AN:For disclaimer see chapter 1

Chapter 4

Finally, the night had arrived of my cotillion dance. We had bared countless lessons on manners, books falling off of my head onto my toes, and practicing how to perfectly sip tea for one reason, and one reason only: Jason Gage, my 'boyfriend'. At least, that's what I classified him as. We went to the same school, and when I told him I was moving to Roseville, he started to ignore me. This utterly confused me when he still offered to go to the dance with me. My mother called this 'mixed signals'.

Mom was putting the last touches on my makeup, when the door rang. Both walked into the foyer to see Jason standing there, dressed in a tuxedo. I grinned, and started to blush. Mom quickly got over the fact that he was eleven, and wearing a tuxedo, and moved on to the fact that he looked insanely like one of her ex-boyfriends.

"Mom? Aren't you going to give me the note to get me out of the dance early?" I looked up expectantly at my mother.

"Uh, here it is, Caity." mom mumbled, handing me the note. "Jason, it's such a shame that I've never gotten the chance to meet your parents. They should come in, so we can get pictures." I raised a suspicious eyebrow, and stared at my mother, who acted like she never said anything.

"Okay. I'll be right back." Jason grinned, his blue eyes twinkling, and left.

"'I've never gotten the chance to meet your parents'?" I asked with a smirk.

"Let's just say he looks suspiciously like a certain ex-boyfriend who I threatened to lock in a burning building if he ever came near me again." She said.

I laughed, and finally said. "He said I looked pretty." Abby looked down at me, I was smiling and blushing.

"Aw, that's so sweet!"

"But first he was angry with me. Are all guys like this?"

"Yep. Get used to it, Caity." mom laughed, and Jason walked in with his parents, a pretty, mid thirties woman, and a handsome man with the same blue eyes and blond hair as his son.

"Ms. Cameron, this is my mom, Sydney Cook-Gage, and my dad, who just goes by Gage." mom smiled nicely at both of them, but I noticed my mother was giving 'Gage' her death glare, making him shift uncomfortably. As we headed for the living room, mom brushed by Gage.

"I thought you were sent to Indonesia." She whispered softly. He grew red.

"I was."

"And you now go by just 'Gage' now, huh? And I suppose you forgot that I was the one who came up with that nickname?" Gage didn't have time to respond, since mom had sauntered off ahead of him.

"You know, we still haven't had time to appreciate DC. We moved up here five years ago, and there is still so much to do." Mrs. Gage said with a smile, sinking onto a couch.

"Washington DC is a very diverse city. All kinds of people." mom said, glancing at Gage. Gage and I were the only ones who knew what she was referencing; Spies.

"We moved up here to search for our daughter. We were just too young to have a child, and we gave her up. We found out she lives in Roseville, Virginia, after a lot searching. She goes to a boarding school called Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women." Mrs. Gage replied, since Mr. Gage was too shocked with his son's 'girlfriend's mother being his 'ex' (okay, fling while they were both in Thailand)

"Caitlin is starting there on Monday. As Jason probably told you, my job is being transferred to New York, and I want Caitlin to be with her family. My sister is the headmistress, and Caitlin's father just started working there a few years ago." Gage let out a relieved sigh that he was not in fact my father. "What's her name? My niece is a junior."

"Elizabeth Sutton." mom swallowed, now realizing that she had had a fling with a man who was in a serious relationship, and who was her niece's best-friends father. "She does not know she is adopted but we can tell her once she is seventeen. At least her and Jason may be able to see each other sometimes."

"She's one of my niece's best-friend and roommates."

"Maybe we can go grab a coffee until it's time to pick them up?" Mr. Gage asked, and Abby glanced at him suspiciously. "You could tell us about Elizabeth."

"I really don't know much-"

"Excuse me, but I think we might be late if we don't get going." I interrupted.

"Yes, of course." mom smiled, thinking she would much rather be at a cotillion dance then having a coffee with Gage and his wife.

(Scene Change)

"Jason, ¿por qué estas enojado? Roseville está a pocas horas de distancia. Sé que sería difícil pero estoy dispuesto a probar de larga distancia por un tiempo. Tal vez el próximo año obtendrá en Blackthorne entonces podemos estar juntos de nuevo." I spoke as we danced our final dance of the cotillion, a lovely Viennese Waltz. Jason was fluent in Spanish, having grown up in Texas, near the border, until he moved to DC when he was six. I liked speaking in Spanish to him; it helped me practice. The dance was taking place in a massive ball room, with big chandeliers and sparkling cider in lieu of champagne. I adjusted my form a little, when I saw our teacher, Ms. Pemberley, staring at us.

"No quiero estar enojado. Sólo hice porque pensé que quería. Estoy dispuesto a probar de larga distancia también. Yo no creo que sea por mucho tiempo porque tenía que buscar en la oficina en casa por algo y se encontró una carpeta con información acerca de una chica que también va a la escuela. ¿Te acuerdas de cómo te dije que me enteré de que tengo una hermana mayor? Bueno, creo que la carpeta estaba sobre ella." Jason answered.

"Sí que recuerdo. Yo tampoco lo vamos a volver a estar juntos y por lo menos lo intenta de larga distancia." I responded just as the dance had finished and Jason rushed us off the floor, pulling us outside.

"Will you forgive for the way I've been acting?" He asked, a quiet desperation in his voice. "I'm really sorry, Caitlin."

"Yeah." I whispered. I had been trained to speak fluently in several languages, and new how to use SAT vocabulary in everyday speech, but I could only respond with a slang term for 'yes'.

Jason picked me up, spun me around, and hugged me tightly, leaving me blushing and smiling. For a moment, I thought he might just kiss me on the cheek, but a loud car honking interrupted the moment.

"CAITLIN! We need to go home and pack." I flushed with anger. It was obvious my mother's coffee with the Gages made her more angry and paranoid than not. They were in the Range Rover, meaning that Mr. and Mrs. Gage were probably with her.

"Thanks, Jason. For everything." I said, as they hurried back towards the car.

(Scene Change)

[Abby POV]

"MOM! HURRY UP, OR I'LL BE LATE FOR ORIENTATION WITH CAMERON, RACHEL, AND JOE!" Caitlin called at the bottom of the stairs after she put her suitcases in the car. The townhouse was creepily empty. All the furniture had went into storage. The last two days had been filled with heartfelt goodbyes to her soccer team, neighbors, and classmates.

"I'LL BE THERE IN A MINUTE!" I yelled back with a sigh. While Caitlin was usually late, like me, she was anxious to get to Roseville; she didn't want to prolong the inevitable. I quietly cursed my sister in Ukrainian, wondering why Rachel scheduled the orientation for 11:00 a.m. Probably to torture me.

Caitlin was sitting on the stairs, waiting for me. I knew she felt a knot forming in her stomach. She wanted to stay in DC. She wanted to eat frozen yogurt from Fro-Zen-Yo on F Street NW. She wanted to go to more soccer practices. She wanted to go back to school, and do more projects on Chinese mythology. Most importantly, she wanted to be with me; she had learned to never take the time we spent together for granted, since I was rarely home. I wanted to drink hot chocolate on a bench on the mall near the National Christmas tree at night, watching the snow fall with her. I wanted to watch chick-flicks that made us laugh and cry, and throw popcorn at the screen again. I knew she wanted to run through the cherry blossoms in spring with me, she wanted to go explore Smithsonian Castle one more time, she didn't want to be dumped off with a bunch of strangers called her 'family' for the next six months. The doorbell rang, dragging us both out of our trances. She opened the door, and there stood Jason Gage.

"I wanted to say goodbye, before you left. I couldn't let you leave without saying goodbye to my best-friend." He whispered. He looked sad, and Caitlin smiled sadly.

"I'll miss you." She offered, and she hugged him gently.

"Hate to break up the love fest, but we got to go." I said, walking down the stairs. "It was very nice of you to come, Jason." Caitlin blushed, and glared at me as she stepped away from Jason.

"It's no trouble, Ms. Cameron. Bye, Caitlin." He smiled gently, and walked out of the door, and away from the brownstone.

"Wow, thanks, mom." Caitlin grumbled.

"I'm a mom. It's what I do. One day, you'll understand." I laughed, slipping into the car. Caitlin climbed in the back seat.

"Hurry. I want to be there at eleven. Otherwise, I'll have to go through the orientation after lunch, and at lunch, I'll have to sit by myself, and it will be totally embarrassing." Caitlin sighed, leaning back into her seat, only to be lurched forward again when I then slammed on the accelerator, sending the car flying twenty miles over the speed limit.