The night of the dance finally came, and middle schoolers all around Third Street was ready to get out the door and to the school. For half of them it was their first dance, and they were eager to get there and have some fun, maybe even dance with a date that they were brave enough to ask.

TJ wasn't the most excited, but he made a promise to his girlfriend to be there and god forbid he break a promise like that. If he was one thing, it was loyal, and he always keeps a promise. So he managed to get dressed in simple Black pants and a white button up. He skipped on the tie; he still wanted to be at least somewhat comfortable.

Of course his mother wanted to take endless pictures of her son before his first dance, which took up at least 15 minutes before they were in the car and headed to the school.

ZZZ

The gym was packed with students, all dressed to have some fun. While others stood by the snack table, others were still to nervous to ask someone to dance. TJ walked in, looking around for the others. He and the others agreed to meet up inside, rather than wait outside in the cooling weather. He spotted them in a corner around one of the tables.

"Hey guys," he said after coming over. "I haven't missed anything, have I?"

"Nah, just the rush to get inside," CJ said. "You look nice."

"Y-you look nice, too, CJ."

"Are you two love birds done staring at each other?" Ashley asked. "'Cause i want to dance. I didn't make this dress for nothing."

"Yeah, sure. Go on out there and join all of everyone who's on the floor dancing," Randall mumbled. The dance floor, in fact, did not have any students dancing. Instead, they were all standing on the edges of the gym, divided from the girls and the boys, both too afraid to ask someone else to dance in fear of being publicly rejected.

Ah. That's right. For most of them, this was their first dance. No one had the experience to just go out there and have some fun, or lacked enough fucks to give to not care what anyone would think no matter what happened.

"What's the point of a dance if no ones dancing?" CJ huffed. "We could've stayed home and put on some music instead of being here."

"Do you wanna go out and dance?" Asked TJ. "My reputation is already in the garbage, so I can't get any more embarrassed."

"Nah, you don't have to if you don't want to."

"I don't mind. Really, I don't," He said, taking her hand. "It's like you said. What's the point of a dance if no one's dancing?" He gave her a smile before leading the way onto the dance floor.

"Aw, how cute. I wish I had someone to dance with," Ashley said. She glanced over to the other Ashleys, all standing and talking to each other at the opposite end of the gym. They were planning on dancing with one of the athletes; that much she could figure out. They were all about maintaining their status then and now, so it would only make sense for the cheerleaders to be with the jocks. But even back then, the thought of doing that made her inwardly cringe.

"Well, uh, if you're willing, I'd like to dance with you, Ashley," Menlo offered.

". . .You know, if this was a few months ago I would've laughed at you for even suggesting that," she said. "But I would like that, now, very much."

"You guys have fun, I've gotta check something out," Randall said. While Ashley and Menlo joined the growing crowd, he moved around the edge of gym, looking, watching for anything out of the ordinary. Just because he didn't find anything, he had a hunch that Austin was up to something.

Speaking of which, where the hell was that guy? All reasoning would lead to thinking Austin would be hanging with the other football players, but he was nowhere to be found. That only reaffirmed his suspicions.

Meanwhile, for the first time in a while, TJ could say he was having fun. For now, he was able to forget the things that were weighing him down, and enjoy himself in the moment, dancing with his girlfriend at a school dance.

God, it was so nice to forget about his troubles. Why couldn't things be like this all the time?

Soon, the dance floor was filled with students who became brave enough to step out, and it slowly became what everyone expected it to be.

ZZZ

Standing to the side, Austin, for once, stayed away from being the center of attention. Don't get him wrong, he was still with the jocks as they, one by one, went to the cheerleaders to ask for a dance, though he didn't. He had to keep up appearance, no matte what the short shit did do get him off the football team.

He watched that twerp be one of the first on the dance floor with his girlfriend to enjoy themselves.

"Yeah, have a good time while you can you dumb fuck. It ain't gonna last long," he thought, chuckling. Welp. He still had a lot more to do before things could get interesting. Everyone who needed to know what to do, knew already. He wasn't the only one who wanted to see him get embarrassed. Or maybe they just wanted to see a good prank, he didn't care as long as they did what he told them: stay away from the left three point line at the back of the gym. That's it.

So he stood back, and waited, playing the long game.

ZZZ

Randall wanted to enjoy himself. He did. It was his first school dance, who wouldn't want to enjoy themselves? But he couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to happen. Something that had managed to slip past his snooping radar. He stayed back, watching the rest of his friends dancing on the gym floor. He wasn't particularly upset at not having someone to dance with; he was too distracted.

Instead, he watched Austin on the other side of the gym, standing back away from the center of attention. That was enough to set off warning bells. That guy was up to something.

He needed to clear his mind, so he left the gym behind and went to the boys room. Dammit. It hasn't been that long since he snooped like this. Either he's been getting rusty or Austin has just that good and keeping things under wraps.

He leaned over one the sinks, splashing a bit of water over his face. There was the chance that Austin wasn't planning anything, too. . .

As he grabbed a paper towel, someone stepped out of one of the stalls. Kevin, he recognized. One of Austins lackeys or friends or whatever you wanted to call them. Randall hadn't seen him around Austin, in a while though. He brushed it off, not thinking it was important to the overall investigation.

"Hey, you're one of the losers, aren't you?" Kevin started. Randall rolled his eyes. Oh great. What was it going to be this time? A swirly? Being shoved in the girls room?

"Yeah. What of it?" Randall asked. It wasn't like they didn't know they were the designated rejects of the school. Even the dorks were ranked higher than they were. Randall was used to being so low on the social hierarchy, and the others, though not having been so low before, had accepted it, he thinks. As long as they had friends, who cared?

"You're friends with that short kid that looks like he belongs back in elementary."

"He has a name."

"Whatever. Look, it's not that I care or anything, but Austins planning on pranking him tonight," said Kevin. "I thought he was going to far, so I bailed."

"What? What is he planning?" Randall snapped. Kevin held up his hands.

"He's gonna dump a bunch of garbage on him when he steps in the right spot. Get got some nerd to build the thing for him," Kevin said. "You didn't hear it from me, alright? I didn't say anything; I'm not a snitch."

Randall pushed past him, ignoring the jocks insistence that he not be a involved. He didn't care, he finally got the information he was searching for, and he need to get to the gym to warn the others before Austin had the chance to do what he planned.

ZZZ

"I should've worn flats."

The dance was turning out to be more fun than TJ expected. For once, he wanted to have a decent time without Austin to worry about, and it seemed that, by some strange miracle, that he was going to get his wish. He could put all his focus on having fun with CJ, and God, that was way overdue with the shit that has been happening.

"I think some of the girls took their heels off," he said. "I saw Ashley take hers off a while ago."

CJ looked around, and indeed, there was a pile of heels in the corner of the gym. At least she wasn't the only one with the same thing on her mind.

"I should've worn these in before the dance," she sighed. "I'm gonna go take these off."

"I'll get us something to drink."

"Thanks!"

The two of them separated, CJ going towards the tables and pile of shoes, and TJ going towards the snack table. Like while the two were dancing, he caught glimpses of Menlo and Ashley dancing, having their own fun, though he had no idea where Randall was off doing. There was also his old friends, but he didn't pay them any attention. He was having fun for once, and giving them any attention would ruin the whole mood.

With two drinks in hand, he headed towards the tables where CJ sat, giving her feet a break. The dance floor had suddenly gotten a lot less crowded, but he assumed that it was because they all wanted a break, too.

Not because of this.

ZZZ

Austin watched, with contained excitement, as his target walked closer and closer to just the right spot. As soon as that short shit stepped to the right position, he pressed the button, and watched as the rancid, rotten, and foul smelling garbage fall from the rafters and pour over him, leaving him filthy and with everyone's eyes on him.

The sound of the music was quickly drowned out by the laughter of the students at his expense. TJ wiped away whatever was burning his eyes and the rest of his face, only to be met with pointing fingers and stomach busting laughs at his humiliation.

Of course.

Of course this was too good to be true. Honestly. How dare he expect things to get better?

His friends were by his side in seconds, either asking if he was okay or shouting at Austin for what he did, because really, who else would it have been?

He carefully stepped from the slimy, smelly puddle of filth and out of the gym, the laughter following him out.

God, how long was this trash rotting? It smelled like death, now he did, too. He headed to the boys room, one that was far from the gym so the sound of the school laughing was drowned out by the distance. Despite it being the boys room, that didn't stop the girls from coming in with him.

"You can't be in here! You're girls!" Some student shouted when he came out of one of the stall.

"And yet we're still here," CJ mocked. "Get out of here!"

CJ and Ashley all but threw him out and locked the door.

TJ wiped as much rotting liquid garbage off his face as he could. The stench was horrid, and he had no idea where to start cleaning himself off. Was it even worth trying to save his clothes? he wouldn't mind just tossing them out and not bothering to try.

"God, I can't believe that complete asshole," CJ said, picking off pieces of still solid food off him, while the others worked on getting paper towels out the dispensers.

"I wish I was able to figure out what he was up to before it happened," said Randall. He handed a small pile of paper towels over to TJ. "Sorry, dude."

"You don't have to apologize, Randall. It's no your fault, and you did your best," TJ said, Doing his best to clean his face. "If anything, I should thank you for even bothering to see if anything was up. I can't even have fun at a dance without him pulling something. Ugh, I need a bath. Some night this was."

"Hey!" Someone on the other side of the bathroom door. "Let us in."

"Who is it?" Ashley asked.

"Colten. I got a spare shirt he can change into."

They shared a look, silently agreeing to let him in. Colten stepped in once they unlocked and opened the door, with a plastic bag in hand.

"The chaperones caught Austin. Guy's probably getting suspended, but I don't know who told them it was him," Colten said. "Here. I keep a spare button up in my locker for emergencies."

"Thanks." TJ took the shirt out of the plastic shopping bag. It was large on him, but he would still rather wear that instead of the ruined shirt he had. He quickly swapped the shirts, tying his button up in the bag to keep the smell away. "I'll get it back to you as soon as I can."

"No problem, man," said Colten. "S'what are you gonna do now?"

"Go home I guess. I need a shower," said TJ. He shrugged. "I can't go back out there after this. What else is there to do?"

"Wanna hang out at my place? My parents aren't home, I have the whole place to my self, as usual," Colten offered. "You can take a shower there. If you want. I've got movies."

"I dunno if I'm at the mood after this," TJ said, finally getting his face clean. "And it was turning out to be a fun night, too."

"It can still be!" CJ wrapped one arm around his. "I don't feel like going back out there, either. A movie marathon actually sounds nice right about now."

"You sure?" TJ asked. "Alright. Looks like we're going to your place, Colten. What about you guys?"

"After what happened, I'm not in the mood to go back there, either," said Menlo. Ashley and Randall agreed.

"Great. C'mon, we'll climb out the window." Colten opened the bathroom window, and lead the way to climbing out. The others followed right after, avoiding the crowd of students that were, most likely, waiting for them to come back to the gym to laugh at them more. With hours before any of their parents expected them to come home, they joined up with the rest of Coltens friends and headed to his place.