Not My Darcy *Wattpad Exclusive*

Chapter One

I watched the awkward scene unfolding, uncertain why this is what counted for romance these days.

I mean, I liked sharing memes with my favourite people as much as the next seventeen-year-old. I liked listening to music. I was partial to seeing new movies and talking about the new shows that dropped on streaming that month. I wasn't totally out of time.

But the display on the quad would continue to confuse me until my dying day. I didn't understand flash mobs, I disliked overly public displays of affection, and I would never understand promposals.

We didn't have a 'prom'. We had a formal.

We didn't have courts or kings or queens. We had a sit-down dinner and an after party that was the real main event.

Our entire school existence didn't seem to hinge on that one event, and yet some of us couldn't resist taking up yet another strange US tradition when Australian ones suited us just fine.

"How long do you think they practiced that?" Alex asked from usual his position at my side.

I shrugged. "Given Dean's dance ability, he's been working on that since Year Seven."

"At least all day every day for the whole holidays," Alex replied.

I snorted and we shared a knowing smile.

We'd been best friends forever. We'd met on the first day of Junior School and been inseparable since I'd tried to punch the Year Three kid who was trying to steal his lunch and given myself a blood nose.

He was the light to my dark. All sandy blond hair and bright blue eyes. He was miles taller than me, but built. Years of water polo practice had given him an enviable set of muscles on him, and soccer kept him fit in winter. He was all jock, and I was all nerd. Not really even the smart kind. I was the cardigan-clad, future-spinster, librarian kind. But it seemed opposites attracted even platonically.

"That's not fair," Nicole said, failing to hide the humour in her voice. "It's nice that he wanted to be romantic."

Alex and I shared another knowing look, this one tinged with a lot more nerves than the last one.

Nicole and Alex had been dating for three years, but she and I had only really bonded earlier the previous year, and she had since become my closest confidant for all those things that Alex was useless at. It had been about the time they'd finally gone all the way, and I think she'd realised that she and Alex were a lot more serious than either of them had realised before that. It was adorable and, had I not loved Alex as much as I did, I would have teased him much less about being all-but old and married while still in school.

Nicole was one of those typically beautiful people. She was warm and affectionate...once you got her past her initial reticence. She was a kind but shy person by nature, and didn't like putting people out or getting in the way. Her hair was naturally a light blonde and her eyes were brilliant hazel. She was almost as tall as Alex, and curvaceous. I hadn't met a person who didn't like her immediately, even the kids who defined themselves as being the outcasts.

"I asked you to the formal," Alex reminded her.

Nicole snorted. "We were watching the Kissing Booth and, during the formal scene, you decided he should have been wearing a waistcoat that matched her dress and told me we were doing that."

Alex looked around at us for support. "Does that not count?"

Wyatt smirked. "You can't let the romance die this early, mate. Someone else will come and woo her out from under you."

Wyatt finished our little group. Where Alex and Nicole were the serial monogamists and I was the serial spinster, Wyatt was the serial dater. And dating there was used in the loosest term possible. About as loose as the button on Wyatt's pants. He was all lazy suave and sophistication, able to seduce anyone with effortless charm. He had dark brown hair, and amber eyes, framed by luscious lashes. He was average height, and lithe. He liked to say his bedroom shenanigans kept him fit, but I suspected there was a little more to it than that.