The next week was filled up with work, scheduled interviews, and time with friends. Ramona barely had time to think about her misadventures with men. Alicia had come back from college and a trip in the Caribbeans with her family looking tanned and gorgeous and talking about how wonderful lying on the beach was.

"Ugh, I'm so jealous," Marcie said. "Beaches in Oregon are so insanely cold, they really shouldn't even be called beaches."

They were all sitting in lounge chairs in Ramona's yard eating popsicles.

"What are you doing after this summer?" Ramona asked Alicia.

"Well, I took the LSAT, so I shall be hailing off to law school in the fall."

"You never said!" Daisy said, sitting up to look over at Alicia.

"I wanted to make sure I was at least accepted by one of my top three schools before telling anyone. Just in case."

"East coast again?" Ramona asked enviously.

"Yes. Georgetown. I definitely want to be in D.C. in the future. Boston was way too cold."

"And you had to be with Susan," added Daisy with a face.

Marcie laughed crazily from Daisy's other side. "Oh, she's going to the reunion. She emailed me. Can you doubt it?" Marcie was the designated contact person for the reunion.

Alicia sat up suddenly. "That reminds me! I never told you guys this because it never came up, but you'll never believe it. In our first year at Boston University, I found out that she had been going around showing everyone pictures of Howard Kemp as her high school boyfriend! Isn't that a total riot? God, we should tell him." Alicia giggled.

"Oh, I believe it," Daisy said sardonically. "She was all over him on our senior trip. It was nauseating."

"That's probably why she always hated you," Marcie piped up, glancing at Ramona. "It's because you get to live next to him. She probably sees you as her rival. If she knew he asked you out..." Marcie trailed off and waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

Ramona rolled her eyes and snorted. "She can have him, you know. It's not like he ever beat her off with a stick."

"Homecoming's coming up," Bea chanted one day. "What color's your dress?"

Ramona started at her sister. "When did you get back?"

"I have only four classes this semester," Bea chanted. "So I've probably never left. So who's your date to Homecoming?"

"Nobody," Ramona muttered.

Her sister stopped dead in her tracks. "No way."

"What? Why?"

"You're so, I don't know, school spirity all the time, I just thought you'd be all for Homecoming."

"It's not Prom," Ramona argued.

"No, but I think Homecoming is more fun. You know, the Friday before with the game. And then the dance. Aren't you excited?"

"Not really. I don't have a date."

Bea tsked. "That stinks."

"It's fine. It's less money spent this way anyway."

"Yeah," Bea said, wilting a little. "Everything costs money."

The two sisters sat on the sofa, Ramona flipping through the channels and stopping on the Cartoon Network. They watched Tom and Jerry run around in silence.

"You'll get over this all eventually," Bea said suddenly. Then, as though realizing her words didn't sound as sympathetic as she intended, her expression flickered and she said, "I mean…"

Ramona glanced at her sister for a moment with a scoff all set on her face. Then her face crumpled for a moment before she firmed her lips and and said, "I thought he was the one, you know. Because of you and Henry. You two grew up together and now you're planning on getting engaged after you graduate. He's in Seattle but he calls you every day. And, and—"

Bea held up a hand. "You don't have to be exactly like me, you know."

"I'm not trying to be. It's just—" Ramona didn't continue. The concept was too difficult to put into words. Copying Bea. She scoffed at the idea. They were so different that the idea had never entered her head—or had it? It was just that Bea had it so easy. It was all so romantic and ideal that part of her thought that maybe that was the goal right there.

Bea looked more thoughtful than watching a cartoon usually evoked. "If you were trying to be exactly like me, then I think Howie's a closer match anyway. You didn't exactly grow up down the street from Dan."

"Howie?!" Ramona was incredulous.

"Hey, why don't you go to Homecoming with him?" Bea said. She turned to Ramona with a look of expectation on her face, as though wanting congratulations for her idea. "People go with friends all the time. I mean, that's how I went with Henry." As Ramona watched, her sister's face infused with color and she shrugged a bit.

Ramona decided not to ask. She wasn't sure she wanted to know details anyway. "He'll probably have a date already. It's two weeks away."

"Never hurts to ask," Bea said.

"There's no point to going," Ramona said, clutching the cushion in her arms and sinking her chin into it.

"You don't want to wallow in self-pity just because Danny isn't here. What if he's off having fun at his homecoming?" Bea asked reasonably before leaving her to some highly unpleasant thoughts.

So, bearing that in mind, Ramona waited for Howie the next day at his locker. He slowed as he saw her and regarded her with raised eyebrows.

"This is new," he said when he drew closer.

Ramona got right down to it. "Do you have a date for Homecoming? Can you go with me?"

He gazed at her for a long moment without responding before turning back to his locker. "I have a date."

"Oh, darnit," she said, looking at the row of lockers.

"You know it's only two weeks away," he said as he fiddled with his combination. It didn't open the first time and Howie cursed under his breath. Ramona waited impatiently as he spun it again and still it didn't open.

"Do you even know your combination?" she asked, frowning at him.

He looked uncommonly flustered. "Oh, shut it."

Ramona rolled her eyes. "Who're you going with?" she asked, a bit curious.

"Susan," he replied. "Asked me two months ago."

"I didn't plan on going," Ramona said, looking at her shoes. "And this all seems like too much trouble. This is all Bea and her 'oh, go for the memories!'"

Howie tsked under his breath but he seemed decidedly unsympathetic. "Didn't you say you weren't planning on going? That dances were for suckers?"

"They still are," she said, giving him a pointed look. "Why're you with Susan?"

He shrugged. "Why not?"

"Well." Ramona sighed. "She's always liked you. It's good that one of us will get what she wants."

"What, you're saying you want to go with me?" Howie replied, looking shocked.

"Why wouldn't I?" Ramona said, shrugging. "I'm told you're a catch."

He stared at her with a furrow between his brows. His locker door fell open but he didn't spare the contents a glance. "You're… Are you serious?"

He looked so serious that Ramona couldn't help what came next. "You know I've always had a thing for you, Howie," she said, curling herself against his side in a way that was antithetical to all their interactions. She resisted the urge to pull away when his bicep flexed under her hands.

Howie continued to frown at her. "But you were with Danny." He moved away from her and stared at her as though she had grown two heads. "Why didn't you say anything earlier? I mean, we could have-"

Ramona couldn't take it anymore and burst into laughter. "Relax, you! The look on your face! Not all of us are Susan, you know."

Howie's perplexed expression turned stony. "Hilarious, Ramona."

"Oh, c'mon, you didn't really believe that, did you? I was—it was just a joke, Howie."

"Have fun going by yourself," he said in an unpleasant way that was as unlike Howie as she had ever known. He closed his locker door shut with unnecessary force and stalked away, leaving her staring after him with some bemusement.

"I was kidding," she shouted after him, but he didn't turn back or do anything to indicate he had heard her.

Ramona went to homecoming with Daisy's cousin, Stuart, who lived in another school district. It turned out to be fun getting ready with Daisy and giggling over their corsages. At one point, Ramona wished it were more accepted for girls to go together. That would probably offset the awkwardness of having to link arms with a boy one didn't know well and having to ride in a car alone with him.

At the dance itself, she couldn't help but notice Howie with a few of his friends. He looked awkward but surprisingly handsome in what had to be a rented tux, with a black waistcoat and a mauve bow tie to match Susan's dress.

He didn't see Ramona so she didn't make any overtures to talk to him. She wondered if he was still sore over her making fun of Susan for having a crush on him. Who'd ever have guessed he was so sensitive?

Halfway through the night, Ramona was drinking punch at the refreshment table when Howie came to get some drinks.

Ramona decided to make the first overture. "Hi."

Howie's shoulders twitched with surprise at her voice. Clearly he hadn't even noticed her there. Ramona sighed a little. She had thought that his coming up to her had indicated a feature to make up with her too, but maybe not.

"Hey," he replied.

Well, he responded, which was good news, even though his tone was wary.

"You look nice," Ramona said, trying to break the awkward ice of having fought with a friend.

Howie's eyes raked her figure briefly before looking away. "Yeah, you too." His voice was so offhand that Ramona rolled her eyes. Would it have killed him to her her an honest compliment?

Still, she wasn't put off by his coldness. "What, this old thing?" This was Howie, after all. If a little thing like their tiff could have separated them, they wouldn't still have been friends after more than a decade together.

He grimaced a little at that, but, even though he wasn't looking at her, he hadn't left.

"Um, so you're not really still mad at me, are you?" she asked with a roll of her eyes to offset how uncomfortable she felt at this conversation.

His response was immediate. "No," he said.

Too quickly, she thought. "Okay, you say that but you've been ignoring me."

"I haven't-" he said and flattened his lips before breaking off.

She smiled at him, trying to rein in her impatience.

"C'mon. You can't be mad because I was joking. It wasn't even directed at you."

He heaved a long-suffering sigh. He continued to look somewhere across the room from them. "I know, Ramona."

"It's been weeks. You're behaving like a little girl, basically."

"Not helping your cause, Ramona."

"And it's too difficult for you to stay mad at me because we're family. You're my oldest friend. I don't want to say best, because that would be setting the bar too low, but oldest, definitely," she went on in her joking manner and was rewarded when his lips twitched. "Ha! You laughed!"

"No, I didn't," he said, lips flattened again. Ramona peered at him for so long that a reluctant indentation appeared on one side of his cheek.

"Yes, you did. We have detente." Ramona threw up her hands as though signaling a touchdown.

"God, fine. You're impossible," he said, rolling his eyes.

Ramona gurgled. "Hey, I've got to go. They're waving me over for a group photo. Wait, let's take a picture together first."

He rolled his eyes, but the set of his shoulders had eased and Ramona realized that he had forgiven her. "Fine." His reluctance was clear, but he finger-brushed his hair a bit before crowding in with her in front of her cell phone.

Ramona scrunched up her face in the selfie. "There," she said in satisfaction, detaching herself from his side.

"Let me get one too," he said, to her surprise.

She smiled normally in that one before she looked up at the sight of someone making their way over to them. "Oh, here comes Susan. Why does she hate me so much? I swear I have never been less than polite with her."

Howie emitted a snort.

"I haven't!"

"Alright, I think I'd better get back to her," Howie said. "Enjoy the rest of your evening."

Ramona watched him go, not for the first time wondering what kind of girl would her grumpy friend end up liking.

Remembering the way Susan had wrapped her entire body around one of Howie's arms, Ramona couldn't help but think that he hadn't done much of anything to fight Susan off if he had indeed been the impartial one of the two.

In fact, Ramona couldn't think of a moment in which Howie could ostensibly have discovered he had feelings for her. There had never been a sign of it. He was taciturn as a rule.

Not that it mattered. She had managed to avoid him for an entire week now. She avoided being around her house and usually went to her friends' places. They met up at Daisy's house, where they swam in their backyards pool. Today was the rare day they spent at Ramona's. For someone who claimed undying devotion, he sure was showing just how undevoted he was, she thought with a scowl.

"Thad's coming for a weekend," Daisy said.

"What does he want?" Marcie asked sourly.

"Dunno," replied Daisy.

"For a guy who wants to break up, he's surprisingly good about calling you," Alicia said, crunching the ice with her jaw.

Daisy made a conciliatory grimace. "If he doesn't get me on the phone, he texts me. So, I don't know. But it's really hard, this long-distance stuff. I keep trying to tell myself not to get my hopes up, but it's hard not to let my craziness out."

"Keep it under control," Alicia said.

"Long-distance is hell. Guys definitely are not for it," Ramona said. When the other girls looked at her, she shrugged and said, "Back then, Dan broke up rather than do long-distance, and Howie wasn't too surprised about it. You know I barely heard from him all these years, right? So, just from my experience alone, guys are terrible at long-distance."

"So says the girl with one high school ex and the kissy-face friend next door," Marcie said.

"Yes, exactly," Ramona said agreeably. "I'm a fount of experience. And no kissy-faces here, believe me."

"I wouldn't want to be in a long-distance relationship," Alicia said. "I dated Tyler for one semester—our last semester—with the agreed-upon knowledge that we would end it a week after finals."

Marcie laughed. "What, like a school assignment?"

Daisy shook her head fondly. "Trust Alicia to handle her relationships like she handles her schoolwork."

"That's how it's done," Ramona said with no small amount of admiration. Secretly, she wasn't sure she could do the same thing. She got so attached to things and people. Look at how she still hadn't been able to leave home, responsibilities aside. Still, that was also par for the course in how she was raised. She wasn't Alicia, whose career-oriented, ambitious parents made sure their children got all the scholastic opportunities possible, along with the knowledge of the pitfalls of getting into heavy relationships at too young an age.

For better or worse, her parents had never put any limitations or expectations towards their children. She wasn't a joker like Marcie, or the smart, ambitious one like Alicia. She wasn't even Daisy, who had the most experience with men of all of them. And she definitely wasn't Bea, whose life fell into neat, simple lines all before the age of twenty-five—a house, a husband, a child, and a career that let her get home before five.

She was just Ramona Quimby, trying to stumble her way through life the best way she knew how.

AN: I'm so sorry about the long wait. I actually don't have very much of this story written, although I have a bare bones outline of what happens next or how I'll conclude. I really hope that I'll be able to finish this in some sort of semi-satisfactory fashion. Since this was my first published piece, I had no set plans for how it was going to go, and it probably really shows. I'll try to keep pounding at it the best I can, because I honestly can't stand the fact that it stands incomplete.