We're Given No Choice, We Have No Voice

"Are you out of your mind?" Ethan yelled as he held Benny back. "She will probably light yours on fire when she sees it!"

Benny looked ahead at the table selling Valentine's Day grams and pried his arm free from his friend's grip. A wild look of pure determination and intensity flashed in his eyes and he ignored Ethan's rationale. Yeah, he knew that Erica wouldn't read his valentine with gusto or would run to him after reading it and ask him out. But still...

"Benny? Are you listening to me? Benny? Benny!" Ethan shouted.

Benny continued walking toward the table, blocking out Ethan's yells and fishing out his wallet.

"Hi, how many do you want to buy?" the girl asked him.

"One."

"Why did you do it Benny?" Ethan demanded as he sat down at an empty table for lunch. "You do remember that she doesn't like you or even acknowledges you as an equal."

Benny chewed on his sandwich slowly and shrugged his shoulders. Ethan rolled his eyes and rumpled his hair, moaning that Benny was probably going to be staked by Erica once she read what his friend wrote. In a flash, another tray slid across the table followed by its owner, Rory.

"Sup dudes?" he asked as he flashed them his trademark chipper smile.

"Not much," Benny mumbled, hoping Rory would just shut up and bother someone else.

"Not much? That's all you have to say?" Ethan demanded.

"Whoa there Ethan," Rory said, "sometimes its chill to have not much happening, you know?"

Ethan and Rory began arguing about, well, whatever they were talking about, leaving Benny to slip out of the conversation and think about her.

Erica. He first met her on the first day of high school in the cafeteria when Ethan said his parents hired a girl named Erica to babysit him and his sister Jane. She had been selling tickets to the premiere of the latest installment in the Dusk series and had stopped to take a break to talk to Benny. Back then, she had been fairly nice to him since she wasn't part of the so-called Popular clique. But that was then and now she had fully embraced her beauty triggered by a vampire bite and abused the new respect she gained from the more attractive look she sported.

Brrrriiiiiiinnnngggg!

Benny snapped out of his thoughts and quickly carried his trash to the bins by the doors. Ethan caught up with him and they headed off to class.

"What are you going to do when Erica sees yours and freaks out?" Ethan asked.

Benny gripped the handle of the door to their next class and stared his friend straight in the eye.

"I'll just take it like a man."

Valentine's Day

"Wonder how many valentines I'll get," Erica wondered out loud as she gracefully rested her elbow on the desk and her hand under her chin. She tilted her head toward Sarah who was seated beside her, her fingers laced together on the desk and her eyes looking at the front. Erica moved closer to Sarah and flashed her a smile.

"So BFF, how about you? Think there's any cute guys who'll give you one?" she asked.

Sarah turned toward Erica and made a face as she shrugged. "As long as my evil ex doesn't try to send me one by tonight I'll be fine," she said.

Erica rolled her eyes and tossed her ponytail dramatically off her shoulder. Sometimes she had ask herself why she hung out with Sarah post-meeting-the-dorks. She swore that her best friend had begun to lost her touch at being cool enough to survive in this school. Whatever.

"What's up my fellow studantes? I bring YOU your valentines from some awesome admirers!" Rory announced as he heaved a full messenger bag onto the teacher's desk. He smiled brightly before adjusting his white wings strapped to his back and fished through the bag for the appropriate valentines to each person.

"Hey so uh here's some for you, and for uh you there," Rory mused as he handed out valentines to students all over the classroom.

"Hurry it up dork," Erica hissed as she impatiently drummed her fingers on the desk. "Where's MINE?"

"Relax Erica," Sarah sighed as she rolled her eyes. She allowed her eyes to drift to the view out the window and she saw Rory hover over her desk from the corner of her eye.

"Here's one for you Sarah," he said as he put it on her desk. He sauntered back to his messenger bag and pulled out 10 or more valentines, all of them addressed to one person.

"And lucky winner over here is-"

"Yeah thanks Rory," Erica cut him off. "Don't you have somewhere else to be now?"

Rory checked the clock and jumped, making a dash for his messenger bag and announcing that he needed to run to the next classrooms before the period was over. As he ran out, one of his wings got caught in the doorway and he struggled to break free. The teacher rolled her eyes, rose from her desk, and opened the door wide enough for Rory's wing to safely leave with him in one piece. The class snickered at Rory's misfortune and Erica gloated at the sight of the small pile on her desk. She turned her head to see that Sarah hadn't touched her single valentine yet and she sighed irritably.

Erica reached over Sarah's desk and snatched her lone valentine up. Sarah whirled around to see Erica ripping open the envelope and skimming it before tossing it back onto Sarah's desk. "Relax its from that guy you talked to from the pep rally. Typical."

Sarah read the opened valentine and sighed unhappily. She was ticked at Erica for opening her valentine and she was upset that it wasn't from someone else.

Meanwhile, Erica had turned her attention back to her valentines and she wasted no time opening them to see who they were from. One from Kurt, ew he was so lame after their date. Gord, so 6 months ago. She continued through the pile until she reached the second-to-last one. She tore it open and recognized the familiar scrawling script. What the? She blinked and double checked to see it was indeed from him. Benny, aka Ethan Dork's best friend, who was probably lamer than Ethan himself. She was tempted to just tear it up into tiny pieces and not read it but curiosity got the better of her. As dumb as Benny was at times, she kind of had to admit that he had guts to give her one. Her eyes darted quickly back and forth as she read his message until she reached the end. She froze after reading it and stared faintly at the valentine, completely unsure of how to react. Then she quickly stole a glance at Sarah who was too busy paying attention to the lesson that this bore of a teacher was teaching today, before slipping the valentine into her bag far away from prying eyes.

"So you...got a lot back there," Sarah said as they walked to their lockers.

Erica reassumed her typical cool, calm, collected attitude and raised her chin a little higher. "Well you know Sarah, its the eyes that get them," she said. "And of course, my smile." She opened her mouth and flashed her fangs at Sarah who proceeded to roll her eyes at Erica's stunt.

"So anyone you actually liked?" Sarah asked, trying to be a good friend.

Erica tossed her hair off her shoulders and straightened the books in her arms. "Gord wrote me one but I am so over him. Kurt, ew he was such a bore after our date and not that muscled for a guy who forgot his shirt. And Geek Number Two had enough nerve to send me one."

"You mean Benny?"

"Uh no Sarah, I meant that other geek that Ethan is best friends with. Yes Benny, duh!" she replied. Speak of the Devil, he was at his locker right now. She tried to get past him without him noticing her but it was too late.

"Hey there Erica! Did you get my valentine?" Benny asked as he casually leaned against his locker door.

Erica dug through her bag and fished out a valentine, Kurt's to be exact. Her expression remained cold and serious but inside, she felt guilty for being a jerk to him this way. But that was how it was supposed to be: he was a geek and she was popular. They didn't mix in public. End of story.

"Yes I did," she began as she held up the valentine with the backside facing Benny. "And may I remind you, you and I are not on the same social rung dork!" With those words, she quickly tore up the valentine before Benny's eyes and tossed it around him like confetti. "There's your valentine back by the way." She grabbed Sarah's arm and dragged her out the front doors of the school as quickly as she could.

Benny stared after her with a hurt expression on his face. Ethan came up behind him and patted Benny on the shoulder. Benny bent down and began picking up the scraps of his valentine while Ethan threw his hands up in the air.

"What are you doing?"

"Hey I spent a long time writing that message, I'd like to have it to remind myself that I tried this time," Benny argued as he finished collecting the pieces. He was about to stand up with them in his hands when he noticed something odd. One of the pieces had a 'K' on it and the closer he looked at it, the script was slanted, hurried, and definitely not his. He checked the other pieces and found one that said 'urt' before putting it all together. He stood up and chucked them into the nearest trash can and heaved his backpack onto his shoulder.

"Dude Benny, what was that all about? I thought you said-"

"Ethan you're right, its stupid to hang onto a piece of failure," Benny said as he clapped a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Besides, I should be focusing on...the successes!"

Ethan rolled his eyes at his friend's corny delivery of that line. Whatever, at least Benny's ego was back to normal.

"You didn't have to do that to him," Sarah said later that evening over the phone.

Erica swallowed hard and stared at her backpack holding Benny's valentine. She straightened up and reassumed her standard tone.

"Sarah, we're not here to help charity cases," she reminded her best friend. "He's a geek, I'm popular, it will never happen." Before Sarah could get another word in, Erica ended the call and put her phone down on her bed. She stood up and walked over to her backpack and dug through it for Benny's valentine. She slowly removed it from the tucked away pocket in her bag, slid it out of its envelope, and opened the card to re-read it.

Hey Erica,

So I know that we're not in the same social groups anymore but I wanted to say that I thought you were cool before you became a vampire. Yeah, even when you wore glasses, had your hair pulled back, and wore sweats I thought you were...cute. I mean, I'm no fan of Dusk but it was adorable to see you get so excited about selling tickets for the premiere night. I don't know what it was that made it adorable. Maybe it was the smile, maybe it was the bright twinkle in your eyes...

Now you're hot and popular with everyone ever since the bite. It made you more beautiful and confident, even though you continue to turn me down and call me the biggest loser you've ever known. But I guess I keep coming back because I really like that girl I met on the first day of school and...I still do.

-Benny