PENNY

She had been dreading this day the whole weekend - Monday.

Penny tried to pretend to have a headache and stay in bed, but her butler saw right through it and told her mother. Then her mother pulled her out of bed. John was seriously disloyal.

She had to face them. She had to face Matt and Emma. How would she do it? She couldn't avoid Emma the whole day, they had Physics and Calculus together.

Well, improvising it is, she told herself and got ready.

As soon as she reached school, and because karma was a bitch, she bumped into Will while he was coming out of the building and spilled her coffee down his t-shirt. This was a serious deja-vu.

Will looked down at his t-shirt then at Penny and smiled sadly," Lets not make it our thing, you know. I prefer a handshake or a high five or even a hug."

"I'm so sorry, Will",Penny said, taking out a napkin from her purse and handed it to him.

"Penny, it's no good. I'll have to change it anyway. Accompany me to the locker."

They walked in, and she mustered up the courage to ask,"So, are we gonna talk about what happened on Friday..."

Will looked down,"Penny I have to tell you something...", looking at the seriousness in his eyes, Penny was afraid she was going to receive bad news,"Matt told me something, when he saw us, you know..."

She stopped talking and looked up at Will,"What did he say?"

"He said he liked you a-and", Will's voice broke,"and Emma liked me."

Penny stood there, processing Will's words. Matt liked her. No. Matt had liked her. She didn't want to think about his opinion of her now. She could hardly control the tears burning her eyes, threatening to spill out, as she desperately tried to hold them in. Her breathing became ragged and she took a deep breath to calm her nerves.

"So, Emma, huh? She is the one because of whom you were downing bottle after bottle", Penny guessed. Why hadn't she ever put that in place before? She should have known every time Emma and locked eyes with Will, every time Penny had seen them perform on stage, every time she caught Emma looking at Will's pictures on Instagram. She should have known.

And she did not even think for a second, how stupid she had been, telling Emma that she liked Will, when she herself should have known that her best friend was in love with the guy. Penny rubbed her forehead.

Will looked down,"That makes me pathetic, right? Wanting my best friend's girlfriend?"

Penny tried to swallow a lump that had formed in her throat,"I guess, that makes both of us pathetic."

EMMA

Emma walked onto the stage nervously, opposite to where Will was standing, hands clenched in fists to control their shaking. She did not know what to do. What if he said something to her? How would she reply?

She had asked Mrs.Hughes to change her partner but the drama teacher just replied that she and Will danced perfectly together and dismissed her. She never really liked the teacher anyway.

She took Will's hand in hers without making any eye-contact and felt him place his hand on her waist. The familiar shock of warmth spread through. No matter what happened, her body still reacted in the same way as it did before.

She didn't dare look up as they danced to the song, bodies moving in sync. They did dance perfectly together. Emma knew what move would Will make, on which second of the dance, on which note of the song.

When they were halfway through the song, Will spoke for the first time.

"Emma."

She looked up at him.

He looked so sad, so tired, it broke her heart. No matter what, she could not see Will like this.

"Will can we focus on dancing?",she said and looked down again. She just could not talk to him about that night. Not yet. And Matt had told Will about the 'liking' part, so the only option for her and Will was to give it some time.

The song ended and they got off the stage. Emma had to talk to Mrs. Hughes about changing her partner. She could not handle being Will's partner after that night. She needed some time.

So she walked towards Mrs. Hughes's office but found it empty. She then remembered seeing the teacher walk out of the theatre when she had walked onto the stage.

WILL

Will just couldn't find his phone. It was not in his pocket, not backstage, not anywhere.

The only place left was Mrs. Hughes's office. That was the only other place he had been in, other than backstage.

He remembered Mrs. Hughes telling him that Emma had asked to change partners. He really hadn't known how to react to it. Should he be angry? Should he be sad? Should he be okay with it?

He loved being Emma's partner, and still did, but if she did not like it, forcing her to do so was just wrong. So he had asked Mrs. Hughes to change partners if Emma wanted to. Whatever that made Emma happy.

He stood in front of the door and raised his hand to knock, when the door flew open and his hand collided with Emma's forehead. He sprang back and stared at her with wide eyes as she exclaimed,"Ow!"

"I-I am so sorry, Emma",he said as she rubbed her forehead.

"It's okay", said Emma, not meeting his eyes again and walked past him into the theatre.

He walked in to find the office empty. Then what was Emma doing there?, he thought. He found his phone on the desk, picked it up and switched it on to call Kyle.

It did not switch on though. Well, it didn't matter. His charger was in his gym bag. He walked out of the office into theatre. There was no one else there except Emma, who was pushing the door.

He walked up to her."What happened?",he asked.

"Door. Won't. Open",she said, pushing it.

"It must be stuck, let me try",he said, and stood pushed it hard, his muscles straining as he pushed it with all his might, but the door wouldn't budge.

He looked at her,"Now what?"

Emma looked at the door,"Now we shout for help as loud as we can."

MATT

Matt was always the last one out of the gym. At least till that day he was.

After practice, when he had walked into the court to shoot some jumpshots before going home, he found it occupied.

Penny was standing in front of one the baskets shooting one jumpshot after the other, all of them going straight in, without even touching the board.

She had been practising. Impressive.

He decided he would go out through the back gate. Would not risk an encounter. But, because of his fabulous luck, as soon as he tried to open the door again to go to the changing rooms, his hand slipped from the handle of the door and the door shut with a loud bang!

Penny whirled around to see him. He avoided any sort of eye-contact, muttering a sorry, he turned around to open the door again when Penny said, "Matt, please wait."

His hand hovered a inch above the handle, "I'm in a hurry Penny",he lied.

"Please Matt, listen to me. That night-",she began.

"Penny please let's not talk about it",he said but Penny continued.

"Nothing happened between Will and me. We just got drunk and passed out in a room."

"Oh so you happened to pass out together", said Matt sarcastically.

"Matt, please understand. Will told me about what you said. And Matt, I like you too. I've liked you since I first saw you and never stopped liking you since. Please forget all of it. It is all a big misunderstanding."

Matt was speechless. He did not know what to say. But then the scene flashed in his mind again. Will shirtless sleeping on the bed with Penny. Kissing Emma by the pool. And he found his voice again.

"Who said my feelings are still the same, Penny?"