat in her car, pondering the situation, she could feel Seven banging his head on her door. In her anger, she had slipped into the driver's seat through the open window, too upset to fumble for her keys. As a result Seven was left sitting outside her car, his arm held up uncomfortably while hers rested on the window sill. She sneered, served him right for dragging her around earlier. Sticking her head out the window, she watched him; his eyes were closed and he was muttering unintelligibly under his breath as he steadily thumped his head on her door.

Frowning, she realised he would leave a dent in her perfectly polished shiny baby. Taking a hold of the window sill, she propelled herself up and out of her car. "Should've thought that through better," she mumbled to herself as she landed awkwardly on top of Seven. Her left arm stuck up at an odd angle, Seven's right arm pinned beneath her. They had both reacted too late to stop her from crashing down on him, and now she lay face down on his lap.

"You think?" his reply was bitter as he lifted his arm, rolling her off him. People were stopping to watch them, grinning and giggling and snapping pictures.

"Ow," she muttered, finally letting the impact of her landing hit her. "I hate you, Ari."

"Yeah, because it's her fault you're an idiot who jumps through windows instead of using doors like normal people."

"No, but it's her fault I landed on you!"

Scoffing, Seven stood, this time slowly enough to allow Cherish time to react, "Are you done being a drama queen, or should I get comfortable again?"

There were a snickers from the gathered students, few of them whispering loudly that this year's King and Queen nominees being way better than any other year. He could have sworn he heard a kid say that watching them was more entertaining than watching what was on T.V. lately.

"Only you would comfortable beating your brains out on the side of a car!" she spat out at him.

He let his lips slide into a lazy smirk; she walked into it, she did. "That is comfortable when I'm around you, Baby."

"Right," Cherish mumbled. "Asshat."

"Sorry," Seven said loudly, as they shoved their way between a few staring students, "didn't hear you, Cherry."

She rolled her eyes at his use of her nickname, dragged out mockingly as it rolled off his lips. "ASSHAT!" she clarified and was promptly smacked into a pillar. She didn't even have time to properly register her surprise because he didn't stop moving, continuing to smack her into random things as he passed them by. "Argh! You complete fucking jerk!" she yelled at his back as he chuckled sadistically.

Someone nearby laughed, "They're gonna kill each other before this week is over!"

Another person replied, "I know! I'm so voting for them!"

She was rammed into said person with such force that she stumbled, catching her balance only because Seven stopped for a mere second to avoid hitting a door himself. But as they approached another door, Cherish had gathered herself enough to avoid things as they came rushing at her.

Before Seven had time to push open the door, Cherish grinned and slammed herself into his body, hoping the impact would at least daze him. If she had been paying attention, she would have realised it was the two way swinging door that led to the basement in which both their lockers were located.

Oh. Fuck. No.

"Fucking hell, Cherish, you Bitch!" Seven bellowed as he pitched forward, the both of them crashing down the stairs and taking several others with them. Cherish somehow found herself at the bottom of a pile of students.

"Seven," she ground out, "you better run, because I am going to find a chainsaw and hack your arm off!"

There were a bunch of ominous "ooohs" from the other students who were busy separating themselves from the mess. Someone offered her a hand and she took it, slowly lifting herself off the floor. In seconds she found herself thwacked against the wall, her feet just out of reach of the floor while she stared in surprise into Seven's uncomfortably close face.

"I don't even need a chainsaw to rip your arm off!" his voice was dark and she forced a simpering smile to show she wasn't afraid.

Title song by Janis Martin

Let me know what you think.  If there's anything that needs fixing, or doesn't make sense.  If there's too much information.  I'd like to hear from you ^-^