Cindy Stewart sat in the school cafeteria listening to Millennium on her personal CD player one hot sunny day, tapping her fingers to the beat to Don't Want You Back. She saw someone approach her table out of the corner of her eye so she took one of her earphones out and looked up.
"No date for the prom, Cindy?" the tall leggy blond inquired.
Cindy blushed. "Um, no," she said, shaking her head. "Actually I might not go..." she trailed off.
The blond's lips twisted into a smile. "Oh, that's a shame. You won't see my handsome date. Have you heard of Mark Schroeder?".
Cindy nodded. "Yup, he's that college guy who plays football...". He is pretty hot she thought to herself. Trust someone like Taryn to be going to the prom with him... "Have a nice time," Cindy said.
"I will," answered Taryn. "I'll be thinking of you when I'm making out with Mark and you're sitting at home watching your Backstreet Boys videos. Bye loser,". She tossed her bleached hair over her shoulder and strode off towards her bunch of pretty friends.
"What was Taryn doing talking to you?" asked Cindy's friend Sofia asked, pulling up a chair and sitting opposite Cindy, opening her can of soda.
Cindy shrugged. "Typical Taryn bragging about her date for the prom,".
Sofia rolled her eyes. "Mark Schroeder, right? I heard her friends gossiping about it earlier in English. I'm pretty sick of all this prom talk anyways. I can't wait for it all to be over and for us to leave this school!".
"Me too," Cindy said, skipping the CD back to her favorite track I Need You Tonight. "I couldn't care less about the prom..." she went on. "It's for the cool girls like Taryn. If I went, I would be just sitting in the corner watching everybody dance. I don't want to be humiliated so I'm not going,".
"Aww, you sure?" Sofia asked her friend, noticing the sadness in her eyes.
Cindy nodded. "Yeah, for starters I don't have a date. Then there's the fact I can't afford to buy a dress... and I can't afford a car to take me their either. And I'd rather stay at home and work on my Nick website than see Taryn throw herself at Mark in front of me,".
"Well..." Sofia said, unwrapping her candy bar and taking a bite. "...This is the last time we'll see everybody before we leave school. Shouldn't you be going to celebrate that?".
"No," Cindy said, determined. "I don't want to see these people again! I can celebrate leaving without going to some dumb, overhyped dance!".
"I guess so," said Sofia. Poor Cindy, she thought to herself. I know she'd love to go really. If only I could fix her up with the guy of her dreams to go to the prom with...
The girls were interuppted by a noisy bunch of students passing by their table. Taryn was among them, talking the ears off her best pals Jenny and Samantha.
Cindy looked up at the crowd and wondered to herself. Those girls are going to have the night of their lives, and me... I'll be at home on my own.
Hearing them talk about the prom was getting to her, so Cindy put both earphones in and pumped up the volume. Her BSB always cheered her up...

"Cindy wants to go, I know she does," Sofia said quietly to good friend Robert, who was very fond of Cindy also.
"I'd go with her, but I'm already going with Heather," he said. "But I'm sure we can fix her up with someone,".
Sofia nodded, leaning against the door of the empty classroom to close it, in case Cindy passed by and heard them. "I wonder who she would most want to go with..." she wondered aloud.
Robert laughed. "That's easy- Nick!".
Sofia laughed. "I know, but he's famous- a bit hard to fix her up with!".
"Hey wait a minute," Robert said suddenly. "We might as well give it a try. Who knows, he might be available,".
"OK, shall I write to the BSB management and ask them?" Sofia asked.
Robert nodded. "Yeah! If we post it today, they might get it in time!".
Excitedly, Robert and Sofia wrote a letter to Nick, asking him to go to the prom with Cindy.
When finished, Sofia read over it, then sighed. "This is stupid," she said, disencouraged. "He must get letters like this every day!". She screwed it up in a ball and tossed it into the trash.
"I guess so," Robert admitted. "I doubt the letter would even get to him...".
The pair of them walked out of the room to find Cindy. They found her in the music room, banging away on the drums.
"Changed your mind about not going to the...".
Cindy threw her drumsticks down in despair. "Sofia, please stop talking about the prom! I've made up my mind, I'm not going. Can we talk about something else?!". Cindy picked up her drumsticks and started thrashing away again.
Sofia and Robert exchanged glances. They couldn't help her...