"Never in my years of teaching here would I expect to see you two brought here. And I would just like to say that I am appalled. Two young ladies like yourselves being broken apart from a catfight! What do you think this is? Some kind of wrestling ring?"

There was a short silence.

"I asked you a question!"

"No, sir," they replied in unison.

"Good! Now you will both be receiving detentions…"

"But she..." one of the girls started to interrupt.

"I don't even want to hear it, okay? You will both be receiving detentions – maybe that way you will learn how to behave appropriately in this school. Good day Miss Murray, Miss Thompson." The two girls left the principal's office, and went opposite ways, not saying a word to one another.

Madison, who had been waiting outside, linked arms with Bridget. "Sorry, dude," she said, and they made their way to their lockers.

As Madison made her way down the hall, she felt mixed up. On the one hand she was happy that Bridget had socked Haillie, but on the other hand, she was totally upset about the whole Ephram/Amy thing. But as she got the books she needed out from her locker, she was interrupted in her thinking as a guy approached her and coughed slightly.

Closing the locker, she said, "Hey!" As she put the books in her bag, she asked, "Can I help you?" The guy in front of her was quite tall, with dark brown hair just above his shoulders. His beautiful russet eyes looked into hers.

"Hey! Uh – you're on the volleyball team, right?" he asked her.

"Yeah…" she replied, as she started to walk away from her locker with him. "All the spots in Chess Club were taken, so volleyball was the next best thing."

He laughed. "I'm Dylan by the way."

"Madison."

"So, Madison…I'm the captain of the team and I thought maybe you wanted to be moved up – to Team A?"

Madison stopped in her tracks. "You want me to be in Team A?"

"Uh-huh. And your friend Bridget, my spies tell me she's pretty good too."

"Wow! I don't know what to say!"

"How about you say: 'Sure Dylan, I'd love to – ooh and I'd also love to come to the super cool pool party that Taylor Smith is having'?" he said in a girly voice.

Laughing in disbelief, Madison said, "Taylor Smith? I mean, we're friends and all, but don't you have to have like an invite or something crazy like that?"

Dylan mocked serious thought. "Hmmm, I pick the 'something crazy like that.'"

"And that would be…" Madison asked playfully.

Dylan cleared his throat. "I, Dylan Baker, give you, Madison Gorgeous-Eyes" – she blushed – "the honour of coming with me, the 'something crazy like that,' to Taylor Smith's pool party this Saturday."

Madison grinned, and cleared her throat. "Sure Dylan, gee, I'd love to come to the super cool pool party that Taylor Smith is having!"

Smiling, Dylan said, "Great. So what do you have next?"

"Math. You?"

"Math! What a coincidence!"

"So with that in mind," Mrs Nielson droned on, "We can not deduce that x …"

But Ephram wasn't listening. He was too busy staring at the back of Madison's head, wondering how her could have been such a jerk.

Flashback

Madison walked over to Ephram's locker. It was his first day, and he had been struggling to open the damn thing for a pretty long time. She came over and opened hers. Pretty easily. Then she looked at him from the corner of her eye, and noticed him struggling.

"Hey! Ephram, right?"

"Yeah! And you are…?"

"Madison." Then she laughed. "Need some help?"

Ephram looked at her, then looked down. "Oh. No, I'm getting along good. Great actually."

She laughed again – it was like music. Then she opened his locker for him. Pretty easily.

"There ya go kiddo," she said, patting his arm.

"Wait a minute. How did you know my locker combination?"

"Everybody knows your combination," she laughed. "You're the new kid."

"Oh, right," Ephram joked. "Fantastic! Not only are my most prized possessions at risk, but I just managed to embarrass myself in front of the first person (and girl, might I add) to talk to me today."

Madison laughed, and then there was a slightly awkward silence. Then looked right into his eyes. "You doing anything tonight?"

Ephram leaned on his locker. "No, why?"

"Some of my friends and I were planning on having a movie night…"

"And you want to offer me the chance of embarrassing myself in front of more of my classmates?"

"No!" she replied, and punched him playfully on the arm. "So, you wanna come?"

"Uh…sure, I guess so."

"Okay…" she said, and rooted in her bag for a piece of paper. Scribbling something on it, she said, "Here's…my…address. 7.00, okay?"

"Sure, I'll be there," he said taking the piece of paper.

"I'll see you around then, Mr Brown," Madison said mischievously, and walked away.

Flashback

What had he done wrong? He'd always liked Madison, from the first day of school. And at the fundraiser, she had looked amazing. And yet, so had Amy…

Wait! What was he thinking? How could he have strung along both girls? Madison was the one he liked, and he was going to make it up to her.

Somehow.