*drops off chapter and runs faster than Danny can fly*

Starr picked at her salad. Every once in a while, she would take a small bite, but it wasn't often and she preferred to simply pick at it; it required less concentration.

Not that she wasn't so stupid that she couldn't even eat and hold up a regular conversation anyway (despite what the other kids thought; she was starting to simply not care, though. The feeling was strange, yet somehow empowering), she was simply focussed on other things at the moment. Like, for instance, Paulina. She was slowly becoming amazed at the things she'd never noticed before.

Like the fact that Paulina had a very unattractive sneer when she looked at almost anybody other than the other A-Listers. Which was almost everybody.

And the fact that Paulina was no good at pretending to swoon when Dash put his jacket around her shoulders because she pouted pathetically and told him she was cold.

And the fact that nobody either noticed or cared because Paulina was pretty and Dash probably thought that he was going to get laid.

...he probably was.

Starr speared another piece of lettuce with her flimsy plastic fork and brought it towards her mouth, grimacing at the taste. She'd never liked salad, or really any kind of vegetable. She wondered why she let Paulina order it for her as she let her eyes wander across the rest of the cafeteria, not in the mood to watch Paulina eat her own salad in what she probably thought was a suggestive manner anymore.

She saw Valerie Grey in the corner of the cafeteria, typing furiously on her...phone. Starr furrowed her brows, curious; who had a phone that bulky anymore? It looked sleek, true, but it just looked so...clunky. Just so completely out of style. She imagined Paulina catching sight of the phone, knowing almost exactly the words she'd say while Starr nodded along in the background, watching Valerie slowly feel like her phone wasn't good enough, then she'd get a prettier phone and Valerie would be better and slowly work her way back into the A-List and then they could talk again because Paulina wouldn't get mad and...

Why would Paulina get mad anyway? Valerie was still as pretty as she used to be. And she didn't have a bad reputation (although, she didn't really have a reputation at all anymore...she sort of just dropped of everybody's radar).

She'd probably get mad if she talked to Fenton, though. He wasn't very hot. And he had a bad rep. Starr bit her lip; she sort of wanted to talk to Fenton...

Speaking of Fenton, he was getting up from his table in the far corner everybody dubbed as the 'loser corner', quickly dumping his tray in the garbage and leaving, his two friends (gangster friends?) hot on his heels.

"I'll be right back," she mumbled, getting up from the table and dusting off her jeans. She hoped she wasn't being too obvious in following the three losers of the school. She chanced a glance over her shoulder-nope, Paulina was reapplying lip gloss.

Starr wondered why she felt so disappointed.

The halls were empty. Other than her own, no footsteps echoed around the hallway, there was no mumbling, there wasn't even the sound of that Tucker geek texting. Starr groaned-of course, she hadn't thought this through, because she was stupid, because she really was Paulina's satellite and good god how on Earth was she supposed to live life without Paulina if she couldn't even think through a walk to the hallway she was hopeless and

"Danny, why did we have to come with you? That was your fastest trip...ever."

Starr froze and turned around. Somehow, the three people she was looking for had magically appeared right behind her. And they evidently hadn't noticed her, she realised, as the goth girl-Sam, right?-rooted through her locker for something. Starr wondered with annoyance how she was so popular, yet nobody noticed her.

"Well how was I supposed to know that? It could have been as long as last time." said Fenton, and Starr wondered what they were talking about, "that took twelve hours and I ended up...actually, I'm still not sure where I was."

"Bro, that was because we weren't there with yo-" the geek trailed off. "Okay, you have a point."

Starr, figuring she was probably intruding on something, cleared her throat (and then immediately made a mental note to not do that again. It sounded weird). Three heads snapped in her direction.

And that was when she realised she had nothing to say.

She giggled nervously as the three of them watched her warily. "Uh, hi." she said, sliding her hands into her pockets awkwardly. There was a paper in there that she didn't remember putting there. She fiddled with it as she thought of what to say.

The Sam chick glared at her, and Starr found herself flinching at the sight. "What do you want, preppy? Come to stare at the freaks, because believe me, we get enough of that." Starr's eyes widened and she shook her head frantically, but the gothic girl wasn't finished yet. "and I am getting sick of this staring and whispering, so if you keep on doing that, we'll show you just how freaky we can get."

The smirk that the goth sent her was enough to get Starr to fling her hands up in the air in surrender. "I'm sorry," she said quietly, eyes lowered, watching the paper that had been in her pocket flutter to the ground. The goth girl reminded her of a hissing snake, about to attack.

"Sorry for what? For letting your stupid friend be a huge-"

"Sam!" the two boys around her exclaimed, looking scandalised. She stopped her impending rant in a huff.

There was an awkward silence in between the four of them. Starr bent down and picked up the paper, slowly turning it through her fingers as she realised what it was-the card that Davey had made. It had been at least a month since he'd made it; she was surprised by his persistence in sneaking it into her things.

Starr held up the (now extremely wrinkled) card proudly, a proud smile on her face. "This! This is what I want!" she exclaimed, and the three rumoured-to-be-miscreants exchanged confused looks. "I mean," she corrected quickly, "I don't want it, I already have...I mean, I've been trying to get rid of it for, like, a month, and-well, I-I mean!" she said hastily as their expressions turned to skepticism, "It's not because it's bad! I mean, it's kind of wrinkled, and and and, that's probably-well it definitely is my fault and I, well it's just" she let out a slightly hysterical giggle, her mind whirring at 100 miles per hour, wondering why she wanted to impress them so bad, why she craved their approval as much as she used to crave Paulina's (she wasn't going to end up being their satellite now, was she?) and why giving them-well really just Fen-Danny. His name was Danny. Why was giving Danny a card so exhilarating? "My brother." she said, taking a breath, "made this. Because I told him you saved him, like, a month ago. And I, well I should have given it to you a long time ago but I guess I just...I kept forgetting, you know? And I'm...I'm sorry. Because I owed this to you a while ago. And you saved my little brother, and everybody is scared of you, and they don't-don't have a real reason to and..." she trailed off.

She silently walked up to him, and placed the card in his hand (god, his hands were cold). She offered him a smile. He just looked back at her in shock for a moment, before opening the card, smiling softly at the Superman cut out inside. His two friends crowded around behind him, examining the card with him.

Finally, the geek broke the silence by quipping "it looks almost exactly like you, Danny. That kid's got a good hand." and he looked up at her and winked. Starr grinned, surprised.

"Yeah," admitted the Sam girl, somewhat grudgingly, "it's not bad."

Somehow, this felt so much better than topping the chearleading pyramid.

Okay, okay, okay, you really hate me, I get it, and I am so. So. Sorry.

I meant to post this months ago (it was actually something completely different before, but I kind of forgot. I've had to reread my own story to catch myself up to speed-and then I subconsciously skip sections because, hey, I wrote it, and rereading it so many times gets a little old. So there may be a few continuity errors.) but then, well, life got in the way. I got a laptop, my phone broke so I got a new one, bladedadeda.

*ducks to avoid the rotten tomatoes being thrown my way*

Also, it's short. You probably hate me for that, too.

Kay, couple things that may or may not be relevant to you (you wonderful, amazing, beautiful readers who I totally don't deserve):

1) I'm going to change my Penname. I wanted to change it a while ago, but I wanted to wait til I uploaded something so people would vaguely recognise who I am. Not that they would; it's been, what, nine months? This chappy is practically a baby! Anyway, you'll learn to recognise me as Professor Cheesecake from now on.

2) I have Twitter, Tumblr and DeviantART! And, in that order, I am RynMoSi, http : / / www . tumblr . com / blog / ihopethisdoesntgotowaste, and TheGirlWhoIsATinyGal. Warning, though, in the time that I have been away, I've been bitten by the Glee bug. So that'll basically take over tumblr...(although you can pretty much blame Darren Criss for my Glee obsession. He could probably be in Twilight and I'd watch it religiously)...and so this is the perfect bridge to my next topic, which is...

3) I may or may not write a DP/Glee crossover. Depends on your reaction and my time. I have it kind of planned out, so all I have to do is write it.

4) TO MY BEAUTIFUL REVIEWERS. MY GOD. IF IT WEREN'T FOR YOU GUYS I WOULDN'T BE UPLOADING THIS AND I WOULDN'T BE ABUSING CAPSLOCK TO EXPRESS MY LUUUUUUUURV FOR Y'ALL. I HAVE 71 REVIEWS, YOU GUYS, THAT AVERAGES AT AROUND NINE PER CHAPTER. MY GOD. There was actually somebody who PM'd me, months ago (and to whoever it was, I'm sorry, it seems automatically deleted it. But this chappy? Totally for you. Like, seriously. That PM gave me warm and fuzzy feelings inside.)

5) I am really sorry for making you wait so much. I may just be the worst author in FF history.