By the time we arrived the dance was already in full swing. You could feel the beat from the music a block away.

We stepped into the dimly lit gym that the student council had decorated for this dance. Streamers, chairs, tables, food, a DJ, this may have excited other teenagers. All I saw was a stupid gym full of people I didn't like, and the music was giving me a headache. Call me whinny, but I had only been here five seconds and I wanted to go home. It didn't help that everyone was staring at me, as shocked as I was at what I was wearing. Scarlett unsurprisingly had already ditched us. She apparently had a date, a date that she had told to meet her here, because she had to help, in her words exactly "The less fortunate."

Angelina and I stood there awkwardly as everyone moved around us. I knew that Angelina was looking for Steven, so I found myself looking for Tyson. I wondered if he had come here with Stephanie. I didn't have to wonder long. Tyson and Stephanie were standing together in a group of jocks and cheerleaders. He was saying something, a smile on his face, and Stephanie was laughing a little too loudly. I noticed they were wearing matching corsages. I felt my face get hot, as tears filled my eyes. Stupid dance… I didn't even want to come in the first place.

"Oh my god." Angelina whispered. At first I thought she was talking about Tyson and Stephanie being together. But how could she be I hadn't told her about my feelings for Tyson, and everyone else was smart enough to realize that Tyson and Stephanie being together made perfect sense. Then I looked up.

There was Scarlett, walking towards us with her date Steven Brooks on her arm. This was not good.

"Hey guys, you know Steven right?" Scarlett said a big smile on her face.

I nodded.

"Yes." Angelina said sharply.

"Well he's my date! Isn't that great?" Scarlett could be so stupid sometimes.

"It sure is interesting…" I answered. I looked over at Angelina who looked like she wanted to hit Scarlett but was trying to cover it up with a fake smile. It wasn't working.

"Why don't I uh get us some punch Scar." Steven said, feeling the tension that apparently Scarlett was completely unaware of.

"Sure, that would be great!" Scarlett said cheerfully.

Steven walked away quickly. As soon as he was gone Angelina lost the fake smile.

"Scarlett,"

"Yeah?"

"What the hell?" I had never seen Angelina get this mad, especially at Scarlett.

"What?" Scarlett asked taking a step back as though she thought Angelina would hit her.

"You came with Steven?"

"Well, yeah. Isn't he great?"

"Scarlett how could you do this to me? I told you that I liked him!"

"No, you didn't…"

"Yes I did!"
"Well, I had already asked him by then."

"Scarlett, I told you before we even knew about the stupid dance!"

This shocked me a little. Angelina had told Scarlett about her crush on Steven before she had told me, her best friend. This hurt.

"So you liked him, so what? You obviously were never going to make a move so I did!"

Both Angelina and I were speechless. Just then, Tyson came over.

"Hey, Sophie. I thought you didn't do dances?" he said smiling.

All three of us just looked at him.

"I… I don't" I answered, a bit dazed, forgetting all about how I wasn't talking to him.

"Well uh you look really nice tonight. I'm glad you came."

I nodded, not sure what to say.

"Sophie, really I told you I'm sorry. What is it going to take for you to forgive me? How can I fix this."
"You… you just can't. You care too much about what everyone else thinks. You're with Stephanie because that's who all your friends expect you to be with. But if you were with me, they'd hate you."

"Well, what if I could prove that I didn't care what they thought?"

"Maybe things would be different but you can't. Right now isn't a good time for this so could you just go please."

Tyson nodded and walked away. While this whole conversation was going on Scarlett and Angelina were both quiet, now they started up again.

"Since when do you like Tyson?" Scarlett asked, happy to have all the negative attention on someone else.

"Yeah, Sophie. I thought he was just your tutor." Angelina chimed in, forgetting all about being mad at Scarlett.

"He was. I just…"

"What are you guys like secret lovers or something?" Scarlett said cutting me off before I could explain.

"No, it's not like that it's"

"You slut!" Scarlett said loudly. Making everyone around us look over.

"Yeah, Soph what else haven't you told us? For all we know, you could be sleeping with Steven." Angelina said.

And this is why I hate dances.

"I am not sleeping with anybody. OK?"

After a moment Angelina nodded "Sorry, I got carried away." She said quietly.

"It's fine." I answered hearing the sincerity in her voice.

Then we both looked at Scarlett.

"I have a date to get to." She mumbled, and then walked away.

"I should have known…" Angelina said when Scarlett had disappeared in the crowd.

She put her head in her hands. Me, being horrible at cheering people up, had no idea what to do. So I just stood there awkwardly. Then I remembered.

"Why did you tell Scarlett you liked Steven before you told me?" I asked.

It had gone quiet, the DJ saying something about singers, doing karaoke or whatever. Angelina looked up slowly. "Really Sophie? Now is not the time for you to go all emo."

"I'm not being emo… I just want to know."

"I don't know. I guess you were so busy with your tutoring and stuff. You just weren't around a lot, and Scarlett was."

I didn't realize in my worry over Tyson, I had been neglecting my best friend.

Tyson's POV:

I knew what I had to do, but I didn't know if I could do it. I hated the fact that Sophie hated me. I needed to make it right. There was just something about Sophie Goldsworthy. Maybe it was how stubborn she was, or maybe it was how real she was. Maybe it was the fact that unlike me, she didn't care what others thought about her, she was herself. Maybe it was that even though she didn't like to admit it she was sweet and smart and beautiful. I had to do this I just had to. I wasn't going to end up like my idiot father, alone. I took in a deep breath and stepped forward. Stephanie, in her poofy pink dress, tried to stop me.

"What are you doing Ty?" She asked stepping in front of me.

"There was never anything between us Stephanie. I only think of you as a friend." I said taking off my corsage and handing it to her. I knew I had hurt Stephanie, but I knew I had to. I had to get Sophie to forgive me.

"But… but…" she said.

"We'll talk about it later, right now there's something I have to do."

I stepped around her, towards the stage were the DJ was calling all performers.

"Any song you'd like!" he said

The night after Sophie had told me about her favorite song during the question game, I went home and looked up the old band One Republic. They were actually really amazing. So I learned their songs, I had even learned the guitar part to the song Sophie had told me she liked the best.

I stepped up onto the stage, and grabbed a guitar that was placed there for the band that never showed up. Which I guess is why they were looking for performers, the band not showing up I mean.

The DJ smiled at me, because I had clearly saved him a whole lot of trouble, and earned him a break.

"And what will you be singing?"

I took in a deep breath, my hands were shaking. Only a couple people were looking at me now, shocked, but I knew in a minute they all would be looking at me. I had to do this though. There was no going back now.

I took in another deep breath. The DJ was standing next to me now, adjusting a microphone stand in front of me.

"Well?" he asked

I ignored him again, not sure I could speak. So he just started talking, saying something into the microphone and then putting it on the stand in front of me. Before I could stop myself I was talking too. But I knew not to say much, because my song would say it all.

Sophie's POV

"Hey so we got a special treat for you guys." I heard the announcer say. I rolled my eyes, like this night could get any worse. Now we had a live singer. "So here he is."

Great a guy, no doubt singing to his stupid girlfriend that he's "totally in love with".

"So umm hey." I heard a familiar voice say from on stage. "I know this probably is going to sound really stupid but this song is to a girl that, well I really messed things up with." Tyson? I was so confused that what was happening didn't start to sink until I heard the familiar cords of a song. He didn't I thought as he began singing the words I knew by heart.

For those days we felt like a mistake,
Those times when loves what you hate,
Somehow,
We keep marching on

Yes, he did. Tyson was singing in front of pretty much the whole school. Tyson had told me he never sings in front of people, he wouldn't even sing for me. Yet here he was singing a One Republic song for god's sake! I could feel Angelina's eyes on me, but I ignored her. As he sang I stepped forward, pushing people out of my way as I walked to the front of the stage.

For all of the times we've stopped,
For all of the things I'm not.
We put one foot in front of the other,
We move like we ain't got no other,
We go when we go,
We're marching on

My heart was pounding in my chest, as I looked up at Tyson. He looked back and our eyes meet. He proved it, this proved it. He didn't care what other people thought. He was sorry, and he wanted to be with me. He looked into my eyes for the rest of the song.

When it was over, everyone clapped, and Tyson stepped off the stage. He walked over to me.

"So do you forgive me?" He asked hopefully.

I was speechless, so I just wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him. It was the best kiss of my life. It was like time stopped and we were the last people on the planet. I don't know how long we stood there like that, until Tyson broke away.

"So I guess this means you forgive me?" He said smiling.

"Of course! That was amazing Tyson! I can't believe you did that!" I said still a bit breathless from the kiss.

"Yeah, well I can't believe I did it either." He said with a small chuckle.

The DJ now back from his short break, now started a slow song.

"May I have this dance?" Tyson asked bowing to me like in the movies.

I nodded "Of course."

He held out his hand to me and I took it. Then we danced.

We danced, the whole night. To fast songs, and slow songs. We never took a break. I didn't care where Scarlett was, or what Stephanie and the other cheerleaders were thinking and neither did Tyson. For the rest of the night it was just me and him. I didn't feel like I was a freak, and he was a jock and we weren't meant to be. I felt like we were two people who wanted to be together, and that's exactly what we intended to do.

It was the best night of my life, and the beginning of the rest of it.

AN: Now the title makes sense right? I hope you liked it! I'm sorry I used too many S names, I didn't realize until I was writing this that there are like 4 of them lol. If you want pics of what they wore to the dance, just ask and I'll be glad to post on my profile. Stay tuned for Chapter 7!

(I don't own any of the lyrics, they belong to One Republic)