The day of the prom arrived all too soon, and Sarah couldn't decide if she was excited or nervous. Her stomach was a little upset either way. She had gone through all the preparations with Alexa and Jill's help, and now she stood in front of her mirror, looking at her reflection in the pale blue dress. The soft color suited her well, and she felt surprisingly confident. The silver necklace with the sapphire pendant added a touch of elegance, and the black clutch with the grinning skull gave her a hint of something that actually made her feel a bit more comfortable. Jill said it was edgy, but Sarah just felt more like herself carrying it. Less like a stranger in fancy clothes. Maybe it was just because it tied in her bracelet. The bracelet was white and silver and it coiled around her wrist like a wide cuff.

She'd finished Cuddles just the day before yesterday, and Mr. Clarke promised full marks. Her teacher wanted Sarah to leave the bracelet at school so he could put it on display with a few of the other art projects he'd liked, but she'd managed to get him to let her take it home, just to wear to prom. She'd strung the bones on a strand of black leather and used bright silver wire to accent the shapes of each vertebra. The bones fit tightly together, making the whole thing feel stiff and solid, and she'd made a clasp out of the skull and a tiny decorative knot at the tail. Cuddles wrapped three times around her wrist, with the last bit of leather crossing the top to close the whole thing.

Her mom was beaming with pride as she snapped a picture of Sarah coming down the stairs. "You look beautiful, sweetheart," her mom said, giving her a hug.

"Thanks, Mom," Sarah replied, concentrating on not letting the red flush spread to her face. She knew her mom was still excited about all the time she'd been spending with friends, but Sarah kinda wished her mom was a bit less enthusiastic about everything. Sarah hadn't been able to bring up her reservations about Finn, even though she had managed to tell Finn they were just going to be friends.

Somehow she'd actually been able to talk to Finn about the night. Sarah shuddered a bit thinking about the short little conversations they'd had. She'd told him her soft blue-grey dress color, he'd asked if she wanted flowers, she'd checked about how they were meeting for the night, he'd told her when he wanted to pick her up, all that sort of little planning. She'd even managed to explain that while she wanted to go to prom, she didn't want to date yet. She thought he'd taken it ok.

Finn was waiting patiently by the door, holding a clear plastic clamshell at his waist. Sarah could see that the wristlet he'd gotten was all pale blue flowers that somehow exactly matched her dress. They were held together with narrow black ribbons that somehow both shone and absorbed all the light in the entryway. In spite of herself, Sarah thought they looked lovely. Finn put them on her left wrist, and she pinned a little red tulip to the lapel of his suit. They posed together for one last picture and then they were out the door.

Finn was driving his dad's car, a little two-door thing that looked very, very shiny and very old-fashioned at the same time. Sarah didn't recognize the brand, it just had "SS" in little chrome letters on the front grill. Sarah opened the passenger door and let herself into the car. The interior was all pale blue leather with chrome highlights, and Sarah sat gingerly into her bucket seat, already worrying about how her legs were going to stick to it when she got out. Finn stood next to her door for a moment, then shut it and hustled around the outside to get into the driver's seat.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"I did get you something," he said, reaching across to open the glove box. He pulled out a rumpled paper sack and set it on her lap.

"Thank you," said Sarah. "But I didn't. I'm sorry, I didn't realize presents were a prom thing. I only got you that boutonniere."

"Oh, no, it's not a prom gift. Just a gift," said Finn with an easy smile. "Open it!"

While Finn started the car, having to let it chug a couple of times before the old car roared to life, she opened the top of the paper bag. Holding the bag meant she couldn't cover her ears at the rumbling engine. The bag felt like candy, it was full of little amorphous objects, and she reached in and took one out. She held it up to her sight, looking at the smooth yellow-white thing. It was a tooth. It was a bag of teeth. Finn had given her... teeth. She dropped the one she'd taken back into her bag and turned her whole body to look at Finn.

Finn was concentrating on the road, and the car jerked and shuddered a couple of times as he did something complicated with the shifter. He was chewing on his tongue while he drove, looking down at the stick at each turn and stop sign. Sarah had heard that manual drives were more complicated, and she felt thankful that her mom had an automatic. Not that she drove very often. Her mom had made her drive a bunch when Sarah had first gotten her license, but that had dropped off fairly quickly.

"What?" said Finn. He hadn't noticed her staring until he reached a light that made them stop for a minute.

"Teeth?" she asked.

"Yeah, great, right? I dunno where Dad got it, but it's been in a stack of his work stuff forever, and when I mentioned that a friend wanted to use them for an art project he let me have them. Cool, right?" he said with a grin.

"I don't think I can imagine an art project I want to do that uses teeth. Human teeth? Why would he have them at work?" she said.

"Dunno, some dentist thing, probably," said Finn after a moment. He was concentrating on the car again as they drove along. "And no, not art, I just thought you might have a use for it. Like Cuddles."

Sarah nodded and pushed the bag into her purse. Between her phone, keys, wallet, lip gloss, and the bag of teeth there really wasn't any more room at all for anything else in there. If the bag of teeth wasn't able to smush into the empty spaces she probably wouldn't have been able to close it up at all. Maybe the teeth would be good to experiment with later. But maybe not.

"Hey, I should ask before we get there," said Finn," but why haven't you shined up Cuddles? Isn't that why you made him? But you haven't done anything yet."

"Oh, that, yeah," said Sarah. "It's a self-control thing. I haven't used the blue for like two weeks. I've been trying not to since I realized I was doing it without thinking about it."

"Really? Wow, I've been making fire and stuff at every opportunity. Look at this," he said. He took a hand off the wheel and pointed his finger. Sarah could see a teensy, tiny bit of red fog form itself into a straight wire of light. Sarah could see a purple spot on the dash where he was pointing, and he moved it around while continually feeding more power into it. Sarah reached out, the spot wasn't producing heat at all.

"I made a laser pointer!" exclaimed Finn, right before suddenly grabbing the wheel and hitting the brakes at a curve in the road.