The Valentine Dance

Prologue

Three Years Ago

"Hey, Oliver!" My friend, November called while walking over to me.

I looked up from my computer, "Yes?"

"Do you have a pencil I can borrow?" She asked sweetly, batting her eyes at me and leaning over on my desk.

I gave her a look, "November, we've gone over this. I have about as many pencils as you do."

She pouted and gave me her infamous puppy eyes. I felt a tug at chest. Don't give in, don't give in. I chanted in my head as her assault continued but when she batted her eyes slowly again and swayed slightly, my resolve broke.

Sighing, I fished out my last mechanical pencil from my backpack. I had had more but she had asked for all those, too. What can I say? I can't say no to a cute face like hers.

Not that I thought it was cute or anything. Heh. No. Why would I think that..?

I handed it to her and she hugged me tightly, her strawberry scent hitting me in the face. "Thanks, Oliver" I couldn't see her face but I heard the smile. I felt my face grow warm.

"No problem.." I muttered and watched her sit down.

I cleared my throat and looked around the class. Nearby, I found Ms. Valentina, who just finished talking to a student and was now looking around the class.

I glanced around to my other friends and looked back to her, tentatively raising my hand. I didn't want Tristan seeing my hand raised or-

"Yo, Ms Valentina" A loud voice called, " the Nerd is raising his hand" Tristan. I sighed. While he is my best friend, sometimes I just want to strangle.. Heh... I mean cuddle him to death.

She gave him a look, "I can see that Mr. Pesnell, but thank you for informing me. Now if you'll continue to do the Geometry homework we all know you love, I'll take care of it."

The class erupted into "Oooohhhhhhs" and Tristan went red and went back to working.

Ms. Valentina was one of the greatest teachers around this school. She always had something snippy to say to those who stepped out of line and something quirky to say to the rest of us. When she came close enough I asked for a pencil and she nodded, heading for her desk.

Once I had a pencil, I turned my attention to my friends around me. Those of whom I am friends with in here were Kirstin, Nightingale, Yuliana, Tristan and Marc. Our motley crew was formed back in the "Unspeakable Days," otherwise know as Middle School.

My eyes first went to Kristin, naturally. Her hair is electric blue and insanely curly, except for the left side of her head, which is shaved. Not a lot of people could pull that off but she does a good job. She's about as crazy as her hair, which I wish I could say was a complete compliment. Her moods vary in extremes, meaning she's sometimes she's super nice, other times she's a complete a-hole. Sometimes she's really calm, others absolutely wacky. You can never be too certain with her.

Nightingale, who was next to Kristin and diagonal to the left from me is pretty different than her neighbor. She has dark brown hair which is very long and very curly. She is pretty much the brain power in our group as she supplies us a good part of the wit. She always has some sort of sarcastic comeback to practically anything one could say to her.

Her only rival to the amount of wit and sarcasm given would be her closest friend, Marc, who was sitting right behind her and next to me. Marc has deep red hair that, unlike the two mentioned before, was wavy and layered. She also supplied a good part of the wits and in addition gave a lot of dry humor to the group. Suffice it say, she's the most serious of us.