Faith would've loved to be anywhere else in the world besides having dinner with her friends and their dates. Both Hope and Cyn were talking to the entire table with ease; their dates were relaxed and participating in the conversation enthusiastically. Candy was quite a bit more subdued; still not as comfortable in crowds. Coop didn't have a lot to say, mainly only responding when whatever was said was directed specifically at him, but then otherwise sharing a quiet conversation with Candy.

  "You look really beautiful in that dress, Faith," Isaac said shyly from beside her, looking at her with eyes full of adoration.

Faith's jaw clenched and she forced her mouth to turn up into a smile, "Thanks." He'd already said the exact same thing at least four times since they'd met here, at the restaurant.

"So Candice," Lincoln said, turning his attention from Cyn with a smile. "The rumors around school are that you've got yourself into a sort of turf war with Seraphina."

The entire table went silent. Candy looked both surprised and uncomfortable by his words and Faith watched Coop's entire demeanor go from reluctantly friendly to completely hostile in the blink of an eye. "Lincoln, that's really not something we should talk about right now."

"Well I think everyone's curious," Lincoln laughed. "Right Grady? Isaac?" Isaac shifted uncomfortably beside her and Grady gave an awkward half-laugh before shoveling an overly large bite of steak into his mouth, as if a full mouth would end the tension.

Candy cleared her throat, her gaze flickering to Coop before going back to Lincoln. Faith watched her straighten a little in her seat, something that definitely wouldn't have happened just a month ago. "Seraphina and I had a misunderstanding. There's really nothing to be curious about."

"I'd say," he laughed, clearly not reading the room. Faith's grip on her fork tightened and she envisioned stabbing him with it. "First you stole her boyfriend, then you stole Coop here, right? How'd you manage that?"

"I didn't," Candy answered simply, deliberately turning her attention back to her plate after giving Coop a look that Faith knew well; that was the look Candy had given her all too often when she expected Faith to go off like a bomb. Coop's jaw was clenched tightly and he was staring at the other boy with murder in his eyes.

"You're cute," Lincoln said, continuing the conversation no one else was interested in being a part of, "but you're no Seraphina. Am I right?"

"Lincoln!" Hope gasped, the blood leaving her face.

"You should leave," Cyn said at the same time, her tone low and angry.

"I'm just saying what the rest of the school is thinking," Lincoln said defensively, looking at Cyn in surprise. "I'm not trying to be insulting."

"Then you're a bigger idiot than I thought possible," Faith snapped, glaring at him. "Get the fuck away from our table."

His friendly demeanor disappeared as he looked in her direction. "I haven't finished my food."

Coop was out of his chair before anyone else could say a word, and Faith watched in surprise and more than a little satisfaction as he grabbed Lincoln by the collar and yanked him to his feet, knocking over the chair as he dragged him through the restaurant and out the front door. Other tables were turning to look in surprise and horror and Candy had shot to her feet, rushing off to follow.

Faith lifted her hand to grab the attention of the waiter, "Check please!"

***

Candice made it out of the restaurant just as Cooper's fist connected with Lincoln's face. "Wait!"

But Cooper was past listening as he shoved the other boy roughly to the ground and towered over him. "Get up," he growled, fists clenched as if aching to make contact again.

Candice took in the horror and fear on Lincoln's face as he tried to shield it with both hands, already starting to curl up. She rushed forward and stepped between them, pushing desperately at Cooper's chest. "Stop," she said, trying to gain his attention. "Cooper, stop! Let's go back inside."

Cooper's gaze was locked on the body currently lying on the ground behind her, and he didn't seem inclined to move. "Get out of my way."

She stiffened and pushed harder. "No." Turning her head to look down at Lincoln lying there behind her, she leveled him with a cool look. "Get out of here."

Lincoln wasted no time, clambering to his feet and shooting off towards his car, casting a fearful look back toward the two of them. "I'm sorry."

With him gone, Cooper's attention came reluctantly back to her and she felt torn between embarrassment, anger, and appreciation. Anger won out and she smacked at his arm with a frown. "That was too much."

"Exactly how many times was I supposed to let him come at you before this would be acceptable for you?" he snapped, scowling down at her.

"You made a scene."

"I don't care."

She huffed out a breath, "Cooper, do you know how many other people at our school are thinking the exact same thing as him? Are you going to go punch them all?"

"Yes."

That surprised a laugh out of her, but she quickly schooled her expression again and gave him a hard look. "We're supposed to be enjoying ourselves and having fun."

"I enjoyed watching him cower on the ground," he replied, a hard gleam in his eyes. "I enjoyed it very much."

She rolled her eyes, stepping back from him to create some space. "You're ridiculous." Seeing as the issue was over and she knew perfectly well that Cooper was definitely not going to apologize, Candice chose to let it go and grabbed his hand, pulling him back into the restaurant. "Come on; we have to pay for our food so we can get to the dance on time."

***

"I'm really sorry," Cyn said for the millionth time as the seven of them made their way into the school building half an hour later. "If I had known that's what he was like, I would have never−"

"It's fine," Coop said gruffly, looking down at Candy who was squeezing Cyn's arm and resting her head on her shoulder sympathetically.

"He's gone and we're here," Candy added with a smile. "It doesn't matter.

"I never liked him anyway," Faith sniffed, completely ignoring Isaac who walked silently beside her.

"You don't like anyone," Candy deadpanned, shooting her a look that Coop knew from experience was meant to silence.

"Of course no one's angry," Hope said brightly. "And how often do we all get to go to a dance? Let's make the most of it, okay?"

The group all murmured their agreement as they handed tickets to the supervising faculty and entered the school. The halls were crowded with plenty of other students and  Coop reached out to grab Candy's hand before she could be separated from him. This was the first dance he'd been interested in going to, and the reason was standing there looking beautiful in her blue dress; he had no intention of losing her within the first five minutes.

Music could already be heard, blasting from the gym as they inched slowly closer through the crowd. Over beside the gym doors, Coop spotted Spence laughing and talking enthusiastically with a group of people. As they got closer, Spence caught sight of them and was immediately beside them, pulling a surprised Candy into a hug. "You look gorgeous!"

"Oh!" Candy cried as she was yanked into his embrace, looking over her shoulder towards Coop with wide eyes. With a laugh, she wrapped her arms around Spence and returned the hug before Coop shoved Spence off and pulled her back towards him.

"You all look great!" Spence announced, turning his gaze on Faith, Hope, and Cyn.

Faith rolled her eyes while Hope and Cyn both blushed and muttered their thanks.

"You came alone too, huh Cyn?" he asked as they all stepped into the gym.

Cyn's face heated more and both Candy and Hope reached out to rub her back comfortingly causing Spence to give Coop a baffled look. "He left," Coop informed him without bothering to go into more detail.

Understanding dawned on Spence's face and he turned his goofy grin back on Cyn. "Well that's better anyways, right? After all, you dance better on your own."

Cyn laughed and shot Spence a grateful look. "I do."

"But I hope you'll lower yourself to letting me dance at least one dance with you?"

Coop watched as all four girls turned their smiles on Spence, and Coop couldn't deny that his friend was much better with people than he was himself. Not that, that would be a hard thing to accomplish given that Spence loved people and Coop only tolerated them. Turning his attention to Candy, he pulled her towards the crowd. "Come on."

"There are so many people," she replied, looking back towards her friends hopefully as she tried to slow their progress, but Coop could see all three of her friends following their lead and moving towards the crowd as well.

"You wanted to come to homecoming," he informed her. "That means we dance." It was a slow song, and Coop didn't need any further encouragement to take advantage.

She didn't protest when he placed his arms around her waist and held her close and after a bit, she smiled shyly up at him and rested her head on his chest. "I'm really happy that I missed that bus after all."

He felt his throat tighten and he smiled too, staring off into the crowd. "Me too."

***

"God," Sera spat in disgust, watching Coop and Candice from the corner of the gym with Missy and Kendall. "Why her?"

"Not after tonight," Kendall assured her, a similar look of revulsion marring her face.

"Right," Missy agreed with a curt nod. "I've got Sally in the dress, her hair's perfect and I'm about to go meet her with Jensen over near the main stairwell."

Sera nodded, her gaze never wavering from the couple. "After tonight, he won't want anything to do with her."

***

An hour in and Candice was pulling herself away from Cooper and her friends. Despite the ordeal at the restaurant, the night was still going extremely well. She was surprised to find herself truly enjoying the dance. The crowd had only truly intimidated her at the beginning, but after a while, she'd been distracted by Cooper and the laughter of her friends. She'd spotted Jay and Matt a few times through the crowd, but they'd stayed close to their own friends and dates.

The area near the water fountain was mildly crowded but still the least busy place to gain some solitude, so she stayed there, leaning back against the wall and closing her eyes for a moment. She didn't want the night to end and it was already halfway over. Dating and dances had never been a part of Candice's high school plan, but now that she'd taken part in both, she had to admit that she may have been doing herself a disservice. Was it dating in general that felt so nice, or was it the fact that it was Cooper that made her so happy? He wasn't the same guy she'd caught making out with Seraphina near the football field. He was so much better. Reopening her eyes as the gym doors opened, she watched a group of girls come out, talking loudly and laughing together. She straightened from the wall and moved to step inside.

"Hey, Candice!"

She turned at the sound of quick footsteps and her name and found Jensen coming towards her. Pausing on her way back to her friends, she offered him a smile and waited for him to catch up. "Hello."

"Hi," he grinned at her, running a hand through his hair. "You look great."

Candice glanced away with a blush, "Thank you."

"Where's your boyfriend?"

Refocusing her gaze on Jensen, she felt a sudden feeling of unease. "He's just inside. I just needed a drink."

"Oh," he laughed and scratched the back of his head. "Right."

"Are you alright?"

"Me? Yeah, what about you?"

She stared at him for a few moments in awkward silence before finally answering. "I'm fine."

"So listen...do you think I could talk to you privately?" he asked, his gaze flicking towards the gym doors and then back at her.

"What about?"

He looked around uneasily and then grabbed her wrist, pulling her suddenly down the hallway further into the school. "It's, uh, it's private and I'd prefer not to be overheard, you know?"

Something was wrong. Candice let herself be dragged along, reassuring herself that Jensen was completely harmless. After a few minutes, fed up with his grip on her arm, she dug in her heels. "I think this is far enough," she informed him firmly. "There's no one else here."

"Yeah," he said with an unsteady laugh, looking around them. "I guess there's not."

Pulling her hand away, she crossed her arms and leveled him with a look, "So what is it that you needed to speak to me about?"

"I cheated."

She blinked, mentally retracing the conversations the two of them had, had that might pertain to this confession, and then her mouth dropped open in horror, her hands falling to her sides. "You cheated?" she repeated incredulously. "How?"

"I paid a college kid I knew to do my half of the assignment."

"That project was worth twenty-five percent of this quarter's grade! When we tell Ms. Johnson, we'll get a zero, Jensen!"

He held up both hands as if to ward her off, "No, no, it's okay! I talked to Ms. Johnson after school yesterday and I let her know that it was all me and that you had nothing to do with it. She's going to grade you separately on your portion of the assignment. It won't affect your grade at all, I swear."

Candice narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously still angry and doubtful. "You already told her?"

He nodded his head enthusiastically. "It turns out that the guy I had paid just used his own work from when he had her a few years ago, so she got suspicious and kept me after class to speak with me about it."

"Why didn't she speak with me too?" Candice wanted to know, still unsure about the entire thing. "It was my project too."

"Well," he said uneasily, looking around, "everyone knows how seriously you take your schoolwork. She didn't believe you'd have had anything to do with it."

"This sounds hard to believe," she informed him bluntly. That wasn't how this type of thing was dealt with. He was hiding something.

"It's true, I swear."

Whatever else he had going on, he wasn't about to confess it to her, so she let out a breath and looked away. "Alright, well now that you've told me, I should get back to my friends."

His head began nodding once more and he took her hand, which she immediately yanked free. "Of course, I'll walk back with you."

Candice shot him one more assessing look before fixing her gaze on the hall ahead of her. There was something else to this confession, and she had a sinking feeling that her night was about to take a turn.

***

"She's playing you, you know."

Coop looked up from his phone to find Sera and just looked back down. Whatever she had to say; he wasn't interested enough to hear it. "Go away."

"I have proof!"

Gritting his teeth, he looked back up at her, oozing irritation. "Proof of what?"

Without any hesitation, Sera was shoving her phone under his nose. "She's out there right now making out with Jensen Duncan. She doesn't care about you."

The picture showed Jensen with arms wrapped around his neck as he pressed his mouth to the girl trapped between him and the wall. A girl with the same brown hair and the same blue dress. She wasn't pushing him away, if anything, she was pulling him closer. Rage began to boil up stronger than he'd ever felt it and he shoved her hand away. "That's not her. Get the fuck away from me, Sera."

"Oh no?" she scoffed with a laugh, crossing her arms and cocking her hip as she looked at him with a raised brow. "Then where is she?"