Chapter 12

"When I come through on the dance floor checkin' out that catalog - I can't believe my eyes, so many women without a flaw. And I ain't gonna give it up, steady, tryin' to pick it up like a car - I'ma hit it, I'ma hit it, and flex it, do it until tomorrow, yeah. Baby, I can see that you got so much energy; the way you're twirlin' up them hips round and round. And baby there's no reason you can't leave here with me, but in the meantime stay and let me watch you break it down and dance . . . ," Cedric sang. He stood up on the stage by Rachel. They were singing "Just Dane" by Lady Gaga. Rachel picked up where he left off:

"Gonna be okay, da da do do. Oh, just dance, spin that record babe, da da doo doo, baby . . . "

"Yeah!"

"Spin that record babe and dance - dance - dance - j-j-j-just dance." The crowed cheered - well, gave them a standing ovation.

"Nice job, Ray," Cedric commented, out of breath.

"Thanks. Nice job yourself," Rachel replied, also out of breath. Cedric opened his mouth to say something else, but the sound that came out?

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Damn alarm, Rachel thought.

Rachel, Ella, Diane, and Delilah sat at their usual table in lunch. Rachel's ankle, which was hurt over a week before, was now fully healed. Also about a week ago, Rachel revealed her identity to her secret admiree, Cedric. Now they were a cute couple, as Ella says.

"Wait, wait - you never told me what happened!" Ella exclaimed.

"Yeah, Ray! Detail by detail," Diane added. Delilah nodded her head, also interested.

"Why should I say anything?" Rachel joked.

"'Cause if you don't, I'll do bad things," Diane said.

"Okay, I was kidding. Stop scaring me," Rachel said. "Well, I don't know how to start."

"Well, obviously something happened when Diane rushed out of the room to pee and I chased after her," Ella commented.

"Oh, yeah. By the way, thanks for just leaving me there by myself," said Rachel sarcastically.

"Hey, don't get all sarcastic on me! If I hadn't left, Cedric would have never have found out that you were 'Juliet' and you would've ended up all alone living as either a hobo or with your mom and 64 cats! So you should be thanking me," Ella stated indignantly.

Rachel thought about that. "You know what, you're right. Thank you, Ella."

"Hey! If I hadn't rushed out of the class to go to the bathroom, Ella would've never followed me!" Diane said.

"Yeah, but who bought you that coffee in the morning?" Ella implied.

"Uh, me."

"Oh. Really?"

"Yes!"

"Right . . . but who didn't say,'Come on, we don't have time for Starbucks, let's get to school?'"

"Guys! Drop it! You're both equally resposible, happy?" Rachel finally intervened.

"No," both of them said, pouting and crossing their arms. Rachel laughed at the sight.

"Guess who?" someone else asked. Rachel's sight was now blocked by two hands over her eyes.

"Hey, Romeo," a grinning Rachel said.

"Hi," Cedric greeted, kissing Rachel on her cheek.

"Hi," Rachel replied, taking on of Cedric's hands in hers. "Why aren't you with your friends?"

"Ah, they were getting annoying."

"So, what, I'm just a backup plan?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess you could say that," Cedric smirked. Rachel smiled and rolled her eyes. Her friends exchanged weirded-out glances and mouthed things like,"A little weird," or,"Okay, then," or "Should we leave?" But no one did anything. "Hey, guys," Cedric finally said to them, putting an arm around Rachel.

"Hey, Cedric, I still owe you for last week. Me and David keep in touch," Ella said.

"No problem," Cedric said.

"So, what were they bothering you about?" Rachel asked.

"Oh, nothing," he said nonchalantly.

"Come on, what is it?"

"Well, remeber when I told you before about having emotions and - "

"Oh, the murder thing?"

"Yeah, the torture has begun."

"Aaw. Well, be a man and settle it!" Rachel demanded (jokingly, of course), giving him a slight punch in the arm.

"Nah, they'd make more fun of me for it."

"Well, I don't see any of them with a girl."

"That's probably 'cause they're all with each other," Cedric joked. Rachel, who stopped talking to take a drink of water, had now spit the water out and burst out laughing. And who should she have spit it on other than Samantha? Samantha had just come over, less than two seconds ago, and sat down to ask Natalie a question. Coicindentally, she was right across from Rachel and was now soaking wet.

"Oh my GOD!" she shrieked. "You *****! That is so ******* disgusting! Oh my ******* God, you are so ******* dead, you little - "

"Samantha! Watch your language!" a new voice scorned. Samantha turned around to see Ms. Morlo staring her down.

"But, miss, she - "

"I go by Ms. Morlo. None of this miss business."

"Ms. Morlo," Samantha started, her voice dripping with animosity, "that idiot - " Ms. Morlo gave Samantha a cold look - "ugh! Rachel spit water all over me!" Samantha was glad she finally got her point across. Ms. Morlo looked over at Rachel, the tenseness of her eyes softening a bit. However, Rachel was still afraid.

"Is this true?" Ms. Morlo asked of Rachel.

"Ms. Morlo, I assure you that it was a complete accident," Rachel said.

"Hmm . . . very well," Ms. Morlo said dismissively. Samantha, who had been looking at Rachel with an expression on her face that seemed to say,"Oh, you're gonna get it, *****," had now a shocked expression on her face.

"But - " Samantha started.

"Samantha, go clean yourself off," Ms. Morlo cut her off. Rachel smirked at Samantha.

"Aach! You're all gonna ******* die!" Samantha screamed, getting up from her seat and storming out of the lunchroom, dripping wet. Ms. Morlo turned once again to look at Rachel and Cedric, then walked off.

"Wow, she likes you," Ella said. "If I did that, she'd be all over me like,'Detention! That behavior is unacceptable and inapropriate! Blah blah blah!'"

"Wow, Elly, you do a really good impression of her," Diane laughed.

"Where'd Samantha come from, anyway?" Ella asked.

"I dunno, but I'm glad she showed up or Natalie would have been all wet," Rachel said. "Anyway, it's not my fault. It was a seal's," Rachel continued, pointing a finger at Cedric.

"Hey, hey, don't lay the blame on me! And what was that? 'I assure you that it was a complete accident!' Really, now?" Cedric said.

"Well, I wasn't gonna say,'Yeah, I did it. Sue me.'"

"Well, you didn't have to be such a kiss-*ss about it."

"I can't believe this. Are you listening to yourself? You're calling me a big kiss-*ss! You're the biggest kiss-*ss I've ever met!" Rachel exclaimed.

"She's right," Ella agreed. Diane nodded.

"Okay, so along with a deformed seal and an oblivious moron, I'm now a kiss-*ss, too?" Cedric asked.

"Uh . . . two things wrong with that," Rachel started. Diane continued Rachel's sentence.

"Well, I know one. You're not now a kiss-*ss. You've always been a kiss-*ss. What's the second one?"

"Well, no one ever said he was a moron," Rachel said.

"Can I say it then?" Ella asked.

"No! Cedric's a very smart person. An oblivious kiss-*ss seal he may be, but he's smart and funny and cute," Rachel said, holding Cedric closer.

"You're, like, the only person that thinks that, Ray," Delilah said.

"So, what? To the rest of you I'm stupid, un-amusing and ugly?" Cedric asked. "And can I have a say in this conversation? It is about me, and I'm kinda right here."

"You just had your say. Now back out," Diane said. Rachel glared at her, but Diane said, "Kidding!"

"Okay, topic change!" Ella yelled, bored of the subject.

"Any upcoming dances?" Diane asked. "One that Rachel won't miss?"

"Yeah. You owe me a dance, Ray," Cedric said.

"Yeah, I think there's a dance next Friday," Ella said.

"Already? Are you sure?" Diane asked.

"Definitely. Mr. Murphy said that since the last one earned so much money, we're gonna have another," Delilah confirmed.

"Got your eye on anyone?" Diane asked Delilah. "I'm sure Cedric can hook you up."

"Di! Be nice!" Ella said.

"Who can I hook her up with?" Cedric asked curiously. Rachel asked Delilah if she could tell him with a look, and Delilah sighed and looked back at her like, "Oh, why not."

"Jared," Rachel told him.

"Oh, really?" Cedric asked. "Whoa. Cool."

"Why?" Delilah, who was blushing and looking down, asked, now looking up with curiosity.

"I think he likes you," Cedric said confidently.

"But, I thought you said having emotions is murder?" Rachel asked.

"It is. The hypocrate. Jared has his eye on you, Delilah. I can just . . . tell."

"Why? Is that the same way you felt when you had your eye on Ray?" Diane joked.

"Yeah, actually, I guess it is. Anyway, about the dance, I can put in a word about you if you want - "

"No!" Delilah said.

"Why not?" Cedric asked.

"'Cause."

"'Cause' what?"

"Just 'cause,' okay?"

"Delilah, if he likes you, then what's the problem?" Rachel asked.

"I dunno! Just . . . fine, say whatever you want," Delilah finally gave in.

"Alright. I'll be right back," Cedric said, getting up.

"Wait, what? N-now? No! Go later or something!" Delilah protested.

"Too late," Cedric said, walking away. Delilah glared at Rachel, who shrugged.

"Sorry, not my fault," she said.

"Yes, it is! You just had to be in love with the guy," Delilah said, waving her arms around in weird motions.

"Hey, I'm not 'in love' with the guy. I like him," Rachel said.

"Yeah."

"Sure, sure."

"Whatever you say."

"Huh?" Rachel asked, hearing her friends' comments. All of her friends gave her "the look." "What?" she asked.

"You're in love, Ray. Don't deny it," Ella said.

"What? I am not in love," Rachel laughed. The girls again gave her "the look." "I'm not!"

"Oh, please. Don't give us that crap," Ella said. "Stop denying the truth."

"I'm not denying anything."

"So you just admitted that you are in love."

"No, I just said I'm not denying the truth. All I said was that I'm not in love with him, and that's the truth."

"Come on! You are so oblivious to yourself!"

" . . . Does that even make sense?"

"Uh, yeah, it does."

"Cedric was right, we do have weird logic."

"See?"

"See what?"

"You can't even stop talking about him!"

"I make one reference! Doesn't mean I can't stop talking about him."

"But you can't. And you're always either talking to or about him, thinking about him, doodling about him, what would you call that?" And for once, Rachel was quiet. "Exactly."

"But . . . ," Rachel started.

"Yes?"

Rachel sighed. "I got nothing." At that moment, Cedric came back.

"Good news," he said, taking his seat by Rachel's side. "He said he'll agree to go with you to the dance."

"Wait, what?!" Delilah asked. "No, no, no, no, no. How'd - I thought all you were gonna do was throw in a word about me or something! Rachel!" Delilah turned on Rachel like it was all her fault.

"Hey, I didn't do it! Continue yelling at him," Rachel replied, pointing at Cedric.

"Cedric!" Delilah whined. "I'm not going." Suddenly, refusal broke out from Rachel, Ella, Diane, and Cedric.

"You have to go!"

"You're not gonna stand him up!"

"Delilah, give it a shot!"

"Dude, if you're not going, I just wasted my time going over there - "

"OKAY!" Delilah finally broke in. "Cedric, tell me what he said."

"Well, it went like this: I went over there and they started laughing at me again and I made the joke about them all being with each other instead of with a girl and Jared said, 'Hey, I'm not gay,' and I said, 'Yeah, I know you're not, there's someone I know you have your eye on,' and he got all sweaty right away and said, 'Oh, yeah? Who?' and I looked over in your direction and he got all red and stuff, so the other guys started laughing at him, too, but I told them too cool off and go be gay with each other if they wanna be - "

"Are you ever nice to your friends?" Ella asked.

"Since when are you?" Diane asked her.

"Touché," Ella said, and Rachel looked at Cedric and they both laughed. After a small silence while Rachel and Cedric were still gazing at each other, Delilah spoke up.

"Hello, we're still here," she said. "Rachel and Cedric, back to Earth, please! We have a situation, remember?" And back to Earth the couple came.

"Right, uh . . . what was I saying?" Cedric asked.

"You were calling your friends gay again," Ella reminded him.

"Oh, right. Anyways, I said, 'She thinks you're pretty cool, too,' and he got all happy all of a sudden and said, 'Really?' and I said, 'Now, you wanna go to the dance with her or continue to be gay with these guys?' and he said, 'The dance? No way!' and, like you did," Cedric continued, looking at Delilah, "he kept refusing to go but we convinced him."

"Did he say anything after that?" Delilah asked.

"No, but I bet he's looking forward to it," Cedric answered.

"But what if it doesn't work out?" Delilah asked.

"Well, what if it does? You'll never know. You wanna live with that doubt?" Ella asked her, scaring her a little bit.

"Funny, the way things turn out, isn't it?" Rachel asked Cedric happily.

"Yep," he replied, then kissed her.

"Hey, lovebirds! We're in public here!" Ella yelled. Cedric pulled away, both him and Rachel blushing.

"Sorry," Rachel muttered.

"No problem," Ella replied.

"Wait, wait - Ray, you never finished telling us how you two ended up together!" Diane reminded them.

"She never started. That one," Ella corrected, pointing at Rachel, "interrupted. So, begin."

Rachel looked up at Cedric. "Well . . . he found my book and figured out that 'Juliet' was me - "

"Huh?" Delilah asked confusedly. Ella explained the whole "Romeo/Juliet" thing to her, and then about the green notebook to Delilah and Diane, who laughed hysterically about it.

"Are you done laughing?" Rachel asked Diane after about two minutes.

"No!" Diane laughed, and continued laughing for about one and a half more minutes, then said, "Okay, now I'm done."

"Anyway, Ray told me about it over Yahoo and I thought it was pretty cool, so in L.A., when you two rushed out to go to the bathroom or something and it was only me, Ray, and Mr. Browne, Ray dropped all of her books and when I walked up to the door, I saw that she needed help, 'cause she has a lot of books," Cedric stated, and Rachel continued.

"I didn't really want him to find out at that moment, but he helped anyway and looked through the book and realized, through all of his oblviosity that I was 'Juliet' and, um, yeah."

"Mr. Browne kicked us out of the class right when I was - well . . . ," Cedric picked up, but trailed off again.

"When what?" Delilah asked. Cedric blushed and looked down, but Rachel smiled and began once again.

"He was gonna kiss me. But our fat, old teacher kicked us out right at that moment. So, we went outside of the classroom, and we just started talking, and - I couldn't believe it - but Cedric actually got me this," Rachel said. She reached up to her neck and brought the necklace out, the small heart shining. The other three girls gasped. "It opens, too," Rachel added. She opened up the heart, showing the girls the negraving (Romeo and Juliet - a tragedy no longer). "Anyway, after that, I told him that I should give him something in return, but he was being oblivious again and it took forever for him to finally get it, but, um . . . "

This time, Cedric spoke up. Again. "She kissed me." Delilah, Ella, and Diane all aaw!-ed. "Then we walked into Ms. Morlo's class. She seems so much happier these days. Wonder what's up."

"Maybe she's finally found 'the one,'" Ella joked.

"Maybe," Delilah said.

"Love is in the air," Diane said, "looking" at Rachel.