Before you yell at me about how terrible Shattered Dreams is, it is NOT my idea. My school ACTUALLY did it, and it scared the poop outta me! I was crying in Agriculture class thinking it was real when they announced 'Shelby Black has died in the hospital.' I was like, "NO THAT'S MY FRIEND'S SISTER NO!" So I was crying and my teacher was like, "Nikki it isn't real!" So I was like, "...those bastards..." So, I used it!

I return to class, my fists shaking with anger. And I still need an Advil!

"Is she okay?" Many voices yell to me as I walk in. I nod shakily.

"Uh, yeah, she's, uh, fine." I clear my throat. "The nurse is calling my mother. She thinks Allulah's leg is broken." Everyone frowned.

"I hope she gets better," Lolly says. "But, in the meantime, we must continue. Sally, can you take over for Allulah?"

"Of course," I say, smiling at him.

"Good! So, from where we left off. Sally, Once-ler, on the stage!" Lolly claps his hands. I freeze, my eyes wide.

"You mean, uh...from the beginning of the scene?" I ask slowly.

"Um...no, let's just take it from 'Just shut up'," he says. My mind goes fuzzy. "Now, on the stage!" I can hardly feel it as I do as I'm told, going up there and standing beside the Once-ler. "And, action!"

~!~Oncie's POV~!~

I cannot believe it. The one chance I have to kiss her, and it's scripted. I've never been more nervous in my life. I keep my hands steady as I turn to face her.

"Just shut up," she says, looking up from her script.

"Yeah. I probably should." I look down at my script again. [Ray kisses Angie] And that's my cue. We look at each other and I lean down a little, but then jerk back up. She takes a deep breath and stands on her toes, but then falls back down onto her feet once I lean in. I lightly grab her arms, leaning down a little. She stretches up, but then we both sigh and I look out at the crowd.

"So I have to?"

There are yells of, "Yes!" and, "Just do it!", and even one of, "Before we die!" Sally and I look at each other again. She widens her eyes, and I shrug my shoulders slightly.

Without warning, she wraps one hand around the back of my neck and pulls me down to her, kissing me very quickly before letting me go. My head is spinning, my heart racing, and my face burning. I feel her grab my hand and pull me off the stage to the chairs, where we sit. Finally, I look at her.

Her cheeks are as red as mine must be. She's staring at her hands, not paying attention to the people who just got on the stage. My eyes catch on her lips for a second before I quickly avert them elsewhere. My lips tingle slightly, so I press them hard together and look at my script, though not really reading it. I just have to keep my eyes away from her.

~!~Sally's POV~!~

"Why are you so red?" Yo-Yo asks me when I sit next to her at lunch. "Thinking 'bout all the alcohol?" I roll my eyes.

"No. In Drama, I had to...I -"

"Hey." Oncie sits beside me. I look at him, he looks at me, and we both look away quickly, blushing furiously.

"What's with you guys?" says Yo-Yo. "You're acting like you committed murder together or something." The Once-ler gives her a look before opening his lunch.

"Where's Allulah?" Melissa asks, sitting by Yo-Yo.

"She, uh, got hurt in drama."

"Oh. Okay." We continue to eat our lunch in silence. Suddenly, a hand slaps down on the table, making me jump about a foot in the air.

"May I borrow Sally?" It's the principal, Mr. Harrop. I sigh in relief and nod, standing up and following him away from our table. Once we're a bit away, he turns to me and says, "This year we are doing something we call Shattered Dreams, trying to get kids from drinking and driving. Basically, it's this huge, visual performance in which we pick select kids to be in it. One as the drunk driver, one as the one that gets injured, one as one that gets brain damage, and one that dies. We would like you to be the dead one."

I'm surprised, but I shrug. "Yeah, sure, if you want me to. It'd be fun." He smiles.

"Great! Now, you can't tell anyone but your family. Not even your boyfriend can know, okay?"

"Okay, since I don't have one," I laugh. "And when is this?"

"Tomorrow morning. No script. Just look hurt. You'll die in the hospital. Okay?"

I nod. "Yeah, that sounds fine. What time is it gonna be?"

"I need you to come to school early, okay?" he asks. "Come to my office at around five, okay?"

~!~Oncie's POV~!~

"Where's Pinwheel?" Yo-Yo asks the second I walk in the school. I shrug.

"I don't know. Her mom said she slept over at your house last night." Worry seeped through my body. "Did she?" Yo-Yo shakes her head.

"Nope."

"Then where is she?" I ask.

"Hey, I'm not her keeper!" The bell for first period rings, so I go to the drama classroom, feeling weird without Sally chattering at my side. About thirty minutes into class, an announcement over the loudspeaker booms, "Attention! Everyone calmly, in single file, go outside." We do as we're told, though no one is really calm. How could you be with that kind of announcement?

Outside, there's a huge car wreck. Police officers have Mike Rouphowne in handcuffs, and he's talking in a slurred voice something about "accident" and "didn't mean to." Then I hear voices calling, screaming out in pain. I look to one of the cars. I see a girl in the grade below me on the windshield of a badly crashed red car. A senior boy is on the ground, a pool of blood around his head. Then one person catches my eye. She's hanging out the window upside down, her brown hair fanned out and a trickle of blood coming from her mouth.

My mind freezes over and I feel like there's no ground. I'm falling, but nothing changes. I'm still standing here, Lolly beside me, and Carlos on my other side. Now I actually fall, down onto the pavement, my bottom landing hard, but I don't notice the pain. Lolly kneels down next to me, saying words that make no sense to me whatsoever. All I know is Sally's hanging out of that car, who knows how badly injured. Maybe...

Don't think that! I snap at myself. Sally Regina Floogenderp is NOT dead!

~!~Sally's POV~!~

"You can open your eyes now, miss." A soft feminine voice is speaking to me after I feel myself being put in a helicopter. My eyes flutter open and I sigh in relief after so long of trying not to let my breathing be noticed. There's a lady in a Care Flight uniform leaning over me, wiping the fake blood off my face.

"Hi," I say in a slightly croaky voice, since I haven't spoken in a while. "I'm going to the hospital, right?" She nods.

"Yes. Your family is waiting there."

I nod. "Right. Okay. Thanks." I lay back down on the gurney I'm on.

~!~Oncie's POV!~

I'm forcing myself not to cry. I can't cry. But it's really, really tough. Allulah is in the chair next to me, her foot in a cast and her face buried into her hands, sobbing. Marshall, Sally's father, is holding her mother, Rina, while she cries, a few tears of his own going down his face. This is probably hardest on him. He's very close to Sally, and still staying strong for his wife and daughter. And me, for that matter.

A doctor comes out of the room, his face solemn. "Sally's family?" he asks.

"Actually," I begin, about to say I'm not family, but Marshall gives me a look before saying, "Yes, we're her family." The doctor sighed in relief.

"Good. I couldn't keep the charade up much longer." He smiled. "Neither could Sally, I doubt. She's so hyper right now, she's not staying in her bed."

I'm practically drowning in confusion by now, and I open my mouth to say something, but then the door to her room opened and Sally dashed out, her hair flying.

"Hi, Mama!" She hugs her mother. "Hi, Daddy!" She hugs her father. "Hi, Sissy!" She hugs Allulah. "Hi, On...Oncie?" She stops in the act of throwing her arms around me. I'm staring down at her, my eyes wide half in anger, half in shock.

"You...you're o...you just...I can't...you..." Words refuse to form. Sally's giving me a small, sheepish smile.

"We should give them a minute, "Allulah decides. So they all leave, going into the room Sally had ran out of. I look down at her once more.

"I'm sorry!" she exclaims quickly. I ignore it.

"I was so scared," I say, my every syllable trembling with anger, "that I was going to lose you." She frowns, but doesn't interrupt me. "I thought you were going to die. Nothing mattered any more but making sure you were okay. Then I come here and find not only are you okay, but you were never hurt in the first place!" She looks down at her feet, ashamed. "All I have to say right now is..." I wrap my arms around her, hugging her tight and breathing against the top of her head, "Never scare me like that again."

I can tell she's surprised, but she hugs me back, saying, "I'm sorry, Oncie. They said I couldn't tell anyone but my family but I really wanted to tell you but I couldn't and I..." It takes me a second to realize she's crying.

"Hey, it's okay." I tip her face up to look at me.

"No, i-it's not...I should h-have told yo-you..."

"It's okay, Sal," I assure her, but she shakes her head again. "Sally, it's fine." She shakes her head again and opens her mouth to speak, but I dip my head down and push my lips onto hers before she can.

"Mm!" She makes a small noise of surprise, so I pull back and look seriously into her eyes.

"Shush." I smile slightly. "It's okay." She nods wordlessly, and I understand her shock. While we have kissed each other's cheeks and stuff like that, we had never kissed before. At least not voluntarily. "So," I say, letting go of her, "no one else knows?"

After a moment, she finally says, "No...they're going to make the announcement that I died in last period." I nod, glad I left school. "And then there's gonna be this memorial for me and the other two tomorrow at school."

"Did they die too?" I ask, but she shakes her head.

"No. The girl, Marlene, is paralyzed waist down, and the boy, Kevin, is suffering from severe brain damage."

I nod. "Okay." I pause. "And this was all for what reason?"

"Teach students not to drink and drive," she says. "Mike was the drunk one, as you could probably tell." I nod and she goes on with, "After the ceremony, they're gonna tell them it was all a setup, that none of it was real." I nod again.

"It was really mean," I say. "I thought that...I thought you had died for a moment." She frowned.

"I know, and I'm really very sorry, Oncie."

I smile slightly at her. "It's fine. But I'm not going to school tomorrow."

"Why?" she asked, seemingly surprised.

"If I even think of you dying again, I know I'll cry."

She blushes slightly. "Well, I'm not going either. I get the day off. So we can hang out."

I smile. "Awesome."