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We quickly backtracked through the office, on our way out we spotted a few people coming in. One of the girls knocked me into Karen and we tumbled into a dilapidated office. When the spinning stopped Karen was on top of me, her blonde hair dangling over me like outstretched hands reaching for my face. She sat back on her knees allowing me to sit up and I notice how beautiful her face looked bathe in moonlight. We heard rustling and turned to see a pair of boys in a similar position on a worn out beanbag chair. "You know there's another beanbag."

"They're very comfortable." One of the boys winked at us and I scrambled to stand back up and rushed out of the room, it was all too much for me. I wasn't checking her out, I was just...appreciating how beautiful the moonlight was. That's all. I have a boyfriend. We drove silently for a while before Karen spoke up.

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable back there."

"No, it's fine. I just wanted to go." Karen frowned, "Can I tell you something?"

"Sure." She sounded almost ****.

"I liked Scully too. Maybe not for the same reasons you did." I laughed nervously.

"It's alright. You don't have to say that."

"No, it's true. I dressed up as her for one Halloween. My mom made me a fake FBI badge and everything."

Karen snorted a laugh, "When was that?"

"When I was ten."

"With the suit too?"

"Yeah?"

Karen burst out laughing all of a sudden, "I'm sorry I'm just picturing a little ten-year-old in a pantsuit."

I tried to fight back my own laughter, "Hey I looked awesome! And I got more candy than either of my brothers."

"Well yeah. They were afraid you'd arrest them!"

Karen dropped me off in my driveway, "Thanks for today. It was good to get my mind off things."

"No problem."

After dinner, I spent the night trying to decipher the papers I found. Not only was some of it redacted but it was written in code. The more I tried to figure out the less I knew. There was one diagram that looked like a molecule but of what I can't figure out. I put that aside and started on my actual homework.

Eventually, I fell asleep and I was back in my old room in my old house making out with Jason with mad desperation. It would be our last night together for months and we wanted it to be memorable. Jason's hand squeezed my breast, one of his favorite activities, while my hands squeezed his butt, one of my favorite activities. Something felt off though, his butt felt bigger and firmer in my hands while his hands felt smaller and softer. His moans rose in pitch until he almost sounded like-I pushed him away and saw Karen leaning over me once again. "What's wrong, babe?"

I woke up suddenly, my blanket had been kicked off of me and my body drenched with sweat. How did it get so hot in here? I looked at my open window and could already feel the cool night air fill up my room. I shivered and hugged myself as my sweat began to cool. "Dreams are just my brain processing today's events and emotions...I miss Jason, some weirdness happened...that's all."

The next day after helping Jerry with his makeup I sat on the bus with Karen and filled her in on everything, except for my dream. "Well if he is gay at least he knows you're there for him and if not that's still good too."

"I hope so." I could see Erica looking for me on the bus as we stood to leave and I knew I would have to hear her side of things. I found her in the crowd and took her into the girl's locker room. I was about to ask the girl at the mirror to leave when Erica cut me off.

"Clarence. Can you give us the room?"

"The lighting is better in here." The girlish looking boy traced a lipstick along his lips before blowing a kiss at himself in the mirror. He looked back at us and examined me critically. "Oh very well." He threw his lipstick into a red heart-shaped bag and walked out gracefully.

"Thank you, Claire."

"Yeah, Yeah." He waved as he walked out the door.

I had many questions about Claire but I'd have to figure that out later. "You said you wanted to tell me your side, so here I am." I tried to sound as non-hostile as I could but it was hard when I meet a cheater.

"Okay, so it's very simple. No great big mystery. We were at a party, it was actually our first party as a couple and we were drinking and I lost track of her at the party and I was looking for her I swear but...I was still drinking and I can't remember what happened next but I remember it was really dark and I was kissing someone and suddenly the door opened and Karen had burst in the room and some girl was on top of me."

"Gotta say you're not exactly making a compelling case for why I should side with you on this."

"I don't want you too."

"Then what do you want?"

"I want you to tell her the truth. She won't listen to me anymore. We didn't even have sex." She looked away from me trying to shield her eyes. "I really loved her." Even though she looked like a typical girly girl she was clearly trying to be strong even though she was heartbroken.

"Alright, I'll tell her."

"Oh thank you!" She hugged me excitedly with a huge smile on her face.

"I don't know how much it will change anything but I'll try."

"Thank you so much!" She continued to hug me and I felt such relief in her voice as if it was already a done deal. I didn't want to get her hopes up but I didn't want to ruin her happiness so I just hugged her back. She thanked me as she walked away to her class. I headed off to my own and began wondering how their relationship differed from my own. I remember mine and Jason's first official party as a couple, we danced and made out and had our first kiss. My dream entered my mind again and I shook my head.

"Hey!" Karen called from her locker, "Where'd you go?"

"Uh, locker room. Did you know a uh...guy?"

"Oh yeah, that's Claire. He does that sometimes but he's harmless other than being a bitchy queen from time to time." Karen traced a q-tip over her lips adding the final touches to her lipstick.

"He kind of checked me out."

Karen laughed, "No way." She snorted, "He's gay. He was probably judging your outfit." She looked behind me down the hallway and smiled, "Or he probably is friends with your brother." I turned around and through the crowd, I could see Jerry wearing more makeup than what I put him in and holding hands with another boy who was also in makeup although his was way more outlandish than Jerry's. Standing next to them was a couple of other boys and Claire.

I turned back to Karen hiding my face behind her locker so Jerry couldn't see me. "What are you doing?"

"I don't want him to see me yet," I whispered.

"Why's that?"

I grabbed her hand and pulled her into the open door which turned out to be a janitor's closet. "Okay," I flipped the switch and realized there wasn't much room to move. We had to stand perfectly still to keep from bumping into each other, "right." I swallowed nervously trying to push the dream out of my mind again, "I...I don't have problems with gay people I really don't but I didn't expect him to be...I don't want to say something stupid and hurt him."

"You're crazy you realize that? But your heart is in the right place so I'll let it slide." She thought for a moment before she spoke again, "Okay, I know some people that may help. I can take you to them after school if you want."

"That'd be great thank you!" I hugged Karen happily and I thought this sense of relief must be how Erica felt when she hugged me. The bell rang and I realized I was hugging her way longer than a few seconds. "We should," I cleared my throat, "we should go."