It wasn't until the following morning on the way to school that Lana told me about Vanessa watching me. I had to admit, the thought of having to start dealing with her again after that short period of peace was unsettling. Not full-blown-panic-attack unsettling, but still. I wasn't looking forward to whatever Vanessa had in mind.

To stop myself from worrying so much, I focused more on the positive things in my life. I had a wonderful group of friends that included the characters from my favourite book come to life, Abigail and I were still incredibly close, the band and my magic both continued to flourish and I even had a chance at a relationship with Josh. Reminding myself of those things helped me a lot, because it made me remember just how little power that heartless bitch actually had over me.

Remember, Alex, I told myself whenever thoughts of her troubled me, Everything is okay.

With everything going on in my life, inspiration for new songwriting material was never lacking. And the band loved my songs, promising we'd be performing them at our upcoming gig. The festival wasn't until closer to summer, so we still had plenty of time. But thinking about it reminded me that I ought to invite Ponyboy and the others, too.

Vanessa wasted no time in striking as I was making my way to my first period class that same morning. Her long, brown hair wasn't tied back as per usual, her eyes shining dangerously. She wore an off-the-shoulders top that was a rosy pink colour along with a black skirt and high heels.

"Hello there, Alex," she said with a falsely cheery tone, "How are things going with that new boyfriend of yours? And your little band?"

"Fine," I said dryly.

"Oh, good. Won't you follow me a moment?" she asked. She then lead me into the girls' bathroom, her heels clicking loudly as they made contact with the tiles(Of course, because why would a high school confrontation with a bully happen anywhere else? I thought bitterly.) and began speaking again. "I just want you to know that everything you've been working for is going to be short-lived. I'm going to make your life into a living hell, Alex--piece by piece."

"And just how do you plan on doing that?" I asked, doing my best to remain calm, "Vanessa, I know you think you have all this power over me, but the truth is you don't. My success with the band? That doesn't just have to do with me, you know--there are six other people that have put all kinds of work into making us what we are now. As for my friends and, more specifically, Josh, I can't see any of them turning on me just because you decide to start something. They're all better than that and they know who you are. And so do Two-Bit, Steve, Johnny and Ponyboy, just for the record, so you can leave them alone too."

"You know, I still can't get over how impressive it is that you actually grew a backbone while I was gone," Vanessa remarked, leaning against a sink and crossing her arms coolly, "Learning to live without your parents pretty well, I take it?"

"You can stop playing that card any time you'd fucking like to," I snapped, "It's been three years, Vanessa. I've accepted their deaths and moved on. Why do you insist on bringing them up every single time we have a conversation?"

"To remind you just how much your life fell apart after that. So you get a sense of just how much it'll hurt when it falls apart again," she sneered.

"I've already told you, you do not have that kind of power. Back off."

"I don't think I will. In fact, I think I'd like to make sure you remember this little encounter, Alex."

Then, unsurprisingly, she raised her arm with the intention of knocking me to the ground. What I wasn't expecting was for another hand to pull her back.

"Give it a rest," Leanne hissed at her, "You've had your fun, Vanessa. Leave Alex alone now."

"Oh? Since when do you give a damn about her? You were the one who got me to come back here to help you out with her, didn't you?" Vanessa turned on her.

"Since you showed me what exactly you had in mind for her. Look, I know I'm not exactly a saint, but I have a nice set of lines that I'd rather not have to see anyone cross. And you crossed probably the biggest one--a hundred times over."

"What exactly is going on in here?" a teacher poked her head in, "Get to class, all of you. The second bell has already gone."

"Fine," snapped Vanessa before stalking out of the bathroom, shoving past the teacher in the process.

"Thanks," I muttered to Leanne before we, too, left for class.

Seeing as it was December, I wasn't surprised when we heard the following announcement sometime in the afternoon:

"Good afternoon, everyone. We have a couple of announcements. The first is to let you know that there will be a school dance next Friday from 6:00 until 8:00. Secondly..."

I didn't hear the announcement that followed because the immediate cheering and clapping was so loud. Personally, I didn't see what the big deal was since all of our school dances were exactly the same. Just all of us packed in the school gym wearing semiformal outfits and either dancing in little groups or standing around awkwardly on the sidelines, while pop music that ranged from good to just cringe worthy blared in the background.

Honestly, one of the things that made the dances bearable was that Andrew was one hell of a dancer. So was Sean Perry, believe it or not, and the two of them couldn't resist having a dance-off at every single event the school held. It was very entertaining, to say the least.

The thing I struggled to understand was all the hype that surrounded these things since they were always so lame. Everyone chattering excitedly in the halls as they scrambled to find a date, requesting various songs to be played on that night, and figuring out what they should wear. It was pretty exhausting to listen to after awhile.

"I'm a little surprised they don't bring people in to play live music at school dances anymore," remarked Two-Bit after school while he, Josh, Destiny and I were sitting around at the park near my apartment. "Is the music good, at least?"

"About half the time," replied Josh, "They tend to vary in terms of quality. They play a lot of pop stuff."

"Hey, do you know who the DJ's going to be yet?" I asked him.

"No, but I hope it's Destiny. She has good taste."

Destiny blushed at his comment. She was still a little shy around our new friends but she was coming around. "Thanks, Josh."

"As long as it's not Mickey Richards, we're fine," I said.

"Yeah; he'd probably pick the worst pop songs imaginable just because he can't play the music he likes. It'd be like some sort of petty revenge or some shit, I don't know."

"Oh, hey, speaking of music," I remembered my earlier mental note, "Two-Bit, I have a question for you. My band is going to be performing at this festival sometime in the spring and I was wondering, would you guys be interested in coming to see us?"

"Well, I can't speak for everyone else, but I sure would be," replied Two-Bit, "What kind of music do y'all play?"

"Mostly rock music," I answered, "Our band's called Shadowmist. We do covers of songs by Evanescence and other bands we like and post them on our YouTube channel, but lately we've been doing more and more of our own stuff too."

We'd explained YouTube and the rest of the Internet already.

"I'm actually one of the people in it," added Josh, "Nicole and Andrew are, too."

"And Scott, Bridgette and Kate, don't forget," Destiny finished off the list.

"I could never forget them," Josh responded smoothly.

"What about you?" Two-Bit asked Destiny.

"Me? Oh, no. I, uh...I have stage fright," Destiny said sheepishly. Then she went back a subject. "So are you going to the dance with us?"

"Hell yeah, I am," Two-Bit's grin returned at once, "Didn't think I was gonna skip out on somethin' like that, did you?"

"And miss watching Sean embarrass himself trying to impersonate Andrew? Nah, wouldn't have sounded like you," I told him.

"Hey, where's Lana?" asked Josh suddenly.

"I think she wanted to show Dal somethin'," replied Two-Bit, "They're probably up in the apartment."

"Dead Rising, probably," Destiny predicted, "she mentioned to me that she wanted to have him play it sometime and see what he thought of it. It's a survival horror game," she added for Two-Bit's benefit, "It takes place during a zombie apocalypse and you play as a reporter named Frank. It's pretty fun."

"They actually came out with a third one a couple years ago," said Josh.

"I know. I've played it."

I smiled. It was honestly really nice to see Des coming out of her shell more, even if it was only a little.