Maggie

"I've had my fun" says Dave handing back the Bone "You take it for tomorrow. Plus I should get back home. Mum'll be mad at me for missing dinner. Actually maybe I should…"

"No way. You'll just have to deal with your mother in the old fashion way." Maggie says and laughs as Dave tries to put on his clothes as fast as he can and heads out the door. She hears Dave say goodbye to her mother before lying down and going back to sleep thinking of what she will do tomorrow.

The next day Maggie gets up and dressed and goes down to breakfast feeling happier than she had in a long time. Her ankle is almost totally healed from that fall during practice a few months ago and Dave is not only her lover but trusts her enough to give her his magic bone, both of them (she giggles at the double entendre). She is shocked at how young her mother looks but hides it well. Before leaving for school she sews the bone into the pocket of her school dress so she doesn't loose it.

She gets to the bus stop where she sees her friend Chrissie waving at her.

"You look positively radiant" says Chrissie "What happened to you last night?"

"Dave came over to my house?"

"Oh Daaave"

"Shut-up ... anyway he came over and we went up to my room to read my writings and one thing led to another and…"

"You didn't!"

"...we did. I totally seduced him."

"You? Seduced him? How?"

"Hey!"

"I just meant your not all that ... you know ... confident."

"You can talk"

"Stop dodging the question."

"Well we had a little wine, that may have helped"

"You drunken slut!"

"Hey. It wasn't like that, and after he said he loved me. Not before, like "I love you, let's sleep together", but after."

"Wow" says Chrissie "I wish I could be that confident, even with ****." Then she begins to blush as she sees what Maggie knows has to be her crush, Raphael 'Rafe' Thorn, local 'moody loner'. Poor girl was smitten and Rafe wouldn't even give her the time of day. It wasn't like he had the excuse of a girlfriend or anything, or that Chrissie was particularly unattractive (O.k. so she was a little heavier than Maggie, but she made up for it with a bust-line that Maggie would have envied if she didn't have to worry about her gymnastic ability and a bubbly personality that would put any airhead cheerleader to shame (at least when Rafe wasn't around) it was just that Chrissie was, like Maggie, an 'uncool geek'.

Maggie smiled. Maybe she could do something about this situation. She put her hand on the bone.

"Chrissie" she says "You need to be more confident when Rafe is around, you need to act like you always wished you could."

"You're right" says Chrissie. "Maybe I should go over and talk to him"

"Just wait here," says Maggie taking her hand from the bone "if you go over to him you?ll look ****. Wait for him"

"But what if he doesn't talk to me"

"That's what I'm talking about, you need to mellow out."

She looks at Rafe and touches the bone. The 'Moody Loner' act is making you feel moody and lonely. You will think that the busty blonde next to the nerdy gymnastics chick looks kind of hot. You will realize that the real secret to looking cool is to look like you don't care about looking cool. You will decide that going out with a geek like the blonde will show how much you don't care about looking cool, thereby making you look so much cooler than hanging out by yourself.

Rafe looks up and begins walking toward the pair. Maggie calms down Chrissie (who is beginning to get skittish) with the bone.

"Hey" says Rafe.

"Hey yourself" says Chrissie

"So, like, do you want to go out sometime? You know for Pizza or something?"

Usually Chrissie would jump at the chance allowing Rafe to set the date, time and what she wore down to her underwear, but since she acting the way she always wished she could she asks "Like When?"

"How about tonight? After school?"

Chrissie gets out her diary (which Maggie knows only contains homework) and looks through it, as if seeing whether she can fit Rafe into her busy social calendar. Maggie is so proud.

"Looks like I'm free? she says "but I'll need some time to get changed. I'm not going out in my uniform. How about 7, at Papa Giovanni?s?"

"That's cool" says Rafe and walks back to his customary tree.

"Oh my God!" says Chrissie "I was so nervous"

"You were so cool. See all it takes is confidence" says Maggie and a magic bone she adds to herself.