Today is the day! Finally, after everything else, this evening is the dance and I'm so excited that I can barely sit still long enough to eat breakfast. David is at the table eating a bowl of cereal while switching between grinning and shaking his head.

  David mutters, "Girl, take a Xanax or something and chill out. Just watching you is making me tired."

  I ugh, get out of my seat, give him a huge hug, and then a loud ‘Mwah’ resounds in the kitchen after I kiss his cheek. Afterward, I murmur, “Thank you for that,” in his ear, and grin like an idiot.

  He gently pushes me away, wipes off his cheek, and grumpily asks, “What for?” Even as close as our family is kisses from his sister are a bit much.

  Smiling brilliantly, I reply, “For finally saying I’m a girl. Believe it or not, that’s the first time that you’ve acknowledged that fact.”

  He frowns and even looks a little confused. “No way. I… Really?”

  I nod. “You’ve said I’m feminine, you’ve even said I’m a hottie, but you never actually used the word girl about me.”

  He snorts and excims, “You’re so weird!”

  I ugh for a moment. “That’s right. I’m your weird little sister, who happens to be a cheerleader, quite popur, a hottie, and a Homecoming Princess!”

  He snorts. “Yeah, right.”

  Smiling mischievously, I ask, “Which part did I get wrong? I am popur, a cheerleader, and a Homecoming Princess. Am I not a hottie? You’re the one who said it to begin with and Isn’t that why you beat that guy up? He said something inappropriate, right?”

  Sighing loudly, he leans back in his seat and crosses his arms on his chest. “You’re going to keep bugging me about that until I tell you, aren’t you?”

  Of course, I’m going to. It concerns me after all. Plus if he was too outrageous, then maybe I need to be careful of him. Heck, for that matter, maybe all the girls should. One can never be too careful because people do some crazy crap these days, don’t they?

  I shrug. “Mhmm. That I will.”

  He grimaces and throws his arms up in a surrender gesture. “You’re a girl alright. Rei, if I tell you, you can’t tell Dad. He said not to tell you.”

  I cross my heart. “I promise.” Then on second thought, I offer my pinky to him. “In fact, I’ll pinky promise.”

  He stands up and we hook pinkies for a moment. Then closer to me and quietly says, “You better remember your promise. Okay, I overheard him say that he thought you were fucking hot and he was going to get you to go to the Homecoming dance with him. Then, have sex with you after the dance.”

  I’m shocked and rather disgusted that someone would say something like that about me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no little miss goody-two-shoes, but neither am I a slut. Hell, for that matter I’ve never even dated a boy, so what kind of brain damage gives him any idea that I’d somehow agree to have sex with him on the very first day, even if I agree to go to the dance with him? Did he pn on raping me? Serious question there.

  If I somehow, magically, in some alternate universe, agreed to go on a date with him, the very most he might get is a kiss. And that’s assuming a heck of a lot! Thank God that Jeremy doesn’t act like that!

  Whatever. People like him are not worth the effort required to deal with them, and it would be a serious effort from what little I know of him.

  “Eww… I won’t say anything but thank you for kicking his ass. I doubt I need to tell you, but that would've never happened.”

  “No I never thought you would, but I’m not going to let some ass-muncher talk about my sister that way.”

  “Thanks for standing up for me.”

  He shrugs. “No problem.”

  Another thing occurs to me that I’ve been wondering about for a while now. I touch my lips with a finger as I look at him pensively for a moment. “David, why don't you have a girlfriend? I mean, I know you're interested in girls. You're decent looking and a jock, so I don't see why you aren’t at least dating.”

  He looks taken aback by the sudden change in subject, but he replies, “I dunno, what if I asked and they said no?”

  It’s my turn to snort this time, and I do so loudly. I shake my head as I state, “There’s a lot of reasons that’s like, totally unlikely. Many girls think you’re good-looking. You have a good personality. You’re respectful. So, that makes you a fairly popur guy. I know of 2 girls that would say yes in a heartbeat if you asked them.”

  He looks dumbfounded for a few moments. Then quickly asks, “Really? You aren’t jerkin’ my chain?”

  I just smile and shake my head, then tell him, “I’m serious.”

  “Who they are?”

  “Can’t tell you that, but you know them quite well and you see them with me all the time. Think about it for a millisecond, and they’ll come to mind.”

  “Emma and Kelly?”

  I wink at him and hold my finger up to my lips in a shushing gesture. I look around and when I lock eyes with him, I state, “I didn’t say a word.”

  Before he can reply, Mom comes into the kitchen, and says, “Rei, get your shoes on; we need to leave for the salon.”

  At the salon, they remove my existing nail polish, shape my nails, and apply a fresh coat along with a clear hardener. At the same time, the stylist is putting my hair up into a French Twist. Then they do my makeup and we head back home. I carefully eat a small meal and then head upstairs to begin dressing. Back downstairs, Mom goes crazy taking pictures, to the point I believe I’m going to be seeing spots for the rest of my life.

  Jeremy arrives and I catch my breath when I see just how handsome he is, and smile my lil’ butt off as he puts my corsage on my wrist.

  I wink and smile at him as I pin his boutonniere on and then more pictures are taken. Of course, many, many pictures of us in various poses. One of them, I found to be as awkward as it made me comfortable. Strange, I know. Anyway, I lean back against his chest as he loosely wraps his arms around my waist. After taking it, Mom said that one was going on the mantle. Far too many pictures ter, we’re finally allowed to leave, although how we even found the door through all the spots in our vision, I haven’t a clue. There’s no need to expin it to me, this is my first dance and Jeremy is the first boy to take me to one, so of course, they want to have pictures.

  Originally, one of our parents was going to take us to the dance, but thankfully, Emma, Kelly, and the two of us will be sharing a limo to and from the dance. It’s a short ride to the school since the dance is being held in the gym. After Jeremy helps me out of the limo, I take his elbow as he escorts me inside.

  If you can’t tell, I’ve had lots of lessons from Mom on how to act—that, along with the usual advice. Take breaks often to cool down so you don’t get sweaty. Don’t only dance with Jeremy, dance with your friends, too. If anyone tries to be inappropriate with you, walk away immediately. You know, the usual things I already knew.

  We find an empty table close to the dance floor and take our seats while our ‘dates’ go to get us all something to drink. Anyway, a short welcome speech from the student council president, and the band begins pying. Jeremy stands and offers me his hand. Taking it, he leads us out onto the dance floor for several songs. That’s pretty much how the evening goes. I slow dancing with him during every one of them and bouncing back and forth between him and my friends during the faster ones.

  During a series of slower ones, I look up at him and it brings to mind the dreams I’ve been having tely. I wonder if they’re trying to tell me that I’m ready for more with him.

  I nudge him to get his attention, and ask, “Can we find somepce with a little more privacy? I have a favor to ask.”

  He doesn't say anything but leads me to a somewhat secluded corner that’s blocked off from view. I lean against the wall as I look up at him through my eyeshes. “Jer, I want to check something, so would you kiss me? I mean, really kiss me, not just a peck on the lips.”

  Looking a little confused, he replies, “Uh, yeah, I mean, if you’re sure.”

  I nod, and say, “Jer, promise me that you'll still be my friend no matter how this turns out.”

  He nods and leans in and bumps my nose with his. I lightly smack his head and giggle, “Tilt your head, dummy. Don't you ever watch movies?”

  I slip my arms around his neck to find his muscles are as tight as a drum, which tells me just how tense he is, although I don't understand why. I mean, it's only a kiss, right?

  He leans back in and when his lips touch mine, his are like rocks. Pulling back, I sigh lightly. “Rex. You're way too tense. It’s just a kiss, not the end of the world.”

  Standing on my tiptoes, I give him a soft, lingering kiss, and then lean back and look into his eyes. He seems to get the idea and pulls me back to him and it's much better this time. Several short kisses ter, I part my lips slightly inviting him to give me a deeper kiss. He's either a quick study or a natural because that kiss made me tingle and my heart rate sped up. I quickly demanded another and oh boy! That one made my heart pound in my chest!

  When our lips part, I feel like steam is blowing out my ears as I pat my chest and murmur, “Oh, wow!”

  “Was that alright this time?”

  “Yes. Oh my God, yes, Jer. That was wonderful.”

  I waste little time with nonsense and look up to offer my lips up for another. Much to my delight, he gdly accepts my offering and almost crushes me against him this time. That's not a compint either because that felt good. Suffice it to say, the dance melted away from us, and we were in our own little world. When he slips his tongue past my lips, I grab a double handful of his hair as I hungrily demand more. When we finally part for a breather and stand there with our arms loosely around each other, Mrs. McCracken, our uber-strict librarian, happens by and catches us.

  Thankfully, she didn't see us kissing, or we’d have caught hell instead of just being told, “You two are supposed to stay in the main gym area. Move along and don’t let me catch you like this again.”

  I take his hand and we head back. Once we’re out of earshot for her, I finally let loose with the giggles I’ve been holding in. I can’t help it, I find the whole thing hirious.

  Once we make it back to our table, he sits down and I bend over to whisper, “Just so you know, you’ll likely be giving me many more of those in the future. By the way, you might want to wipe your mouth. My lipstick doesn’t look as good on you as on me.”