The Dates.

I shot up in bed, blinking hard as my alarm clock beeped annoyingly at me. Haphazardly, I smashed my hand in the direction of my desk and managed to whack the top of it on my third try. I would probably survey the damage I'd caused to my other possessions when I was more awake and less hateful toward the world at waking me up at such an ungodly hour. Stupid school.

I was starting to climb out of bed when I realised that we were beginning round one of the interviews today. I froze with my foot hanging in the air.

Crap.

A knock on my door broke through my bubble of panic and my mother's voice called through loud enough for me to hear.

"Andrew? Jake's here."

I could hear the curiosity in the way she spoke, she was probably wondering how Jake could be at my house so early in the morning. It was a whole hour before school even started so I was thinking exactly the same thing.

"Boo yah! What up, Andy?" Jake all but yelled at me as he swung into the room. I was still sat in my motionless state of worry as he came in. He was holding a plastic bag and shook it in front of my face.

"Guess what? Doughnuts." he grinned, taking one out and throwing the bag at me. Why was he always throwing bags at me?

I managed to put my foot on the ground, finally, and I rubbed at my eyes with my fingers, trying to get the sleep out.

"Jake, it's...it's seven in the morning. What the hell are you doing here?" I asked in a low voice, checking my clock again in case I got the time wrong. Nope, I got it right first time around.

Jake shrugged and rummaged in his bag, pulling out the clipboard. I shook my head, not believing what I was seeing.

"You're kidding me? You came here because of that!" I groaned, standing up to gather some clean clothes. I had my hand on a shirt when he spoke up again.

"Dur. Andy, I wanted to go over a few people, you need to think of what you're going to ask them."

I sighed and pulled the shirt on, raising an eyebrow at Jake as he scanned the list with a frown. It was his thinking face. God knew how he was even awake at this time; usually, he wasn't in school until the bell signalling the end of tutor time rang out.

"You know this Rebecca Grey girl? You think she knows Rebecca Black? That'd be awesome. That Friday song really kicks ass." Jake said. "Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday!"

Lord, save me. I yanked on my school trousers and grabbed my toothbrush from the bedside table. I motioned for him to make himself comfortable, not that he really needed to be told. He was already settling down at my computer desk when I was walking out of the room.

I used the time by myself to reflect on the day ahead of me. Irritatingly enough, Jake had a point. If I was actually going to go through with this, I needed to know what I was going to say to the girls (if any) when they showed up. I wish I had Jake's confidence. Damn him.

Inspecting my wild hair in the mirror, I automatically decided against even attempting to make it look presentable or anything. There was just no point. Plus, I wouldn't know where to start anyway; I usually just got up and changed, then walked out the house.

When I got back into my room, Jake had that stupid Rebecca Black song playing and he was singing gleefully along to it. He actually knew all the words.

"Kickin' in the front seat, sittin' in the back seat, gotta make my mind up, which seat can I taaaaaake!" he chimed. I resisted throwing my toothbrush at the back of his head.

"Jesus, Jake. Do people know you like that song? Your reputation will drop so fast if word got out..." I teased as I shoved my feet into my shoes.

Jake looked highly affronted and clicked a button to turn the song off. He snootily threw his head back, nose in the air.

"You just can't appreciate a catchy song when you hear one. I might actually replace Eye Of The Tiger with this Friday song for my ring tone." he joked. I knew he was joking; he would never, ever get rid of Eye Of The Tiger. Ever.

I laughed to humour him. I was still groggy from the early morning and my stomach growled loudly at me. I needed food, like, right now.

"How about we carry this conversation on downstairs? I need to eat or I'm going to explode...or implode, or something." I said, stepping towards my door and looked pointedly at Jake.

"How could you explode or implode from not eating?" he questionned.

"I don't know, it will just happen." I answered back impatiently.

"And what about the doughnuts I got you!" he complained, indicating to the bag that lay abandoned on my bed.

"I need a substantial breakfast! What is this? Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? I just need good food." I whined, already starting to leave him behind. I knew he would follow, he would never turn down free food, and sure enough I heard his clomping footsteps coming after me.

"Hey, wait up! I want some breakfast too!"

"Didn't you eat this morning?" I mumbled as we descended the stairs.

"No. Well, yeah. But I'm hungry again." he explained, jumping ahead of me and swinging himself over the banister as we neared the bottom. "We can talk about the interviews at school. The thought of food is way too distracting."

So he came around obnoxiously early just to change his mind? What a dufus.

"Yeah, good idea." I said as I rolled my eyes.