Ok, well this idea came to me while I was trying to figure out how to continue the story. I wrote the first chapter on a whim, but I hopefully I'll be able to please everyone with the rest. So…I have my Pepsi! Annnnnd, I'm done exams for this week. Therefore, it's time to write!

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters that have appeared in RENT.

"Maureen! Do you know where I left my tie?" Joanne cursed under her breath as she searched around the kitchen. She had already checked all around the house, but then again her lover had this annoying habit of throwing things everywhere and anywhere.

"You mean this old thing, Pookie?" Joanne turned around and found the subject of her current thoughts leaning suggestively on the doorframe. Holding, of course, Joanne's Black Watch tie.

"Honeybear, you know I love you, but I'm late already. Important clients, remember?" Joanne grabbed her coat and bag on the way to Maureen and plucked the tie out of her hands. She sighed at the pout Maureen was wearing on her bright red lips, giving them a quick kiss. "I'll see you tonight, I promise." She sighed and pulled away, heading towards the apartment door, silently cursing work and important clients.

"Don't you dare be late, Pookie!" Maureen's loud voice sounded after her, and Joanne smiled and waved over her shoulder before closing the door. Quickly running down the metal stairs, Joanne checked her watch again and slightly winced when she saw the time. Yes, she was running late, and Joanne hated being late.

She burst through the doors and out onto the sidewalk, thanking any gods that her office building wasn't too far away. Indeed, five minutes of speed walking later she was talking casually to her secretary and barely making it into her office before her clients walked through the glass doors.

She sat down quickly and pretended to be immersed in some paperwork. A man cleared his throat above and she looked up, feigning surprise. "Oh, Mr and Mrs MacCallum, please have a seat. I have all your papers right here finalizing the divorce, are there any other issues you have to work out before we're done?"

The ex-couple sat down and shared an uncomfortable look. "Well, there is one problem we haven't really breeched yet…" Joanne braced herself inside; she was hoping this would be an open-and-shut case. "It's our daughter." Mrs MacCallum blurted out, a slight blush covering her tan features. "Well, our adopted daughter actually. Today we wanted her to be here; since we're letting her choose which one of us she wants to live with. The thing is, she never came home last night."

Joanne's eyebrows raised, the MacCallum's were a very politically correct couple and she failed to see how a mother could casually announce her daughter was missing. Apparently, Mrs MacCallum read her thoughts. "Oh no, I mean, she's done this before." She took a deep breath and straightened her dress automatically. "She's a bit of a problem child…I'm ashamed to say this happens often. Her sneaking out, I mean. But she's not dead…"

" Though I wouldn't be surprised if she was…kid keeps getting into a lot of bad stuff, if you know what I mean."

"Rod!" Mrs MacCallum scolded quietly, shooting a venomous look his way. She sighed again and continued her little story, "Once we're done with the divorce, I'm moving to Florida."

"And I'm going upstairs to Canada, heard they have this awesome dish there called 'poutine'." Rod interrupted, stroking the arms of his chair absentmindedly.

"Anyway," his wife continued, "we just decided about the whole moving thing, and she doesn't know yet. So it's going to be quite the surprise." She laughed nervously, eyes flitting around the small office space.

All this time Joanne had been nodding her head, but she really had no idea what was going on. So much for her simple divorce case. "Ok, so let's get this straight. You two are leaving New York, to go to Florida and someplace in Canada. And the only issue you haven't settled is the fact that your adopted daughter has to choose which parent to go with. But you conveniently forgot to tell her you were moving, and since she snuck out of the house last night you have no idea where in this city she is."

The ex-couple nodded vigorously. "Well, actually she could be somewhere out of this city, it's happened before."

"Rod!"

Joanne managed to give her clients a weak smile, even though she felt like diving over her desk and strangling both of them. No adoption agency should have ever given these blundering idiots a child, she seethed inside. It was going to be a long, long day.

A few minutes away, one very tired girl was stumbling up the stairs to a rich looking house. I'm so screwed, I'm so screwed, she was repeating over and over in her head. Looking down at her watch, she noticed the late hour and had a nagging feeling she had forgotten something yet again.

Cursing silently, she used her house key, which she had somehow managed to not lose that night, to open the huge French doors. She prepared herself for the riot act and opened to mouth to yell for her parents. Well, technically they weren't her parents. "Rod! Lisa! I'm home!"

She froze inside the doorframe, waiting for the sound of some movement in the house. Her heart was pounding as a creepy feeling made it's way up her spine. She nearly jumped ten feet into the air when the house alarm went off beside her. Sighing in relief and rushed over and punched in the correct code. So, her parents weren't home, that was a bit strange.

Shaking off her boots, she made her way down the marble hallway and into the spotless, stainless steel filled kitchen. Looking around, a new note on the fridge caught her attention.

Gone to lawyers.

"Shit!" She swore, dashing madly out of the kitchen, that's what she had completely forgotten about! For some strange reason, her adopted parents had wanted her to witness them making their divorce final or something. She ran to the doorway, fairly sure how to get to the lawyer's office, then she caught sight of herself in a full length mirror and skidded to a halt.

If possible, she looked worse than before, even if the wind had whipped some colour into her pasty white face. She swore again, screaming out profanities as she ran upstairs to her room, taking the stairs two at a time. I have to make a good impression, I have to make a good impression, she thought wildly, pulling out clothes from her drawers.

Five minutes later she had found some jeans that were only torn at the knees, and a 'modest-enough' purple sweater. Some mint gum was found to clean her breath of that awful beer smell, and a quick run through with her brush separated the auburn curls around her face. Finally, some cover-up fixed the dark circles around her eyes and some clear gloss for her lips.

Then, she was off, running through the streets of New York while dodging businessmen, the homeless and dogs. Why did I even try to make myself pretty? She thought angrily, pouting her plump lips, she had pulled off the puppy-dog look since the first adopted family she could remember. Finally, she reached her destination, or at least she hoped. Taming her curls once more, she entered the quiet lobby and felt instantly out of place as the secretary looked at her strangely.

"Hi…" Scout started off shyly, but then spotted two people behind glass doors. She grinned. Yes! She had found them. Happily she walked straight passed the secretary and into the lawyer's office, which just happened to be Joanne's.

"Lisa, Rod, how nice of you to leave me that note." She announced happily, bursting through the doors and throwing herself down on the extra seat in the room.

What the hell? Thought Joanne, confused. She looks…she looks exactly like Maureen.

Haha, yes well I suppose that could qualify as a 'cliff-hanger', but I'll try and update again really soon. Soo, I have no idea where this story is going, or if it's any good. So if you could review with some constructive criticism or suggestions for the story it would be really appreciated. I'd just like to point out also, that this chapter is longer than the first one. So ha! Improvement there… Oh, one more thing, I didn't know what kind of lawyer Joanne was, since I don't think it was ever really specified. So I made her a divorce lawyer, and if you don't like it…well it's my story for a reason then isn't it?

Katie…out! (Poutine rocks!)