"Hey dad I'm home!"

I called into the house. I passed my dad's office.

"Hey Maka! How was school?" He asked through the closed door.

I heard the faintest giggle and after that a shushing sound. I rolled my eyes. I couldn't wait to move out so I wouldn't have to come home to my dad and his playmates. I made my way upstairs. My room was always tidy. I hated to have a mess. Tsubaki's was the same. The one time I visited Liz and Patty I had to swim across their room what with all the junk piled high in it. I placed my school bag by the end of my bed and threw myself onto the mattress. I looked at my adjoining wall to my right. It was filled with taped up pictures and other memorabilia. There was one photo that particularly caught my eye.

It was of me and Tsubaki. I had a large smile and was flashing a peace sign, while Tsubaki smiled a shy smile, naturally curling into the farthest corner. She's always been camera shy, and shy in other areas too. I should've willingly agreed to go to the party for Tsubaki's sake. It shouldn't have taken something as drastic as Soul robbing me for that. I might as well tell her now. I sat up and started digging through my bag for my phone. Just as I picked it up it started vibrating. I swiped left and answered it.

"Hey Tsubaki, I was just about to call you."

"Yah? Well, I wanted to tell you that Liz, and Patty and I are going shopping for the party the day before graduation after practice. That is, if you want to come. I mean even if you aren't going it'd still be fun."

"But, that's just what I was going to talk to you about," I said.

"About shopping?" she asked.

"No." I took a breath then said quickly, "I'm going with you guys to the party."

For a moment it was silent on the other line, then suddenly Tsubaki squeeled. I had never heard such a sound from her before.

"Oh my gosh Maka for real?! That is so awesome! I have to call Liz back and let her know. Trust me, we're going to have fun!"

As she went on about her big plans for the party and the shopping she wanted to do with us I thought about telling her about Soul. I had been going to tell her in the car but hadn't. She had known something was up.

"Maka, what's wrong?"

"Nothing. Why?" I answered a little too quickly.

"Well, you seem a little jumpy for one. You sure you're ok?"

"Yah I'm good," I responded avoiding her eyes.

She turned on the stereo with her indie album playing and exited the parking lot.

"Oh, by the way did you find what you were looking for?" she asked.

"Uh, yah."

"Good."

Find it? Yes. Get it? No.

"Maka?"

I blinked and focused on my current phone call.

"Sorry. Zoned out. What'd you say?"

Tsubaki sighed then said,

"Patty, and Liz wanted to carpool with us for graduation practice on Friday. Are you coming too or is your dad bringing you?"

"Oh, um, yah I'll come. I'd be surprised if my dad even came to my graduation," I said pouting into the phone.

"Don't worry Maka," Tsubaki assured. "He'll come. He's not perfect but he loves you."

"Yah, I suppose you're right."

"Anyway, I have to tell Liz and Patty about you coming. This is so exciting. I know you won't regret it."

"I hope so," I muttered into the phone.

After we hung up I wondered again about why I didn't tell my best friend about Soul. Probably because it is the most embarrassing situation ever. Soul was nothing important. He meant nothing to me. Yet, suddenly I was depending on him to take care of my most precious possession, albeit unwillingly. And not only that, but he had twisted the situation so that he came out on top. Maybe it was because of my being mad at him that I didn't want his name passing between my lips to my friends. Not that they wouldn't find out eventually. I'd just rather it not be before they needed to. I'm just going to prepare for my graduation and go shopping with my friends like a normal person not being threatened. In the meantime, I have to go downstairs and see if Spirit Albarn's friend planned on staying for dinner.

"Guess what I heard the other day?" Liz said as she put her gown on its hanger.

Rehearsal had lasted over two hours. Professor Stein, one of my dads old friends, was in charge this year. With a small auditorium such as ours I had assumed that there would be only one or two ways to arrange our entrances and exits. That way we'd be able to finish in little more than an hour. But I should have known that Stein would make it as complicated as possible. He made over 20 arrangements, and we spent our time perfecting each one, only for him to choose his first original layout. Now everyone was putting their robes on their hangers in their respective classrooms, very annoyed at Stein for wasting their time.

"What'd you hear?" I asked placing my hanger on the rack.

Liz did the same then said, "Through my endless and vast amount of resources I found out that Soul and Kid are coming to the party tomorrow night."

"Yah, I heard that too," I said hoping she'd forget about Soul.

"But, what you didn't hear was that Soul has a date to that party."

Liz started walking out of the classroom, but I was frozen in place. Had the news traveled so far that it was in the gossip grapevine? What did Liz think about me now that I was Soul's date? I followed her out determined to know exactly what the rumors were saying.

"Shocking right?" Liz said when I caught up to her. "I mean it's the end of the year, we're leaving high school, and drama is still going on. Only Soul could pull something like this. It's crazy."

"Uh, yah. Crazy," I said awkwardly.

"I mean I'm sort of jealous."

My eyes widened.

"Jealous?"

"Yah. The most mysterious boy in school finally asked out someone at the last possible second. Who wouldn't want to be that person?"

For a moment I was almost intrigued, but then remembered how I had come to be in this predicament. I was just about to make a comment about how unlucky that person was but Liz wasn't done.

"I just wish I knew who his date was."

I stopped short.

"You don't know who it is?" I asked shocked.

"No. But I'll tell you everything I do know on our way to meet Patty and Tsubaki in the parking lot."

We exited the west wing where our auditorium was located then headed for the east exit.

"So, I do know that his date's a girl. So, the question of his sexuality is answered. She's blonde I think, although some said she was a really light brunette. I imagined your hair color when they said that."

I swallowed.

"So, anything else?" I asked crossing my fingers.

"Oh, yes!" She said excitedly slapping my arm. "Word has it that he asked her and she turned him down twice! Twice! Before she said ok. Like, who in their right mind would ever say no to him?"

I treaded lightly.

"What if he was acting like a jerk when he asked her?"

"Well, yah. I guess that's true. But, still, why not leave this shitty place with a bang? It doesn't hurt that he's super cute either."

"Hey you guys. Are your feet as sore as mine?" Patty asked as she and Tsubaki came out of another classroom and started walking beside us. Patty had wanted to practice walking with the pumps she planned to wear so she wouldn't fall on the big day.

"Nobody told you to wear 4-inch heels," Liz chastised.

"But, I have to practice. If I'm not prepared I'll fall down all ten steps and kill myself and that'd be super embarrassing," Patty argued.

For the moment Soul and his mysterious date were forgotten. I was nervous. It was only a matter of time before everyone knew the identity of the mysterious girl that Soul had had to ask out three times before she conceded. 'Ok, calm down,' I told myself. Tomorrow was graduation, and the day after was the party. After the party, it wouldn't matter what anyone thought about me or Soul. I'd be out of here preparing for college in the fall.

The girls and I made it to Liz's car. Liz was the exact opposite of Tsubaki. Loud, confident, excited, talkative. Her car followed suite. A red convertible was what we piled into. As Liz stuck the key in the ignition, Patty turned on a pop station on the radio and turned the volume way up. An auto-tuned voice streamed through the speakers and out into the wind as Liz put the top down. She pulled out of the lot and said,

"Hey, guys, guess what I heard? I already told Maka about it but you guys don't know."

Liz then brought Patty and Tsubaki up to speed on Soul's dating life.

"Wow," Patty said letting her arm ride the air in waves outside her window, "that girl must be some other kind of crazy."

"For accepting?" I asked.

"For declining," she said.

"Right?!" Liz exclaimed slapping the wheel for emphasis.

"Well, I think she has to be gorgeous," Tsubaki said wistfully.

"Ooh, I thought the same thing," Liz said catching Tsubaki's eye in the rearview mirror.

"Why does she have to be gorgeous?" I asked.

Wouldn't they be surprised when they found out that Soul's date was actually the potato in the back seat? Patty turned around in her seat to face me.

"Umm, hello? It's obvious that Soul is one hot and picky SOB. So, for him to pick this girl, out of the hundreds of others who were basically throwing themselves at him all year? He obviously had to see something in her that he didn't see in anyone else and that's pretty exciting."

"Exactly," Liz agreed. "Which is why I have to find the best outfit tomorrow. I don't want to be some ugly little frump."

"Oh, please," Patty hugged. "You guys could never look frumpy. You and Tsubaki are as tall as models and have that gorgeous, long, hair. And Maka has amazing legs and those beautiful green eyeballs of hers. I'm short and with a messy haircut. If anyone's going to look frumpy, it's going to be me."

"Whatever," Liz said.

The rest of the ride home was spent deciding what outfits would complement which body parts on whose person. By the time I arrived home, they planned on dressing me in something that would probably leave very little to the imagination much to my horror.

"Hurry dude!" Patty yelled as I ran up the steps to my house.

"Dad, I'm home!" I called into the house.

"Hey pumpkin! Daddy's in his office."

That was a good sign. I knocked on the heavy maple wood door.

"Come in," he called.

I pushed the door open. My dad was sitting at his computer screen facing away from me. I looked to the left and saw his couch. I looked to the right and saw his usual clutter of books, papers, and pizza box on the floor next to a dying house plant. No woman in sight. This pleased me. He spun his chair around to face me, his red hair swishing past his chin.

"Well, if it isn't my little high school graduate. How was practice Maka?"

"It was ok. Stein kept moving us around for no real reason, but other than that it went well," I said.

"Yah, he's always been an indecisive pain in the ass," he chuckled swiveling back around to face his computer.

"Oh, and I'm going shopping with my friends because I'm going to a party tomorrow after graduation," I said in a hurry.

It's a known fact that when a teen says something fast to their parents it's because they don't want them to hear the details. So, the parent automatically dissects everything that kid just said and looks for any sign of trouble. I kind of hoped my dad would do the same thing.

"Oh, yah? Have fun."

My shoulders drooped. Well maybe it was just for the shopping.

"To what?"

"To your shopping and after-party."

"Oh," I said defeated.

"I mean, it's the least I could do. I might not make it to your graduation tomorrow."

I narrowed my eyes at his back.

"Why not?" I asked even though I knew full well why.

It was always the same reason why he was always behind on everything that had any importance to me.

"I'm already a week late in this file. If I don't get it done soon I'll be fired. You don't want daddy alone and jobless do you?"

He pulled the pity card.

"No. I understand dad. It's ok," I said turning away and leaving, closing the door behind me.

If he hadn't had any time left, he wouldn't have had the girl over the other day. But when it came to me or his own hormonal desires, he won every day of the week. For a moment I stood in the hall, not moving. I wanted to feel tears forming. I wanted to feel a pain in my heart. I wanted to feel something that proved to me I wasn't as bulletproof as I thought I was. But I couldn't. I was used to my dad breaking my heart. I haven't cried in a long time. I pulled out my phone out and called Tsubaki.

"I'll be out in a second."

"Ok," she said.

I ran up to my room and changed my shoes from ballet flats to comfortable Chuck Taylors. I walked out of the house towards my friends, determined to forget about my dad.

"Hey Maka. Where's your necklace?"

"What?" I said looking up from the vest I was holding.

Tsubaki repeated her question.

"Oh, uh," I stammered.

"Yah, where is it?" Patty asked coming out of her dressing room.

She was wearing a short, loose, pink skirt, with a matching tank top that had pink roses with green stems intertwining with each other.

"Hmm, it's missing something," Liz noted.

She took the vest from my hands and threw it at Patty. She put it on and posed in front of us. The faux leather brown vest complemented the colors of her outfit.

"That's it! Now you're not so pink," Liz said watching her sister twirl in front of the mirror.

"Yah, and I have brown boots to go with it. I'm so buying all of this!" Patty squealed.

She turned towards us again.

"But seriously, where's your necklace Maka?"

The sudden change in subject caught me off guard. Liz now noticed and said,

"Don't you, like, never take it off?"

"Umm, someone has it," I offered.

I walked out of the fitting room hoping that they would just forget about it.

"Woah, woah, woah maka. Hold up. Someone has it? But you never let that thing out of your sight," Tsubaki said following me out.

"I know. That's why I'm going to the party. I'll get it back there."

"What?!"

Immediately I knew I had said too much.

"I get it. I totally get it!" Liz said with a smug smile.

"I'm so lost," Tsubaki said bewildered, "How'd you get anything out of that?"

"Simple," Liz said crossing her arms, "Someone asked Maka out."

I stopped breathing. Had Liz really figured it all out?

"But," she continued, "Since Maka is known for not actually attending social functions, he used her necklace as insurance that she would show up."

"Damn Maka!" Patty yelled from the fitting rooms.

Liz and Tsubaki were waiting for my response. They weren't that far off in their guess. Someone had asked me and used my necklace as a hostage. I decided I might as well go with it.

"Yah, you got me," I said with a smile.

"So, who is it?" Liz said excitedly.

"Yah, why'd you keep it a secret?" Tsubaki asked with a faint glimmer of hurt in her eyes.

I felt bad. I've never kept anything from Tsubaki, especially something as big as this. But, this would blow over eventually and it was only until tomorrow night.

"No, no, no," Patty said running out of the room with her clothes thrown over her arms. "Don't ruin the surprise. We just need to find you date worthy clothes ok?"

She looked around for approval. She got mine right away.

"Yah, ok," Liz agreed.

Tsubaki in the spirit of good sportsmanship agreed as well but, that smile wasn't going to fool me. I knew I'd have to explain myself to her sooner or later.

"One. Two. Three!"

We all threw our caps into the air in unison, screaming with joy. High school was officially over. I had made valedictorian. As I gave my speech about living the rest of our lives with no regrets, I focused all my might on avoiding any eye contact with Soul. I had succeeded but only barely. In a sea of mostly brunettes and blonds it was hard not to focus on the one who had hair as white as December snow. A photographer walked up to me and asked if I would pose for a picture with my parents or guardians. I said very simply,

"They're not here but my friends are basically my family. Can I take a photo with them?"

He was immediately embarrassed and agreed. When he left, my friends hugged me.

"I'm sorry that your dad's an asshole," Liz said.

"Nah, I'm used to his douchebagery," I said trying to brush it off.

"Just think. You'll be having a blast with us and your date later tonight," Patty offered.

She was taller than me now. She had made it across the stage without twisting her ankles in her shoes like she feared.

"Yah, you've got us," Tsubaki agreed.

"Yah, I know. Thanks you guys."

I looked up past them and saw Soul watching me. He smiled when he saw that he had my attention. I hadn't known that there was such a thing as a killer smile. I thought it was just a description that was used in all those books I read. But, Soul has a smile which could only be described as killer, because I was ready to die in spite of myself. His teeth were sharpened to fine points; shark teeth. Yet, I did not fear him in that moment. I noticed suddenly the silver chain around the back of his neck, disappearing into his robe. He was wearing my necklace! My friends noticed that I was staring at something and followed my gaze.

"Holy shit!" Is Soul staring at you Maka?" Liz whispered excitedly.

"Doubt it," I said in monotone.

Soul looked away then and walked towards some guy with ridiculously blue hair.

"That was weird," Patty noted.

"Yah," I said still in monotone.

"Ooh, look Patty! There's Blaire! Let's go say hi," Liz suggested and pulled her sister along away from us.

Tsubaki turned to face me.

"Soul's your date isn't he?"

She was dead serious. She knew, there was absolutely no doubt about it.

"Yah," I said softly. "How'd you know?"

"I've been friends with you forever. I recognized that chain he had on just now."

She crossed her arms. She wanted an explanation and she deserved one.

"Ok, here's what happened," I said. I then launched into my story.