“And…. you don’t want to go with him?” I guessed, noticing the way Piper’s nose scrunched up at the very thought of it.

“Of course I don’t want to go with him! It goes against everything I stand for…. everything I believe in!” She huffed dramatically; reaching up to untangle her dark hair from a hoop earring that could easily have doubled as a bracelet it was so large.

“Which part, the dance or Lincoln?” I asked, trying to make sense of Piper’s thought train before I formed my counterargument.

“Both,” she grunted, letting her face fall into her hands.

“When did he ask you?” I questioned, only because the last I heard Lincoln and her still weren’t on speaking terms. They were definitely on “giving each other longing glances and sexy eyes” terms, just not ones that included verbal communication.

“At the end of last period,” she sighed. “There were even kisses and hugs involved?”

“What?” I shrieked.

“Of the candy variety….” She sighed again and held up a cute Valentine’s card attached to an even cuter heart shape box filled with Hershey’s kisses and hugs. My heart melted a little in happiness for my friend until I saw the tortured look in her eyes.

“That is so sweet,” I murmured, running my finger along the box.

“I don’t know what he sees in me,” she grumbled, looking down at the box with a mixture of fear and angst warping her pretty face.

“It’s because you basically stole his virginity,” Bree interrupted, joining us just on the outside of the choir room door.

“She did not!” I defended Piper, shooting Bree a look I hoped would make the worst kind of evil flee from. Apparently my glares only worked on the supernatural kind of villain because she stayed firmly rooted next to us.

“Exactly!” Piper ignored my attempt at defending her honor. “It’s because he felt obligated to ask me!” her shoulders sagged.

I tried my best to shrug off the irritation that twisted my stomach when Bree put her arm around Piper to comfort her.

“I’m pretty sure he feels something, but it’s definitely not obligation,” she laughed.

“Oh, no! What if he expects me to…. you know, pick up where we left off? What if that’s the only reason he asked me?” Piper whispered, looking around the hallway like the entire student body was listening in and judging her.

“No, Piper-“ I started to reassure her, when Bree cut in again. My temper simmered just below my slowly glowing skin.

“Piper he’s a guy, of course he’s hoping for a piece of this,” she gestured to Piper’s body and then smacked her in the butt. “But he’s lost his mind if he expects anything.”

“For once, I agree with Bree,” I sighed, seeing that Piper was somehow pacified. “So you’re going to go with him?” I coaxed, hoping to sound as encouraging and approving as possible. I loved the idea of Lincoln and Piper together and if I had to work overtime to ensure no more Shadows interfered with what should be happily high school bliss, then that is what I would do.

“Ladies, care to join us?” Mr. Hale, the choir director called from inside the classroom where he had just started warm ups.

“Stella, your skin….” Piper whispered as we walked into the classroom, reaching out for my arm. I blanched, but had already reigned in my totally uncalled for anger.

“What?” I pretended panic, grabbing at my face. Her eyes softened once we were inside the music room.

“Nothing….” she mumbled. “It must have been the hallway light. You kind of looked like you were glowing.”

“Like good Angelic glowing? Or like neon, I was just turned into a teenage mutant ninja turtle glowing?” I asked, laughing off her claims.

“Definitely radioactive,” she laughed out loud which caught us a stern look from the director’s chair.

I laughed too, mostly to cover my disappointment. A little defensive, I wanted to explain everything to Piper just to appease my vanity. Instead I kept quiet, images of giant, green amphibians distracting me for the majority of class. Piper and I had been friends since kindergarten and she had never, not even once, noticed a difference in me. I was getting closer to my eighteenth birthday though and that meant everything about being a Star would amplify tenfold. I would have to be more careful.

Lunch was directly after choir and as we walked to the cafeteria, the conversation about Lincoln picked up right where we left it.

“So did you tell him yes?” Bree pried, not even bothering with a greeting. I bit back the feeling that she cared more about Piper as a way to spread gossip than she did a friend and waited for Piper’s answer.

“Yes,” Piper admitted almost reluctantly. “I just can’t tell him ‘no….’” she sighed and then stood up straighter, “I mean, I can tell him ‘no’ when I need to tell him ‘no,’ I just couldn’t tell him ‘no’ in that particular situation.” She rushed to explain herself, her blush covering her smattering of freckles and Bree and I both burst into laughter.

“Sure you can, Pi,” I gasped between laughter.

“Well, at least one of us has a date,” Bree sounded dejected as we sat down at our usual lunch table, shooting a frustrated glance Tristan’s way.

I followed her glance and forced myself to unclench my fist from the lunch table before I broke off a piece with my super Star strength. Tristan didn’t even acknowledge her though as we situated ourselves across from the boys, me taking my usual seat next to Seth. For my entire life participating in the Mead public school system, boys sat on one side of the table and girls sat on the other. Seth was disrupting our carefully drawn cootie line, but it kind of made me happy.

Seth smiled down at me, completely oblivious to the way the entire length of the table looked at his barrier breaking with a mixture of awe and disapproval.

“Hey,” I smiled at him, noticing how his hair curled delicately while it was still damp from his after-weight-training-shower.

“Hey,” he smiled back. “Is she talking about you?” he nodded his chin to Bree, and I blushed realizing the majority of our group caught his meaning.

“You have a date to what?” Tristan asked his voice cutting through the air like a punch in the throat.

“The Valentine’s Dance,” I smiled warmly at him, cocking my head to the side in confusion.

Tristan’s green eyes flashed with undisguised anger, and he set his sandwich down on the table very, very carefully. I knew that gesture from watching him play years of contact sports; Tristan didn’t become careful until controlling every single one of his movements became essential to his temper.

“You’re going to the Valentine’s Dance with him?” he asked as if even referencing Seth took concentrated effort.

“Yes,” I replied, forcing my voice to sound like it was no big deal. Silence fell heavily on our table as the rest of us were left to wonder at Tristan’s reaction. I felt Seth stiffen next to me, ready to defend some honor that had been questioned, but I put my hand on his arm casually, hoping no one else would notice and squeezed. He caught my hint and let it go, but I felt how his skin heated beneath my fingers. He was letting this go, but only for me.

“You and Seth are going together? You should have told me! When did this happen?” Piper squealed happily.

I turned my head so that all I could see was Piper, completely ignoring Tristan in my peripheral. He picked up his sandwich like he was going to take a bite and then set it back down as if he couldn’t stomach it. I could feel his stare boring into me from across the table but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why.

Tristan had never, not in our entire lives, not once…. asked me to a dance. He didn’t ask me in sixth grade when we only had one dance and I had been a frantic mess about finding a date for months. He didn’t ask me ever in junior high when dances became more frequently and I had to endure trying out nearly every boy in our class just to be polite. And he had not once asked me to a dance in high school, even though he had made his rounds through all of the prettiest girls from our class and the surrounding classes. In fact, when a dance was on the horizon he avoided me like I was a tumor to his effortless charm that made any and every girl in school immediately agree to be his date.

I had been snubbed more times than I liked to remember.

And now he was mad because I had a date?

Oh… no.

“Yes, Seth asked me this morning!” I forced as much excitement into my voice as possible, hoping I would get a chance to explain to Seth later. I knew it just made sense for Seth and I to go together. He certainly wasn’t going to ask anyone else; he didn’t even really know anyone else. And I probably was obligated to be his date from this dance on until the rest of eternity anyway.

My enthusiasm dropped as I thought that all the way through. Was this the beginning of the rest of my life with Seth?

“Well, won’t you guys cute,” Bree offered snidely from the other side of Piper.

A grunt of frustrated anger tore through the air from across the table, and I snapped my head in Tristan’s direction surprised at his outburst. Apparently he was just as surprised, because heat turned his neck a shade darker and he mumbled something about a charley horse in his calf before shooting me a look. A look that displayed a sharp mixture of hurt and betrayal that I in no way understood.

“Who are you going with?” Piper asked Tristan innocently, as if his mood wasn’t quieting the entire table.

“I don’t have a date yet,” he admitted, giving me another pointed look. I shot him back one out of confusion, but he wasn’t offering any explanations.

“Well, you should get on that before all the pretty girls are taken,” Piper continued, lecturing him sternly. “Or maybe you’re more of a sit back and let it come to you kind of guy,” she finished with a certain amount of hatred in her voice she reserved only for the worst disagreements between her and Tristan. “The problem is, the good things in life don’t just fall in your lap, Tristan. You have to work for those.”

And with that, Piper stood up and walked out of the cafeteria. I stared after her with my mouth slightly ajar, feeling more confused than ever. I looked over at Tristan who seemed even more pissed off, if that was even possible. After two more seconds of pained silence, he too got up and stormed out of the cafeteria in the opposite direction.

I slumped down in the bench, realizing I had been at the root of both my friends’ issues, but not understanding one better than the other.

“Lunch can be really intense here,” Seth mumbled, nudging me with his shoulder.

“That’s one way of putting it,” Rigley agreed, shaking his head in disbelief.

I stayed silent, having no idea what set Piper off, even though I had a pretty good idea of what had Tristan all upset and it had to do with the betrothed Angel that was sitting right next to me. I looked up at Seth as he dove into the school provided chicken and noodles. His jaw flexed as if he could still acutely feel the tension floating over our table, but without pausing from taking a bite he put his arm around me, squeezing my shoulder comfortingly.