A/N – more to add in coming days. I have worked really hard to develop Ava and Abbey's friendship, if anyone could provide some feedback, it would be great. Thanks.


"What?" Abbey yelled into the telephone, on the verge of a tantrum midday Saturday. "What do you mean you can't come, Ava?" she stood in her bedroom, organizing herself for the drive to San Diego and the day's festivities.

"My mum is making me baby-sit Declan and I can't get out of it." Ava said solemnly down the line. "Trust me if I could come I would, Ab. I'm really sorry."

"Can't we just take him?" Abbey whined.

"I asked, to be honest, mum wasn't keen on us going to San Diego in the first place. I'm homebound today, unless you can re-schedule a state-wide skateboard meet in my backyard?" Ava suggested, a hint of humour in her voice.

"Yeah, probably short notice." Abbey muttered, disappointed.

"Hey, Gabi is going to head down there with Vickie. Call her and scoop a ride. She'd be more than pleased." Ava said. "You guys will have a great time!"

"Ave, it would be more fun with you."

"You're a suck." Ava laughed as Abbey joined in.

"Yeah, I call it desperate. All right, I'll call Gabi. If your plans change, come down okay, I'm sure Stacy would love to see you."

"He hasn't called since he got my number last week, I'm not holding my breath." Ava replied solemnly.

"He's probably intimidated. You're too hot for some skateboard loser anyway!"

"Ha! That's one way to make me feel it by not calling – tad ironic that you're going to this skateboard competition to meet one of his mates there, hmm?" Ava pointed out as Abbey stayed silent. "Look I better go, Declan is pulling stuff from the fridge for what looks like the world's most heinous sandwich, if I stop him now I avoid the emergency room later. Have a good day and pop by tonight if you want. We can talk then."

"Okay, sounds good. Enjoy Candyland or whatever it is you do to make sure Deccie doesn't scale the walls."

"God bless colour television. Have fun and be safe."

"Yes, Mom. Bye."

Ava giggled. "Ciao." Ava hung up.

"Shit." Abbey said, finding her address book to call Gabi. Hopefully she hadn't missed her and could snag a lift… would look much less anxious if she arrived with one of her friends instead of solo. Right? Abbey wasn't so sure.


Stacy frowned as he loitered with Red Dog that afternoon. Stacy was so sure he'd seen Ava's friend, the blonde one that was all over Biniak, from the party. He figured that would have made Ava a sure thing but apparently not. Even that other blonde that had hanging off Tony –

"Dude, I'm talking to you." Red Dog sniffed, annoyed.

"Sorry, man, in another world." Stacy blushed.

"No shit." Red Dog muttered. "What's eating you?"

"Nah, man, nothing." Stacy forced a bright smile. "Hungry."

"Sounds like you." Red Dog snickered. "Come on man, let's go get some grub."

"Yeah, absolutely." Stacy picked up his board and walked solemnly beside him. Red Dog quickly sensed the teen's angst beside him.

"I don't want to ask but you're making it obvious you're shitty about something…" Red Dog sighed, resigning himself to Stacy's less than cheery mood.

"I – "

"No, no." Red Dog laughed. "I was totally not asking. If it's some chick, you're in the wrong place to worry." He nodded his head, ginger hair flailing into his blue eyes. "There are a million broads here to help you get over what's her name. Just look around, man."

"Ava."

"I didn't ask. dude." Red Dog repeated. "Besides, if she was interested, she'd be here."

"I didn't call her."

Red Dog pursed his lips together. "You're going to make me talk about emotions and shit… aren't you?" he collected his board into his arms and stiffened. "You should talk to Peggy, I doubt I'll be any good to you."

"No, no." Stacy rubbed his neck nervously, knowing better to have this conversation with any of his friends (this stuff was left to his mother when he was at wit's end – he wasn't there yet though). "It doesn't matter, I've missed my shot with her anyway. Should have called her and didn't."

"Why didn't you?"

"Dunno, nervous, I guess. Hottest girl by far that has ever bothered to look at me."

"Kathy is pretty hot." Red Dog grinned, a semi-sarcastic dig at Stacy.

"And look how well that turned out." Stacy sniped.

"Hold on, was this that girl that you were hanging out with at the shop last week? Brunette, tall, weird accent?"

"Australian." Stacy supplied with a chuckle.

Red Dog snaked Stacy. Hard. "You didn't call her?"

"Jesus, Red Dog!" Stacy exclaimed, dropping his board with a loud clatter to rub his shoulder. He lifted his t-shirt sleeve to reveal a bright red mark that would certainly bruise. "Nice one, asshole."

"Sorry." Red Dog replied. "Just wanted to make my point."

"Which was?"

"You're an idiot." Red Dog smirked simply, as they joined a refreshment line.

"Gee, great way to make that point."

"I thought so."

"I thought I saw Ava's friend, you know the one that was all over Biniak?"

"Blonde Malibitch?"

"Yup."

"Yeah, she's here, she and Bob were all over each other before."

"It was her?"

"Yeah, Abbey, or something?" Red Dog shrugged. "2 Coca Colas." He ordered. Stacy nervously tapped his foot, turning around to see if he could spot Bob and his new friend. Red Dog rammed the bottle into Stacy's hands. "You're welcome, Peralta."

"Oh, right. Sorry. Thanks." Stacy said as Red Dog wandered away, leaving Stacy to continue with his own dismal, agitated thoughts.


"Are you seriously going to stay in on a Saturday night?" Abbey wailed as Ava hung a jacket in her walk in closet. "It's awesome out tonight, we should at least go get some ice cream."

"I'm kinda not in the mood." Ava said, reappearing in her PJs.

"You're killing my social life, Ava Mitchell."

"Then go out without me." Ava replied, not at all offended.

"I can't, it won't be fun."

Ava pursed her lips together. "Is there something on that you're not telling me about?"

"Nah, just some drinks at Bob's."

"And how did Bob go today?"

"Most skilled tongue ever."

"Ew! No, I meant at the competition!"

"Oh," Abbey let a small giggle escape her lips. "Umm, yeah, 3rd place in freestyle or something?"

"Sounds like you were paying a lot of attention."

"Yeah… not really." Abbey shrugged modestly.

"Slut."

Abbey shrugged. "Hey, at least I'm putting myself out there, Ave. You know what you want to ask me."

"I asked you how Bob went, you told me more than what I was actually interested in hearing, that's about it."

"Stacy was first place."

"Really?! In what?" Ava's green eyes lit up before she could catch herself.

"Slalom." Abbey gave Ava a coy grin, knowing fully well her friend hadn't been able to catch her exhilaration quick enough. "He looked cute. Girls loved him! I think it's the blonde surfer hair."

"Oh yeah?" Ava muttered, sitting on her king size bed, cuddling into the pillows, partly wishing that they would swallow her and she could move on from this Stacy Peralta predicament. Abbey watched Ava go to ground, holding back her pain for her friend and persisting with rubbing it in just a minute longer.

"Yup. But he didn't seem interested. If anything, he looked a little bit out of it."

"Oh, well." Ava shrugged, trying desperately not to look like she cared.

"He didn't ask about you."

"That makes sense. He didn't call." Ava reminded Abbey.

"I think you intimidate him."

"Shuddup." Ava mumbled, playing with the tassels on her pillow. "We both know that's bullshit."

"Not really, but that red headed one came up to me on the way back to Gabi's car, and he's like, 'hey, you're that Ava girl's friend, right?'" she imitated gruffly. "I'm like, 'uhh, maybe. Who are you and why do you want to know?'"

Ava had to laugh. Abbey was notorious for blowing things out of proportion. "Oh, really?"

"Yup. And then he's like, 'Yeah, Stacy was talking about her before, looking for her. She not here?'"

"You're paraphrasing?" Ava raised an eyebrow, suspiciously.

"I wish. They all really talk like that!" Abbey exclaimed then broke into a smile. "I just thought I'd let you know."

"Oh, well I feel 100 times better now and I'm not at all more confused than I was before this conversation." Ava said sarcastically, pulling her hair into a long ponytail.

"Thought so. So, organize yourself shit, we're going to have drinks at Bob's whether you like it or not." Abbey slapped Ava's bare thigh, hoping to kick start her into action. "Come on, you clearly like this guy, do the hard stuff yourself for once. Get dressed, let's go!"

"Nah," Ava said. "You go, have a good night. I'm just gonna stay here."

"Argh, you're hopeless." Abbey grunted, getting up. "I'm gonna go, I'll call you tomorrow."

"Have a good night," Ava said, not remotely interested in giving in to Abbey's begging. Abbey stomped out, slamming Ava's bedroom door after her. "Well, that was uncalled for…" Ava giggled to herself, before finding her new Rolling Stone and giving it her attention. "Looks like it's just and I, Nug." Ava said, starting on an article on Ted Nugent.


Ava sighed as she flicked through her Literature text the next night, not remotely interested. Hearing the phone ring, she left it until she heard the thump of shoes on the hard wood floors came closer to her bedroom. "Ava!" Declan yelled outside the door. "Phone! It's a boy!" he added the last part in a teasing, sing song voice.

Ava closed the book and panicked. Was it finally Stacy? Was there another guy she should be expecting a call from? She cleared her throat, inspecting her image in the mirror. "What are you doing, he can't see you!" she chided herself. She took a deep breath. "Hello?" she practiced, putting her most sensual tone in her voice. She cursed herself and picked up the receiver on her bedside table. "Hello?" she asked as much like herself as possible, even uninterested.

"Ava? Hi, it's Stacy. Uhh, Stacy Peralta."

Ava pulled the phone away from her face, dancing on her bed happily. She stopped abruptly. "Oh, hey." She said casually. "It's been a while. How are you?"

"I'm pretty good, just got off work actually." He replied. "Yourself?"

"Not bad, just studying."

"Oh, I'm not interrupting?"

"Not really."

"Okay, cool… Look, I'm sorry I didn't call earlier."

"That's okay. I don't mind, I'm sure you had plenty on."

"Well, I do in midst of school, surfing, skateboarding and work, but that's not the point... I'm not usually like this. You just make me more nervous than most girls… that's kind of why I couldn't ring you." He spat out, unable to stop himself.

"Well, that kind of makes up for it." Ava replied with a small smile, twisting the phone cord around her index finger.

"You're not mad?"

"No, I feel a bit better that you at least told me. I thought you didn't like me."

"Oh, you can't be serious?" Stacy chuckled. "I do, I can assure you. Really, I do."

"Well, cool." Ava's cheek's were starting to hurt from her smile.

"I feel really bad for not calling, Ava." he paused and continued shakily, "I was thinking I could maybe make up for it by taking you for dinner next weekend or something?"

"Umm, I'll have to check my calendar, but yeah, if I'm free, that would be cool." She said. She smirked in smug satisfaction, she'd always wanted to use that line on someone, it just happened to be Stacy who was on the receiving end.

"Oh," he said uncertainly. Did he think he was an instant shoo in?

Ava bit her lip, picking up on his disappointment. "Umm, but it looks okay, yeah, book it in." she rushed, hoping to take the nervousness away from him again. "Sounds good."

"Awesome." He sounded awfully relieved.

"Well, call me later in the week or something and we'll organize it."

"Rad." He stated. "I better let you go back to your studies."

"Okay." Ava smiled. Finally, she wanted to yell. "Thanks for the call."

"No problem. Take care, Ava."

"Bye Stacy." She hung up and bounced on her bed manically, screaming silently with joy. "I'm going on a date with Stacy, I'm going on a date with Stacy." She bounced back on her butt and picked up the phone to make another phone call.

"Talk to me." Abbey demanded in her usual, Princess of Malibu arrogance. It was her phone line fortunately; Abbey knew only a certain few would be on the other end and not at all taken aback at that answer.

"We have to go shopping this week after school."

"No problem. Why?"

"Because Stacy just called and asked me out."

Abbey laughed. "About time!"

"Yeah, he was so cute and nervous."

"He surely is nothing like his friends. Bob said to me, 'wanna date me?'"

"Something tells me you probably would have reacted just as superior?"

Abbey laughed. "Yeah… you're right. So, let's chat tomorrow and figure out how we're going to get this skateboard punk to fall in love with you, hmm?"