Jon-Wood

PAST PERFECT (PLUPERFECT) - PAST - PRESENT - FUTURE
Had verbed - verbed - verbs - will verb
I walk into the room, and everybody stares at me. At my flash clothes, the hair, the grin, the swagger. Not one of them thinks to tell me about the banana peel someone had left on the floor.
Most stories are written in PAST tense. So when you need to talk about something that happened in the past, you use the PAST PERFECT.
This chapter is in PRESENT tense. Well, you'd use PAST tense, right? Well, it's not that clear, now, is it? Readers are used to the PAST PERFECT for flashbacks, and using just the PAST tense can feel awkward.
I walk into the room, and everybody stares at me. At my flash clothes, the hair, the grin, the swagger. Not one of them thinks to tell me about the banana peel someone left on the floor.
Either version communicates effectively, so ultimately, it's up to the writer. 
Personally, I like to avoid the pluperfect tense when I'm writing in past tense. It can get a little d

"Look," Alex said furtively to Patty, as the teacher droned on. "Who are you going to take to the dance?"
"Don't know," Patty shrugged, twirling a pencil between her fingers thoughtfully. "Haven't decided who to ask yet."
"Well, I hear the janitor's free," Carlos said from behind her, smirking malevolently. "You could always ask him."
"Ahahahaha," Patty laughed in a forced-sounding way.
One common mistake writers make is falling into patterns. The story that inspired this kept writing dialogue the same way every time.
"First part of whatever is being said," character said adverbly, as they and/or someone else did several different things. "Second part of statement."
This would not have been so bad if they didn't over-write, if they had just stuck to the meat-and-potatoes version;
Character did something indicating their emotions. "First part of whatever is being said," character said. "Second part of statement."
Or if they had mixed it up a little. The meat-and-potato

"You know what I hate?" u63r said angrily.
"No. What do you hate?" Alex queried curiously.
"Said bookisms," u63r answered peevishly.
"Said bookisms?" Alex parroted quizzically, scratching their gender-indeterminate head.
"Said bookisms," u63r confirmed, nodding. "It's like the writer is afraid to just say words like 'said' or 'asked'. And it just ends up being intrusive."
"Hold up," Alex interrupted, raising a hand. "Was there something specific that set this off?"
"Yeah, this one fanfic," u63r admitted. "Not only that, but he combined it with that redundant narration I mentioned earlier, where the dialogue 'tags' tell us information we already got from the dialogue. If the prior speaker is cut off, *of course* the next person who speaks interrupted."
"Do you think 'asked' is an example?" Alex