"I can't believe Zoey won't take me to the dance, when we got paired up together!" Chase vents, and I groan as he begins a refreshed recounting of the events. "I mean, she got paired up with two people, including her close friend, me, and she went with Glen?"

I put my hand over his mouth and push him back into his seat, which he had been sitting in and then getting back up to walk around in an angry pace throughout the night. "Maybe she just wants to meet someone new, which is the whole point of this. Besides, do you not think that this is better than you having to have asked her yourself, and her turning you down that way? Come on, Chase, she has no idea what this means to you, she just thinks she's being nice."

He thinks what I've said over, clearly repeating every word to himself and analysing them. He groans and throws his head into the arm of the chair. I roll my eyes, wait, then watch as he comes up for a deep breath after suffocating himself. "It's just not fair, I've liked her since day one and this guy comes in and messes up my one chance."

"Your first chance," I correct, "you will have many opportunities to get her to fall in love with you, and the longer you wait, the sweeter I bet it'll be."

I think about this myself as I'm getting ready. Mason had seemed sweet, but who really was he? I didn't know him at all and I had only spoken to him briefly to organise where we would meet. He could end up being someone I love, or he could just be my date to the first dance I went to at PCA, but it would hardly be the most romantic story for my kids, that a computer paired us up and we were forced to hang out. It's not quite the drawn-out and dramatic, Pride and Prejudice style romance I dream of, and certainly not something I had expected.

I'd said I'd meet him at the dance, since Logan was meeting me at my building to walk me there, hoping to Dana in order to spend as little time with her as he has too. I know it'll be hard for him to be around her, but I also know that they're not that different, and could probably survive a night together so long as he doesn't say anything too offensive or dumb. I guess that isn't likely, though, and I'm prepared to witness violence.

I finish getting dressed in my room and go to see Zoey and Nicole, as they had asked me to. They open the door for me and Nicole gasps. "Harper, that dress is so cute, you'll look so good next to Mason. He's so cute." She drifts off into dreamland, while Zoey smiles at me.

"The colour looks great on you," she says, and then squints. "Hang on." She runs off and brings back a necklace. It's gold, and matches the glitter on my dress, which is otherwise blue. I'm wearing sandals, and I've left my hair down, but curled for the occasion. She helps me out the necklace on and shows me myself in the mirror. "Beautiful."

"Thanks, Zo. And look at you both," I say, as they stand in their own clothes, hair natural but still beautiful. I feel a little overdressed. "Can I borrow a hair bush?" I brush through my curls, and then look in the mirror at the slightly less dressy waves.

"Perfect," Nicole smiles, and I feel a buzz from inside my purse. "Is that Mason?" She asks, slightly teasing but mostly because of her hopeless romantic nature.

I check the text, "actually it's Logan, threatening to leave without me if I don't hurry up." I roll my eyes and say goodbye, going to see him quickly. I spot him standing anxiously at the door, looking like he's about to dive into the bushes. "Logan?" He very nearly falls over, and then turns to me, annoyed.

His face drops.

"Harper?"

"Come on, then," I say, grabbing his wrist, "Dana will be coming soon." I let his wrist go as we settle into a rhythm, and we remain quiet for the walk.

I see Mason stood at the door and stop us. "Why are we stopping?" He asks, dumbly.

"Because you're going to wait here for your date, while I go with mine," I say, and then look him up and down. I gently fix some of his hair, then grin. "You clean up well, Logan Reese. Now play nice and save me a dance, or else!"

I run off to meet Mason, who grins at me and offers me his arm. We walk into the dance together, and begin talking as the music plays.

"So, we're perfectly matched, huh?" He asks me, "does that mean that you like to dance?"

"I might," I say, playfully, as he begins to slowly moving to the music. "But not as well as that!" He laughs and we begin showing each other our moves, as I begin to wave my arms like jellyfish.

We begin to get breathless by the fifth song, and I suggest punch, "what a great idea!" He gets me my cup, and passes it to me like a knight handing over a lady's handkerchief. "So, what are your hobbies?"

I blank at the question. I know obviously about my hobbies, but I don't really want to list them, because it makes me sound really dull. "I like swimming, being in the water and stuff, you know," I forget everything else, a first for me. For some reason, it's like talking to him is the hardest thing I've ever had to do.

"That's pretty cool," he says. "I bake."

"Oh?"

"Yeah."

There's a long pause, and after a few sips of punch I decide I can't stand the silence, "so what do you bake?"

"Mostly cakes, sometimes bread." I hum and he looks at my empty cup. "Do you want more punch?"

"Oh, I'm good," I say, laughing. "Shall we dance?"

We end up dancing again for a little while, but I quickly realise that this guy is not my perfect match. He shares many of my interests, but him also enjoying the occasional grilled cheese is not exactly the soulmate material I was expecting. If this is how other people saw me, I'd be mortified. I mean am I so boring that I can't even talk about my hobbies? Of course I am, we both had the same weird silence between us when we talked about it.

The longer I think about how strange our time together has been, the more I wonder if other people are the interesting ones and I'm just kind of there. Does Logan only like me because I'm a blank slate that he can use to talk about himself? Does Chase only like me because I listen to him talk about Zoey? I mean the list of problems with me goes on and on.

I begin to feel terrible, and spot Chase sat alone. "I'm going to go check on my friend, okay?"

"Sure," Mason says, but he's clearly about as bored as I am, and asks, "do you want to just stay with him? I won't mind."

I know I should feel rejected, but I'm so grateful and relieved. "Sure, if you don't mind." We smile and separate, and I look at my bushy-haired friend in relief as I sit next to him.

"Logan isn't a bad dancer," Chase says, disappointedly, and I look where he's looking, at my friend breakdancing. Dana is walking away, so I assume this was him being intolerable and showing off, rather than him just dancing for the fun of it.

"Don't ever tell him that," I warn, "he won't let you live it down." I take a sip of Chase's punch, and we continue to watch the dance. There's an understanding between us, that our dates just aren't right. And I respect him for not prying.

Michael comes over after a while, not seeming happy, and even looking a bit tired, "what's up, Chase? Harper?" I smile at him, weakly.

"Hey, punch?" Chase offers, and when Michael looks at me, I just shrug.

"Sure." He drinks the punch, and I lean further back in my chair, tired and ready to go home.

"So, um, where's Ollie?" Chase asks him, about his date. His date is the foreign student that Michael had been talking to, who he had I guess not wanted to hang out with because he's a guy.

"Oh, I had to ditch him," he responds, looking back, "I told him I was sick."

"That's mean, Michael," I say.

"And he bought it?" Chase asks, chuckling.

"Yeah!" I smile as I see the boy in question not that far away. I can't contain a giggle.

"Are you sure?"

Michael's face contorts, confused until he hears his name being called. "Michael! Michael!"

"No," he scowls, as the overly-friendly boy shows up.

"Yep," Chase says, enjoying the situation, while I feel bad for the poor boy.

"Hey, Ollie, what are you doing here?" Michael asks, turning to the boy. I almost laugh as I think of the boy as a European Chase, with the same dark curls. Maybe it was fate that this is who Michael was paired with.

"You are feeling better?"

"Yeah, I suppose, but-" Michael stops as he sees Ollie eating corn on a cob. The corn is vertical, though, and it's an unusual sight. "Man, I told you, in America we eat corn horizontally. You know, side to side!" He adjusts the boys grip and demonstrates for him.

Ollie laughs, "so funny! Come and join me for der hoppin' flom!" Chase ends up holding the corn while Michael is dragged away.

I watch them dance, and it seems fun, actually. I don't dare to say this out loud, especially when Chase angrily leaves as Zoey dances with her date. I stay out of it, and watch as he goes to argue with Glen, which Zoey then joins in with. I watch as Chase walks away, instead of returning to his seat by me.

I watch Logan and Dana dance, and see him put his hand on her shoulder. He closes his eyes as she leans in and then she stomps on his foot. I hide my laugh as he hops over to me. I start to feel the whole night beginning to really catch up to me, and decide that I probably feel how his foot feels.

"Some dance, huh?" Logan says, sitting next to me. I smile at my dress as I play with the hem.

"How was Dana?" I ask, then begin grinning. "Until she tried to break your foot, of course."

"You saw that?" He asks, and I laugh while he buries his face in his arms, leaning on the table behind me.

"I did, it was..."

"My fault," he says, muffled.

I can't hide my surprise, "that's not surprising. Didn't think you'd admit to it, though."

"Yeah, well," he trails off and looks at me, still leaning on his arm but facing me, now. "How was your date?"

"Not good," I say.

"Really?" He asks, half serious and half sarcastic.

"Yeah, it turns out that, maybe I don't like myself very much," I joke.

He looks at Mason, glaring at the boy who didn't really do anything wrong. "He's nothing like you," he tells me. "I mean look at him, he's so..."

I watch as Mason happily picks up a snack from the table, and dunks it into his punch.

"Hey, I do that," I say, surprised.

Logan covers my mouth, "I'm trying to say you're great, don't ruin it." I laugh as he pulls his hand away, and sits up. "Harper, you have at least nine hundred and one good qualities, I think he has maybe two. The computer was wrong. How else would I have been paired up with Dana, and not-" he clears his throat and blushes, "it's just wrong, and you're great."

I smile broadly and hug him, which he surprisingly doesn't stop me from doing, despite the large amount of students in the room. "Thank you, Logan."

We sit in a comfortable silence for a while, and then decide to leave, since the dance is basically over. We're just passing the fountain when he pulls me back. "We never had a dance," he says, his face completely serious, and I remember promising to have one.

"Oh, well," I look around, "do you want to go back?"

He pulls his iPod out of his pocket and shakes his head, "give me your ear." We each get a headphone, and put the wire between us. We begin dancing, not stopping until the last note is long dead.

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a/n hey, so sorry this is so late. basically I moved out and lost track of the time since last updating, but here it is, hope you liked it and I should hopefully get back into it again now