Rocky and Cece spent the next morning, giggling whenever they were in class together. Cece had invited Rocky over for breakfast and filled her in on her crazy date. It had left them unable to even look at each other during school without thinking about yesterday's events.
After school, the girls met at Shake It Up, Chicago, to practice their dance routine.
Cece faced Rocky as they started warming up. "Rocky, you know something else about the date?"
"Hmm?" Rocky glanced over at Cece.
"Well, I'm thinking that Jaden and I might not be so perfect for each other as I thought," Cece said quietly.
"It was just a bad date, are you sure about that?" Rocky asked.
"Just before the date even, I just felt like you know, I'd rather be spending my time with someone else," Cece sighed. "I guess I'll see what Jaden has to say during our history session tonight."
"All right, Cece," Rocky replied. "It's your decision, whatever makes you happy."
"I know," Cece took a deep breath. "I just don't want to ruin a good thing if I'm just nervous or something."
"Tomorrow's Saturday, so you want to go to the movies tomorrow before the show?" Rocky asked.
"Sure," Cece nodded.
They finished the dance routine and departed for home.
When Cece got home, she found Jaden waiting for her in the living room, playing a video game with Flynn.
Jaden stood up when Cece came in. "Alright, Flynn, you win. Ready, Cece?"
Cece nodded and took a seat at the kitchen table. "Look, Jaden…"
"If this is about yesterday's date, can we please not base our relationship on that unlucky day?" Jaden begged.
"Jaden, it's not just the date," Cece sighed. "I'm wondering if we just shouldn't be together."
"I don't think that's true," Jaden shook his head firmly. "Look, Cece, every relationship has its pitfalls. If you feel that you would like to not date again for a while, that's fine by me, we can take it slow."
"Fine," Cece gave him a weak smile.
The next day, Cece ranted to Rocky all the way to the movie how she just couldn't tell Jaden no. "He's like 'we'll just take it slow!' and I didn't want to upset him too much."
"Cece, if you don't like him that way, just tell him right out," Rocky suggested.
"Yes, but, that's just the thing," Cece grumbled. "It wasn't until the day before yesterday that I didn't think that I liked him that way. It may be too soon to tell."
Rocky and Cece watched the latest action movie and mimicked all the characters' catch lines all the way to Crusty's.
As they entered Crusty's, they spotted Dina at one of the tables.
"Hi, Dina!" Cece hurried over. "Do you mind if Rocky and I join you?"
"Not at all!" Dina patted the seat next to her.
Rocky took the other seat. "So, what have you been up to, Dina?"
"I'm just here, waiting for Deuce's work shift to be over," Dina smiled at them. "We're going to one of his cousin's birthday parties tonight."
The girls ordered some pizza and chatted together over their food.
They had been talking and laughing for almost an hour when Deuce came over to the table. "Well, well, Dina, you certainly are capable of having fun without me."
"You're not very fun to discuss shoes and boys with," Dina teased.
"And why may I ask are you talking about boys?" Deuce teased back.
Dina laughed and scooted over on her chair, leaving just enough room for Deuce to sit down on the edge of her chair.
"How was your ice cream fundraiser?" Rocky asked.
"Dina and I turned it into a competition of who could collect the most donations," Deuce grinned.
"Who won?" Cece asked.
"Dina, of course," Deuce smiled at his girlfriend. "I let her though."
"You jerk! You know that I won fair and square," Dina laughed.
"The only way I can treat you chivalrously is to pretend I've treated you chivalrously. You can take care of yourself better than I can," Deuce shook his head. "You leave me at a disadvantage."
"I'm sorry, I'll try to let you think you're doing something for me from time to time," Dina giggled and kissed his cheek.
Cece scowled. How come Deuce had all the luck of having a normal relationship? "Rocky, Deuce and Dina have a party to go to, you want to head over to Shake It Up?"
"Yeah, we'd better get going," Rocky gathered her things and the two of them headed to Shake It Up, Chicago.
On Monday, Cece arrived at school and tried her best to avoid Jaden. She really didn't want to talk to him. She had to eat her lunch in the hall, because Jaden was scouring the cafeteria for her.
She managed to keep away from him until after her last class. Then, when she had to return to get her homework assignment from her English class, Jaden caught up with her.
"Cece!" Jaden reached out and grabbed her hand, before she could pretend not to notice him and run away. "Cece, could you please give me one more chance to make it up to you? I know you had a horrible first date, maybe you can have a better first kiss?"
Cece blushed. She looked up at Jaden. He looked so concerned and worried about her ignoring him all day and he was just so annoyingly cute. "Okay, but if that doesn't work out…."
"It will," Jaden smiled and the two of them leaned toward each other.
Gunther had heard their conversation since "horrible first date". He had been retracing his steps through school, looking for Tinka's personalized, glittery Ty phone charm. The cord holding the charm to her phone had broken and Tinka was devastated. When he heard the conversation between Jaden and Cece though, all thoughts of the phone charm had flown from his mind.
He peered around the edge of the wall, watching as they leaned toward each other.
Cece's eyes were slowly closing when her nose bumped against Jaden's. "Whoops!" she giggled nervously.
"Let's try that again," Jaden laughed.
They leaned in again, this time faster, and bumped foreheads this time.
They broke apart with another laugh.
Suddenly a shadow fell across them. Cece glanced up and saw Gunther shaking his head at them.
"Jaden, Jaden, that's not how you kiss a girl," Gunther moved closer and reached out to grab Cece. He pulled her up against him.
Cece tried to use her hands as leverage against his chest to push herself away, but he was too strong. "Gunther, what are you doing?"
"This is how you kiss a girl," Gunther said.
Cece panicked, as a split second too late she realized what was going on. Gunther had already pressed his mouth to her and was kissing her in a rather heated manner.
Cece tried to fight giving in, but she realized that she had already surrendered. Her hands slid up until they rested loosely hanging behind his neck. She stood up on tiptoe and get closer to him. Her lips matched the movement of his and her mind lost track of time. Then just as she was wishing this would never end, Gunther pulled away.
Cece wasn't sure what happened after that. She heard Gunther and Jaden's voices, but she couldn't hear what they were saying. Her heart was thudding too loudly in her ears. She wandered away in a daze and didn't come to her senses until much later.