Boo walked slowly to the entrance of Paradise Dance Studio with her ballet bag over her right shoulder. She looked around with that worried look of hers. She could hear all the taunting whispers from her fellow dancers.

"Did you hear about Boo and Carl-?"

"They didn't!"

"I can't believe them!"

"Look! Here she comes!"

"He won't dare show his face after that…"

Boo blushed of embarrassment and ran up to the dressing room. She passed the boys' room and her friends in the girls' room. She threw herself in the bathroom and locked the door. She sat on the toilet seat and just cried. Violent, angry, sad tears that she couldn't control. She heard her friends knock on the door five minutes later.

"Boo? Are you still in there?" Ginny asked.

"Hurry up. Two minutes till class and you know Madame Fanny hates tardiness." Melanie informed her.

"Did you just say tardiness?" Sasha asked.

"It sounds like a fish." Ginny laughed.

"A weird fish." Melanie nodded.

"Wait, are we thinking of that sauce?" Ginny thought.

"What sauce? Fish sauce?" Melanie said.

"I'm friends with complete morons…" Sasha rolled her eyes and slipped out the doors.

"Tartar sauce!" Boo yelled letting out a little laugh, and then returned to sobs.

She covered her mouth and cried a few more sobs.

"Hurry up! Two minutes!" They yelled before following Sasha down the stairs.

Now Boo was all alone. In a bathroom. Crying.

Boo rolled her eyes. "What a loser…" She mumbled to herself.

She looked in the mirror and dried her tears. She knew class would be starting soon. She smoothed her hair and walked out of the dressing room.

She would need a lot more than two minutes to recover from this. She wanted Carl back.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

"Boo," Fanny said with a worried look on her face. "Are you alright? You seem a bit…off?"

Boo looked over at her dance teacher from the bar. She was distracted and off. Especially because a picture of Boo and Carl in their Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers was right in front of where she was dancing. She turned her head to the left and looked at her reflection in the large mirror. She looked sad, exhausted, worried. She understood why Madame Fanny would be worried. She was a mess.

"Boo? Are you ignoring me?" Fanny craned her neck to catch a glimpse of Boo's eyes. She saw them tearing up.

Boo nodded and looked even farther away from Fanny's glare.

But she wasn't fine. And no one could change that.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

"Carl and Boo got into some big fight last night…so this whole broken-heart thing is sort of new to Boo."

"Well she was so off today it couldn't just be a boy…"

"Fanny." Michelle said calmly but sternly. "You don't get it. Boo and Carl were perfect for each other. You saw how much she loved him."

"Well, it's not like I would make such a big deal over some man. It's just silly…no matter how much I loved him." Fanny said as she washed the dishes in the kitchen. Michelle was sitting on a stool behind the island in the middle of the room. How could Fanny not see what she did?

"Didn't you act like that over Hubbell?" Michelle said, coming out a little more firmly than she meant. Her left eyebrow was raised. Her face went blank. Fanny dropped the dish she was drying on the hard wood floor once she heard her late son's name. She refused to meet Michelle's gaze.

"That was different. He was my son. I carried him for nine months and gave birth to him. I cared for him for 48 years until you-" Fanny's voice was getting louder and she was tearing up. She sighed. "I have to get something to clean up this mess." And she solemnly walked out of the room.

Little did she know, Michelle felt the same way she did when the name Hubbell came out of her mouth.