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“And by a landslide victory, your new Ms. Brookhaven Homecoming Queen is…” Principal Trumbull paused for emphasis. As she stood directly behind him on the podium in clear sight of the entire student body, it was all Sydney could do not to roll her eyes at the overzealous principal's unnecessary dramatics. “Lauren Duke!” he finally shouted enthusiastically into the microphone. Blue and white balloons and silver confetti dropped from the ceiling as the entire ballroom applauded wildly. Sydney took a deep breath and reminded herself to look excited as she clapped along with the crowd.

Lauren, on the other hand, clearly had her look of “genuine” surprise down cold. She batted her eyes furiously and continuously mouthed the phrase “Oh, my God, I can't believe this” as she stepped forward on the stage to accept
her crown. Although it pained Sydney to admit it, her sister looked amazing. Dressed in a fitted silver-beaded Dolce & Gabbana gown and Jimmy Choo Swarovski crystal stilettos with a big ol' Beyoncé-esque weave to boot, Lauren was nothing short of ethereal.

Principal Trumbull stepped to one side of the microphone and allowed Sydney to move forward with the enormous crown to the other. When Lauren finally reached the center of the stage, she stopped and turned to look expectantly at Sydney. “Congratulations, sis,” Sydney offered diplomatically as she placed the crown on Lauren's perfectly coifed head. Sydney barely pulled her hands away from the crown before Lauren was on the microphone thanking the world like she had just won an Academy Award.

“Thank you all so much, this is such a surprise,” she droned on while Sydney scanned the countless faces in the crowd. The Homecoming Benefit Gala traditionally brought out the entire Brookhaven student body as well as recent alumni, and this year was no exception. To Sydney's credit there wasn't an empty seat in the room. For the first time ever, the Homecoming committee had managed to completely sell out all the tickets.

As Lauren finally wrapped up her long-winded speech and headed down to the dance floor for the traditional first dance with the football team co-captain and Homecoming King, Andre Brown, Principal Trumbull leaned over to
whisper in Sydney's ear, “I do believe this is the most impressive Benefit Gala in Brookhaven's history.”

“Why, thank you, Principal Trumbull,” Sydney replied modestly. “I do what I can.”

“Keep these fund-raising efforts up, and Brookhaven will have a new library wing before your class graduates next year,” he said with an appreciative smile.

Sydney smiled in return as the slow song ended and DJ Quickfingers jumped on the microphone. “All right, y'all, I need everybody to report to the dance floor. ‘Cause it's…about…to…go…down!” With that said, the first notes of Yung Joc's club banger, “It's Going Down,” exploded from the speakers and a stampede of students in formal gowns and tuxedoes rushed to get their swerve on.

“Well, you and that impressive young man of yours be sure to enjoy yourselves tonight,” Principal Trumbull offered as he patted Sydney on the back and turned to speak to Vice Principal Lang.

“Will do,” Sydney murmured as she watched the two men walk away. Pausing to admire her handiwork before heading back down into the crowd, Sydney had to admit that she was pleased. The past couple of weeks had been no less than a hot mess. It was good to see something turn out right. Now if only she could figure out how to wrap everything else in her life up as nicely, she'd be all right.

“You coming down to join the party or you plan to stand
there looking like the cat that ate the canary?” teased a familiar voice from below.

Sydney looked down from the stage into Marcus's grinning face. Wearing a black tux with white satin tie that perfectly complemented her black-and-white-striped Monique Lhuillier gown, it was easy for everyone to see why the two were considered Brookhaven's best-looking couple. “I'm coming, I'm coming.” She laughed at being caught basking in her own glory as she walked above him toward the steps at the edge of the stage.

“Nice job,” Marcus complimented as he held out his hand to help her descent.

“Thanks. I believe the word Principal Trumbull used was…impressive. Yes, I do believe that's what he said,” she said with a sly smile.

“Well, don't get beside yourself now, Syd,” Marcus chided gently. “We both know this is just small change compared to how much I helped my mom raise for her campaign last election. I'm proud of your work, but—”

“Whatever, Marcus,” Sydney cut him short with an impatient sigh. This was her night and she wasn't about to listen to him sing his own praises. “Do you wanna dance or something?” Sydney asked as she looked toward the crowded dance floor. She easily spotted Rhea in her crimson empire-waist Betsey Johnson dress, finger-snapping it out to Lil Jon's latest remix. Rhea's date, Tim Collins, was a varsity
baseball player who sat next to her in Art History class. Although Sydney didn't know that much about him, he seemed more than happy to be wrapping his hands around her best friend's tiny waist.

Marcus looked at Sydney as if she'd suddenly grown a second head. “Are you serious?” he asked contemptuously. “You know I don't do crunk music.”

“Me neither,” Sydney conceded, wishing he would loosen up sometimes, “but I was kinda in the mood to dance.”

“Tell you what,” Marcus said as he steered her toward the now empty table where they ate dinner earlier. “I'll go grab us a couple of glasses of punch. By the time we finish with those, the DJ might actually put on some decent R&B music that we can dance to, okay?”

“Okay, fine.” Sydney playfully pouted as Marcus pulled out the chair for her to sit in. “Just promise you won't get caught up in a conversation and forget about me!”

“How could I forget about my girl?” Marcus threw back as he headed off to the refreshment table on the opposite side of the room.

Sydney smiled as she watched Marcus cross the floor. As much as she hated to admit it, the boy had swagger. Recently, he'd been on a mission to make things between them right again. And she was falling for it, hook, line, and sinker. She glanced back at the dance floor and noticed Carmen rocking a gorgeous emerald-colored, backless Ungaro gown that she'd
seen in a recent issue of
W
magazine. More interesting, Carmen was all hugged up with what had to be the cute boy from the golf-pro shop. Sydney shook her head and smiled wryly. If nothing else, Carmen always had good taste in clothes.

“Um, excuse me, miss. Is this seat taken?” Once again caught daydreaming, this time Sydney looked up into Jason's inviting smile as he indicated the empty chair to her right.

“Hey, you,” Sydney responded softly as she took in his sexy charcoal-gray tux and silver bow-tie ensemble.

“I saw that you were by yourself, so I thought I'd come over and say hi. May I sit?” he repeated his request. Sydney instinctively looked across the room toward Marcus. “If it's a problem…” he hesitated as he followed her glance.

“Actually,” Sydney replied as she watched Marcus on the other side of the room doing exactly what she'd just finished asking him not to do—holding court with his boys from Student Government—“it's not a problem at all.” Much to Sydney's annoyance, from the look of his relaxed stance, Marcus's conversation wasn't about to end anytime soon.

“Okay, good,” Jason replied as he sat down. “'Cause I didn't want the night to pass without me getting a chance to tell you how beautiful you look.”

“Why, thank you, Jason.” Sydney gracefully accepted the compliment. “You look really nice, too.”

“Yeah, I like to think I clean up okay,” he joked as Sydney rolled her eyes playfully.

“Oh, is that so? And I wonder what your date likes to think,” Sydney questioned playfully as she made a point of looking around Jason for his missing date.

“Aww, man, I rolled with my boys tonight,” he replied easily as he picked up Sydney's hand and admired the huge David Yurman ring she'd “borrowed” from Keisha's jewelry box for the occasion. “Unfortunately, the girl I wanted to ask was already taken.” At a loss for words, Sydney looked away from Jason's face and down at her hand, which he still held. “Anyway,” Jason cleared his throat and pushed his chair back, “sounds like they're playing my song. You wanna dance?”

“Yeah, sure,” Sydney replied. She snuck another glance at Marcus, who was still deep in conversation.

“Cool,” Jason said as he stepped back to allow Sydney to lead them out to the floor.

Sydney took lots of deep breaths as she slowly walked in front of Jason. It felt like every eye in the room was on her as she led the way into the crowd. She searched for Rhea and Carmen, but for some reason, she couldn't find either of them. Halfway to the middle of the floor, Sydney stopped and turned to tell Jason that she'd reconsidered. Dancing with the cute football co-captain had just as much, if not more, drama potential as a Friday night run to South City Kitchen, and more drama was the last thing she needed now. But when she saw the gorgeous smile on his face, she immediately changed her mind. “This good enough for you?”

“Works for me,” he answered lightly, putting his hand on her waist to get them moving in sync. When he let go, the spot on Sydney's waist tingled lightly.

“Look who joined the party,” Carmen called out as she deftly moved through the crowd with her date in tow.

“You better work,” shouted Rhea as she pumped her hands to the sounds of Jim Jones's classic, “Ballin',” on her way over to join the crew.

Sydney smiled gratefully at her friends. Both Carmen and Rhea knew the unspoken good-girlfriend rule: Even if Sydney was dancing/kicking it with another guy, as long as her girls were around, she always had a built-in alibi. “My friends are hilarious,” she giggled in relief as she started to relax and enjoy the moment.

Two songs later, Sydney turned to the beat and caught both Lauren and Dara staring at her, mouths agape. Sydney stepped closer to Jason and put an extra twist in her hips just for their benefit.
Guess y'all aren't the only ones with moves,
she thought as Jason nodded appreciatively at the extra-credit action he was receiving.

“I thought you didn't listen to crunk music,” he whispered good-naturedly in Sydney's ear.

“I don't,” Sydney teased, “but that doesn't mean a girl can't feel like shaking her behind sometimes.”

“Mmm-hmm, shake on,” he agreed as the run of uptempo songs finally ended with Ciara's “Promise.” Sydney
and Jason stood facing each other uncomfortably as the surrounding couples immediately moved in closer for the sexy slow jam.

“Well, I guess I better head back…” Sydney started.

“Yeah, you wore me out, Ms. Thing,” Jason agreed. He placed his hand on the small of her back as the two slowly maneuvered through the maze of writhing bodies.

“Thanks for the dance; I had fun,” Sydney said over her shoulder as they pushed through toward the edge of the dance floor.

“My pleasure,” he responded.

Before she could think of anything else to say, Sydney made direct eye contact with Marcus, who was now standing at their table with his boys, staring her down like she had just robbed his mother. As she stiffened up, Jason discreetly dropped his hand from her back. “Shit,” she hissed under her breath.

“You good? You still want me to walk you over?” Jason asked warily as he spied Marcus and his friends posturing.

“Um, actually I'm good,” Sydney said as diplomatically as possible. She could tell from Marcus's face this wasn't going to be anything nice.

“All right then, enjoy the rest of your night, pretty girl,” Jason said with a soft squeeze of her arm. Sydney didn't dare turn to watch him walk away.

“You having a good time, Sydney?” Marcus's best friend, Todd, was the first to speak as she neared the group.

“Actually, I am. You?” she tossed back sarcastically as she ignored the tittering of the group of boys.

“What do you think you're doing?” Marcus asked nastily.

“Um, I was just about to sit down,” Sydney replied, choosing to ignore the implied meaning of his loaded question.

“Don't be cute, Sydney,” Marcus warned menacingly. “You think I'm stupid? I turn my back for two seconds and there you are, playing yourself with some wannabe, half-literate jock.” A low chorus of oohs and ahhs echoed from his friends as they began to scatter from the scene like flies.

Sydney's eyes flashed in anger as she slammed her cherryred clutch down on the table. “Marcus. The only person playing himself is you by acting like a jealous fool behind the quote unquote half-literate jock,” Sydney spat back. “Maybe if you spent more time handling your business at home and not chasing down strays then you wouldn't have to worry about me being around Jason!”

“Oh, so you admit that you were with him the other day!”

“Wait, what?” Sydney asked, completely confused.

“You know what I'm talking about! You didn't leave school to go back to your house the other day! Just admit that you used my whip to go see Jason!”

“Go see Jason? Oh, Marcus, please! Stay focused! You're just mad ‘cause you assumed that I'd just wait for you to return to the table no matter how long you took. So when
you finally remembered to come back and I wasn't here, you got your little feelings hurt! Two seconds my behind!”

“Whatever, Sydney, that's besides the point.”

“Just how is you doing what you want at my expense besides the point? Oh, wait, I forgot. It's all about you. I'm just the lucky one who gets to come along for the ride, huh? Listen, Marcus, don't let your little friends get you gassed. We both know what the deal is,” she hinted as she noticed Rhea and Tim walking over from the dance floor.

“I have nothing more to say to you right now,” Marcus said, nervously pulling his hair back and trying to make it seem like he wasn't fazed by Sydney's comment.