A/N: Hello, guys! I am back with Chapter 8! Here we have the long-awaited (lol not really) dance chapter :)

I would just like to say that I do not own, nor am I affiliated with Curt Mega, Riker Lynch, or any other people who appear in this story. On the contrary, I do own all of the original characters that appear in this story (like Finn O'Brien, Adam Martella, Sophie Woods, etc.) All of the events that happen in this story are entirely fictional, and I mean no harm to Curt Mega or R5 through the writing of this story.

This chapter is quite a bit longer than usual, so I hope that you enjoy it!


Homecoming week was in full swing when they returned to school on Monday. Even though Curt didn't participate in any of the dress-up days, he still enjoyed seeing kids walk down the halls wearing interesting costumes. On Friday, the sports teams had their homecoming games, and Saturday was the dance.

Curt had gone through all of the dressier clothes he'd brought with him to Colorado to pick something to wear to the dance. He originally was going to wear a black shirt with black pants and a black tie, but he was going to a school dance, not a funeral. So, he swapped out his black dress shirt for a charcoal gray one. His mom had ironed them today, and he'd just put them on. After getting dressed and combing his hair, he was ready to go.

Curt walked down the stairs. His parents were waiting at the bottom.

"Look at you!" his mom said. "Let me get a picture."

"Mom," Curt said, groaning.

"Oh, come on, just one picture," she said.

"You say that every time," Curt said.

"Here, stand against this wall," she said. Curt stood with his back to the wall, and his mom took a picture.

"Oh wait; that came out too dark, let me turn the flash on," she said. Curt stood with his back to the wall, and his mom took another picture, this time with the flash on.

"That one was blurry. Just one more time, and I think it'll be perfect," she said.

Curt smiled for one more picture.

"Perfect," she said.

"Our little boy is growing up," Curt's dad said to his mom.

"I know," she said.

"You guys should probably get going," his dad said.

"Yeah, we should. You don't want to be late to meet your friends," Curt's mom said.

"You have fun now," Curt's dad said.

"I will. Thanks, dad," Curt said.

Curt had managed to find his dress shoes, so he put those on while his mom grabbed her purse. A couple of minutes later, they were in the car.

The Chinese restaurant wasn't too far away. The name of the place was Qing Palace, and it was located in the parking lot of a beat-up strip mall. Several of the letters on the sign had burned out, adding to the overall sketchy feel of the place.

"Let's go inside," his mom said. Curt stepped out of the car, shuddering from the cold. Even though the snow they'd gotten a few weeks ago had melted, it was still very cold outside. They walked into the restaurant. There was a woman waiting by the door.

"Good evening," the woman said.

"Hi, we're meeting a group of people here?" Curt's mom said.

"Ah, yes, right this way," she said. She led them to where Sophie, Adam, and Finn were sitting. They were the only ones in the restaurant.

"Can I get you something to drink?" she asked. "We serve Pepsi products."

"Can I have a diet Pepsi?" Curt's mom asked.

"Sure," the waitress said. "And for you, sir?"

"Water is fine, thanks," Curt said.

"I'll be back momentarily with your drinks," she said. Curt and his mom took their seats. A few tables had been pushed together to allot enough room for everyone to sit.

"So, introduce me to your friends," Curt's mom said.

"That's Finn, Adam, and Sophie," Curt said, gesturing to each person as he said their name. "Guys, this is my mom."

"Hi, nice to meet you," Finn said, shaking her hand. Adam and Sophie followed suit.

"This isn't all of them," Curt said. "We should have three more coming."

Then, the waitress came back with Curt's water and his mom's soda.

"I'll be back in a few minutes to take your order," she said, setting the glasses down in front of them and handing them straws.

"Oh, Riker's here," Finn said. Curt turned to see Riker, Rydel, and Tiffany walking in the door with Stormie. The waitress ran over to them, and then escorted them to the table.

"Mom, that's Riker, Rydel, and Tiffany. Tiffany is Riker's date," Curt said.

"Nice to meet you all," Curt's mom said.

"Alright, let me get their order first and then I'll get your drinks," the waitress said.

"We'll just get the buffet," Curt's mom said. The waitress nodded and then took Riker, Rydel, Stormie, and Tiffany's drink orders.

"Hey, Finn, where'd your mom go?" Sophie asked.

"She had to run to the bank before it closed," Finn said. "She'll be back soon."

"We should probably go ahead and get our food," Adam said.

"Yeah," Finn said. Finn, Sophie, and Adam walked over to the buffet line. Curt decided to get up and get his food too. His mom was now happily talking to Stormie.

"For your reference, I would avoid the sweet-and-sour chicken," Finn whispered in Curt's ear. "It's a one-way street to food poisoning."

"He's only made that mistake a million times," Adam said to Curt. Curt couldn't help but laugh. Curt wasn't really in much of a chicken mood, so instead he got some fried rice and wonton soup. As they were making their way back to the table, Riker, Rydel, and Tiffany were going up to the buffet to get theirs. They sat down at the table and started eating. Shortly after that, Finn's mom returned.

"Hey, mom!" Finn said.

"Hi," Finn's mom said. Finn's mom surveyed the group of kids. She stopped when she saw Curt. "You must be Curt. I'm Finn's mom."

"Hi," Curt said. He shook her hand. After that, the moms went over to a different table, leaving the kids all by themselves.

"Uh-oh, the official mom discussion has begun," Finn said. "We're never going to be getting out of here."

"Being trapped here might not be so bad," Riker said. "We've got food. A bathroom. We could push some of these chairs together to create beds."

"Or we could just sleep on the booths," Adam said.

"What do you think they even talk about?" Curt asked.

"A better question would be 'do we want to know?'" Finn said.

"I'm kind of scared to eat this," Tiffany said, holding up her fork. A piece of sesame chicken was on it. "I've heard bad things about this place."

"You're fine," Finn said.

"Finn's one true love is Chinese food," Adam said.

"I've had everything in this restaurant at least once," Finn said. "As long as you avoid the sweet-and-sour chicken, you should be okay."

"Okay," Tiffany said, smiling a little. Gingerly, she took a bite out of her sesame chicken. Curt figured that it must have tasted okay, because she didn't hesitate to take another bite. They all ate for a few minutes, and then the waitress came back.

"Is everything tasting okay?" she asked.

"Perfect," Finn said.

"May I ask what the occasion is?" the waitress asked. "You are all dressed up."

"We're going to a school dance tonight," Finn answered.

"Ah!" the waitress said. "May I ask what school?"

"Littleton High School," Finn said.

"There are several high schools in the area, so you can never be sure," the waitress said. She was right. There were three high schools in Littleton alone. Curt knew that from when his parents were looking at schools here. After they'd bought the house and made the decision to send Curt back to school, they had to figure out where Curt was going to be going to school. Where you went to school depended on where you lived, and finding out where Curt was supposed to go was an unnecessarily difficult process.

"Yeah," Finn said.

"Well, if you need anything else, let me know," the waitress said before walking away.

Curt wondered if the restaurant was always this empty or if it was just because they were eating kind of late. Soon, they'd all finished eating, and talked to each other while they waited for the moms to stop talking so they could go. Finally, Stormie looked over to see that they were all done.

"Alright, we just want to get a few pictures," Stormie said. The group collectively groaned, but stood up and walked over to the moms.

"Why don't we take them by that wall over there," Curt's mom suggested. The kids walked over and took their place by the wall that Mrs. Mega had pointed out.

First, they took a couple of group shots. Then, Stormie took a couple of Riker and Tiffany, and then took a couple of Rydel by herself. Curt's mom and Finn's mom snapped a couple of pictures of Curt and Finn. As a joke, they posed like a couple in one of them. Then, Finn's mom took a couple of Sophie and Adam for their parents. Then they took a picture of only the girls, and then they did one with only the guys. After that, the moms finally decided that they had taken enough pictures, and then they paid the bill so they could leave.

Before they left, the waitress gave them each a mint.

"Normally I would give you all fortune cookies, but I thought that you guys might like mints better since you guys are going to a dance," she said.

"Thanks," Finn said. They managed to hold their giggles in until they were safely outside of the restaurant.

"What does she think we're going to be doing at the dance?" Tiffany asked. Riker shrugged.

Only now was Curt noticing that Riker and Tiffany were matching. Tiffany was wearing a light blue dress dress, and Riker's shirt was in a similar color. He also had on a black tie and black pants. And god, did he look excited.

Adam and Sophie were kind of doing a matching thing, too. Sophie was wearing a glittery pink dress, and Adam was wearing a black dress shirt with a pink tie. Finn had on a navy blue dress shirt with brown pants, and he'd opted not to wear a tie. Rydel was wearing a white dress with pink flowers on it.

"I have to say, you kids all clean up nicely," Stormie said.

"Thanks, mom," Riker said as Tiffany giggled.

"If you want, I can take Curt in my car," Finn's mom said.

"That would be great," Curt's mom said. "Curt, you have fun. Don't go too crazy. I expect to hear all about it when you get home."

"Okay," Curt said.

"Love you," she said. She gave Curt a quick kiss on the forehead, and then turned around to walk back to the car. Curt followed Finn, Adam, and Sophie to the O'Brien's car.

Finn's mom drove a small Toyota. Curt sat in the backseat with Adam and Sophie, and Finn rode shotgun. The car ride from Qing Palace to Littleton High wasn't too long. Curt had been expecting it to be as long as the bus ride. However, they didn't have to go in and out of neighborhoods to pick kids up, nor did they have to deal with morning rush hour traffic, so it probably shouldn't have been so surprising.

"Here we are," Mrs. O'Brien said.

"Thanks, mom," Finn said.

"No problem. You kids have fun, now!" she said.

Curt was on the side of the car that was closest to the sidewalk, so he opened his door and got out. Adam and Sophie slid out behind him.

"I'll be here to pick you guys up at eleven, okay?" Finn's mom said to him as he got out of the car.

"Alright," Finn said.

"See you guys later," she said. After Finn closed his door, she started to drive away.

"Let's go!" Finn said.

"Don't you think that we should wait for Riker and the rest of them?" Adam said.

"Yeah, we probably should," Sophie said.

They walked inside the main doors of the school, and they waited. A couple of minutes later, Riker, Tiffany, and Rydel arrived. Finn led them down to the gym, where the dance was being held. A couple of kids from the dance committee were sitting behind a table outside of the gym. Off to the left was a backdrop where you could get your picture taken with your date (if you had one).

They pulled out their tickets and handed them to the kids behind the counter. Then, they walked inside the gym.

"You didn't want to get our picture taken, did you?" Riker asked. Tiffany shook her head.

"Wow," Sophie said, looking at all of the decorations.

"Yeah, they really did well," Finn said.

The walls had cutouts of black paper that was supposed to look like the silhouette of a city skyline. Streamers were hanging from the walls. But somehow, it all worked. The coolest decoration by far was the marquee they had in the back. Really all they had done was cut out a big sheet of black paper, put a smaller piece of white paper inside of it, and put a string of white Christmas lights along the black edges of the paper, but it really did look cool. The marquee read "Littleton High School Presents: Homecoming 2008".

Adam and Sophie wasted no time in getting out onto the dance floor. Finn was right behind them. After a couple of minutes, Riker and Tiffany were out there too. Rydel seemed to have disappeared, which left Curt all by himself. Curt decided to wander over to the snack table. He was still full from dinner, but at least going over there gave him something to do. He wasn't exactly ready to jump in on the dancing quite yet.

The snack table had snacks that were supposed to go along with the dance's New York City theme. Curt thought it was cute. He didn't take any food, but he did get a glass of punch. It was really warm in the gym, and Curt was already thirsty.

"Don't worry, dude, the punch isn't spiked," a kid said. Curt turned to see two tall boys standing next to him. It took Curt a second to realize that one of them had talked to him.

"At least not yet," the other boy said. This caused both of them to burst into laughter.

"No," the first boy said. "Hawkeye is guarding the table. If anyone planned on spiking the punch, they would have forgotten it the second they walked in the door."

"Who's Hawkeye?" Curt asked. He felt kind of dumb for asking, but he was still pretty new to the school. What could he do?

"That woman right there," the first boy said, pointing out a middle-aged woman who stood at the other end of the table. "That's Mrs. Williamson. We call her Hawkeye because nothing can get past her."

"So, drink all of the punch you want. Nothing's going to happen to it tonight," the other boy said. The two boys laughed again. Curt didn't really know what to say, so instead he nodded and casually walked away with his punch.

"I think we scared him away," the first boy said behind him.

Curt leaned up against the wall and sipped his punch. He watched everyone out on the dance floor, contemplating whether or not he wanted to go out and join him. Yep, he was certainly glad that he let Finn talk him into coming to the dance. He was certainly having the time of his life.

"Curt!" someone said. Curt looked to see Finn coming his way.

"Hi," Curt said when Finn had finally reached him.

"Why are you hiding out back here?" Finn asked.

"I don't know," Curt said.

"Well come on out, the next song's about to start," Finn said. The song that was playing ended, and then a slow love song began to play.

"Maybe we should wait for the next one," Curt said.

"That sounds like a good idea," Finn said. "Oh, wait, I know this song! This is my jam!"

Curt couldn't help but laugh. Finn started singing along with the song, and Curt scanned the floor, looking at all of the kids who were dancing. Almost instantly, he spotted Sophie and Adam. After a few more seconds, he saw Tiffany and Riker.

Curt couldn't get over how excited Riker looked. Riker looked like he was the happiest that he'd ever been. And then, beyond that, he looked at Tiffany like she was the greatest thing in the world. But after a few seconds, Curt started to feel jealous. The scary thing was, though, that he wasn't jealous of Riker. He was jealous of Tiffany. He wished that he could be in Tiffany's place, having Riker look at him like that. It was dumb, though.

But then he remembered the story about Adam and Riker and the supposed kiss. Adam had said that it was just a stupid rumor started by Marissa, but Marissa had claimed that it was true. It was pretty clear that Marissa couldn't be trusted. But what if she hadn't been lying? What if Riker and Adam really had kissed?

It didn't matter. At the end of the day, Riker was still head-over-heels for Tiffany, and Curt was still stupid. But why was he so jealous of Tiffany? Did he like Riker? Was that what was going on? No. It couldn't be. It was probably just that he wanted to be loved like that. Great, now he was getting all mushy with himself.

There were some tough-looking jocks around. Maybe he could go pick a fight with one of them. Then, he'd get beat up, and that would snap him out of it. Or better yet, maybe he'd lose consciousness, and then he'd wake up in the hospital with no recollection of what had happened. Yeah, that seemed like the safest bet.

The thoughts that were ricocheting around his head and the hot, stuffy air of the gym were starting to make him feel lightheaded.

"I'm going to go sit down," Curt said to Finn. He walked over to the bleachers and sat down. After the slow song ended, Finn joined him on the bleachers. After the next couple of songs, Finn went back out onto the dance floor, and once again, Curt was alone. That was when he spotted Rydel sitting on the bleachers.

Curt stood up and walked over to her.

"Hey," he said.

"Hi," she said.

"Having fun?" Curt asked.

"Not really," she said. "What about you? Are you having any fun?"

"No," Curt said.

"This really stinks," Rydel said.

"Tell me about it," Curt said.

"I mean, first my crush asks out another girl, then my best friend ditches me just because some boy said no, then I have to tag along with my brother, just to see my crush dancing with the girl he brought," Rydel said.

"Part of it's my fault," Curt said.

"What do you mean?" Rydel said.

"I'm the boy that Marissa asked to the dance," Curt said.

"Why'd you say no?" Rydel asked.

"Well, I just don't feel that way back about her," Curt said. "I was flattered that she asked me, but I just…well, you get what I mean."

"You guys could've still had fun," Rydel said. "I mean, Riker asked a girl he didn't like, and he's having fun."

"Riker doesn't like Tiffany?" Curt asked.

"Well, he likes her, he just doesn't like like her," Rydel said.

Curt was about to ask why he'd asked Tiffany to the dance if he didn't like her that way, but then he decided against it. It wasn't really any of his business.

"I guess that makes sense," Curt said, even though it didn't really.

"Still, you and Marissa still could've had fun," Rydel said.

"I don't think so," Curt said. "After she asked me and I'd already said no, I heard about some of the mean things that she's done to people, and now I just don't really have any respect for her."

"Really?" Rydel said.

"Yeah," Curt said.

"Is that why Riker hates her so much?" Rydel said. "Did she do something mean to him?"

"Yeah," Curt said.

"What'd she do?" Rydel asked.

"I would tell you, but that's not really my job. That's for Riker to tell you if he wants to," Curt said. "But, I'm really sorry for ruining your night."

"It's not your fault," Rydel said. "It's Marissa and Brandon King's fault."

"Well, if I had said yes, then Marissa would be here with you right now," Curt said.

"You had some good reasons for saying no," Rydel said, shrugging. "And please don't tell Riker that it was Brandon King who broke my heart. I don't think he was kidding when he said that he'd beat him up. I don't want Riker to get pummeled."

Curt couldn't help but laugh.

"Don't worry. My lips are sealed," Curt said.

"How are you all doing tonight?" the deejay said. The crowd cheered back to him. "I'm about to spin another slow one, so gentlemen, grab your honeybunny and bring her on down."

"That deejay is kind of annoying," Rydel said.

"No kidding," Curt said. When the song started to play, Curt turned to Rydel. "Do you want to dance with me? Since I basically ruined your night, it's the least I can do."

"If I say yes, will you stop saying that you ruined my night?" Rydel asked.

"Sure," Curt said.

"Then, yes," Rydel said.

Curt pulled her out onto the dance floor, and danced with her for the song. The fact that he was dancing with Riker's sister was awkward, and the fact that they really didn't know each other made it even more awkward, but it was the least he could do for her.

"Hey, make sure you rub this in Marissa's face on Monday, okay?" Curt said when the song ended. Rydel smiled and nodded. Then, she noticed some of her other friends and went off to hang out with them.

The rest of the dance dragged on. Finn managed to talk Curt into going out onto the dance floor, and Curt spent a while goofing off with Finn. Then, another slow song came on and they retreated back to the bleachers. Curt watched as Riker and Tiffany danced together. About halfway through the song, Tiffany reached up and went in for a kiss. The jealous feelings came rushing back as Riker started to lean in. But then, Riker jumped back and rushed away from Tiffany.

"Huh, that's weird," Finn said as the two boys watched Riker walk away. After a couple of songs, Riker came back, and acted as though nothing had ever happened.

Finally, the dance ended. Stormie and Finn's mom were waiting near the doors. It turned out that Finn lived near Tiffany, so Stormie and Finn's mom had decided that Curt and Tiffany would switch cars. It only made sense. The group said their goodbyes, and then Curt left with Riker and Rydel.

About half an hour later, Stormie was pulling into Curt's driveway.

"Thanks for taking me home," Curt said.

"No problem," Stormie said.

"Bye, Curt!" Rydel said.

"See you on Monday," Riker said.

"Bye guys," Curt said. He got out of the car and closed the door behind him. They all waved at him as he walked towards his door.

Part of him wasn't ready to walk inside. He knew that his mom was going to want to know how the dance went, but truth be told, Curt wasn't sure. It wouldn't be fair to say that the dance was good, but it wasn't necessarily fair to say that it was bad, either.

He just hoped that he'd be able to straighten all of this stuff out soon.


That's it for Chapter 8! I hope that you enjoyed it! Monday I'll be back in school, but I hope to get another chapter or two done before then.

As today is Thanksgiving here in America, I just want to say that I'm thankful for all of you guys. Your reviews, follows, favorites, and support mean the world to me.

Like I said before, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope to return soon with the next one.

Until next time! xoxoxo