It took two more weeks of sitting in the bug box before Cuddles was cleaned up enough to work on. Figuring out how she was going to braid the cord and wrap the wires had been fairly easy, so she'd mostly spent her time in Mr. Clarke's class studying for other classes. Yesterday, she'd used an old toothbrush to scrub off the little bits that the ants and other bugs had left behind and then she'd soaked all the bones in a peroxide mix. She needed to really concentrate to stop herself from immediately dumping as much blue light as she could manage into Cuddle's bones, but she'd been getting better at her self-control. She hadn't used her power on anything, accidentally or on purpose, for over a week now.

After soaking in the peroxide, the snake was a clean white color and Sarah could finally get started on him. She'd brought Cuddles to school, leaving him in her cubby in Mr. Clarke's room. Now she was at her table, carefully detaching the ribs from the vertebrae. The vertebrae worked great as beads once the ribs were disconnected, and Sarah was looking forward to threading them nicely onto the cords she had waiting. A rib tinkled into a mason jar she'd brought to save them. She wasn't sure what she'd do with the ribs, but it seemed wrong to just throw them out. Maybe Mr. Clarke would have some ideas for those, too. Finn was sitting next to her at his table, slapping brown paint onto his lumpy paper mache football.

They hadn't gone out together again in the last few weeks. As the days warmed up and summer got closer, things just got busy. They all had projects or tests coming up, including some that would count for college. Alexa was stressing about college, she'd signed up to start with summer courses. She was pretty stressed about that, even if her school was just on the other side of town. Finn didn't have any plans for summer causing problems, but he had been pretty distracted by Bri. Sarah still saw both Finn and Alexa every day, not only did they have classes together, Sarah had kept eating lunch in the choir room, even if the noise had been getting pretty painful in there lately.

"We should go to prom," said Finn, and Sarah snapped one of the fragile ribs in half.

"Excuse me?"

"Come to prom with me," he repeated, still not looking at her as he kept slathering paint down.

"Wait, um, wait," said Sarah as she carefully put down the little cutters she'd been handling. "What about Bri? Aren't you two a thing?"

"We were," said Finn as he kept on painting. "It's been fun, but she's going with someone else anyways."

"So, a date then, to Prom," she asked.

"Yeah, we should go," he said.

"Next week."

"Right."

"Next week," repeated Sarah. "To prom."

"Yeah, will you?"

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"With a dress and everything?"

"That's the idea, right?" Finn had put down his paintbrush and had turned to watch Sarah, although Sarah was still staring directly ahead.

The door shut as someone left the room, and Sarah jumped as it slammed shut. She glanced up at the clock and began putting the bones back into the glass jars she'd been keeping them in. She could feel Finn's eyes on her as he waited for her to answer. She just kept cleaning up with quiet deliberation. She had to say something.

"Can I tell you later, tomorrow?" she asked him.

"No problem," said Finn with an easy smile. He turned away and started putting his own stuff away, tossing his brush overhand into the big sink and clapping a lid over his jar of paint.

When the bell rang, Sarah barely winced at the shrill buzz. She was already out of her seat and racing out of the room. She hadn't really made a conscious decision, but she already knew she was going to skip history. The odds were good they were just going to watch more of Gettysburg anyways. She'd already read *Killer Angels,* so she didn't see much point in watching the film. No, she knew where she was going, she just had to get there in time.

Turning a corner, she found her destination and stuck her head through the door. She didn't say anything, but she did manage to make eye contact with Alexa. Alexa quietly said something to the boy she'd been talking to and then got up and came out to where Sarah was now leaning hunched against the lockers.

"What's wrong," asked Alexa, reaching out to put her arms around Sarah's shoulders.

"Finn asked me out," said Sarah. "To prom."

"Oh, right, he and Bri broke up this morning," said Alexa. "Did you say yes?"

"No!" answered Sarah.

"So you said no?"

"No!"

"I'm not sure what you want then," said Alexa.

The bell rang again, and Sarah flinched, all her muscles trembling until the noise stopped. The two girls stood together for another moment while the hallway emptied out.

Finally, Alexa spoke up, "So, he asked you out, and you didn't answer?"

Sarah nodded against Alexa's shoulder.

"Do you want to go?" she asked gently.

"No. Yes. Kinda," said Sarah.

"Ok, I think I've got that. No, you don't want to go with Finn, but yes you think you should go anyway, and you kinda just want to go to prom regardless of who with," said Alexa. "Right?"

Sarah nodded again.

"You can just say no, I know you know that," said Alexa.

"I can't say no," said Sarah. "He's just, I can't."

"You can't, can you," answered Alexa. "So go. You can just tell him it's just for fun, people really do go with just friends, even at prom. It'll be fun, go dance, wear something pretty."

"It's next week!" Sarah was panicking again.

"Oh, yeah, that's not much time is it?" Alexa looked up as she spoke.

Sarah shook her head this time.

"You know what? It'll be fine. You need a dress, so we'll go shopping. It's sure to be slim pickings, but we might get lucky. And if we don't, I've got a bunch of dresses and you're welcome to borrow one, and Jill's got a ton of fancy dresses too." Alexa paused as Sarah pulled away with a cocked head and narrowed eyes.

Alexa went on, "You might be surprised. She likes really short hemlines, I'll bet she's got a few that'll fit great. Anyway, to recap, a boy likes you and asked you out, but you don't like him..."

"He's fine," interrupted Sarah. "He's a friend, and I'm not going to be mean to him."

"Right. A boy likes you, and you don't want to kiss him," Alexa paused as a giggle escaped from Sarah. "He asked you out, and you're going to go out. You're going to have fun picking out a pretty dress, you're going to make him buy you expensive food for the privilege of making you feel awkward, and then you'll have fun dancing. That's not terrible, is it?"

Sarah shook her head again, letting herself relax a bit. She suddenly pulled her arms across her chest and tightened up again, and felt her voice squeak as she said, "I have to dance?"