Sand in My Shoes

"I've still got sand in my shoes
And I can't shake the thought of you
I shake it all, forget you
Why, why would I want to
I know we said goodbye
Anything else would've been confused but I wanna see you again"

The dreaded midterms have finally fallen into the laps of our two seniors. This was the time of year where stress was the only way to be normal. If you weren't stressed, then I really wouldn't have anything to say to you. Even for a girl like Lili Daniels, in all her intelligent glory, was stressed to make it through all her classes the week before.

What about Chase Meade, you ask? Well, this was Chase we're talking about. He, of course, had better things to do. Tennis was starting back up in a little more than a month, and our star player needed to start his training and exercise back up to get back in shape.

"Good morning," Chase grinned as he smoothly slid into the chair in front of Lili one day in English.

Lili looked up at him from what she was doing and repeated the greeting with complete indifference.

There was a brief pause between our two characters while Lili went back to writing her notes, trying to ignore Chase. That definitely didn't work since Chase continued to stare at the girl until she became so frustrated that she asked him what he wanted.

"I was just wondering if you would like to do something with Joann and me this weekend."

A small smile spread across Lili's face as she asked him whether or not he was trying to subtlety ask her out.

"Never. You would say no anyway. I have to confess, Joann put me up to this."

"Well, no matter how much I would like to spend time with Joann. Finals are next week and I will be spending my weekend studying for many, many long hours…" Lili trailed on, getting lost in her own thoughts.

"Aww…that's no way to spend your weekends, Lili. You should be out, doing something fun, not staying home and cramming for tests."

"I'm not like you, Chase. I have to worry about my future."

"Does that mean that you don't live for the present?" Chase eyed her, choosing to ignore her comment.

Lili gave him a look, thanking him about his worry of her present. "But I don't think I should be taking any criticisms from you."

"We are friends, right? That's what friends do. They criticize each other, hoping that it would bring out the best in their friends."

"You do realize that that didn't make sense, right?"

"Oh, come on, Lili, do something with me this weekend. There's a party tonight that Nicolette's throwing, you should go."

"How many times do I have to put this into your tiny head, Chase? I'm using this weekend to study, study, study, and maybe more studying." Lili was getting a bit annoyed with Chase. She has her reasons. Now that our two seniors were friends, she has taken up the duty to make sure that Chase was up to snuff on his studies. She had become his mom in a way.

Sure that annoyed Chase a little, (Having one mom was bad enough, but having another one that was in high school?), but he chose to ignore most of Lili's nagging and rebelled on his own.

With the midterms and all, Lili was too preoccupied with her studies that she stopped worrying about Chase. This left Chase disoriented, he had become so used to Lili's nagging that without it, he was lost (and free).

"Lili, please, it pains me to see you like this. You're hurting yourself. Why don't you just go to this party with me for a little bit tonight and I promise you that I will study with you all weekend?" Chase offered her.

Lili seemed to have mentally picked this up. She liked the idea of helping Chase study, but a party? That was an idea that Lili never thought that would come to her attention.

"Chase, you want me to go to a party that I was not invited to. Hmm…that seems awfully rude, don't you think?"

"It's okay; it's a high school party. You're really not supposed to get invitations. Plus, I'll be there to back you up. Now, what do you say? Please, come?"

At a certain point of insanity, Lili caved in. She questioned herself out loud afterwards but was unable to explain why she would agree to anything like going to a high school party.

"It's because you have a thing for Chase Meade," Jane added as her input in the whole thing.

Jane, of course, was going to the party and she was at Lili's house that night to help Lili decide what to wear. Because you obviously need more than one person (or girl) to choose out one outfit.

"I thought we've established this already, Jane. I do not like Chase."

"Well, than, have you ever given a thought about whether or not he likes you?"

"Chase Meade, the player? Likes me? Please, that's certainly out of both of our questions."

"Believe what you want, Lili Daniels."

"I will, now what do you think of this dress?" She held up a nice black dress that she herself bought about a year ago.

Jane shook her head and told her friend that she knew that Lili wouldn't have anything that was anywhere close to being appropriate for this party.

"Appropriate? Jane, this is Nicolette we're talking about. There is nothing appropriate in anything that this girl does."

"That's not true, Lili. Nicolette is a nice girl. She doesn't need that sort of stuff said about her."

"She doesn't need it, but she certainly deserves it."

"Well, anyways, I brought a couple of dresses that you should definitely choose from." Jane pulled from her bag a couple of dress neatly hanging from bright pink plastic hangers.

"Jane, please. I like the way that I am. I don't need to be in a weird dress to make me look pretty."

Jane gave a big sigh and ambushed Lili with so great a force that it magically put Lili into this blue strapless dress.

"There, you look pretty already."

"I'm your best friend; I shouldn't be subject to such abuse."

"It's because you're my best friend that I want you to look pretty tonight…and all the time," Jane replied as she swept a few strands of hair from Lili's eyes. "Now, how about a little make up?"

Lili arrived with Jane that night with a sudden headache. The music was loud to say the least. It was also bad music too. (Or at least, to Lili, it was.) For a person like Nicolette, you wouldn't think that hip hop would be playing at her house, but that was not the case tonight.

"Jane, you are sticking by me at all times," Lili commanded after ringing the doorbell.

"Why?"

"Because. Because you are probably going to go off, making out with Charlie or something and I want you stay by me. This is my reminder to you. I won't know anybody here and I don't want to have to talk to some loser…or worse, a prep."

"Hey, I probably know a lot of these people. They're not all that bad," Jane defended.

"That doesn't mean that they're not a bore to talk to. Besides, you think all people are not that bad."

"They're not!"

"Right."

Charlie opened the door when Lili pushed the doorbell a second time. He smiled and greeted Lili when he saw her but when he greeted Jane, Lili thought she saw his grin faltered a little. She didn't think much of it, figuring that Charlie may have been a little tired and was also getting a headache from the loud music.

"I'm glad you guys could make it. I could really use some sanity right about now," Charlie said as he led the two girls to the kitchen to get a drink.

"That defeats the purpose of a party, doesn't it?" Lili asked.

"Yes, it does, but I'm choosing to ignore that rule at the moment."

Lili opened her mouth to say something when someone slipped their arms around her waist and lifted her up, exclaiming, "You came, you came!"

Once she was placed back down, she looked at the person who had held her. It turned out to be Chase with a huge grin on his face.

"Chase, this is so out of your character," Lili said as she dusted herself from his touch. Honestly, Lili was both surprised and strangely happy that it was Chase. But of course, our heroine pushed that thought and feeling to the back of her head. "Living in the present," she thought to herself.

"Well, maybe I'm just so glad that you're not spending your time reading something about worms instead of being here, having fun with your friends."

"Worms are probably more interesting than you."

"Ouch. Oh, well, I guess I'll just have to live with that, I guess."

"Chase, there you are!" Nicolette shouted to him as she poked her head into the kitchen. She looked around the room and was almost immediately discontented with who was in her kitchen: her brother, his girlfriend, her 'one true love' (for his money), and the girl that seemed to be making everything impossible between her and Chase.

"Lili, I didn't think that you would come."

"Chase, you did tell her, right?"

"He did, but I thought that he was joking because you seem like the type of girl that wouldn't go to this sort of things."

"I'm not, but I made a deal with Chase. I stick to my promises."

An hour into the party, Jane was no where to be found and neither was Charlie. Lili smiled a little, thinking of how great Jane and Charlie were together. It would be sad that a relationship like that doesn't make it by the end of the year. But relationships end, it was just something that happens. Especially high school love stories, you couldn't always expect them to last.

The big comfy couch (That was such a great show when I was a kid.) was where Lili sat for most of the night. It was big and it was comfy. You can't go wrong there.

"Why are you sitting here all alone?" Chase asked as he plopped onto the couch right next to Lili.

"It's a party, Chase. If you're not dancing, then you're making out with someone. If you're not making out with someone, then you're talking to them. And if you're not talking to anybody, then you're sitting here on this couch."

"So, why aren't you dancing?"

"No one to dance with. Jane left me and the music's not even that good."

"Then why don't you change it?"

"Uh, Nicolette will claw my eyes out."

"She would do that. Well, I'll change it. What song do you want hear?"

"Something other than this."

Chase walked over to the stereo and started flipping through the CD case that was left out on the table in front of the speakers. He saw one that he liked and popped in the disc. As the music started playing, Lili became suddenly embarrassed as she clapped her hands to her face, blushing profusely.

Chase bobbed to the beat towards the seated Lili, snapping his fingers and softly singing to the lyrics.

"Chase, you're crazy!" Lili cupped her mouth to say.

"What's so crazy about Cascada?" Chase grinned as he stretched out his hand for Lili's. "Now I believe you owe me a dance."

"No, not to this song," Lili resisted a little, but she took his hand anyways.

She was pulled up and started jumping to the chorus of "Everytime We Touch", a song that held the title of being the weirdest techno beat song to dance to. I mean, the song was half really slow and half really fast.

The two laughed and jumped up and down because it was the only way that they knew to dance.

"Hey, Chase!" yelled a tall muscular guy in a football jersey.

Chase and Lili stopped jumping abruptly as they both looked over as to who was calling Chase.

"What, Andy?" Andy was this big obnoxious loser that always thought that he had every right to bully others. Actually, he wasn't a loser, per say, but the captain of the football team was just another synonym.

"Do you want to play cards?" Lili and Chase walked over where Andy was and saw that he had already set up the poker table.

"Another chance to kick your ass? Sure." Chase said as he sat down. He looked up to Lili and asked her to sit down too. Chase and Andy were part of this big elite of athletes that basically ruled Northfield High School. But they were also very competitive with each other, keeping a balanced score was not an option for them.

"Chase, this is gambling," she whispered to him but she was a little louder than she thought because Andy interjected that it was not only a gambling game; it was also a drinking game.

"How so?" Chase looked at him with a cocky smile on his face.

"Lana (It is Lana, right?) will play and you, Chase, will have the honor to drink for her loses."

"(Actually, it's Lili.) What about you?" Lili asked, feeling unsure about this game that she was slowly getting involved in.

"(Right.) I have my girlfriend, Janet, here who, shall I say, can play. So, what do you say? Are you in?" Andy said with a challenging look on his face as he held close to the blond who must've been Janet.

Before Lili could say anything, Chase interrupted, saying that they were both in. Lili whispered to him about what he was doing.

"It's a good challenge. And I'm sure that you're just as into challenges and tests as I am. I think we could do this," he whispered back.

Lili sighed and sat down in the chair laid out for her and asked who of the people around the table was to deal.

"Raise." Lili said as she lay in a few more poker chip into the center of the table. That was an unfortunate move. Andy laughed out loud as Janet laid out a straight and horded in all the poker chips. Lili was losing, badly, and Chase was taking the hit for it. He was drinking one cup of beer after another.

"I told you, Chase. I was not good at this." Lili whispered harshly as she watched him gulped down yet another cup.

"Don't worry about me, Lili. Take your time. We're just down $50. No worries at all." Chase Meade was drunk. He wasn't exactly thinking straight.

"Where was Nicolette when you need her?" Lili thought to herself, hoping that the hostess would try to prevent her dream guy from dying of intoxication.

Of course, Nicolette was making out with somebody in the backyard. So, that was a lost cause. And Charlie and Jane were nowhere in sight and that worried Lili a bit. But her main worry right now was Chase and how close he was to passing out.

"Andy, I think it's time for us to stop. Chase is not doing well."

"No, we're not stopping yet, Lana. It's all or nothing. If he can't drink, then you will just have to do double-duty."

"Do you want us to lose all our money before you will let us leave?"

"That or you're stripping in order to walk out that door. In or out?" Andy asked, as he thought of how Lili looked undressed. Pig...

"In, but I want a change of game."

"Fine, we'll play blackjack."

"That's better than poker, I suppose."

"Not really. Janet's even better at blackjack."

"We'll see about that."

21 hands later…

"You guys, I think that, without any objections, I am allowed to leave," Lili said as she stood up, pocketing the stack of cash into the inside of Chase's jacket, and helped him up. Chase was just out in his own little world right now. He was rambling on about random stuff and making funny noises.

"Wait just a minute, Lana," Andy stood up, a little wobbly from all the beer that he had to consume, as Lili staggered, trying to get out of the house with Chase's arm over her shoulders.

"Do not try to mess with me, Andy, or I will make you strip out of this door," Lili said warningly.

"Wasn't going to," he said, holding up his hands in defense. "But tell me one thing, how can you suck at poker, but so good at blackjack."

"I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. Good night." And with that, she stumbled to get out that retched house.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK………ring…ring…ring….

"How could nobody be at home?" Lili asked herself as she stood there with Chase, whose lost touch with reality, sitting by her side.

Lili bent down to talk to Chase, asking him where his sister was. He grumbled something about a sleepover.

"That's just great," she whispered. She figured that she could probably get into his house using his keys, which would most likely be in his jacket. But, as luck would have it, it wasn't there. Lili had to, to her dismay, search his pants pockets.

She pulled out the dangling keys after being shooed away by Chase who was disturbed from his sleep.

She opened the door to the big house as she dragged the sleepy Chase in.

"Chase, where's your room?" Lili asked as she looked around the enormous palace that was the Meade residence.

Chase grunted and pointed his finger up, saying, "Somewhere".

"That narrows it down a lot, thanks. Not."

She resorted into finding the living room and laying Chase down on one of the big couches. She let out a big sigh and walked to the kitchen to get a wet towel.

She laid the wet cloth on Chase's forehead, hoping that he would feel better. Of course, all he did was bent over her way and puked all over her.

"Chase!" Lili screamed in frustration. Her dress was now drenched in the vomit and the smell was horrible. The only good thing that she could think of was that at least it didn't get on any of the carpet or furniture. Wow...such a good thing.

She gathered up her dress, making sure that the vomit didn't drip onto the floor and muttering that Chase had definitely owed her, and walked carefully to one of the grand bathrooms down the hall. As she washed herself and the dress, she knew that she needed to change. "But where?"

Lili got out of the bathroom and wandered up the stairs, trying to find Chase's bedroom where she knew that there was a possibility of finding a shirt there. She did find it and found that Chase's room was so obvious and typical.

The room was filled with posters of famous tennis players, from Federer to the Williams sisters. His bed was big and looked too comfortable for a guy to have picked out and his bathroom was also astounding with grand mirrors and marble tiling.

Lili finally remembered what she had come to look for, feeling the big wet spot on her dress and the smell, and found the clothes in a drawer. She quickly changed into in overly big T-shirts and sweatpants, and she also grabbed another T-shirt for Chase. She picked up a pillow and a couple of blankets from his bed, assuming that there was no way that Chase would be able to make it upstairs to his room.

"Chase, I need you to get into this clean shirt," she said to an almost unconscious Chase.

He moaned and nodded, slowly taking off his shirt. To Lili's comfort, he had an undershirt on, meaning that she didn't have to see him half-naked. How funny would it have been if somebody walked into the house to see Lili and Chase like this? She helped him into his new shirt and got him comfortable with the pillow and blankets.

Lili stood up and looked at the sleeping Chase Meade. He really was pretty cute, she thought, but now was not the time to think about that. It was late and she needed to find Jane. But on the other hand, she was also worried about Chase. He was going to get pretty sick pretty quickly and she just didn't want him to be alone.

Lili stayed by Chase's side that night. She didn't know why but she just couldn't leave him. Especially when nobody came home that night. She started out washing the clothes, scrubbing it in the kitchen sink and putting them into the dryer. She then watched TV while sitting on the floor with Chase sleeping on the couch. The TV soon had her sleeping too.

Lili woke up a little earlier than she thought the next morning and looked at her surroundings. She was still on the floor with her head rested on the couch right next to Chase's head and she had the blanket wrapped around her. The TV was still on, blazing the Saturday morning cartoons.

She rubbed her eyes and walked over to the kitchen and looked in the fridge.

Chase woke up the next day with the nastiest headache (and hangover that he's had for awhile). He sat up and looked to see where he was. It struck him as odd that he was at home, on the couch with and blankets draped over him.

He rubbed his face and got up, walking over to the kitchen where he could hear someone stirring a pot. To his surprise, it was Lili who was standing front of that stove.

"Lili, what are you doing here?"

"Why shouldn't I be here?" Lili said, ladling spoonfuls of the soup that she was making and placed the bowl on top of the table.

"I live here." Chase said, sitting down and staring at the soup. It was red with some sort of vegetable floating around. The smell was a combination of tomatoes and something else that could not be identified.

"And I brought you home. Now, eat."

Chase sat there, wondering whether or not he should eat it. Lili asked him if there was anything wrong and he asked her whether she was a good cook or not.

"I've never done it before but it can't be that hard, right? Now, eat it," she commanded.

Chase lifted up the spoon and gulped down the hot soup. There was a moment of silence in the kitchen as Chase took a paper towel to wipe his mouth.

"Well…?" Lili said, eager to hear how tasty her first dish was.

"Huh."

"What?"

"It's even worse than I thought it would be."

"It can't be that bad," Lili said disbelievingly, taking a sip of her own creation. She immediately made a horrible face and tried to push the disgusting liquid down her throat.

Chase, feeling better already from his massive headache, started laughing at the girl who hated even her own cooking.

The two teenagers smiled as Lili playfully slapped Chase's arm for laughing at her.

"Here," Lili said, handing Chase the stack of money that she had won the night before.

"What's this?" he asked as he suddenly realized that she had just handed him $200.

"That's the money I won back for us yesterday."

"How'd you do this?" Chase said disbelieveingly, "Last thing I remembered was that we were losing, badly."

"Well, we played a different game in the end and I was able to beat my losing streak."

"How?"

"It's called 'card-counting'. Google it, if you have to. Now, finish your soup," Lili said, changing the subject.

"But it's disgusting..." Chase whined.

"Tough."

That weekend was spent with Lili drilling Chase with questions that she thought would help him on his midterms. He was tired of course but there was no way that Lili was going to let him slide just because he had a hangover.

By Sunday night, the two thought that they were well-prepared for the oncoming week. As Lili gathered her stuff, Chase watched her with much appreciation and wanted to let her know that.

"I want to thank you, Lili," he said, sitting on his bed.

"What for?"

"For helping me get home the other night and for helping me study."

"Oh, it's nothing. We are friends, right?" Lili smiled at him.

"What if we were more than that?" he asked suddenly.

"What?"

"What? Nothing, let me walk you to the door," Chase changed the subject quickly, hoping that Lili didn't hear what he said.

He drove Lili home that night and felt nervous about what he said. He silently chastised himself for being so stupid. Lili Daniels would never like him. She made that clear the first day that they talked to each other.

He walked her up to the door and said his goodbyes. She smiled up at him and returned the goodbye. She turned to insert her keys into the door as Chase turned to walk back to his car.

"Wait, Lili," Chase called her as he turned back to walk back up the steps to her door.

"There's something I need to tell you," he paused, trying to calm his nerves.

Lili looked at him, confused and lost without words. "What is it?"

"Look, I know that I have qualities in me that aren't the best but I want you to know that I will change. Just give me a chance and I will change my ways. Wow…do I sound cheesy at this moment? It's just that ever since I met you on the first day, I've been…I've been. I don't even know what I've been…." Chase ranted on and on.

Lili was looking at him as he said all of this and smiled a little. She wanted to stop him from talking, but how?

She just reached up and started kissing him. That, of course, stopped him mid-sentence.

"I guess I'm giving you that chance," Lili concluded after she broke away for a moment.

Our two characters kissed each other with such great passion that it would make anybody's heart, even the coldest one, swell with warmth. Chase picked Lili up and, as the two laughed, spun her around and around.

This was great, wasn't it? Our two main characters have finally found the pathway to each other. Nothing could change the way that things were, right?

Lili walked into her house with a smile that she couldn't seem to wipe from her face. But it quickly was wiped away once she saw her best friend on the couch, looking up at her with the saddest look and eyes rimmed red with mascara stains trailing down her cheeks.

"Jane," Lili whispered, hurrying to hold Jane's hand.

Jane scrunched her face together, tears streaming down her face once again and through mid-cry, she said, "He ended it, Lili.

A/N: Hey, everybody! Long time no see, right? (Well, I couldn't see you anyway.)

Anyways, how have you guys been? I know, I know I promised a tennis scene and I will get to it. But I was typing up the story and flew off on a tangent. It was a lot of fun. And this chapter was significant because I got Chase and Lili together, right? That's a good thing, right?

And, while I was procrastinating from thinking of what should happen, I started getting inspiration of what should happen at the beginning of the second half of this story and I promise you that it's going to be good.

Anyways, on to your questions...

Mrs. Dom Masbolle : I really like your ideas and I think I might do just that. So, just you wait.

Sophie: I think I have an excuse for Chase. As to how Lili finds out is a different story. "Truth begins in lies" was a quote from the show House from Dr. House himself. I thought that it was something funny to put in the chapter. And I hope that you liked the song that I picked out for this chapter. It's one of my absolute favorites.

Sobee1982: Since Ricky is Lindsey's boyfriend, he is sort of a Wickham equivalent. I don't know if I want to find a way to have an equivalent for Colonel Fitzwilliam in this story as he was such a major character in my other story, you know? I don't know for sure though. Lili and Chase will be in new classes in the next chapter and Joann and Lili will be very close friends. And finally, there will be a Meade family reunion for Chase's birthday. With mean aunts and drunk uncles. The whole shabang!

Anyways, I would LOVE it if you guys would review for this chapter since I made it so long and all. It won't take you long, I promise! I just want to feel and know what you guys think of this story. Please?

Thanks to the readers and reviewers, you guys are awesome!!