A few people cheered, "Hear! Hear!"

"Now, I'm not saying that we have to give up guys for the rest of our lives. I'm not that crazy. But I feel that we shouldn't settle, that I want to spend the last two years at McKinley having fun with my friends. Guys can only mess with that.

"If you look around you, you'll see that there is an amazing group of people here tonight, a perfect support system. We can do anything if we stick together. We just have to believe in ourselves. And we deserve whatever we want. if one of us needs help with a test, we should be there for that person. if one of us wants to pursue our dreams, no matter what anybody else seems to think of it" -- I winked at Diane -- "we will be there for that person.

"So all we're asking is that members put themselves and their friends before some guy. Every Saturday night, we have a standing date with one another. We need to be here for one another to remind ourselves how special we are.

"And the best part? We don't have to put up with any more crap from guys!"

Amy stood up. "to Penny!"

"No," I protested. "This isn't about me, it's about us. To The Lonely Hearts Club!"

The room went up in loud cheers. Diane went over to the stereo and put on the only guys allowed at the meeting: the Beatles.

"You know, Penny" Diane said to me over the music. "Had I known that getting dumped would be such a positive influence on everyone else, I would've had Ryan dump me a long time ago."

I started laughing. I had no idea if it was the high I was on from the Club, the music, or just Diane's sense of humor, but for some reason that was the funniest thing I had ever heard.

"What are you two dying over?" Tracy asked, rocking her hips back and forth to the music. She smacked her hips into mine, and I almost fell over. "Do you have any idea what you've started, Miss Penny Lane? We've single-handedly changed the social structure at McKinley High. You know what this means?"

I'd never thought about it that way. "What?"

She smiled. "Well, if we thought guys were jerks before this, you can guarantee they will be staying miles away from us now."

The three of us looked at each other before we started laughing again.

If this was what it was going to belike being single for the rest of my high school existence, I wasn't going to mind at all.

Chapter twenty

"HEY, PENNY -- IT'S RYAN ."

I stared at the number on my phone -- why was Ryan calling me? it was Tuesday night, and I'd just seen him at school a few hours before. the fact that we'd been having surface-level conversations ever since the dance made it even stranger to hear his voice now,

"Hello? Penny?"

Speak! Say something.

"Ah, yeah -- hey, Ryan, what's up?"

"Not much. I had a question about History. I think I wrote down the wrong chapter we were supposed to read. is it chapter twelve?"

"Hold on, let me check. ..." I had to run over to my desk to grab my book.

"Crap" A surge of pain shot up my left toe as it slammed into the leg of my chair. This was just great. "Yep, chapter twelve."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone. "Are you okay?"

Apparently I was not okay. "Yeah, I'm fine -- stubbed my toe. ..."

"Okay, thanks, Penny." Another long pause. "Actually there's something else I wanted to ask. . . . Ah, my parents got tickets to see this Beatles tribute band at the Civic Center in a few weeks, but realized they have to leave town early to attend this wedding, so they were going to see if any of their friends wanted them, but I thought it would be kinda fun to go to . . . if you're interested."

Ryan was talking really fast for him, so it took me a second to comprehend what he was asking.

He wasn't asking me on a date, was he?

Of course he wasn't. that was stupid. He was dating that short, curly-haired thing.

I was his friend. His Beatles-named friend, no less. it made sense for him to ask me out on a non-date to see a Beatles-ish band.

"Hello? Penny?"

Oops.

"Um, sounds great,"

I could still be friends with guys. Ryan and I had always been friends, and there was no way he would see me as anything else. What had he said at Paul's party? "I'd never do anything with her."

"Awesome," he said now. "Diane told me your parents are against tribute bands or something, but she thought you might get a kick out of it."

Diane knew! Why hadn't she given me a heads-up that Ryan was going to ask me .. on ... some sort of social outing.

I cleared my throat. "I think it'd be fun. thanks for thinking of me."

"Of course! I think it'd be cool to go to a tribute band with none other than Penny Lane herself."

Ugh.

"So I guess we can figure out the details later, but I figure we can head into the city early and grab a bite before the show. Does that sound okay?"

"that sounds great, Ryan. See you tomorrow."

I hung up the phone and just stared at it.

then it hit me, I had agreed to go to a Beatles tribute band concert with Ryan Bauer. Now I had to tell the one person who was going to absolutely hate this idea.

"Oh, Penny Lane, no, no, no. I'm so disappointed in you. How could you?"

This was going to be harder than I thought.

I sat down at our table. "Come on, Mom, it's not that big of a deal."