When I returned to Yuuki's dorm later that night (with the news that my room wouldn't be cleaned up for at least three days), Yuuki was spinning around with a white dress pressed up to her chest.

"What's that?" I asked, exhausted. I placed my bag down in the corner, watching Yori put on some light makeup and Yuuki dance around like she just was declared queen of the world.

"A dress, duh!" Yuuki said giddily, starting to undress and put it on.

I rolled my eyes, "I can see that, stupid. I meant where did it come from."

"Someone sent it to her," Yori said happily, "A not-so-secret admirer." She winked. I had no idea what she was implying, though.

"Well isn't that just dandy," I said sarcastically, taking out my History book and sitting on the floor to start the assigned reading.

Yuuki had finished pulling the dress over her head, and looked at me. "What are you doing?" She demanded, plucking the book out of my hands and dropping it.

"Homework," I responded dumbly, reaching for my book. Surprisingly, she kicked it out of my reach. "What else would I be doing?"

"Oh, I don't know. Getting ready for the biggest dance of the year?" She cried, putting her hands on her tiny hips.

I snorted, "As if. No one asked me."

"So?"

"I don't have anything to wear," I said truthfully, looking away from her. "Besides. No amount of makeup can hide these hideous bruises," I muttered bitterly.

"Never say you don't have anything to wear," Yori smiled an evil smile that told me right away she was hiding something. I'd never thought she could pull off the evil smile- but somehow, she did. She turned away from me and pulled something out from a box under her bed.

Yuuki broke into a wide smile and pulled me up by the upper arms, forcing me into a standing position. "We made you a dress!" She cried happily.

My mouth dropped open. "You…did…what?" I screamed.

"We've been working on it for the past week," Yori admitted, unfolding a lump of sparkly dark blue and black cloth. "We decided all you needed was a little understanding and kindness. And you needed to be more social. So we thought that maybe…"

I stared at the dress. It was impressive. I'd expected Yuuki to fail at it for certain, but maybe Yori had kept her in line. It was black netted material, with an uneven hem that fell in jagged triangles. The glitter was subtle, but complimented the dress nicely. Underneath the black was a layer of dark blue that just showed through the dress. I swallowed, unsure of what to say. I didn't want it. I didn't want to wear the dumb thing, or even get into a dress if my life depended on it. But what would new Midori do? It was hard to tell with old Midori fighting tooth and nail about not getting into the dress. I decided that new Midori would put on the dress and go to the dance, just so all of their hard work didn't go to total waste. It wasn't like anyone had to see me in it, right? There was always the possibility that I could hide in the bathroom for the majority of the event.

"All right, fine," I began, "You win. I'll try it."

Yuuki squealed and clapped her hands together before attending to her hair. I stepped into the closet, even though it was small and cramped, and changed into the dress. It was itchy. It was itchy and it felt so wrong that I wanted to rip it off and burn it and never see it ever again and scatter its ashes around the country. But I had to try to be courteous, no matter how hard it was for me. As soon as I stepped out of the closet, the two pairs of eyes landed on me.

"Oh. My. Gosh!" Yuuki cried, jumping up, "It's perfect."

I hesitantly looked in the mirror, seeing someone I didn't recognize. What in the name of God was I turning into? Immediately Yori and Yuuki seized me, playing with my hair and makeup. There was so much makeup in the air that I coughed and sneezed and tried to fight them off, but it didn't work.

"This is wrong!" I cried, "I hate this! I'm going to murder you!" I screamed. But when they thrust me in front of the mirror, all made up like a doll, I had to admit they'd done a pretty good job. Sure, I hated feeling like a doll, but I decided that it definitely could have been worse. They hadn't stripped me of all my tom-boyish pride. "Let me rephrase. I'm going to murder you…after tonight."

As for shoes, I slipped on a pair of black hi-tops. They might have forced me to look like a girl, but I was determined to maintain my unique Midori-hood. Even if Yuuki and Yori shot me disapproving looks.

Whispers. Everyone recognized me, only for my bruises. Everyone was shocked. I tried not to throw up as I realized that boys were staring at me. It was the greatest and worst feeling in the world at the same time. Glares. I was actually getting glares from some of the girls. One girl in particular, though, was Tawny. In her gorgeous ice blue Cinderella ball gown, I couldn't imagine why. She was still the prettiest girl in the room. So I attracted attention for two seconds. Was that a reason for her to give me death stares? I returned her glare, and she immediately looked away. No one could out glare me.

The first person I noticed, though, was Zero. He wasn't dressed up, and he didn't look any different than before, but he still dominated my complete attention. I quickly looked away when I realized I'd been staring at him. What was happening to me? I wasn't sure how much more of this nice Midori stuff I could take. It was kind of starting to sicken me. I quickly hurried across the dance floor, and huddled into a corner, losing track of Yuuki and Yori. As far as I was concerned, Yuuki's little boyfriend Kaname could be sucking her blood right now. I'd just about had enough of her and her stupid shenanigans.

Zero walked over to me. He smirked, "Hi-tops, hm?"

"So?" I asked, defensively.

"Nothing. I just thought it was odd. Let me guess. Yuuki held you down and forced you into these crazy clothes."

"So I look bad?" I had a sudden moment of vanity where I panicked.

"I never said that. It's just so unlike you…are you feeling alright?"

I gently slapped him, "I'm feeling fine. But the more I talk to you, the sicker I feel."

"Okay, then I'll go away," he turned around.

"Wait!" I cried, repeating the incident from earlier, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that."

"I really don't understand you, you know that? I try and try and try to figure you out, but I just don't get it." Zero turned back around, standing up against the wall beside me. "I can't figure out if you have multiple personality disorder, or if you're trying to be nice, or what. So please, enlighten me, would you?"

"I wish I knew myself," I muttered, looking away from him.

Suddenly, Yuuki and Yori snuck up behind us and pushed us together. I squeaked and quickly backed away. "What was that for?" I said, turning bright red.

"If you two dance, we'll leave you alone," Yuuki smiled innocently. "Please? Just one little dance?"

"I can't dance," both Zero and I said at the same time.

"Then this should be extra interesting," Yuuki sang, pushing us together again and moving us into a proper dance stance.

The dance was awkward at first, especially with Yuuki and Yori breathing down our necks. But they backed off when we started getting the hang of it, and instead of stopping once they left us alone, for whatever reason, we continued. And slowly, we grew more comfortable. I noticed Tawny glaring again, and I knew that she couldn't stand the thought of me being with a guy when I had caused her to lose hers. Not that she was without guys, of course. They were left and right of her, begging for a dance. It wasn't my fault she was too proud to accept their invitations.

I suddenly suffered a moment of embarrassment, and I pulled away, and ran to the bathroom, where I threw up. And then I was too scared to go back out there, because I found I was even more embarrassed than before.

When I finally managed to return to the main room, I saw Zero right away. But he wasn't looking for me. He was being kissed by Tawny. And all I could do was sit back, watch, and wonder why I was even jealous.