As she entered school, the school spirit and positive energy filled the hallway. Everyone seemed excited for the big homecoming dance and she heard chatter about it as she passed groups of friends in the hallway.

“I’m so excited, Chris just asked me to be his date!”

“I’m going with Brian, he’s so hot.”

“Jason asked me a week ago! I can’t wait for tonight.”

Rachel heard girls gossiping about their dates and she felt a little left out. She didn’t expect that she would have a date, being the new girl and all, but still.

Rachel caught herself looking for Benji in the hallways again, but didn’t see him. She felt sure he was in school somewhere, but didn’t know where. She wished she had remembered to ask him where his homeroom was, but she’d forgotten.

Rachel slid through the door of Mr. Allen’s class with a few minutes to spare. She sat down and watched as the kids started filing in and finding their seats. She saw Rob enter and sit in the chair next to her.

“Hey, you going to the dance?” Rob said.

“Yup,” Rachel answered.

“You have a date yet?”

“Going with the girls,” Rachel said.

“Yeah, I’m going with the guys. Save me a dance, OK?” Rob said with a smile.

“We’ll see,” replied Rachel.

Rachel was taken back by Rob’s comment. Was he insane? Did he really think she was going to save him a dance after what he did to her? Rachel was shocked, and didn’t know what to make of it. She’d wish Emily had been there to hear it, but she walked in late.

The class began and Mr. Allen started talking about Helen Keller, another important woman in history. She was interested in Helen Keller, but found herself zoning out and thinking about Benji.

Rachel couldn’t get Benji out of her head. She tried to make sense of him, but couldn’t figure out why he called himself “different.” She remembered their night at Rye Playland. She thought about Benji using supernatural strength to save her life and tried to convince herself that that was normal. She wanted him to be “normal,” to be like her, but deep down, she knew he wasn’t. What was he?

Chapter Twelve

RING.

The final bell rang and it was finally time for Rachel to meet up with her friends and go to Emily’s house for their “getting ready” party.

Rachel waited for her friends outside on the front lawn of the school. Emily’s house was only a five-minute walk from school, so they all decided to meet and walk together.

Rachel, Emily, Liv, Kate, Jen, Jess and Taryn met up on the front lawn and started walking to Emily’s house. It was the first time that Rachel was hanging out with Liv, Kate and Jess, so she wasn’t so sure what to expect. Suddenly her night in NYC crept into her mind, and her body grew tense. She hoped and prayed that this night wouldn’t end up like the other night she had with Taryn, Emily and Jen, but she figured that would be almost impossible because it was an all school dance, and no ID was required!

Feeling social, Rachel went over to Liv and Jess who were walking next to each other and started talking to them.

“So, you guy’s excited for tonight?” she asked as she caught up to them.

“Guess so,” Liv said.

“Yup,” said Jess. “And wait until you see what I brought, that’s the best part.”

Liv giggled and did a little jump. “What is it?” Rachel asked.

“Oh, you’ll see!” Jess answered.

Rachel couldn’t imagine what it was. At first she thought maybe a sexy dress, or super tall platform pumps, but as the girls neared Emily’s house, Jess pulled out cigarettes and a bottle of Absolute Vodka. Rachel found herself standing still in her path. She felt a little uncomfortable with this but didn’t know how to react. All the other girls were cheering and taking cigarettes from Jess’ pack, and lighting them up.

“Here ya go, Rach,” Jess said, as she handed her a cigarette.

“Oh, no thanks,” Rachel answered.

“Come on, why not?” Jess asked. The girls all looked at her.

“I um…don’t smoke,” Rachel said with a nervous voice.

“Not until you met us, you didn’t!” Jess said, as she tried again to hand Rachel a cigarette.

Rachel didn’t know what to do. Did she stand her ground, or grab it so she wouldn’t have to deal with this pressure anymore to fit in. She didn’t want the girls to hate her, but it was also becoming clear that these weren’t the right girls for her to be friends with after all. It was obvious to Rachel that this group was into alcohol and smoking, and she imagined if there weren’t already, they would probably start trying drugs. Rachel was never a rebel, and while the thought seemed cool for a while, in the long run she knew this was not what she wanted.

“No thanks, I’m all right,” Rachel said firmly.

“OK, be lame then,” Jess said with a joking smile.

Rachel felt bothered by this, but knew by the tone of Jess’ voice that she was just kidding with her. Still, it didn’t feel good.

The girls headed inside Emily’s house and began getting ready. Emily’s house was huge; it was the biggest house that Rachel had ever seen. It had large white columns at the front entrance, and when you walked through the front door you stood in a double story foyer, which Rachel was sure was the size of her entire house.

Rachel suddenly got a new picture of these girls, and realized they, too, were a little different than Rachel.

When she got upstairs to Emily’s room, which Rachel thought was more like an entire wing than a bedroom, Rachel opened up her duffle and pulled out her teal dress with the hot pink and orange flowers, and hung it on a hanger. Feeling self-conscious, Rachel looked around to see if anyone had noticed her dress or was making any comments about it. She knew it wasn’t the most flattering dress and that maybe it was a bad choice, but there was no turning back at this point.

Rachel looked at the dressed the other girls were pulling out. They were very chic and beautiful. She was a little bit surprised, coming from this “punk” group, that they would clean up so nicely.

“Where’s yours from?” Taryn asked Jen.

“I got my dress at Saks with my mom over the weekend,” Jen answered.

“Mine’s from Bloomingdales! It’s BCBG,” answered Taryn.

Rachel didn’t know what these girls were talking about, but assumed these stores and brands were better, and more expensive, than what they sell in JCPenney’s. Rachel didn’t want to ask either, because she didn’t want them to know she was clueless.

“Where’s yours from?” Liv said, as she looked at Rachel’s dress with disapproval.

“Oh, that old thing. I got it at a store in Pennsylvania, you probably wouldn’t know it,” Rachel said.

She remembered vividly the day she had bought that dress with Dana and their crew. It was a few weeks before the Easter Parade, and all the girls had wanted to buy new dresses. They’d piled into her mom’s car and headed off to Wal-Mart to go shopping. Rachel spotted her dress as soon as they entered the Juniors department and she knew it was the one. The girls’ oohd and ahhd over it when Rachel tried it on. She had felt great in it, and knew it was the perfect dress. Not to mention, Rachel remembered all the compliments she got on it.

Now, it was a whole new ballgame. This dress was like the plague up here. Rachel couldn’t understand why it was beautiful in Pennsylvania but ugly in New York.

“You can’t seriously wear that,” Emily said. “I’ve got stuff you can borrow.”

Feeling insecure about her dress, she walked with Emily over to her closet. Rachel figured it wouldn’t hurt to try a few other options on.

“I’ve got this Marc Jacobs baby doll dress,” said Emily, as she held it out. “Or, this Banana Republic LBD.”

LBD..LBD…Rachel was jogging her head trying to figure out this terminology. She looked at the dresses and decided she would try on the Banana Republic dress. Rachel put it on and it fit like a glove. She had never felt sexier before in her entire life. It was a short black dress that came up to the middle of her thigh. It was tight over her hips and butt and showed off her curvy waist. It was short sleeved, but had a low cut-back, which the girls seemed to really think looked great on Rachel.

Rachel was sold. She would forego her teal Easter dress for the sexy black number Emily was going to lend her for the night. Rachel pulled out her Pay Less twelve-dollar gold pumps and put them on her feet. The girls started at her in awe. Rachel couldn’t believe the approval she was getting from the girls and she had never felt so good about herself before.

“So, how about a few shots to get this party started!” Jess said, as she whipped out her Absolute Vodka.

“Yeah!”

“Here we go!”

“Party time!”

Jess opened the bottle and handed everyone a shot glass off of Emily’s shelf. Emily collected shot glasses, and they were being put to good use.

Rachel found herself in another inner struggle. She knew if she got caught drinking before the school dance and she showed up to school drunk, she could get expelled. That frightened her, especially since she had high hopes of going to a good college one day. Rachel knew that wouldn’t look good on her high school transcript.

But Rachel also wanted desperately to fit in at AHS. She figured that everyone was doing it, and she didn’t want to feel left out. She put out her hand as Jess was handing everyone a shot glass, and held it steady. She knew her trick of pretending to drink always worked, and that way she would feel like she was part of the group, but not actually drinking.

The girls all took their shots and Rachel pretended to sip hers. The girls didn’t even realize that Rachel hadn’t drunk her shot.

“It’s time to go!” Emily said, as she put on her lipstick.

“It’s going to be sick!” said Jen. “I can’t wait.”

“I hope they play good music,” said Liv.