Author’s Note: Okay, so this piece is my baby. It’s been with me since third grade—yes, third grade—when it started out as 145-page, poorly written sci-fi in the mind of an eight-year-old. I’ve had to change a lot, and some of it is still a little out there, but I’d like to think it’s the most unique piece I’ve got. For current artwork/character excerpts go to my Deviantart page listed on my profile. P.S.—I KNOW it starts out as a teeny-bopper high school novel. Bear with me. The sci-fi stuff comes in a little later, I promise. Critique is very appreciated. I’ve re-written this book so many times that the small mistakes and other stuff tends to get blurry. So please TELL ME if you are confused or want something changed. :D

“Okay, so this term paper I turned in? A big fat D. Isn’t that lame? I worked really hard on that thing. Poured my very essence into it. Mr. Zhack needs more sympathy for me. I can’t help that I’m academically challenged,” complained Kim as she swirled some spaghetti-like cafeteria concoction in tiny circles around her puke orange tray.

“What was the paper on?” Jacky asked, taking a large bite from her giant blueberry muffin.

“Well, I don’t remember. That was so written last week.”

Jacky threw a hooded glance at Shannah. Shannah shrugged and decided not to comment. It was typical of Kim to put so little effort into anything school related. What infuriated Shannah was how she brushed off D’s and F’s with a mere sigh and short whining session. Then she was bright-eyed and bushy tailed the next day, prepared to flunk yet another math test or chemistry experiment.

“You do know those aren’t allowed in school,” Jacky shot, turning to the vibrant, big-haired redhead sitting beside her. Elizebeth was slight-boned, but seventy percent of her body mass was occupied by the wild, untamed swarm of curls that bounced from her scalp in vigorous red spirals. Elizebeth was currently holding one of the newest electronic appliances more expensive than Shannah’s family car. It was sleek, silver, and so complicated to operate that most just took the effort to organize their files by hand.

“And since when do you care?” Elizebeth asked coolly, raising her eyebrows. Jacky backed off and went back to consuming the muffin that she had to hold with both of her bony hands.

“Ya know, I haven’t heard you speak since lunch started,” Kim complained, turning a sharp blue gaze onto Shannah. She may have only stood five feet tall, but she could be very intimidating when she wanted. And the fact that the entire student body worshipped her contributed to the fear factor.

“Um . . .”

Kim frowned and her dainty blonde eyebrows furrowed. “I would think you’d have lots of things to share after Friday night.”

“Friday night?” Once again, Shannah’s brain failed to keep up the pace.

Kim rolled her big blue eyes, tapping her perfectly manicured nails on the table top. “Shannah . . . Friday night. The Easter Dance. Don’t pretend you weren’t getting down on the dance floor with Nathan. I saw you--”

Shannah gaped at her in horror. “No! Um, no. Nothing happened.”

“Look at her face,” Jacky chuckled, finishing off the rest of her muffin.

Shannah looked away in an effort to cover up the fact she was blushing like crazy. “Nothing happened, I swear.”

Kim looked dubious. She sighed heavily and began running her fingers through her golden waves. About half of the cafeteria (all male, of course) turned to watch her. She threw the ones looking a dazzling smile and an exaggerated flutter of the eyelashes. What was it about beautiful girls that made Shannah feel like an ant on fire?

“You need to quicken the pace. I can’t do it for you, Rodensky. Nathan will lose interest. I got you all dressed up, and you didn’t even kiss?”

Shannah felt like drowning herself in the brown tomato soup. Jacky was staring at her now. Thank goodness Elizebeth’s concentration remained solely on her three-thousand-dollar trinket. “I-- I--”

“What are you so scared of?” Kim asked in exasperation. “Nathan doesn’t bite.” Kim smiled smugly and twirled her hair around her finger. “Well, not hard, that is.”

Shannah did not want to hear about Kim’s and Nathan’s exploits with each other freshman year. The whole “biting hard” line was overworked anyway.

“Maybe you should let love take its toll,” Jacky suggested, reaching for her cellphone and checking her messages. “Just admit it. You can’t help but interfere.”

Kim pursed her lips in annoyance. “Poor Shannah needs me to interfere.”

Shannah sighed and didn’t dare argue. Because Kim was right. Shannah was a nothing-special kind of girl. And Kim had all the right connections. Without Kim’s interception, Shannah would still be obsessing over the junior class god, Nathan Carns, from afar just like she’d been for the past two years. Shannah didn’t like Kim’s demands for updates. Shannah’s romantic life was more private than Kim wanted. Shannah was determined to keep most of it to herself. She was glad Jacky saw her point of view.

Jacky, Elizebeth, Shannah, and Kim weren’t exactly the closest of friends. Kim had so many friends she could hardly keep track of their names. It just so happened that this lunch period was later in the day. There were fewer people with whom Kim could talk to. So she gathered together Elizebeth, the computer freak, Jacky, the tall and bony drama queen, and Shannah, the quiet girl who Kim had befriended in the seventh grade. They got along well enough, Shannah supposed, but they weren’t the kind of friends who walked around with matching BFF bracelets.

“You guys are so dramatic,” Elizebeth mumbled. “Leave Shannah alone. If she wants to be a dateless wonder, let her be.”

“Oh gee, thanks, that made me feel better,” grumbled Shannah, leaning her cheek against her fist. Maybe she could find a new group of friends. At least find someone who was so self-absorbed that they didn’t care about her life whatsoever.

“Holy crap!” shouted Kim as a tray collided with her head and leftovers dripped into her designer skirt. Her attacker snorted laughs as she pranced away, baby-blonde pigtails bouncing behind her.

“Paula, you bitch!” screamed Kim, throwing down her plasticware and narrowing her eyes at the fit figure making her way across the cafeteria. The groups around them turned and watched in slight interest. Shannah knew they were waiting and hoping for a cat fight. But if Paula was involved, it was a guaranteed slaughter-in-waiting. Paula was one of those people who lived in a black and white world. Either Kim would escape unharmed or she’d be dead within five minutes. No one understood Paula’s violent ways.

That was, of course, except for Jake.

“She really needs to stop doing that,” murmured Jake, who pulled up beside Kim and shoved his hands in his jean pockets. “I’m starting to think that it isn’t an accident.”

“You’re such a genius--” Kim growled, spinning around to punch Jake in the stomach, “--Einstein.” Jake moved away from the punch just in time and smiled sloppily.

Jake was one of those guys a person just wanted to go up and hug. With his enormous brown puppy eyes, skinny frame, and down-to-the-core sweetness, it was hard not to love him. Even someone as hard and cold as Paula couldn’t resist his charm.

Which was why they were dating.

It had been the talk of the school for at least two weeks. Paula was one of those look-but-don’t-touch girls. She wasn’t even that, because one suggestive look in her direction and and you woke up in the Dumpster with no recollection of the last two hours. Even looking was difficult, because Paula never hesitated to hide beneath three-sizes-too-big jeans and beer T-shirts. When people heard that Jake, all-around nice guy had managed to hook up with her, well . . . no one could believe it. Paula was never anything but rude, cruel, and inconsiderate. She’d never hit Jake (which was, sadly, a great achievement) but there were times when hitting him would have been nicer.

“Sometimes I wish she’d just fall over and die,” Kim growled, sopping up the mess on her lap with a napkin.

“Sometimes?” Jake threw her an unarming smile. He clearly didn’t mind people insulting his girlfriend. “Wow. Most people wish that all the time.”
“I know. Call me generous.” Kim managed to get the worst of the cafeteria’s “chicken supreme” off her skirt. She turned and grinned slyly up at Jake. “So, Jake. I’m having this whacked-out party at my house on Friday night, and I was wondering if you would come.”

Jacky, Elizebeth, and Shannah gaped at her. Kim had said nothing to them. Guys had that effect on Kim.

“I was going to tell you,” Kim explained, shrugging. “Sometime this week.”

“Whacked-out, huh?” Jake tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Hmm, well, since it’s whacked-out and everything . . . I guess I might come.”

“Great! I’ll look forward to having you,” Kim purred. Cue the fluttering eyelashes and the crossing on her golden tan legs underneath her short skirt. Jake was impervious. He gave her a hearty thumbs up and went to check up on his angry-looking girlfriend, who currently was arguing with the lunch lady.

“I’ll never understand those two,” Kim sighed. “It’s like night and day. I think it’s an omen for the destruction of the Earth.”
“I’ve seen worse omens,” Elizebeth muttered, never looking up.

The bell clattered throughout the cafeteria. The girls deposited their trays on the way out and wound their way through the halls in the direction of their next class. Shannah had trig. It was a love-hate relationship with that class. She hated trig, and she hated the people who sat around her. Their names were Jack, Ethan, and Brandon. The reason she hated them was interconnected with the reason she half-loved that class.

Nathan sat right behind her.

Hauling her heavy book and folder to class, she found her seat to the back of the room. She watched the door anxiously, hoping that maybe perhaps Jack, Ethan or Brandon would be absent. They worked as a threesome and rarely made trouble without their entire gang. Ethan, the quarterback of the football team, was Kim’s new boy-toy.

Unfortunately, the threesome was complete and looking especially obstreperous today. Jack, who took the role as leader of this group, smirked at Shannah and slapped himself down in the desk next to her, which sadly was his assigned seat.

“Shannah, I have something for you.”

“What’s that?” she asked, even though she was far from wanting to know.

Jack pulled from his pocket a crown of dandelions and gently placed it around her head, as if awarding a queen with her tiara of jewels. Ethan and Brandon guffawed and exchanged smirks.

“What the . . .” Shannah trailed off.

“You are now our queen, Oh Mighty One,” Jack groveled, clasping his palms together and giving her a short, quick bow. “You have sought out Our Almighty Lord’s attention, and now that you will be wed, we feel it is our obligation to award you with this spectacular and dazzling display of power. We are not worthy!”

With that, all three of them dropped to their knees and began kissing her sneakers. She pulled them up onto the chair, pushing them into her chest. She should have expected this, but that didn’t make it any less disturbing.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Shannah whispered.

Ethan moved to answer, but he was interrupted by the reason Shannah half-loved this class. Nathan Carns, a hybrid of every well-built actor and romance novel god, stepped into the room, his hair disheveled in that certain I-care-but-not-too-much way. He was perfect at every angle, every facet.

“Our Almighty Lord graces us with his presence!” shouted Brandon, bowing over and over again. “We are worms. We are worms.”

“Ah, my slaves,” Nathan joked, stepping up in front of them. “What are you up to now?”

“We have just crowned the Oh Mighty One. Soon you shall be wed, and you will be bound by love, soul, eternal spirit, and great sex--”

Nathan laughed in good humor, but Shannah got the feeling of shrinking further and further into herself. She could put up with Jack, Brandon and Ethan. Nathan was a completely different story. The Easter Dance came back to her in vivid authenticity, and she blinked a few times to rid herself of the tantalizing memories. Nathan’s faint cologne and soft voice were extremely difficult to shake from her brain.

“So now I’m married to her?” Nathan asked. It was odd how instead of looking at the guys, as he had directed the question to them, he looked at Shannah, his light amber eyes flickering under the fluorescent lights.

“Indeed.”

“Guys . . .” Nathan shook his head. “You have serious mental issues. I advise the psychiatrist Jack goes to.”

“Hey, it isn’t my fault I’m bipolar,” Jack joked, when in fact he was not bipolar. A cruel joke indeed, but one that his jock friends found funny.

At that time, Ms. Kat entered the room. She was a petite woman in her late thirties with straight blonde hair and cat-eye glasses. She was the math teacher of choice amongst the students; she was not only the most thorough teacher, but she was very lenient with behavior. Jack, Brandon, and Ethan got away with so many practical jokes in her class that it was a bit sick.

Miss Kat called the class to order, and the threesome was forced to break up and go to their designated seats. Last class’s tests were handed back, and Shannah was pleased to see a gigantic letter A scribbled across her paper. Trig was not her strongest subject, but she was decent at it.

“You should all go over these tests in the next ten minutes, and then hand the corrections back into me. Corrections aren’t mandatory, but I might be persuaded to give bonus points to those who need it . . .”

Her next words were drowned out by the murmur of classmates. Most were talking about subjects that were in no way related to trig. The two girls beside Shannah began flipping their hair and swapping make-up tips. The threesome of nerds behind her began comparing the pros and cons of X-Box to Gamecube.

Shannah bit down hard on the cap of her pen and looked down at the red checks. She was lucky to scrape past with an A. She was so absorbed in corrections that she was hardly aware of the insistent tapping on her shoulder. She spun around. Nathan was leaning forward expectantly, eyes scanning the large A on her paper. There were only two people with A’s in this class. Herself and Nathan. Not only was he perfect-looking, he was gifted with intelligence also.

“Hey,” he murmured, eyes flashing back up to hers.

“What did you get?” Shannah asked. Nathan blinked for a moment, as if it was a question he hadn’t expected. He quickly looked down at his paper.

“I got a ninety something,” he muttered quickly, then dismissed the subject with a flick of his hand. “Anyway, I wanted to talk to you.”

Shannah’s lower half froze. Her legs seemed cemented to her chair. It was a normal reaction of hers when conversations had the slightest hint of intimacy.

“A-- about what?” she stuttered, unable to meet his gaze.

“Did you hear about Kim’s party?”

Shannah nodded slowly.

“Well, are you going?”

“I don’t think so. I’m not a party girl.”

Nathan gave her a tiny pout, one so small that she barely noticed. It got the message across just fine though. “I think you should go.”

“Why?”

“Because I wish you would.”

“Why do you want me to come?”

“Don’t play naive,” Nathan said softly, shifting in his seat slightly. “Remember the Easter Dance?”

She hardly called one slow dance with the guy a bargain for her soul. It wasn’t like she had wanted to go to that dance in the outfit she did. Kim had persuaded her, and had gone behind her back to get Nathan interested in invisible little Shannah, who he had sparsely said a word to her before now. Nathan had that girl in the mini skirt and heavy makeup confused with the girl he was now looking at, who was shy and tongue-tied.

“That was . . .” Shannah sighed. “That didn’t have to mean anything.”

“What if I want it to?” Nathan asked sleekly, raising his eyebrows.

Shannah gaped at him with an open mouth for a second, wondering if perhaps he’d been persuaded to say such an insane thing through long and slow torture. No one willingly sought Shannah’s attention. Not even Kim. Maybe there’d been a rumor going around that Shannah was easy. Maybe she suddenly grew beautiful. Maybe she suddenly grew beautiful and gained a personality. All things were possible.

“Um . . well-- I don’t-- um . . .”

Nathan smiled, winking. “Great then. See you there.”

Shannah turned around and stared at the board.

What the heck just happened?