Disclaimer: I do not own School of Rock, blah blah blah

Lawrence was slowing surviving Thursday. He didn't speak to anyone, he didn't raise his hand in class to answer a question, and he didn't look at Alicia. To be honest, he had spent that entire day hiding from her, afraid of what she might do for what he had shouted at her the day before.

Alicia seemed back to her normal self. He heard her sass the English teacher more than usual, she had gotten another detention for shoving some boy up against the lockers because he was simply in her way (but it was postponed by Ms. Mullins for Friday so she wouldn't have another run in with Dewey), and Tomika and she had a blow out in the cafeteria because Alicia was tired of her talking about Zack. However, as much as he wanted to, he refused to look at her.

He knew once he did, he'd feel ashamed. Ashamed of what, he didn't rightly know, but all he knew was that Alicia was pissed, and somehow it was entirely his fault. He had waited for her to approach him... hit him or something... but she never did. He couldn't bare to tell his parents that the date with her had been cancelled. They were really looking forward to it. What was he suppose to say? 'Gee, I'm sorry, but Alicia cancelled on me because I'm a loser and now she hates me'. That wouldn't work.

Lawrence had also avoided Freddy, who seemed his regular self again as well. They wouldn't have gym class until next Wednesday, and he was already coming up with excuses that he could use to get out of it. The last thing he wanted to do is to be in the same room with any of those guys.

Before the last period of the day, Lawrence found himself going to the library for his study hall period. He wanted some peace and quiet mostly. Maybe he'd check out a book to read for Saturday since he wasn't going to the dance now. He could tell his parents that it was homework and that he simply didn't have time to go anywhere. They'd buy that. Then, in his head flashed what he had said to Alicia the day before. I never lied a day in my life. Ok, so he lied about small things. Surely he didn't lie about things that would hurt and embarrass other people.

The thing about being alone is that it always left him to think, think about everything including that in which he didn't want to. He desperately wished that a piano would magically appear in front of him so he could relieve himself. The night before, after the recording session, he had came home and played for two hours straight before going to bed. His hands were already tired and stiff, but he literally forced himself to play. He could always play through entire songs perfectly when it came to classical piano, but that night, he had messed up and stopped so many times, that he simply started all over again. It didn't help his nerves, and he had slept miserably.

He walked among the many shelves of books unsure of what he was exactly looking for, but it was nice and quiet. As he moved into the next row, he nearly tripped over someone.

"Hey, watch it," Gordon whispered, holding his laptop close to him. He was sitting on the floor playing some sort of video game.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Lawrence whispered back.

"You wanna play?"

"Um," Lawrence looked around. "No, it's ok."

He began to walk to the end of the row, but Gordon was now at his side, carrying the computer under his arm.

"Hey, about yesterday... everyone's really sorry for not stopping Freddy. We just figured he should prove his point to you."

"What point?" Lawrence glared at him.

Gordon chuckled dismissively. "Zack and I saw it coming from a mile away. You got on Freddy's bad side."

"Can you please fill me in on what you're talking about?"

"You mean you don't know?"

"No!" Lawrence said loudly, and Gordon shushed him.

"Look, it doesn't matter anymore. It's settled. Freddy will probably leave you alone now. He just needed to get out some anger," said Gordon, way too amused about this, "I'll see ya around."

Lawrence blinked twice not fully understanding Gordon and his little chat. Whatever. He pushed in to the back of his mind, grabbed a random book off the shelf, and headed to a table, praying that last period would come so he could go home.

Alicia was crying.

She sat in the stall in the girl's bathroom, wiping away at these tears that seemed to come out of nowhere. She tried hard not to whimper too loudly, afraid that someone would walk in and find her. That's the last thing she wanted.

She had avoided Lawrence all day. He wasn't like anyone else where she could threaten him and fight back. She wished it, as hard as she possibly could, that she could hurt him, but she just couldn't face him.

When he had shouted a nasty remark at her the day before, it hit her hard. She wanted revenge for that, but every time she'd try to get think of ways to get even with him, she'd picture his kind face. The face that laughed whenever she made a joke or did something silly, the face that looked horrified when he had met her father, the face that looked angry whenever he now looked at Eleni, the face that she thought she could trust.

Then she thought of him telling everyone that she was his girlfriend. She saw a lying face, a smug face, a face that reminded her of Freddy, and she got angry all over again.

She checked her watch and decided that she wouldn't go back to her study hall. She sniffled and heard the door creak open.

"Alicia, I know you're in here," came a voice. Tomika.

Alicia didn't say anything and didn't make a move. She heard Tomika's footsteps come closer and closer until they stopped at her stall. She rattled the door, but Alicia had locked it.

"Girl, I know that's you. You're the only one in this school with that bookbag."

"What do you want?" Alicia found her voice.

"I want you to open the door so we can talk," demanded Tomika.

"No. I'm using the bathroom," she lied.

"Fine. Then I'll just go in the stall next to you."

The door to the stall on her left squeaked open, and then she heard it lock. "Ok, now telling me why you're crying."

"I'm not crying... and we're supposed to be fighting."

"We're friends. I'm over it. Besides, I have nothing to fight with you about. Zack's my boyfriend, and I can't help that I have to voice how I feel about him," said Tomika, "What I don't understand is why you won't talk to me about Lawrence."

"There's nothing to talk about," replied Alicia.

"Look, I know you're hurt, but you didn't even listen to what he had to say. Or maybe you just really wanted to believe the worst about the situation."

Alicia jumped up and stormed out of the stall and out came Tomika. The two girls stood face to face, one towering over the other.

Alicia crossed her arms and scowled at her friend. "Why would I want to do that?"

"Because it's all you ever do. If someone just looks at you, you think they want to start something. If someone crosses you in the hall, you think they're trying to deliberat get in your way. You want to see the negative. You want something to take your anger out on, and you want to hide your real feelings. But I'm afraid Lawrence has stumped you on that this time around. I'm glad someone did."

Alicia stood there, trying to remain as tough looking as she could, but she could feel another tear trying to escape. A long silence went by where she refused to make eye contact with Tomika.

"I think you should tell him how you feel. It's been way too long."

"No," snapped Alicia. "I can't. He wouldn't accept it, alright. You see how it is with us now."

"See, you're viewing it entirely wrong. I know--"

"No, you don't know. Look, I don't want to talk about it here. Too many people have their ears open, and I'm not having a repeat of yesterday."

The bell rang, and the two girls looked at one another.

"You alright?"

Alicia shrugged, putting on her backpack. "As good as I'll ever be."

They walked out of the bathroom, but Alicia didn't quite feel as though the day was over yet.

When Lawrence heard the bell, he let out a relieved sigh. He had survived.

He checked out the book he was reading and slipped around and through the crowded hallway of students to get to his locker, staring at his feet and politely apologizing if he bumped into someone. When he reached it, he simply stared at the door.

For some reason, he just stood there, listening to all of the chatter and movement, until only a couple of people walked the deserted halls. He turned around and slid down to the floor, not wanting to move.

He didn't want to go outside and see his mother. He didn't want to lie to her face when she asked how school had went. After awhile, he decided that he was going to tell the truth. He and Alicia were not going to attend the dance with each other.

Was it the way to go? They'd allow him to stay home from embarrassment, right? But maybe they'd force him to go anyway, and he'd sit there drinking punch all night, feeling pretty miserable.

Ugh, if only Eleni had just agreed to go with him to the stupid thing! This would've never happened.

"Don't think so loud."

Lawrence, who had buried his face in his hands and gripped his hair in frustration, looked up and saw Billy approaching, messenger bag hanging loosely off of his left shoulder. He didn't know how to respond to that and waited for him to continue to walk past, but he didn't. Instead, he plopped down next to him on the floor.

"Are you ok?" he asked, crossing his ankles.

"No," Lawrence told the truth.

"I didn't think anyone could like Alicia this much," Billy shook his head. "I think she's rather... how should I put this... mean."

"That's because..." Lawrence started off, but realized he didn't exactly know how to finish that. "She's actually really cool once you get to know her."

"Everyone thought you two were going out. I didn't believe it when Chelly told me and Leni. She, of course, heard it from Marta. I personally don't think you two make a cute couple."

Lawrence wasn't friends with Billy, but he appreciated how he always seemed to be there to help him out at the most embarrassing of times. If someone wanted to listen, he was going to tell.

"We're not. She's mad at me, and I don't even know what I did. I've never told anyone that she was my girlfriend," said Lawrence.

"Well, think really hard. Has there ever been a time that could've led Summer to think that you were boyfriend and girlfriend?"

"No, I--"

Then it hit him like a punch in the stomach from Freddy.

"Lawrence, honey, if you want to visit your girlfriend, all you have to do is say that."

"Ok, fine, you caught me."

"Oh no!" Lawrence buried his face in his hands again.

"What?" Billy squeaked.

"Summer was over my house when Alicia called to hang out with me. My mom made a comment about her being my girlfriend, and I went along with it, but I wasn't serious or anything. I really messed things up. This is all my fault."

"Well, why don't you kindly tell her the true story," Billy suggested.

"I can't do that," he looked at him seriously, feeling the regret sink in. "She won't even look at me, let alone talk to me."

"Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out, but not right now. You better get your butt outta here so you won't be late to the recording session. Can't have the band without the keyboardist," Billy got to his feet and slipped on a pair of stylish sunglasses coolly.

"Thanks for, you know, talking to me. There's not many people I can talk to," Lawrence said sincerely.

"It's cool, any time," replied Billy, "and, Lawrence, I'm glad you got over Eleni. She's my friend, but trust me when I say she's a bitch. You're better off without her."

For the first time that day, Lawrence felt a little better. He hoped that feeling would last, but he knew it'd crash and burn once he saw Alicia.

"Marta, what are you doing? That note was horrible," Alicia said, looking over to her right at Marta, who was now blushing.

"Sorry, jeeze," she muttered.

The producer had stopped the song because one of the back up singers had squeaked out a rather high pitched note. It was the twentieth stop of the day.

"Of course, you're sorry," Alicia rolled her eyes. "You're always sorry."

"Whatever."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing."

"Ok, time for a break," Dewey cut in, sensing Alicia's clenched fists at her side ready to swing. "Is that ok, man?"

"Yeah sure," said the producer. "I need a smoke break anyway. Be back in five."

Alicia continued to glare at the short, blonde girl until Tomika pulled her away gently. In the room, Alicia collapsed on the couch and began talking with Katie. For a second, she glanced over at Billy whispering something to Michelle and looking at her. She shifted in her seat a little and made some snide comment about Marta's hairstyle that day. She couldn't help but to glance over there every few seconds, and she got more and more nervous every time. Now, Michelle was whispering something to Marta, who looked like she was about to cry. When she heard the news that Michelle was telling her, she perked up a little in surprise and then tapped Summer, who was on her cell phone. Summer flipped it shut and listened for awhile to what Marta was saying. Then she bit her lip and looked straight at Alicia and then over in the direction to where Lawrence was.

"What are you staring at?" Katie suddenly said, following her eyes to the other couch of schoolmates.

"Nothing, I need some water. I'll be right back," Alicia got up and hurried out of the room as fast as she could. She didn't even get two steps down the hall until she heard Summer's Mary Janes.

"Alicia," the girl breathed out.

She spun around angrily, ready to confront Summer and any of the others who were just talking about her. "What do you want?"

"I want to apologize."

"You didn't do anything, stupid ass. Now, leave me alone," Alicia turned away, but Summer wouldn't let her go.

"No, please, let me explain."

Alicia stood there for a second, deciding if she really wanted to hear this or not. Summer's face looked begging. She liked that.

"You have thirty seconds."

"Lawrence never told anyone that you guys were boyfriend and girlfriend. Well not really anyway," Summer blurted out.

"Then why would you tell me that yesterday!" Alicia shouted in shock.

"It's a long story."

"Well, here were are. You better do some talking right now."

"That day when you came to his house, his mom said something about you guys dating. Lawrence made a comment that led me to believe that it was true, but he only said it so his mother would allow him to go with you. I just found out," Summer took a large breath. "And when you approached me yesterday, claiming I was spreading rumors about you guys, for some reason, I made it sound like he was going around, telling the entire school, but that's not true. He never did anything like that."

Alicia felt her heart drop, her throat clog, and extreme guilt and tears rise. She had yelled at him for no reason, made him feel like he was a big loser, all because she was misinformed. She hated rumors! What made it worse it that she had believed one, the thing she swore she'd never do. Great, just great. She had ruined everything.

"Well thanks for telling me 24 hours too late," Alicia snapped.

"No, it's not too late. You guys should make up. He feels really bad about it."

"Why do you care?"

"Because this is all my fault. I feel horrible, and Lawrence really deserves a date to the dance," she said sincerely. "I'll even talk to him if it'll help."

"No," Alicia shook her head, "This is between me and him. I'm tired of people interfering with our personally lives, you included."

"But I apologized," Summer sounded offended. "Why do you have to be so mean all the time?"

"You're just in this for my ticket money."

"No!" Summer stamped her foot. "God, this isn't about that. Lawrence is my friend. I don't know what he sees in you, but I know he doesn't deserve your attitude. Now, I'm saying I was wrong, and I'm trying to make this right."

Alicia smacked her teeth and rolled her eyes. She hadn't told her mother about cancelling her date with Lawrence, and her father was in town for the big night. They were even taking her dress shopping tomorrow. She wanted to go, really she did. So what if she had shouted at him the day before that she didn't want to, let alone with him. It was a pathetic lie that she had made up out of anger. But she had never apologized to anyone before. Her dad would tell her that there was a first time for everything. Summer was waiting for her to respond.

"I'll handle this. You've done enough," said Alicia, pushing past her and walked back into the recording room.

When she started to make her way over to Lawrence, the producer was back, ordering them to get back to work. Fine, she'd wait after.

"Ok, all the guys, stay here for a minute. I want to have a word with you," Dewey announced, as everyone started to leave. They weren't recording Friday, Saturday because of the dance, and Sunday.

Great. All Lawrence wanted to do was go home. He wasn't in the mood for another one of Dewey's talks again.

"Hey, stupid ass."

Lawrence turned around slowly to see Alicia standing behind him with a straight face. So this was it. He was going to get his ass kicked by a girl half his size, and it was going to hurt.

"I want to talk to you... alone," she said as they both looked around. People had stopped what they were doing just to see what was happening. As soon as they met eyes with the two, they pretended to not be interested and continued going about their business.

"I'm sorry about yesterday," Lawrence immediately lunged into his explanation, afraid of her fist coming into contact with his jaw. "I just got mad and--"

"Shut up," she ordered him, and he did as told. "I'm the one who needs to apologize. Summer told me the truth. Apparently, someone found out what really happened Saturday."

Lawrence scoffed and looked around for Billy, who became very interested in his nails. "Billy, you weren't supposed to say anything!"

"Well what do you expect?" Billy shrugged a guilty fashion. "I'm a gossip king! I couldn't help myself, and you never said I couldn't tell anyone."

He turned back to Alicia, and tried to smile but failed miserably. "So, you know the truth."

"Yeah, and you're not a loser. I just said that 'cause I was mad. So what I guess I'm trying to say is... well... you know... sorry and stuff."

Lawrence studied her closely. This was probably the first time ever she had to apologize for something and mean it. "Yeah, me too."

"So, now what?"

"Um, well," Lawrence shrugged, staring at his shoes. He told himself to just do it. He'd either be dateless and disappoint his parents or ask her and have a good time. "Alicia, will you go to the dance with me... again?"

Alicia smiled brightly before clearly her throat seriously, "Sure. I guess. Yeah, that'd be cool. Well, I'll see you later. Tomorrow. Yeah."

Lawrence smiled to himself as he watched her walk away as cool as possible. He secretly thanked Billy with all of him. Everything was solved, and now, he was going to the dance with her because he actually wanted to. And she had said yes because she wanted to go with him. That made the situation a ton more better.

He took a seat on the couch next to Billy and the other boys, who sat around with blank faces. Dewey waited til literally everyone but them were cleared out before he sat in the same spinning chair the day before, and stared at all of them before he began to talk.

"Ok, this is going to be rough 'cause I'm not your parents, but I wanna get something straight. Right here, right now," said Dewey.

Lawrence rolled his eyes, thinking they were all getting lectured on the importance of solving conflicts in the band, but he was far from being right.

"I want to talk to you about... girls."

"Um, Dewey..." Billy started off, but Dewey stopped him.

"No, I want you to hear this too, Billy. Sit down 'cause this is important."

Billy slide back onto the couch miserably, and a couple of the boys chuckled.

"Look, you guys are at that stage right now were it's like 'oooh, mama, the opposite sex'," Dewey said in a weird voice, as if trying to sound smooth. The boys laughed harder. "And I know this little Spring Sing Fling Ching-a-ling thing is this Saturday. You all got hot dates, but I'm gonna say this once. No scoring, no making out all hours of the night--yes, that means you, Marco-- no groping and grinding, no getting wasted afterwards and telling them you love them when you really don't. I'm sure we all know what I'm talkin' about. Is that clear?"

Freddy raised his hand, and Dewey gestured for him to speak, "are you talking about sex?"

"Right on the dot, Jones. Let's not go into any more detail."

"It's not like we don't already know," said Freddy, "My parents do it all the time."

A bunch of the boys winced at his comment, and Dewey waved his hand to say no more.

"Guys, I'm doing this not as your father, but more as your... older brother. If the girl says no, then no. In fact, I don't want to even hear anything about scoring or hooking up or anything. Just wait until you're... old."

"What if they like making out?" Marco asked. "Marta likes to make out."

"Too much info, dude," said Zack, playfully smacking him in the head.

"Oh, like you and Tomika don't make out," laughed Leo. "Tells us where you guys were at break."

A bunch of 'woooooooos' filled the room, and Zack spent an entire minute getting nudged and poked.

"You guys are missing the point completely," Dewey yelled over top of them, trying to get it back down to a serious conversation. "Hello? I'm not talking to you guys for my health!"

Suddenly Billy stood up and hushed everyone. "Listen, what Dewey's trying to say is please respect your dates and try to stop yourselves from becoming complete perverts."

"Who are you kidding?" joked Frankie. "You have the hottest date out of all of us. Michelle's smokin'."

"I won't put in a good word for you," Billy rolled his eyes.

"Ok, we got it. We won't put the moves on the girls," said Freddy to Dewey. "Can we go now?"

The boys were dismissed and Lawrence lingered back and waited for all of them to leave before he approached Dewey on his own.

"Um, Dewey," he said timidly.

"Oh, hey, Mr. Cool, what's up?"

"I just have a question. Do you think it'd be... good if a boy got a girl flowers for their date? I mean, if she was pretty tough, but girly at the same time, and you've never had a really date before..."

"Alicia would love the flowers, Larry," Dewey smiled. "It's a good way to go. Then, if she gets mad at you later, at least you know you did something right earlier in the night."

"Ok. Thanks."

"And Larry?"

"Yes?"

"Try to refrain from calling her names, especially 'Queen Bitch'. That's a no-no."

Lawrence nodded and walk away.

"And have fun!" Dewey shouted at him. "Clean, safe, non rated R movie fun."

Lawrence couldn't contain his excitement and did a little jig down the empty hall. The dance was in two days, and he'd be showing up with a date. Finally, everything was falling into place, and only one thought was on his mind.

Yes, Mr. Cool was ready.

(AN: not as short as I wanted it, but it got the job done, yeah? PINKJOLLYRANCHER, part of Freddy was sorry and the other part, ... well, it wasn't to get Dewey off his back. Everything will come together in the very last chapter for everyone who feels as though the story is too choppy or going absolutely nowhere. I hope everyone has paid close attention and I want to thank all of those who have read this, even if you didn't necessarily like it. Get out your stones because I'm ready to unleash the very last chapter... in two weeks, maybe three. But that's not what the stones are for.)