“You do know we’re going to have to get out of the car eventually.”

Dannon glanced at me and I snorted out a laugh.  His eyes were wide with what I could only describe as fear.  Usually his fear would bring me concern, but today it did nothing but amuse me.  Before you call me demented and messed up, please understand something: this was not a horror movie okay.

“Yeah, um, I think I’m good here,” he muttered, pushing back in his seat.  He glanced around the car, his eyes still wide.  “I’m kind of really scared to get out of the vehicle.  For the safety of our lives.”

I snickered.  “I’m pretty sure they won’t do anything to me.”

Who was I talking about, you ask? 

His fangirls.

Yep, you heard me.  His fangirls were surrounding the car, smacking on the windows and screaming.  They were swarming, and if I were actually on top of the car right now I’m pretty sure the crowd would seem a lot thicker than it did in here.  I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t a bit nervous to get out of the car, but that was only because I knew the poor girls would hurt themselves trying to get to him.  I’m pretty sure some girls were getting hurt without the doors being open.

“Well, that’s comforting,” Dannon said, smiling.  It wasn’t sarcasm.  He seemed to mean it sincerely.

I grabbed onto his hand and squeezed it.  “I told you that you were popular but no, no one listens to me.”

Dannon grinned, pressing his lips against my temple.  “Well, I guess I believe you now.  Except not really.”

Dannon and I glanced around at the crowd again.  How the hell were we supposed to get out of the car anyway?  Girls were crushed against all the windows, even the windshield.  If we tried to open the door, I had no doubt in my mind that it wouldn’t even budge.

Sigh, the popular life was so hard.  Glad I didn’t really have to live it.  The only thing people knew me as was, “Dannon’s girlfriend.”  Of course some actually knew my name, but definitely not as many as those who knew Dannon’s.  And I was quite all right with that.

“This is what you get for not attending school for over two months,” I drawled, my lips pricking into a smile.  I didn’t mention the coma, nor did we ever really.  Ever since Dannon had left the hospital, we let the subject drop.  Dannon and I talked about my depression and then that was it.  We let it fall away because now all we wanted to do was move forward.

And Dannon just wanted to live a life without cancer continuing to burden him.

“Well,” Dannon drawled right back, “whatever.”

I snorted.  “That’s the best comeback you have?  Really?”

“I’m a little distracted by the bodies attacking my car,” Dannon said, his eyes on the girls again.  His face was so comical that it was all I could do not to burst out laughing again.

His first day back at LHS and this was how he was greeted—girls attacking him in his car.  Was he even going to make it to the door, or were they going to maul him before he got there?  Poor Dannon.  Sucked to be attractive, didn’t it?

“Okay, I’m going in,” I muttered, throwing my bag over my shoulders.  I shifted uncomfortably in my seat.  “Wish me luck.”

“Just remember that I love you, okay?” Dannon replied, airing the tone of someone who was watching a loved one going out into a battlefield.

“Dude, if anyone’s going to make it through this, it’s me.”  I snickered.  “But I love you, too.”

And with that I opened the door and got out of the car.

Okay, so I might have misjudged a bit when I said that they wouldn’t do anything to me.  I forgot to take into account that these girls would try to get past me in order to get to Dannon.  I barely opened the door and hopped out before I was being stampeded.  Girls rushed over me, and I fell to the ground.  I was honestly lucky I didn’t die.  Just so you know.

“Brianne!” I heard Dannon shout. 

I let out a pain-filled shriek as a girl stepped on my arm.  “Dammit!” I hissed.  “Seriously?  What is wrong with you people?”

As I struggled to stand, my arm got stepped on some more, and now it was hurting so badly that I was pretty sure it was sprained.  I finally got up from the ground and cradled my injured arm, glaring at everyone around me.  Animals, the lot of them!  I mean, yes, Dannon being alive and coming back to school was cause for celebration.  But these girls were acting like it was Black Friday.

I maneuvered my way around the car, which was much more difficult than it really should have been.  I could see Dannon’s door opening, and I was tempted to scream for him to just get back inside and lock the doors—to save himself.  Then I remembered that I wasn’t in a drama film, so I kept my mouth shut.

“Brianne, where are you?” Dannon called.

“I don’t know!” I hollered, letting the irritation show.  “All of these human giraffes are blocking my view!”

As though insulted by my comparing them to a wild animal, a few fangirls shoved me mercilessly to the side.  I growled under my breath and pushed them back.  Usually I’d be nice, but my arm hurt and they’d touched it.  So it was safe to say that I was just a little irritated.

Okay, I was a lot irritated.

After what felt like forever I finally made it out of the human maze.  I let out a gasp as I finally made it out, glancing around.  You have no idea how great it was to see pavement and cars.  Human tsunamis were crazy.

“I’m alive!” I hollered, whooping.  I spun around, my eyes searching for Dannon.  “Dannon, are you alive?  Or did they get to you?”

“Uh, I’m not sure!” I heard Dannon shout.  He sounded distant, as though he was still deep in the crowd.  “You tell me.”

With a deep sigh I tossed my bag onto the tar and practically dove back into the crowd.  I aimed in the direction of Dannon’s voice, and pushed my way through, fervently searching.  Damn, if he died because of these girls I was going to murder them all.  I did not get my happiness back just for them to rip it away.  No.  I didn’t think so.

“Okay, I’m lost!” I yelled.  “Give me a hint!”

“Are we playing hide-and-seek?” Dannon asked.  “Um, I don’t know what kind of hint to give.”

He sounded incredibly close.  That thought was the only thing keeping me from rolling my eyes at him right now.  I mean, I ask him to give me a hint and his hint was telling me he couldn’t think of a hint?  Though, I couldn’t say that I was surprised.  I mean he was Dannon for crying out loud.

As I jostled past two girls, Dannon finally came into view.  He was struggling to move as girls grabbed at him.  I tilted my head to the side, watching for a moment.  The poor guy was pretty much glued to his spot as they hugged and kissed at him.  It probably would have ticked me off that they were kissing at my boyfriend if I didn’t know for a fact that Dannon was thoroughly uncomfortable with them doing so.  You could see it as he squirmed in their grip, trying to arch his neck so that his face would be out of their reach.  Yeah, um, that didn’t work out so well.

“I’m ashamed of this school’s population,” I muttered.  “Yo, ladies!  Hands off the guy, please!”

Once again I was shoving my way through girls.  Dannon spotted me and lifted a hand to wave.  It was much more difficult than it should have been.  “Brianne,” he cried dramatically, “if I don’t live through this, know that I love you.”

My eyebrows rose.  “All right, that’s it!” I shrieked so loudly that everybody around me froze.  “Everyone, move your scrawny asses away from Dannon!  I may have a sprained arm, but I am not afraid of punching you all.  Seriously.  I took karate!”

They continued to stare at me.  It was like they thought I was stupid or something.

“Did you not hear me?” I shouted, letting my irritation show freely.  “How are you going to feel when you kill him?  Huh?  You really want me to murder you all when you do?  Yeah, I don’t think so.  So go to class!  Now!  Shoo!”

The mention of killing Dannon seemed to calm them down.  I watched with a triumphant smile as they began backing away from Dannon and heading their separate ways.  Of course they all glared at me as they past, but who cared?  I’d succeeded in taming a stampede.  That was so going on my resume.

“Ah, my knight in shining armor,” Dannon teased, wrapping his arms around me as the entire crowd dispersed.  Only a few girls straggled behind, staring intently at Dannon as though he was going to notice them standing there and hug and kiss them like they so desperately wanted them to.  The joke was on them, though.  Dannon was so unobservant.

“Hello, princess,” I replied, grinning up at him.  I would have wrapped my arms around his neck, but my arm was kind of unusable at the moment.  “Glad I could be of assistance.”

Dannon smiled brightly before pressing his lips to mine.  “Hmm,” he murmured as he pulled away.

“What?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“You didn’t turn into a prince.”

I gasped in mock horror before pushing away from him.  “Are you saying I look like a frog?  How rude!”

Dannon laughed heartily, easily catching up to me as I playfully stormed in the direction of the school.  “Hey, what happened to your arm?” he asked, his laughter suddenly falling away as he noticed me cradling my injured arm.  “Hon, are you okay?”

“Yeah, uh, I kind of got stepped on.  Twice.”  I sighed deeply.  “I need to go to the nurse.  I’m sure it’s fine, seeing how I’m not bawling my eyes out, but you know.  Good to be sure.”

Dannon nodded.  “Okay, I’ll get your—”

He twisted around, his eyes searching.  I followed his gaze, wondering what the hell he was looking for.  But when I suddenly became aware that I wasn’t wearing my backpack and that I’d chucked it before going back into the crowd, my eyes widened considerably.  “Those little ass-faces!” I exclaimed.  “They stole my bag!”

Dannon sighed, shaking his head.  Then he laughed at me.  “It might have had something to do with the fact that you accused them of manslaughter.”

“Yeah, I guess.”  I sighed deeply.  “This sucks.  I had a lab report due today.”

“We’ll find it!” Dannon assured me.  “We’d better go get you to the nurse before classes start, though.”

I nodded and followed Dannon as he started toward the front door.  I could tell by the set in his shoulders that he was more excited about this than he let on.  When we talked about it beforehand, it was easy to see that he was extremely happy with the prospect of going to classes again.  I mean, why wouldn’t he?  Sure the classes were torture, but Dannon had the opportunity to learn again.  He had the opportunity to pray for the clock to just hurry up and end the school day.  He had the opportunity to complain about homework.  For the longest time that had been an impossible thought.  But now?  Now it was in his grasp.

Of course he had a ton of makeup work to do.  Everyone knew that it wasn’t his fault that he missed school, but in order to pass the classes he still needed to make up over two months’ worth of schoolwork.  I had no doubt that he’d be able to do it.  Besides, he had the help of everyone in the crew, me, my family, and Google.

I’m pretty sure Google was going to be more helpful than anything else.

“How do you expect us to find it?” I asked curiously, my thoughts shifting back to my dilemma.  “You do know they’re probably only going to give it back to you if you promise to kiss them.”

“Well that’s inconvenient.”  Dannon paused for a moment before shrugging.  “Don’t worry.  Your lab report will survive.”

“How do you know?  They probably burned all the contents inside already.”

“You’re so optimistic.”  Dannon grinned, draping an arm over my shoulders and pulling me to him as we continued to make our way toward the building.  I could see the crew in their usual spot, and from the bright smile on Dannon’s face I knew that he could see them, too.

“You ready?” I asked, beaming at him.  Despite the fact that my bag was stolen, and that we probably wouldn’t get it back before I got zeroes on all of my homework assignments for the day, I was in a good mood.  More than a good mood, actually.  It was impossible to explain.  But I was happy.  And that was something I hadn’t been for such a long time.

“Born ready, baby!” Dannon whooped.  That caused for a few students to look our way and stare.  I watched as eyes popped out of skulls and dropped onto the tar.  Okay maybe I was exaggerating a bit there.  Maybe.

“You did not just call me ‘baby’,” I teased.  Of course I’d called Dannon baby before, but he didn’t know that, and I planned keeping it that way. 

“I so did.  What are you going to do about it?”

“Feed you to the girls.”  I winked at him.  “They find you positively scrumptious today.”

Dannon blinked.  “I don’t know whether I find that hilarious or disturbing.”

I snickered.  “Maybe it’s a bit of both.”

Dannon laughed.  “Yeah, probably.”

And with that, Dannon and I made our way over to the crew.  We chatted for a short moment before Dannon ushered me away and into the school building.  Apparently it was crucial that I got my armed looked at—if not for diagnosis, than at least for pain medicine.  I allowed myself to be pulled away from my friends only because I was in dire need of that pain medication.  Though I wasn’t bawling, it didn’t mean that my arm didn’t feel like it was going to fall off.

What an interesting start to a morning, I thought as Dannon and I hurried up the stairs to the second floor, toward the nurse’s office.  I mean, when I woke up this morning I knew people would stare, but I never imagined this.  Though, I had to say, they could have at least had the decency to take out my right arm.  At least then I’d have an excuse not to work.

Oh well.

“I didn’t know you took karate,” Dannon said suddenly, throwing me one of his smiles.

“Oh yeah,” I said, grinning mischievously.  “Totally.”

“You quit at a white belt didn’t you?”

I folded my lips over each other to keep from laughing.  “Yeah, uh, maybe.”  I snorted.  “But obviously they didn’t realize that.  Otherwise they wouldn’t have cowered with fear.”

Dannon laughed.  “Oh was that what they were doing?  I couldn’t tell.”

“Pretty hard to tell when fifteen girls are trying to lock lips with you.” 

Dannon gave me a look that said he was completely unimpressed.  I couldn’t really take the expression seriously, though.  I mean have you seen this guy try not to smile?  It was like his lips had twitching problems or something.  “Yeah, and I could tell that you were in such a hurry to help me out of there.  I thought you loved me.”  He sniffled as though he was going to cry and wiped at a non-existent tear.  “Oh, the pain!”

I whacked him playfully with my good arm.  “Hey, it was a little amusing okay?  You should have seen it from my point of view.”

“Owie,” Dannon muttered, pouting.

“Sorry,” I said, not feeling sorry at all.

“You lie!”

“That I do.  But you love me anyway.”  

Dannon sighed before flashing me a smile.  “Yeah, I do.  Even if you look like a frog.”

“You’d better be careful,” I warned.  “I could totally go get that group of girls back and throw you in it.  I’m sure they wouldn’t mind in the slightest.”

Dannon pouted at me again.  Then he smiled as we reached the nurse’s office, gesturing for me to go inside.  “Let’s get you fixed up!”

I grumbled under my breath before stepping into the nurse’s office.  Mrs. Weaver, the nurse, was sitting at her desk, jotting down notes about something I’m sure I didn’t care about.  She looked up as we walked in, her eyes wide.  “Dannon, dear!” she called out.  “I heard that you were back.  It’s nice to see you!”

Dannon smiled brightly.  “Good to be back.”

Mrs. Weaver glanced at me and beamed.  She, like everyone else, knew how hard Dannon’s condition had been for me.  There was an occasional time where she’d call me down to her office to talk.  I’d never really contributed to the conversations, though.  “Glad to see you smiling again, Brianne.”

I nodded and turned my gaze awkwardly toward the ceiling.  I could feel Dannon’s eyes on me, and then his hand was curling around mine, squeezing comfortingly.  My eyes made their way to his and we both smiled at each other.

“So what can I do for you two today?” Mrs. Weaver inquired after a moment or two. 

“Um a stampede of human giraffes stepped on my arm and now I can’t really move it,” I explained.  Well, at least I thought I'd explained it.  The expression on Mrs. Weaver’s face said that I hadn’t.

“Human what?” Mrs. Weaver asked.  She glanced down at my arm and narrowed her eyes.  “I’ll get you some medicine for the pain, hon.”

“Dannon’s fangirls attacked me,” I amended with a sigh.  “We’re lucky we got out alive, honestly.”

Mrs. Weaver whistled through her teeth as she grabbed the medicine from one of the cabinets and moved over to the sink.  She shot me a sympathetic look as she filled up a plastic cup with water.  “I’d say so.  They can get pretty violent, those girls.”

I thanked Mrs. Weaver as she handed me the cup and two small pills.  I downed them before laughing.  “See, Dannon?  Even the teachers know you’re popular.”

Dannon chuckled.  “Yeah, yeah.”  He smiled at Mrs. Weaver.  “Thank you, Mrs. Weaver!”

“No problem, guys.”  She grinned.  “You have a good day!”

We both nodded and exited the office.  Dannon held lightly onto my uninjured hand, his hand smooth and cool within mine.  I still couldn’t comprehend that he was actually here.  For so long I’d thought that I’d never see him smile again, let alone joke around.  But here he was.  A walking, breathing miracle. 

“So how about we go find your backpack now, yeah?” Dannon suggested, smiling at me.  “Sound good?”

I laughed.  “Yeah.  My grade depends on it.”

And then we sauntered down the hall, beginning our search for my bag.

Ha, wish us luck in finding it.  The poor thing was so doomed.