Zugzwang [COMPLETED]

Part II, chapter 1

- I -

Christmas came and went, and I couldn't stop laughing when Logan gave me a medieval chess set made out of glass.

"This way you won't throw it at my head because it'll break," he said solemnly.

He was right, I wouldn't sacrifice that chess set; it was really beautiful. Dante started working as a tech support at the same office with Logan right before Christmas, since Logan was always good at pulling people's strings and making them do whatever the hell he wanted. Marie was now officially Dante's girlfriend, and I cracked up every time when I saw a hurt and betrayed expression on Tanya's face whenever she saw them together. I got stuck with sitting next to Johnny, after Dante all but begged me on his knees to let him sit next to Marie this semester. Well, I thought, better Johnny than Juliana. That girl was seriously freaking me out lately.

She would follow me everywhere like a dog, and she would copy pretty much anything I did. She dyed her hair exactly the same shade of strawberry-blonde as mine, and she even cut it the same way. She would always try and copy the outfits I wore, and it bugged the hell out of me. Logan once said that she probably had a crush on me or something like that, but I just snorted at him in my usual manner. Whatever. She was weird and clingy, but I knew for a fact, that she wasn't gay.

I was applying to several different colleges, having no idea what major I wanted to stick with, and Logan applied to the same ones, after I told him that there was always one slim chance that someone would be high or hung over enough to actually sign a scholarship paper for him. He would major in something that had to do with computers -- I knew that. Seriously, the guy could put the computer apart and back together with his eyes closed. It was weird.

Somehow, Logan and Dante were able to talk me into going to the Spring Fling that would take place on the first Friday night after the spring break. I still have no clue how I let them to do that to me. I guess Dante was taking lessons from McNamara in How to Manipulate People 101. Before long, I found myself actually shopping for a dress with Marie, can you believe it?! Ugh, changes are never good, I kept thinking gloomily, and hated myself for the fact that I actually enjoyed it.

A couple of weeks before the spring break, Johnny started pestering me with his confessions about how much he was in love with the Prom Queen. I finally looked at him one of those days, and calmly told him that he was out of his freaking mind if he thought even for a second that Tanya would dump Carl, just so she could be with Johnny. He winced at that, but stubbornly said that he was going to ask her to go to the dance with him. I said that he was suicidal, and that it would be much easier and a lot less painful if he just slit his wrists, and that Juliana should be able to help him with that. Then I had a brilliant idea in my head, and I asked him why wouldn't he invite Juliana instead, and he looked at me like I just offered him to make out with Carl.

So finally, I just shrugged and told him to do whatever the hell he wanted and to leave me alone. I thought that he would chicken out for sure, and when he didn't, I was so surprised that I almost broke my pencil.

It was Monday before the spring break when he slowly lowered himself into the seat next to me and stared at me with huge eyes that looked even bigger behind his glasses.

"What?" I sighed.

"Gwen..." he muttered. "I asked her to the dance."

That's when I almost broke my pencil.

"Seriously?" I didn't even care if people would see my surprised expression. The Nerd had balls!

"Yeah," he breathed. "And she said that she had to think about it..."

Oh Lordy, I thought. This is never good. In Tanya's book, 'I'll think about it,' translated into, 'I have to figure out how I can humiliate you the best.' I shook my head and thought that since Johnny got himself into this mess, he had to deal with it now. I knew that Tanya and Carl would probably do something nasty to him that would make him sadly famous for the rest of the semester, but oh well. He'll be fine after the school is out, and hopefully, he'll learn at least something from it. Life experience is life experience, right?