YOU'RE MY FAVORITE PERSON EVER.

Adeline kept her head down as she walked into her film class on Monday, not wanting to make eye contact with Luke. She didn't want to know if he was smug — or worse, indifferent. Cici was at her side to comfort her, arm linked with hers.

"Fuck Luke," she whispered before they entered the classroom. "He's a loser, okay? Just pay attention to me and Randy and Mickey. We won't let him even try to talk to you."

Except Luke didn't try to talk to her. He came in a minute after the girls did alongside his friend, Jeremy, and the boy had the audacity to snicker when he saw Adeline looking down at her pink binder with a frown on her face.

"Something funny, Miller?"

Adeline looked up when she heard Mickey, who'd entered the classroom behind the two boys. He was glaring at Luke, and she finally saw that Luke's nose was broken and horribly bruised while Mickey's lip was already scabbed over and on the way to healing. It made the corners of her lips turn up.

And Luke didn't stand up to Mickey who had a good three inches of height on him. Instead, he just went to his seat at the back of the class while Mickey took his seat behind Adeline. Once he was seated, he reached forward and squeezed her shoulders comfortingly.

"Remember, I'm the only one that can mess with you, Princess," he said teasingly, making her smile at him over her shoulder.

"Good thing I like it when you do," she said with a sweet smile, forgetting all about Luke.

☆︎

As the week continued, Adeline managed to forget about the whole 'being stood up' business. Between her friends and her supportive sorority sisters, everyone was making sure she wasn't feeling down in the dumps.

In fact, it sort of created a little feud between the Delta Lambdas and Luke's fraternity, which made Adeline happy, knowing that even though she was still just a pledge and yet to be fully initiated, her sorority had her back.

When the next weekend arrive, that Friday in class, Professor Mac announced that he was going to start hosting movie night where he showed some of their favorite movies that they listed from their first day of class. Everyone was very excited, especially Adeline, who loved anything where people were gathered together to hang out.

Adeline, in her pajamas and with a blanket and a bag of popcorn in hand, made her way to the film building at night alongside Cici, both ready to watch the 1978 version of 'Superman' with their classmates.

"Christopher Reeve is so handsome," Adeline gushed as they took their seats in the viewing room. Randy and Mickey were already there, having saved them seats. "And this is one of my favorite Gene Hackman roles."

Both Mickey and Randy looked at her with wide eyes.

"This is one of your favorites?" Randy asked in disbelief. "But - but 'Hoosiers'? The 'French Connection'?"

"And 'Target' and 'Night Moves'!" Mickey added. "Goddamn 'Young Frankenstein'!"

Adeline just shrugged with a smile on her face. "I think his Lex Luthor role is neat."

"Neat. Because Academy Awards go to who is the neatest," Mickey said, rolling his eyes sarcastically. "God, I hate your taste."

"You and Randy are just pretentious film nerds," she shot back, still smiling. "Why can't you just watch a movie without over-analyzing it?"

"Because then we wouldn't be majoring in film," Randy said flatly.

"Well, I'm minoring and not freaking out about every little thing and interaction on screen," she said with a shrug.

"Yeah, but you to have a melt down whenever historical dramas have inaccurate costumes," Cici pointed out.

Adeline pouted and turned her nose up as the other three smiled. "Well, they should do better research if they're gonna do a period piece. Like, media needs to stop reinforcing the stereotype that corsets and stays were uncomfortable. They were plenty comfortable and safe so long as they were made and tied up properly."

"Yeah, yeah," Mickey said while throwing his arm around the back of her seat casually. "You hate the inaccuracies just as much as we do. You're a pretentious film nerd in your own way."

Adelina huffed, ignoring how her heart picked up its pace at him putting his arm around her. "But like not in a loser way like you guys."

Mickey gasped at her before tugging teasingly on her ponytail, making her yelp. "Say you're sorry. I'm the mean one. Not you."

"You're right," she pouted. "I'm sorry. You're not a loser — I wouldn't like you so much is so."

"You like me?" he asked in a gentler tone than he meant.

"Of course, I like you," she told him softly. "You're my favorite person ever."

His face softened at her honest admission. But before he could let her know he felt the same way about her, he was interrupted by Cici loudly scoffing.

"Excuse you. You like that cretin more than me?" she asked, sticking her bottom lip out.

"Oh, no, baby," Adeline said while pulling away from Mickey. She actively crawled over the arm rest separating her from Cici so that she could crawl on the other blonde's lap, missing how Mickey rolled his eyes. "I love and adore you."

"Good, because I love you too," Cici said while kissing her cheek. "Stay here for the movie. You're warm."

As the girls cuddled, Randy shot Mickey a sympathetic look, knowing he'd just missed out on an opportunity to have his arm around Adeline for two hours.

But there'd be plenty more movie nights where he could make his move — after all, they were watching 'Halloween' just before Halloween, and Randy, Mickey, and Cici all planned to drag her to the screening.

☆︎

It was late as Adeline came into Ramsay Hall a few days later, getting back from a philanthropy event for the Delta Lambdas. The door to her room was cracked because Cici, who was asleep, knew that Adeline had a habit of forgetting her key.

But before she entered, she glanced into Sidney's room, the door wide open. And she spotted her friend sitting in the windowsill and staring out at the night, a frustrated look on her face.

"Hey, Sid," Adeline said softly while letting herself in. "Where's Hal?"

"Um, on a date with a guy from her sociology class," she told her while subtly wiping her eyes. "How'd the philanthropy thing go?"

But Adeline just ignored her question, frowning. "Are you okay?" she asked before realizing she was being nosy. "Not that you have to tell me what's wrong. I just wanna make sure nothing bad happened. But I know we've only known each other a little over a month, so don't feel like you—"

Sidney cut her off with a huff of a laugh. "It, um, it's fine, Addy," she said. "Just, um, they finished filming that movie, you know?"

Adeline didn't have to ask what movie. She was talking about 'Stab'.

"Oh," she said softly, coming over to Sidney. "I'm sorry, Sid."

"It's slated to come out in April, so, um, I guess we have a few more months of peace," she said, trying to look on the bright side. Then Sidney sighed and rubbed her forehead. "I am never gonna get away from what happened, am I? No matter what, I'll always be 'Ghostface Girl', won't I?"

"Well, not to everyone. Not to me," Adeline told her while sitting across from her in the windowsill, drawing her knees to her chest so that they'd both fit. "To me, you're just Sidney. Funny, beautiful, brave Sidney who is gonna be a theater star. And that's how the rest of our friends see you too."

"I'm not brave," Sidney mumbled, shaking her head. "I mean, I ran from Woodsboro."

"Of course, you are!" she insisted. "If I went through what you did? I'd be too scared to leave my room — it'd be like I was dead anyway. But you're living. You're in college and moving on. All that is one big 'screw you' to those Billy and Stu guys. And I'm so proud of you for that."

Sidney smiled softly at her and reached for Adeline's hands, squeezing them tightly. "Thank you, Addy. I think I needed to hear that."

"Well, I was only telling the truth. And I hate to see you so sad," she said. "Me and Mickey are going to get our Halloween costumes tomorrow. You wanna come with? I think it'll cheer you up."

"Are you sure?" Sidney asked, her smile morphing to a smirk. "Wouldn't want to interrupt your alone time with Mickey."

Adeline huffed and rolled her eyes as Sidney giggled. "It's not anything big. We're just going to the next town over. They've got a big warehouse full of Halloween stuff. Randy is coming too."

"Oh, well, Randy is a mood killer, so me coming won't hurt," she joked. "Are you guys still thinking cowboys?"

"Yup! It's gonna be great."

"Well, I think it's cute you're doing a couple's costume without being a couple," Sidney teased, making Adeline blush.

"I mean, maybe I accidentally trapped him into a couple's costume," she mumbled. "But I don't think he minds."

"Trust me," she said, grinning. "Mickey definitely doesn't mind."

☆︎

Adeline let Mickey drive her car again, and he was clearly on cloud nine as the wind blew through his hair, a set of sunglasses on his face with the radio blaring loudly. He didn't care about speeding, and she didn't lecture him like she normally would have because he just looked so happy to be in a car like hers.

Randy and Sidney were in the back seat, chatting about their plans for Christmas break even though it was months away. They were already dreading going back to Woodsboro and were hoping maybe the university would make an exception and let them stay in the dorms since some of the athletes for winter sports were staying.

"Well, if you really don't wanna go, you can come to mine and Derek's for Christmas break," Adeline offered, looking at them over her shoulder. "Though I'm sure your families would miss you. I know Mom and Daddy would have a come-apart if Der and I didn't come home."

"We might actually take you up on that," Sidney said with a grimace, not wanting to go anywhere near Woodsboro.

"I can't," Randy said, shaking his head. "I mean, never tell Martha I said this, but I kinda miss the little squirt."

"Martha's your sister, right?" Mickey asked, double checking as Randy nodded.

"I don't know how I'd stand being so far away from Derek," Adeline admitted. "But I guess we're closer since we're twins. Mick, what about your sibling? You never talk about them."

Adeline didn't even know if his twin was a girl or a boy. And though Randy was on his way to being Mickey's best friend, he'd never heard anything about them either.

"We're not, um, close," he said stiffly, tightening his grip on the wheel.

"I'm sorry," Adeline said with a frown. "I won't bring them up again."

"I'd appreciate that," Mickey told her while making a right turn. "But hey, no more family talk. Halloween talk! And by that, I mean our next movie night for class. We're watching 'Halloween', and you will be there."

"No way!" Adeline exclaimed. "I'm not going. Even if I didn't hate being scared, I'd still embarrass myself in front of everyone with all my screaming every time there's a jump scare or something."

"You're going," Randy said flatly. "We're kidnapping you from your dorm and introducing you to the horror genre."

"Please, no," Adeline said with a distressed look. She slid closer to Mickey and grabbed his arm. "Mickey, really, I'll do anything. Please, don't make me go. I'll have nightmares for weeks. Not to mention just being laughed at — they know I've not seen a scary movie, so they'll all be watching me."

"Well, I can't help the nightmares," he admitted. "But how about this? You come over tomorrow, and I show you 'Halloween'. I'll tell you every time something is about to happen so that you're not surprised and scared. Then you'll be prepared for watching in front of the whole class."

Adeline bit her lip, thinking it over. Then she glanced back at Sidney and Randy. "Promise to help him warn me? I don't trust him."

Mickey scoffed at her lack of trust as Sidney shook her head. "Sorry, I can't make tomorrow. I'll be working on the set."

"And I'm gonna be doing stuff in the editing room for one of my classes," Randy added. Mickey glanced at him in the rearview mirror, knowing Randy didn't really have stuff to edit. Randy just smirked, it a plan to get Mickey and Adeline alone.

"Well, Mickey, if you mess with me during the movie, I'll never talk to you again," Adeline said, looking at the boy behind the wheel. "I'm serious. You tell me about every little scary thing, understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," he nodded with a little grin.

"And after, we have to watch a not scary movie to help me calm down," she told him.

"What are you thinking?"

"How about 'Grease'?"

"Are you gonna sing the whole time?"

"And dance!"