HOW HAS IT BEEN SO FAR? LET ME KNOW!

Raven's POV:

After I was sure Alexander was really gone and him leaving wasn't some stupid nightmare, I brushed my teeth and put in a movie in the front room to await my family's return. I had just pressed play on Rocky Horrer Picture Show when they came home. Dad looked stressed, mom looked peaved, and Harry was being towed by a shamefaced Billy Boy.

"I thought Billy was going to Henry's, not the other way around." I said.

Mom was the first to speak. "That WAS the plan. Unfortunately, Henry's parents said the only way there can be any slumber parties-"

"Mom! We're dudes! You don't call them slumber parties!" Billy whined.

"As I was saying..." She was fumming. "The only way Billy and Henry can spend the night together is if Henry comes here because the last time Billy went to Henry's, Billy broke a vase and they hid the pieces in a frying pan in the cabinet."

"We know that. It doesn't explain why you look like you could sacrifice a goat right now." I said confused.

Mom didn't find my joke very funny. She stormed off for the room. Dad gave me an apologetic look for her behavior. "Your mother had a bad time at the conference. Billy didn't tell anyone that the reason he was given detention last week was not for correcting the teacher when he gave the wrong answer to two math problems."

"What's the real reason?" I raised an eyebrow at the boys who ran for Billy Boy's room.

"He was busted by his computer class teacher for looking up adult movies and emailing them to his friends. He was caught because he was sending them to the people on the list of who was using a school computer at that time and he accidently clicked the teacher's computer too."

"Yikes. Why does he get Henry over if he's in trouble?"

"As upset as I am as well, the computer incident did happen two months ago and he was already punished for getting a detention in the first place since he had told us that he mouthed off a little bit that day when he corrected the teacher. What's done is done. He's been punished and the crime is stale as I always say."

"You're too much of a softy." I laughed, giving him a goodnight hug.

"Plus the waiter got mom's order wrong at the restaraunt and we had to wait ten minutes just to place our order in the first place."

"I'm sorry. Give her my love."

"Will do kiddo. Bedtime."

"But I just put in a movie." I sort of whined.

He sighed. "Which movie?"

"Rocky Horrer Picture Show." I smiled. It was his favorite.

"Alright, we'll watch it, but we have to skip around and only watch the good parts to prevent staying up too late. You do have school in the morning."After twenty minutes of scene watching, I was sent to bed. Watching a vampire movie with my dad brought back the good days of glowy play-dough and flower power posters. It really cheered me up.

I was sad to go back to my room though. I no longer felt warm in fuzzy. I kept remembering the fact I might never see Alexander again. After a good, long cry, I was able to finally sleep. The next morning, I woke up with a red face and puffy eyes.

"I feel like crud." I mumbled and slammed the snooze button on my alarm.

"You look it." My mom said, walking in with a bag that was from Hot Gothic. "I've got a little something for you."

I sat up, intrigued. She put the bag on my desk and swung open my drapes. "What's the occation?"

"Well, I haven't really taken you school clothes shopping yet and I feel bad for my bad mood last night. I didn't even ask if you had something to eat."

"Don't worry about it. I got something." The truth is, I hadn't ate since lunch yesterday. I wasn't hungry last night but now I feel like I could eat a whole bear.

She handed me the bag. I couldn't contain my enthusiasm as I practically swan dived into it and pulled out a red, spaggetti strap dress that looked like it would fit snuggly around me. I squeeled in delight and hugged my mom. "Thank you so much! It's so awesome!"

She pulled out a black headband with a red bow and a pair of black flats. "I figured it could be a gothic Snow White look."

After several thank you's, I pushed her out of the room to try it on. With my black hair and pale skin, I really did look like a gothic Snow White. The dress fit snuggly till my hips where it flared out. After brushing my hair and teeth, I applied sleepless night cover makeup and red lipstick then ran to show everyone. I did a twirl in the middle of the living room. "What do you think?"

Henry looked like he was in love, Billy looked like he was gonna puke, mom was gushing with pride that I'm wearing anything but black and dad looked he didn't like the neck line. "Honey..." Dad began. "...are you sure you want Raven to wear that?"

"Of course I'm sure. She looks amazing." She gave me a big hug which I endured as a thank you.

If all it took to wear skimpy clothes was to make it a happier color than black, I might even put up with pink. Might. I ran outside to wait for Becky. A group of college guys honked at me as they drove by. I smiled and blushed with suprise. Note to self, get mom more than just a card for mother's day. Maybe some bath salts. Becky pulled up then in her mom's old blue truck. I jumped in.

"Woah! Look at you!" She said, genuinely suprised.

"You like? My mom got it for me. She let me wear it without a tanktop under it because it wasn't black."

"It looks great but I thought black was your signature color."

"It is. As you can see, my headband has black on it and so does my shoes. I like the color red too. I'm starting to think I might like red more than black. Might being the key word. So how have you and Matt been?"

"Great!" She smiled like she had just won the Miss. America Contest. "Matt keeps saying how excited he is to tell everyone we're engaged. It's making me impatient. I might just be tempted to ask him to tell everyone now."

"Hold your horses lovergirl. Give Matt some space. You need to remember that the first reaction everyone will have when they find out you're engaged is that you're knocked up."

She went pale and gulped. "I-I also told Matt yesterday that we should wait till prom to have sex. I was thinking about the consiquences of giving it up with so much time left in the school year. If we waited till prom, school would be over in a month anyway so if I got pregnant, there would be no time to grow yet before I graduated."

"Good plan Becks but let's hope it never comes to that." I said with a smile at how much thought she had put into the plan. We pulled into the school parking lot then. Everyone was just arriving. The soccer snobs were all surounding Trevor's car and talking. Becky got out first and ran into Matt's arms. I was nervous at first. What if Trevor wanted to pretend we still hated eachother like last night? I sighed. I need to be strong. It's not like he's my boyfriend. I love someone else...right?

I took a deep breath and got out of the truck. Trevor didn't notice me at first so I decided to go over in his general direction and pretend I was just talking to Becky. Becky motioned for me to come over and talk with everyone.

"Hey guys." I said, trying to ignore the stares. I definately loved the color red. It kept me gothic and people gave me positive attention instead of negative.

Trevor leaned against the driver door of his mercedes lazily. "Hey sexy. Nice dress." At least he wasn't ignoring me or calling me monster girl.

I ignored him and got into a conversation with Becky about accompanying her to friday's soccer match. After agreeing to sit with her in the front row (not willingly. If you sat in the front row, there was a dangerous risk of being hit with the ball. I'd make an exception however for Becky). She also asked if we could talk today at lunch about why I was really with Trevor at that party. Without giving her a definate answer, I ran for the school. I could hear the first warning bell ringing.

When I was almost to the school building, I noticed Trevor was following me. I stopped at my locker to grab my gym bag and math book which gave him enough time to catch up. He leaned against the locker next to mine. He looked peaved off.

"Why'd you ignore me? I was nice enough to not be mean or talk bad about you and I get ignorance as my reward?"

"Wow! After torturing me for thirteen years, two cases of saintliness makes it all better! Give him a hand everybody!" I said quietly, but I knew he could hear me.

"I thought we were on good terms now." He said. "Remember last night? The heartfelt talk at your house, agreeing to be my date for the party, ring a bell?"

"I also told you it would take a lot more than that for me to trust you again."

He sighed. "Ya...I guess you did..." At the sound of the final warning bell, he walked past me to the boy's locker room. I was in a confused daze as I made my way to the girl's locker room and dressed out. I can't even imagine a life where Trevor was my friend much less live it. There might come a time when everyone would know we're friends.

Gym passed in a blur and so did math and science. After we were dismissed by the bell to head to our next class, I still wasn't out of my daze. The sound of classical music being played in my next teacher's class let me know she was in a good mood. I really liked Child Development class. We were supposed to start a big project this week or next. I wonder if today is the beginning. I took my seat next to Becky who sat next to Matt. Trevor sat in front of me in the first seat in our row. He wasn't here yet.

The bell rang for the start of class. Trevor came running in then and took his seat. Miss. Dawn gave him a disapproving look but the smile she had never left. "Alright class. Setting down." She had a very soft voice. It could really lull a person to sleep. "We'll be starting our semester projects this coming monday. Today, we'll tell everyone who their partner is then start watching a movie that will take up today and friday."

She put everyone's names on the board and began randomly connecting lines. I smiled as she paired Matt and Becky. She was the awesome type of teacher that paired you with the people you wanted to work with unless you wouldn't do your work. Since both Matt and Becky were straight A students, there was no reason to separate them. I picked up a pen and got out a piece of paper to write a note to Becky explaining why I was at the party with Trevor when she connected Trevor's name with mine.

I blanched. Really? Has fate really been wanting Trevor to be my friend after all? I wrote the note quickly.

Dear Becky,

I came to the party with Trevor because he saw me walking towards the party myself. I wanted to congradulate you about your 15 minutes of fame.

XOXO, Raven

We did the XOXO thing as a joke. She had started writing it on her notes in middle school before she knew it meant hugs and kisses and after we had a good laugh when we found out what it meant, we both started using it in our notes towards eachother. I tossed her the paper and she read over it as Miss. Dawn put in a movie. She scribbled back a reply before throwing the paper back.

Then why were you holding his hand? -XOXO, Becky

I sighed and wrote back.

IDK. He grabbed MY hand. I didn't know how to react. XOXO, Raven

She gave me a knowing look as she wrote a reply.

He so likes you! ;) I can't believe it! BTW, how's Alexander been? XOXO, Becky

He's leaving to visit his family for a while. IDK when he'll be back. XOXO, Raven

Are you okay with that? XOXO, Becky

Ya. It's just for a while. XOXO, Raven

She nodded and stuffed the note in her bag as the movie's previews ended and a documentary on teen pregnancy began. This might botch up Matt's plans to get with my best friend. I was almost pleased with Miss. Dawn's movie choice. About halfway through class, a note was thrown over Trevor's shoulder and it plopped on my desk. I carefully unfolded it, trying to make as little noise as possible.

Hey Sexy. What's up? -Trevor

NOYB, That's what. :) -Raven

I was thinking last hour. Howabout we make farm girl's day and agree to double date. She's been telling Matt a lot about how she'd like that. -Trevor

Don't call her farm girl for one, and why would Matt tell you about their private conversations? I thought he cared about Becky. -Raven

He does. Chillax. He didn't tell me. Becky's telling him in front of other people. Like the other day when I bought them icecream. -Trevor

Oh. Sorry. Don't tell them I said that about Matt please. -Raven

I might. I might not. I won't if you promise to go on a date with me. -Trevor

Not gonna happen. Becky would never believe you anyway. -Raven

She doesn't have to. The evidence is on this note. -Trevor

I was tempted to throw the note away right now but I knew Trevor would never actually tell on me about something like that.

Please get it through your soccer ball skull. I have a boyfriend. His name is Alexander Stirling and he's only visiting his family. -Raven

I thought you told me there's a chance he might not come back. Sorry to bring it up. What girl is it anyway? -Trevor

...Luna. -Raven

WTF! No way! You mean he's engaged to Jagger's sister? -Trevor

WAS engaged! Don't be such an idiot! -Raven

You put on a good show you know. I'd never have guessed that the reason you didn't want me dating her had nothing to do with you being Jellous of me having a girlfriend. But if she had just ended up with me, Alexander wouldn't have her as an option you know. -Trevor

That stung to hear.

I wasn't joking when I told you she was bad news. If I hadn't of intervened, she'd have made you marry her. -Raven

This was a total lie. She made it clear she liked Alexander when she tried to bite his neck.

Yikes! Really? What is a covanent ceramony anyway? -Trevor

It's a gothic vampire wedding. Remember how Jagger thought he was a vampire. So did Luna. She was gonna try to bite you. Might have given you aids since she had them herself. -Raven

She deserved one flaw. Even if it was a made up one. The bell rang and Trevor read my reply and shredded the note. After he was sure no one would know of our conversation, he threw away the pieces and walked with me to our next class.

"Really?" He whispered. "Luna had aids?"

"Ya." I tried to hide my smile. Our next class was cooking. We sat at our table and looked through today's cooking report. "Yum. Cookies."

The worst part of this class is the other people at our table are preppy girls that fall all over Trevor and make me do all the cooking but never let me eat any of the food. It didn't seem fair that the people who ate the food were the ones who would puke it up later. Perfect waste. I decided to try and use Trevor's and my new found friendship to my advantage.

After I had taken the cooking out of the oven (Trevor had suprisingly agreed to help cook them), I divided all twelve evenly with the six people at the table. I put everyone's plate on the table and mine last. The girls glared at me. I had begun a conversation with Trevor about soccer that was still going on. No one would take food from me when he was paying so much attention. I ate one cookie and was about to grab the other when Brittany Styles took it.

"Are you gonna eat this?" She hovered it above my plate.

"No actually." I snatched it back and put it on Trevor's plate. "I was going to give it to Trevor since he did most of the cooking and deserves it."

She made a face at her plate, wishing she had a cookie left to give to him. Brittany's best friend Tessa handed him a cookie and so did Rachael. I smiled as he looked at everyone overwhelmed. He shook his head at their extended hands and only picked up my cookie.

"Really girls. No thank you. I need to watch what I eat since there's a soccer game. I have to call it quits with this." He took a bite and smiled at me.

Brittany tried to get his attention by asking him what his diet was when he was training for a game.

"The basics." He began. "Protein, calcium, red meat, fruits and veggies. Oh and absolutely no sugar." He smiled and took another bite of the cookie. Everyone laughed, even me. Could I be turning into a mushy brained prep that hung on his every word, no matter what it was? I certainly hoped not.

After he had enticed the girls to do the cleaning up, he started talking about sports again. "Okay Trevor, enough with the sports already."

He looked suprised but he had a pleased look in his eyes and a smile to match. He liked that I didn't drool all over him. He knew I hung out with him for the right reasons, not because I had a crush on him or wanted free stuff because he was rich. The bell rang and I collected my stuff. Trevor and I went our separate ways because we had a different fifth hour class. Before I could safely reach my English class, Brittany came marching down the hall in her prada heals.

She looked like she was out for blood. She stopped in front of me and stared me down. "I saw you at my party the other night! I thought I made it clear by now, you're not my friend and you weren't invited!" She was making a scene. People began to crowd around, hoping it was a girl fight.

"For one, it wasn't invitation invited. Everyone in school was allowed to go because it was for charity-"

"Everyone but you." She hissed and glarred.

"As I was saying. Secondly, I was Trevor's date and we all know he was invited."

She laughed and looked around her. "Did you hear that everybody? Gothic girl thinks she was Trevor Mitchell's date!" Everyone began to laugh and I began to cry. Darn my emotional insecurity! Suddenly, Trevor and Matt showed up with Becky in tow. She looked scared to death and so did Matt. Trevor had a crazed, determined look in his eyes.

He walked right up to me, fighting his will to take off, and kissed me right on the mouth. "Hey Beautiful. Missed you." After we broke away.

Everyone, including me, stared at him in shock. Brittany was the first to break the tangible silence that filled the hall. "What-um-" She looked like she was really trying to wrap her mind around the idea that the most popular guy in school just kissed the gothic outcast. It was about as plausable to her as the idea that aliens exist. I almost laughed when I realized I thought the same thing. After a long moment, she spoke with more gusto. "You're dating gothic girl Trevor?"

"Well ya. I thought it was obvious by now. She was my date to the party and I have been spending a lot of time with her lately. We were just trying to keep it quiet for now. I guess the cat's out of the bag huh Raven?"

I stared at him in shock and suspicion. What was he pulling? He pleaded with me with his eyes and took my hand. He gave it a reasuring sqeeze and I found my voice, however small. "Um, ya...I guess we've been found out." I tried to smile at the situation but it would have been more natural to take out a machine gun and blow Trevor's brains out. I'd rather be laughed at for the rest of the year and thought of as the sad little gothic girl who had a crush on Trevor then Trevor pretending to date me to make people shut up. I think.

He crossed our fingers together in our locked hands and walked me the remaining ten steps to my classroom. When I was safely inside my class, he walked past everyone in the hall, only stopping to fist bump Matt. Everyone stayed frozen until the tardy bell broke the spell. Everyone slowly broke away from the circle and made their way, late, to their own classes.

The remaining classes of the day passed in a blur, some images standing out more than others. By the time the final bell rang, dismissing school, I still hadn't wrapped my mind around how I was suddenly dating the boy I had hated with a vengence since kindergarden. It was sureal...It was unreal...I flinched when Trevor kissed my cheek and put his arm around me as I was walking out the school doors, but I didn't pull away.

It was like an out of body experience. I waved numbly to Becky as I passed. "Hey. I'm riding home with Trevor today." I pleaded with her with my eyes to ask me to talk. Ask anything, to get me away from Trevor long enough to think. Matt stood by her side, looking just as confused at everyone else did. So Becky and Matt didn't know what Trevor was doing with me either. Great. For all I know, he's wanting to kill me off and hide my body in the woods. I want to do that to him right now for sure.

It was when we were parked in front of my house that the shock finally wore off. I waited a second to process which emotions was taking its place. It was a frenzy. Fear, happiness, depression, and finally anger. I slapped him in the face, hard, when he had taken the keys out of the ignition.

"How dare you tell everyone we're dating! You're such a pig! I know you did this on purpose! Bad boy Trevor just can't take it when he's turned down can he? I thought I made it clear by now; I'm not even sure I want to be your friend yet let alone your girlfriend! Do you understand me?" I added that last line in a panic because the anger was beginning wearing off. It was a line my mom had used when she was scolding me about something stupid I did.

I expected him to yell back or at the very least, coldly tell me to get out of his car. Instead, he listened silently until I had run out of steam. Now I felt exhausted. He took a deep breath to calm himself and judged my previous anger level before daring to say anything back. I felt a surge of pride knowing I had scared him but kept my face covered by an emotionless mask.

"First off..." He began slowly. "...I did that because you were being laughed at. I was trying to help by proving you weren't lying."

I tried to keep all the emotion out of my voice. "Well say goodbye to your social life now then. No one is going to look at you the same way now that you've stooped to my level. Other than Matt standing up for you, your friends on the soccer team might make up some ridiculous lie to have you kicked off the team."

"They won't do that. Not trying to sound like a stuck up Neir Do Well but my dad does sign their dad's paychecks. Not to mention some of them are really my friends. The coach could hear I had murdered the entire east side of town and graffitied the country club and he'd keep me on the team because I'm the best player they have. And I'm not saying that in any sort of stuck up way."

"Girls won't be lining up anymore..."

"Yes they will. If I pretend to date you for a while to keep people off your back, this is how it will look to everyone. The guys will hold me on a stupid pedistool for scoring the goth girl-" He looked miserable as he said that. A year ago today, he would have loved to boost his popularity by getting with me. That's changed. "-And the girls will think I can have anyone I want and will want to get with me all the more."

"Nice to know your future is all wrapped up for you. Becky knows I'm still dating Alexander you know. She thinks I'm cheating on him. If my parents find out, or worse, if your parents find out, they'll tell the whole country club. The whole town will know. And when Alexander comes back, he'll hear people talk about it. He'll think I slept around on him while he was gone. He'll feel like he had wrongly chosen me over Luna."

"Please Raven, for me, try to wrap your mind around this. What if Alexander doesn't come back? I know, it's not a pleasant topic to think about but humor me. There's another girl and she's beautiful and rich. Don't get me wrong, you've got her beat by a long shot in the looks department, but what if he doesn't come back? His family expects him to choose her. Everyone is pressing down on him with what he's expected to do for his family. It's like Romeo and Juliet. Juliet might have loved Romeo but she was expected to marry Paris. She had to pretend to kill herself to get out of it."

"So I'm Romeo and Alexander is Juliet?" I asked, trying not to smile when I felt like I was being thrown into the depths of despair.

"You know what I mean. I care about you and I don't want you pining after someone that will ultimately break your heart. It's better to let go now instead hold on only to be thrown off. He loves you and you love him. I know that. But he's still in school and unless he literally runs away with you, there's no way it will work. His family won't just hand over his inheritence after a stunt like that. Neither of you have jobs. You just told me last night. He's still inlove with her."

I tried to hit him again but he caught my arm. "Please stop talking about this Trevor! Just, please! I can't take it!" I ripped my arm away and tried to open the door but he pulled me back and forced me to look at him.

"Please don't do this to yourself Raven. You know you have other options." I cringed as he craddled my face.

"I don't want other options." I ripped out of his grip and threw myself out of the car. I unsteadily unlocked the front door like a girl out of a horror movie who knew someone was chasing her. As I shut the door behind me, I saw Trevor was still in his car, watching me walk inside. I threw my book bag by the tv and threw myself on the couch for a good, long cry.