“Charlie, are you alright? What’s up with your eyes?”
Charlie stared blankly into Candace’s celery-green eyes, her face devoid of any expression except for extreme tiredness. She had bags underneath her eyes and, Candace was pretty sure, bags under her bags.
“The stupid Conalees left their lights on again,” she replied flatly. “I never went to sleep.”
“You mean the ones who water their woods?” Candace asked. Charlie nodded slowly. Candace tapped her chin. “Well, it’s nothing a little makeup can’t fix. Come on, we have to meet Eli at the mall in ten minutes.” They hopped on their bikes and pedaled as fast as they could to Chesterdale Mall.

“Charlie! Thank God you came!” Eli shouted as the girls parked their bikes. Eli pulled Charlie into a tight embrace.
“It’s nice seeing you too, Eli,” she choked out. Eli let go and Charlie took deep breaths. “Now what’s the problem?”
“That girl has been eyeing me since I got here. I’m scared,” he squeaked. He pointed to a chubby girl with a pixie haircut who was staring at him with a perverted look in her eyes from inside the mall. Eli squealed like a girl and hid behind Charlie. The girl laughed and dragged her stick-like friend in the direction of the food court.
“There, there,” Candace said, patting Eli’s head. “It’s all over.” Eli came from out of hiding and breathed a sigh of relief.
“Whoo,” he said. “Crisis averted. Let’s go.” He grabbed hold of Charlie and Candace’s wrists and ran inside giggling.

The trio perused through many stores before agreeing on a three-story department store in the farthest part of the mall. Since they already have adequate wardrobes and Charlie is fashion-challenged, Eli and Candace decided to help their friend find a decent outfit for the Chennovitz party this evening. Eventually, Charlie settled on a dark blue t-shirt and blue-and-white plaid Bermuda shorts. A silver key hung from a chain around her neck.
“You guys aren’t going to buy anything?” she asked her friends as they walked to the exit.
“Nope! This trip is just for you, Chuck,” Candace said as she pulled out her compact mirror and checked herself for any flaws.
“I mean, we don’t want our best friend looking like a total fashion disaster,” Eli said with a lisp, imitating the stereotypical “fabulous men” that he sees on TV. He started playing with her hair, trying up styles, down styles, and then up styles again.
“Gee, thanks,” Charlie grumbled sarcastically. She spotted a prize game and made a beeline towards it. She inserted a quarter and turned the knob around. As she tried on a ring with a yellow star on it, a voice startled her.
“Hello, Ms. Dorsey.” Charlie jumped, but relaxed when she saw it was Mrs. Fuller, Luke’s freshman English teacher, in a peach top and khaki shorts.
“Hi, Mrs. Fuller,” she greeted the older woman.
“I’m looking forward to teaching you this semester. Lucas was an A student, you know…” She grew a wistful look in her eyes, but it hardened when she saw Eli. “Hello, Mr. Cannon. How’s Harris?”
“Well, he’s not in jail, so I guess he’s doing pretty good,” Eli said. He chuckled nervously.
“Indeed. Here’s hoping you won’t be as much as a delinquent as he was.” She smiled crookedly and walked through the automatic doors of the exit.
“Why didn’t she say hi to me?” Candace asked indignantly.
“You’re not in Honors English,” Charlie told her.
“Just be lucky that your teacher doesn’t automatically hate you,” Eli said through his teeth. The girls patted his back with sympathy. Charlie looked up from her friend’s bitter expression and noticed Nikolaus looking through the men’s clothing.
“Nikolaus!” she shouted happily. The German looked up. His eyes widened and he ducked behind the turnstile of clothing. Charlie raced over to say hi, but he wasn’t there. “Where’d he go?” she asked aloud, looking around.
“Where’d who go?” Candace asked as she and Eli went to meet up with Charlie.
“Nikolaus. You know, the new kid? I just saw him right here and now he’s gone.”
“I didn’t see him. Did you, Eli?” He shook his head.
“But, but I—”
Come on, these bright lights are getting to your head.” Eli grabbed her wrist and headed for the exit.
“But I saw him right there!” she shouted in protest as her friend dragged her away, with Candace trying to keep from laughing.

As the sound of footsteps faded away, Nikolaus popped his head out from his hiding place in the inside of the turnstile to make sure the coast was clear. When he saw that it was, he came out of the turnstile and dusted himself off.
“Dat vas vay too close.”

Charlie pedaled to the location on her invitation on her bike as fast as she could. It was 7:10, and night had made itself known with fireflies dancing in the darkness.
“I’m late I’m late I’m late I’m late I’m late,” Charlie muttered to herself as she arrived at her destination. She looked up from her invite and looked at the front sign. The Clarion Hotel? “Well, it is the right address,” she said to herself. “Might as well give it a try.” She parked her bike and walked through the revolving doors with her presents in hand.
“Excuse me,” she said politely to the pretty receptionist at the front desk. “Do you know—”
“The Chennovitz party?” the lady interrupted abruptly. “It’s in Ballroom C. Just follow the hallway until you a sign with balloons on it. You can’t miss it.”
“Oh. Thanks.” Charlie wandered off into the hallway where she encountered paintings of stiff couples, portly children, and pots of flowers. She saw the sign with balloons, but she noticed that the receptionist failed to mention a burly man with a clipboard sitting outside the doorway.
“Name, please,” the man said gruffly.
“Ch-Ch-Charlie D-D-Dorsey,” she stammered. She crossed her fingers behind her back. Please just let me in she thought. The man scanned the clipboard and smiled.
“Go ahead, Mr. Dorsey,” he said with a wink. Charlie rolled her eyes. Mark probably paid him to call her Mr. Just another measure of how far he will go to call Charlie a boy. Oh, joy.
As soon as Charlie stepped into the large ballroom, Mark called out, “Nice of you to finally join us, Zach.” Everyone in the room turned around and bore their eyes into Charlie.
“Be happy that I showed up at all,” she retorted. She marched through the humongous group of kids up to the front of the crowd. There were two tables with a pile of presents on each one. Mark stood in front of one, and Mary stood in front of the other. Charlie presented the twins their gifts, and they eagerly took them. Since Mark was older, he tore open his gift first. He held it up for the crowd to see and stared at it.
“A book of baby names?”
“So you’ll never run out of boy names to call me,” she said. “Notice how the boys’ section is exactly three and a half pages longer than a girls’ section.” Mark nodded slowly. “Well, what do ya think?”
“I think you have the best sense of humor out of anyone I know.” Some of the kids giggled at this. “I know that I like my present. A lot. Thanks—” He opened the book and flipped through some of the pages. “—Jeff.” He smiled a genuine smile. The party made a collective “Awww~!” and applauded them. When the applause died down, the group held their breath as Mary opened their present.
If Mark was known for his smart-aleck comments, Mary was the twin with brute force. She was a good five inches taller than her two-minutes-older brother, and she was on the varsity wrestling team for the entire half of a semester that she stayed at the local public high school. While Mark was cool and collected, Mary had a short temper, and she tended to show it by kicking the crap out of anyone within a half-mile radius of her person. After she shoved Reggie Ferguson’s head in a toilet one-too-many times, she was sent to a boarding school in England to be transformed into a “proper lady”. The school let her out for the summer but, after that, she’ll be sent back to England faster than you can hum “God Save the Queen”.
Mary opened her gift slowly and carefully. Some of the kids at the front of the crowd shielded themselves with their arms, even though they were a good ten feet away from her.
“What is this?” she asked. She held up a little blue doll in her hand.
“It’s a stress toy,” Charlie explained. “Squeeze it; it screams.” Mary squeezed the toy, and it screamed bloody murder. The partygoers tried to hold in their laughter.
“Is this…it?” Mary asked slowly. Charlie could feel the rage building up inside of the big girl, so she scrambled to give her the other present.
“No! Um, there’s a, um, coupon in here for, um—” she found a little piece of paper that drifted to the floor and showed it to Mary. “Ah, here it is! It’s a coupon for The House of Cosmetics. My mom’s manager there, so we could…get a makeover…together.” She giggled nervously, and then stopped when she realized Mary wasn’t saying anything.
After a long pause, Mary finally said quietly, “Yes. I would like that.” Charlie breathed a sigh of relief. Someone shouted “Woohoo!” and the lights went down. The strobe lights pulsated with the beat of the upbeat techno music as teens gyrated on the dance floor.
Charlie wasn’t much of a dancer, but she did try to have fun tapping her toes to the beat. Someone tapped her on the shoulder and presented her with a cup of fruit punch. When she swiveled around, she realized it was Candace.
“I like your hair,” Charlie commented. Candace’s usually pin-straight red hair was styled into pretty curls.
“Thanks…” Candace looked around the crowded room. “Say, where’s the new kid?” she asked her friend.
“To be honest, I’m not even sure he came,” she replied. She scanned the room and spotted the German snacking on Doritos while watching the room. “There he is!” she yelled.
“Him?” Candace pointed her chin at him. Charlie nodded. “Dang, he’s hawt! I know you have your bet and all, but would it be cool with you if I hit on him?”
“First of all, I question the way you say ‘hot’ like ‘hawt,’” Charlie began. “Second of all, sure, why not?” She knew that Candace was usually way too shy to hit on boys, but she was happy to see her friend find the confidence to take the initiative. Candace, she knew, will do great in high school.
Suddenly, a big pink blur bumped into her going 60 mph and hurtled through the exit door, throwing something into a nearby trashcan. Mary? Charlie thought while she rubbed her shoulder. She pushed through the dancing bodies and decided to investigate, starting with going through the trashcan.
She didn’t have to shift through much. In fact, the something was on top of the garbage. It was a folded piece of pink paper. Charlie left the ballroom, made sure that no one was watching her, and headed to the bathroom.
After checking that no one was in the bathroom, Charlie locked the stall, put down the toilet lid, and sat down. She pulled the note from her pocket, carefully unfolding it without trying to rip it. In it was a letter written in girly handwriting:

Jared,

I like you. Do you like me? Circle one:

Yes
No
Maybe
Other:……………..

Love,
Mary ♥

Charlie didn’t know what to make of it. Mary liked Jared? She didn’t know that the big girl was even capable of such an emotion. And why was “other” an option? What other answer could there be besides the first three?
Besides the mushy stuff, Charlie noticed that the “no” option was circled many times angrily with a red marker. At the bottom of the note, with the same red marker, Jared wrote in all caps:

NOT IN A MILLION YEARS

Charlie’s shoulders shook with anger. For the first time, she finally knew what Mary feels every day; she really wanted to go punch Jared in the face right now. How dare he be so cruel? Sure, Mary’s a bully, but she’s a human being with feelings just like everyone else. Which, basically, contradicted her statement from about nine sentences back.
Oddly, Charlie also saw something on the back of the note. It was a poem written by Mary to Jared:

Written in pen
Sealed with a kiss
If you love me
You'll answer this

I love you
and will be true
can't you tell
by the things I do

I love you
I think you're grand
wherever we go
I'll hold your hand...

Charlie shot off a text to Mark, Candace and Eli, telling them that she was going home. As she was leaving the bathroom and the hotel, she stuffed the note into her pocket. This could be useful to her someday.