Chapter four is now up! Enjoy.
"Your house is beautiful." Julie said as she walked into Jenny's home, her dark clothes standing out like a sore thumb. "Are you sure it's alright if I stay here?"
Jenny nodded, pointing to the guest room. "You can unpack there now if you want; I'm just going to talk to my parents."
Julie nodded and skipped down the narrow hallway and walking into the small guest room.
"She seems nice." Jenny mother mused, leaning against the kitchen counter. "How do you know her again?"
"I met her at school." Jenny explained again. "Her family doesn't stay with her and her brothers sick so she had no where else to go. She looked at her mother sadly. "She's only fourteen mom, where can she stay?"
Her mother nodded. "It's just so sad. I'm glad she has a friend like you Jenny."
Her father nodded too, tying his dark blue tie around his neck. "Your mother's right. He smiled. "Now remember well only be gone for a couple hours, there's pizza money on the fridge and if you want to invite some of the girls over, be my guest."
Jenny smiled, glad that her parents had bothered to trust her at all after she ran from them and when P. C. and Slug broke into her house. "Thanks guys. She kissed her mother on the cheek then did the same to her father. "You guys are the best parents I could ever have.
They smiled and hugged their daughter as they left, her mother pausing and whispering that it was alright to invite the boys over if they were careful, before shutting the door behind them.
"Did your parents leave? Julie asked from the living room suddenly, her hair in pig tails again and a black book in her lap, matching her dark jeans and tee shirt. "Yes, I'm sneaky so I can get from place to place quickly. You learn to get used to it, trust me."
Jenny smiled and picked up the home phone. "Do you want to order pizza first or wait till everyone gets here then order it?"
Julie shrugged. If we order now then it might get here with only half the people here so we all would probably eat it and the rest would get none, so I say we wait." She smiled wickedly. "Who's coming over?"
"Everyone, Jenny replied calling Audrey. "I'm sure they'll all love to meet you."
. . .
"Who is that?" Audrey asked when she walked in the front door with Michael by her side and saw Julie sitting on the ground by the couch. Both were somewhat damp from the slight rain that had started to pour from the outside.
"Julie." Julie replied without looking up from her book. "And you're Audrey." Julie looked up and smiled at Audrey with a slight cock of her head. "It's true; you do kind of look like a French model." Julie shrugged. "I thought they were over reacting because they never see pretty girls."
Instead of asking who "they" were, Audrey smiled and pushed a coppery ringlet behind her ear. "Why, thank you Julie. And this is my boyfriend Michael." She gestured to the teddy bear like boy with dark curls that spilled over his head into his soft gray eyes, as she wet into the kitchen with Jenny behind her.
Julie smiled and waved at Michael who waved back with enthusiasm.
"Are you new at school?" He asked as he sat next to her on the couch.
Julie nodded. "I'm a freshman."
Michael smiled. "I remember those days."
"You still act like you did those days." Dee said from the front of the room, leaning against the doorway, shaking her head, letting tiny drips fall onto the carpet. When she saw Julie her eyes narrowed slightly then returned to their normal state as Jenny and Audrey walked in from the kitchen with arms full of sodas.
"So, how long have you all been friends?" Julie asked setting down her book in her lap and sipping her can of soda that Jenny had handed to her.
"Well, all of us except for Audrey have known each other since we were kids." Jenny explained, cracking the top to her own can. "We've been through a lot together."
"Cool." Julie said with a slight smile. "What kind of stuff do you all like to do?"
The doorbell rang and while Jenny got up to answer it, Dee and Audrey explained all the things they like to do. Audrey did most of the speaking while Dee just nodded sullenly.
"Hey, everybody." Summer said sitting down next to Dee on one of the couches.
"Hey Sun Bun." Michael replied with a quick wave. "Where's Zach?"
"He's coming." Jenny said hanging up her a phone. "Just ordered some pizza incase you guys are hungry. She eyes Michael wearily. "Like I have to ask."
Michael stuck his tongue out and wrapped his arm around Audrey's waist. "So how do you know Jenny, Julie?"
Julie shrugged staring strait down. "I met her by her locker; I've heard lots of stuff about you guys."
Everyone was quiet; an awkward eerie silence that Summer was the one to break.
"Like what kind of stuff?" she asked, leaning forward slightly with interest.
"I heard that they murdered you." Julie said with a smile. "Which would be really stupid, no offence but none of you are the murdering type."
Dee sighed. "I resent that.'
Julie smiled. "Okay, none of you are the murdering type except Dee who can not only kill but kick but and do it with style."
Dee smiled and raised her thumb, "Now you've got it."
"Got what?" Zach asked, walking into the room with his jacket in one hand and his camera in the other.
"I just got Dee's personality down." Julie said with a smile. "And you're Zach, right? Jenny's cousin?"
Zach nodded, sitting down next to Summer. "And you are?"
"Julie." Summer, Jenny, Audrey, Michael and Dee said mat once, each of them smiling, while Jenny continued "She's new."
"Nice camera." Julie commented. "I bet the resolutions of the photos are really high, huh?"
Zach blinked at Julie then the corner of his mouth pulled up into a small smile. "You got that right; you should have seen the pictures I got this snake."
Julie smiled wider. "I would love too."
The group started to chat amongst themselves about unimportant things like teachers they have this year and about things that they had done this summer.
"I'll be right back." Julie said jumping up and then going down the hallway to the guest bed room.
"She's so sweet." Audrey said when Julie closed the door. "How could she be related to Julian in any way?"
Jenny shrugged. "Julian was very persuasive, maybe she is too."
There was a loud knock at the door and Jenny jumped up, running to let her boyfriend in, his hair dripping from the gallons of water falling from the dark sky. "Hey Thorny,"
"Hey Tom," Jenny said lacing her hand between his wet one. "What's up?"
"It's really pouring out, if you hadn't noticed." Tom said with a smile as they walked into the living room. "Hey, the gangs all here."
Jenny laughed softly. "Yea, my parents are going to be gone for a couple hours so I thought we could hangout."
"Cool." Tom said sitting across from Zach and Summer, pulling Jenny along with him. "What activities do you have planned?"
"I was thinking we could play a game." Dee joked. "A game of life or death, of fear and secrets. A game where the entire course of our lives may hang in the balance."
Everyone stared at Dee with wide eyes, each fearing the worst possible outcome, but no one able to speak.
Dee smiled wickedly. "Monopoly anyone?"
Everyone let out the breaths that they held and laughed along with their insane friend. Every once and a while they deserved a good joke about what had happened to them, so why would now be any different?
"Do you even have monopoly?" Summer asked Jenny.
"Yea, you do." Julie said walking into the room with the large monopoly box. "Can I be the dog token?" Julie set the box down on the coffee table and crossed her legs.
"Who is that?" Tom asked quietly, his eyes never leaving Julies small being, even though he could only see her back and not her face because he had been looking at Jenny when she came into the room.
Julie turned her head around, gazing at Tom with her unnatural blue eyes, making Tom cringe into Jenny. "You must be Tom." She spun around and stuck out a hand to him. "I'm Julie, pleased to meet you."
I enjoy Julie very much, loll. Okay I now know EXACTLY what I'm going to do in this story. Before I was just kind of letting it go where it would but now I know exactly. Review please!
