Hello my faithful readers! It's time for the next chapter! Hope you enjoy it!

Ned Bigby stared blankly at his bedroom wall. He felt…. well he wasn't really sure how he felt. He'd gone numb to the pain that had been unbearable ever since lunch. He'd had his mom come and get him from school, claiming he felt sick. It wasn't exactly a lie, he did feel sick. Heartsick. Heartbroken.

As soon as he'd gotten home, he'd come up to his room. Now he was lying on his bed in the dark. His phone had rang a few times, he hadn't bothered to check who was calling. After a few attempted calls, he'd gotten sick of the ringing and put the phone on silent. Every once in a while the phone would light up, casting a dim glow across the ceiling and walls, a sign that someone was trying to call or text him. Ned didn't care. He'd retreated deep into his own mind and the phone's light barely even registered to him.

I wonder if I could get out of going to school tomorrow he thought to himself. I could tell mom I'm feeling even sicker. He rolled over on his bed as he mulled this idea over. Of course if I tell mom I'm feeling sicker, she'll probably just take me to the doctor, and he'll figure out I'm not sick and then I'll just get in trouble on top of everything else. Ned eventually fell asleep trying to figure a way out of having to go to school in the morning.

"Mom are you SURE I have to go?" Ned pleaded.

His mom fixed him with a firm stare, folded her arms across her chest and didn't respond. After a few seconds of silence, Ned sighed in defeat.

"Fine, I'll go, but I want it on record that I'm leaving under protest."

His mom laughed a little at this response, but Ned didn't share the humor. He slung his backpack over his left shoulder and trudged towards his front door. He reached the door and put his hand on the doorknob, then turned back towards his mother.

"It's time to go Ned Bigby. No more arguing" his mom's voice was firm and indicated there would be no further discussion.

Ned turned the doorknob and opened his front door, noticing how heavy the door felt today. He kept his eyes pointed towards the ground, as he fully expected Moze to be standing outside at the curb, waiting for the bus, and he didn't want to see her, or talk to her.

Moze.

Even just thinking of her name caused a fresh wave of pain to crash through him, and left his stomach feeling like it was filled with lead.

As Ned stepped outside, he glanced up quickly and noticed the skies were overcast. It looked like rain.

How fitting he thought to himself.

As he quickly returned his gaze towards the ground, he caught a quick glimpse of the familiar figure of Moze, standing at the curb just as Ned had feared she would be. Fortunately at that exact moment, her back was turned towards him, so she hadn't noticed him yet. Even more fortunately, the bus chose that exact moment to come rumbling up the road towards them.

Ned timed his walk to bring himself to the curb just as the bus pulled up. As he approached her side, Moze finally noticed him.

"Ned!" she exclaimed in a voice that sounded like a combination of relived and concerned at the same time. "I haven't heard a thing from you! Are you ok?"

Ned set his jaw and refused to look at her, instead choosing to climb onto the bus the moment the doors opened. He could hear her behind him, calling his name a few more times, before finally realizing he wasn't going to respond and stopping. He walked all the way to the back of the bus and sat in an open seat. To his relief, Moze must have decided not to follow him as he saw her sitting towards the front of the bus after he'd settled into his seat. She almost immediately turned, clearly hoping to make eye contact. Ned quickly shifted his gaze to the bus floor and didn't look up the entire ride to school.

As Ned approached his locker, he prepared himself for the unavoidable. He wasn't going to be able to ignore Moze while they stood next to each other at their lockers, and sure enough, Moze was already at hers, and she was clearly waiting for him.

As he approached, Ned forced himself to not look at the floor. Moze's expression as he walked up was clearly one of concern and maybe even some sympathy. Ned didn't care. He didn't want her sympathy. He didn't want to be anywhere near her, but he had no choice if he wanted to be sure he had his books for class. He went straight to his locker, but Moze stepped in front of him, blocking his path.

"Ned, we need to talk. Please."

Ned fixed her with a cold glare and didn't say a word.

Does she really expect to just "talk it out?" Does she really think that's gonna fix anything?

Moze didn't let his silence deter her. She went right into what was clearly a well-rehearsed speech she'd prepared for him.

"Ned, I know what happened yesterday must have come as a shock. I never meant for things to happen like that. I want you to-"

What happened next caught everyone within earshot by surprise. The numbness and pain Ned had been feeling suddenly erupted into white-hot fury and when he interrupted her, Ned's voice was very loud and very angry.

"YOU DON'T NEED ME TO DO ANYTHING MOSELY!" he yelled. "You CLEARLY don't need me for ANYTHING. That's FINE. I DON'T NEED YOU EITHER!"

The words burned through the air like a searing flame, and Moze stepped back in shock at the tenacity with which Ned had spoken them.

"Ned-" she tried to say in a calming voice that sounded more timid than calming, but Ned was just getting warmed up and unloaded another verbal barrage.

"SHUT UP!" he bellowed. "I don't have ANYTHING to say to you, and I don't want to HEAR anything from you either, you lying, manipulative HYPOCRITE!"

Moze's eyes were now glistening, and an expression of pain was quickly forming on her face, but in his fury, Ned barely noticed.

"Ned, you're my friend and-" but Ned interrupted again for one final verbal assault.

"NO I'M NOT!" he almost screamed. His shouting was drawing a bit of a crowd but Ned ignored them. "No TRUE friend would ever act like that! NEVER! We are NOT friends anymore! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!"

After this final statement, Ned stormed past Moze, who now had tears rolling down her cheeks, opened his locker, grabbed several books, and slammed his locker shut with tremendous force, and the resulting bang caused several people to jump. He turned and stormed off towards homeroom.

Moze tearfully tried to call out after him, but barely managed to get out his name before breaking down. Ned didn't slow, and was only spurred on faster by the sight of Jeff dashing past him, clearly going to comfort Moze.

Ned managed to avoid Moze the rest of the day, sitting as far away from her as possible in the classes they shared. For a few periods there was a buzz among many of his classmates from his explosion, but eventually things died down.

At lunch Ned decided he wanted to be alone, avoiding the cafeteria altogether and opting instead to spend the period in the library, aimlessly surfing the internet on one of the computers. He ignored calls from Cookie, Lisa, and most of all, Moze.

By the end of the day, Ned's anger was quickly turning into bitter resentment. He despised Moze for how she'd treated him, and he was quickly becoming jealous of Cookie and Lisa's happy relationship.

As Ned rode home, once again alone at the back of the bus, he began to come up with an idea. By the time he got home, that idea had blossomed into a full plan. Ned decided that the easiest way to get back at Moze, and to get over his jealousy over his best friend's relationship, was to get a girl to take him to the Sadie Hawkins dance. He had just under a week in order to pull it off.

Ned continued to avoid Moze, starting with standing as far away from her as he could while they waited for the bus, and doing his best to avoid being at his locker at the same time she was at hers. He also started to try to socialize with other girls, which ended up being harder than he thought.

After English class, he tried talking to a cute girl named Kate, but she brushed him off, telling him to leave her alone. After history class, he tried to join a trio of girls walking down the hall, and get in on their conversation, but it only resulted in one girl calling him a creep, and another telling him to get lost.

Ned even tried talking to Missy Meany, but apparently over the summer she'd met a guy named Mark and was convinced he was her perfect match, though she did give Ned a tip that any guys looking for a date to the dance could put their names down on a sheet of paper that had been subtly placed on one of the school bulletin boards. Any girl who wanted to be their date would write their own name next to the guy's name, along with a place and time to meet to make the date official. Ned found the sheet and put his name on it, figuring that it would at least work as a backup plan. The sheet would stay up until Thursday afternoon, the day before the dance, so Ned decided he would check it then if he hadn't gotten a girl to ask him before that.

At lunch Ned finally broke his silence to talk to Cookie on the condition that Lisa not be there. Ned explained to Cookie that he didn't have anything against Lisa, he just didn't want to risk anything he said getting repeated to Moze.

As the two sat down to eat, Cookie almost immediately burst out with questions.

"So what are you going to do now" Cookie asked, after Ned had filled him in on what had happened since they last spoke, and how he had severed all ties to Moze.

Ned leaned back a little in his seat and sighed, but a mischievous grin played at the corners of his mouth.

"It's actually pretty simple" he replied. "I get a great girl to take me to the dance, she becomes my new girlfriend, and Moze can go suck Jeff's face all she wants, knowing I'm never speaking to her again."

"But you guys have been friends practically since you were babies!" Cookie protested. "You can't call it quits now!"

"It wasn't me who ended it" Ned replied coolly. "Moze was the one who betrayed me, so as far as I see it, she's the one who destroyed the friendship. Her loss, not mine."

Cookie's mouth dropped open at the casual way Ned was burying such a long term relationship.

Ned brushed off the reaction with a shrug and resumed eating his lunch.

All Cookie could do was sadly shake his head.

Ned struck out trying to talk to several other girls as the day wound down. The closest he got to interest was a girl who told him she'd meet him at her locker at the end of the day. When Ned went to go find the locker number the girl had given him, he found out that the locker number she'd provided didn't exist.

As Ned rode home alone again, he thought over the day's events and was a little surprised at how easily he'd been rebuffed by all the girls he'd tried to talk to. He decided to chalk it up to the fact that maybe he'd come on too strongly. He vowed to take things a little slower when he tried again.

As he got off the bus at his house, Moze was surprisingly waiting for him on his front steps. He was a little shocked that he hadn't noticed she wasn't on the bus with him.

As he walked up to her, she immediately tried to hug him. He put out his hands and firmly stopped her, pushing her back with enough force to show he had no interest in hugging her.

"Ned" she said, sounding almost desperate. "Please let me talk to you. Please don't shut me out."

Ned held up his hand to stop her.

"Jennifer, just don't. I don't want to hear anything you have to say."

Moze's eyes went wide.

"You haven't called me Jennifer since…."

"Since before we were friends" Ned finished for her. "I know. But we aren't friends anymore. So from now on, you're just Jennifer from school to me. Got it?"

Moze was clearly choking back tears as she turned and ran to her house.

Ned shook his head as she disappeared inside.

Unfortunately for Ned, the next day didn't go much better. In spite of his efforts to take a more casual approach to getting some of the girls to talk to him, they continued to blow him off, one right after another. It didn't help that he was constantly overhearing other guy's brag about which girls asked them to the dance. During one trip to the bathroom Ned even overheard one guy boasting about how he'd managed to get TWO dates to the dance. Apparently one girl was leaving early and the other arriving late, so the two would never even find out about each other. Ned shook his head at hearing this. He couldn't even get a girl to talk to him, yet here was an unknown guy who apparently had no shortage of girls interested in him.

As Ned trudged to class after class, his anger at Moze was melting into sadness as rejection after rejection began to take their toll. At one point Ned even tried asking Suzy Crabgrass if she'd be interested in taking him to the dance. Suzy had laughed and informed him that she was dating Loomer again and that he'd missed his chance with her over the summer.

As Wednesday drew quickly to a close, Ned realized that his best bet to have a date to the dance was with the sheet he'd signed based on Missy's advice. He hadn't checked his name yet, but he'd been by it and a quick glance revealed plenty of girls had chosen dates off of the sheet.

As Ned dozed off that night he began to wonder if maybe he'd be better off not going to the dance at all. I guess it depends on who picks me he thought to himself as he drifted off to sleep.

As Ned and Moze stood silently next to each other waiting for the bus, Ned was tempted, just for a moment, to say something nice to Moze. He'd been sneaking glances at her, and he had to admit, she looked miserable. But the rush of compassion he suddenly felt towards her surprised him. It passed after a moment and the uncomfortable silence continued. After a few minutes, just as Ned found himself again hit with the desire to say something to Moze, the familiar sound of the bus reached his ears, and moments later he was sitting alone again, in the back of the bus, wondering why he suddenly didn't hate Moze quite so much anymore.

After reaching school and starting the day off by avoiding his locker altogether, Ned found his seat in Mr. Sweeney's class. He'd been making sure to sit as far away from Moze as possible, which had meant sitting in the back of the room. Mr. Sweeney had evidently decided Ned was reverting to his lazy student ways, based on the disappointed glances Ned had noticed Mr. Sweeney giving him every time he moved to the back of the classroom to sit. It's a small price to pay Ned thought. My grades aren't going to suffer because of this. Mr. Sweeney will see for himself once he gives us any quizzes or tests.

It was true, in spite of Ned's miserable week, he'd been staying on top of his classwork. It helped that it was only the second week of school so the work was still light, but in spite of the miserable emotional state he was in, Ned had been paying attention in classes, doing well on the few homework assignments he'd gotten so far, and was attentive in class, diligently taking notes. If we were still speaking, Moze would probably be proud Ned thought ruefully to himself.

Later that day in Computer class, Ned and Cookie had a few moments to talk about the fast approaching dance, and Ned's continued lack of a date.

"So have you checked the free agent sheet" Cookie asked Ned as soon as they were able to talk.

The free agent sheet was the name that had been given to the sheet Ned had signed, and it had become quite a popular topic. For some girls it had become an easy way to ask their crush to the dance, and for guys like Ned, it was a way to get a date when no other options seemed to be available. It had actually grown from just one piece of paper on the bulletin board to 3 sheets of paper because of its popularity. Many guys had signed up, and many girls had chosen dates from the list.

Ned shook his head in response to Cookie's question but grinned.

"I haven't looked yet but I'm hoping somebody good picked me. I'm actually looking forward to meeting a new girl, and who knows? Maybe it'll lead to a new relationship!"

Cookie clapped Ned on the shoulder encouragingly.

"Ned I'm rooting for you. I just wish you could patch things up with-"

"Don't say it Cook" Ned warned, a firm edge in his voice that signaled there was no room for discussion.

Cookie just shrugged and turned his attention back to his computer without saying another word.

Ned stared at his friend for a few moments longer, then turned back to his own computer.

I can't just erase what happened. Even if I could, I'm not the one who should be doing the erasing.

As the day wound down to a close, Ned's curiosity about what girl had picked him, and when and where he'd get to meet her had grown to a fever pitch. As soon as his final class had ended, Ned practically sprinted to the bulletin board where the list was posted. A small crowd of guys had gathered around it. There were murmurs and occasional shouts of glee or groans of disappointment. Ned heard more than a couple guys grumbling about whichever girl had put her name next to theirs. After a few moments of waiting, Ned heard a familiar voice yell out in excitement.

"A girl picked me! A girl picked me!"

Running out of the group, a huge smile plastered on his face, was Coconut Head. He saw Ned and held up his hand, expecting a high five. Ned smiled and obliged. Coconut Head ran down the hall, still loudly announcing his excitement at being chosen. Ned wondered for a moment what kind of girl Coconut Head's date was going to be, but then he realized the group around the list was dispersing and he could finally find out his own fate.

Ned waited a moment and took a deep breath, then approached the list. He scanned the list of names. There were so many, he couldn't remember which of the 3 sheets of paper he'd signed. After a few moments, he finally found his name. He put his finger on his name and traced it to the right, to where he'd find the name of the girl he'd be going to the dance with.

It was blank.

Ned frowned and went back to his name. He checked again. Nothing. No girl had signed next to his name.

He had no date to the dance.

Ned stared dumbly at the list for several moments. He started looking at the other names on the list. After mindlessly browsing the names for a minute or two, Ned reached a startling and painful realization.

He was the only one a girl hadn't chosen.

Ned shook his head, not quite believing what he was seeing. This has to be a mistake! Something isn't right!

But several re-checks of the list showed it was not a mistake. He was the only one who had signed up and been rejected. Half the matched couples on the list probably had never met each other, but the idea of meeting someone new was a big draw. Yet somehow, he'd been turned down flat. Ned stepped back from the list. The pain he'd felt when Moze had crushed him was returning. He had to get out of the school. He didn't want anyone to see how awful he was feeling. He didn't even bother trying to take the bus. He practically ran the whole way home, went straight to his room, and buried his head in his pillow. Ned felt absolutely devastated.

Well that's it for this installment. A little tease for everyone: the next chapter is a big one! Hopefully it'll be worth the wait and I'll try to get it out as soon as I can! Thanks for your support and kind reviews!