"You all have twenty minutes today to work on your projects," Mr. Depaw said, looking up at the clock above his desks. "I expect to hear chatter only on the Renaissance era. You may go."

The English room erupted in chatter as people walked to their partners, most of them discussing everything but the project. Andy almost expected his teacher to start yelling, but he already has his earphones in, staring intently at the screen. Though he always told his students he was grading, Andy knew for a fact he was probably on EHarmony again.

He was looking over his research for Miguel de Cervantes when a shadow passed over his desk. "Okay so I –" Andy stopped short when he saw it wasn't Bloom standing over him. "Oh. Hey, Mitzi."

The girl grinned at him, something that almost chilled Andy to the bone. "Hey. How's your project coming?"

"Fine," he said absently, looking through the biography he'd printed out, highlighting random bits of information. He hoped it would give Mitzi the hint to leave him alone.

No such luck. She sat down on the seat next to him, wearing a pair of mint green jeans and lacy black top. She looked over his shoulder at the pages, almost resting her chin on his shoulder. "Looks like you got a lot."

He shrugged, disappointed when his shoulder didn't jab her in the chin. "It's usually better just to get stuff over with, you know?"

"I totally agree."

"Right. So…how are you Anna coming along?" he momentarily glanced over at his friend, feeling sorry she'd gotten stuck with Mitzi as a partner.

"We're doing fine. You know," she continued, a low smirk appearing on her face, "it's a shame we didn't get to partner up for this."

Andy gulped, fiddling with his glasses a little. "Yeah. Real pity."

He tried not to shudder as he felt Mitzi leaning closer. "You know –"

"Sorry I'm late," a voice cut in, sounding a bit too rushed to be real. Andy looked up and found Bloom standing over them, a few papers in her hand. "I had to print these off in the library. I wasn't gone for too long, was I?" she asked, her eyes sliding to the seat next to Andy. "Oh, hey Mitzi."

"Hi," she said shortly.

"Well, I'm sorry to break you guys up, but I really need Andy right now." Bloom said, not looking the least bit afraid of the ice in the other girl's eyes.

She was about to speak when she noticed Mr. Depaw was making a sweep of the room. "Of course," she said, sounding overly sweet. "Good luck with your project." She stood up and walked off towards Anna. At the last second, she dragged her foot out so it caught the strap of Bloom's backpack. It tumbled over, everything from textbooks to pencils crashing onto the floor. She didn't even stop to say anything.

Bloom and Andy exchanged a look and went to pick up the school supplies. "Sometimes I can't even believe her," Bloom said under her breath.

"I know," he replied, grabbing the discarded pens and pencils. "At least she can't do much."

"Yet," Bloom muttered, almost too soft for Andy to hear.

"Don't say that," he said as the two stood up, everything from Bloom's backpack picked up. "So what's that stuff you printed?"

"My seventh grade essay," she said, laying it on the desk. "It's a bit amateur, but the facts are there. I can re-work it a little this weekend."

Andy nodded. "Sounds good. Hey, Roxy wanted to ask if you wanted to hang out with us after school? Rio needs some stuff for a music video project…"

Bloom tried her best to contain a laugh, which ended up sounding like an odd snort. "Please tell me he's not doing Milkshake?"

"Do not," Andy said, pointing his pen at her, "even mention that song. I am not afraid to hurt you with this thing."

"Don't worry," Bloom said with a small laugh, sitting down next to him. "I babysit for two eleven year olds who live next door to me, and they won't stop singing that song. I won't mention it for the rest of the day."

"Thank you," Andy said, turning to look at the papers on his desk, seriously highlighting the information this time. From near him, he saw Rio shoot him an odd look, and quietly pull out his cell phone. He typed something quickly, and put it back before Mr. Depaw could catch on. Andy grabbed his phone out of his backpack before it could vibrate and get his attention. He gripped it tightly to keep the noise down.

Since wh buddy-buddy?

Andy sighed a little. ? should I kno? At least she's tlking 2 me

Until she goes south again

Andy turned and raised an eyebrow at his friend. Wat does tat mean?

Rio wouldn't look at him, or type anything on his phone. Andy kept glaring at him until eventually, the cold feeling that came with his stare got the better of him. He quickly punched something into his phone before putting it back in his backpack, signaling it was the last text he was going to get. A second later, Andy's phone went off in his hand.

Nthn man. Just saying, she might just want a grd, not a relationship

Andy glared at him again, but this time, he wouldn't turn around. He eventually gave up, going back to working on the report. He wished Rio would look at this just a little positively, but in the back of his head he wondered if he was secretly right.

"Getting anything?" Bloom asked, giving him a small smile.

He managed to flash a quick one back, even though he was pretty sure it was the fakest thing he'd ever shown. "Yeah. Should be done in no time."

"Hey Roxy," Rio said with a grin, walking up behind his friend, "My –"

"So help me, if you say milkshake, I will throw you off the top floor of the mall," Roxy said in a pleasant voice, swirling her straw around in her mango smoothie. She, Rio, Mark, Bloom, and Andy were walking down the row of shops, looking for anything Rio might need for his video. Roxy was enjoying having another girl in the group, and she'd be damned if she let Rio's annoying sense of humor scare her off.

From next to her, Rio frowned a little. "I was going to say my smoothie's really great. What's wrong with that?"

Mark sighed and flicked his straw wrapper at him. "You are never going be allowed near a radio again. Comprendeme?"

"It's pretty high in the charts," Bloom said absently, taking a sip of her strawberry smoothie. "And the girl has to be brave to take the mockery."

"We're way past mockery," Andy said, "Now it's more like cruel and unusual pain. She's like twenty times worse than Rio."

There was a round of laughs, all except Rio who had a fake look of hurt on his face. "Oh come on, I'm not annoying."

"Really?" Mark questioned. "Because I've always thought of you more along the lines of that annoying dog that follows you home and won't leave."

Everyone laughed again, and Rio stood up straight in an act of fake pride. "No way. If anything, I'm like Neville Longbottom: the Gryffindor who should be a Hufflepuff."

Andy shook his head. "Aren't we hear to get crap for your project?"

"We are, but I felt like a smoothie, and the mall has the best."

Mark glared at him. "If this is for nothing, you can pay for my gas. My parent's think I'm too irresponsible with the car."

"Just avoid any potato stands," Roxy grinned.

"Hey it was a one time offense, and I told the guy I was sorry."

"Psh, whatever," Andy said, taking a gulp of his soda. "So what do we feel like doing?"

"I for one, wanted to go and look at few stores," Roxy said.

"Boring," Rio half-sang, half-mocked.

"Well you don't have to come." She glanced over her shoulder. "Bloom?"

"I'm game."

"Oh, so it's ditch the guys time? Fine; I see how it is."

Bloom and Roxy grinned at Rio. Bloom patted his shoulder. "I'm sure you'll be fine. Just don't sing too loud, or people may throw things at you."

"Burn!" Mark said loudly. "Ginger's got game!"

"Always," Bloom said with a small smile as she and Roxy walked off.

"So Rio," Andy said nonchalantly as the three boys continued to walk around. "Care to tell me about those texts?"

His friend stopped mid-smoothie slurp. "Aww I don't know man. I was just…thinking out loud."

"What happened?" Mark asked, glancing between the two of them.

"Rio basically accused Bloom of being a Mitzi clone."

"Ah," Mark said, "and when Andy's desperately in love with her? Bad move…"

"It's not desperate." Andy retorted at the same time Rio glared and said; "I was just saying!"

Andy gave him a look, and Rio continued; "Bloom seemed a little…less than grateful of your attitude towards this situation, right?"

He gave him a look. "…Yeah."

"So, who's to say that once this is over, she'll never speak another word to you?"

"What happened to being sarcastic?"

"I don't think Bloom's like that," Mark said absently, "maybe your bad luck with girls is coming back to haunt you, man."

Rio shrugged. "She's one of Mitzi's friends."

"Was," Andy corrected. "And besides, isn't that a little rude to assume thing about people? Do you even know her?"

"Do you?"

Andy didn't respond.

Mark glanced between them, feeling the tension in the air. "Okay, how about we drop this and head down to the music store? I need some new picks for Jasey."

"I do not understand why you bothered to name your guitar," Rio said.

"Don't question it; tons of people name their guitars."

"Name one." Andy said with a smirk.

"Well there's…no. Or…no, not him…"

"Stalling," Andy said in a singsong voice.

"Shut up."

Rio shrugged. "Let's just go before I think of one of my amazing jokes."

Andy rolled his eyes. "You use 'amazing' very loosely."

"So, do the guys ever mock you for shopping at Roxy?" Bloom questioned, as they looked at the handbags on the shelf at Juicy Couture. The girls knew they could never afford anything here, but a little window shopping never hurt.

Roxy smiled a little. "They told me last year they got me a monogrammed shirt for my birthday. Turns out it was just a shirt from there."

Bloom laughed a little. She hadn't known them that long, but it already seemed like something Rio would do. "Did you give them hell for it?"

"Oh yeah, but eventually I just couldn't stop laughing."

"I guess I would too. But honestly," Bloom asked as Roxy looked through a clothing rack, "where does Ryo get all this stuff? " Roxy didn't respond, just looked through the rack intently, an odd look on her face. "Um…Roxy? Are you ok?"

"That depends. I'm pretty sure that's Mitzi over there, so…"

Bloom's eyes widened. "Crap."

She ducked down next to Roxy, peering through the jackets. Sure enough, Mitzi was over there, Elle, Brittany, and Audrey with them. They were laughing and giggling, a massive amount of shopping bags resting near them. "You really think she's going to still go for him?" Elle was asking, looking a pair of shorts that were no doubt way too cold for October.

"Unfortunately," Mitzi muttered, giving her a look that plainly said 'put the clothing down.' "Bloom is incredibly stubborn."

From next to Roxy, the redhead huffed. "Isn't this a bit too junior high?"

"Tell me about it," Roxy mumbled.

"So what's your plan?" Audrey asked, looking through the sunglasses. "You're not going to vandalize her locker or something, right? We're high school kids."

"Please, I wouldn't be caught dead. So I'm doing the next best thing."

"Which is what?"

Mitzi looked pointedly at her clique. "What is the best way to get a boy to hang out with you?" When none of them responded, she gave a huff of annoyance. "You pretend to be into the same stuff they are."

"Which is what in this case?" Elle questioned, her eyes still on the shorts she'd been looking at.

Mitzi produced a flyer from her Gucci bag. "Music, of course."

Bloom peered through the racks, trying to get a better look at the piece of paper. There was writing scrawled all over it, but nothing stood out to her more than a few random letters. "What is that?" she whispered to Roxy.

"Heck if I know," she muttered as Mitzi set it down on a chair, gushing about some shirt she had seen. Elle, Brittany, and Audrey turned and followed like obedient puppies. Roxy glanced at Bloom, wondering if she was thinking what she was. From the look in her eyes and the small smirk on her face, it seemed like she was.

"Do we dare?" Roxy asked, glancing at her.

Bloom's smirk widened. "We dare."

Roxy bit back a laugh and turned to watch the girls. When they were in the middle of gushing over another shirt, she reached out and snatched the paper Mitzi had.

The two rushed out of the store to find Andy and the others.

"You guys are never going to believe it!" Roxy called. She and Bloom rushed towards them through the racks of CD's at the back of the store, where the musical instruments were located. Andy was faintly amused – he couldn't tell why they were so excited. In Roxy's left had was a piece of slightly crumpled paper, writing scrawled on it.

"What's up?" he asked, looking at them suspiciously.

"Did you kill Kelis?" Rio asked, looking surprised.

"Will you shut up? That joke is getting old." Bloom grinned like an idiot as Roxy handed him the paper. "Take a look."

Suspiciously, Andy took the page and looked it over. It was an advertisement from Alternative Press, a big music magazine that usually set out on tour once a year. He could tell the section was the unsigned bands of the month, but it was blocked by a big square of text, 'Where's Your Band?' scrawled on it.

"'Coming soon,'" he read, slowly growing excited, "we're featuring sixteen unsigned bands we think you should hear. The top eight you select will become official AP&R bands with profiles in the following issues of AP!"

Mark, who'd been looking through guitar picks, dropped them to the ground and raced to Andy and loomed over his shoulder, reading the text. "'To be considered for AP&R, send your bio, a hi-res photo, and an MP3 of one song you think best represents your band to the e-mail below. Include contact name, address, and phone number.'" He stood up and gave Andy a miraculous look. "Dude."

"We can be famous!" Rio cried, his quest to find the new Rise Against album forgotten.

"Yeah, but who knows how many people are partaking in this? My cousin in Baltimore just sent me the EP of this band at his high school - All Time Low - and they're probably -"

"So?" Bloom cried, for once not looking out of place in the group. "You guys love music, more than anything. You have to try it."

"Ginger speaks the truth," Rio said. "Come on Andy, we could so do this."

He glanced down at the page, flipping it over. On the back was an ad for unsigned bands to play at the Vans Warped Tour '05. "Hang on," he said, looking it over. "Can we sign up for both of these?"

Roxy looked at the page. "I don't see why not."

"How cool would it be to play the Warped Tour after we ink a record deal?"

"Doesn't that make us signed?" Mark asked.

"Who cares? They both can't pick us, so maybe we'll get one either way." Andy looked up at the four people surrounding him and grinned. "I bet we could use the recording studios down at Levy."

"They do owe the fire department a favor," Bloom grinned.

In a moment of pure reaction, he grabbed Bloom and spun her in the air, a grin on his face. "We're going to the top!"

"Amen!" Mark yelled like a priest from the movies, giving Roxy a hug. Rio, being typical Rio, latched onto the display of affection, squishing Roxy between them.

"I know you can do it," Bloom insisted, laughing as Andy set her on the ground. "I totally believe in you."

She didn't know how, but she heard a loud 'humph' from behind her. Glancing in a mirror near the wall display of Gibson guitars, she saw Mitzi and her clique standing at the entrance of the store. Her arms were crossed, and she looked ready to fight Bloom to the death.

Bloom didn't know why, but something inside her went off. A cool smile crossed her face as she returned her gaze to Andy, who was looking at her with a look of amusement. "You okay?" he asked cautiously.

"I'm perfect," she said, her gaze flickering to the mirror to make sure Mitzi was still there. "In fact, I'll prove it."

Before he could ask, Bloom grabbed his collar and pulled his face to hers and pressed her lips against his. Andy had a moment of momentary shock, and then she felt his hand cup the side of her face. Placing his thumb on her chin, he carefully opened her mouth to deepen the kiss. Bloom had a split second of hesitation before she went along with it. He tasted like raspberries and sweet, sweet, revenge.

Roxy, Mark, and Rio watched the kiss with slack jaws. "Holy crap," Rio muttered, looking impressed. "I wish a girl would do that to me." He paused, glancing to his right. "Hey Roxy…"

"One more word, and you're dead," she threatened.

"Right," he said quickly, leaning back. He gaze fell to Bloom and Andy. "Just wondering."

The two seemed oblivious to their friends standing nearby. Bloom had forgotten why she'd kissed him in the first place. All she knew was that there was a good feeling in her stomach, and until she ran out of air, she was never letting go.

Help me; I'm not well, I can't tell
If it's love or if I've lost mind
And oh, I know, this isn't a crime it's just my turn
It's just my turn to cross the line…

Love, Lust, or Losing It (Farewell Fighter)