"Sadie?" my dad said as we were eating cereal Friday morning. Scarfing, actually. Neither of us were morning people, and only had a few minutes to get ready after we pushed our snooze buttons eighty seven thousand times each. He said this, though, in a way that sort of reminded me of a little kid who is about to ask for something, which is when I knew something was up.

"Yes?" I said, a teensy bit worried, hoping he wasn't going to say that he lost his job or we were moving to Siberia or something.

"You know how you're always telling me to get out more?"

I nodded. See, my mom died when I was about six months old. But don't worry, my life isn't one of those driven-by-motherless-angst-Disney-Channel-Original-Movie lives. I never really even met her. I mean, it would be great to have a mom to help me with like, girl stuff, but I have my grandmother for that, and my dad has handled things perfectly well by himself.

So he has never had time for himself. Like, ever. I always encourage him to go out, and have fun. I think it would be nice if he were able to fall in love again and get married. It would be good for him. And I'm sure my dad would pick someone decent, so I'm not worried there.

"Well," he continued. "I have an, erm, date. Tonight. With a woman from work."

I squealed, and he didn't know whether to look worried or not. I may have to refrain in squealing in front of anyone besides Rose.

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"So, anyway, he and Dru are going out to eat and then taking a walk—a moonlit walk—in the park. Isn't it romantic?"

"Totally," Rose said, blowing on her freshly painted nails so they would dry faster. "But that's not his secretary, I hope, right?" His secretary, by the way, is about sixty.

"Nope, she just transferred here."

"From?"

"Um. …Far, far away?"

"You'd think that with your fairy tale obsession, you would have found a Prince Charming by now."

"That is totally unrelated to what we were talking about."

"Yeah, it is. You're always trying to set people up, but when's the last time you went out with someone?"

"Um…" How about… never? I know, I know, what with my boy crazy complex, you'd think that I'd have at least tried out dating, but, well, it's sort of complicated. As in you actually have to get asked out to go out with someone. And that guy, Clyde, who asks everyone out, totally doesn't count.

But like I said, it's comp—

"And don't say it's complicated, because it isn't."

"But it is," I huffed.

"No, it's not. See, Jeff has this really cute nerdy friend who likes to read almost as much as you do. You and I and Jeff and him could all—"

"If you don't calm down, you're going to smudge your nails."

"Are you trying to change the subject?"

Yes. "Um. No."

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There was a new girl at school that Friday. Two, actually. They were twins. They both had dyed blonde hair, permed in such small, tight curls that their heads sort of looked like copper wire. Except yellow.

If they hadn't been in two of my classes, I probably wouldn't have even noticed them. I go to a really big school, and there are so many people I have never even seen before. It's nice, though, because there is always someone new to meet.

I, however, wish I had never met Lucy and Flor Davidson. My life would have been at least slightly less complicated. At least, for the time being.

See, I got to second period and they were there, giving these looks at people who walked by. I figured they must have been really nervous, it being their first day and all, so I went to talk to them.

"Hey," I said, sticking my hand out to shake. "I'm Sadie."

"Sadie?" Number One asked.

"Um, yes."

"Oh," Number Two said, snottily.

"Um, yeah. And you two are…?"

"Lucy," Number One said, and Number Two said, "Flor."

"So, how're you liking Edison High?" I asked, in my friendly, it's-nice-to-meet-you voice.

"It's okay, I guess," Flor said, sipping out of a water bottle. One of those fancy kind that cost about three dollars each, because they are supposed to be purified. She was one of those people that emphasize lots of words, unnecessarily. "But the bathrooms are really dirty."

"It's only second period, and you've been to the bathroom?" I didn't mean to say out loud. Well, I sort of did, but whatever.

She flared her nostrils at me like she was smelling something bad. "Well, some people care about their appearances."

What? Oh. Oh! Hey! "Wait just a minute, now—" I said, and must have had a look of shock on my face, which I tried to turn into a look of scorn that could strike fear into the heart of Attila the Hun, but no matter how it looked to Lucy or Flor, it certainly did not make them like me. In fact, if I had been able to keep my mouth shut just then, I might have been able to avoid what happened next.

See, apparently Lucy and Flor were very used to getting their own way, all of the time. You'd think that they were princesses, really, with the way they acted like people should be worshiping them.

"Whatever," Lucy said. "So, what do you guys do for fun around here?"

"Fun?" I blinked. "Oh. Well, sometimes we, you know, go to the mall or the movies. Or just watch movies at home. Ha, ha, one time my friend Rose and I went to Wal-Mart for the afternoon and just—"

"We mean, like, parties," Flor said. "Who's got the best parties? Where we come from, there was a party every weekend. Ol' Bobby could mix the best bloody marys, isn't that right, Luce?"

She nodded, which was surprisingly intimidating. "Um," I said. "I don't really go to those, um, kind of parties." What I had really meant to say was something witty and sophisticated, but whatever.

Flor rolled her eyes and took another sip out of her water bottle, and Lucy snort-giggled, not even in a cute way.

"Sounds like someone needs a little bit of fun in her life," Flor said, in this really scary hushed voice, as there was a commotion down the hallway. The teacher walked in and commanded everyone to sit in their desks.

For whatever reason, Flor decided to hand me her water bottle. It was almost empty, so I figured she wanted me to throw it away for her, even though I wasn't any closer to the trashcan than she was, but the teacher told nobody to get up, so I just sat there with it like an idiot.

Just then, a policeman charged in the room, being dragged along by a dog that was sniffing everything frantically. He started going down my aisle, and I assumed it was a drug dog, going after the kid who sat in front of me, who periodically came to school high. Or with a box of spiked mints.

But then he walked passed the kid.

And stopped in front of me.

Several things happened next, all of which happened so fast that I can barely remember them.

A) The dog started barking his head off at me.

B) The officer started saying a bunch of stuff into his walkie-talkie, and then looked at me and went, "Miss, we need to see you outside," in this really monotone serious voice.

C) He took away the water bottle, and put it in a plastic bag.

D) He made me take all of my stuff and go into the hallway, the dog barking the whole way.

E) The following conversation took place:

"What we have here is contraband, miss, and is not aloud on the premises. We will need your contact information so we can call in your parent or legal guardian for questioning."

"Um. What?"

"Miss, are you aware that the drinking age in the United States of America is twenty one years of age?"

"Um, yes."

"Also, even in the hands of a legal adult, this substance is not aloud on the premises."

"Water isn't aloud on campus?"

"We realize that you realize that this is not water. You might as well come clean. It is not wise to be untruthful with the law."

"Um. It's not even mine."

"You expect us to believe that?"

"It's not! I swear! I don't even know what it is! You can give me a drug test or whatever."

"Then who's is it?"

(Flor gives me a very dirty look through the classroom door window.) "Um, I don't know."

F) He gave me a drug test.

G) My blood alcohol level was zero.

H) I got detention every Saturday for the rest of the semester anyway, because I wouldn't tell who did it. Not that they knew I did know, they were just assuming. Jerks.

I told my dad about it, and I thought he was going to sue the school or something, but then he found out about how I wouldn't tell who gave it to me.

But you can't just tell on someone, like that. It's so elementary school. Besides, I'm afraid of what Flor would do to me if I did tell.

Sitting in detention that Saturday, (which seemed to me to be a lot like Belle from Beauty and the Beast's situation, or maybe Rapunzel's, or quite possibly even Sleeping Beauty's), was like being trapped inside of a tower. I made a sacrifice for Flor like Belle did for her dad, although Flor doesn't seem to deserve it.

And the worst part is, I'm stuck there with The Beast.

A/N: Uh-oh.

So, anyway, yeah, yeah, I know. 'Oh, great, another one of those stories that just has to have a single parent so there can be a romance simultaneously going with said parent, the kid will have to be more independent and can therefore get into more interesting predicaments, and so it seems oh-so-realistic, even if there are a whole lot of parents who aren't divorced. Or dead.' But don't worry, it's sort of necesssarierrhthp (um, okay, so I can't spell) for the plot. Obviously. How else am I going to incorperate more, er, you'll see what kind of fairy tale references. If you are slightly oblivious and haven't already guessed.

Anyhoodles, this isn't exactly my favorite chapter (the next one probably is-so far), but I have to set up a bunch of stuff. It is, of course, still amazing anyway (duh).

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