"Shaunalynn!" I smiled, only one person calls me by that name.

Daniel approached me. His brown hair was neatly combed, his olive skin tone looked lovely against his dark blue jacket. He smiled at me, his pearly white teeth were perfect, his whole face was perfect, he was perfect. I smiled back. Daniel was the perfect guy. He was nice, funny, and hot. Daniel would be the perfect boyfriend, except there was one little problem.

"Have you seen Sophie?" I smiled at him blankly. "You know, Sophie. My girlfriend." Oh yeah of course I know Sophie, your girlfriend, my problem.

"Yeah. She went that way. Towards the dance floor."

"Thanks Shaunalynn! You're the best."

No you are. "You know you don't have to call me that. Lynn is just fine."

"I like saying Shaunalynn, it sounds nice. Very Scottish."

It's Irish. I laughed anyway. He walked away towards the dance floor. Truthfully I had no idea where Sophie went, I just wanted him to leave.

Six months ago, Daniel had asked me out, and I freaked out and started acting all weird around him. He took that as a "no" and went looking elsewhere. I have been in the friend zone ever since.

I made my way to the punch bowl and poured some into my cup. How stupid am I to go to The Charity Ball without a date? I was either a third wheel or a wallflower. It went without saying that I wasn't having fun. Placing the punch glass to my lips, my eyes caught sight of a girl. Her bright orangey red hair covered one eye but I could still tell she was wearing sunglasses. She wore a short sky blue dress, which stood out among the pale pink dresses that surrounded her. There was a thick black latex belt that surrounded her waist and the odd look was completed with a pair of shiny, black, at least four inch high heel boots that reached up past her knee. She appeared to be watching me.

My curiosity won over me and I approached her.

"Hey." I greeted.

She smiled back at me but didn't offer a response.

I sloshed around my drink. "I haven't seen you before, do you go to our school?"

She shook her head.

"What's your name?"

Looking up at me, the girl removed her sunglasses and slipped them into her purse. She stepped closer to me. I could feel her breath. She whispered, "You know who I am."

I paused, trying to place her. She did look familiar… "No, I don't know who you are."

She looked confused and disappointed. Taking a step back, she held out her hand. "Cirrus."

"Cirrus?" I took her hand. "Does you last name happen to be 4159?" I joked.

No response. My eyes lowered to my cup.

"Cirrus4159? Ya know?" I probed, trying to salvage what was left of my joke. "The world famous hacker. Third most popular this year and sixth most popular of all time, before she disappeared in 2007."

"I am aware." Cirrus answered.

"Your Cirrus4159?" Finally I could place where I saw her face. "I remember you picture on a newspaper when you went missing. I thought you would be older."

"I get that a lot." She smiled. "Tell me, who are the other five hackers ranked above me?" She sounded genuinely interested.

"You don't know who they are?"

Cirrus took the sunglasses out of her bag and slipped them back on her face. "Humor me."

"Okay, The number one is Morpheus, then Trinity, then Neo, followed by Ink and Cobalt. I only know their screen names and most of them have stopped hacking recently but—" I trailed off as Cirrus took a old fashion cell phone out of her purse and without dialing, held the phone up to her ear. Rude much?

"She's here. Yes. What? Are you sure? Damn! Okay. Okay." She hung up.

"Is everything okay?"

"Let me give you some advice, go home, get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day." She smiled but I could tell something was wrong. Before I could respond she walked away, but before disappearing into the crowd, she said without turning around. "Oh, and somebody spiked the punch."

I glanced in surprise at my empty cup and as if on cue, my surroundings began to blur and melt together into a mix of colors, the music slowed and sped up at random intervals. Voices surrounded me, I couldn't make out the words but they seemed concerned. I felt my eyes roll back in my head. The weirdest part was I never remember drinking any punch