Hey guys! Sorry it took me so long to update, I was really busy this weekend. Anyway

Replies:

Deadgirl13: Yeah, China has a big trick up her sleeve...

Paragon night: sorry I couldn't update sooner, busy weekend. Thanks so much!

LionsAndTrolls: I love Valduggery so much!

Disclaimer: I do not own the books of Skulduggery pleasant or its plot.

Valkyrie's POV (the day after the ball)

Valkyrie's concentration the day after the ball was lax. She sat in her lessons, staring into space, thinking about, guess who? Skulduggery.

"Miss Cain," said a voice, interrupting Valkyrie's daydream.

She was in her math lesson staring out the window to the field below, unfortunately for her the class was being taken by Miss Sole and she was the strictest teacher in school,

"Miss Cain, tell me, if the radius of this circle is 4, what will be its circumference,"

"It's, ur...," Valkyrie thought for a moment, then saw Avril holding up a scrap of paper to her, saying '25.13',

"Oh, its twenty-five point thirteen, Miss isn't it?" Responded Valkyrie, hiding a grin. Miss Sole nodded curtly and turned back to the black board. Valkyrie tore a scrap of paper from her note pad, scrawled 'thanks' on it and slipped it to Charlena, who passed it Avril. Avril grinned and the girls got back to their work.

Page brake

Later in the dorm, when the lessons were over for the day, Valkyrie said thank you to Avril,

"That teacher is a cow, thanks for helping me out. I would have got detention for sure," said Valkyrie gratefully.

"Don't mention it," said Avril, waving the thank you away like a cloud of midges. They both got into their beds, and Avril blew out the candle.

"Did you and Skulduggery kiss?" Asked Avril, completely out of the blue, like the straightforward girl she was. Valkyrie was glad the candle had been blown out, as she had turned a deep crimson at the memory.

"Maybe," Valkyrie giggled, she had been dying to tell someone but she didn't know how, now that Avril had asked, it was so much easier.

"Awww, you're so cute together, ask him out next time we get the chance to go into town, you don't have to wait for him." Said Avril wisely.

"Yeah, maybe..." said Valkyrie, albeit sceptically. "I'll sleep on it,"

Page brake

China's POV

China stood in her dorm, broken furniture, photos and bed stuffing lay around her. The last ten minutes had consisted of her yelling and throwing things around the room, Skulduggery and that absolute COW had kissed! Words were not sufficient to describe how angry she felt. She had had a plan before now, but she would scrap that. If she was going to get revenge on Cain properly she'd need a master scheme.

China pulled out a note pad and started to jot down ideas and plans, soon she had a list of thirty. China grinned; this was going to be good.

Skulduggery's POV

Skulduggery paced back and forth across his room, muttering to himself. Dexter was out and Skulduggery was trying to think of the best way to ask out Valkyrie.

"Uh, 'Valkyrie do you want to meet up in town some time-'no, that sounds stupid..."

"What about, 'Val, do you want to go out with me?' Wait no, not that"

Skulduggery sighed and sat down on his bed.

"I'll just have to do it; hopefully she won't judge me..."

Skulduggery had been thinking about the kiss for the last couple of hours as well, replaying it in his head and trying to conjure up a way to ask out Valkyrie. He had planned for hours but eventually just decided to ask her out, then, if she agreed, bring her out to eat in town. He thought this would be the best way to do it; hopefully she wouldn't reject him...

Skulduggery blew out his candle and got into bed. Thinking about Valkyrie had exhausted him (he wouldn't normally go to bed at nine) but hopefully it would be worth it. He lay in bed thinking thoughts of the date he might have with Valkyrie. Then, a smash of glass, an explosion then a torrent of yelling and everything went black.

Thanks for reading and being patient enough to get this far. Sorry I haven't updated in a while, busy week. Please review. Thanks! P.s don't blame me if I've got the maths question wrong, I'm awful at maths.