Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews! I'm really glad everybody likes the story so far! I hope you like this chapter, and like I said before, PLEASE keep reading and reviewing.

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Lizzie McGuire.

Chapter Three

Even though flyers for the Valentine's dance had only been given out two days ago, everybody was already going crazy. Of course, this was to be expected, since this was our first boy-girl dance. But what I didn't understand was why everybody, including Miranda, was going crazy over the whole date thing. Sure, it was important, since the dance was a couples-only dance, but was stress over it? That's what I was thinking. I had other things to think about, namely Brayden Lenihan.

Of course, I was still thinking about the dance. And of course, my secret valentine. Who could have written me that mysetrious, yet romantic red-and-pink heart? I had to admit, I found it toally romantic, and that was on my mind constantly, too. What if Brayden was my secret valentine? What if he wanted to go to the dance with me? It would be perfect, me and Brayden going to the dance together. Kate would be so jealous.

But I found myself thinking, what if somebody like Larry wrote the valentine, instead? Or what if my valentine was some weirdo that was obsessed with poetry and didn't have a life at all? There wasn't anything wrong with poetry, but some guys that wrote poetry nonstop were just...strange. And sometimes, I even found myself thinking, what if Gordo was my secret valentine?

From the way he reacted, maybe he was. But maybe he wasn't. Gordo was my best friend, and he was just out to protect me. He didn't want to see me get hurt by some guy. But Gordo had made it obvious to me before that he liked me as more than just a friend...so did he write the valentine, or not?

I wasn't sure, and I wasn't sure if I wanted my secret valentine to be Gordo. Gordo was my best friend, but did I want to go to the dance with him? I wasn't so sure. I want to go to the dance with Brayden. But if Gordo had given me the valentine, what was I going to do?

"Lizzie! Breakfast!" Mom called from downstairs. Sighing, I grabbed my new Simple Plan CD, which I had promised I'd let Miranda borrow. I hadn't even liked it that much, anyway, so if she liked it, I was going to let her keep it.

I ran downstairs, sitting down at the table. Again, I felt all eyes go directly on my outfit. What was wrong with my parents? What was wrong with dressing a little skater?

"What?" I said, annoyed. I grabbed the carton of milk and poured it into my bowl of cereal.

"Sweetie, why are you dressing so-differently?" My mom said, as nicely as she could.

"She's dressing", Matt said, coughing, "Like a poser punk."

"Shut up, you little brat", I yelled at Matt.

"Both of you, stop it!" Dad warned.

I sighed. I liked the way I was dressing. Yeah, it was a big change from girly pink tops and skirts and tight jeans-but I liked it. Black tops and sweatjackets were cool. And ripped jeans were even cooler.

"Lizzie, I just don't understand", Mom said. "Why are you dressing like this?"

"I like it", I shurgged. Partly true. The real reason I was dressing in black tops, sweaters, sweatjackets, and ripped jeans was because of Brayden. I wanted to impress him.

"Yeah, well, we don't", Dad told me.

I rolled my eyes. "I have to go", I said, grabbing my backpack. I prayed that my parents wouldn't notice my ripped jeans. If they did, I knew they would make change.

"Elizabeth McGuire, I really don't like this new look, nor do I like this new attitude!" Mom yelled behind me. Ignoring her, I ran out the front door to the bus stop.

I saw Miranda standing there, as per usual. But what wasn't usual was that Miranda was dressed in a micro-mini and a barely there top. With my jaw dropped, I walked up to her, a shocked expression on my face. "Miranda!" I exclaimed. "What's going on?"

Miranda stared at me like I was crazy. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"You're outfit! Are you nuts? That skirt barely covers your thighs!" I hissed. As we boarded the bus, I watched as guy's eyes landed on Miranda. And one of those guys, shockingly, was Ethan Craft.

"Miranda, Miranda", he purred. "I see you're preparing for V-day, too", he grinned, winking at Miranda. Miranda blushed, and we took our usual seat. I glared at her, acting more jealous than I should have.

"Miranda, you look like a-well, you like a slut in that outfit!" I said to her.

Miranda blinked. "So? Look at yourself. You're wearing ripped jeans, which went out of style for girls months ago, and a black t-shirt and a black sweatjacket. Real impressive, Lizzie", Miranda snapped back.

I stared at her, taken aback. What was going on with Miranda? "What is going on with you? First the whole outfit thing, and now you judge me by my outfit? I really don't get it, Miranda", I said coldly.

"Duh, Lizzie! I figured if I dressed a little sexy, maybe the guys would be interested, and they'd ask me to the dance", she said. "I'm not afraid to reveal myself a little", she said, flipping her hair.

Things were uneasy on the bus ride to school. Miranda flirted with Ethan, which was a shocker. I bet Kate was really impressed with that. Everybody knew that she had been schemeing up a plan to get two dates to the dance-Ethan and somebody else. But nobody knew who that somebody else was.

Miranda went off with Ethan to homeroom-I didn't bother going with her. I figured I go off to my locker and see if Gordo was at his locker. If Miranda was going to be acting like this, I wasn't going to get in her way.

As I was walking toward my locker, I saw Gordo standing at his locker, a smile on his face, a girl standing next to him. As I neared closer, I saw that this girl was Parker. I gulped, knowing that Parker had probably just asked Gordo to the dance.

"Hi, Lizzie", Parker said sweetly.

"Hi, Parker", I replied.

"Guess what?" she said cheerfully.

"What?" I asked, glancing at Gordo.

"Gordo's going to be tutoring me in math! I just don't get decimals at all, so he's going to tutor me! Isn't that great, Lizzie?" she said, twirling a strand of her silky brown hair between her finger. I noticed she was dressed in a pretty, dark pink ruffled miniskirt that wasn't too short, but wasn't long, either, and pink-and-white layered tank tops. She actually looked really great.

Surprised, I said, "That's really great, Parker."

"I know", she smiled. "Soo, Lizzie, are you going to the dance with anybody?"

I gulped. What was I supposed to tell her? I didn't have a date; yet somebody, a secret valentine, wanted to take me. I couldn't tell her that. So instead, I told her, "Not at the moment."

"Oh", Parker said, looking surprised. "You should find a date soon, Lizzie. The dance is one week away", Parker said, shooting a look at Gordo. Could she be more obvious?

Gordo slammed his locker shut, and then he turned to both me and Parker and said, "Well, I think we should be going to homeroom now. The halls are looking a tad bit empty, and I really don't want to be late", he said.

"Hey, lighten up, Gordo", I said, cheerfully.

"Yeah", Parker chimed in.

We said goodbye to Parker as she left for her homeroom. Parker wasn't that bad to hang-out with here and there. We all knew that she had a major crush on Gordo; the big question was, did Gordo like Parker? I wasn't exactly sure. He kind of brushed her off.

"Why did you brush Parker off?" I asked Gordo as we turned the corner.

"What do you mean?" he asked me.

"You know", I told him. "You brushed her off."

Gordo sighed. "Parker-very touchy subject", he said. "It's very hard to explain", he said quickly as we walked into homeroom. Our teacher was at her desk, sorting through a pile of flyers. I spotted Brayden sitting at his desk, fiddling with the black rubber bracelets on his arm.

"Want to sit next to me?" Gordo asked.

"No, it's okay, thanks. I think I'll sit next to Brayden", I said quickly, sending an apologetic look to Gordo. I saw Gordo frown, but he took a sit next to Miranda, and I saw them start to talk.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" I asked Brayden as I sat down in the desk next to him. It wasn't the best desk around; in fact, it was wobbly, it had a bunch of foul writing on it, and it was dirty. But I got to sit next to the guy of my dreams, so I didn't care.

"No, not at all", Brayden said cooly. He took out a piece of paper from his binder and started to write down something. I couldn't see what it was at first, but then I saw that he was writing song lyrics.

"You write songs?" I whispered.

"Songs, poetry, short stories. I write everything", he whispered back.

My heart nearly skipped a beat. My secret valentine had to have been someone who was a good writer and had a passion for writing-and for Brayden to be writing a song in homeroom, he had a passion for writing, all right.

"What's it called?" I asked him.

"Valentine's Secret", he told me.

My heart skipped about ten beats. Valentine's Secret. He had called his song Valentine's Secret. In my mind, Brayden was number one on my suspects list for the secret valentine.

Suddenly, the bell rang. I grabbed my backpack, and I hurried out of homeroom. I couldn't believe it. I had just asked Brayden a random question, and now I was one step closer to finding out who my secret valentine was. And now, just maybe, I was even closer to getting closer to him.

Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Yeah, it was a little dull at first, but I hope the ending excited you. Hmm, a song titled 'Valentine's Secret.' How suspcious. I'm not telling a thing! You'll have to read on to find out more.