Subtle As A Subpoena

This takes place on Wednesday, May fifth.

"If April showers bring May flowers, then what do May flowers bring?" Chloe Morgan eagerly asked, swinging her legs under the breakfast table.

AJ sat next to her, drinking his chocolate milk from his Mickey Mouse cup with the red crazy straw. Jason glanced up from his Calculus homework and chuckled; AJ's brow was furrowed as he concentrated on his cousin's question, furiously trying to come up with an answer.

It was Wednesday, and the weather was dismal. It had been raining since the wee hours of the morning and didn't show any signs of letting up. Jason sighed as he slammed his book shut after finishing the last problem. Another rainy drive to school. Just wonderful.

The kids sure thought it was – seated at the breakfast table with the Ovaltine and waffles he'd fixed them as his parents ran out the door into the monsoon, they were completely ecstatic over the fact that they had no school today. It was an institution day for their teachers, so while Ms. B. and Ms. Janik were sitting in seminars, AJ and Chloe were blowing bubbles in their milk and trying to figure out just which board game they'd play first.

"Come on, Jason, guess!" Chloe exclaimed, her two blonde pigtails bobbing as she wiggled in her seat.

"Can you repeat the question?" he asked, getting up from his seat and gulping down his breakfast of orange juice.

"If April showers bring May flowers, then what do May flowers bring?" Having completely given up on his quest to find the answer, AJ now waited for his brother to save them from Chloe's victory.

"No idea," Jason answered immediately as he deposited his glass in the sink and cleared the plates from the table. "Drink your milk, AJ – don't blow bubbles in it." He turned his attention to his ten-year-old cousin. "What do May flowers bring?"

"Pilgrims!" Chloe exclaimed, beaming from underneath the large glasses that lent her blue eyes an owl-like appearance.

"Clever," Jason smirked, making sure to laugh for the little girl's benefit. He glanced at the clock and grabbed his backpack before swooping his keys off the counter. "All right, I have to go to school now. Grandmother's still asleep, so try not to make too much noise, okay? Grandfather's working in his office, so try not to disturb him. He'll be down by ten o'clock anyway, but until then, you're in charge, okay, Chloe?"

Chloe slid a triumphant look at her six-year-old cousin. "Sure, Jason."

"Good. You two have fun and don't get into any trouble. Don't leave the house, don't break anything, and don't fight."

"Fine, fine," AJ sighed as if his older brother had just deposited the weight of the world onto his shoulders.

"Okay. See you guys later."

"Bye, Jason!" Chloe and AJ called out as they watched him stride purposefully down the hall and disappear into the rain, pulling the thick wooden door firmly shut behind him.


"Thanks, Johnny, I owe you one," Sydney whispered to her friend as the tall Irish boy winked at her and sauntered down the hallway to Elizabeth's locker. The petite brunette was still crouched on the floor, trying to wrestle a notebook from her stubborn and overflowing locker.

"Hey, Beth," Johnny called out as he neared her. She looked up, blinking in surprise.

"Hey, Johnny," she smiled, still maintaining a grip on her notebook. "How's it going?"

"Fine," Johnny replied as he tried to swallow a yawn. They still had ten minutes until the first bell, and already he was having trouble staying awake and alert. The mornings had been especially tough lately – his normal state of hyperactivity had been replaced with fatigue and drowsiness. He personally blamed it on the rain, and the resulting lack of track practice. When they ran regularly, Johnny found that his energy level was up and he was always alert and ready to go. It had been a week since they ran last, due to rain and some debris strewn on the track. Instead, they had worked out in the weight room, but it just wasn't the same.

"You okay?" Elizabeth asked, peering up at him. She wore black pants today, with an off-white full-sleeve shirt and matching cream boots with thick black soles. Her eyes were done up to be darker and offered a smoky contrast against her pale skin, and her dark hair was pinned back and cascading over her shoulders in silky waves. Gazing down at her, Johnny found himself wondering why he had never noticed her exquisite beauty before.

"Yeah," he responded, quickly shaking himself from his brief trance. After all, it just wouldn't do for him to be making googly-eyes at Jason Morgan's girl. If she was that, though. "Just tired."

"I hear you," Elizabeth sighed, sitting back and momentarily taking her attention off the notebook. "I think it's the weather – it's so blah."

"Yeah," Johnny agreed. He stood still for a moment, shifting his weight from foot to foot. With an exasperated sigh, he finally knelt down on the cool tiles next to her. "Look, I wanted to talk to you about the Talent Show-"

"Oh, good," Elizabeth burst out, spinning a little on her bottom to face him. "Because I'd been meaning to do the same thing. Did you have anything in mind for our act? You said you wanted us to play our instruments?"

The boy nodded. "Yeah – you on the piano, Luke on the trumpet, and me on the drums."

Elizabeth nodded. "Okay, did you have any piece in mind?"

"Not really," Johnny said slowly, grasping the back of his neck with one hand. "That's kinda what I wanted to talk about."

"Shouldn't Luke be here?"

"Well, he's pretty mellow about this whole thing – everything, actually – so I figured we two could decide and then just run it by him. Chances are, he'll be cool."

Elizabeth nodded and licked her lips as she thought. Johnny found himself following the movement of the soft, pink tip of her tongue. He snapped himself out of that in a hurry.

From her post across the hall, Sydney was watching the twosome while keeping one eye out for Jason. She was instantly rewarded as the tall blonde came loping down the hallway, shaking raindrops from his silky hair.

He reached his locker and pulled it open, and Sydney seized the opportunity.

"Jason, hey," she grinned, strolling over with her books balanced on her pelvic ridge. "What's going on?"

"Hi, Syd," Jason grinned at Elizabeth's friend. "Not much – how 'bout you? How're you doing?"

"Okay," she replied with a bright grin. She watched him pull his Physics book from his locker and deposit his Calculus book in its place, and took the moment to casually lean against the lockers next to him. "Can I ask you a favor, though?"

Jason looked at her, blinking. "Sure," he replied slowly. "But it depends on what it is."

"Oh, it's nothing big," Sydney assured him, waving a hand casually. Her warm brown eyes sparkled as she recited her lines. "Actually, it's about Charlie."

"Charlie?" Jason repeated, blinking at the mention of her boyfriend and one of his track teammates. "What about him?"

"Well," Sydney began slowly, as if she were tasting each word before speaking. "You know how prom's on the twenty-ninth?"

Jason fought to keep his smirk suppressed. "Yeah…?"

His friend sighed deeply. "I think Charlie's planning to wear a mint green tux."

Jason just stared at her for a minute before chuckling in disbelief. "How do you girls know these things? Because since this is Charlie we're talking about, I'm willing to bet this was supposed to be a surprise." He closed his locker and let his textbook dangle from his hands, swinging against his thigh. "So how'd you find out? Is there some secret girls' network where you guys release all your gossip or something?"

Sydney laughed, crossing her legs at the ankle. "I'm not saying any-"

"Why?" Jason grinned. "Am I getting too close to the truth? Is the operation in danger?"

"Oh, you," Sydney giggled, rolling her eyes at her friend. "Seriously, though – a green tux! Come on, Jason!"

"Okay, okay, I'll admit, it does seem a bit drastic," Jason confessed, chuckling as he leaned against his locker.

"A little drastic?" Sydney exclaimed, her eyes as wide as saucers at Jason's understatement. "Are you kidding me? How about a complete tragedy? My dress is red, Jason – red!"

"Okay…So?"

"So? Are you joking? Red and mint green – those colors don't just clash together, they wage all-out war!"

Jason just stared at her. "If you say so," he shrugged. "But where do I fit in with all this?"

"I'm glad you asked," Sydney beamed as she swung her hips in a dainty manner. "I want you to just hint around in casual conversation that I don't want him to wear any color but navy or black. That's all."

Jason regarded her silently for a moment, trying to decide if she was serious or not. "And how, exactly, am I supposed to do this? Guys don't usually sit around and talk about tux colors, Syd."

"Oh, Jason, you have to," she whined, grasping his bicep. "This is prom we're talking about – the most memorable night of senior year, of our entire high school career! Everything has to be perfect." She paused, studying his face for the slightest indication of what she was looking for.

Jason didn't bite, so she continued. "After all, don't you want your prom night to be perfect for you and your date?"

In an ideal world, Jason would have replied that, yes, he did want things to be perfect for him and Elizabeth. But ideal worlds simply didn't exist during senior year.

"Fine, I'll talk to him," he relented, rolling his eyes and getting ready to move on to class. "I'm not making any promises, though, and if he asks me what the hell I'm talking about, I'm telling him that you know about the green tux."

"Deal," Sydney responded brightly, covering her disappointment at her inability to wheedle any information out of him. The hint had been dropped, and it had made a sizable dent on the tiled floor.

"Deal," Jason repeated. "See ya." He sauntered off down the hallway toward the stairwell by Elizabeth's locker.

Sydney smirked at his retreating form. Now all she had to do was find Charlie and tell him to temporarily pretend that he wanted to wear a green tux.


"Do you think jazz would be cool?" Johnny asked, furrowing his brows. "Everybody likes jazz. It's impossible not to."

"Especially if it's something really catchy," Elizabeth agreed. "Or on a different note, something classical."

"I don't know," the boy replied slowly. "Not many people know much about classic jazz."

"What about a jazzy twist on a piece of classical music?" Elizabeth asked, her eyes lighting up.

Johnny's green eyes glittered. "Beethoven's fifth?"

Elizabeth grinned back. "Only been playing it since I was six."

He cocked his head to the side. "Do you play jazz piano?"

The brunette nodded, smoothing a small hand down her shiny chocolate hair. "Yeah – are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Jason rounded the corner at that moment, giving him a direct view of Elizabeth's locker. She was seated on the floor talking to Johnny and he was about to call out to the two of them, but was interrupted when someone called out to him.

"Jason!"

Spinning around, he caught sight of his friend Carol Benson as she somehow managed to run over to him atop her four-inch red heels.

"Just the man I've been meaning to talk to," the tall blonde grinned. She was all charm, and Jason was very suspicious. "I love your shirt – blue's a good color for you."

He rolled his eyes. "What do you want, Carol?"

She pretended to pout, but her eyes sparkled with mirth nonetheless. "What – every time I compliment my old friend, I have to be trying to get something in return?"

"It's the charm of our relationship," Jason shrugged as the bell for class sounded overhead.

"OK, fine, whatever," Carol relented, bobbing up and down. "I don't care." She snaked an arm through his and pulled him toward the stairwell, making a great show of waving to Elizabeth and smiling back when the brunette grinned hello to the two of them.

Jason cast his girlfriend a sidelong glance as she resumed her conversation with Johnny. His teammate pulled her to her feet and then tugged an obstinate notebook from Elizabeth's locker before kicking it shut. He waited as she slipped her lock in and twisted the combo, and then the two of them walked off down the hall together.

"So, listen, Jase," Carol continued, both of her hands wrapped around his arm. "I have a problem."

"Why am I not surprised?" Jason asked as they descended the stairs. The loud smack smack of Carol's heels on the steps was already starting to give him a headache. "OK, what do you need?"

"Oh, don't be like that," Carol huffed, shoving him lightly on the shoulder. "When was the last time I ever asked you for anything?"

"Just yesterday."

The blonde paused for a minute before waving a red-tipped hand through the air. "Oh, who cares? Whatever it was, it doesn't count. This time, I really have a problem."

Jason sighed, which Carol automatically interpreted as a sign that he wanted her to explain. It took her two seconds to run over her story in her mind, and she was ready to go.

"Ok, do any of your friends still not have dates for prom?"

Jason groaned inwardly.

"I'm serious, Jason," Carol insisted, shoving him again. They walked past the library, her arm still through his, and Carol took the time to discreetly wink at Emily as they passed her, letting her know that everything was proceeding according to plan. "I don't have a date."

"You? " Jason repeated incredulously. "How can you not have a date? I thought you made these plans years in advance."

"Very funny, Jason. Normally, I would. But I must have been sleeping at the time because, as unbelievable as it may sound, I don't have a date. And I'm not going to prom without a date!"

"I'd imagine not," Jason replied flatly. "In fact, I can picture you running into a church on prom night and dragging away the first man in a tux that you see – even if he was the groom."

"Oh, Jason, be serious," his friend beseeched.

"Who says I'm not?" Jason demanded as they rounded the corner into the science wing.

"Jason! "

"Fine, fine," he burst out, scowling at the floor. "I'll see what I can do."

Carol squealed, and tightened her grip on his arm in excitement. "Oh, thank you, Jason – I knew you'd come through for me."

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered, rolling his shoulders in an attempt to extricate himself from her embrace and nearly plowing over some freshmen in the process.

"Ok, just remember that I like brunettes," Carol informed him. "And I don't want the guy to be shorter than me in heels, because then I have to wear flats, and I don't want to wear flats, Jason."

"Uh-huh. Do tell."

"Redheads are okay, but remember, I like brunettes."

"Gotcha."

"And I don't want anyone with a hyena laugh. That annoys the crap out of me."

"Speaking of annoying-"

"And he doesn't have to go to our school, you know. In fact, feel encouraged to find a guy that doesn't go here."

The minute bell rang and Carol let go of his arm. "Thanks, Jase, see you later."

With that, she was off to her first hour class, a knowing smile on her face the whole way.


Jason slid into his seat in the third row and opened his Physics notebook so Mr. Baier could check the homework. Not surprisingly, the old man was nowhere to be seen. If the weather wasn't reminiscent of India during the wet season, the entire class would have been outside already and playing in the meadow directly behind the room until Baier came out and demanded that they all come in. It had become a daily routine of theirs, but the rain seemed to disrupt everything.

"Jason, did you get number three?"

Turning to his left, Jason met the gaze of Veronica Peterson. "Number three?"

Roni nodded. "Yeah – it's the only one where you need a calculator, and mine kept giving me something that I knew couldn't be right."

Jason glanced at his work, not feeling right about giving her the answer right away. Not to say that Roni liked to cheat off of others or anything – it was just his own personal habit. "How'd you set it up?"

"Like this," she pointed at her notebook, scooting her desk closer to his. "See?"

"Your equation's right," Jason informed her. "I got the same thing."

"Then why am I getting a negative answer?" she demanded, glowering at her graphing calculator.

"Negative?" Jason repeated, taking a look at his own final answer and then at her work. "Are you sure you typed it in right?"

"Mm-hmm," Roni nodded. Her blonde hair fell forward and onto her desk as she bent over the problem, and the girl instantly pulled it back and swept it around her neck and over her other shoulder. "With parentheses and everything."

"Are you sure your calculator's in radians?" Jason asked on a hunch.

Roni looked up at him. "You know, I don't know. That might be it." She punched two keys and nodded. "Yeah – I had it in polar mode. Okay, let's do this." She retyped the equation and waited expectantly as the instrument calculated. "9.475?"

"That's what I got," Jason confirmed, tapping his pen over his notebook.

"Thanks, Jason," Roni beamed. "I can't believe I was so stupid."

"No problem," he shrugged with a smile. "I do it all the time."

Mr. Baier chose that moment to walk into the classroom, hugging the wall as he always did. Reportedly, he had poor peripheral vision, not to mention depth perception, and usually walked very close to the walls. His head was bent downward at its usual angle and he was mumbling to himself.

"Folks, let's get attendance taken care of and then we'll move on to the good stuff," he informed the class as he hunched over his slim laptop and began clicking away.

Jason settled back in his seat and Roni watched him carefully, licking her lips. Come on, Roni, don't chicken out. You owe it to Elizabeth – Jason has to ask her to prom. And you have to hint around until he gets the message.

"Jason?"

He turned to face her, blinking at her voice. "Yeah?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

Her voice was hesitant and soft, which naturally made Jason suspicious. His voice was slow and wary when he replied. "What?"

Roni licked her lips again and tried to sound unsure and even a slight bit embarrassed. "You're friends with Steve Vurton, aren't you?"

The mention of one of his track teammates didn't alleviate Jason's suspicion. "Yeah…?"

"Well, I was kind of wondering…" Roni trailed off, biting her lip. She paused a moment for dramatic effect before bursting out with the question she'd repeated to herself before he'd walked into the room.

"Do you know if he's going to ask me to prom?"

"What?" Jason gaped at her, all his suspicions confirmed. Elizabeth's friends were indeed slowly but surely ganging up on him in an attempt to get him to ask her to prom. If the whole thing weren't so damn annoying, he'd laugh at the transparency of their behavior.

"Oh, never mind," Roni flushed, turning away from him and gazing down at her notebook while holding her pen in a vice-like grip. "I knew I shouldn't have asked – I don't mean to put you in a rough spot, Jason, and I don't blame you if you wouldn't tell me anyway. But I asked Elizabeth since she's friends with him, too, and she had no clue, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask you and…never mind."

Jason exhaled deeply, trying to gather his wits enough to properly respond. If this was what he was in for throughout the duration of the day, he might as well have some fun with it and not let it get to him. After all, he had long planned to ask Elizabeth to prom, but he wanted to do it on his own terms and wasn't sure that he appreciated the ambush by their well-meaning friends.

"Hey, it's okay. You really want to go with him?"

Roni peeked out hesitantly at him from behind her curtain of dirty blonde hair. "Yeah."

"If he'd ask, you'd say yes?"

"In a heartbeat."

Jason leaned back further in his desk, lacing his fingers together behind his head. "I wouldn't worry. Guys like Steve – they're totally into this sort of thing. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before he asks you."

"This sort of thing?" It was Roni's turn to be suspicious. "What do you mean?"

Jason just shrugged and made a conscious effort not to let his voice belie his amusement. "Well, you know, some guys – guys like Steve – are into the whole prom thing. Other guys just aren't."

"Really." It was a statement, not a question, and Jason fought to keep from grinning at the wariness and foreboding in the girl's voice. "And you, Jason – where do you lie?"

He shrugged again, intent on seeming as casual as possible as Mr. Baier closed his Apple notebook and began drawing on the board. "Well, I don't really care much about prom. It seems kinda stupid to me."

He managed to discreetly catch the look of pure horror that passed over Roni's face, and leaned forward in his seat to copy down the diagram, more in an attempt to hide his face than because he actually needed to copy it down.

"You're kidding, right?" she asked when she finally found her voice. This was most definitely not in the plan. "I mean, you've got to be kidding."

"Why would I be kidding?" Jason asked. "The whole thing just seems stupid – you girls go out and buy a hugely expensive dress that you only wear once, and you spend all day getting ready only to go someplace hot and crowded where you get really sweaty in ten minutes, and all just to dance? Doesn't that sound stupid to you?"

"N-no, it doesn't sound stupid," Roni sputtered indignantly. "I can't believe you're saying this."

Mr. Baier turned around to face the class. "Folks, today we're going to learn about frames of reference. Now, from our frame of reference, we are sitting in this classroom, completely still, as the Earth spins in rotation underneath us. But that's from our frame of reference." He pointed to the small globe on the desk. "From the earth's frame of reference, we are all moving in parallel orbits on its surface. They're two completely different ideas, two completely different frames of reference, and you have to acknowledge both of them if you are going to have any knowledge of the idea as a whole. Basically, this is the same idea as what your parents have told you over the years – or so I should hope – always look at a problem, a concept, an idea, from all sides."

Jason glanced across the row at Roni for the first time, meeting her gaze without looking away. "It all seems silly to me," he whispered, as Mr. Baier made a diagram of a car on the dry-erase board. "I'd rather do anything than go to prom. And that includes getting a root canal."

Roni's jaw dropped to the floor, and the blonde had no choice but to slump back in her seat and stare blankly toward the head of the room as Mr. Baier explained the day's lesson.

"Look at this – back in my day, the cars had bench seats. Leather ones, usually. That meant that the seat was just one seat, and the gears were on the floor or by the wheel. So, if you have two passengers in the front, and you make a right turn…" He drew two arrows on the board. "Then the person on the right slides over to the left. Correct?"

"Correct," several students mumbled.

Mr. Baier put down the marker and picked up the packet he distributed for every chapter. "Now, back in my day, we also tried this out. We'd go out at night with a pretty young lady if we were men, and the ladies would go out with pretty young men, and we'd all make sharp right turns to check out this theory." He grinned cheekily at the class. "But I'll tell you one thing – we weren't thinking about Physics when we were doing it."

While the rest of the class laughed at Mr. Baier's typical sexual jokes, Jason was chuckling at the suddenly distraught blonde next to him.


"You're kidding," Jenny gasped at Roni. "He actually said that?"

The blonde nodded sadly. "He said he'd rather get a root canal done than go to prom."

"Oh, #$," Emily cursed under her breath. "Well, now what are we supposed to do?"

"I don't know," Felicia sighed sadly. "If Carol was here, she'd know."

"I haven't spoken to her since second hour," Jenny spoke up. "She said that her part went off without a hitch, and that Jason seemed to pick up the hint."

"Syd was happy, too," Felicia nodded. "She said some stuff about wanting prom to be perfect and stuff. From what I got, she was pretty obvious."

"Well, that doesn't help us now," Roni sighed. "Because Jason doesn't even want to go."

"Maybe not," Jenny mused, a twinkle in her hazel eyes. "But maybe he'd go if he thought Beth really wanted to."

"What are you saying?" Felicia asked, sidling closer.

"Hola, chicas," Brenda called out, smiling at the small circle as she strolled over. Her black boots clicked against the tiles as she walked, and she wore a simple black skirt with a matching sweater top. "What's going on? What're we talking about?"

"Nothing," Jenny answered instantly. "Just, um…this god-awful weather."

"Yeah, it's terrible, isn't it?" Brenda asked, placing her free hand on her hip. "I mean, it's May – you think Mother Nature would have received the memo that it's supposed to be late spring in New York."

"Yeah," Felicia responded abruptly, shifting uncomfortably on her feet.

Roni cleared her throat nervously, and Brenda narrowed her eyes. None of the girls were looking her in the eyes, almost as if they were up to something.

"Okay," she sighed, combing her dainty fingers through her open hair. "Does someone want to tell me what's going on?"

Roni exchanged glances with the other girls before turning to the brunette in front of her. "Brenda…do you know if Jason's going to ask Beth to prom?"

Brenda blinked quickly but recovered nicely. Elizabeth and Jason had been adamant about keeping their new relationship under wraps for the time being, and if they didn't want it to get out, then she'd honor that. "Uh, I don't know."

"Well, that's what we're working on," Jenny broke in, twisting a lock of her light brown hair around her finger. "We're trying to drop enough hints for Jason to ask her."

Brenda's shoulders slumped at the confession. "You're kidding me."

"No," Felicia shook her head. "Sydney, Carly, and Roni have already talked to him indirectly today."

Brenda rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to smack her hand to her forehead. "Guys, seriously, take my advice and leave it alone. Whatever will happen will happen. Just leave it alone."

Jenny furrowed her brows at the shorter brunette. "What? Why? Why not help if we can?"

"You may think you're helping, but you might not be," Brenda cautioned. "Just leave it alone. If he wants to go with her, he'll ask her. I doubt he needs help from the peanut gallery." She glanced at her watch and made ready to leave. "I have to go, but remember – leave it alone. Don't do anything."

With that, she walked away from the small circle. The four girls watched her leave, each in her own thoughts.

Felicia was the first to break the silence. "So?"

"So what?" Jenny huffed. "I say we still try."

"I was thinking the same thing," Roni agreed. "I honestly don't see how we could make it worse – we're just speeding along the process, right?"

"Right," Emily nodded before turning to Jenny. "Now, what were you about to say before Brenda walked up?"

Jenny glanced around to make sure no one was close enough to hear. "Well, maybe Jason would go if he thought that Beth really wanted to go."

"But Beth wouldn't come out and say that," Roni argued. "Trust me, I know her. And if this isn't anything serious, then she'd be even less likely to do that."

"And so that's where we come in," Jenny explained, gesturing to the four of them. "We have to make him think she does."

"Count me out," Roni interjected. "I've already talked to him today, and he told me that he doesn't want to go. If he hears me talking about that, then it'll be way too obvious."

"You're right," Emily agreed. "So it's the three of us?"

Felicia and Jenny nodded.

"Okay – when?"

Jenny thought for a moment. "Lunch. We'll stand by my locker and start talking as he walks by."

"What if he's with Elizabeth?" Felicia inquired. "They usually walk down together."

"Leave it to me," Roni broke in. "I'll drag her down to the paper office beforehand or something."

"Okay, then it's settled," Jenny said as the minute bell for sixth-seventh rang. "After this class, we all meet by my locker."

"Got it," the friends answered in unison before scattering.


"All right, deviants," Mr. Alcazar thundered as his students wandered around the room. "The AP exam's in about two weeks, and we're going to do nothing but review until then. Does anyone have any specific topics in mind, or do you want me to just start from the beginning and breeze through?"

"Beginning sounds good," Sonny spoke up, flipping to a blank page in his notebook. Next to him Jason was doing the same.

"Okay." Their teacher turned to the board before glancing over his shoulder at them again. "Is anyone absent, by the way?"

"Elizabeth," came a voice from the back of the room.

"No, she's here," Jason assured them. "She's just late or something."

At that moment, the door opened and Elizabeth and Luke walked in together. Luke was grinning and Elizabeth was laughing.

"Beth, Luke," Mr. Alcazar smiled stiffly. "Good of you to join us. Do you require a personal invitation to take your seats?"

"Woah – we get personal invitations?" Luke asked as Elizabeth deposited her stuff by her desk.

The brunette shook her head at the boy. "We're going to go get a drink, Mr. Alcazar," she informed her teacher before walking back toward the door.

Luke followed her out, his hand on the small of her back, and glared at Taggert. "Back in five, Czar," he called out as they left the classroom.

Marcus knew exactly what the discreet glance meant, and as soon as Mr. Alcazar's back was turned he sidled over to Jason. "Yo, Jase."

Jason glanced at him. "What?"

"Listen, I'm not trying to get all up in your business or anything," his friend assured him. "But I was just wondering – what's the deal with you and Beth?"

Jason slammed his pencil down on his notebook and glared at the boy. Not again. "Who wants to know?" he demanded icily.

"Hey, hey, don't get so defensive," Taggert replied, putting his hands up in the air. "My girlfriend just wanted me to ask. She's putting together the list for our group, and she wanted Elizabeth to go with us. So she asked me to ask you what was up with the two of you, and if you were going to ask her to-"

"Mr. Taggert." Their teacher's voice boomed across the room. "Are you aware of the fact that the AP exam is coming up in less than two weeks?"

"Yes."

"Then I'm sure you're aware that you, along with every other student in this class, need this valuable time to review."

Marcus nodded and leaned forward in his desk, copying down the problem on the board. Luke and Elizabeth walked back into the room and straight for their desks. Jason secretly watched Luke glance questioningly at Taggert, and had to hide his smirk when the other boy just shrugged in response.

So, apparently, the ambush of May fifth crossed gender lines.


The bell rang for lunch and the hallways flooded with students. By now, word was already out that Jason Morgan didn't want to go to prom. But then again, that wouldn't stop his and Elizabeth's closest friends.

Carol had been furious over the new development, and it took all of them to keep her from marching over to Jason and throwing a fit until he agreed to take Beth. Jenny had informed her of the new plan, and that was all Carol needed to revive her hope in the matter. She and Roni had ushered Elizabeth away as soon as the bell rang, and now Jenny, Emily, and Felicia stood in front of Jenny's locker, a few paces away from Jason's.

They waited until he had his locker open and was pulling out his lunch, and then started their well-rehearsed routine.

"Em, are those from Ace?" Jenny asked eagerly, pointing to the painted blue roses in the shorter brunette's hand.

She nodded happily. "Yup – aren't they just gorgeous?"

"When'd he ask you?" Felicia inquired, and Jason buried his face in his locker to hide his smirk at the unnecessary volume of her voice.

"This morning, before school," Emily responded. "It was so sweet – you should have seen it."

"Do you have a dress yet?" Jenny asked, leaning against her locker and hoping Jason could hear her over the laughter on the other side of the hall.

"Nope," Emily replied. "Do you?"

"No," Jenny answered. "You want to go shopping sometime? Felicia?"

"Sure," they both replied in unison.

"We have to take Beth with us, though," Emily instructed them. "She always has the best taste when it comes to formal gowns. And I don't think she has her dress yet, either."

"Oh, that reminds me," Jenny burst out, slapping her hand to her forehead in mock remembrance. "We have to make sure we add Beth to our group for the limo and the dinner reservations."

"Yeah," Felicia nodded eagerly. "Oh, it's going to be so much fun with her in our group!"

"I know!" Emily exclaimed excitedly. "We've all only been talking about this since junior year – now we finally get to go together."

"This is going to be amazing," Jenny agreed. "All of us going to prom together. Too amazing for words."

Jason grinned at the row of textbooks in front of him as he listened to them babble on. As much as he loved all of his and Elizabeth's friends, subtlety was not their strong suit.

The volume of their voices rose as he strolled by them on his way to lunch, whistling and seemingly unmindful of their chatter.

"Jason, hey," Jenny smiled in a last-ditch effort to catch his attention.

"Jenny," Jason smiled, pretending to be caught off guard. "Hey, guys, I didn't even notice you standing there." He grinned at the three frowning girls and waved as he continued to walk. "Later."


Jason sat at his old lunch table with Charlie, Ryan, and a couple of the other track team boys. Sonny had gone straight to the library and Elizabeth was nowhere in sight, so he assumed she had some crisis or another in progress down in the paper office.

"And then I said, if you wanted entertainment, you should have stayed home and watched Conan," Charlie grinned, relating one of his latest stories to a laughing Ryan. "Because she hates Conan. I got her good."

From her perch three tables away, Lexi Cassidine watched the three friends laugh at Charlie's joke. She clenched her pen tightly in her fist, slowly counting down from ten. OK, Lex, just march over there and do it. He can't say no – he's been hinting around for weeks, but he's just too afraid to ask you. So do it. It's a win-win; you get a date, and Jason gets an anvil on the head. You can't lose.

The slim brunette got up from her seat and adjusted her glasses before marching straight over to the table where the track boys sat. Charlie was the first to see her and smiled. Jason looked up and nodded, and Lexi looked away at the instant suspicion in his eyes. Ryan was the last to notice, and she could see the confusion reflected in his eyes when he did.

"Hey, Lex," Charlie smiled. "How's life treatin' ya?"

"Lexi," Jason tipped his head.

"Hi, Lex," Ryan smiled, nervously twiddling his pencil between his fingers.

She stopped right in front of him, refusing to look at anyone but him. If she looked at Charlie, she'd either lose her nerve or burst out laughing, neither of which was good. If she looked at Jason, she would most definitely lose her nerve. And besides that, he'd immediately understand what her ulterior motives were. And that couldn't happen.

So instead, she looked straight into Ryan's eyes, clasping her hands in front of her.

"Ryan?"

He glanced nervously from side to side. "Yes?"

Jason stopped in mid-chew, his blue eyes darting from his friend to Lexi.

"I was wondering if you would be my date for prom," the girl said smoothly, keeping her voice level and her eyes calm.

Ryan swallowed. Jason did not.

"Sure," he smiled softly. "Yeah, I'd love to." He quirked a brow at her when she smiled back. "But correct me if I'm wrong – aren't I supposed to ask you?"

The slim brunette smirked before answering, and when she did, she made sure to glance at Jason for a quick moment. "Sometimes a girl gets tired of waiting."

That said, she turned on her heel and strolled back to her table where her friends were eagerly awaiting her report.

Jason shook his head in disbelief and swallowed the bite of his hamburger. It didn't taste very good anymore.


"You know, I say that I just walk right up to him and tell him to take her to prom," Lauren insisted, trying to convince the rest of the girls. "Seriously – what would he do? He'd have to agree."

Sydney rolled her eyes. "Petey, you can't."

"Why not?" Lauren demanded. "Tell me."

"Oh, gee, that's every girl's dream," Carol drawled, leaning back against Sydney's locker. "Nothing like having someone threaten your date into taking you to prom."

Felicia and Emily nodded in agreement, and Lauren fell to thinking.

"Well, I guess you're right," she admitted. "But what are we going to do?"

It was the end of the school day, and Jason still hadn't paid any attention to their hints. The flock of girls was now standing at Sydney's locker and had the perfect view of Jason at his locker.

Jenny sighed. "I don't know anymore."

"You're not giving up, are you?" Roni demanded.

The brunette shrugged. "Look, we tried everything. What more is there for us to do?"

"She's right," Dara Johnson agreed. The slender African-American girl was Marcus Taggert's girlfriend of almost a year, and she, too, had found herself dragged into the latest drama. "I even tried to get Marcus to pry into it, and you know how guys are – they're not nearly as subtle as us."

Jenny sighed, watching as her own boyfriend made his way to the locker next to Jason's. "Yeah."

"It didn't do any good."

Out of earshot from the herd of young ladies, Brendan Mahoney twisted the combo on his locker without even looking at Jason or engaging in any of the customary horseplay.

"Hey, Brend-o," Jason grinned, dumping his English journal into his backpack. "How's it going?"

"Wuss," Brendan hissed, shutting his own locker and slamming the lock in place.

Jason blinked, not knowing what to make of the outburst from his usually reserved friend. "Um, excuse me?"

"You heard me," Brendan replied, zipping up his jacket and walking away. Elizabeth was a special friend of his – he spent one whole week every month cooped up in a tiny office with her, and had gotten to know her very well over the last two years. And the thought that Jason Morgan was just stringing her along was too much for him. No girl deserved that, and especially not a girl as nice as Elizabeth.

Jenny reached out and grabbed his hand as he neared Sydney's locker. He smiled at all of her friends, tipping his head in greeting.

"Girls."

"Brendan," they all smiled. But their smiles vanished as soon as they appeared – none of the girls seemed very happy.

Marcus and Luke joined the group after a few minutes, and the increasingly larger flock huddled together in hushed conversation.

Jason remained at his locker, and Jenny looked past Brendan's shoulder when she heard the click click click of a very familiar pair of boots.

"Brenda," she smiled in greeting.

The brunette eyed the suddenly silent group warily, pursing her lips in. "You couldn't leave it alone, could you?" she demanded, on hand on her hip.

The group shuffled in embarrassed silence and looked up, surprised, when Brenda chuckled. She was shaking her head, but her smile seemed genuine. "And I guess that's what makes you all such good friends." She chuckled once more and shifted her books to her other hand. "See you guys tomorrow," she called out over her shoulder as she disappeared down the stairs.

Luke smirked. "I always knew I liked that girl. She reminds me of me."

"Oh, god," came another voice, this time in a groan. "I should hope not." Sonny Corinthos walked past them, smirking as he moved to catch up to his girlfriend. "For my sake at least."

"Aw, you know you like it, Corinthos," Luke taunted his friend's back. Sonny just laughed as he vanished from view.

"So, we're out of ideas?" Carol asked no one in particular.

Sydney nodded slowly. "Looks that way."

Lexi sighed. "That's too bad. It would have been so cool if Jason and Beth went together."

"Yeah," Jenny agreed. "They make such a cute couple."

"I think so, too," Marcus offered. "That's why I tease them, I guess – they just suit each other and it's almost funny."

Felicia sighed. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter, since they're not even a couple."

They heard Jason close his locker door and lock it, and all of them looked up as he walked down the hallway toward the stairwell near their post.

Lauren was the first to glare threateningly at him, but Jason didn't even pay attention, smiling at her as if she had been smiling at him. The rest of the group followed suit, affecting their best displeased expressions, all of which bounced right off of him.

"You know, Morgan," Taggert mumbled as the boy walked by. "You really are an idiot."

Jason turned to face them all but didn't stop walking. His eyes glittered and the corner of his mouth hooked upwards. "And you guys really are gullible."