"So the look that I am going for this play is something dark and dramatic. Something that will put tension and give the audience a dreadful feeling," Eli told Marisol as he showed her around the stage.

"Okay, but why do I have to see the stage set?" She asked in confusion.

"Because when you do stage makeup, it has to capture the look of the production. There can't be any colorful eyeshadow, bright lipstick, or pastel blush because that is not the tone of the play," he explained as he eyed her current makeup critically. She was wearing pink eyeshadow and sparkly pink lip gloss. Marisol was so...girly. He wondered if she had a single thing black in her makeup kit.

"And eyeliner?" She asked.

"Black and sharp," he answered quickly.

"Ooh...like Natalie Portman in Black Swan?" She suggested excitedly.

"Actually, yeah that's perfect. You seen that movie?" He asked her, curiously.

She folded her arms and gave him a somewhat annoyed look. "Yeah, is that weird to you? Am I not supposed to like it? What kind of movies do you think I watch?" She questioned him.

"I don't know...chick flicks like Clueless, Mean Girls, and Bring It On?" He replied, making her tsk in response.

"Clueless is my favorite movie. Mean Girls is a classic. Bring It On is the essential cheerleader movie that every aspire cheerleader must watch if they are to perfect the art of the sport, but I watch more movies than that Emo Boy. Shocking concept, I know," she dryly replied.

"Sorry," he apologized, feeling sheepish for some reason.

"Now would you feel offended if I believe that all you watch is horror movies?" She questioned him.

"I mean that's eighty percent of what I usually watch," he replied shrugging, "I live and breathe horror."

"Eww...horror movies freak me out," she said with a shiver.

"That's what they're supposed to do, Marisol. They tug on your primal emotions and reduce you to quaking mess so they can stick on your mind...forever," he added for dramatic effect.

"No thank you, Eli. So that means you're coming to Movie Night, then? Since they're showing a Zombie movie," she asked.

"PG-13 horror movies aren't my thing. They're all watered down bullshit," he replied as he already knew that the school wouldn't dare to show a R-rated movie. "What is the movie, anyway?"

"Zombie Massacre 5," she told him, and the title made him cringe, "Come on it'll be fun!"

"A PG-13 zombie movie? Oh boy, does that sound like a snore fest," he laughed, "I have a play to work on."

"Pleaaaassee Eli?"

"Hell no."

"I'll drive you, and since you're such a movie buff, you can at least have fun making fun of it, right?" She offered. "You already have a script for the play, and you casted pretty much everyone. You can stand to have one night of fun, pleeeeaaassse?" She pleaded while giving him a charming smile.

"Fine, whatever," he grumbled, not knowing why he accepted the offer. It sounded like a date, a trap that Marisol laid out for him, and he was willingly walking right into it.

He was a fool.

—-

Marisol loved it when she won.

She happily sipped on her Oreo cookie milkshake with chocolate drizzle. It was one of her favorites from The Dot. She knew that as a cheerleader, she should control her diet but she couldn't resist the milkshakes, ice cream, chocolate, fries, burgers, cupcakes, wings, pizza, and nachos. She was a big eater. She couldn't help it. It didn't really matter as she worked all of the calories off anyway afterwards.

Katie, who was sitting across from her, wasn't really drinking her own strawberry milkshake. She instead was giving her a critical look.

"Mari, I don't know what you see in Eli. He's weird," Katie told her with a raised eyebrow.

"He's hot. He's mysterious. He's different," Marisol answered with a shrug.

"He crashed his car into a wall on purpose for his ex-girlfriend last month!" Katie exclaimed. "He's a nutjob!"

Marisol tried not to roll her eyes at her best friend's statement. Katie was always so judgmental of her boyfriends and crushes, even back in middle school. It was so annoying. While in hindsight, she would agree with Katie that Owen was a mistake, it used to piss her off when Katie wouldn't stop glaring or being rude to him. No guy was perfect enough for Katlynn Matlin. It's why she never had a boyfriend.

"He takes anxiety medication so that won't happen again, and even then it was because he was so heartbroken over Clare. She abandoned him when he needed her the most," Marisol argued.

"You're telling me you wouldn't have done the same, Mare? Come on, you're just defending him because you want to get in his skinny jeans," Katie said as she took a tiny sip of her milkshake. "There's so many cute guys who would be a better fit for you than Eli Goldsworthy."

"Well I want Eli and I'll have him," Marisol sharply replied, "We're already Facerange friends and I'm taking him to Movie Night tonight."

The waiter brought their food, which was a big bowl of loaded nachos for them to share. Grabbing a large nacho chip and drowning it in cheese, she popped it in her mouth and gave Katie a defiant look while she chewed.

"Don't worry about me and Eli, Katie. You're going with Jake tonight, right?" She asked her friend.

Katie blushed in response. "Yeah. He just asked me like an hour ago."

"Now see, you might have a boyfriend by the end of this year," Marisol reassured her. "He's pretty cute. He's tall, has a gorgeous smile, and looks like a fun time."

"He is pretty cute," Katie said with a red face, as she started eating some of the nachos herself.

Marisol was pleased with how everything was progressing. She was taking Eli to Movie Night while her best friend was taking a hot guy.

She was already thinking of the double dates they could go on.

—

Eli got ready in his room that evening. He combed his hair and put on one of his band shirts. He smoothed out the wrinkle in his black jeans.

He didn't know why he agreed to come tonight when he had a play to work on with Fiona. The movie was probably going to be awful and a waste of his brain cells. However, Marisol was annoyingly persistent and if he kept rejecting her, she wouldn't shut up until he caved in.

She was such a troublesome girl.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, baby boy?" Cece, his mother, asked as she peeked into his room with a concerned look on his face.

He let out a sigh of annoyance. "Yes, Cece. It's just a stupid Movie Night," he replied tiredly. His parents were irritating the shit out of him lately with how they were smothering him because of the hearse incident. They were no longer his fun parents but overprotective, strict, and overbearing. Bullfrog and Cece were no different from Clare's parents how.

Where was this strictness in his childhood, where he would be forced to sit alone in his house for days while they went to some adult rock festival or a swinging party? Or when he had to learn to cook at a young age because his parents were often too drunk off their asses or high to fix him meals? Or all the times where when they *did* bring him to a rock concert, had him surrounded by drug addicts and horny couples? When they let him swear at an early age? Even better, when Julia would stay in his room for days and they did nothing but have sex all night while Bullfrog and Cece were passed out downstairs? His parents were coming off as massive hypocrites right now and he hated it. It made him want to hit something.

"Well it's just that we're worried that this may be too early for you to go on another date," she said, which made him groaned.

"This is not a date. I'm being kidnapped by a vapid cheerleader to go to a stupid school event. Marisol is nowhere near the type of girl I would EVER go with," he sneered. She was just going to have a role in the production of his play but that's it.

"I remember you saying the same about Clare when you first talked about her to us. You said a girl in your class had the prettiest eyes but acted like a stuck up prude," Cece pointed out.

"That was different," he argued.

"Of course," she replied with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. She didn't believe him.

A car horn beeped outside, which meant Marisol was here.

"It's time for me to suffer," he grumbled as he walked past his mother and left his room. Every walk down the steps felt like forever as he walked down to his doom.

"Have fun, sugar bean!" Cece told him cheerfully from upstairs as he walked outside.

He had to admit that he wasn't expecting Marisol to have a black car. He thought it was going to be some pink monstrosity.

"Emo Boy," Marisol greeted as he got in her car.

"Hey," he greeted back, but unenthusiastically.

This was going to be an interesting night.

—-

It wasn't a date but it felt like one.

Eli already felt uncomfortable with all of these students here as he followed Marisol into the large room. With the large projector screen and the strong buttery smell of popcorn, the room definitely felt like a movie theater.

People sent them odd looks they came in, and he didn't blame them. Dressed in his usual gothic attire and walking around with his cane Mortissa, he looked strange next to Marisol who was wearing a pink headband, a flowery pink and blue blouse, and pastel pink jeans. Their aesthetics clashed and he didn't think in a good way.

Marisol waved to her friend Katie...who was sitting next to Jake Martin. The Jake Martin that he heard Clare was going out with.

Their eyes met, and Eli felt his stomach tighten in jealousy while Jake gave them both a casual wave. However, he was also confused. Why was Jake with Katie tonight and not Clare?

As Marisol had them sit down next to Katie and Jake, Eli scanned the room and found Clare.

Clare was sitting next to some curly-haired kid, chatting happily with him. What was going on? Was Clare single after all?

"I'll go get some popcorn for us," Marisol stated as she got up and walked off to the popcorn stand.

"So...Eli. What brings you here? You going out with Marisol now?" Jake asked him in a friendly tone. Katie, for some reason, was giving him a cold stare.

"No," he answered while shaking his head, "We're just friends."

Friends? Did he really consider her a friend now? They still barely knew each other.

"Ah," Jake replied as he wrapped his arm around Katie, who was then turning red.

Marisol came back with a giant bowl of popcorn and sat down next to him with a wide smile.

"I hope this is a great movie," she told him in hope. He only nodded in response.

An hour into the movie, Eli wouldn't stop cringing. The movie was shit with bad acting, unlikable characters, and bad special effects. It was direct-to-dvd bullshit. He should have known better. There was no way a zombie movie be rated PG-13 and be good.

The worst part was that several people in the audience actually found it scary, including Marisol who wouldn't stop screaming at every jump scare. She clung onto him for life every a zombie popped up on the screen and attacked a character. If she wasn't squeezing his shoulder and digging her fingernails into him, she was burying her face into his chest. He didn't know how to feel about that. He was apprehensive, but it also felt...nice.

A student came around and took a picture of them. Marisol took a moment to stop bouncing around fearfully and gave the student a sweet smile. Eli himself just gave the student an awkward look as the camera flashed in their eyes. As soon as the guy left, it was back to Marisol screaming as blood splattered the screen. If this is how she acted with a shitty, low budget movie, he couldn't imagine how she would react with a real horror movie like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Suspiria. She would probably pass out.

Eventually some drama happened as Dave Turner's girlfriend loudly broke up with him and then dumped her popcorn all over him. She then stormed off with a huff. Then Drew Torres took off somewhere in a panic. Then Jake left their area and walked off somewhere, making Katie very confused.

It was crazy how a school event at Degrassi couldn't happen without some drama. What was Degrassi, a melodramatic teen soap opera or something?

Thirty minutes later, the movie ended to his great relief and everybody exited the room. He had just wasted an hour and a half that he would never get back.

As he got into Marisol's car and buckled his seatbelt, he was steaming.

"I can't believe how bad that movie was," he whined while Marisol pulled off.

"Oh please, I had a great time," Marisol replied in amusement as she drove.

"It wasn't even scary! I got more scared watching Hocus Pocus as a kid," he argued. He watched as she rolled her eyes. "It's true! The plot was stupid and nonsensical, the characters were flat and annoying, and the movie felt like it was made on a budget of fifty dollars and a candy bar."

"You sound like one of those movie snobs," she teased.

"I am, and proud of it," he boasted. He did love a lot of goofy, silly movies but he prided himself on his knowledge and adoration of classic movies.

"What did you want to be, a movie director or something in the future?" Marisol asked him.

"A playwright and an auteur, not just a director. Film directors are the standard but I want to make my films so masterful, so revolutionary, so different from the rest that I am regarded as the author of the movie, not just the director. Directors only do a small part in comparison to the producer, the screenwriters, the cameramen, the set designers, and of course the actors. Auteurs, however control majority of the creative process," he explained.

She looked at him, impressed.

"You're really passionate about this, aren't you?" She asked softly.

"Of course. Everyone should be passionate about what they want to do with their career past high school. Aren't you?" He questioned her.

She shrugged. "I don't know what I want to do yet after high school. Probably own a business," she answered.

"Makeup?" He asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, you know. My own makeup line with a specialization in lip gloss sounds like a wonderful power move," she replied with a smile.

"You and your lip gloss," he commented in amusement.

"Lip gloss is life," she simply said in response.

She eventually pulled up in front of his house.

"You can't tell me you didn't have fun," she pressed him as he unbuckled himself and got out of the car.

"The movie was stupid," he replied. Not to mention it wasn't fun seeing his ex.

"The popcorn was delicious though, and you better not deny it. I saw you mow down half of our bowl," she warned.

"Fine, I'll give you that. The popcorn was great," he told her, "I'll see you around, Mare."

"See you around, Eli," she replied warmly as she drove away.

He found himself smirking as he watched her car disappear into the distance.

Marisol was a strange girl but he was finding her more interesting every day.