Hello! I'm doing 3 day updates now instead of 4, because I want to get this story completed soon! Hope you like this chapter! :D

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"Will you go to the dance with me?"

"Yes! Of course!"

Olivia watched as the couple next to her pulled each other into a close hug, both of them grinning excitedly. The girl, whom she did not recognise, was smiling so much it looked as if she was about to burst with happiness. Although the both of them were cute together, and in theory, she was happy for them, she couldn’t help but feel a pang of irritation as she watched them walk off down the hall together.

It was now Thursday, and as predicted, she had not had as much as one offer to the dance. It hadn’t come as a surprise, yet at the same time she had been holding onto that faint glimmer of hope that she would get one invitation from someone half decent.

Not even Ethan had attempted to ask her, which, even though she would’ve declined anyway, she couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed about.

Maybe he had finally realised that there was no point in chasing after her and had given up. That was what she wanted, right? So why did she feel so... despondent?

"Are you okay?"

She was suddenly jolted from her daydream by the sound of Fred’s voice, causing her to jump slightly when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"It’s only me," he said, with a small smile. "Not some axe murderer or something. Although I’m not entirely sure why there would be an axe murderer in the middle of the school hallway."

Olivia couldn’t help but smile widely at his response. Just the sound of his cheerful tone and witty remarks was enough to cheer her up. "Just thinking. You surprised me."

"Clearly. May I ask what about?"

"Nothing..." she said quietly, waving her hand in dismissal. She didn’t want to complain about her lack of invitations to Fred – it would only make her sound more desperate and needy than she already was. Shaking her head to rid her mind of the thoughts, she looked at him again. "Have you asked Chelsie to the dance yet?"

Fred’s face fell at her sentence. "Ahh... no."

"She’s waiting, you know. You haven’t got much time. The dance is tomorrow."

"I know. It’s just... I’m not exactly good with all this romantic stuff. I don’t know how to do it." He paused. "Could you help me?"

"You want me to ask her for you?" Olivia raised her eyebrows, an amused smile creeping onto her face. "Real romantic."

"No, not ask her for me," Fred responded quickly. "I know I need to do it but... how?"

"Here’s a clue... it involves the words will you go to the dance with me?"

Fred rolled his eyes. "I know that. But I don’t know when. I mean, a note passed in homeroom isn’t exactly a girl’s dream, is it?" He paused. "Is it?"

Olivia paused, considering the option in her mind. Her initial reaction was to laugh, but the more she thought about it... the more Fred it seemed.

"It could be," she said eventually. A smile was forming on her face as the scene began to play in her mind. If done correctly, it would be one of the cutest invitations to the dance. And it was perfect for Fred and Chelsie... utterly perfect. How had she not thought about this before?

Oh yeah, because she was too busy moping over still being alone for the dance herself.

Still, she now find herself kind of excited about the whole thing. She couldn’t wait to see the look on Chelsie’s face when it all played out perfectly.

"What are you thinking?" Fred queried, looking at her strangely. She had almost forgotten that she had not said any of her thoughts out loud, and that her best friend was still none the wiser to her plan.

"I’ve just thought of something," she said, swinging her bag over her shoulder and throwing a smile at Fred. "Follow me."

"Where are we going?" he asked, trotting behind her obediently as she walked off in the direction of their homeroom classroom, a confused look upon his face. "I think Chelsie’s at her locker... and that’s in the other direction."

"You’ll see," she answered simply, as they continued walking.

In her excitement to pull this off, she had almost forgotten her misery of two minutes ago. She no longer cared that the likelihood was that she was going to show up to the dance by herself. All she was focused on now was seeing Chelsie’s priceless expression when everything went to plan.

***

When Olivia sauntered into the room just after the bell had rung, she noticed that Fred and Chelsie had already taken their seats at their desks in the middle of the classroom.

"Did you sort it?" Fred whispered, leaning over to her once she had sat down and placed her satchel bag on the floor beside her.

"Yeah," she whispered back, giving him a knowing smile. "It’s all down to you now."

She turned her head to the front of the classroom, where their substitute homeroom teacher had taken her place. Obviously, Mr Hammond had not been available for teaching this week, and he had been replaced by a young woman called Miss Ellis. She was young too, and not a permanent teacher in the school, which meant she was extremely bad at remembering everyone’s names.

Out of the corner of her eye, Olivia noticed Chelsie looking at her strangely. Her head turned and she met her gaze, frowning slightly.

"What are you guys talking about?" Chelsie queried, her brows furrowed in confusion.

Olivia paused, as if trying to think. "What do you mean? We weren’t talking."

"You just whispered something to him!" Chelsie said pointedly. "I saw you do it. Come on, what’s the big secret?"

"She just asked me if I’d done the Calculus homework," Fred chipped in.

Chelsie frowned. "You’re not even in her Calculus class."

Thankfully, they were interrupted by the sound of Miss Ellis standing at the front of the room, clapping her hands together to get their attention. Olivia breathed a sigh of relief, thankful for their escape route from the conversation – Fred was a bad liar, and if they stayed talking about it for long enough, he would ruin the whole plan.

She turned her body so she was facing forwards in her seat, looking directly at Miss Ellis. The class hushed immediately – this was her third day of being their homeroom teacher and yet the guys in their class still hadn’t gotten over how hot she was.

She was better looking than an average teacher, and the fact that she was only about twenty four made her even more appealing to the guys. She had shoulder length light blonde hair, which was swept back into a neat ponytail. She had a petite stature and wore large heels to make up for her height, which caused her to walk slowly albeit still daintily. Overall, she had some kind of positive aura about her that made everyone instantly warm to her and her friendly personality.

"Quiet, guys," she said, even though the whole classroom was now hushed, thirty pairs of eyes focused intently on her. "Let me just do the roll call, okay?"

She walked over to the desk, which used to belong to Mr Hammond, sitting down on the seat and taking out the paper that contained the list of everyone in the class.

As she began calling out names and people responded with ‘present’, Olivia turned to look at Fred. She widened her eyes, trying to instruct him with a look without attracting any unwanted attention from Chelsie. She was already suspicious about them whispering to each other without including her, and she didn't want to advance on this any further. As it turned out, trying to speak through your eyes was harder than it sounded, and managing a look that said ‘start writing the note now’ was near enough impossible to master.

Thankfully, he got the idea. He slid out a scrap of paper from his notebook, scrawling on it in his usual italic handwriting. His pen moved across the paper quickly, etching the words onto the lines with ease until he had completed his message.

As he placed his pen back down on the table and folded up the note, he couldn’t help but feel a small feeling of nervousness brewing inside him. Even though Olivia had thought out the plan for him, and he knew exactly what to do, romantic gestures weren’t exactly his strong point. And even though theoretically it should, having known Chelsie for almost all his life wasn’t really making the situation any easier for him.

Trying to ignore the nerves swelling inside of him, he swallowed, leaning over and outstretching his arm towards Chelsie’s desk, the folded up piece of paper held between his middle and forefinger.

Catching him out of the corner of her eye, Chelsie noticed and turned to face him, her eyes falling on the piece of paper being held in front of her. Frowning, she removed it from his hand gingerly, as if she were afraid it was some kind of bomb that would explode in her face.

It was unusual for Fred to be passing notes in class, even if it was merely homeroom. Ordinarily, he was completely focused in all classes - his eyes never leaving the front of the classroom as his hand moved swiftly across his notebook, jotting down almost everything that escaped the teacher’s lips. It was his way of passing the time, as well as ensuring that he always got the best grades possible. Therefore, passing notes in class was not exactly a usual occurrence for him, despite the fact that to anyone else it was probably the most normal thing ever.

Shooting a confused look at him, she turned her attention back to the slip of paper in her hand and began unfolding it slowly, still wary of its contents, although she was unsure why.

But before she could straighten the note enough to comprehend the words written on it, she found it being snatched from her grasp and held above her head, just inside her line of sight.

"What’s this?" Miss Ellis asked, the note dangling from her fingers as she looked down at Chelsie. Her disapproving look was far from menacing, but that didn’t stop Chelsie from feeling slightly ashamed. It was seemingly impossible for Miss Ellis to come across as fierce, especially when she was permanently carrying a smile.

"Uh..."

"It’s mine, Miss Ellis," Fred said quickly, rising from his seat.

"You know passing notes is not allowed in class," she stated, looking down at him with her naturally arched brows raised. "If this message is so important... why don’t you read it out to the class?"

"Um, is that such a good idea?" Chelsie asked, looking up at the pair of them. Not being aware of the contents of the message was making her somewhat on edge. Did it contain something embarrassing, or what? Probably not, but she still wasn’t keen on the idea of the entire class prying into their conversations.

However, Fred didn’t seem the slightest bit concerned. In fact, there was a hint of a smirk playing at his lips. What was he so happy about? The whole situation was getting stranger with each second.

Fred was now stood up straight, next to Chelsie’s desk. What seemed like the entire homeroom class had turned their heads, watching eagerly to see how things would play out. He took a deep breath, trying to hide the smile that was threatening to take over his lips - and failing.

"Chelsie..."

Olivia couldn’t help but smile. This whole thing was extremely cute, and knowing that she came up with the idea made her almost... proud, in a kind of motherly sense. It was weird, but she was too consumed in the moment to care.

Fred paused, taking the time to look over the piece of paper at Chelsie, who was still sitting there looking perplexed. His eyes glinted from behind his thick rimmed glasses as he took a deep breath and smiled.

"Will you go to the dance with me?"

She inhaled sharply, experiencing the feeling of her heart skipping a beat. Okay, so she had been expecting him to ask her at some point, but in front of the whole class like that? She could feel the blush spreading to her cheeks, the gentle heat radiating off them.

Everyone was now looking at them, smiles etched onto their faces as various ‘aww’s rippled through the room. The attention was only making her blush darker, as she was not accustomed to having all eyes on her like this. It was even worse considering that half the people in the room hadn’t even known that she and Fred were dating.

What felt like an eternity passed before she realised that she hadn’t given her answer yet, and Fred was still standing there expectantly, gazing at her with a small smile on his face.

"Yes!" she breathed, jumping up from her seat to pull him into a close hug.

Another wave of ‘aww’s spread throughout the class, as Chelsie inhaled Fred’s familiar scent. She squeezed him tightly, resting her head on his shoulder before pulling away and grinning excitedly at him. Suddenly, a few unidentifiable classmates began to clap and before she was aware of it, the whole room had broken into applause.

The blush returned to her cheeks as she took her seat again, feeling everyone’s stares penetrating her. They weren’t for a bad reason, but nevertheless she still wasn’t used to so much attention all at once.

"See, he’s more romantic than you think," Olivia said, with a wink in her direction.

"I know, right?" Chelsie responded with a smirk, before throwing an affectionate look in Fred’s direction. "And he’s all mine."

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Aww :D It's funny, 'cause I wrote this months ago, and when I was proof reading I actually count remember what was going to happen :P It was like reading someone else's story even though it was my own, haha. Anyway... I can't think of anything to write here. Only 5 chapters left! Plus an epilogue :) Remember to comment for the chance of a dedication - only 6 chances left now :D