"…Dinner at the Sundae Inn?" The words played over and over in my head all night and as I fell asleep that night. Luke had walked me home after school and tried to talk to me, but I was obviously distracted by other things, so we did not spend the rest of the day, as he had basically hinted at. I felt somewhat bad, but then I was distracted by my thoughts of Gill, which was a very new experience. It wasn't as if I liked him or anything, I just, happened to enjoy his company. And talking to him. And our witty banters. And the fact that he just seemed to do his own thing by being himself. He didn't care about popularity or social status, or any of things which always made guys seem overly pretentious in the first place. And it was because of this that he was all the more interesting to talk to.

Okay, maybe I did like him a little, but it was no big deal at all. If anything, it was an interest from my part, due to the fact I didn't know him all that well. Thus, the dinner at five was going to be crucial in not only getting to know him better, but to establish the friendship that needed to just happen between us. Everything would have to go perfect; meaning I probably should actually put some effort into how I looked and everything. As the last thoughts of mine finally shut off allowing me to sleep, I imagined some possible conversation scenarios, always making me sound witty and funny and charming, which were all three classic elements a guy was sure to fall for. If I was able to manage to have some grace and charm, and most importantly not scare him off forever, then maybe something could happen, which was a very invigorating thought to fall asleep to.

The I awoke the next day a little later than I liked, due no doubt to my lack of ability to fall asleep last night. I rushed outside and hurriedly watered my blooming plants and then rushed back inside, horrified to learn I only had twenty minutes to get ready and get to the school on the other side of town (whoever had built Waffle Town High on the west side of the Ganache mine district was an idiot to me). I quickly grabbed some shorts and a t-shirt and threw on my glasses, too annoyed to put my contacts in. My hair was thrown up into a ponytail as I grabbed my bag and ran to school. Somehow I was able to make it into history in time and got a very questioning look from Luke, but he didn't say anything. The bell rang as he turned to me, anxious no doubt to talk to me, and with a sigh he turned forward again.

The lesson was once again very uneventful, and I began to wonder if it was maybe the teacher's teaching techniques that were lacking and not the concepts themselves. We were taking notes on the Civil War, as Waffle Island was still technically a US province. I started doodling on the side of my notes, and merely bided time not thinking about my dinner instead of actually paying attention. As we finished notes and started working on the "homework," I instead continued my doodling. If Luke noticed, he had enough good sense in him not to say anything, which I was very grateful for, as I wasn't sure how talkative I would be with anyone. Or, at least, how talkative I would be with poor Luke.

The rest of the day continued to be a blur. Waffle Town High was not a very high maintenance school, so I was allowed moments to zone out in class and at break and lunch. Sure I laughed along with everyone else, or answered when I was called upon (as had happened in third period, since the high school dealt with block periods), but realistically my mind and heart were not very much into it. And it didn't take much guessing for one to figure out just where exactly my thoughts were at.

I tried not thinking about tonight, I really did. But to be honest, I was experiencing mixtures of nervousness, excitement, and a lot of dread that whatever happened tonight would not live up to my expectations. At least we are just friends I thought to myself during lunch as my group (or at least the mix of people I currently was hanging out with, as whether they could be deemed my "group" was still kind of in the air) of friends talked about the upcoming dance. From what I gathered, Owen and Kathy were going together as "friends," even thought we all knew something was going on between them. I was new, and I knew there was something going on, showcasing just how obvious the chemistry was between them was. Kathy and Phoebe were discussing dresses while the guys discussed… something. I actually was kind of confused about everything the guys were describing, so I turned to my fellow girls.

"… Yeah, my dress is green and has some flowery thing at the bottom," Phoebe was describing to Kathy, who seemed to be listening very intently. Apparently that was the thing girls talked about were dresses. I had never been a 'girly-girl,' so dresses were not my area of expertise.

"Is this dance formal?" I asked them both, trying to get the gist of how things worked in this town. Back in the city, Winter Formal and Prom were the only dances that were formal, but it could be very different here. I wasn't even sure what this dance was for.

"No, it's not. It's just like a… back to school/flower festival dance. It's really nothing big, it's just another town tradition," Kathy explained with a laugh. I nodded in understanding.

"Lizzy, has Luke asked you yet?" Phoebe said with a smile. My eyes widened in confusement and she looked at Kathy. "Did he not? I thought he said he was going to?"

"You probably just misheard," I tried laughing it off. "Luke doesn't know me that well, so he probably wouldn't ask me in the first place." I glanced at Luke who caught my eye with a small smile as he continued talking to Owen and Chase. Could it really be that he..? No, impossible. I turned back to Phoebe with a smile, eager to change the topic. "Enough about me though, who are you going with?"

She blushed and instinctively turned to a table of older guys who looked like they could easily be athletic and student council members. There was one you could tell she was looking at though, who was sitting on the patio table and was writing in a notebook. He had flowing blonde hair and a very nice leather jacket. From afar, he looked like a very serious and nice guy, the seemingly perfect guy for someone as shy as Phoebe.

"That's Chase," Kathy explained, "but little-Miss-Scaredy-cat won't ask him because he's a senior."

I smiled at Phoebe. "Plenty of juniors have gone to things with juniors. Besides, if he didn't want to go with you, then he is obviously too stupid for you in the first place. I'm sure if you asked him he'd say yes though."

We continued our talk until the end of lunch, and I hurried to my class, afraid to be late for journalism again. I gave my teacher the idea for my story and she approved, so I spent the rest of my class doing that. When class ended, I hurried out of there once again, trying my best to avoid Luke. If he planned to ask me to whatever dance this was, I didn't want to answer him, as currently I wasn't even sure what my answer would be to him. Everything solely relied on how my dinner tonight went.

Once I reached my house I backed into the door to close it and sighed against it. I couldn't believe that Luke wanted to ask me to this dance! He didn't even know me at all and just, ugh! I didn't know why he wanted to ask me, but I think it'd be weird to go with him. But... I guess it would be interesting, and it was very flattering that he wanted to ask me. I mean, from what everyone said he was the most popular guy at school. But popularity was not a valid reason to go out with someone, and I didn't want to lead him on in any way shape or form.

I sighed and started putting away my things from school. I slid off my shoes and put my bag on my bed, thinking to get some homework done so I wouldn't have to worry about it when I got home tonight. I grabbed my chemistry problems that I had definitely not finished yesterday, once again Gill's entire fault. I sat down on my couch and starting working them out, vowing I would make fun of him about it at dinner and then I….

… Woke up. I yawned and picked up my homework that had fallen down to the ground. I fixed my askew glasses, wondering when I had passed out as I got up and tried to wake up a little more before my dinner. As I set my homework down I looked to the clock that flashed 5:08.

I dropped my homework to the ground and slightly screamed, not believing I had overslept. Time was obviously not with me, and I was going in my baggy shirt, shorts, and glasses. Plus, Gill would probably not like my lateness. I threw on sandals and ran to the Sundae Inn, hoping he wouldn't be mad with me. Once I got there I slightly barged in, spotted Gill, and collapsed unto the chair facing him.

He raised an eyebrow at me as I breathed deeply, trying to regain my breath, expecting him to talk about my tardiness. Instead he said: "Since when do you wear glasses?"

I looked at him and reached for the glass of water in front of me, took a drink, and set it down. "I wear glasses," I shrugged as nonchalantly as possible. He pursed his lips and looked back at me.

"I didn't know what you like, so I didn't order for you, sorry."

"That's fine," I said as I glanced at the menu in front of me full of normal restaurant-y things. There appeared to be a delicious combination I ordered right away. Chase apparently worked here and assured Gill and I our food would arrive at the same time in about five minutes or so. Which left us time to talk. Or awkwardly stare at each other, which seemed to be the path Gill wanted to take more. However, I knew I just had to get him out of his comfort zone.

"So, what did you order?" I asked him as he started tapping on his silverware. He looked up at me, seemingly irritated with my question and no doubt wishing he had never asked me to this in the first place.

"Stuffed tomato tortellini and bruschetta." My heart sank and his aloofness, but I smiled anyways.

"That sounds really good. I love pasta too."

"Well, everything here is good. Chase is a very talented chef. We're lucky to have him in such a small town. In fact, most of the skilled people we have don't deserve to be here."

"Why don't you like it here?" I asked, frowning.

He looked at me curiously, as if he suddenly realized we'd been talking this whole time. "What did you ask?"

"Pardon?" I chuckled a little as he glared, obviously not as amused by my dazzling wit as I had hoped. I cleared my throat and said, "I mean you seem to just not like it here. You always talk about the town condescendingly and with disdain and disregard. Just," I took a sip of water, holding him in impatience. "It just seems you'd rather be anywhere else except for here."

Gill continued staring at me, making me wonder if I had said the wrong thing or something. "No one has ever asked me like that so forcibly and… straightforward."

I shrugged. "I'm very straightforward. No tact," I laughed as he continued being himself, of just sitting there and not responding at all to me, minus the staring of course.

"I suppose I don't like how the town is currently run," he said suddenly. I opened my mouth to answer, but it was then when Chase brought us our food. I thanked him as he eyed us curiously, but left to the back anyways. I bit into my tortellini (which yes, Gill and I had ordered the same thing curiously enough, minus him getting bruschetta and me getting sweet potatoes instead).

"Well, if you don't like the management style, why don't you argue it up with the mayor or something? I mean, I know I haven't lived here as long as you have, so I don't fully know town protocol, but that seems the logical thing to do. He seemed nice enough," I suggested as I put more food into my mouth.

Gill seemed to almost choke into his food with my suggestion, which was a very strange reaction, but I chose to ignore it. After all, he had already done some random weird things, so anything after that was not a real eye brow raiser. "The mayor doesn't seem to listen to me," he said quietly after a swallow of bruschetta.

"Oh that's right!" I exclaimed, almost knocking over my water glass, which earned a strange look from Gill I laughed a little nervously at. "I mean, when Luke showed me around a couple of days, he said something about the mayor. Or was it the mayor's son…" I bit my lip as I thought, but turned back to Gill brightly. "Anywho, he mentioned they were a little standoffish. But, I'm sure if you had some town support of good fixer-upper ideas, the mayor would definitely listen to you!" I smiled at him, expecting some snide remark, but instead I noticed a clenched fist.

"Did Luke have any other useful tidbits of information?" he asked through clenched teeth.

I closed my mouth, a little shocked at his reaction. "No. Do you… not like him very much?"

He half laughed with a scoff. "Let's just say, we are not 'BFFs' or whatever you girls call it these days." He looked to the bar where a girl with pink pigtails was at as well as a few other islanders and sighed back to me. "When you grow up with someone, grudges just happen."

Grudges? I thought to myself with a little glee. I just HAD to find out what happened between them, but I could sense today was not the day to so. We chatted idly as we finished our dinner, but nothing as serious as before. He had semi-warmed up, but I was still curious about the history between him and Luke, as both were parts of my life. I protested when he insisted on paying for my dinner, but eventually gave in, as a guy caring about you, even just paying for your dinner, was enough to make any girl feel special. We walked outside to darkness as he properly held the door for both of us like a true gentleman.

"So, what's the deal with this dance thingie coming up?" I asked as we walked to my house after his insistence he walked me home as I tried to wonder about his feelings he had about it to try and satiate the curiosity I had about his thoughts on things.

He shrugged. "Just the normal mating ritual the school seems fit to host every year. It's just another way to embarrass us all and fund the school." He paused and picked up a dandelion growing along the road. "The girls wear dresses that are flower themed, as it is a dance preceding the town flower festival. The guys wear that flower in the lapel of a casual button down and nice pants. Spring fling is not formal, just people usually go overboard with it all."

He handed the dandelion to me suddenly as we rounded the corner. "Do you go to these things?" I asked a little breathlessly, surprising myself with the forward nature of my question.

"Usually," he nodded. "After all, it is tradition." He shrugged and gave a mouth twitch, which I knew was his attempt at a smile. I smiled back happily that he had finally seemed to be comfortable enough with me to let his cool, proud demeanor melt away.

"Mustn't break tradition now, would we?" I laughed a little, thinking how stupid I must sound. "Who's your date?" I asked, once again more forward then necessary.

That seemed to anger him. I realized we had gotten to my house, which was good since the next words from his mouth was: "Not you, so don't you even think of asking me Elizabeth." And with that he was off in a huff, leaving me to stand outside by myself, holding the dandelion he had so seamlessly and almost romantically given me not even five minutes ago.