Survival Of The Fittest

((Corey Esposito continued from Cicada Nights.))

Corey walked with conviction, down the hall, turning the corner to head down the stairwell. Things were heating up, now. Os had somehow gotten a date to Prom in such short notice, it was amazing. Sure, he was happy for the dude, but this now meant the he and Alex were the only ones without dates to Prom. And as much as he wanted to just lay back and coast along, things changed, and now Corey didn't want to be the loser. He still had a little bit of that competitive spirit, after all.

Of course, when he heard that Kyran had been banned from Prom, he could help but feel pity. But that wasn't important right now. What was important was that there was someone he needed to ask to Prom.

No, someone he wanted to ask to Prom.

Sorry, Kyran. Sorry, Alex.

There she was, at her locker. This was it. All he had to do was ask her. Keep it cool.

"Hey, Monica! What's up?"

Why do they have to make math books so big? Not like I'm ever gonna use it anyways...

Monica struggled a bit to shove the textbook into her rather messy locker. She eventually managed it, though, shutting the locker and breathing a sigh of relief. This was followed by the sound of a familiar voice greeting her.

She turned around, her mouth turning up into a bit of a sly smirk. Corey Espito, one of the few people around who could actually beat her at video games. That certain fact happened to be the center point of the friendly jabs they occasionally took at one another.

"Not much, you?" she responded back rather casually, leaning back against the locker behind her.

"Eh, same old, same old," he said, his smile growing wider.

Man, oh man. His heart was starting to beat faster. He couldn't back out now, because that would be awkward.

And that's terrible.

But, no, yeah... It seemed as though Monica was in a good mood today (thank god), which would make this easier. Of course he wasn't just going to ask her out of the blue. That wasn't tactful. He'd have to ease into it.

His heard himself clear his throat. No good being nervous.

"But, man, oh man. have you heard all of the Prom talk going on?" he asked, chuckling a bit. "Everyone's rushing around all crazy-like."