• My Ferrari attracted the usual attention. James Goldston, the Senior Football star, as usual, came over to flirt. Jake parked the Lexus in it’s usual spot, next to my Ferrari. Jake’s girlfriend, Nicky Anderson, my best friend, came to greet us. “Hey, Nix.” I said. “Hey, Terbear.” She answered. Nicky and Jake kissed, UGH!, then Jake headed off to History. Nicky and I had Spanish, BORING! James, of course had every class, except gym, with me and Nicky. Nicky and I had every class together. Even gym, Dance Team practice. I was Captain. Randy Heter was smiling across the room. “Tera, why are you so anti-boy?” Nicky asked. “I’m not anti-boy, I’m school focused. I already have six scholarship offers from six different schools.” I retorted. James, Randy and Ian smiled at me. Ian Michelleson was the the school’s smartest football player. By the way his last name is pronounced, Mike-ul-son. Confusing. I swear, It took James and Randy a month to learn how to say, One Moment, in Spainish. Uno Momento, easy peasy. Uno Month to learn Uno Momento. Crazy. So where was I, yes, Spanish was easy. Headed to Biology. Whoopeeeeeee! Mr. Bickner, our Biology teacher, is abocessed with yeast. Yeast this, yeast that. Help! “Today, we are learning how many yeast fit into a colony. And on it went, we never actually got to the part where we learn something. Well, I didn’t. My Uncle Ray is a Biologist. We moved onto creating explosives with yeast. The plastics made the first one and it exploded everywhere, including on their shirts from some Russian clothes store. They mobed me on the way to lunch everyday, like I said, my family has money. Everyday we sit at our table and when the plastics come, we say “No sluts zone.” And they go away. Back to Biology, Nicky and I had the perfect explosion, so Mr. Bickner said. It bubbled up and the plastics were hit again. Blue and sticky it was. We laughed so hard we cried. Sometimes, the plastics just have to cry about it. Nicky and I met up with Jake, going to History. My favorite subject. WHOOOOOO! All this week we were learning about World War II and The Holocaust. Manny Cortez, a plastic, sits by me. Ms. Briggster, the History teacher, was looking excited. “Kay, guys, some of you are gonna love this. For twelve school days, we are going to be in pairs writing reports. Three of them, one on the Holocaust, another on Hitler, and what happened to two countries in World War II. Each pair will be given two countries and twelve school days, plus the time outside of school, to write three reports. Our pairs are Manny Cortez and Harry Flickner. Tera Mericalli and Nicky Anderson. Micky Harris and Fransis Cole. Jacob Mericalli and Bethaney Graninger. That’s it.” She said. “Nix, Bethaney Graninger has had her eye on my bro since kindergarden, watch out.” I said. Nicky nodded. “I know Ter-bear, we’ve been best friends ever since we can remember.” Nicky replied. Bethaney grinned as Jake turned to her. “Jacob and Bethaney, you have Japan and the U.S.S.R. Tera, Nicky, Italy and Austria...” Ms. Briggster carried on. The bell rang. Everyone was out the door when Bethaney Graninger blocked our path. “You got Italy, the most romantic coutry, you are gonna trade Italy to me and my future husband for Japan.” She said. “Um, no and Jake and Nix have already made the wedding plans, but he hasn’t proposed and they haven’t set the date. They even have the Best Man and Maid of Honor picked out. I’m Maid of Honor and Jake’s best friend Koren is Best Man.” I told her. We slid around her. Koren Censter, Jake’s best friend, walked up. Jake and Nicky were trying, and failing, to get him to ask me to the dance. Crap, the dance was tonight. I didn’t have a date but I had a rockin’ dress. Yeah, I’m a nerd with straight A’s but, I had to have a rockin’ dress. Nicky and I got our dads to let us use their credit cards. Mine’s a soft red with black lace over it, floor-length and it’s a strapless. Nicky’s is a dark electric blue knee-length with straps. “I’m gonna to the bathroom.” Nicky said. “TMI.” I laughed. “Tera, um, would you go to the dance with me?” Koren asked shyly. I smiled. “Sure.” Koren sighed with relief. “Can I take you to the movies Saturday?” he asked. “Yeah, I’d like that. But don’t tell Nix and Jake, they’ll torment us.” I laughed. “I have to go get Nix for Home Ec.” I said. As I walked into the bathroom Koren waved bye and I waved back. “So?” Nicky said. “Eavesdropper.” I acused.”So?” she repeated. “I’m not telling you.” I said, my hands on my hips. “Oh, come on, Ter-bear, please?!” she begged. “Nope.” I said, walking away. It went like this all the way to Home Ec. The whole way. Home Ec. was awesome, but not like History. Nicky and I were the only ones in the class. Home Ec. was making lunch for the other kids. And my Aunt Shelby is the cook. Nicky calls my parents mom and dad and I call her parents mom and dad. Between the two of us we can make alot of laughs. “Hey, Aunty Shelby.” Nicky and I said at the same time. “Hello, girls. How are you today?” she asked. “We’re good.” I said and Nicky nodded. “What’s for lunch?” Nicky asked. “Ravioli.” Aunt Shelby said. “Oh, light bulb, can we go get Jake out of class? He and Ter-bear make perfect ravioli. Serious.” Nicky said. “How this, Tera go get Jake, here’s a note and when you get back, we’ll have everything set up. How does that sound?” Aunt Shelby asked. “Good, but can I pick up Koren, he is the reason our sause tastes so good.” I begged. “Sure.” Aunt Shelby said giving me a new note. “Go on now.” She said. I ran down the hall to Ms. McCallity’s room. I knocked. Ms.McCallity opened the door. “Yes, Tera?” she asked. “Aunt Shelby gave two notes, one for Jake and the other for Koren, appearently the three of us are making our famous Mericalli ravioli. Can I borrow them for today? Please.” I asked. “Well, if this ravioli is gonna be like the one at the 4th of July party you guys had last year then okay.” She said. “Thanks.” I said. “Come in.” She told me. I gave her the notes and went in. “Jake, Koren, please report to the hall.” I said. “They will not be coming back.” I said. I ran into the hallway. “Okay, boys, it’s ravioli time.” I laughed and we all ran down to the kitchen. “The pasta and sause comitee has arived.” Koren annouced. Jake and I went to the pasta bowl and Koren to the stove. Jake had brought his back so he extracted our Italian Chef hats and aprouns. Nicky and Koren started laughing. “Oh, shut up. We always have them in our backpacks.” I said. And so on it went . Koren put on his Italian hat and aproun, too. We all cooked and Nicky cooked the Anderson secret recipe for veggies and it is delicous. When we finished the bell rang. We served. Everyone got seconds. Then we ate the rest, so good. We got to take fifth hour off because we made lunch. All four of us. “Come on, we know there’s something going on between you two. Come on! You gotta tell us.” Jake begged. “No, we don’t want or intend to tell you.” Koren said. “Please!” Nicky begged. “No, we don’t want to, we don’t have to.” I said. “Please!” “No.” Please!” “No!” and on it went, til sixth hour bell rang and then Jake tormented Koren and Nicky tormented me. “Please. Why won’t you tell me?” Nicky begged. “Because, it’s personal.” I retorted. Sixth hour went smooth, science. Seventh hour, final hour, dance team practice. We were really good. It’s hard to discribe our routine. The final bell rang and I went to my car. Koren came by and kissed my cheek. I kissed his and said, “Seven.” “Kay, pick you up then. Why a half hour before prom, why not an hour?” he asked. “Cause Nicky and Jake leave, then. Go, get home. I’m giving Nicky a lift cause she has to go pick up her dress then we go to my house and get ready.” I explained. Right when he got to his Dodge, Nix and Jake came out. Nicky came over and slid in the passenger seat of the Ferrari. “Let’s go.” She said, buckling her seat belt. We drove to her house singing to the radio. When we got there she ran in and got her dress and make-up bag. We got to my house, or what Nicky called it, The Castle of Italian Persons. Weird huh? “Hey, we’re home.” I yelled and Nicky followed me to my room. We took showers and did our make-up. Nicky had brown-gold eyeliner and pale silver eyeshadow with red lips. I had soft eggplant purple eyeliner and gold eyeshadow with soft pink lips. We put our dresses on after or hair was blowdried. Nicky had my mom put her hair in braided bun and mom did my hair in a palm tree style. Nicky had classic Nine West pumps on when she and Jake left for the dance. A half hour later, Koren came over to pick me up. I had mom’s pearls on and her pearl studs with my dress and a pair soft red strappy heels. Even with heels, Nicky and I still weeren’t as tall as Koren and Jake. Koren helped me into his truck then went around and got in the driver’s side. We got there with three minutes to spare. Koren came around, opened my door, and helped me out. Everyone was there. All of the sudden a plastic named Mindy Cravy grabbed Koren’s arm. “He’s my date now.” She laughed. “No, let me introduce myself. I’m Tera Mericalli, the girl in the ninja karate class who’s the only one with an A, not only that but it’s a 100%. So back off, twit, he’s mine.” I smiled taking Koren’s arm as Mindy ran off. “Well, well, well, this is what you two were hiding from us.” Nicky was standing infront of us with Jake at her side. She was scowling. “Nix, we were planning to suprise you guys.” I said, puttig on the pouty face not even my mother could resist. “Okay, fine.” Nicky laughed. Jake’s face was pale and white, drained of color. Nicky looked up, and Koren and I turned around. The only thing we saw was a Tracker, an elemental tracker. “The legend says there will be four, two Italian, two American. Thy who stands in before, shall be the four.” The man pointed his finger at us. A blinding light flashed. The man was gone. We ran. I jumped into Koren’s car. Jake and Nicky sped to our house.