It was meant to be a very happy and very proud day. For almost all the students in the Twelfth Grade at the best private high school in the big city of Dallas, it was because they finally graduated high school in the summer of 1998. And as if that wasn't enough to be happy about, Jacob Morton, who was the richest and the most popular student out of all the students in that school, was hosting a party to celebrate with all his friends their graduation in the penthouse of his father, Gary Morton. Even students who only completed the Ninth, the Tenth and the Eleventh Grades were invited to the party as well and they all came.

The penthouse was the biggest of all the penthouses in Dallas and there was more than enough room for Jake's friends to party in and they all took advantage of everything, including the vast swimming pool where they could swim, play volleyball or splash around and the two large hot tubs where they could all just relax and talk, the dance floor where everyone danced to the coolest music and all the delicious food and the tastiest drinks in all of Dallas, which was all served as a grand buffet. And Jake had his father's servants to do everything for him and his friends, including cooking and serving the food, serving the drinks and cleaning up after everyone.

There couldn't have been a better party ever and everyone who was there should have been happy and almost every one of them were. But there was only one person who wasn't happy at all and that was an eighteen-year-old, red-haired lady wearing a sleeveless black dress and black shoes and her name was Roxanne.

Roxanne was very pleased that she completed high school with good enough grades for a college in Dallas to accept her, even if it was the only one that would accept her, but she wasn't enjoying the party because she felt very lonely. Even with all the people around her, which was enough to fill a massive stadium for a Superbowl game or a Powerline concert, she couldn't call any one of them her friends. Well, true friends, anyway. And that was why she was on the penthouse's balcony all by herself, looking at the bright lights of the city of Dallas and the night sky above it.

Roxanne had only been at this private school for one year and she tried her very hardest to make friends there, but no one wanted to be her friend. Her true friend, that was. Half the students were fake nice people who would be nice to her in person but then they would speak terrible things about her behind her back while hoping she wouldn't notice them doing so at all, when actually she did; she just was just too shy to confront them about it. And the other half weren't afraid to call her a loser and treat her as one and either bully her or avoid her like the plague. Even the students that got bullied more than she did didn't want to be her friend. She never knew why no one at that school wanted to be her friend. She kept wondering if it was because she had only been at the school for only one year or if it was because she came from a working-class family and not a super-mega rich family like all the other students did or if it was because she wasn't originally from Dallas again like the other students were.

The closest friend Roxanne ever had in Dallas was Jake and he was even meant to be like a boyfriend to her, but he didn't really act like one to her. He would take her out sometimes, like on a date or to his father's yacht or to the AT Stadium for a football game, but then he would always move on to another girl, leaving her all alone. He was meant to be her senior prom date and he did actually take her to the school in his private limousine, but when they got to there, he didn't dance with her at all; he danced with all the other girls except her. Every time she spent time with him, she felt like he was using her to make himself look good and not because he actually cared about her.

Before moving to Dallas with her dad Marcus, Roxanne lived her first seventeen years in a town called Spoonerville and she missed her life there so much. She thought Dallas was a beautiful city and she did like the shops, the lovely parks, the beautiful gardens, the amazing museums, the Dallas Zoo and the Dallas Public Library among the city's incredible attractions, but it was the lonely feelings she had that made her wish that she still lived in Spoonerville. She and Marcus had to move because Gary Morton was one of his best friends from school and he was the richest person in all of Dallas and he needed a cleaner for all the dwellings he owned and Marcus and Roxanne needed the money so that was why they moved to Dallas in the first place. And though she and Marcus became wealthier than they were living in Spoonerville, Roxanne was much less happy than when she lived in Spoonerville, despite being poor while she lived there.

Roxanne missed everything in Spoonerville, including her old house, Spoonerville High School and most importantly she missed her friends over there. She missed her very best friend Stacey, who was Spoonerville High School's student body president for the three years Roxanne attended that school there and she was also the most popular girl. Stacey was also the closest thing Roxanne ever had to having a sister ever since they met at day care. Roxanne also missed her two of her closest friends, PJ and Bobby. But the one person she missed more than anyone in the whole wide world was her wonderful ex-boyfriend Max Goof.

It had been over a year since Roxanne was forced to end her wonderful relationship with Max when she had to move to Dallas with her dad. She never wanted to end it, but she had to. She moved on from him physically, but she struggled to move on from him emotionally. Even if Jake was a great boyfriend, which he was nowhere near it at all, Roxanne knew that he wouldn't be half as good as Max was. Max was one of a kind. He was a great boyfriend. Even before he impressed her with his Powerline dance on the last day of school before Summer Break 1995 and then a week later when he and his dad Goofy danced with the real Powerline in his most famous LA concert in Summer 1995, Roxanne liked Max for who he was. Even before they met each other, she saw him a few times at Spoonerville High School and always at a distance and every time she did she saw him getting bullied by the other students. She never knew why, even though she thought it could be because of his unique looks or his clumsiness or that he was too different from the rest of the other students and differences and uniqueness was never rewarded in high school, either by students or teachers. In fact, they always punished the most different people for being different. All Roxanne knew was that she felt very sorry for Max and he seemed a nice and smart guy, who didn't deserve to be bullied. Luckily, Max was no longer bullied when the Tenth Grade started after everyone saw him dance with the real Powerline in LA at Stacey's party and he became the most popular guy at school. But unlike the other popular kids, he didn't change who he was. He still remained the deep person that Roxanne liked instead of becoming shallow like the other popular kids and he used his popularity power to help other students, especially those who got bullied.

Roxanne was only popular back in Spoonerville High School for two reasons. The first one was because she was very beautiful and the other one was because she was the best friend of Stacey. Apart from Stacey, she didn't like hanging with the other popular kids because they were arrogant, shallow, snobbish and think they can get away with anything because of their good lucks and money. Despite being a nerd with glasses and braces, Stacey was very beautiful, she was very smart, she was very fun, she was very social, she had good leadership skills and that was how she became the most popular girl in all the schools she and Roxanne attended to ever since day care and that was how she became Spoonerville High School's student body president since the Ninth Grade, beating other students in the grades above her. And even though they were both the same age, Roxanne always looked up to her and viewed her as an older sister.

Roxanne never cared about the high school hierarchy and she didn't miss her popularity at all. In fact, it was the one thing from Spoonerville that she didn't miss. That was another reason why she didn't enjoy the Dallas high school she went to as much as Spoonerville High School. None of the students were like Max, Stacey, PJ or Bobby and almost all of them were like the popular students from Spoonerville High School with Chad and Lisa being the best examples. In fact, even the Dallas school's valedictorian this year was more like Lisa than Stacey. That was why Roxanne liked Max immediately and gave him a chance to be her boyfriend, instead of any of the popular guys, and she was glad she did. He took her on many wonderful dates and took her to special events for his family like birthdays, weddings and anniversaries and he gave her amazing cards and presents for her birthdays, Christmases, Valentine's Days in 1996 and 1997. And he was her date for the junior prom in 1997 and they had a great time. It was one of the very best nights of their whole lives. And she always enjoyed watching Max do his after-school activities, like watching him play and win a lot of basketball matches and even saw him rise to become the Basketball Captain and when he would take part in the Spoonerville High School talent show and win them and when he would act in high school drama productions, which included Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! in 1996, where he played the role of Curly McLain, and Frank Loesser's Guys and Dolls in 1997, where he played the role of Nathan Detroit. And even though Roxanne couldn't join Max in the talent show or act with him in those high school drama productions or join the Spoonerville High School cheerleader team while he played in those basketball games – and she couldn't join them because Marcus, being the overprotective father he was, wouldn't let her so no harm would come to her – Max was very grateful that she came to see him. Knowing that she would come to see him gave him more confidence every time he did these activities. And even though she wasn't part of the cheerleading team, Max always viewed Roxanne as a cheerleader in her own special unique way by coming to watch him and cheer for him and she was always very touched every time he told her that.

Thinking of all those good times in Spoonerville made Roxanne wish Max was here to be her date for tonight. She never forgot about him. In fact, she thought about him every day and always hoped that, wherever he was and whatever he was doing, he was okay, even if she never saw him ever again, which deep down she really wanted more than anything in the whole wide world.

"Hey, Roxanne."

Roxanne turned to face Jake looking at her.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, Jake," she replied. "I'm just getting some fresh air. Too much amazing fun from a totally awesome party."

"I know, right?" Jake boasted. "And if you think that was awesome enough, the very best part of the party is coming up right now – the very latest album from Powerline."

"I thought his latest album would be released in three weeks' time," Roxanne said.

"Well, my father had some persuasion so I could get a very early release," Jake said.

Money, Roxanne thought in her head. Money was the persuasion, I bet. Money always talks.

"So, do you want to have the very first honor to dance with me, Roxanne?"

Roxanne didn't really want to, because she knew that Jake would only dance with her for a few minutes and then he would move onto the next girl and the next one and the next one until he danced with all the girls in all grades in the penthouse. But she decided to go for it anyway, because she had enough of feeling sorry for herself.

When Jake did move on to the next girl after dancing with Roxanne on the dance floor for a few minutes, like she thought and expected it to happen, she decided to continue to dance and pretend that her ex-boyfriend Max Goof was here and dancing with her. She did the same at the senior prom at the Dallas private high school after Jake ditched her to dance with the 'prettier and smarter' girls than she was. But she did like the latest music from Powerline and whenever she heard or thought of Powerline, she always thought of Max, especially at that famous Summer 1995 concert.

Roxanne always felt better for imagining that Max was with her and being on a date with her and dance with her among everything. That was how she copied while getting used to Dallas. Without her imagination of Max, she didn't think she would stand a chance at all. That was how much he still meant to her.