• She is beautiful. Truthfully, that's what I have to say about Emma. Her hair, a muted gold, runs down her back like a wavy river. And her eyes stun everyone that looks at them. They are a stormy gray with a hint of green. On top of it all, she is athletic, perfectly tanned, and has the best personality out of all the people I know. Smart, funny, naïve sometimes, quirky... What can I say? I love her. But I could never actually tell her that. Especially while she's still with that cheating, disgusting liar. One day, they will both get the wake up call that they need...

    ~Lucas

    It was a frosty winters day. School was back in session after winter break, and everyone was less than psyched. Including Emma and James. And Lucas, but no one really asked his opinion. The day moved slowly along, until they finally reached their lunch period. A huge wave of students rushed into the cafeteria. Emma, James, and basically their whole crew sat at their usual table. Lucas's deep green eyes shifted back and forth from Emma to James. Emma's arm was around James's shoulders, and his hand was situated on her waist. He also started looking over at Rebecca, whose arm was in an unusual position. It seemed farther from her body than normal. Emma and her other friends were talking about the upcoming dance and what they planned on wearing. Their conversation went a little like this:
    "So, I found this really cute red dress over the break, and I just HAD to have it!"
    "I can't wait to see you in it, Emma!"
    "Me neither! I have a red dress, too. Maybe we'll match!"
    "Maybe... where'd you get it?"
    "Forever 21. You?"
    "Same... Shape?"
    "Empire waist."
    "SAME. Straps?"
    "One shoulder."
    "OMG THAT'S MY DRESS!"
    "You should return yours. I look hot in mine."
    "No way! Return yours! James says that I look absolutely gorgeous in mine, right James?"
    "Red is SO not your color."
    "Yeah, it is. It's not YOURS. GET A NEW DRESS!!!"
    "YOU SHOULD!"
    Lucas couldn't be bothered with those petty conversations, so he was analyzing James and Rebecca. His theory so far was that the two had something going on. Driven to test his hypothesis, he dropped a buck on the ground.
    "Oops," he mumbled as he went down to look for the dollar, and for some evidence. He looked up at the hands that either relaxed or hung from the bench. He noticed that James and Rebecca had laced their fingers together, and their entwined hands hung from the bench. Idiots, he thought as he picked up the dollar on the floor. They aren't even smart enough to unlace their fingers. He got back up only to find James giving him death glare. Lucas raised an eyebrow and smirked, shaking his head slightly. Emma looked over to see what was going on after her argument was over.
    "Guys, what's going on?" Emma asked, her head cocked to the side a bit.
    "Nothing," the two boys replied in unison. Then James kicked Lucas from under the table, making Lucas buckle in pain.
    Emma rolled her eyes and took her trash to the garbage can. As the four of them walked out of the cafeteria, James whispered to Lucas, "You tell her, and I murder you. Got it?"
    Lucas shrugged indifferently and continued walking. “Hey Emma!” he said, just to mess with James, who replied with an infamous glare.
    Emma looked over, a bit confused. “Yes, Lucas?”
    “You look very pretty today.”
    She smiled sweetly. “Aww, thanks!” After giving him a quick hug, she ran off to her next class.
    Lucas was laughing at James and how he tricked him.
    “Trust me, buddy,” James said harshly, pushing Lucas against the wall. “Any more shenanigans and I’ll have to get violent. Don’t make me do that. Clear?”
    Lucas stared at James with narrowed eyes. “Crystal.” As soon as James left the cafeteria, Lucas chuckled to himself. “Shenanigans,” he laughed. “Who says that anymore?”

    The next day, before class started in the morning, Lucas saw Emma curled up against James while he leaned against his locker. Disgusted, he decided to turn around when he noticed that Rebecca was standing next to him. He raised an eyebrow and looked at her. She looked back with a cheeky smile.
    “You know, later on today, James is gonna do the same thing to me at his place,” she said, still smiling. “I can’t wait until he’s all mine. I mean, I’m pretty, right?” She shook her long, wavy auburn hair a bit. At the same time, she started batting her eyelashes like a lunatic and pouting.
    “Sure, Rebecca…” Lucas replied.
    “I don’t even know why they are still together. I mean, look at her, and then look at me! Not much to compare, considering that I’m hot and she’s just… cutesy.”
    Lucas leaned against the wall behind him and sighed. “Rebecca, you know that James and Emma are a solid couple, right? I think that you and James are just friends with benefits.”
    She shook her head violently. “Trust me, Lucas. I know what I want. And he tells me that he loves me and that we’ll be a power couple the day that she gets off his back.”
    Lucas’s eyes widened. He didn’t dare say more, but was glad that he was recording this on an audio cassette player hidden in his hoodie.

    During lunch that day, Emma was feeding James some grapes. Classic, thought Lucas as he rolled his eyes.
    “You know I love you, right?” Emma said as she fed James another grape.
    “Mhm,” was his pathetic response as he chewed and swallowed.
    Emma giggled and fed him some more. Then she kissed his cheek a few times.
    Lucas looked at her, weirded out, and said, “Emma, you know this is school… a learning environment. I think it would be best if there was no kissing involved, okay hun?”
    Emma laughed in response. “Aww, I think someone’s a little jealous, don’t you, James?”
    “Mhm,” he repeated, his mouth still full of grapes.
    “I’ll give you some sympathy for being single anyways,” she said sweetly as she popped a grape into Lucas’s mouth.
    He chewed and noticed Rebecca smiling at him. Then she zipped her lips, locked, and threw away the key, signaling for him to not utter a word about what they had talked about.

    Although he didn’t want to seem like a stalker, Lucas needed to know what was going on at James’s house. After school was out, he snuck over to his house and kept cameras hidden by the windows, which would record what happened in those rooms. Luckily for Lucas, every room was visible when using the windows. Noticing that James had dropped Emma home and was now coming home with Rebecca, he hid in the bushes next to the window that viewed the living room. He snuck a peek at what Rebecca and James were up to. The two idiots were snuggled close to each other, James leaning against the couch, Rebecca against James. Remembering the body language that Emma and James had used at school, he noted that it was exactly the same position and the exact same body language that he had seen earlier. They seemed to be having the same conversation as well. Lucas dropped to the ground and shook his head. “Well, I guess that settles it,” he said to himself softly. “James is feeding off of Emma’s love and basically copying her to improve his relationship with Rebecca.” He sighed as he crawled out of the bushes and went home, letting the cameras record the rest of “Jabecca’s” love.

    After a couple weeks of recording, Lucas quietly and swiftly got all the cameras from the windowsills. I’m a ninja!!! he thought to himself even though that wasn’t the main focus. He ran off to school carrying the cameras in his bag.

    When he arrived at school, Emma looked happier than ever. James hadn’t yet arrived, but she looked very chirpy, most likely because the dance was tomorrow. She looked pretty excited to see him.
    “Lucas!!” she squealed cheerfully, giving him a hug.
    Lucas returned the hug, but he didn’t let go quickly since he knew that she would be bawling when she would hear what he had to say. “Emma, I have to tell you something.”
    “Can it wait? I have to show you something.” She pulled out a dress from her bag. It was a pink dress, which would really show off the natural blush that she already had on her cheeks. “Isn’t it great? I returned the other one because Jennifer was right. She looked hot in it. So I was all upset that I didn’t have a dress, but then my mom showed me that she had sewn a pink dress for me and that I was going to look absolutely gorgeous! Don’t you think it’s beautiful?” She started twirling around with it like a lunatic.
    “Um, well yes. It’s very nice, Emma, but I really need to talk to you. It’s important.”
    “James is gonna love me in this dress, don’t you think?” Emma continued to ignore Lucas until he pulled her towards him and whispered in her ear:
    “James is cheating on you with Rebecca.”
    Emma looked at him with devastated eyes. “No, Lucas. That can’t be true. It’s not true. I don’t believe you.” Her breath and voice became shaky as she rambled on about how he truly cares about her.
    Lucas showed her all the proof that she needed, from the video of the two curled up together to the audiocassette recording of Rebecca talking about how they would do the same things at James’s place. He also told her about how he saw them holding hands at lunch.
    Tears filled Emma’s magnificent gray eyes. Soon, she saw James and Rebecca coming up the stairs. “You disgusting creatures!!” she shrieked at them both when they reached their floor. “James, how could you cheat on me with REBECCA?!? PLUS copy what we would always do together. I feel so stupid, not to mention angry and deceived.” She ran back to Lucas, who held her close as she cried.
    James and Rebecca looked at him with a fire of hatred. “Lucas, I thought I told you not to tell her anything!” James screamed. Emma let go of Lucas, scared of James when he was in this rage. He pummeled Lucas to the ground and started beating him up. In the midst of it all, Emma was screaming for help while tears ran down her cheeks, and Rebecca was hitting her head against a locker. By the time a teacher could stop this madness, Lucas was all bloody, bruised, and unconscious.

    Some hours later, Lucas woke up to Emma sitting next to him. She managed a smile, but he could see the sadness all over her face. “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I bet you would have been happier if I hadn’t told you and this endless loop was left to continue.”
    Emma shook her head. “It’s okay. I needed to know about this. I wouldn’t have liked this to go on forever. Thanks for the wake-up call.” She sighed softly and her head was limp.
    Lucas felt guilty and unhappy, especially since neither of them had dates to the dance for tonight. “So who are you going to go with to the dance? I think I might just be going alone. No one else is available…”
    Gently, Emma ran her fingers through Lucas’s honey-blond hair. “Will you go with me? I don’t want to be alone, and I’m pretty sure that you don’t either. Plus, you actually care for me.”
    With a small smile, Lucas nodded. “So it’s settled. We will go together. Sorry about my horrible appearance, though. You will be going to the dance with a guy who has a bunch of bruises all over. Hardly even up to your standards, but…” He wanted to continue, but Emma cut him off with a kiss on the lips. Thus ended the endless loop and started a newfound love.