Disclaimer: I don't own Bloodlines.

A/N: This had actually happened to me (well most of it has). So basically, the events are true but slightly exaggerated.

This is humour at the start and Zeil at the end.

The Mock Election:

Okay, in all honesty, I should have known that something was going to go wrong. I mean, what did I expect? When you volunteer for something in school, where you can be publically humiliated, then something is always going to go wrong. It's like... an unspoken rule or something. But I had forgotten that when it came to putting up my hand. It just went out of my head...

"Okay class," my politics teacher called. "Next week we are going to have a mock election! We'll select a theme, and get a few people to dress up as a character, and vote. How does that sound?" It sounded fun, and a release from normal classwork. It sounded... amazing.

"Okay, so what's our theme going to be?" She asked.

"Different countries and cultures!" Someone shouted. "Fairytale characters! Fruit and veg!" It went on like that until everyone had run out of suggestions.

"Okay, let's have a vote," she smiled. And Fairytale characters won. "Next question, who is going to volunteer to dress up?" And funnily enough, I found my hand being raised up. The small group of friends that I made cheered for me, and I smiled as my name was taken down. Something normal was just what I needed.

. . .

Now it was the day of the 'election' and my politics class was second class in the morning. Just after History with Ms. Terwillenger, who was only too happy to leave me, and my fellow classmates who were dressing up, off early to get ready with their 'campaign managers'.

My friends and I had debated it over and over again, and we had decided that I would be... Little Red Riding Hood. I claimed that had nothing in the bright colour, or indeed a cloak or basket, but my friend, Bethany, said that she would sort it out.

That day she handed me a bag, and pushed me into a bathroom cubicle. I took off my Amberwood uniform and pulled out the ideas in the bag. A red dress, a red cloak trimmed with white fur, and red shoes.

"Why does the cloak have a snowflake on the back?" I asked, surprised at my discovery.

"It's a Christmas cloak - it was the best that you were going to get." Bethany called back. "Now hurry!"

I pulled on the red dress, and found, that surprisingly, it was too tight. I shrugged the thought off and convinced myself that no, it was just my imagination playing tricks on me. I slung the cloak over my shoulder, leaving the hood down, and pulled on the shoes, that were slightly too big.

I opened the door and was greeted by my friends, who were all gushing over me and tugging at me in all directions. I felt dizzy and confused.

"Okay people!" Clara called. "Out of the way, make-up and hair time!" She done my eyes all 'smoky' but everything else seemed to look natural. "Hmm... what to do with your hair...?" She pulled it out of its ponytail, and leaving one side fall out over my eye, while gripping the other side back securely. Then she pulled the hood over my head, and pushed a basket full of daisies into my arms.

"Come on!" Bethany cried. "Let's get there early so that we can see everyone else's costumes!"

We walked down the hall, and I felt self-conscious as the bell rang, and everyone else was filing out of there class, in their maroon uniforms, while I was dressed up in red. I thought I saw Sydney stare at me, but if she did, I ignored it.

We walked into the classroom, and I sat down in my normal seat, taking a look around. You had Lily, who dressed up as Cinderella in a wedding dress - she looked absolutely gorgeous, but when didn't she? You have Lorna, who was dressed up as Ariel - she radiated confidence, and I knew that there she would have something interesting to say, she always did. You had Shannon, you was Jasmine, inspired by her culture I suppose - how she managed to look so amazing, I'd never know. You had Paul, you dressed up as the Beast, surprising, I thought he'd go for Prince Charming. And last, but not least, you had Dean as one of the seven dwarfs - which was weird seeing as he was six foot tall.

I looked around and took my speech out of my bag, how was I going to win with all these amazing people?

. . .

"Absolutely fabulous class!" The teacher cried. "How about everyone changes out of their costumes while I count the votes."

I followed Shannon to the bathroom, making conversation about how fun that this class had been. I walked into the cubicle, and took the cloak off. It had been roasting in there, but everyone had insisted that I leave the cloak on. Next, I unzipped the dress, and tried to take it off. It wouldn't budge. I pulled, and sucked, and pushing, and cried, but the stupid dress would not come off. Absolutely wonderful.

I heard the bell for the ten minute break go off, and I rushed out of the bathroom to find Clara, or Bethany, or anyone who could help me take the dress off.

And I ran into Neil Raymond.

"Where are you going in such a hurry?" He asked quizzically. "Nice dress by the way, and... you look pretty." He smiled at me, actually I'm pretty sure beamed is the correct word. It was then that I realised that I still had the hair and make-up on.

"Umm... sorry, I can't talk, I have to take this dress off." I mumbled.

"Didn't you just come from the girl's bathroom?" He asked. I glared at him.

"I did, and I can't get it off." I hissed at him.

"Why can't you get it off?" He asked, looking at me confused. I stomped my foot at him.

"It's stuck!" I whined.

"Did you seriously just stomp your foot at me?" He asked amused.

"Not the point," I growled, and before he could tease me anymore, I ran off towards the canteen. I reached the table where my friends were sitting, and tapped Bethany on the shoulder.

"Oh, hi Zoe. Why are you still wearing the dress?" She asked. I stood there awkwardly at everyone staring at me. Which felt like the whole cafeteria...

"It's stuck," I muttered.

"Oh!" Bethany cried, jumping up. "Okay, come with me!" She dragged me back to the bathroom - I'm really getting sick of that place, and locked us into an empty stall. We were there for about five minutes trying to pull the dress off. It didn't work. We had managed to get the top part off, but the skirt was stuck fast. I guess dad was right about the part that I should lose weight. But then again, when is dad ever wrong?

I done my 'walk of shame' back to the cafeteria - relived that I had thought to wear a tank top under the dress, and we, Bethany and I, approached the teacher who were on breaktime duty.

"Ma'am," I muttered to my politics teacher, who was engaged in conversation with the principal. "I need... help." I cast my eyes to the ground, embarrassed.

"Of course, what is it dearie?" She smiled.

"I'm kind of... stuck in the dress..." I muttered. The principal, who was still standing beside her, laughed. My cheeks flared up, whether in embarrassment or anger I have no idea.

"Come on," she tutted. "Let's get you to a spare classroom." She led us into the classroom, and attempted to also tug the dress off me, but the dress won once more, and wouldn't budge. The bell rang, signalling that breaktime was over, and I had French next.

"Bethany, run along and tell Ms. O' Driscoll that Zoe will be late to class... because she has a problem." Bethany nodded and disappeared. "Okay Zoe, I'm going to go get a Home Economics teacher, they might know what to do." And with that she left, leaving me in the classroom on my own. Probably couldn't wait to leave, so she could laugh at me too.

Minutes later, Bethany came back looking slightly red. "You okay Zoe?" She asked.

"Yeah," I muttered. I wasn't okay, I was fat and feeling sick right now.

"Zoe," Ms. Duggan, the Home Economics teacher, burst into the classroom. "Ms. O' Donovan had to go to her class, but I'll sort you out in a jiffy. Come along to my classroom!" As I was walking down the hall, I once again bumped into Neil.

"Still in the dress I see," he murmured. "At least it looks pretty good on you, right?" I couldn't tell if he were mocking me, or actually being sincere, but I settled on mocking.

"It's none of your business," I snapped at him.

"Hey don't take it out on me, just because you decided to fit into a dress that you are clearly too big for!" Neil exclaimed. Tears sprung to my eyes. He had no idea how much that comment actually hurt.

"Leave me alone!" I snapped again, and I followed Ms. Duggan to her classroom.

. . .

"I'm sorry that I'm making your dress get ruined," I apologised to Bethany as Ms. Duggan searched for her ripped through her many sewing boxes.

"It's okay," she murmured as I stood still, so that I could have the dress cut off me.

As soon as it fell to my feet, I pulled on my uniform, it was sloppy but I'd fix it later.

"You know Zoe," Ms. Duggan said, picking up the material of the dress. "The next time that you decide to dress up, pick something that is more of your... size." I immediately thought that she was calling me fat.

"What?" I asked.

"I don't think that anyone your age, no matter how skinny, can fit in a kid's size ten dress." She tutted.

"What!" I glared at Bethany, who looked shocked and guilty.

"I, umm... guess I must have picked up the wrong dress. Sorry Zoe." She said sheepishly.

As if the day couldn't have gotten worse, when I stepped into French, the teacher knew everything. And she told the whole class about it. And started questioning my intelligence. By the time it came to lunch, I wanted to cry and go back to my dorm. I was actually seriously considering pulling a sickie.

On my way to the office, someone grabbed my wrist. "Zoe," a familiar, slightly British, voice called.

"Neil," I greeted coolly.

"I'm sorry about what I said earlier," he apologised. "I didn't realise how much that it would hurt you. Sydney told me about it and... I don't understand why you have a vendetta against eating! You are skinny enough, if not too skinny! Why would you want to be any different. I think you are perfect the way you are." He stared at me hard in the eyes. "You are perfect Zoe, remember that, yeah?"

And then he let go of my wrist and walked off. But before leaving, he turned around and said: "You should wear your hair like that more often. It looks really good."

And that was when I fell for Neil Raymond.

A/N: Okay, so how was that? Not too bad I hope. If you've any requests, don't hesitate to PM me or review.