A/N- A cute little one-shot with Beth and her two best friends Casey and Sofie

Rachel & Quinn - 25
Beth Noelle Berry-Fabray - 8 1/2

"A sleepover? Are you sure about this, Beth?"

"Yea. It isn't on a school night, and we promise not to stay up too late."

Rachel knitted her brow. "I dunno sweetie."

"Aw, c'mon, Ma. I'm almost 9!" Beth whined.

"Beth, I just feel like it'd be better if you went over to their house or something." Rachel told her daughter

Beth folded her arms. "What's wrong with us sleeping in the clubhouse in the backyard? Grandpa Hiram built that for us."

"I'd feel better if I could keep an eye on you girls."

Beth groaned and rolled her eyes. "Mama, we're not babies. We can take care of ourselves, honest."

Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Promise?"

"Promise."

Rachel pursed her lips and stroked her chin. Finally, she shrugged.

"Well, if their parents say it's okay, I guess you can have your sleepover outside."

"Yay!" Beth cheered. "Thank you, Mama. I promise, we'll be super responsible and we won't let you down!" Beth squealed before running into the backyard.

"So, what's the story?" Casey asked as Beth sat down on the grass.

Beth smiled. "Mama says it's okay, but she wants us to be responsible," she said. "What about you two?"

"My parents said it's fine," said Sofie, grinning from ear-to-ear. "Daddy even said that he was proud of me about acting all grown up."

"Ditto for me, minus the mushy stuff," added Casey

Beth nodded. "Good. Alright, girls. We're gonna be on our own tonight, so we should plan for it. I'll head home and get the clubhouse all cleaned up. Now, what are we gonna do about dinner?"

"Well, that's easy," said Casey with a smirk. "I was thinking I could pick up a pizza on my way over. There's a great place just across the street from my apartment. I may need to ask for an advance on my allowance, but trust me, it'll be worth it."

"Wait! I've got a better idea!" Sofie interjected. "I haven't spent any of my allowance yet. Why don't we pool our money together? That way, you won't have to bug your parents for extra cash!"

"Sounds good to me," said Casey. "So, when should we meet?"

"I think I'll have the place fixed up by six thirty or so," said Beth.

"Okay. That means Sof and I should meet by the pizza place at around six," said Casey with a nod. "That should give us enough time to get the pizza and head on over to the clubhouse."

"Right. I'll let my parents know when I get home," said Sofie. She then squealed in delight. "Oh boy! This is so exciting! We're gonna have a sleepover by ourselves!"

"No parents!" said Beth with a wide grin. "This should prove once and for all that we can handle being on our own."

"You said it," Casey concurred. "I mean, it's just gonna be us eating pizza in the clubhouse and hanging out. Nothing can possibly go wrong!" The three 8 year olds squealed in delight as they further planned their sleepover

Later that evening, Casey waited outside the pizza parlor with her bike. Just as her watch hit 6, Sofie appeared down the street and waved to Casey.

"Right on time," said Casey, giving Sofie a thumbs-up. "You got your money?"

"Right here," said Sofie, patting her pocket.

"Excellent," said Casey. "Let's go."

The two of them walked inside to the small pizza parlor and marched right up to the counter. The cook noticed them and smiled.

"Ah, Casey! My favorite customer!" she said warmly.

"Hey, Adriana," said Casey with a wave. "We'd like one medium pie to go, please."

"Coming right up!" said Adriana.

She quickly scooped up a freshly-made pie and placed it into the oven. While they were waiting, Casey noticed a glass shaker on the counter filled with red flakes. She smacked her lips in anticipation.

"What's up, Cas?" asked Sofie.

"I hope you don't mind, but I'm gonna want some hot pepper flakes on my slices," said Casey.

Sofie's face contorted in disgust. "Hot pepper flakes? On pizza? Bleh~! What is it with you and spicy stuff, Casey?"

"Hey, it's not my fault you and Beth can't handle hot stuff," Casey huffed. "Like I said, I just want it for me."

"Fine, whatever," Sofie sighed, raising her arms. "Apparently, you just think burning the roof of your mouth is fun."

"Yeah, I'm not dignifying that," said Casey indignantly.

"Order up!"

Adriana slid the hot pizza into a box and presented it to Casey and Sofie. The two of them took in a deep whiff and smiled.

"Mmm-mmm~!" Sofie hummed, rubbing her stomach. "You were right, Cas. This place is good."

"Told ya," said Casey as she reached into her pockets. "Here, you go pay for the pie. I need to make some finishing touches."

Sofie simply rolled her eyes and took Casey's money over to the cashier. While she paid, Casey took the glass shaker and stared over the pie like a predator waiting to pounce. Slowly, she tipped the shaker.

"Casey, wait!"

Adriana's warning came too late. As Casey tipped the shaker, the top of it came loose. Pepper flakes spilled out of the shaker, coating a single slice entirely. Adriana sighed.

"I was going to tell you that I had just refilled the shakers and some of the caps might be loose," she said.

Sofie looked over the damage for a moment, and then over at Casey. "Anti-dibs."

Casey blinked. "What?"

"I'm calling anti-dibs. That's officially your slice," said Sofie, folding her arms.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" exclaimed Casey. "I like spicy stuff, but that's too much even for me!"

"You should've thought of that before dumping pepper flakes all over it," Sofie said frankly.

Casey let out a strained sigh. "It's okay. We can work with this. There's still enough pie to last us the night, and I can live without pepper flakes. C'mon, let's go."

Sofie sighed and shrugged. "If you say so," she said. "Well, at least it can't get any worse..."

A few minutes later, Casey and Sofie arrived at the treehouse that overlooked the Berry-Fabray house. With the pie in hand, Casey climbed up the tree ever so carefully, with Sofie right at her heels. At the top, she knocked on the door.

"Yo, Beth! We're here!" she called out.

The sound of sputtering and rummaging came from inside. Sofie and Casey had just enough time to exchange worried looks before Beth opened the door, her face as red as a tomato. When the two girls stepped inside, they could see why. The entire place was a pigsty. The floor itself was clean enough, but all of the desks, tables, and chairs were piled high with all sorts of miscellaneous junk.

"Beth! You said the place would be clean by the time we got here!" Sofie griped.

"I-I know," said Beth, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "I-I did my best, girls. But after picking all the stuff up off the floor, I just got tired and took a nap."

Casey deadpanned. "You took a nap before a sleepover? Really?"

"Look, what happened happened," said Beth. "We can work with this. Sofie, go put the pie somewhere. Cas and I will finish cleanup."

"Um, okay," said Sofie, taking the pie from Casey. She quickly scanned the room for an adequate place, settling for a cramped desk. Ever so daintily, she placed the pizza box on the precarious lip of the desk. Beads of sweat dripped from here brow as she tried to get the pizza to stay.

"Okay. Steady. Steady..."

Finally, the pizza seemed to stabilize. Sofie breathed a sigh of relief and turned to her friends.

"Okay, everything's fine," she said. "We can work with th—"

A loud splat interrupted her thoughts. The three preteens turned around, their jaws hanging wide open. The pie had fallen from the desk and onto the floor face first. Slowly, Beth scooped it up and cringed. The entire pizza was decorated with excessive pepper flakes, making the whole thing inedible. After a long pause, she glared at Sofie.

"Why'd you have to go and put that on the desk there?!" she yelled. "You could've just set it on the floor!"

"Hey, it's not my fault!" Sofiesqueaked. "It's Casey's! Her and her stupid pepper flakes!"

"Hey, don't try to pin all this on me! What do the pepper flakes have to do with anything?!" protested Casey.

"If you didn't insist on having those stupid pepper flakes on your pizza, we could've salvaged it!" Sofie argued.

"Oh, sure! Like I knew the cap was loose," Casey growled. "Besides, what about Beth? She said the clubhouse would be clean when we got here! Then we wouldn't have to struggle to find space in the first place!"

"I just goofed, alright?! It ain't that big a deal, anyway!" shouted Beth. "Or at least it wouldn't have been if Sofie just put it on the floor and not on that there cramped desk!"

"We can't eat off of the floor! That's disgusting!"

"You just said we could've salvaged the pizza from the floor if I hadn't sprinkled the pepper flakes!"

"I was speaking hypothetically!"

"Well, hypothetically, we wouldn't be in this mess if Beth just cleaned the clubhouse like she said she would!"

"Hypothetically, you two should get off my back!"

The three girls went around and around, bickering and arguing for several minutes. Finally, there was a knock at the door, and Quinn peered her head inside.

"Everything alright in here?" she asked.

The girls gulped and pointed at each other. "It's her fault," they said in unison.

Quinn took one look at the scene and heaved a great sigh. She then took out his cellphone and dialed a number. "Hello, Adriana's? Yeah, I'd like to order a pizza to be delivered."

Beth blinked. "Wait, we could've just, ordered?"

Sofie groaned and slapped her forehead. "So much for being responsible."

"Hey, look on the bright side," said Casey, forcing a smile. "At least we've got a funny story to tell our kids." Quinn rolled her eyes and smiled as the girls got started on cleaning up the mess.

Comments make my world go 'round! The more you leave, the faster I'll write more Berry Verse oneshots!

~ Forever&Always,

Kimmie