Zugzwang [COMPLETED]

Part II, chapter 5

-V-

Friday night from hell started at six in the evening. No, let me rephrase that. The Spring Fling started at six. The night from hell started around eight in the evening. I gave my car keys to Dante, and he and Marie left at 5:40 or so. Logan and I decided to be fashionably late, and we didn't leave the house until almost 6:15. When we arrived, I couldn't believe how many people were already there.

We walked inside and I immediately started to look for Dante, wondering how he was handling the crowd. I saw him after five minutes, and he seemed to be doing better than fine. I was jealous. The crowd was making me nauseous. Fremont, however, seemed to feel at extreme ease.

"Ugh," I said with disgust.

"I know," Logan agreed. "People."

"Not just people," I muttered. "The amount of people!!"

Logan grinned.

"Right. Come on, let's get you some punch."

"Punch?! Logan, I am not drinking!"

"Punch, Gwen," he said patiently. "Fruit punch. The actual thing, you know. Artificial flavor, chemical coloring, and all... The stuff that makes your mouth look like you ate a bunch of crayons...?"

"Not alcoholic?" I frowned.

"It's a high school dance," he sighed. "And it's not even seven in the evening yet... There is no alcohol anywhere in sight. There probably will be around midnight or so, but..."

"Okay," I winced. "Okay. Punch, good."

Sometime around 7:30, I finally felt somewhat okay, and I even danced. Once with Logan, and once with Dante. I kept throwing glances around the dance floor, trying to see Johnny or Tanya -- or Carl, for that matter -- but they weren't here. Weird. It's 7:30, where the hell are they? Finally, I stopped looking and decided that maybe Carl and his brainless buddies decided to beat Johnny up or something like that. It would actually be a lesser evil for the Nerd. He'd be physically hurt, yeah, but at least, he wouldn't be publicly humiliated.

At 7:45, Johnny and Tanya finally showed up. I almost spilled my punch all over Logan when I saw the Nerd's arm wrapped firmly around Tanya's waist, and his beaming smile. Tanya seemed perfectly content and almost peaceful. I carefully set my glass on the table and frowned. Something is so wrong with this picture, I thought. I looked around again. Still no Carl. And to think of it, there was no sign of his brain-damaged buddies as well. Ugh, why do I have a nasty feeling that something bad is going to happen to the Nerd? And an even better question -- why the hell do I care? Frustrating.

Finally, I got Logan, Dante, and Marie together and gloomily told them to watch the Nerd and the Prom Queen as if they were something really tasty. "Pretend that you are hungry hyenas and those two are sheep or something. Got it?" Logan snorted at me. "Yes, ma'am!" he said in a low voice.

"It's nice to see that you care, Gwen," Dante said innocently, and I restrained myself from pinching his arm.

"Just shut up, will you?" I hissed. "I don't care. I simply don't want the Nerd to start crying uncontrollably when I am trying to dance!"

"You care," Dante whispered in my ear, and I just pushed him away.

So the four of us were watching the Nerd and the Prom Queen, and everything seemed to be okay, still no Jock and Co. in sight. Then the clock struck eight, and the night from hell has officially begun. The Bringer of Doom was none other than the Freak.