OK, so now everyone's at the dance. YAY! I'm not going to be too evil at the dance. Normally I would have everything turn out awfully, but there's enough awful stuff in store for the chapters after the dance, so it's going to be a good night for everyone. Well, for everyone except a mascot. (You can throw things at me for being evil now.)

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans. Duh.

"Have a nice time, sweetheart!" Angela called out the driver's window. Raven waved to her mom, then turned around to face the group she was now part of.

The group of ten was standing on the sidewalk that led up to the school's back door, which was where everyone had to hand in their tickets and enter the gym. The music was blaring out through the open doors, and Raven noticed that the lights in the gym that served as the dancing area had been turned out.

"Come, on, Rae!" Jinx called, grabbing her friend's arm and pulling her closer to the building.

"I'm fine right here, actually," Raven smiled sheepishly. "I have a really bad feeling about all this."

"Oh, cut it out for one night," Jinx waved to the rest of the group to get them to wait. "Someone help me drag her into the gym." Raven felt a second hand close on her other arm, and began to dig her heels into the sidewalk.

"Come on, Raven," she heard a familiar voice say.

"Garfield?" she asked, abandoning her heel-digging for a second to peer at the person who had her other arm.

"The one and only," hhe said, smiling cockily. As Raven looked closer through the semi-darkness, she noticed that Terra was clinging to Gar's other arm, and impatient expression on her face. The expression soon turned to glee as Terra recognized Kori.

"Oh my gosh, look at you!" they both squealed, hugging each other and jumping up and down. Raven was distracted from her reluctance to go inside, and soon found herself joining the queue that was heading into the building.

"Thank you, Garfield," Jinx whispered so only Raven could hear her. Raven punched her lightly on the arm.

"Cut it out," she said, going slightly pink. They handed their tickets to the man sitting at the desk, and entered the school.

Alfie, who had linked arms with Jinx, pointed out where the rest of their group had gone. Jinx grabbed Raven's arm so as to not lose her, and followed the others into the upstairs gym.

Raven was relieved to see that the upstairs gym was a lot less crowded than the hallway had been. Kori, Bea, and Kat were all taking off their shoes and giving their purses to the parents who were standing behind the large table that was already full of sparkly, flowery, and lacy piles. Each girl had a number written on their hands in permanent marker, and after they were done getting rid of their purses and shoes, their group, now with Terra and Gar, joined together again.

"We don't wanna lose anyone down there," Kori said. "It's so dark and crowded. We'll never find each other again."

"Yeah, so why don't we all link arms or something until we figure out where we're comfortable standing?" Bea suggested. She had already linked arms with Vic as she said this, so she held out her other arm to Kori, who was next to her.

The rest of the group quickly linked arms with the people they were next to. To Raven's glee, it was Gar who took one of her arms. Jinx grabbed the other, and gave her a look that plainly said, "Don't even think about leaving."

Terra led the group down the stairs to the darkened gym. Their group had a slight problem on the steps when Kitten tripped over her dress, but apart from that, everyone reached the gym with no problems.

The group settled on a spot near the wall, which was fine with Raven. She was a professional wall-stander at dances, and was not about to lose her title. Their spot was about in the middle of the gym, where the music was not as loud.

Vic and Bea, Jinx and Garth, and Terra and Garfield began dancing with each other almost immediately. Robin was soon pulled away from the wall by Kitten, which left Leo, Roy, Kori, and Raven as the wall-standers.

"Have you ever been to a dance like this before?" Kori shouted over the music.

"No," Raven yelled back. "I went to one dance in middle school because Jinx made me, and became a professional wall-stander. How 'bout you?"

"I went to the dances last year, but I never was a wall-stander," Kori shrugged. "I guess there's a first time for everything." Raven shrugged as well.

Kori began scanning the dance floor, most likely looking for friends, but Raven noticed her eyes seemed to fall on Robin and Kitten more often than necessary.

Raven glanced at the two also. Robin looked as if he was trying to force down a particularly nasty piece of food. Kitten held his hands tightly, and was swinging them back and forth so violently that Robin almost lost his footing a few times.

Raven turned away from this rather disturbing sight and found herself looking instead at Garfield and Terra. The song they were dancing to was rather slow, so Terra had both her arms around Gar's neck, and they were swaying slightly. Raven felt her cheeks burn as she watched them, so she turned to look at Jinx.

"Raven, come over here and get dancing!" Jinx called. She and Garth were dancing very close together, which, as Raven noticed, made both of them appear rather pink.

Raven shook her head violently. Jinx raised an eyebrow, and gave her a superior look. She then looked quickly over at Terra and Garfield, then back to Raven. She repeated this several times, and Raven, realizing what this gesture meant, quickly stepped over to where Jinx and Garth were.

"Knew that would get you over here," Jinx said smugly. Raven rolled her eyes, and stood still, her arms crossed.

The song abruptly switched to a faster one. Jinx grabbed Raven's arm with one hand and took Garth's hand in her other. She and Garth adjusted their dancing speed to fit the song that was now playing, and began coaxing Raven into dancing.

"No way," Raven shook her head as Jinx took her arm. "I am not dancing. No."

"Oh yes you are," Jinx cast a glance over at Garfield and Terra again. Raven followed her gaze to see that Terra and Garfield had also adjusted their dancing style to fit the faster music. (A/N: You all know how high schoolers dance to faster songs, right? Yeah. Cough cough grinding cough cough. That's what all of them will have done by the time the night's over. Even Raven.)

Raven began bobbing up and down slightly. Jinx and Garth smiled at her, Garth encouragingly and Jinx smugly.

"Come over here guys!" Jinx called, releasing her grip on Garth's hand to wave to Kori, Roy, and Leo. The three of them came over, and joined in the dancing. The rest of their group soon joined in their tightly-bunched group, and were soon one big bobbing mass of humans.

Raven, who had been conveniently been caught in the center of the group, was beginning to find that this wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be. Sure, she was in the center of a group of people that were making more contact than she had ever thought possible, but they were all nice people. She even found herself enjoying the fact that Garfield was right next to her in the circle of people.

Raven was just getting used to the fact that there were people pressing in on her from every side when the song changed to a slower one. The group immediately paired off, with a slight exception on Robin's part, and Raven, Kori, Leo, and Roy were one again left standing apart.

Leo seemed to be thinking very hard, then, taking a deep breath, walked over to Kori.

"May I have the honor of this dance?" he asked, bowing. Kori smiled.

"You may," she placed her arms around his neck, and he, almost awkwardly, placed his around her waist. The two smiled and began talking while dancing. Raven noticed that Robin was looking over at the two of them, a look of what was close to longing on his face.

Raven was so absorbed in watching everyone else that it took her a while to realize that Roy was standing right in front of her.

"Care to dance?" he asked, holding out a hand. Raven felt two feelings erupt inside her at once. One was telling her to run away, while the other told her to dance. She took the advice of the latter, for she knew what Jinx would do if she refused.

"Sure," she said, taking his hand. Roy seemed to realize she was uncomfortable dancing, so he simply placed one hand on her back while holding the other. She placed her other hand on his shoulder, thinking that all guys should be gentlemen like Roy. (A/N: No, I'm not going to be evil and make Raven start liking Roy, don't worry about that. I'm not that evil.)

Raven looked over at Jinx, who was staring at her, nodding slightly with one of those superior looks on her face. Raven chose to ignore this and instead turned back to Roy.

"Hi," she said lamely.

"Well, hello there, fair maiden," Roy said in mock formality. Raven laughed as Roy smiled broadly. (A/N: No, Roy doesn't like her either. He's just being the ideal guy at the moment…)

"So, you're a cross country runner, right?" Raven asked, casting around for something to say.

"Yeah," he said. "Coach calls me Speedy. I'm not even that fast." He shrugged. "How 'bout you?"

"I don't do any sports," Raven shook her head. "I write poetry and draw. That's about it."

"Awesome. What do you draw mainly?"

"Cartoons," Raven said truthfully, smiling. "I normally draw them of people at school. Sometimes I sketch realistic drawings, but I don't do that very often."

"Have you cartooned anyone I would know?" Roy asked, looking a bit apprehensive.

"Kori and Terra," Raven giggled. "But that was before I got to know Kori. I drew the whole football team and cheerleading team as a group of grunting gorillas and squealing stick figures." Roy laughed openly.

"Awesome," he said through a laugh.

To the relief of Raven's run-away side, the slower song ended quickly. Roy took a half-step away from her, still holding her hand, and bowed.

"Thank you very much," he smiled as he straightened up.

"You're very welcome," she said as he released her hand. She skip-stepped over to Jinx and Garth, who were now dancing in the regular teenage fashion.

"Finally," Jinx rolled her eyes. "Admit it, it wasn't that bad."

"Fine," Raven stuck out her tongue. "It was fun." She grinned as Jinx enveloped her in a hug, pulling Garth with her.

"Well, we only have to switch partners on the next song or something, and you'll be calling it more than fun," Jinx said. "Hey Garth, do you think we could get the whole switching partners thing started after this dance?" She turned her head to at him as directly as she could.

"Should be a piece of cake," Garth shrugged. "All we have to do is yell out 'Switch!' and they'll all know what to do."

"You know it!" Jinx said, winking. "We've got to get Raven dancing with that special someone by the end of the night." Raven balled her hands into fists, but resisted the temptation to punch her friend lightly.

Raven now dreaded the end of the song. She had no idea what happened when someone yelled out "Switch!" and was afraid to find out. To her horror, the last note of the song began to reverberate.

"SWITCH!" Jinx and Garth yelled. They separated, and their group became a stampeding nightmare. Raven took a step backward, thinking that she would rather stand this one out.

As the little stampede ended, Raven saw that everyone had a new dancing partner. Jinx was now paired with Roy, Kori with Garth, Kitten with Gar, Terra with Vic, and Bea with Robin. Leo was standing by himself, but soon realized that Raven was also, so he side-stepped over to her. She shrugged at him, indicating that she would dance with him.

The song was a fast one, and everyone else in the group began dancing in the typical teenage way.

"Go ahead," Raven said to Leo, who at first looked a bit apprehensive, but then danced with her like everyone else. (A/N: Our little Raven is growing up!! Everyone go awww.) Raven felt her cheeks burn as Jinx stared at her, her mouth slightly open, but willed herself to ignore Jinx and have a good time.

"Switch!" Everyone except Raven called out as the song ended. The dash to find a new partner began once more.