He saw her several times after that, but she never glanced at him, as if pretending he didn’t exist. She ignored his hellos in the middle of the hallway, always crouching down and she just looked so lost and lonely John thought her to be made out of glass and winter. A world full of fragile things.

Students talked of nothing else but the dance coming up and it was starting to irritate John. Apparently, this was all the people in this lousy town cared about. Dances, dances, dances. That word was on everyone’s mouth, even on Luke’s and Jordan’s.

They talked about who was taking who and what parties these people would attend and which dresses would be the most expensive, blah,blah,blah.

If you didn’t attend Homecoming, you wouldn’t make it for the rest of the year, that was assured.

He didn’t expect her to show up, but to his amazement, she did.

Her dress was pitch black, her dark hair straight instead of the usual curly pony tail and her eyes were not heavily made up like the rest of the other girls, but outlined with a small amount of eyeliner and mascara that brought the blue of her eyes out.

Like the first day, John couldn’t take his eyes off her and watched her every move.

She stood awkwardly at the back of the gymnasium, where the dance was held. The town was too small and the school was the biggest building besides the William’s residence atop of Hilton Hill. NO one invited her to dance but glared at her as if questioning what she was doing here.

She never raised her head to meet their judging eyes, though. John wished she would, so they could back off and let her be. That didn’t happen and when the popular girl stood up to Suzette, John couldn’t take it anymore.

He stepped forward, shielding Suzette with part of his body, covering her from the sharks. “ Look, I don’t know what your problem is, but she’s not doing anything to you. Please, leave her alone.”

The throb of the music stopped, and this time, John was the center of attention, not Suzette. All the dancing partners stopped to look at the commotion going on.