Monday again, Claire thought to herself grimly as she walked out her front door. She set off down the street in the direction of the school. She lived about ten minutes away and walked whenever she could. Claire especially enjoyed the days when the sun was shining happily as it rose higher and higher in the sky. Today was a bit dreary, though. The sky was heavy with gray clouds and the pavement was a little wet.

Claire didn't mind today, however. She had too much on her mind. What with Shannon's family drama and Kate's Sunday hibernation, Claire just did not have the time to think about the weather.

Yes, Shannon's drama had become quite insane. Claire wasn't sure what to do about it. Ok, so she didn't actually know all the details yet. Shannon had only given her the basics, wanting to give details when she could be face to face with her friends. Claire had tried to bribe Shannon in any way she could, even offering to take her shopping, but nothing could make her budge. And so, Claire had to wait.

She tried calling Kate on Sunday so they could go see Shannon, but Diane had answered the phone and said something vague about Kate not feeling well. Claire had a nasty feeling that whatever was going on at the Austen household had something to do with Wayne, Diane's mysterious new boy toy.

Thinking this all through again made Claire quicken her pace. She was dying to know what was going on with her friends. Not to mention, she had some things to tell them, too.

First off, on Saturday night, Claire had been hanging out with Charlie as she babysat her neighbor. When it got dark, Charlie offered to walk her and little Seth back to the house. Claire graciously accepted.

At the front door, Claire sent Seth into the house ahead of her so she could say good bye to Charlie. That's when it happened. Charlie simply leaned in and kissed her on the lips. He muttered something about seeing her on Monday, and then strolled away, whistling some made-up tune. Claire had been shocked, to say the least.

Then, later after she had gotten home, Claire was rummaging around her refrigerator looking for a midnight snack. She moved on to see what was in the pantry when a paper sticking out of a drawer caught her attention.

The paper was crumpled from being shoved in the drawer. Claire slowly took it out and began to read what appeared to be a letter addressed to her mother. The handwriting was loopy and hard to read, so Claire could only make out a few words.

I can't tell you how much…terrible…she knows about us…I don't want to…you, Gabrielle…this…stop…must…never told…never again…I know I promised you, but she's my w…

Claire couldn't read anything else. It was signed 'CFS'.

-xXx-

Sawyer sat down heavily in his seat. He was early to class. Early. That never happened.

Except today. Today, Sawyer made sure he got to class at a reasonable time because this was the only time he'd see Kate.

Damn, four minutes. The bell would ring in four minutes. Could time move any slower?

Someone walked in the classroom door. Sawyer looked up quickly to see if it was Kate. It wasn't.

"Hey," Sawyer greeted as Sayid sat down in front of him. Sayid didn't reply. Sawyer rolled his eyes.

Two minutes.

Where was everybody? There were maybe five people total in the classroom where there should have been twenty.

One minute.

A few people trickled in, no one Sawyer really knew. A group of loud senior girls and their big mouthed friends clustered in the doorway to talk for a moment more. Mr. Grant came over to tell them all to get to class.

The bell rang. Still no Kate. Where was she?

"Ok, everybody, today we're gonna go over factoring polynomials…"

Kate and Boone walked casually through the door just as Mr. Grant was about to close it. They were so absorbed in their conversation they didn't notice the teacher's annoyed face.

"Austen, Carlyle, you know I have to count you tardy, right?" Mr. Grant asked.

Kate and Boone nodded their heads and took their seats. Kate never so much as glanced at Sawyer. She tapped Boone on the shoulder and whispered a few things in his ear before settling back in her seat.

Sawyer sighed. "Hey, Kate. How's it going?"

Kate glanced over at him. "Fine."

"How was the rest of your weekend?" Sawyer asked, ignoring the fact that Kate didn't seem to want to carry on a conversation.

"Fine," Kate said again. She was intently watching the math Mr. Grant was performing on the board.

"You wanna hang out after school today?" Sawyer asked.

Kate glanced at him again. "Uh, no, I've got plans today. Sorry."

Sawyer rolled his eyes. Hard to get? That wasn't Kate's game.

"Ok, I'll go ahead and give you this worksheet," Mr. Grant said loudly, interrupting Sawyer's thoughts. "You can work with the people around you, but don't get too loud."

Sawyer looked at the worksheet he'd been given. He had no idea what to do with it. "Hey, Sayid. Can you help me out?"

"No, but perhaps Boone can," Sayid said coldly. Sawyer would have taken a slight offense if he hadn't noticed the glare Sayid directed at Boone.

"Hey, maybe you should just stay away from me," Boone suggested angrily. Kate placed a hand on his shoulder as if to hold him back. He shook his head and took a deep breath. "You better stay away from Shannon, Sayid. You don't deserve her."

"I think that's up to Shannon, not the son of her father's girlfriend," Sayid murmured dangerously.

"Wait, what's going on here?" Sawyer interrupted. "What's going on with Shannon?"

"Nothing," Kate said quietly, not looking at him. Both Sayid and Boone turned away, too. Sawyer gave them each a 'you're crazy' look and tried to figure out his worksheet.

-xXx-

Ana had to work to not kick her CPU. Don't get her wrong, she was pretty good with computers. It was just this program that didn't want to let her do anything was crap.

To take her mind off her troubles, Ana looked around the classroom. She spotted Kate and tried to get a look over the younger girl's shoulder. If Kate's project was better than hers, then Ana was going to be extremely irritated.

Oh. Kate was playing solitaire. That's funny. They weren't allowed to play solitaire.

Man, what does Sawyer see in her anyway? Ok, so she's kinda pretty and she's not dumb, but other than that...she's a sophomore. And it's not like-

Wait. Was she seriously doing this? Trying to figure out why Sawyer dated Kate? That's not good.

Ana shook her head and tried to get back to work.

-xXx-

"Come on, Shannon, tell us," Claire whined. She sat down at the lunch table next to Kate.

Shannon sighed. "It's not that big a deal."

"Shannon, you left me two messages on Saturday night, begging me to call you. Now, spill," Claire demanded.

Shannon looked at her wearily, trading a glance with Kate. "Well, it's like this. Saturday, Sayid came over to help Boone with his car, right, but they got in a fight and-"

"What about?" Claire interrupted.

Shannon looked at her blankly for a moment. "I don't know, they were in the garage. So, Boone storms into the house and yells at me for a little bit until Sabrina told him off, saying it was rude to lose your temper in front of guests. But that only made Boone angrier, because he hadn't realized Sayid had followed him in."

"Why was Boone yelling at you?" Claire asked when Shannon paused to draw a breath.

"I don't know. Why does Boone do anything?" Shannon snapped, rolling her eyes.

"But-"

"Claire, if you keep interrupting, we're never gonna get through this before lunch is over," Kate said quietly. She wouldn't meet anyone's eyes.

Claire raised her eyebrows at Shannon. "Fine. Continue please."

"Ok. So then my dad walks in and tells Boone to be quiet and asks what the problem is. Boone launched into some long tirade about Sayid and me and my dad and Sabrina and whole bunch of other things. My dad only cared about one thing, though. He started asking Sayid all these crazy, personal questions. I tried to interrupt, to defend Sayid, but he wouldn't stop.

"What was he asking?" Claire asked, ignoring the eye roll from Kate.

"Like how many girls has he dated," Shannon replied. She and Claire traded a grin. "So anyway, Sayid was really good about it. He answered all the questions and didn't get angry. Boone was being a retard, though; he was pacing in the background. So finally, my dad gets done and he gets ready to tell me something –"

"What, what?" Claire asked eagerly.

"I think he was going to tell me that I could date Sayid!" Shannon said excitedly.

"No way!" Claire screeched. Even Kate looked up, obviously interested.

"Yes, exciting, but," Shannon sighed. "Sabrina never gave him the chance. She started saying something about 'he's a boy of color, you don't want that for your only daughter, do you, Adam?' She was really rude."

"No offense to Boone, but I never liked her," Claire said, immediately coming to Shannon's defense.

"Yeah, well, it gets worse," Shannon said. "My dad and Sabrina decided to tell us then that they were going to get married four months ahead of schedule. That's in three weeks. And Sabrina wants to adopt me to be my legal guardian."

"What? Are they ready to get married in three weeks?" Claire said.

"Did you not hear the part about the adoption?" Shannon glared.

"Yes, I heard it, but there's not much you can do, is there?" Claire said.

"Just talk to your dad about it. I'm sure he'll understand," Kate suggested.

"It's funny that you're telling me to tell my dad how I feel when you won't do the same with your mom," Shannon said venomously.

"Yes, how is dear Wayne?" Claire asked.

"He came over on Sunday," Kate said, frowning. "He seemed ok, I guess. But he's still a scumbag."

"Well, anyone Diane meets at that diner where she works is a scumbag," Claire said sympathetically.

"Yeah, whatever," Kate muttered. "She can screw up her own life. That's her right, right? So what else is going on with Sayid?"

"Oh, right," Shannon said. "Well, Sabrina said that once she's adopted me, she can tell me who I can and can't date, and I'll actually have to listen. So according to her, as her first act as my mother, she's forbidding me to date or have anything to do with Sayid. Boone's not allowed to see him either."

"You're not actually going to listen, are you?" Claire asked, outraged.

"No, of course not. I offered to walk Sayid to the door and told him that I thought we should date. He was real sweet about it. Said he didn't want to get me in trouble, but I don't care. He's a really nice guy," Shannon said happily.

"So are you guys' official?" Kate asked.

"No, not yet. He said he wants to take me out a couple times first," Shannon said.

"That's so sweet," Claire grinned.

"Well, your new boyfriend isn't half bad either," Shannon said.

"Charlie's not my boyfriend," Claire corrected.

"You're just romantically involved now," Kate pointed out.

"Aren't we all?" Shannon sighed.

"Not with Charlie," Claire laughed.


I'm terribly sorry, I know it's been forever since I updated, but I've been really busy lately. It'll be pretty slow work in the next couple weeks, too, just to warn you (I have exactly 14 days of school left! Yay!!!)

Well, I should go, I'm supposed to be doing homework. :(

Hey, seriously, if anyone has ANY ideas, I'm all ears.