Brandon. Yes, THAT Brandon.

Spiraling

Fall Festival.

10000000x worse than prom.

Seriously, prom is like going to an eight year old's koala-themed/Hannah Montana birthday party compared to Fall Festival at West Crimson High.

First of all, Fall Festival occurs in late-November, so it might as well be "Pre-Winter Festival". The only reason it's called Fall Festival is so the teachers can call it F&F to sound cool. Its not a festival of any kind, I assure you. F&F at my school is prom and other schools don't understand the struggle of this. Finding a date in a short time (making sure you didn't miss the hot new girl to be your date), having your date realize that her Mexi-mini dress is going to cause her to freeze like Captain America because F&F is partially outside (Madeline Tudor still blames me for this for some odd reason).

The worst part? The whole high school is invited. So you have a mix of flat-chested, pale, makeup infested freshman girls with equally stringy freshman boys (Conner is an exception), and Miss Friggin Americas with many a Derek Furst wannabe by their sides. Speaking of Derek Furst, he's gone to F&F with Sydney Mays for two years now. And there's no way in heck he's taking her this year since he's head over heels in love with Cill. Now, thats a Furst (Marshall started that pun. I'll give him credit).

"Hey there, stranger!" a voice says from behind me. I can't help but groan. This morning was rough. Damn the bright-and-early people. I turn to face my attacker. My face softens.

"Katrina, right?" I ask.

"Christina. But you're close." She smiles bright. "You can call me Chris, if it'll help you remember. So, how is your day so far?"

"I'm not a morning person," I overexaggeratedly grumble. Chris tilts her head to the side and squints at me.

"But its...11:25 a.m."

"Still the morning," I concur. "What's your next class?" Chris hikes up her backpack and flips her long, blonde hair. Her face twitches up into a concentrated thinking expression.

...she's cute.

"Psych, I think. Is that with the hot teacher?" Chris asks. I come to full attention. Does she just assume that I like guys because of the Mitch thing yesterday? Has she heard the whispers already? She's only been here like, four days! Gosh, I hate people so much-- "Brandon?"

"What?"

"Geez, you are tired, haha. When I asked the other guys that they just got all snide with me and said it was gross." Christina and I walk to Mr. Arabell's classroom and she sits by me. Cill usually sits by me, but she's chill, so it shouldn't be a problem. Mitchell parks right in front of Christina and turns to talk to her, until he sees me. His cheeks flush red instantly and he moves to the other side of the room. "What's his real problem with you? Besides yesterday, I mean," Chris whispers.

"I don't know," I reply. "We were best friends until middle school. Then he just became a jerk."

"It's a shame, because he's really cute." I laugh. Chris may just have a hard time here. There are quite a few... 'cute' guys.

***

"Give it back!" I hear someone shout from the commons area. Really? I just got out of class. Will it cost a soul to maintain some sort of peace in this hellhole school?

"Take back what you said, then," another voice mocks. Sounds like Cill and Derek have taken their fighting inside the school. That's a Furst. I move Christina along. Cill is actually pretty cool; I don't want Chris to get a bad impression of her.