A/N: Thank you so much to those of you who read and also reviewed my last chapter. Here’s the next chapter, I look forward to hearing what you think! (:

The next day Valarie walks into her Pre Calculus class ten minutes early, a plastic container firmly gripped in her hand. She smiles at Mr. McGovern, and her smile widens when he looks briefly shocked to see her in class so early. Humming an unknown tune under her breath, Valarie walks down the room to her seat. Settling her bag on the desk and placing the container on top of it, Valarie turns to Avery, who is absently picking at her deep plum nail polish.

“Good morning, Ave,” she says, her voice bright and cheerful, instantly causing Avery to look up at her, a frown on her face.

Eyeing Valarie cautiously, slowly Avery asks, “Why are you so chipper?”

Valarie’s smile turns into a full blown grin and she shakes her head slightly. “No reason.” She shrugs and turns to take out her equipment from her bag. “I’m just a happy person.”

“And I’m Queen Latifah.” Turning around in her seat, Avery leans forward, her brown eyes narrowed. “What have you done now?”

“Why do you always assume I’ve done something?” Not wanting an answer, Valarie begins to open the lid to the container before saying, “I made pie.” She turns around and holds out the container. “Go on, spoil yourself.”

Without looking inside the container, Avery scrunches her nose up in disgust. “When all of your teeth fall out, I’m going tell you I told you so.”

Rolling her eyes, Valarie places the container on her desk. “Stop being such a health freak. It’s not fun.”

Before Avery has the chance to argue, a high pitched voice squeaks, “Ooh, pie!”

Looking up, Valarie grins when she sees Tilly eye up a piece of strawberry and rhubarb pie. “Take one, Tilly.” When Tilly grins and claps happily, she adds, “At least one of my friends won’t die of unhappiness.”

Tilly, who has already flopped into her seat, leans forward, her eyes wide, the piece of pie halfway to her open mouth. “Can that really happen?”

“No,” Valarie laughs and places the lid back onto the container. She smiles at Tilly who sighs in relief before she starts to eat the slice of pie.

“Oh my gosh, this is so good!” Tilly shrieks and her hand flies up to cover her mouth. “Seriously, oh wow.” Taking another bite, Tilly sighs happily, her shoulders dropping slightly, her eyes rolling to stare at the cracked ceiling. “You’re a God.”

Valarie sits back in her seat triumphantly and grins when she hears Avery mutter about the risks of diabetes. Watching carefully as people begin to trail into the classroom, Valarie smirks when she sees Chris walk in, Megan at his side. She’s talking animatedly, her face forming a look of concentration now and then as she fumbles her way through her stuttering speech.

As they approach her desk, Valarie is able to pick up parts of their conversation.

“I, I just think that maybe you, you know, you could–”

“No. And the answer will always be no. Even on my death bed, before they turn off my life support, I’ll take one last breath and wheeze out–”

Valarie smirks slightly when Megan rolls her eyes and walks ahead of him, clearly fed up with the conversation. When Chris smirks and continues to walk forward, his eyes meet with hers and Valarie’s smirk turns into a sweet smile. Quickly, she holds up the container, causing him to stop a step away from her desk.

Valarie shrugs and smiles at him. “Seeing as I’m ‘stalking’ you, I thought I’d supply food too because I’m just nice like that.” She grins at him and raises the container higher. “Pie?”

Without looking at the container he comments, “You really want me, don’t you?”

Valarie chokes slightly. “What?” She shrieks, the idea so bizarre it causes her to laugh slightly. She shakes her head dismissively. “Don’t be so conceited.”

Instead of answering her, Chris eyes the contents of the container warily. He nods at the container and asks, “Acaricide?”

“Rat droppings, actually,” Valarie informs him lightheartedly. “But it’s still amazing.”

A smirk twitches the corner of his lips and Valarie waves the container from side to side in front of him. “Strawberry and rhubarb,” she says and when he looks at her directly, his pale eyes narrowed slightly, Valarie finds it hard to hold back an eye roll. “Stop being suspicious and eat it.”

He shakes his head slightly and his black hair falling into his eyes. “No thanks.”

Valarie frowns and juts out the container further. “Take the pie.”

“I don’t want the pie.”

Valarie frowns, no-one had ever refused to eat her food before. Even Avery, the world's biggest health freak, gave in now and then. “But it’s good.”

“I’m sure it is, but I want to live and if I eat that, I’m sure I’m narrowing my chances.”

Her mouth opens slightly and she says defensively, “It’s not going to kill you. I’m an excellent cook!”

It is at this point that Tilly pipes in, her blonde head nodding enthusiastically. “It’s true. It’s so, so true.” Holding up her slice, she sighs happily, “This pie…it’s like…” She trails off, and then her blue eyes widen and she leans in and whispers quickly. “It’s like sex. But better.”

“Thanks for that, Tilly,” Valarie says dryly. She looks up at Chris who is now eyeing her up suspiciously.

“Better than sex?” He asks, and it is clear from his voice that he doesn’t believe Tilly.

Valarie shrugs. “Apparently.”

Chris looks at her and he smirks slightly. “I doubt it,” he murmurs, his voice dropping an octave.

Before Valarie has the chance to argue, he walks towards his seat, leaving Valarie to stare at the spare piece of pie in her plastic container. Rolling her eyes, she calls out Tilly’s name and when she turns around, Valarie hands her the container.

As Tilly does a little victory dance in her seat, Valarie turns around to look at Chris who, to her surprise, stares back at her, his lip piercing twisted to one side as he smirks at her. The piercing shines under the classroom light and Valarie scrunches her nose up in disgust.

Yeah, as if she would want a guy who uses his face as a pin cushion. That was just all kinds of wrong.

When Chris sits down next to her, Megan looks down at her notepad, her mind working overtime to figure out what to say to him. She had to be tactful if she wanted to get her way, which by the looks of it, would never happen because Chris was the most stubborn person she had ever met.

Damn it, why had she agreed to this?

Being the helpful, eager person that she was, Megan had thought agreeing to help find a band for the upcoming fundraiser would be easy. She knew some guys that played the drums and keyboard and she knew Chris played the guitar so putting together a band would be simple. That was until Chris told her he would rather stick pins in his eyes.

Biting her lip, Megan looks up and watches as Mr. McGovern writes equations on the board. Quickly, she scribbles down what is necessary before she looks at Chris. Of course he isn’t doing any work. She silently prepares herself for an outburst when she whispers, “Hey, Chris…” When he doesn’t acknowledge her, she whispers again, this time more urgently. “Christopher…”

His expression doesn’t change and Megan narrows her eyes slightly. “Chris,” Megan hisses again, this time letting her annoyance show. She waits a second and when he doesn’t respond, impulsively she takes her pen and stabs it into his hand.

“Christ!” When he turns to glare at her, his eyes shoot daggers at her. “What the fuckin’ hell is wrong with you, woman?”

Megan quickly looks to see if anyone noticed his outburst and then turns to look up at him, a sweet smile on her face. “I suggest you listen to me the first time then.”

“You’re off your fuckin’ head,” he grumbles before shifting in his seat to lean in closer to her. “What do you want?”

Megan lets out a breath and quietly says, “So, a-about this dance…”

“No.” His voice is hard and he shakes his head. “How many times do I have to say it, Meg? I’m not doing it.”

“Chris,” Megan whines. “If I don’t find a band soon, Valarie’s going to kick me off the committee.”

That was another reason why Megan was desperate to put a band together. Valarie, of all the popular, bitchy people in this school, just had to be event’s organizer. If Megan didn’t find a band soon, Valarie would take the position away from her and Megan couldn’t handle that. She was a good student, and when given a job she did it well. Always. This would not be any different.

Looking up at him with large eyes, Megan bites her lip nervously before speaking. “Please, Chris. Just do this one thing for me.”

Sighing reluctantly, Chris glances at Megan and tries not to glare at the puppy dog look she was giving him. It wouldn’t work, or at least, that’s what he keeps telling himself. “I can’t,” he says quietly, and for once, he doesn’t sound angry with her. “I’m sorry.”

And as if his apology wasn’t sincere enough, Chris reaches over and covers her hand with his. Megan swallows nervously as he intertwines his fingers with hers. Looking up, she tries to focus on the lesson and at the same time, she tries not to show her disappointment.

She would just need to figure out something else. Simple.

Walking into the crowded room, Valarie sets her bag down on the desk at the front and looks around quickly. Hopefully, if things went swiftly, this meeting wouldn’t take long. Sometimes she hated having to call events meetings at lunch, because right now, Valarie was too hungry to deal with any drama.

Clearing her throat loudly, Valarie calls over the noise, “Alright guys, this shouldn’t take long.” When no-one looks at her, she bangs her hand loudly against the table and shouts, “Alright, let’s start!”

And just like that, the room fell silent and Valarie smiles smugly. Sometimes, she loved scaring her fellow peers. It was just so much fun. Taking out her small notepad, Valarie flicks to the correct page and begins to speak.

“Okay, so this shouldn’t take long. I just wanted to see where we are on everything.” Looking up from her paper, her eyes fall onto a group of girls, all huddled together in the far corner. “Okay, so, advertising?”

A petite blond girl smiles nervously at Valarie before quickly looking down at her notes. “Well, we’ve designed flyers for the dance and it includes the date, the location, the charity we’re raising money for, it’s all very professional because we got the guys in the IT club to help us out. And we’ve already sent out e-mails to everyone’s school accounts giving them the details and er…” She trails off and shuffles through her notes. “Er, we gave another flyer to the guys in charge of the newspaper so they should be including the details in there too…”

Valarie smiles slightly at the girl–she thinks her name is Carrie but isn’t sure, she was never good at remembering names–and nods along. “Okay, that’s great.” Before the girl can say anymore, Valarie calls out, “Catering?”

“Er, yeah…” A guy, who had been slouching in his chair, sits up slightly and looks down at his crumpled piece of paper. “Basically the cafeteria staff said we could use the kitchen to prepare the food and we’re still working on the supplies.”

Valarie nods, and scribbles down a note in her notepad. Without looking up, she asks, “Do you have a food list made up yet?”

The guy shrugs. “Not yet. We’ll e-mail you it when we do.”

“Alright…” Looking up, Valarie scans the room and smiles when she sees Megan scribbling down something on her notepad. She raises an eyebrow and says, “Music?”

Megan’s head shoots up and she looks at Valarie with wide eyes. “Oh, y-yeah…” Looking down at her paper, Megan tries to think of something to say and unable to lie, she sighs dejectedly and says, “Well, I’m still working on it.”

“You haven’t got a band yet?”

Shuffling in her seat uncomfortably, Megan shakes her head which causes Valarie to sigh. She writes down a note to start looking for a band. “Okay, fine. I’ll start looking.” Just as she is about to ask about decorations, Megan’s small voice squeaks.

“You don’t have to do that!”

Slowly turning to look at her, Valarie arches an eyebrow. “Really? Because if you’re finding it hard to find someone then I really don’t mind–”

“No, no.” Megan shakes her head and quickly blurts out, “I-I couldn’t find a band so I thought I could put one together myself, using people from our year. I thought it’d make it a bit more personal and I thought it was a good idea so, so I started to ask around and, er, well…” She bites her lips nervously when Valarie gives her an impatient look. “I’ve found a drummer,” she says quickly. “I don’t know if you know him, but his name’s Cash.” When a few people murmur their acknowledgment of the person, Megan continues. “He’s said yes. And so has Michael Ivery, he, he’s really talented. He can play the keyboard and the sax and he can sing too, so you know–”

“Okay, okay,” Valarie interrupts; her head was hurting slightly from having to keep up with Megan’s rant. “So you have a drummer and a multi-talented guy. Can he play the guitar too? Because you’re missing a guitarist.”

Megan deflates slightly. “That’s one thing he can’t do.”

“So, you need a guitarist. Okay…” Valarie scribbles down another note. “I’ll look for a guitarist.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Megan insists. “I have a guy in mind, I er, I just ha-have to convince him which is going to be hard because he’s really stubborn but you know I can do it and then, then it’ll be fine so I don’t want to trouble you with–”

“Megan,” Valarie interrupts, and her voice is gentle but firm. “You’re obviously stressing about this and I don’t like people on my team being stressed. So, I’m willing to help you here, okay?” When Megan smiles meekly, Valarie continues, “Who’s the guy? Maybe I can help.”

“Er, Chris…Christopher Hughes.” When Valarie shows no sign of knowing who the person is, Megan sighs and says, “He’s in your Pre Calc class.”

Suddenly Valarie’s eyes widen and she momentarily forgets what she was about to say. “Oh…” Quickly she looks down at her notepad and then back up at Megan. Shit. There was no way he would agree to this. Smiling weakly, she says, “Is there anyone else that plays the guitar?”

Megan shrugs. “I’m still looking, but people are keeping quiet about it. I guess the idea of playing in front of a room full of teachers, board members and students is scaring most people away…”

Valarie nods and scratches at her wrist nervously. “Okay…Okay…I’ll…” Valarie sighs heavily, not looking forward to convincing Chris to take part. Maybe she should bake something beforehand, bribery usually works well. “I’ll talk to him and see what I can do, and if that doesn’t work out, I’m sure you’ll win him over.” She tries to smile at Megan and adds cheerfully, “Keep me up dated!”

Without waiting for an answer, Valarie turns to face the people in charge of decorations and she tries, and fails, to stop thinking about Chris. Well, she thinks as a brunette girl starts talking about balloons, he was definitely going to think she wanted him now.

FML.