I could not wait to go back to school and begin the search; being on top of the school pyramid had its perks. You can have an entire school do anything for you, especially when it came to solving a mystery.

"Gozai imas, Fighting Frogs. Here's your daily drought reminder: only flush for number two. Austin Ames was crowned Prince of the Homecoming. Ooh big shocker there. Didn't see that one coming," The girl doing the announcements was always… so witty.. "But the real mystery, though, is, who was his princess?"

She had me stumped there. I tore off some blue paper off the wall and replaced it with mine.

"Dude, why are you going through all this trouble for just one chick?" David demanded.

Ryan hands me another flyer, "Look, she's not just some chick, all right? She was…" how do I put it in simple terms? "real."

Ryan scoffed, "Real. Like she still had her old nose."

'God I wish I did not have dumb friends.'

"No, real." I stated firmly. "You know, like the kind of girl who has more on her mind than what she wears, or how much weight she wants to lose." I briefly thought about our conversations and how easy it is to simply talk. "She listens to me you know?" I turned around to tape a flyer to the door.

"Oh, listens to you?"

'Dear God, don't say what I think you are.'

"Hey, brother, I listen to you, okay?"

'God dammit.'

"I feel your pai-" David's sentence is cut off by a new one. "Whoo, hello, kitty" He sees an attractive red head walking down the hall and proceeds to look at her ass.

I put my arm across his chest, "Yeah. You're a great listener."

"Wha-"

"Look man," Ryan starts, "her cell phone—you just got to get some clue from that."

"The phone's locked," I said, defeated. "All I keep getting is these text messages like 'I need you' and 'come see me now'."

"Oh, dude, it's so hot!" David exclaimed.

"See, that's what I thought. Until I got one that said come fix fryer."

"Ooh dude! That's hot and kinky baby! You know what I'm saying? Can I get one? Let me get a pound baby." Him and Ryan put out for a fist bump. I just walked away from the stupidity. They catch up with me, and I start grabbing the flyers from Ryan again.

"I feel like I am going to lose my mind," I groaned.

"Well, look in the yearbook again bro. Maybe you missed her," David suggested.

"Maybe she's foreign exchange," Ryan guessed. "That's hot."

'Right..'

"Totally!" David agreed. "That's like… that's like Le Hot."

'Geez,' I smiled. 'What a racist idiot.'

"Look, there's no way I missed her. I mean, we had a connection," I testified; I would until I found her. I looked up and saw the girl from the diner…

'Sarah? Sam? Sally?' I was so horrible with names. I don't see the hat she usually wears… When we make eye contact, I see her face clearly. Hair down, no flour or grease on her face, and her cheeks slightly flushed. 'I could've sworn… Nah.' I looked away and shook my head.

"I have an idea," David started.

"You have ideas?" Ryan joked. I laughed in response.

"Ha. Look I can have ideas bro. How about you gather all them chicks and have them describe the phone to you," David told me.

"Hmm… I guess that's an idea. Then I would really know it's her too." I already had so many girls tell me they were Cinderella. I was over it. "But there are so many girls here… Ugh." I could imagine the pain and time this would put me through.

"As long as I don't have to hang up any flyers anymore, I'm down," Ryan said.

"Fine," I gave in. Time for a new plan.

We went to our separate classes, but the plan was to meet up during lunch and try to weed out the girls. I hoped she would be there, but if she hadn't made any effort to tell me… Did she even want me?

I began contemplating on if I should even try, if this would be worth any of my time. The boys walked me over to the main courtyard, and I heard some commotion… 'Aw fuck.' "Guys, I don't know about this..." I started to explain.

"Come on!" David pushed.

"Just trust us," Ryan smiled. He was pushing me towards the commotion. Ah, peer pressure sucks.

"Look," David validates, "we asked every girl we could find if they were with you at the dance," A line of girls screamed in excitement and stared at me with obsession. I hated it. "here are the ones that said yes."

"Oh, no, no, no, no," a pool of anxiety was in my chest. The screaming, smiling girls who were claiming to be her. I was going to have to be tortured for no result.

"Austin, remember me it was on the cellphone?" One screams. Another blows a kiss.

'Nope. Nope. Fuck this.' "Guys, come on," I try to run, but Ryan pushes me back down. This was not fair.

"Down here," he made me sit and patted my chest like a child.

David started a stereo with the Dating Game theme. God, could this get any worse? "Okay… Austin Ames. Let's bring out Bachelorette Number One!" He used a cheesy-ass game show voice, so yes to my previous question. The first girl in line had blonde hair and was wearing a pink tank with a white skirt. "She's a transfer from Woodland Hills, enjoys collecting puka shells, long walks on the beach, and getting tubed. Pleased to meet you, Missy!"

"What's up, Boston?" She gave her head a nod to me, her voice was deeper and she had no enunciation either.

Ryan had a goofy smile on his face and shook my shoulder as if saying, 'Go for it.'

"Thanks for coming… Missy," I tried to be polite.

She shrugged, "See ya, dude."

I looked at Ryan, "You're dead." His face was disbelief, but I nodded to make my point known. He put his arm up like he had nothing to be blamed for.

"Okay! Let's bring out Bachelorette Number Two." David had notecards. Fucking notecards, he was reading from. What the actual fuck was this? A girl who had… too much weight to be Cinderella came up. "This little filly's into barbells, World War II, and protein shakes. Here's Helga!"

Helga proceeded to flex for me.

"Thank you," I responded again. I looked back to Ryan who was laughing now, "you are so dead!" I smiled and wrapped my arm around his neck. All I could do for now. Another girl came skipping up to the plate.

"Okay! Okay, next up is, uh, is-"

I couldn't fucking stand this anymore. "Look, enough, enough. Guys, come on," I said again. This time, I stood up. The girl who was in front of me was disappointed. "Look, you're beautiful, okay. But I'm not your prince. You'll meet him someday, but… It's not me," I told her genuinely.

"Thanks, Austin," she walked away.

"Uh-oh," David warned. I looked up and saw the principal striding towards us. 'Now? After I say something to stop this?' I felt like I could never win. "Late entry," David tried to joke.

"David," she scolded. "You stop it right now. You're a bad boy and that is a terrible shirt." I stifled the laughter from the later comment. David looked down at his shirt upset. 'Hahaha.' "Everybody, back to your class." A lot of the girls commented on how unfair this was and dispersed. "Hi, Ryan." Our principal said greeted shyly. I turned to Ryan confused, and he awkwardly waved and smiled to her.

"What the fuck was that about bro?" David asked. "You sleeping with her?"

Ryan shuddered. "No, but she flirts with me and if I'm nice I get good grades…"

"Dude, that's fucked," I shook my head.

"Ugh, if only I was on a teacher's good side," David fantasized.

"Well you're not 'cause you're a little shit," I told him.

"And you're ugly," Ryan chimed in.

"Ugly? Pfft. Do you know how many girls I get?" David defended.

"Negative five?" I asked.

"Fuck you."

Ryan and I laughed in response. 'God, I have idiot friends.'