A.N.: This chapter is once again dedicated to Living2Love for being the first to review to the last chapter. I would like to give special thanks to cassie89, CeeCeeCaffeine, EasyTiger, flonshoe, iluvmybeagle, Living2Love, maliaphire, Mrs. Nikki Slater, PrudencePiperHalliwell, and Uh.yeah for reviewing to every chapter so far. I know this story is boring so far, but I need to put all of this before I can really get into it otherwise Jess's reactions won't make any sense.

Living2Love: Are you serious about screaming up and down? I feel honored by your words of praise, thanks so much.

EasyTiger: Thanks again for beta-ing this chapter. It means a lot to me.

cassie89: Have fun reading.

PrudencePiperHalliwell: Like you could do anything to me. (scoffs) I love ya Nik. (in a tiny voice) Please don't hurt me…

Alexalily: Thanks so much for the review.

spacegal 19: Yeah, I'm sorry it's taken me so long, but I was supposed to write a chapter for another one of my stories and I still haven't. I'm too busy lately.

Mrs. Nikki Slater: Make outs might be an option…We'll see

Banana Yellow-Flip-flops: And here the climax ends…Not.

Lauren: I don't think I'm going to include their wedding in on this story. HintHint about a sequel. (coughs to try to hide it)

flonshoe: No, I'm not changing the 'baby' thing. I like it, so it stays. But you never know what lies ahead for our little Lightning Girl.

iluvmybeagle: Yeah, I kind of like the way that Rob and Jess's relationship is turning out.

maliaphire: You'll find out if you read.

CeeCeeCaffeine: Fluff is good. Catty likes fluff.

shadow-girl: I know the plot hasn't really come into affect yet. You'll have to wait until the next chapter for that. It's kind of boring for now, I know, but I need to put this in before I go into the main story otherwise that won't make sense.

Baseball Fanatic: Well, Happy Birthday. And thanks for the review.

aznbLuEbEaRgr: I love putting cliffhangers on the chapters. It makes everything more exciting.

Rieanna: Thanks so much!

Gracie: Thanks for the review.

Uh.yeah: Thanks so much for reviewing to every chapter instead of just the last one. I appreciate it so much.


What's a girl to do?

Remember Me?

I had been forced to wear clothes I didn't like. I mean, the clothes in my closet were all pink and girly. I had wanted to go and buy new clothes, but nobody would let me. Actually, we (my parents, Rob, and I) had a huge fight about wearing the clothes in my closet. My parents and Rob said they were fine and I said that I wouldn't be caught dead wearing them. I guess I'm being caught dead now. I ended up wearing a jean mini-skirt and a light blue spaghetti strap shirt. I was looking at myself in the mirror thinking about the horror of the outfit, it wouldn't have looked that bad had it been on anyone else besides me, when I heard Ruth honk outside. I tore myself away from the mirror and grabbed my bag and ran downstairs to catch my ride.

When I got to the kitchen, I heard my mom say, "God, Jess makes a lot of noise. I almost forgot when…" She trailed off. I know she just didn't want to admit that I wasn't around for almost half of a year. Me not being there had hurt all of them a lot.

"Sorry, don't have time. Got to get to school." I grabbed the lunch my mom had made and tried to run out the door. Tried is the operative word. They made me stay to talk about the changes in my life and blah, blah, blah. I had already heard it all before now. I mean, it was Monday and I got out of a coma on Wednesday. That was five days of preparing me for what was to come.

Claire was in the backseat of the car when I ended up getting outside. Evidently, Claire and Ruth became best friends when I was in a coma. And I mean close literally. They were closer than Ruth and I ever were and I was only in a coma for five months. Ruth and I had been best friends since kindergarten, but this is the not jealous me. Yeah, right. My parents had been telling me to call them on my cell phone (yeah, I know, I finally got one) if anything happened or went wrong. And there was the whole "be careful" thing that parents do. But, I had only seen parents on TV do that; my parents had never done it.

"Hi, Jess. You ready to face being a junior at Boreville High?" Ruth asked. I could tell that Ruth and Claire had been talking about something important that they weren't telling me. I just ignored it. As I said, it was the me not being jealous that my best friend had a new best friend.

I looked out the window and muttered, "I don't think I have much of a choice in the matter."

I noticed that Ruth was pulling into Dunkin' Donuts. She pulled into a parking lot and said, "We're going to get some crullers, why don't you go next door and see Rob?"

I followed the direction she was pointing in and saw a car mechanic shop. It only took a minute to get over there. I peeked my head into the open garage door and said, "Hello?"

Rob's head popped out of the hood of a car. He pulled a rag out of his pocket and wiped his hands off before coming over and giving me a small kiss. He didn't touch me with his hands, but I could feel his eyes probing my body. "What are you doing here baby?"

"Ruth and Claire are getting crullers, and they told me to come over here and see you."

He nodded and said, "Is today your first day going back to school?"

I nodded and moved into his arms. He tried not to touch me with his grease-infested hands, but he touched my cheek anyway. He muttered sorry and wiped it off with his rag. "Hey, Wilkins! Get back to work!"

He kissed my lips softly and said, "Have a good day. Don't try anything that might get you in trouble. I get off at two, so I'll pick you up from school, okay?"

I nodded and said, "See you later." I turned away from him to where Ruth and Claire were waiting for me. Before I could take one step, an arm grabbed me and pulled me back. I felt Rob kiss me. Don't ask me how I knew it was Rob, I just did. He pulled away when he heard Ruth honk and said, "Be good."

I walked back to the car and got in the front seat in a daze. That was what I call a kiss. "Now that you're done with that, we need to talk to you…School is going to be different than when you remembered it." Ruth obviously didn't like Rob. It could be because he's a Grit, but I don't really know.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, for starters, before you went into a coma you had given up fighting football players."

I yelled, "What!"

Ruth said with venom attached to her words, "Yeah, you told me once it was because Rob didn't like it. So, you stopped." I stopped beating up football players because rob didn't like it. Stupid, stupid Jess.

Claire was officially getting bored of our small talk, so she said, "Also, Mark Leskowski and Jeff Day aren't in school anymore. We decided not to tell you why because it could be too much information right now."

"Okay, anything else?"

They both looked at each other and shook their heads. Ruth said, "Not that I know of."

We ended up getting to school late. I blame my parents, but it's not like I minded being later for school. Ruth gave me my schedule and showed me where my locker was before going to her homeroom. She told me that if I had any questions, I could ask her. I stood outside the door to my homeroom for about a minute listening to the voices of the people inside. I tried to prepare myself for their reactions, but their reactions could be anything. It's kind of hard to find a way to react to anything. I finally got the courage to open the door and walk in. The first thing I noticed was that you couldn't hear a sound. A pin drop could have been an atomic bomb for all they knew.

My homeroom teacher, Mr. Cheaver, said, "Oh, my, Mastriani, is that you?"

I looked down at myself as to give myself a once over and said, "Well, it looks like me, and feels like me, and talks like me, so, yeah, I guess I'm me."

He looked surprised, "Well, welcome back. Why don't you go take your seat?"

I moved over to where my seat always was and saw a very startled Todd Mintz sitting there, but the seat in front of him was empty. I turned around and said, "Mr. C, where's Amber? Did she move?"

"Mackey? Mastriani, you should know the answer to that. She dies last August. You were the one to find her killers."

I stood their shocked. I mean, Amber dead? She was one of the nicest girls in the school. "Well, Ruth and Claire forgot to mention that when they were talking in the car." I muttered. I said louder so the whole class could hear, "Um, when I woke up, the doctors told me that I have amnesia."

So, what can't you remember?"

I gave him a sarcastic look and said, "You're asking me to remember something I've evidently forgotten, Mr. C?" Try waking up from a coma you never knew you were in and a boyfriend you never knew you had. Try having your schizophrenic brother get a job and a girlfriend, which is something you should remember, but you can't." I was rambling. I tend to do that when I get worked up about something. I looked around at the students in the room and saw that most of them were more scared of me than anything else.

"Okay, jess. I'm going to see if I can ask the other teachers to not ask about it, all right?" I think you're going through a hard enough time as it is."

I suddenly remembered the first time I had seen Doug when he walked into the kitchen. I was so happy to see him. The first second he saw me, he was surprised to say the least. Then he started to cry. That hadn't been the first time I had seen him do it, but it had been the first time that I was the reason for his tears. We hugged and did the emotional thing before he ran to the safety of his room with his girlfriend right behind him. I hadn't seen him since then. Rob told me that it might take some time for him to loosen up the idea of me being back, so I was trying not to push him. Rob, of course, became sort of a fixture at the house. My parents loved him as well as my brothers. He was like a part of the family, with the exception of the me not remembering him thing. Well, that's not true. I do remember him. I was in health class with him and everything, I just don't remember ever being romantic with him.

Todd Mintz tapped me on the shoulder right before homeroom was over. He whispered close to my ear, "I'm sorry about all of that."

I gave him a strange look and whispered, "It's not your fault."

He nodded and leaned forward a little so his breath was warming my ear, "So, listen, I was wondering if you wanted to go out with me Friday night?"

That was surprising, "Um…" I was saved from answering him due to the bell signaling the end of class. I was grateful that the bell came at such a good time.

You would think that people would get over me being in a coma, but no, I was asked questions all day. Some of them were totally stupid too. One girl asked me if being in a coma hurt and I was like, "Hello, unconscious?" They didn't even seem to know what a coma was. Then there were the people that came up to me and said that they were sorry and everything. Of course, I could care less for their sympathy. There were also the people who came up and said things like, "You're Jessica Mastriani? Can I have your autograph?" I swear, kids become more stupid as time goes by.

Lunchtime came. Ruth and Claire were sitting at a table outside and waving me over. I walked over to them and the first thing I said was, "Why didn't you tell me about Amber?"

Claire hit her forehead with one of her hands and said, "I knew I forgot something." I rolled my eyes. I noticed Todd Mintz walking toward us out of the corner of my eye. I wanted to run and hide somewhere, but he was to close. I had been trying to avoid him all day.

He sat down across the table from me and said, "So, Jess, I didn't get an answer for Friday night."

Claire and Ruth both looked curious and Ruth finally asked, "What about Friday might?"

"I asked Jess if she wanted to go out with me on Friday. So, what do you say? Will you go out with me?" He gave me this really cute face with the pouting lips. I think that he thought I could resist them.

I was again saved from answering. This time it was from an unlikely person. Karen Sue walked over to us and said to me in a triumphant tone almost like she thought she was better than me, "I heard that you have amnesia. I wonder if it's going to set off your brother. We wouldn't want that, now would we?"

She gave me a smirk and started to walk away. I could feel the blood in my body boiling as she sauntered off. She looked so full of herself. You know what I mean; she made fun of my brother and thought I wouldn't do anything about it. Ruth, Claire, and Todd tried to calm me down, but it wasn't going to work. Karen Sue forgot that my memories left off before I gave up punching people. Stupid bitch.

She was wrong. I called her name and when she turned around I popped a punch right into the rat shaped nose of hers. That'll show her. She can't insult my brother and get away with it. Of course, being the bimbo she is, she started crying-waling more like it-and ran away.

Two people came over and the lady said, "Did you really have to so that Jess? You still have the law suit hanging over your head." The guy was talking on a cell phone.

I looked at them in a back and forth kind of a game and said, "Who the hell are you?"


A.N.: Another long chapter. And Karen Sue got sucker punched. Lol. Now, do me a favor and review…