"What about Jordan? He's had a crush on you since middle school." Stephanie said, continuing on their conversation after snatching her white mask back from Roanna.

"Since when? I've never once heard him say that. Face it Steph, the kid is gay even if he doesn't know it yet." Roanna said with a bit of a twitched smile on the corner of her lips earning a light chuckle from the blonde.

"Hey, who said you can't take a gay guy to a dance? At least he won't try to take advantage of you."

This made Roanna shake her head a bit, though she didn't have time to respond to her friend as Sam passed them by. Roanna only heard mush coming out of her mouth as all she could think about was how Cal had a crush on this girl for who knew how long. Maybe Cal just went for the more outgoing type and that's why he never even gave Roanna a second look. Maybe it was the longer hair...or maybe it was because she was more artistic than kinesthetic. Whatever it was, Roanna didn't like it, not that she was ever vocal about it; some things you just keep to yourself. It just wasn't fair. Girls like Stephanie and Sam, although extreme opposites of one another, they always got what they wanted. They were always happy and cheerful where as Roanna always had to scrape whatever happiness she could muster every morning just to get through the day.

"-----when I tried, but still I don't think that it was as good as yours." 

Roanna shook her head a bit, catching the very end of Stephanie's remark back to Sam and then waved back enthusiastically to her. 

"You know it!" Stephanie answered back, jabbing Roanna subtly in the ribs making Roanna realize that she should probably wave back too. Then, just as soon as she realized that Bryce had come over to talk to Stephanie, she quietly excused herself so that the two could talk alone. Poor kid was nervous enough talking to Stephanie, he didn't need yet another woman staring him down. She at least hoped Stephanie would be nice to him, he wasn't at all Stephanie's type and sometimes she could just be flat-out-rude when she wanted to, but upon looking back to the two of them from the bleachers, she saw Stephanie nod her head yes and walked with Bryce to the concession stand. Figures, Stephanie never said no to anyone if there was something involved like food. God what a mooch.

[i]"Oh my, dinner and dancing! When I can I expect the ring Caleb?"[/i]

Roanna felt her stomach sink down into her shoes, she couldn't have just heard that...quickly turning in a fashion that she had hoped didn't cause anyone to notice her odd behavior, she then spotted Sam yet again, but this time she was with Cal, and that sinking feeling in her stomach started to turn sour. So they were going to the dance together tonight then...and dinner. Roanna felt her cheeks flush a bit as her temperature started to rise...even more-so than what was normal for her which was pretty high for a human. She should have expected as such, those two had been friends for years, it was only natural for them to want to be with one another on the most important high-school night until prom. She wanted to be happy for them, at least for their friendship as she was praying to God that's all it was between them for tonight, but jealousy was starting to eat away at her heart, forcing rather quickly a hot liquid to be pressed at the corner of her eyes.

"The hell?" Roanna quickly turned back away from the bleachers and started walking in the opposite direction, rather quickly to avoid being stopped by any of her friends that wanted a quick conversation. She kept walking, it seemed for forever, the noise of the came slowly getting quieter and quieter until all she could hear was the dull roar of the game as she had assumed the second half had just started. 

She had walked quite the distance, however, as she now found herself at one of the three of the school's baseball diamonds. Not a single light was to be lit in her immediate area, the only lighting she had was from the moon and stars above and the very far-off distant lights from the school and football field. Perfect, now she was alone. Stuffing her hands into her puffy white jacket pockets, she slowly made her way to one of the dugouts and sat down on the cold wooden bench. Looking out through the gate onto the field she was directly across from the pitchers mound, though recognizable it just didn't [i]feel[/i] like a baseball diamond, more of a ghost-like portrayal of what she was feeling inside; empty.

Finally, she gave up trying to hold back her emotions as she had so often done throughout her life and let the three tears that she had been holding back fall down her cheek without even bothering to wipe them away. Things were supposed to get easier this year, but it seemed as if that were the complete opposite of what was going on. It wasn't just Caleb and Samantha that bothered her, it was plenty of other things, mostly her home-life. Roanna's father had been killed nearly a year ago and the changes that had to be made would have rattled anyone her age. She wasn't at all close to her father, he was always the business man, gone what seemed like all the time and the times that he was home, he was always locked in his home office. It was a very strange and rare occurrence when he would join the family in watching t.v. or eating dinner at the table, and when he did he rarely said anything. So it wasn't his death that had her upset, it was the fact that she and her mother were forced to move from a cozy three-bedroom two-bath home near the shopping district where they weren't rich, but they never had to worry about finances all to much, to a 342 square foot studio apartment in the Industrial district where her mother was forced to work three jobs just to make sure they had something to eat and rent was taken care of. Her father, in his will, hadn't left them a cent and instead all of his investments were to go directly to his work.

One whole year in a studio apartment with her mom, and Roanna could deal with that if she didn't have to see the pain and fatigue that her mother was going through just to keep the two of them alive. A morning job delivering newspapers to three different areas in the Industrial district, a day job as a receptionist for a book keeper downtown, and a night job where her mother never talked about with Roanna but she was smart enough to gather that it had something to do with selling her body to sleazy men. Just the thought of the latter broke Roanna's heart, but there wasn't a thing she could do about it.

That was when she decided that she couldn't just sit around at 'home' anymore, she had to do something that she felt was productive and helpful. But being as she was too young at the time to get a job, she took to the streets of the Industrial district, honing her combat skills and helping those that fell victim to the predators of the night. Stephanie had always said that she could become a super-hero, though joking most of the time, but Roanna thought 'why the hell can't I?' and that was when Necia was born, her alias having a Latin meaning of 'fiery', 'intense' and 'passionate'. Everything Roanna was in every sense of the word.

Suddenly, the phone in Roanna's pocket started to vibrate frantically, forcing Roanna to pull it out and answer Stephanie's phone call.

"Where the hell did you go? I've been looking everywhere for you!" Came Stephanie's somewhat worried voice.

"Baseball diamond number 2, I just...wanted to be alone for a while."

There was a pause on the other end, as if Stephanie was already putting together the pieces of what was bothering her best friend.

"Do you want to go? We can go and get a bite to eat before the dance, or I can take you home..."

Roanna nodded, though realizing Stephanie couldn't see her said that would be fine and that she would meet Stephanie at her car.

Finally, when the two friends had met up once more, Stephanie threw her arms around her friend in a hug.

"Hey...you okay?" She asked tenderly, slightly rubbing Roanna's back in comfort.

Roanna answered her friend with a slight nod and a half-fake smile.

"What did Bryce want?"

"To buy me a soda. He's kind of a cute kid...the way he searches for all the wrong words." Stephanie giggled. "But Gage, you know the football player that wasn't able to play tonight's game because of his grades? Well he came up to us and wanted to buy me some nachos, so when I turned back to Bryce he was already gone." She shrugged, as if completely oblivious to the fact that the six-foot-3 second string quarterback probably scared him away. "

C'mon, I'm buying you North Shore." Stephanie said with a wide grin which got Roanna to smile fully.The two climbed into Stephanie's green and tan Jeep Wrangler which had the top connected for the cold months coming ahead. Needless to say, the car-ride was very quiet on the way to their favorite eating joint.