A/N: Quick note: Chapter 2 has been slightly revised. Many of you pointed out that Kate was OOC, and you were of course right. Anyway, I didn't change that much, just enough to get her back into character. You can re-read it or not re-read it at your discretion. It probably won't make a difference either way. Oh, also apologies for the unintentional name switch in the second chapter, for anyone who noticed it besides Jill. That's all better now too. Reviewer responses at the end of the chapter.

Chapter 3
Renting Out

Kate

I didn't tell Adrien what Johnny said about wanting to rent the apartment himself, because I figured it would upset him. Johnny and Adrien had this weird strained relationship. I didn't understand it completely. But one way or another, interactions between them generally ended with Adrien being upset.

In retrospect, though, renting the place to Johnny might have been a smart move. But we didn't know that, of course. We thought we'd done a good job.

Adrien found a guy named Scott Harrington who just wanted the apartment for the summer. Adrien figured that was fine for now. Subconsciously, I think, he knew that after the summer was over the apartment wouldn't be his responsibility any more. It wouldn't be any of the kid's responsibility. They'd all be gone. Adrien would go back to school and finish up his student teaching. Jessica would be married or something like it. And Manda would figure out whatever it was that she wanted to do and do it.

But I'd still be here. For me there was no way out. Maybe in September, I could move into the apartment.

For now, though, I helped Adrien clean up the place. Scott Harrington was coming in a week. He was bringing his sister. It was a lot of work to do quickly, and we were both busy as it was.

The Harringtons came one day early. We were all in the living. Manda and Jessica were gossiping on the couch. Adrien was on hold with the cell phone company, who he was convinced was overcharging us.

I was in the corner trying to read a book. But it was hard work because the stupid fiancé kept interrupting me. Matthew Wright generally talked to me because he didn't remember he wasn't supposed to, and also because Jessica was more than happy to let him talk to me if it meant he wasn't talking to her. They were going to have quite the marriage.

Matthew, as it turned out, was an avid birdwatcher. And I was beginning to feel, after a half an hour of very tedious one-sided conversation, that I was about ready to tackle the pastime myself. He was, at the moment, filling me on various bird identification strategies, all of which were remarkably dull.

"Now with crows," he was telling me, "sometimes the only way to identify them is by their call. Even though you'll rarely see a Fishing Crow around here, you can't accurately write something off as an American Crow until it makes a noise."

I failed to see how it mattered either way.

When the doorbell rang, I was uncharacteristically eager to open it. But Aunt Lucy beat me to it. She brought the Harringtons in.

Scott Harrington was, at first glance, really not all that impressive looking. At second glance his appearance definitely improved. And then, as soon as he started talking you became convinced that he was possibly the most attractive man in the world. Top five at least. Anyway, that's was Manda and Jessica appeared to think after he'd said hello. I still held my own opinion on the subject.

His sister, Rachel, was a different story. She was striking—tall, red hair (the kind that's probably died but looks natural enough anyway), very straight teeth. It wasn't the kind of striking it takes a second look to notice.

Scott hit it off with Manda and Jessica right away. His sister started talking to Adrien. And you know, I thought they were nice. I liked them both when I first saw them. I thought that they were going to be alright.

Unfortunately, I was wrong.

- - - - - - -

Adrien

I wouldn't say it was love at first sight. That sounds a little melodramatic. But it was something like that.

Rachel Harrington followed Aunt Lucy and her brother into the room. And while her brother said some pretty things to my sisters (they were already quite charmed), she stopped and took the room in.

I was still on hold when her eyes fell on me. She smiled at me, like she knew I was going to like her. She was right. I already did. On the phone, Verizon's prerecorded message assured me that I was the very next call in line. I hung up anyway.

"You must be Rachel," I said to Rachel, rather stating the obvious. "Very happy to meet you." My opening lines were not as smooth as Scott's apparently were. Jess and Manda, over on the couch, looked like they were getting a bit swoony.

Rachel laughed and took a step toward me. "You know," she said. "I think people say that a lot more often than they mean it."

I definitely meant it, but I nodded my agreement.

"Just the same," Rachel's eyes were laughing. "I'm going to say that I'm very happy to meet you too, and you can decide whether to believe me or not."

I was inclined to believe her.

Across the room I could here Manda making it very clear to Scott Harrington that Matthew was Jess's read-my-lips fiancé. Things were getting testy over there. Intervention appeared to be necessary.

"These are my sisters, Jessica and Amanda," I told Rachel, wedging my way into Jess and Manda's conversation. They reluctantly tore their attention away from Scott to say hello to his sister. Matthew had to introduce himself, and I felt a little guilty. But in my defense, he was easy to forget about.

After that, my sisters went back to Scott. Rachel glanced around the room again. She looked a little confused. "Wasn't there another girl here when we came in?" she asked me.

I looked around myself. She was right. Kate had managed to sneak out of the room without anybody noticing. I felt guiltier for forgetting about her.

The reference to Kate brought Jess back to our conversation. Jess was never the one to miss a quick jab. "Oh, that was just Kate," she told Rachel, rolling her eyes. "She's like the ghost that lives in our attic."

Ha ha ha.

"Jessica," I began admonishingly, but Jess gave me a fierce save-the-lecture-for-later look. I decided that was probably a better idea anyway, and dropped it for now. I turned back to Rachel and did my best to explain exactly who Kate was and why she was living with us. It was sort of a messy job. But after I was finished, Rachel said, "Off course," as if she understood completely, which made me laugh.

After that I took Scott and Rachel over to the apartment and left them to settle in. When I came back into the house, I could here a hushed and heated argument waging in the hallway.

"Why can't you just leave him alone?" Manda demanded. "You're practically married."

Jess laughed. "I'm barely engaged," she corrected.

"Why do you always have to win?" Manda huffed.

"I don't know. I just do." I could picture Jess's smirk all the way down the hallway. I couldn't believe they were already fighting over that Scott character. But with any luck they'd get it all out now and be done with it.

I'd deal with that later. Right now what I really needed to was get a hold of Records & Advisement. Apparently they didn't want to let me student teach next semester because I'd missed some stupid Education credit. After that I should probably try Verizon again, because there was no way we'd gone that far over our minutes.

- - - - - - -

A/N2: As promised, responses:

HomesIsMyHomie: I know how it is. My brain ran away last week. That's why it took me so long to update ;o)

NotreDamegirlie: I'm glad you're psyched. I've finally decided that I'm kinda psyched about this too. Don't worry, I think I've finally got a handle on the Kate character. She will be much more Fanny-esque from here on out.

lina: Thanks for reviewing, and thanks for the advise. I'm trying to keep Kate in character now.

Huntress of the stars: Continuing the conversation from the Shakespeare fic: the thought of evening trying to tackle Hamlet terrifies me. I've actually only read it once, so I'd probably need to go over it a few (maybe a lot) more times before I'd feel confident enough to try that one. Plus, I really don't have a tragic bone in my body ;o) but I'd love to read it if you write it! ;o) Speaking of which, I really am going to read some of your fics as soon as I have a free moment. I've been mad busy. But seriously, sometime in the relatively near future, expect some reviews from me ;o)

BeyondtheSea: Glad you're liking it. I'm doing better with it now. In fact, I think I'm might actually enjoy writing this after all :o)

schokolade: I definitely realized that I needed to get Kate more in character, but I'm still gonna try to keep her from getting way boring. Hopefully, she can be both quiet and un-boring. Hmmm.

Radiant: Don't worry, I'm not giving up yet. :o) Still plodding along here.

Jill: Last, but not least. You don't know how much your most excellent advice helped me. Kate was a little OOC in the last chapter (which all of my reviewers diligent pointed out) but I kinda knew that already… It was actually Adrien who I was having the hardest time with. I just couldn't seem to come up with a real character for him. But I think you're completely right about him needed to be ultimately responsible and I'm just feeling a whole lot better about this fic now. I think I'm gonna like these characters. They're a lot more complex than the Emma lot. Hurray. As far as the Lost fics go, I've been thinking about starting a new one sometime soon-ish. But I've got two ideas and I can't decide which one to commit to, lol. Plus, I wanted to make sure I had a handle on this one before I started something else. And stories are such commitments. But anyway, yeah. Someday I shall return to the Lost realm, cuz I do love writing those character. I also love converting people to that show. I've converted it to my sister, my roommate, and my friend Don. But you are my first convert via fanfiction. ;o)