Chapter 37... :)

SHE WILL BE LOVED

Kelly didn't even like Twinkies, but as she sat on her couch watching Gossip Girl reruns, she opened up the box and began munching as they were the only junk food in the house. Unfortunately, her throat began to dry up and she could feel herself dry retching so she pushed the box aside and decided to just wait until her Chinese arrived.

This wasn't how she wanted to spend her homecoming night. She offered to work the evening shift at The Grape Vine restaurant, but they were already full-staffed so she wasn't need. Then she tried whoring herself to 7Eleven but it was someone else's shift and even when she offered to switch, they wouldn't budge. So instead, she was forced to spend her night alone.

But she chose this. There was no way she wanted to go to homecoming alone only to see Kofi happy with someone else. Everyone would be having fun except her and if she wanted to wallow, she'd rather do it alone than in front of the Beverly Hills High junior class.

Realising she'd have to go to the bathroom at some point, Kelly got to her feet and ran up the stairs, however she was stopped by something hanging from her mother's bedroom door with a note attached.

I know you didn't want to go to homecoming but if you change your mind, I wanted you to have a dress. I wore it to my prom. Maybe it's not the coolest, but it's something. Mom xx

Smiling, Kelly carried the bag downstairs and pulled out the dress and hanging it from one of the curtain poles in the living room. Long and turquoise blue, it was fairly simple, other than being backless with tiny flecks of silver giving it some sparkle. If it was her mothers, it must've been from the eighties. With not a shoulder pad in sight, instead replaced by simple spaghetti straps, it didn't look too bad.

But it didn't matter because she wasn't going to homecoming and the sound of the doorbell only reminded her of that. Her Chinese had arrived. As she raced around trying to find some cash, there was another ring at the doorbell to which she yelled, "I'm coming!" Eventually, she found her pink leathery wallet and stumbled towards the door, keeping her head bowed as she did so, searching for a ten dollar bill she knew she had in there somewhere.

"I'm not after your money, Kelly."

And as she looked up, she saw that it wasn't the Chinese delivery guy stood there, but Kofi.

Trying to register her shock and his presence, she held open the door. "What're you doing here?"

"You were the first person I saw when we moved to Beverly Hills." He walked through into her living room and paced the length of the room. "You didn't notice me though because you had your iPod earphones in. We were unloading boxes outside our house and you pulled up onto your driveway and went into your house without saying anything."

"What a bitch," Kelly both giggled and blushed, wondering where he was going.

Kofi stopped, turning around to look at her. "I remember spending the next couple of days thinking about how beautiful you were and how stuttery I'd get if I came around you."

"You were stuttery around me?" She laughed. "Kofi, you were at Beverly Hills for like, five minutes and you were on the basketball team straight away. Everyone that meets you loves you; I never understood why you wanted to be friends with me-"

"Because you're amazing."

He caught both Kelly and himself off guard by saying it. The room went silent, only the sound of Blair and Chuck on the TV, quietly admitting their feelings to each other. Three words, eight letters, saying it and I'm yours. Art imitating life indeed.

"You're this...incredibly strong girl that has been through so much yet you get through it with the most beautiful smile-"

"Don't feel sorry for me, Kofi-"

"I don't. I'm in awe of you." Walking towards her, he took a deep breath. "You were the first girl I fell for when I came here and you were the only one I really wanted. It was just admitting it to myself that was the problem. But now, I'm ready."

"Don't say it if you don't mean it," Kelly shook her head, stood millimetres from him. "I've cared about you for too long for you to break my heart again."

"How do you know I'm going to break your heart if you don't let me in to begin with?"

Without hesitation, Kelly reached her hands upwards and pulled Kofi's face down onto hers, their lips touching gently. How long had she imagined this? She couldn't remember, but now it was here, it was perfect. All the heartbreak, all the times she'd wished he'd never come into her life, all the spoonfuls of ice cream; it had all led to this and she wouldn't have changed it for the world.

"I want to be with you Kelly," He admitted, kissing her on the forehead. "Screw the cliques, screw the labels, it doesn't matter if you're there."

It was like everything was finally falling into place.

"Where do we go from here?" Kelly whispered, Kofi's arms around her making her feel more comforted than she had in years.

"Homecoming," Kofi grinned down at her. "I didn't rent out a tux for nothing."

"Kofi, I'm not going to homecoming." She realised the only reason she wasn't going to homecoming was because of Kofi but now they were together, why shouldn't she go? In all honesty, she'd rather spend the night, snuggled up on her couch with Kofi, but that didn't seem like an excuse. "I don't have anything to wear."

"Well, what's that?" He pointed at the blue dress on the curtain pole.

"Oh, that's my mom's, it's not mine-"

"So? It's a dress." Kofi walked over and picked it up, before putting the hanger over Kelly's head so the dress covered over her. "Besides, you could wear anything and look beautiful."

Kelly smiled, thinking how she could definitely get used to this.

Arriving at the school gym, Miz instantly wished he'd arrived sooner.

Although the party didn't start until he walked in – to quote his secret crush Ke$ha - he wondered if there was anything he'd missed out on. It didn't matter; at least if he was late, people saw him, unlike if he arrived in the crush with everyone else. He could already feel the chicks' eyes falling on him; he knew he'd have to pick of the pack.

But there was only one girl he wanted.

Maryse was stood alone by the buffet table, sipping at a drink and looking around at everyone else. It had been a difficult couple of weeks for the former head cheerleader as her whole squad decided to ditch her, leaving her pretty much friendless. That was, apart from Miz. Slowly but surely, he'd weaved his way into her good books but as he walked towards her, he wished he could be something more. Her long black dress, her blonde hair perfectly styled, pulled back off her face; she looked every inch the prom queen he wanted her to be.

"I'm glad you decided to come along," He told her, greeting her with a nod.

"I'm a prom queen nominee. I couldn't miss out." She smiled coyly, placing down her drink. "Although, a date would've been nice."

"I can be your date," He suggested. "After all, we're probably the two most attractive people in this gym. I mean, in some ways, it's crazy that we haven't already got together."

Unsure as to what he was getting at, Maryse winced, still smiling. "What're you suggesting?"

Miz shrugged, "You can take it as you see it."

"Okay," Maryse nodded carefully, stepping towards Miz until the space between them was deep and dark. She pursed her lips slightly and leaned in suggesting she was going to kiss him, until something else caught her eye in the doorway of the gym. She backed away and raised her eyebrow, before exclaiming "Oh my God! Kelly and Kofi?"

'A place to crash, I got you. No need to ask, I got you. Just get on the phone, I got you. Come and pick you up if I have to...'

With Leona Lewis playing on the PA system, Eve swayed to the music, her movements perfectly in sync with Ted's as his hands sat on her waist and her hands with looped behind his neck. She knew that as soon as the song ended, they'd have to talk, something they'd been putting off since their arrival. If Eve could've stayed in that moment forever, she would have.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to say," She eventually said to Ted, continuing to move with him. "So maybe it would be best if you spoke first."

Ted laughed, moving one of his hands to push a lock of hair behind her ear, before putting it back on her waist. "Well, one of us has to." But he didn't say anything. He just looked at her. For about a minute, neither of them said anything, instead they chose to look into each other's eyes.

"Is this your way of putting off talking?" Eve smiled, suddenly blushing.

"No," He shook his head. "Sometimes, just looking at you is enough. I remember sometimes I'd log onto Facebook just so I could look at your profile photo."

There were bright pink spots on Eve's cheeks and her smile was broadening out.

"To say you're beautiful is doing you an injustice, you're perfect. Inside and out. And you don't even realise how wonderful you are." He paused, scratching the back of his head. "Do you remember the first time we spoke?"

"Yeah, it was after my cheerleading practise and I asked to borrow your phone because my battery-"

Ted shook his head, smiling. "No, it wasn't. It was two days earlier in biology class and you apologized to me for accidentally knocking my pen off the table. I remember thinking that a girl like you would never go for a guy like me and when we spoke two days later, I was...over the moon. Head over heels for you."

"But you never-"

"Told you? Yeah, I thought if I waited and 'picked my moment' then it would be perfect. Turns out I waited too long because you got together with Swagger." He grinned. The song had changed but they were still swaying to the same tune. "The whole time you were with him, I'd think 'Eve could do so much better. She could be with me'. But you were happy with Jack and all I wanted was for you to be happy because you're the most important person in my life.

"When you needed me to be there for you, to look after you, I was. And when I woke up the next morning, I was stupidly happy. But you went back to Jack and I was heartbroken because you were with the wrong guy. Then you guys broke up and I thought 'Finally, she'll want me.' But then you spent the past couple of weeks ignoring me."

"God," Eve scratched her head in a similar fashion to how Ted had earlier. "I certainly haven't thrown you any curveballs, have I?"

"So make it up to me by being with me now," Ted said eagerly, stopping their dance by taking hold of her hands. "I want to be the one that makes you smile and gets to wake up to your beautiful face. I want to be the one that you share your problems with and I want to be the one you gossip to all your girlfriends about. I want to be the one and I know I can be-"

"You already are." Eve's smile was wider than ever and with tears in the corners of her eyes, she sniffed lightly. "You're a smooth talker, DiBiase; I didn't know you had it in you."

"Just saying what was in my heart," He took one of her hands he was holding and kissed it. "So what do you say?"

"Why don't we not say anything at all?" She leaned in and placed a kiss on his lips, much like the one from their first night together, making it even sweeter. Eve smiled against his lips, suddenly feeling relieved; this was perfect. Instead of going looking for her perfect guy, he'd found her.

"Would all the nominees for king and queen make their way onto the stage? We are about to reveal the results."

"No!" Eve laughed at Principal Kerrigan's announcement. "Not now-"

"Go," Ted told her, kissing her carefully on the lips. "Show everyone why you'll make the best homecoming queen ever."

"I haven't won yet."

"You have in my eyes."

After the inevitable happened and Jack Swagger won homecoming king, the whole hall was buzzing to see who'd win queen with it apparently being a deadlock between Maryse and Eve and the winner having only scraped it by a few votes. Everyone was on their toes and not even because of the ridiculous amount of high heels.

"Settle down everyone," Principal Kerrigan said, as Jack Swagger mocked doing a stage dive into the crowd of students. "Now we've got our homecoming king, let's see who our queen is."

Excited whispers filled the hall as the four nominees stood in a row onstage, Maryse and Eve on opposite ends of the line, of course.

"And this year's 2010 Beverly Hills High homecoming queen is..." There was a drum roll before Kerrigan opened up the envelope. "Maryse Ouellet!"

Half the hall burst into applause and the other half stood in stunned silence. It was the obvious choice having Maryse win; captain of the cheerleading team and general hottie, but there was an uproar of sympathy for poor Eve Torres and it was possible that she'd win. It turned out that by just six votes, the students of Beverly Hills were loyal to their own kind.

"Wow," Maryse breathed as she slipped the crown and stepped towards the mic to address the student body. "If you'd have asked a couple of months ago who I'd predict to be homecoming queen, I'd probably have put myself at the top. Over the past couple of weeks, I wasn't so sure."

"Thank you, Maryse."

"No, Principal Kerrigan, there's something I need to say." Looking around at her fellow students, for the first time in her life, Maryse felt scared. "Everyone always assumes I'm this backstabbing, boyfriend stealer that you can't trust and yeah, I've never claimed to be a nice girl but I'm not a bad girl either."

"Maryse!"

"Don't interrupt me!" She thrust a hand out at Kerrigan. "Most of you know this year I probably acted my worst and my life disintegrating around me for me to realise that I made life miserable for a girl who didn't deserve it," Stealing a glance at Eve, Maryse's expression softened. "And for that, I am sorry.

"But for those of you who expect me to change my ways, forget about it. I'm me for a reason. I'm-" This time, Maryse looked over in Miz's direction. "-awesome. And I like to think everyone here thinks the same. Yeah, I am sorry for some of the stuff I've done, but I don't regret it. Why have regrets? We can't go back and change the past as much as we want to.

"Junior class, I think we've all grown a lot this year. In more ways than one."

Wow, that was eventful.
Two new couples and one almost couple.
But don't worry, there's one chapter left then a sequel straight after - literally, I'm posting the link to the sequel on the end of the last chapter :)
Basically, the sequel will include Eve/Ted, Kofi/Kelly and two other couples, one of which hasn't been touched upon AT ALL in this story despite the characters being involved.

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