Dad parked in front of the school. I could slightly hear the music from the building. Not loud enough to know what song was playing though. I glanced at the building then looked ahead, closing my eyes. I took a deep breath then let it out. When I opened my eyes I found dad looking at me with a small frown.

“Are you going to be okay?” he asked and I nodded gently.

“Yeah, just a bit nervous.” I said glancing at the building and looked away from it again.

“I can understand why, you're not you right now. You'll be walking up in there like a stranger.” he says making me look at him.

“What do you mean?” I ask and he points at the mirror near my side, on the car door.

I look at myself and frown. He was right, it wasn't me. Not like it looked terrible, aunt-te did a great job. So did mom and nan. This just wasn't really me. Or at least the makeup wasn't.  

“Look at me.” I heard dad say and I turned towards him. He wipes the makeup off my face. "You're more beautiful with it off. It's not you anyway." he says and I feel my cheeks hurting from smiling too hard. "...Are you about to cry? Did I say something wrong?"

"You said everything right, just the right things." I said sniffling and before I could wipe my eyes, he did.

"Glad to hear I did something right, now go have fun kiddo." he said and I nodded smiling.

"Love you dad!" I said before turning away and running up the stairs.

"Love you too!" I heard him yell back as I opened the door and walked inside.

I walked inside glancing around. My way to the rest of the school was blocked by three teachers, sitting at a long table. One person was the principal and the second person was the vice principal. The third person there, I wasn't sure who they were.

“I.D. please.” the principal said and I nodded pulling out my I.D. from my dress.

“You may pass.” the vice principal said as the principal wrote something on some paper.

I walked around the long table, going on the other side. I wanted to run down the empty hallway, that I wasn't used to. But instead I walked quickly down the hall, then skipped down it. Eventually I made my way to the gym doors where the music was the loudest. I pushed the doors open and the music erupted in my ears. My heart was pounding to the rhythm.

“Hey, you made it.” a voice said and a arm wrapped around my shoulders. Glancing at the direction of the voice I see Caleb grinning, with his hair more neat and he was in a tux. “You look great.” he said, his grin growing as hell tugged his dark green tie.

“Where's Diara?” I asked looking about the mass of bodies in the gym.

“Right here!” I heard her say and turned in the direction of her voice, to see her in a shimmering silver dress. Her hair was in tiger curls than usual. “Look at you missy.” she said patting my cheek, causing me to roll my eyes as I noticed she was wearing lip gloss.

“You look amazing as always.” I say and see winks.

“Same to you.” she replies and tugs me away from her doors.

“Now that the gang's all here, we should get some food and stand in a corner like the awkward people we are.” Caleb says making us laugh.

“Hopefully the food is good.” Diara says as we moved past people to get to the tables of food and drinks.

“No promises.” Caleb replies with a grin causing us to groan.

The closer we got to the table, the more people there were. Diara's hand slipped off my wrist and I was lost in the crowd. I could barely see with all the bodies around that towered over me, not to mention it being dark besides the colorful lights that flashed here and there. Caleb was long gone also. But I just needed to get to the tables, I’m sure they would be there waiting or trying to get there too.

Before I know it I'm out of the crowd. But I'm not at the tables. I must have went the wrong way. I cursed my height and the mass of people before trying to enter the mass again. A hand grabbed my wrist pulling me back, stopping me from going into the crowd again. I turned around, electric blue eyes instantly meeting mine. The darkness just made them more illuminated and I swallowed.

“Glad to see you, but I don't think going in that crowd is safe.” Bex says as I take a good look at her. She was wearing a black, embroidered dress, with gold flowers all over it. Her dark eye shadow made her eyes pop and she wore sparkly lip gloss. “You look great, your makeup looks pretty faded. I could barely notice it was there.” she said making me laugh.

I realized she looked a bit taller than usual. Glancing down I saw she was wearing heels, must be painful. I glanced back up at her. “Yeah, I decided makeup wasn't for me.” I replied and she nodded, giving me that crooked smile of hers.

“I'm glad you had some on that was noticeable, it made your eyes pop. Never noticed they were hazel before.” she says causing my cheeks to get warm.

“Tha-Thank you.” I mumble looking all over her to find what exactly to point out and compliment. “You look great, like everything looks great on you.” I end up saying add mentally face palming, wanting to just crawl in a hole.

“Thank-” she started to say before a guy came up to her side.

“Let's go ask the DJ to start some real music so people can dance.” the guy says and I glance at him then to her.

“This is my date, Will. Will, this is Karter.” she explained gesturing to him and he glanced at me.

“Sorry for interrupting, nice to meet you.” he says giving me a small smile that could be genuine or not. He turned his attention back on Bex. “Wanna go ask now?” he asked and she nodded then looked at me.

“Sorry, talk later.” Bex said with a smile before walking off with Will, to the stage where the DJ was.

I kind of just stood there a while. I watched the two a bit before deciding I should go look for my friends. The first place I went to were the tables finally. Thank goodness they were there. It would take me forever to find them in this gym most likely. When Diara saw me she almost choked on what I assumed was punch. I almost cracked up laughing and Caleb glanced at her confused then saw me. I walked over to them as Caleb park her back.

“Where...were you?” she said between coughs and eventually pushed Caleb's arm away when she stopped coughing.

“Yeah, we were worried you might have been squashed.” Caleb said and I glared at him causing him to raise his hands up in surrender.

“We were going to go look for you but we assumed staying here would be easier for you.” Diara sad getting some more punch in her cup.

“It was, and sorry I got lost.” I say frowning a bit causing her to sigh.

“We figured.” Caleb replied getting a cup and putting some punch in it before handing it to me.

“Thanks.” I mumbled while shooting him a playful glare before grabbing myself a plate, they do the same.

I glance around at some of the food on the table that was being served. There was normal wings, buffalo wings barbeque wings, pizza, chips, dip, fries, and a lot more that already made me like the events held at the high school. Or at least for this homecoming, who knows how the other ones were like and will be like.

We all load our plates with so much food it can easily just fall off our plates. We find a spot on the wall we can lean on to eat at. It's peaceful most of the time minus the exception of us bringing up topics to talk about and us bickering. Caleb mostly started the bickering, but we all ended up laughing at the end of everything conversation or with smiles

“So, did you see that Bex girl?” Diara asked before making a crunching noise, when she bites into her baby carrot covered in some ranch.

“Yeah.” I mumbled glancing at the last place I saw her, and of course she was no longer there.

“You don't sound like a happy camper, does this homecoming really suck?” Caleb asked taking a bite out of his barbeque wing as it got all over his face causing us to laugh at him.

“No, it's just not my style I guess.” I say with a shrug and glance over at Diara. “Are you having fun Diara?” I ask and she looks up from her plate at me.

“Mmm….I guess so.” she says shrugging herself and I end up glaring at her. “What?”

“What? You made it seem like there was something to look forward or something. And your not even having fun? I came here for you.” I said and quickly wanted to swallow back my words as she stared at me, with dark piercing eyes.

“Guys, or well...gals. Let's not fight, we are having a good time. How about we actually try to participate with the others and dance. We're not really focusing on the music so how can it be fun if we don't?” Caleb asked licking barbecue off his lips.

“In a second Caleb, go get yourself some napkins.” Diara said and Calm quickly scurried off. “I am having fun I guess, I don't know. I'm happy, I guess? I'm not unhappy.” she says and I look down at the shoes mom picked out for me.

“I know, I guess. I don't know myself.” I said laughing pitifully and finally looked up to look in her in the eye.

“I know, we're like sisters, remember? I'm sorry for making you go.” she hummed out while looking away. “So Bex put you in a bad mood?” she asked and I pushed her lightly and playfully.

“Why do you keep bringing her up in everything?” I asked and she looks at me with a look similar to mom's but not quite it.

“Because something is there obviously, you went to cheerleading tryouts Karter.” she says.

“So-” I start to say.

“Cheerleading, something you have never been interested in. You hate skirts, and your not really a fan of being active. And tryouts? You don't even go to an after school club.” she points out.

“Alright, alright.” I groan looking away. “So maybe I'm doing things that isn't my style lately. But I do it all the time, usually no willingly.” I say the last part giving her a look causing her to roll her eyes at me smirking. “But Bex persuaded me to go, I didn't just go to tryouts.” I say and she her smirk only grows.

“And you went to her wrestling thing because she persuaded you too?” she asked causing my face to feel hot and thankfully I was saved by a song almost everyone had to dance to.

“Everyone clap your hands!” the DJ yelled and students started to run near the stage.

“Let's go dance!” Caleb said popping out of nowhere and grabbed my wrist tugging me over to the stage. Diara followed while laughing as I tried to get away from Caleb.