The rest of his day went by as normally as he could make it, of course trying to remain calm as the stares from earlier towards his new appearance were still happening. It was nice not being teased or disrespected due to his sudden attractiveness. However, a part of him felt that this was all a façade, considering he would only be like this for a solid week. Then, he'd go back to the nerdy duckling he was before.

Well, at least I get a free, gourmet meal from Daniel out of this. I'm sure his food will probably taste amazing... it will be even better because I can eat it with him. Granted, if I could eat it off of him... that would be amazing...

He became lost in this rather descriptive daydream, that he didn't even notice that Nicolette was walking behind him, before she poked him in the back roughly. He jumped at the contact, looking over his shoulder in surprise.

"You brat." Nicolette stated in an annoyed fashion.

"Nikki, what's up?" Alan asked as she came to walk beside him towards his locker.

"I texted you earlier and you didn't even respond. Has your ego gotten big already?" Nicolette teased, a playful smile on her face.

"No, not at all!" Alan quickly replied, sighing. "I'm sorry, Nikki... a lot... has been happening."

"Apparently... you want to talk about it?" Nikki offered, leaning against a nearby locker as Alan sorted his books out to take home for assignments.

"I..." Alan paused, trying to figure out just how he could actually explain the entire situation that was his life right now without telling Nicolette about Daniel or Thomas. "It's... complicated."

"So... you can't talk about it?" Nicolette asked, her expression concerned.

"Not... yet, Nikki. I'm sorry..." Alan stated, sadly.

"Well... you know you can talk to me about anything, right? So, whenever you're ready, just let me know." Nicolette stated with a warm smile, patting him on the shoulder gently.

"You're such a damn good friend... and here I am..." Alan spoke, trying to think of how to finish the phrase.

"Being a turd? Yep, I agree." Nicolette joked, only to hear Alan laugh. "It's cool, but whatever it is, it better be worth the secrecy."

Oh, I'm quite sure it will be. Alan thought to himself, following her out of the building.

"Oh, so this is gonna sound really odd... but you and Daniel are friends now, right?" Nicolette asked, her eyes lighting up in excitement.

"I mean, yeah..." Alan stated with a bashful grin. "Why?"

"OK... I need a favor... so you know homecoming is at the end of this week, right?" Nicolette proclaimed, getting more excited the more she spoke.

"It is? Fuck... that was fast..." Alan stated in surprise, but looked at Nicolette with suspicion. "What... do you want?"

"Ok, so... hear me out... you know Manny Rodriguez, right?" Nicolette said happily, her body wiggling as she said his name.

"Yeah, I do. He's a junior like Daniel, and this really attractive Hispanic guy whose on the soccer team-" Alan stopped talking once he pieced everything together, then shot Nicolette a glare. "No. NO, Nikki. I'm not doing that."

"PLEASE? He's... so fucking... hot. I'm too chicken shit to ask him to homecoming myself, and how can I, a mere sophomore, ask Manny, a junior, to homecoming? I cannot do that. So, since you and Daniel are friends, can you ask him to do me a solid?" Nicolette stated, grabbing onto Alan's shoulders as she spoke, her eyes wide and desperate.

"I mean... you could've just asked me." A voice spoke behind them both. Nicolette and Alan looked over to see Daniel standing behind them, a polite smile on his face. "I'm assuming you're Nicolette."

"Uh... yeah..." Nicolette stated nervously, a smile creeping onto her face. "Hi..."

"Hi there. I believe you were discussing my teammate, Manny." Daniel stated with a smirk, his hands resting in his pockets.

"Um... maybe?" Nicolette said with an embarrassed laugh, releasing Alan's shoulders as she did so.

"This is actually quite interesting..." Daniel continued, looking at them both. "Manny was actually talking about asking a girl out, but I wasn't sure who he was talking about. He did say it was a girl, and I quote 'With nice, long curly hair and glasses.' Maybe I should ask him exactly who he was talking about..."

Nicolette's mouth fell open in utter shock, at a loss for words.

"Are you messing with her, Daniel?" Alan asked, a look of suspicion on his face.

"No, actually I'm not. Considering that Manny thought you guys were dating, but it's been confirmed that you aren't, he was totally considering asking her out. He's liked you since you came in freshman year." Daniel stated calmly and sincerely, only to hear Nicolette give out a small squeak of glee.

"OMG. I'm so damn happy, but... shit... I'm nervous now. I look like crap. He can't ask me out today. Nononono... I gotta look amazing. OK, ok, Nikki... calm down..." Nicolette was speed talking at this point, trying to catch her breath from utter excitement. "Tell him to ask me tomorrow. I'll look better tomorrow and I won't be caught off guard." She proclaimed to Daniel.

"Sure, I can do that." Daniel answered with a nod, Nicolette letting out another noise of joy.

"Thanks Daniel! You've seriously just made my entire life!" Nicolette exclaimed happily. "Oh, I gotta catch the bus. You coming, Alan?" she asked, looking over to Alan quickly.

"Actually, can I steal him? I gotta talk to him about some stuff." Daniel interjected, only to see Alan look at him in confusion.

"Fine by me, have fun guys! We'll talk later, Alan." Nicolette stated before running off, waving as she did so.

Alan watched her head off, returning the wave before he turned his attention back to Daniel. "What's up?"

"I was wondering if you were free to hangout today. Based on what happened earlier, we should probably talk about how we can plan for instances where I change, but can't do much..." Daniel replied, bashfully.

"Oh yeah! We should totally do that. I'm free actually, so that should be fine." Alan stated, before he paused, as he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. "Did you want to head to your place, or somewhere else?" he asked Daniel, while looking at his phone.

He saw two notifications, the first one from Nicolette:

Alan grinned after reading the message, imagining his best friend practically bouncing in her seat on the bus. However, his face immediately grew pensive at the second one, as it was from Thomas.

Everything within him became tense, his facial expression rather blank and cold as he closed the text message entirely.

"Alan, you ok?" Daniel asked, leaning over to get a closer look at his face. Alan looked up in confusion, not expecting to get a close-up of Daniel's face in the process.

SHIT... too close, Daniel... I'm not complaining...but that's how you get kissed without warning, if I was ballsy enough to do that, I mean.

"Ah, yeah... I'm sorry...I got a text message from my.... Annoying sister." Alan quickly stated, putting his phone back into his pocket.

"Oh, ok. Siblings can be a pain." Daniel joked, only to see Alan laugh as he recalled Daniel's brother, Brian. "So, are you cool with going to my place?"

Alan then realized that in a way, this worked out for him in the long run, considering the location of Daniel's place. "Yes, that's perfectly fine with me." He answered with a smile, yet internally, he grew unsettled.

Because Daniel and Thomas literally live 4 blocks away from each other.