A/N – Well, long weekends are the teachers best friend so here is another chapter as promised since we made it to 5 reviews! Any chance of making it to 10 to earn the next one?

I finally asked you to dance on the last slow song

Beneath that moon that was really a disco ball

I can still feel my head on your shoulder

And hoping that song would never be over

Two weeks later it was Friday night, the night of the Sadie Hawkins dance. Soda was picking me up at my house, and while my father was out of town he would still have to deal with Matthew who I was sure would be worse then my father.

Finding something to wear had been more of a production then it should have been. While I wanted to look nice, I also didn't want to be so dressed up that I made Soda uncomfortable. I had finally settled on a plain red dress, it was fitted on the top and flared out into a great skirt. I added a black belt with a small bow in front, which made my waist look tiny, my mothers diamond studs and a plain silver chain completed my outfit. I left my hair down, long and straight down my back, I hadn't bothered with any more makeup then I would have worn to school, just some eyeliner and mascara. Lastly, I hadn't been able to help myself when my mother had offered to buy me my first pair of black leather kitten heels, I really felt grown up!

It was only been 4 hours between when school let out and 7pm when Soda was supposed to pick me up, but it seemed like days I was so excited! When the doorbell finally rang I fairly flew to open it. But I hadn't been the only one waiting; Matthew had beaten me to the door and was inviting Soda into the house.

I smiled when I saw Soda; he was definitely in his Sunday best, black slacks, a white button down and a red tie (I had made sure he knew what color my dress was). He looked uncomfortable all dressed up and I was pretty sure the last time he had worn any of that was when his Great Uncle Vinny had died last year.

"Hi Soda!"

"Hey Alice." Soda tried to move toward me, but Matthew blocked his way.

"Let's get something straight here grease" Matthew said leaning down and getting in Soda's face. "Alice is my little sister, and if anything that I don't like happens to her tonight you'll be taking it up with me, and there's nothing that Matthews or Randall will be able to do to help you. Got me?" Soda nodded, doing his best to look unruffled in front of my brother. "You have her home by 10 and you don't touch her, understood?"

"Ya, I got you." Soda said, I could tell he was working hard to rein in his anger. While there was not much in this world that could get Soda angry, when he did he was fierce.

"Alright, I think it's time you and I got going!" I said squeezing past my brother to grab Soda by the hand and drag him out the door. Once we were safely outside and the door had been shut behind us I dropped Soda's hand "God, why does he have to be such a bastard all the time?"

"I understand" Soda said carefully "He's your brother, he's just trying to protect you, I would do the same if my sister was going out with someone like me."

"Hey" I said turning to face him. "None of that, please? I just want to have fun tonight. Forget all this greaser soc crap and just be Soda and Alice. Please?"

"Absolutely Ali, anything you want tonight, I promise."

We walked the rest of the way to the dance in companionable silence, smiling at the teacher at the door as we gave her our tickets and made our way inside.

xxx

Inside the dance committee had actually put some effort into making the gym look nice, the band was on the stage and colored crepe paper hung everywhere. It wasn't anything to fancy, but to our 12-year-old selves it didn't look like the same room where we square danced and ran laps.

The band was playing loudly on one side of the gym, covering popular music like Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis. "Do you want to dance?" Soda asked, looking as uncomfortable at the thought as I felt.

"Um...maybe in a bit, how about we grab some punch?"

"Sounds good." We headed over to the punch bowel where a teacher was standing monitoring for students like Two-Bit who would try and spike the punch. Soda grabbed us each a cup and we went to sit on the bleachers with some other kids that looked like they had no idea what to do.

"Music's pretty good," I finally said.

"Ya...and the gym looks...well...it looks kinda like crap." We both laughed

"It does doesn't it?" We both began to loosen up, feel a little bit more like us...in nicer clothing. "Kinda like someone put toilet paper everywhere!"

"Come on, I'm bored let's dance" Soda took my cup and put it to the side, dragging me out on the dance floor with a bunch of other couples. As soon as we got out on the floor the song changed from Jerry Lee Lewis's Great Balls of Fire to For Your Precious Love by Jerry Butler and the Impressions.

As the slow mournful melodies took over both of us were at a loss. We hadn't intended to slow dance, "Um, we can go sit?" Soda asked looking uncomfortable.

"No it's ok, let's dance." I was sounding a whole lot more confident then I felt. We stood there and stared at each other for a moment, both trying to figure out where hands went. Finally Soda put his hands on my waist and I put mine on his shoulders (leaving plenty of room for the Holy Spirit!)

As we moved slowly to the music, I couldn't help but notice for the first time how Soda smelled, like...car grease and cologne, it was nice. Had he always smelled like this? Was this why that trashy Sandy and her friends were always hanging around him? After a beat he lifted his eyes to mine and I couldn't help but notice that his dark brown eyes had subtle flecks of gold in them.

"Hey Ali..." I looked up and smiled at Soda, wondering if he was noticing some of the same things about me right now. "I..."

"What the fuck do you think your doing?" As this was screamed at us I felt someone grab my shoulder from behind and turn me around hard. "Really Alice? Your going to ask this greasy trash to the dance instead of me?" Standing in front of me was a very angry looking Randy, with Bob and Paul standing close behind him smirking.

"Randy, I'm here with Soda, we don't want any trouble tonight, honest" I was practically begging, I had worked so hard to get here with Soda and I didn't want it ruined.

"If you don't want trouble, then come be my date and send the grease on home."

"This is a Sadie Hawkins dance you idiot, the whole point is for the girls to ask the boys, and I didn't ask you!"

"Hey!" Randy said as he grabbed my arm and dragged me up into his face "Don't you dare talk to me like that you little bitch."

Soda suddenly came at Randy from the side and knocked into him hard, causing him to lose his grip on my arm and send me stumbling back. Soda quickly came to check on me, "You all right Ali?" I nodded through the tears that were threatening to spill over.

"You dirty greaser, now you've asked for it." Randy said coming at Soda, Soda quickly put himself between Randy and I, removing his tie as he did so and stuffing it in his pocket. The boys squared up as a crowd began to form around us, where in the world were teachers when you actually wanted one?

"Guys please don't do this!" I said trying to get them to pay attention to me rather then one another. Finally as they moved in towards each other I did the only thing I could think of, I jumped in between them, my only thought being that I didn't want them to fight, not over something so stupid.

Well, what I did was pretty darn stupid though. For a girl that had no real sense of timing, I had managed to time my heroics perfectly with Randy's first punch. Which now connected with my right eye rather then Sodas'.

"Shit" Randy hissed as he realized whom he had hit, and being the brave boy that he was he and his friends quickly ran off into the school.

Soda quickly came over to where I was holding my eye, working really, really hard at not crying. "Come on." He said, putting an arm around me and leading me out of the gym and into the boy's bathroom. After making sure that it was empty Soda locked the door from the inside.

"Let me see." He said quietly, pulling gently at my wrist.

"No"

"No? Why not?"

"Because it hurts!"

"Well of course it hurts! You just took a punch for me, you foolish girl." Well that got me going. I was so mad I dropped my hand and went to yelling at him.

"Foolish girl! Foolish girl! I'm not the one who was trying to fight Randy in the middle of the school dance!"

"I only did that because I was defending you! He kept grabbing you and it was really pissing me off!"

I sighed "I get that Soda, but I'm not that girl that needs protecting, I'm never going to ask that of you, I'm never gonna ask you to put yourself at risk for me."

Soda sighed as well, coming foreword, pulling me into a hug, our foreheads touching "I know, I know, your one tuff chic...just doesn't mean that I have to like it." He kissed me on the forehead. "Now, lets get a look at that eye."

Soda pulled back from me and examined my eye with the experience of someone who had gotten and had seen more then his fair share of black eyes. "Well, he didn't get you to bad, you'll be able to see tomorrow, but you'll have a hell of a shiner for a week or two."

"Great, that's just what I need."

"No kidding, now we have to go explain this to your brother..."

xxx

A/N – I'm glad my students don't fight at dances…they just mate on the dance floor. The song is Dancing Away With My Heart by Lady Antebellum. Up next will be 10th grade, were we'll see a little more of the original book story line! Remember clicking that pretty little button over there - will get you faster updates!