"So what time are you headed to Faith's tomorrow?"

They were sitting in his car in the exact same spot that they had met up the night before. She shot him a surprised look, and then shrugged. "Usually around noon. Faith likes to sleep in. Why?"

He shrugged, "I can take you over. Spence and I are going to go play basketball with Jay and Matt tomorrow."

"You are?"

"Jay mentioned it this morning."

A slow smile spread across her face, one that grew so wide, her cheeks immediately began to ache. "You guys are friends now?"

He shot her an annoyed scowl, "I wouldn't go that far. I like basketball and they were already planning to play. It's not a big deal."

But it was. The four of them weren't exactly walking around in the same circles. He was making an effort; he cared. She felt like her heart had been replaced by a dozen butterflies, she was overwhelmed. "Will you go to homecoming with me?"

He shot her a surprised look, "What?"

"Homecoming," she repeated. "I've never gone before and it's in two weeks. Will you go with me?"

His scowl returned and he leaned towards her, "Are you stupid? The guy's supposed to be the one that asks."

She only smiled brighter, "So will you ask me then?"

She watched him shift uncomfortably in his seat and wanted to kiss him. "I don't have to ask you, we're dating. Who else are you going to go with?"

Refusing to be annoyed by his response, she leaned across the center console and kissed him on the cheek. "I'm really happy that I said yes, Cooper. I'll see you tomorrow." She pulled away and was closing the car door before he seemed to have been able to recover from her words.

***

"What, are you two glued together at the hip or something? Why's he here?" Faith opened the door to her house and gave the two an annoyed look.

"Your brother invited him to play basketball. Don't be rude," Candy replied, grabbing Coop's hand and pulling him into the house with her.

"Hey," Coop nodded to the other girl, completely unconcerned with her glare.

"Jay's with the other manwhore in his room."

"You should cut Matt a break," Candy admonished, shooting Faith a disapproving frown. "He's not a bad person."

Faith rolled her eyes and started walking back towards Cyn and Hope in the living room. "Whatever."

Candy turned towards Coop with a smile. "Thanks for the ride here. Have fun." With that, she pushed up on her toes and kissed him quickly on the lips, much to both his surprise and pleasure. He wasn't sure what exactly it was that he'd done to have caused her to change her mind about PDA, but he sure as hell needed to make sure he kept it up.

Making his way up the stairs, he knocked once on Jay's bedroom door and then stepped inside. "Hey."

Jay looked up from the textbook he had sprawled out on his bed. "What's up?"

Coop moved to lean casually against the wall with a shrug. "Spence has to watch his sister, and I had nothing better to do, so..."

Shutting the textbook with a thump, Jay stood from his bed and nodded. "Yeah, Matt's going to meet us there around one thirty. You any good?"

"Baseball's more my speed, but I do okay."

"Yeah?" Jay asked with slightly more interest. "Who's your team?"

"Mets."

Jay made a sound of disgust. "Phillies, all the way."

"I knew there was a reason I didn't like you," Coop drawled.

Jay snorted at that and motioned for Coop to follow him back out of the room. "Do you wanna go now and warm up, or do you wanna hang out with your girlfriend for a bit?"

Hang out with Candy. To him, that was the only option. Unfortunately, he suspected Faith would pitch a fit if he tried to insert himself. "You want to drive or should I?"

***

"I asked him to homecoming."

Hope choked and began coughing like crazy, causing Candice to look up from the paper she'd been working on in concern, but Hope just waved a hand to indicate she was alight. Cyn and Faith were both staring at her as though they didn't recognize her. "We've never been able to drag you to a dance. Not since that one in junior high."

Candice looked back down at her paper and shrugged. "Dancing with you guys on Friday was kind of fun; I thought it might be interesting to give it another go."

"I'm going with Lincoln Hoffer," Cyn said. "And Hope, you got asked by Grady O'Connor, didn't you?"

Having finally stopped coughing, Hope nodded, though her eyes were watering still. "Yes, he's kind of cute, right?"

"Mmhmm," Cyn agreed. "What about you, Faith? Are you going?"

"Yeah, with Isaac Larson."

"What?" all three of the other girls exclaimed as one, turning their attention to Faith who was lying on the couch, scrolling through her phone nonchalantly.

"Don't act so surprised," Faith snapped. "I can get a date if I want to."

"But...you never accept dates. Much less to school functions," Cyn pointed out.

"Yeah well," Faith sat up on her elbows and shot Cyn a glare accompanied by a shrug. "I got bored. It's not a big deal."

Candice watched Faith carefully; it wasn't like she never went out with guys, but ninety-seven percent of the time, Faith found the entire male population useless and a waste of oxygen. Though Candice didn't go to the dances, she knew that the other three did, and Faith always went alone. From what she knew of Isaac, he was a soft-spoken guy in their grade. Faith would eat someone like him for breakfast.

"If we're all going, then we should go dress shopping," Hope said, grinning. "We'll go next Sunday."

"Oh! Since this is the first time we've all actually gone, do you guys want to do dinner beforehand? Lincoln and I planned to anyway, but we haven't settled on a place yet."

"That sounds fun," Hope agreed.

Faith shrugged, "Sure."

"I'll ask Cooper. We haven't made any concrete plans."

"All four of us going to homecoming," Hope giggled. "This will be fun!"

***

Faith was waiting impatiently by Isaac's locker first thing Monday morning. She watched the startled expression glide across his face and motioned him over before he could think to run away. "You can pick me up at five-thirty. We'll go to dinner first with my friends, and then we can go to the dance."

"H-homecoming?" he stammered, giving her a frightened look.

She gave him an annoyed look, "Yes, homecoming. You asked me, didn't you?"
"B-but you said no," he replied in confusion. "You said, 'There's not a chance in hell.'"

She pursed her lips and glared. "Well, I changed my mind. Homecoming, five-thirty. I'll text you my address and the restaurant information."

Faith didn't give him a chance to argue or question further; she'd accomplished what she'd come to accomplish, and now she had better things to do with her day. As she made her way through the hall, she caught sight of Matt coming from the opposite direction, some short redhead hanging onto his arm as he went. Chin up, spine stiff, she continued in his direction, having every intention of completely ignoring his existence.

"Faith! Hey Faith, wait a minute!" Isaac's excited voice carried loudly through the hall. Loud enough to draw a few curious glances. Faith clenched her jaw, but stopped and turned around to plaster a fake smile on her face as she waited for Isaac to reach her. When he did, he looked like someone who had just won the lottery, grinning from ear to ear. "Will you let me know what color your dress is so that we can match? And so I make sure your corsage doesn't clash."

She could see Matt watching her, close enough to hear their conversation, and she wanted to crawl into a hole. Instead, she kept the smile on her face and nodded. "Yep. Sure can. Thanks, Isaac." With a wave of her hand, she turned back around and hurried away from what was surely a small glimpse of her own personal hell.

***

"You two should quit smoking."

Coop and Spence both looked up at the unmistakable, disapproving voice to find Candy watching them with her school books clutched to her chest as the school door fell softly closed behind her. "Easier said than done, sweetheart," Coop replied, flicking the ash off to the side.

The term of endearment seemed to catch both of them off guard. Her eyes widened slightly before she schooled her expression, and he mentally questioned just when he'd completely lost his mind. She sighed and came down the steps, pulling the cigarettes from both of their hands and crushing them into the ground. "It's time for class."

"Aww, Candy," Spence complained, looking down at his now crushed cigarette. "That wasn't nice."

She didn't bother to reply to Spence as she nodded her head pointedly towards the door. "We should go if we want to get to class on time." Amused, Coop leaned towards her, intent on a kiss, but she leaned back and raised a brow at him, her expression also one of amusement. "You reek of nicotine, no thank you."

He laughed and fell into step beside her and she turned to walk back towards the building. "Come on Spence, let's get to class."

***

"It's like she's got him on a leash," Kendall complained, dropping into her seat at a coffee shop near school. "Wherever she goes, he trails behind. She's even got him going to class."

"I thought he'd have tossed her aside by now," Missy agreed. "What's so great about some nerdy goody-two-shoes? I don't get it."

Sera sat across from the other two attempting to appear completely indifferent to their existence, but inside she was seething. That conniving bitch had even managed to get her dragged out of Jay's party after speaking to her as though Sera was far below her. Even the threat of Ellie coming for her wasn't enough to cool her need for retaliation. They'd thought for sure they'd be able to tempt Coop away from the other girl; practically issuing a school-wide challenge to any girl to give it a shot, but so far not a single one had been able to sway his attention. It was pathetic.

"Maybe she's blackmailing him?" Missy mused, taking a bite of the muffin in front of her.

"It's Coop," Kendall replied flatly, "what secret could he possibly have that would embarrass him enough that she could use it for blackmail?"

"Well," Missy snapped with a huff, leaning back and crossing her arms like a child. "Whatever it is, we need to end it. I miss the old Coop. Nobody stands a chance with this one."

"Yeah," Kendall agreed. "Today at lunch I saw Coop shove Spence before Spence could put his arm around her. Then he glared at him and wrapped his arm around her and, like, pulled her away. He's super jealous."

Sera sat back as her mind digested this bit of information. "I think," she said softly, after a while, leaning in, to keep their conversation between the three of them, "that we've been going about this the wrong way."

"What do you mean?" Missy wanted to know, leaning in eagerly.

"Even if we got her to break up with him, he'd just keep focusing on her. He'd convince her to come back," Sera said, the beginnings of a plan taking shape. "We need him to break up with her. She needs to be the one to do something."

"Like what?" Kendall asked. "Coop isn't the type to care if a girl's making out with another guy."

"Coop also isn't the guy to date," Sera snapped with a glare. "This is different. She's managed to get under his skin."

The other two girls looked at one another thoughtfully. "So..." Missy trailed after a minute.

"We need to get her with a guy," Kendall finished.

"Her," Sera confirmed with a slow smirk as she leaned back, "or someone that looks exactly like her."

***

"Isaac, huh?"

Faith jumped in surprise at the words, banging her head hard on the top of the cabinet she had her head recently stuck in. Pulling out and rubbing the back of her head with a wince, she looked up to find Matt leaning against the island counter to her left, studying an apple with all the interest one might give a speck of dust. "What are you doing here?"

"Jay and I have a project we're working on for Lit."

Scowling, she rolled back onto her heels and stood up, holding the bag of M & M's she kept hidden behind all the Tupperware. "Well he's upstairs, so go away."

"It's not like you to go out with someone you can't stand."

"What do you know about how I feel about Isaac?" she scoffed with a roll of her eyes. "He's a perfectly nice guy."

"Yeah," Matt agreed with a nod. "He is. And he has the bite of a toothless puppy. You hate people that soft spoken and spineless."

She moved around the island counter to slide onto one of the barstools and popped open her bag. "You being friends with my brother for as long as you have, doesn't mean you know me. Why would I go to the dance with someone I hated?"

He put the apple down and leveled her with a knowing look. "To prove a point."

"God," she laughed with another roll of her eyes, "you're so conceited. You think I agreed to go out with him because you called me a cold bitch? News Flash: That's not news, Matt. I am a cold bitch. You can't hurt my feelings with the truth."

"The truth," Matt repeated, emphasizing the word as he leaned across the counter towards her, "is that I hurt your feelings and you're using that poor guy to make yourself feel better."

"Just because you've got most of the school girls falling at your feet and hanging onto your every word, doesn't mean I'm one of them," Faith drawled, keeping her expression disinterested. "For you to hurt my feelings, your opinion would have to matter. Hate to break it to you, Matty, but nothing about you matters to me. Enjoy that apple; I've got better things to do." Bag of candy still in hand, she slid off the stool and strolled out of the kitchen, relishing in the fact that she'd been able to have the last word this time. If his words had affected her, it was just annoyance; like she'd told him, anything else meant she'd have to care, and she didn't. Matt Hanson was nothing more than some moron her brother was friends with; he didn't matter.

***

The week had flown by quickly with Candice starting to become comfortable with the idea of having a boyfriend. Cooper tended to show up right next to her as often as possible, and if he didn't, she usually found herself wandering off to find him. He and Spence had both started eating lunch with her and her friends regularly. It was much easier for Spence to wriggle himself into the group as he was more sociable, but Cooper was making efforts to participate as well. Even Faith seemed to coming around to his presence, though she wasn't the warm and fuzzy type.

It was Sunday now and the girls all found themselves in the mall. They'd already been there for two hours and Faith, who had made quick work of grabbing a black halter dress that hugged her body down to midthigh, was very much done with the entire experience and made her complaints known to the other three as they flitted from shop to shop.

"What about this one?" Hope came out of the dressing room in a knee-length, green dress. It was a one-shoulder, empire dress and she looked amazing as she spun for the others to assess.

"Perfect," Cyn said with a thumbs up. She had found her dress twenty minutes before, it was blood red, just barely long enough to be school approved with a deep V going down her back.

"Looks like you're the only one left, Candy," Faith drawled, sprawled out on the floor, completely unconcerned with the fact that they were in public.

Candice bit her lip and glanced back behind them at the racks. "I saw one that I liked, but I'm not sure..."

"Why haven't you grabbed it yet?" Cyn demanded, pushing her back towards the dresses. "Go get it and try it on!"

Candice wasn't someone who normally went cloth shopping, much less dress shopping, but she reluctantly went back to the rack where she'd spotted the dress and question and brought it back to the dressing rooms, holding it out to her friends uncertainly. "What about this?"

"Try it on!" Faith ordered, pointing towards one of the rooms.

The dress fell to just above her knees and was a royal blue lace pattern with short sleeves and a fairly modest V in the front. Looking at herself in the mirror, she felt a smile come over her and she stepped out of the room to show off the results to the other three. "I like it."

"Oh!" Hope cried, clapping her hands excitedly. "You look beautiful!"

"Yeah?"

"Definitely," Faith and Cyn confirmed in unison.

"No dress in the world is going to help with looks like yours."

All four girls looked up at those words and found themselves faced with the undesirable company of Seraphina, Kendall, and Missy. Candy felt her pleasure die and her smile disappeared. "God, you'd think someone who considered herself to be the fairest of them all wouldn't have such a hard time getting over the rejection of a couple of guys," Faith drawled in a bored tone, getting to her feet.

"One might think she was having trouble finding anyone else to worship her," Cyn added with a mocking smile. "Maybe she's not as hot as she wants everyone to believe."

"Please," Kendall snapped, "Sera could get any guy she wanted."

"Maybe," Faith agreed with a nod, but then a malicious smile spread across her features and Candice knew her friend well enough to know that if they didn't leave quickly, things weren't going to end well for any of them. "But now that they've had a taste, it looks like two of the most sought-after guys aren't keen on seconds. Isn't that right, Hope?"

Hope wasn't a malicious person, and she typically stayed well out of the way of these types of things, but Candice saw the contempt flickering in Hope's blue eyes as she frowned at the three intruding girls. "It does look like someone's having some trouble with rejection."

Candice tuned out whatever followed that comment as she turned and hurried back into the dressing room, making quick work of changing back into her normal clothes. By the time she came out, Faith was leaning into Seraphina's face, murder in her eyes, as Hope attempted to intervene. "Come on," Candice said loudly, dress in hand as she too reached for Faith and pulled her away from a sure fight. "We've got what we need, and this is hardly worth it."

"Always have someone coming to the rescue, right Cindy?"

Candice paused in her attempts to push Faith along towards check out, turning to give Seraphina and her friends a look of mild annoyance. "My name is Candice. With as difficult a time as you're having with remembering something as simple as that, it's a wonder you've made it as far as you have in life." Seraphina's nostrils flared, but Candice didn't let her speak. "I'm not interested in defending myself against someone so insecure. Enjoy your afternoon."

"You're going to regret this!" Seraphina called after her angrily.

"I don't think I will," Candice replied, not turning around.

She and Hope made quick work of paying for their dresses and by the time they exited the store all four of them had disregarded the incident. "Now that the important stuff is done," Cyn said, sliding a hopeful look toward Candice, "can you help me write my paper for world history?"

Candice shot Cyn an alarmed look, "It's due tomorrow!"

Cyn shrugged sheepishly, "I only need about three more pages."

"That's the entire paper," Candice snapped. "You had a month to write it."

"I was busy."

"Well," Faith muttered, shouldering Hope, "looks like we know what the rest of our day's going to look like."

"I just don't understand how irresponsible−"

***

"Cooper, class starts in five minutes!"

"I miss you."

Candy fought a smile as she leaned back against the wall by the women's restroom where he'd managed to corner her, books clutched to her chest. "It's not even second period. You brought me to school."

"And you ran off before saying goodbye. I couldn't find you. Where'd you go?" he leaned in, hoping to capture a kiss, but she turned her head at the last second with a smile as he caught her cheek.

"I need to finish some last-minute things for my biology project."

"You don't finish anything last minute," he said, trying again and getting her other cheek, making her laugh. He loved her laugh.

"It's a group project. Jensen was having trouble with his part, so I agreed to meet him in the library to help out before class."

He frowned and pulled back a little, "Jensen who?"

Her smile broadened and after a quick scan of their surroundings, she leaned forward to give him the kiss she'd been denying him. "Duncan," she informed him. "I'll see you next period. I have to go." Without another word, she was ducking underneath his arm and heading down the hallway toward class.

Watching her hurry off, he briefly contemplated skipping out on second period and going to find out just who Jensen Duncan might be but dismissed the idea reluctantly. Candy would no doubt find out somehow and lecture him on his priorities. Annoying her had its perks, but he wasn't all that interested in being kept at arm's length for the next day and a half. With that thought in mind, he too headed for class.

***

"Hey, Candice! Wait up!"

Candice slowed her steps to look back at the sound of her name to find Jensen jogging through the hall to her. He slowed to her pace once he'd caught up with her with a slight pant and grinned at her. "Hey."

She offered him a confused smile, "Hi, was something wrong with the report?"

"What? Oh no, the report looks great. But then, you did most of it, so of course it does."

"Okay," she said, wondering what else he could need from her. Curious, she studied his profile as he walked beside her, waiting to see what it was that had brought him to her.

"So look, I know it's really short notice, but would you want to go to homecoming with me?"

She stared at him blankly for a second. Homecoming was in three days. It was extremely short notice. Someone had obviously canceled on him. "Actually, I−"

"Already has a date." Came a dangerously cool voice from behind them. "With her boyfriend."

Both she and Jensen froze in their tracks and turned around to find Cooper glaring murderously. "Cooper," Candice said, a warning in her voice.

Jensen laughed awkwardly and lifted a hand as if to hold Cooper at bay. "Hey man, I didn't realize. Sorry about that."

Candice knew by the look on Cooper's face that he didn't believe Jensen for a second. Offering Jensen an apologetic smile, she said, "Thank you for thinking of me though." Turning her gaze back towards Cooper, she moved behind him and began nudging him towards the cafeteria. "Come on," she hissed at him. "Don't cause a scene, it was harmless."

Cooper continued to glare at the other guy as Candice forced him to keep moving. "You're being unreasonable."

Finally turning his eyes on her, he scowled but started moving on his own. "You said you were just working on a project together."

"We were."

"So why's he asking you out?"

"Well even if I cared to know, you didn't give me much of a chance to find out. I was in the process of saying no. I didn't require your incredibly unfriendly assistance," she shot him an annoyed look. "Let's go get our lunch. Don't pout."

"I don't pout," he snapped.

Finally letting her smile appear, she grabbed his hand and tugged it teasingly, causing him to look over at her and his face to soften slightly. "Yes, you do."

***

Coop had gone to exactly zero dances in his life. He shifted uncomfortably on Candy's front porch, waiting for them to answer the door. When the door opened, it was Eleanor with Candy and their mom standing behind her. He had a few seconds to take in Eleanor's triumphant expression before his attention locked on Candy. Her hair was partially up with the rest of it hanging down in loose curls, her makeup was subtle, and she looked amazing in her blue lace dress, with what looked like a wide black ribbon around the waist. "You look..."

Eleanor's smile widened at his words and she stepped aside to allow him entrance, looking at her sister. "So good that he can't speak," she finished for him.

"I want pictures!" Mrs. Fitz announced, holding up an old-looking digital camera.

He watched Candy's face turn red with embarrassment. "We're going to be late."

"Pictures only take a few minutes. You have plenty of time," Mrs. Fitz replied dismissively. "We can take them outside."

"You look amazing," he whispered to her as they posed according to her mom's directions.

She smiled up at him, then looked back towards her mom and the camera. "Thank you. You look great too."

After several minutes of endless photos, they were permitted to go on their way. "Home by midnight!"