Disclaimer: Lyrics taken from The Foo Fighters' "Times Like These (One-Way Motorway)"

"Don't you want to go to the dance tonight Sharon?"

"To be honest mom, I don't know. I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable knowing only a handful of people there. And besides, I have to stay here and help you with the chores."

"Now this is a first. You volunteering to stay home on a Friday night? What is the world coming to?" Her stepfather laughed.

Sharon blushed a little. "I just don't feel right about going out so soon after we've moved in, that's all."

"Don't go making excuses where there aren't any dear. You know as well as we do that you really want to go. Personally, I think that it'd be a good thing for you to go," her mom stated.

"Why? You never liked me going out before. What makes it different here?" She caught the look that her parents gave each other and waited patiently for an explanation.

"The difference here is that he's not here to ruin it for you. Frankly, we didn't mind you going out when it was with Kelly or your other friends. It was just him we didn't like. He was changing you, controlling you. You know that, right?"

Sharon nodded and sighed. "I know," she answered softly, turning away slightly. "I just wish sometimes that things could have been different, you know? What if all this never happened? If only I had been more careful."

"Honey, everything happens for a reason, you know that. There's no point in going what if."

The seventeen-year-old nodded. "But I still don't know if I feel right going. You're right. A big part of me wants to go. I want to have fun and forget about everything that's happened. At the same time…" She trailed off, sighing. "I just don't know."

"Well then think about it. It doesn't start for another couple of hours so you've got some time. Just let us know if you need anything."

"Thanks. You're the best," she said, getting up from her seat to giving them each a hug before going to her room. She quietly shut the door behind her so she could turn on her radio. After she had done just that, she found herself taking out a scrapbook and settling down into the beanbag chair. She flipped it open to the first page and was greeted with the smiling faces of her closest friends.

She sighed as she flipped through the pages. 'Has it really been almost two weeks now? It seems like it's been so much longer than that with all that's been going on… And that's all the more reason for you to move on too, Sharon. Nothing's holding you back. The past is past. Your parents are trying to make things better for you. They want you to live. You want to live. You knew it wasn't going to be easy but you've got to do it all the same. Baby steps Sharon. That's all there is to it…'

As Sharon continued to contemplate whether or not to go to the dance, Damon found himself still at school. There had been a quick student council meeting after the assembly to discuss a few last minute preparations for the welcome dance. As usual, Ana had taken the meeting entirely into her hands and made sure that everything was on track for that night. 'If not for her though, no doubt we would surely have just sat around and wasted time,' he thought to himself when he waved good-bye to the others and rushed off to the football field for their first practice of the school year.

Once he pulled the practice jersey over his head and stepped onto the field, all thoughts of the dance or anything else fled his mind. He spent the next couple of hours of grunting and sweating, going through some old plays with his team after stretching and going through some basic drills. Once they had refreshed their minds with a couple of the old plays though, the light atmosphere changed to one more serious as they began to alter little details to their plays here and there to see what worked until their coach finally called it quits for the night. Damon joined the others in giving a sigh of relief and sprinted to the locker room to towel off quickly.

He eyed the clock and groaned. It was already after five o'clock. With a rushed good-bye to his teammates, he flew out of the changing area and got into his car. Why he hadn't bothered to just bring his dance clothes along with him when he left that morning, knowing that he would be rushed if he tried to go home between practice and the dance set up, escaped him. All he knew was that he had roughly forty-five minutes to go home, take a shower, get changed, try to eat some dinner, and come straight back to school to help set up the gym.

"Whoever said that senior year was supposed to be easy must have been crazy," he muttered under his breath as he raced out of his car and into the house. "Hi Mom and Dad! I'm home!" he yelled out as he took to the stairs two at a time up to the second floor of the house. "Hey Squirt," he said, ruffling the hair of his eleven-year-old brother as he rushed by. "Hi Ros," he greeted his little sister, bending down for a moment to give her a hug.

"Eww!" she squealed, laughing as she pushed him away. "You're stinky!"

"I love you too," he smiled as he finally made it to his room and jumped into the shower.

Twenty-five minutes later, he was downing the last of his meal and rushing back up the stairs to brush his teeth one last time. In the bathroom, he took one last look at himself in the mirror as he ran a comb through his hair a final time. Satisfied with what he saw, he ran back down the stairs, said good-bye to his family (who were all at the table still eating their dinner), and jumped back into his car to head back to school.

He stepped inside to find the DJs already starting to set up their equipment at the other end of the gym. With a quick glance around, he spotted Ana and made his way over. "Miss me much?" he asked her, giving her a hug.

"Of course not!" she said, laughing as she pushed him off her. "Who would miss you?"

Damon mockingly placed his hands over his heart and moaned. "Ana, your words do hurt me so, especially when you know that I have missed you most dearly in the," he glanced down to his watch. "Two and three quarter hours since we last saw each other."

She laughed, shaking her head. "Stop groaning and start blowing. You're on balloon duty," she said, pointing to where a helium tank stood. "Here, take these." She gave him a few packs of balloons.

He grinned. "You want all of them done?"

She nodded. "Please. And when Stuart gets here, make sure he helps you out."

"Aye aye, captain!" he saluted to her, ignoring how she rolled her eyes at him before turning away.

Ana glanced down at her watch. 'Half an hour until show time.' She looked down at the checklist in her hand and penciled in a check mark next to the balloons. 'All right, so where does that leave us? DJ's are here and getting ready. I think they have all their equipment so that's good, and Mr. Heusner already showed them where the outlets were so they're good. All right, music done. Refreshments…' Ana made her way towards another part of the gym where a few of the staff were setting up the soda and water. 'Cups, napkins, check and check. And they got ice and stuff, all right, good here.' She smiled and waved bye to them as she walked over to where the photographers were finishing setting up. 'All good there too,' she nodded to herself, smiling.

Ana went to the front of the gym. 'Cashier box, lists of students, highlighters, bracelets, scissors all here. Good.'

"Is everything okay Ana?"

"Everything's looking great Mrs. Faulkin," she turned, smiling at the student council moderator. "Everyone is pretty much getting the last of their things together. I think we'll be able to open the doors right on time."

"I'm impressed. It looks like you and this year's student council is off to a smooth, wonderful start."

"Let's just hope it stays that way."

"I'm sure you all can do it. Anyway, did you want to gather everyone up already? We've got about another twenty minutes before the doors open, and I think the photographers are set up for your pictures."

"Sounds great Mrs. Faulkin," Ana answered, taking her leave. She walked back through the doors and into the gym, taking note of the decorations that had transformed the gym into a tropical paradise. Nodding to herself in satisfaction, she found herself linking her arm through Damon's, effectively distracting him from where he was sitting with Stuart relaxing while she never missed a step. "Looks good guys," she said, seeing that all the balloons were finished. A few had been left to scatter the floor, those that hadn't been filled with the helium. A few hung from the backs of a few chairs. Damon had even let a few go so that they floated against the ceiling. All in all, they hadn't done a bad job of it. She smiled. "Student council members to the photo area! Sophomore council, you guys are up first!" she yelled in her best commanding voice.

Damon winced and plugged his ear. "Hello? I'm right here Ana!" he smiled.

"I know that," she grinned back as the two led the group of students to the cameras.

Fifteen minutes later, Ana was dragging Damon along with her towards the front of the gym.

"What now?" he asked.

"I'm making you go to the bathroom now. You and I are on bracelet duty in about five minutes when we open the doors, and I don't want you to be making excuses and leaving me to do it all by myself," she said, giving him a look.

"But I thought Dorothy and Kent were doing that," he whined a little.

"Obviously, someone wasn't paying attention during the meeting. We went over this already. They're on ticket duty and we're doing bracelets."

"And that's why you're the president and not me. You always know what's going on, and I can count on you to tell me what I need to know."

"One of these days, I'm going to stop acting like your mother and just let you get into trouble, you know that?" she asked, laughing as she practically shoved him into the guys' bathroom. "You better be back out here in less than five minutes!" she called in after him.

"Sure thing Ana!" she heard him call back to her.

Damon unconsciously nodded his head in time with the music that filtered in through the closed gym doors behind him. Forty-five into the dance, he found himself alone in the lobby tidying things up. The number of people coming in had trickled down after half an hour and no one else had come in for the past five minutes. He had encouraged Ana and the others to go on in ahead of him – he was all right with putting everything away. Ana had been hesitant at first. She trust him, but she didn't want to live him alone either. He had insisted in the end, however, knowing that she deserved to relax after all the hard work she'd done to get this thing organized.

So now he sat at a table, already have helped one of the teachers put the other away. The lists of the students were piled neatly on one corner of the surface, already sorted by class standing. The highlighters and leftover bracelets and tickets were already rubber banned together and lay on top of the sheets of paper. The only thing left for him to do was sort through the money – not like there as much for him to do there anyway. Kent and Dorothy had kept a neat cashier box and all he was really doing was counting up the money and logging it into the student funds book for Mrs. Faulkin.

Damon quickly finished up his counting and logged in the last figure as he sang along with a little bit of the tune.

A slight cough let him know he was no longer alone. Damon looked up and found himself staring into a familiar pair of brown eyes. He smiled. "Hey Sharon."

"Hi Damon," she said quietly, smiling back at him a little. "Is it too late for me to buy a ticket?"

"Not for you," he smiled warmly.