Kim walked into the main hallway, looking for Jack. She spotted him staring blankly into his locker, and began to walk towards him, only to be blocked by Randy.

"Hey, Kim." Randy did a hair flip. "What's up."

Kim didn't have the patience for his flirtatious behavior today. "The ceiling."

He let out a laugh much louder and longer than was really necessary. "That's funny, Kim, so funny. By the way, I'm heading over to skate park on Saturday, and I was thinking that maybe you could come with me, then we'd go out for hot dogs or something afterwards…."

Kim was only half-listening. Jack was talking to the pretty red-headed girl she'd accidentally bumped into that morning. She was wearing glasses now, and they were laughing like they were old friends.

A pang of jealousy hit her in the gut. Kim had only recently begun to admit it, but she had feelings for Jack. For the past several weeks she'd been trying to get him to notice her as more than his best friend, but was getting nowhere. Boys were so incredibly dense sometimes.

Randy was still talking about the date he was imagining. Kim snapped, "I can't Randy, I have plans with Jack." Those seemed to be the magic words; the boy looked crestfallen for a second. She took the opportunity to shove past him and hurried over to Jack and the girl.

Just as she arrived, Jack's knees began to buckle. She quickly grabbed his arm and hauled him back onto his feet. He looked at her with bleary eyes. "Hey, Kim."

"Hey. Who's this?" Kim gestured to the girl.

"Oh, this is Janelle. Janelle, meet Kim."

Janelle gave him a wry smile. "Yeah, we met this morning. We sort-of missed the name-exchanging part." Her grey eyes flashed at Kim. Kim was taken-aback by her obvious hostility.

Jack didn't notice anything. "Janelle and I were totally tight back when I lived in Burbank. You know, she'd the one who moved to Colorado the year before I came here?"

Kim realized Jack had already told her a lot about the girl. "Oh, you're Janny, that's right. Cool." Kim turned towards Jack and handed him one of the Starbucks cups she was holding. "Here, I got you some coffee."

Jack's brow furrowed. "When did you have time to get this?"

"Actually, I paid Marge the lunch lady to buy it for me after lunch. I figured we'd both need some caffeine." Kim took a sip from her latte. "So, my house, four o'clock?"

Jack played with his coffee nervously. "Look, I'm really tired, so can't we just…" He trailed off at the look she was giving him. "Yeah, sure."

"Okay, see you later." Kim gave Jack a hug. "Bye, Janelle."

She swore Janelle gave her a mocking look for a split second. Kim narrowed her eyes at her, and walked to her own locker.

(line break)

Janelle knew that she liked Jack. It was part of the appeal of moving to Seaford.

She'd always been pretty disappointed by how little they'd kept in touch. Just an email here and there, a phone call if she was lucky. Still, they were best friends since they were young. She would've thought that Jack would tell her if he had a girlfriend, and was hurt that he'd failed to mention it. She was definitely hurt more that it wasn't her, but instead a pretty blonde cheerleader.

The Jack she'd known had more substance than that.

What was stranger, though, was that he would stay with her when he was obviously unhappy. Janelle could tell by the weight on his shoulders, the bags under his eyes from who knows how many sleepless nights.

Oh, they weren't going to last. Jack would get fed up with her eventually.

"So," she started. "How long have you, um…known Kim?"

Jack took a drink from his coffee and turned to his locker. "We met when I started here. She was the first person who talked to me – well, besides Marge."

Well, more information wouldn't hurt, Janelle thought. She immediately felt her 'friend who's a girl' instincts kicking in. "Really? Do tell. Details, please."

Jack took out a book and closed his locker door, turning to face her. He looked upwards as if recalling the memory. "Well…it was lunch, on my first day. I was asking Marge what I should get. She warned me that even she didn't know what the stuff was. Kim walked inside; she was tossing an apple around, it dropped, and I caught it for her." He snapped his fingers. "That reminds me, don't eat the food here."

Janelle raised her hand. "Lesson learned, years ago. Remember the Macaroni and Pudding incident of fifth grade."

Jack made a face. "I know. Coraima Dickenson hated us for like a month."

"Correction she hated you."

"Hey, you're the one who dared me to eat the stuff."

Janelle laughed. This was familiar territory for them, even if it has been three years. She checked her watch. "You know, you've still got an hour before you've got to meet Kim. Wanna show me around?"

Jack grinned. "I know just the place."

(line break)

Jack and Janelle were walking around an outdoor mall. It was a nice(ish) place, with a lot of different shops and restaurants. There seemed to be absolutely no correlation between the places there; not that Janelle minded. She was getting a free tour from Jack Anderson.

"That's the arcade. Kim and I had an Immortal Slayer showdown in there. Over there is our favorite joint, Falafel Phil's. The food is the greasiest stuff you'll ever find anywhere, but it's great. Right across the way…" Jack led her to a small place with a Plexiglas front and the words Bobby Wasabi Martial Arts Academy in lime green letters above the door. "…is the best place in the city, the Bobby Wasabi dojo."

"As in, the guy your grandfather trained for a bunch of movies?"

"The one and only." Jack pushed open the door. Janelle followed close behind him. He announced, "Hey guys, I want you to meet someone."

Jerry, Eddie, and Milton stopped practicing (if you can call it that – they were flailing around a pathetically more like), and turned to look at them. A short man came out of an office in the back.

The man smiled. "Jack, you want to introduce me to your lady friend here?"

Jack grinned. "Rudy, this is Janelle. Janelle, this is my sensei Rudy. And over there, is Milton, Eddie –"

She cut him off. "I already met the guys, Jack. What's up?" She got some hey's in greeting, and the boys tumbling around the mats again. Janelle held out her hand to their sensei. "It's nice to meet you Rudy."

"Likewise. Do you know any karate?"

She shrugged modestly. "A little bit. How good is a blue belt in your books?"

Eddie fell over in her peripheral vision. Jack turned to her looking shocked and impressed. "Really? Nice job, Janelle!" He gave her a big high five. "I remember when you were just a little ten-year-old, trying out her first kicks with your white belt –"

"I'm five months older than you, Jack, I'm not your baby sister."

He held up his hands in surrender. His phone started to ring, and he checked the caller ID. "Oh, it's Kim." He suppressed a yawn. "I've gotta to meet up with her. Rudy, will you show Janelle the ropes around here?"

"Absolutely."

"Great see you guys later." Jack ran out of the dojo, picking up the call as he went.

Janelle watched him go enviously. "Have he and Kim been hanging out together a lot lately?" She asked absently.

Rudy waved his hand like it was no big deal. "Yeah, but considering the circumstances that's no surprise. Come on, let's see what you've got."

Janelle thought to herself, well, that's a confirmation if ever I heard one.

Alright, I'd like to see if I can get ten reviews before I post the next chapter. As soon as ten more appear, it's going up.

-Reyna