She exhaled and said, "Fine, Chaz asked me why you hadn't manned up and given it to me yet and Mandy said you two went at it like wild animals and you couldn't keep your hands off her. She said maybe you're just not as attracted to me as you were to her."

Just repeating the words made her insides hurt.

Austin laughed and said, "Are you kidding? EVERYTHING about you is more attractive than her! Your personality, your face, your body, your hair, your skin, your laugh, your sense of humor, you're intelligence, how sweet you are. Literally EVERY single thing about you is better than Mandy. That's why she's so jealous of you."

"You think Mandy is jealous of me?" she asked.

"Of course she is. She has a horrible personality. She's probably failing all her classes and the only thing she has going for her is her looks. She's SO jealous of you she can't even stand it. It's so obvious," he laughed. "Speaking of which. I'm jealous of you too. I went to the office and looked at the class ranking and you're ahead of me! No one has EVER been ahead of me all four years! Why didn't you tell me you were a genius?" he laughed.

"I guess I didn't want to spoil the surprise," she said sarcastically and then laughed.

He smiled over at her. "Well you know how crazy competitive I am. I'm not going down without a fight Miss Watson. It's on," he said smiling over at her before looking back at the road. "It's actually kind of nice to finally have some competition for the Valedictorian spot. It's been too easy all these years. I like a challenge," he said.

"Bring it on Fox. You're going down," she said back with a smile and he grabbed her hand putting his fingers through hers and resting their hands on his leg.

After a few minutes he said, "I love you Jolie."

She looked over at him and exhaled. "I love you too Austin."

He looked over at her studying her for a minute before saying, "Jolie. You know that what Chaz and Mandy said isn't true right? Since it made you cry it seems like part of you believes them."

"No of course not," she said, just to end the conversation but the truth was part of her did believe it.

She turned her head and looked out the window, thinking. When Mandy said he must not be as attracted to her it brought back every insecurity she had from before she got the makeover, when she felt too fat, too ugly, too plain, too nerdy for anyone to want her. It brought back the memory of when she had stood in front of Austin in his bedroom in just her bra and offered herself to him and he had rejected her and told her to go home. She wondered if he would've rejected a half naked Mandy like that.

When they pulled up in front of her house, she got out and Austin came around and gave her a hug and a kiss before telling her goodbye and that he hoped she would have a good time shopping.

Bailey was waiting for her in her room and when she saw the sad look on her face she said, "Are you ok? Are you sure you still want to go shopping today after everything that happened with Austin yesterday?"

Jolie took a deep breath and let it out. "Yeah. I'm positive. With everything that happened yesterday and then Chaz and Mandy were giving me a hard time today so I need to get out and do something fun to take my mind off of it. Maybe shopping will cheer me up."

"Ok. Just making sure," Bailey said, giving her a sympathetic smile.

They went downstairs and told her Mom Stacy that they were ready to go and they all went outside and got in her Range Rover and headed towards the dress shop an hour away.

Jolie's phone dinged and she looked down to see a message from Austin.

'

'No I'm in the car going dress shopping for Homecoming with Mom & Bailey. I'll be back later and we can talk then.'

'Ok I've got football practice tonight but plz text me when u r back home. We need to talk about our conversation earlier.'

' she wrote back.

Jolie and Bailey were so excited when they got to the dress shop because neither of them had ever been to a formal dance before and they both had hot dates.

"Are you excited about going to the dance with Blaze?" Jolie asked as they looked through the racks of dresses.

"Are you kidding? The fact that someone like him wants to go to a dance with me is just ridiculous. I've sort of had a huge crush on him since like 4th grade. Please don't tell him though!" she begged.

"Awwww. Are you serious? That's so sweet Bailey. I'm so happy for you," Jolie said giving her a hug.

"Well I have you to thank for it," she smiled.

They looked through the racks of dresses and each ended up with several to try on.

Jolie tried on a light blue one with ruffles that just didn't feel like her, then a long red one that was sleeveless. It seemed like something more fit for the Prom. Homecoming is usually short dresses. After several more she found a beautiful pink flowered lace dress that hugged her figure and just felt like her.

"I think this is the one. What do you think?" she asked Bailey.

"It looks amazing on you Jolie! Austin's gonna love it!"

"Thank you! I love it too! Now let's find one for you!"

Bailey picked up a long sparkly gold dress and said, "I really want to try this on!" She went into the fitting room and came out and both Jolie and her Mom gasped.

"Wow! That is stunning!" Jolie squealed.

"I know you normally wear short dresses to Homecoming so do you think it would be weird if I wore this? I was just thinking this might be the only chance I get to go to a dance with Blaze and I want to look perfect for him," she said, admiring herself in the mirror.

"Who cares what everyone else does? If you don't buy that dress I'm going to have to come back here later and buy it for you anyway because it was made for you. That gold color looks beautiful with your red hair!" Jolie said smiling and her Mom Stacy agreed and took a few pictures of both girls in their dresses.

"I got a limo lined up for you guys too!" Stacy said excitedly.

Jolie couldn't wait to go to the dance with Austin and it was going to be even better that two of her best friends, Bailey and Blaze, would be riding there in a limo with them. When they got back home there was an unfamiliar car parked out in front of their house.

Jolie got out and looked closer at the man sitting behind the wheel and screamed "Dad!" as she ran to the driver's side door. Her Dad got out and scooped her up into his arms and twirled her around, and then gave her the biggest hug.

"I've missed you so much kiddo!" he said, stepping back and looking her up and down. "Wow! Look at you! I guess I need to come up with a new nickname for you. You're a grown beautiful woman now."

"Thanks Dad. I'm just so shocked I don't know what to say!" she laughed. "How are you here? Didn't you have that important case for the famous baseball player you were working on?"

"I transferred it to one of my colleagues and told them I had an even more important case to work on in Illinois for someone named Austin Fox who's really important to my daughter, which makes him really important to me."

"Seriously? You did that for me?" Jolie asked, tearing up. She couldn't remember a time he had ever put her ahead of his work so this was a really big deal for him.

Her Dad hugged his arms around her and said, "I've been putting everyone else's needs ahead of yours for too many years. It was really important to me to do this for you."

"Thank you," she said through her sniffles. "You have no idea how much this means to me."

"Well, I figured I help so many other people, why wouldn't I help the man my little girl loves. So where is he?"

"Austin lives right next door. He's still at football practice but he should be back soon if you want to meet him."

"Yeah definitely," her Dad said, stepping back and releasing her from their hug.

He looked up and she noticed him looking over at her Mom who was standing there watching them.

"Hi Stacy. How are you?" he asked. You could feel the awkward tension between them immediately and Jolie hoped things wouldn't blow up into a huge fight.