So, this took me a while to write. I have been working on creating a story-line for every character throughout the story, and although I am not done I am slowly getting there. I start school again in a couple of days, but hopefully I will find time to write. As for the characters being slightly out of character every once in a while, it's because I try to picture them 15 years prior to when we meet the characters in "CSI" and "CSI:MIAMI". As an adult, Catherine may be more tactful, but I imagine her as a very straight-forward kind of teenager. Let me know if you hate it.

"How are you doing on your biology presentation?" Natalia asked Maxine as they sat down for lunch. On Mondays Natalia didn't share a class with any of her friends until after lunch, so that particular day of the week was by far not her favorite. Maxine groaned. "Don't remind me of that, I'm completely stuck!"

"I thought you liked biology." Natalia sat her tray down and opened her juice box.

" I do! I'm just lost, I don't even understand the assignment."

"That sucks."

"Tell me about it."

"You know, my dad is out of town for work so my mom has gone all Betty Crocker; she got a book of recipes from my grandma for her birthday and now she's making everything in it. I swear there are cookies everywhere. My sisters and I are going to double or weight if no one comes and helps us eat them, maybe we could have like a study session at my place? I haven't gotten any further than you on my presentation and I know Calleigh has something due in her Spanish class.

"Yes! I love your mom's food!"

"Who's loving who?" Catherine said as she sat down, they hadn't even seen her approach them. Calleigh followed close behind.

"I love Natalia's mom. Or – her food, actually."

The two newly arrived looked to Natalia for an explanation.

"My mom has fallen in love with a recipe book she got for her birthday, and me and Max are behind on this biology presentation. So I was wondering if you would all come to my house for a study session this week? I know you have a Spanish thing, Cal, and Cath; I am sure you have… something."

"Everyone has something, we're only a couple of weeks in the semester and it's already getting tough."

"Well, that's what study sessions are for" Calleigh, the eternal optimist said and gave Catherine a jokingly pat on the back. "I'll be there. When where you thinking?"

"Maybe Wednesday?" Natalia asked, and it seemed to fit everyone's schedules so they nodded in agreement.

"Wednesday it is" Maxine declared.

"What's happening on Wednesday?" Eric Delko said with a grin as he and Ryan came to join them around the cafeteria table.

"Okay, what is it with people and randomly appearing and interrupting me in the middle of a conversation today?" Maxine asked with false annoyance.

"I am not explaining it a third time" Natalia said. "Wednesday, study session at my place after school. Consider yourselves invited. There will be cookies."

"I do like cookies" Ryan declared. Suddenly he came to think of Sara, this could be a nice opportunity to introduce her to his friends. "Hey, do you guys mind if I bring a friend?"

Silence came to lay upon the group for a minute, they just stared at him as if he'd said he was moving to March this very afternoon. As she often was, Catherine was the first to speak up. "You have other friends, besides us?"

It was probably supposed to be a subtle warning, but Ryan clearly spotted Calleigh elbowing Catherine in the ribs. Catherine was rather unfazed. "I didn't mean it rude, but come on – who do you hang out with outside this group here?"

"I happened to meet a girl in P.E last week and I thought; Hey, this person is actually normal. Would be a nice change" Ryan replied sarcastically. Maxine chuckled, "You met a girl? Natalia, are you hearing this? He met a girl!"

"I'm not worried, Max" Natalia replied, more than aware of her boyfriend's loyalty to her.

"I take that's a yes then."

"Of course, bring whoever you want. We have enough pastries to feed a small army."

School was hectic these days; the hours flew by and Wednesday came fast. Natalia had cleared her kitchen table, and as promised there was a huge basket of cookies placed right in the middle of it.

"Catherine" Ryan began. The redhead was busy painting her nails, she was really just there for the company, not so much for studying. "I never asked, how did your roommate react when he woke up? You know, after the party on Saturday."

Catherine grinned as she thought back to Sunday morning. Gil's facial expression when he found Nick and Lou on the living room floor was beyond legendary. "Oh, I wish you guys could have seen it. He's far better at dealing with loose tarantulas than finding strangers in the living room." The look he had given her when she met him in the kitchen that morning…. Man, she wished she had a photo of that.

"I still can't believe you're able to sleep knowing there are lots bugs in your living room just waiting for the right time to break free." Natalia said, shuttering at the thought of being covered in tiny, crawling creatures.

"Well, just as everything is with Gil, you get used to it after a while."

"I have to meet this roommate of yours" Maxine said matter-of-factly.

"Sure. Nat, where are your sisters? I need someone to help me do my right hand." She held up the row of unpainted fingernails next to the one with perfectly painted red ones.

"Anya is out shopping with my mom and Christine is at a friend's house, I think. You can get Eric to do it" the brunette replied, motioning to Eric who – much like Catherine – had done absolutely nothing productive since he arrived.

"I'm busy," he stated, reaching out for the basket on the table.

"Doing what exactly? Why are you even here?" Maxine pried. He hadn't as much as opened a book.

"I'm being a great friend, offering Natalia my services. These – " he pointed to the small pile of cookies he had on his own little section of the table. "- Won't eat themselves."

"Come on Eric, you have sisters." Calleigh jumped into the conversation, knowing some of the things they had had Eric do for them in the past.

"I do not paint their nails."

"Don't worry, I would prefer someone more experienced. When is your friend arriving, Ryan?" Catherine asked.

"I bet you never had anyone reject you for lack of experience, huh Eric?" Maxine teased, her mind never out of the gutter as much as a second, earning herself some chuckles.

"She should be here now, actually. I gave her directions, so she'll be here soon I guess" Ryan answered. He'd given her a description of where to drive as well as the address but it was very possible that she had taken a wrong turn somewhere.

"You should probably call her and make sure because your directions suck" Calleigh said, remembering when he was to explain her the road to an old bookstore she needed to go to an old bookstore in the first place, she couldn't remember.

"No they don't, they're just hard to follow if you drive like you've stolen the car and everything in it" he replied, pointing out how he felt about her driving. How anyone ever let her drive was beyond him.

As Calleigh was about to reply the doorbell rang, and Natalia went to get it.

She opened the door, revealing a brown-eyed brunette with hair to her shoulders. Natalia recognized her from school, until this very moment she hadn't been able to tie a face to the name. Sara, it was.

"Hi, you're Sara right? Come in!" Natalia welcomed as she practically dragged the girl inside. "Nice too met you."

"Nice to meet you too" Sara replied as they shook hands, a bit surprised at the friendliness she was receiving. She always expected the worst, because then she was pleasantly surprised more often. "I don't mean to implode or anything, but Ryan…"

Natalia cut her off before she had the chance to finish her sentence. "Let me guess, he insisted and then proceeded to ramble to the point where you agreed to anything he said just to shut him up?"

Sara was left almost speechless, that was spot-on exactly what had happened. "Yeah."

"He does that. Come on, I'll introduce you to anyone."

Again, Sara was dragged but she didn't protest.

"Sara, this is Eric, Calleigh, Maxine, Catherine, and you know Ryan" Natalia said pointing to every one of them as she went a long.

Calleigh Duquesne flashed her a smile taken straight out of a Colgate commercial. "Hey Sara, nice to meet you! "

It didn't bother her, so went she moved here she didn't go looking for friends. In her opinion, there were very few people worthy of her trust and she didn't mind being alone.

You know how you unconsciously paint a picture of a person in your mind that you don't really know? Don't judge a book by it's cover and all that? Sometimes you're not wrong and the picture is not that far from reality, and well… Sometimes you're way of base.

In the case of Natalia BoaVista, it was not one of those times. She had struck Sara as a very sociable and the nice kind of girl, the kind that wasn't the center of unnecessary drama or a new rumor every week. It was safe to say that for not having read the book, Sara had judged it relatively good.

As for the other four? Well, Sara hated rumors. She avoided them like the plague. Still, in the short time she had attended her new school, she had heard a thing or two about every one of them. A lot more than just a thing or two about the Cuban, actually. As much as she, unsuccessfully, tried to spare herself from the nonsense – well, it is high school for crying out loud. Of course, being an opponent of the whole concept, she decided to put rumors aside and base her opinion solely on her own experience – not everyone else's.

As the blonde one, Calleigh, started talking to her; asking questions and showing general interest in her – Sara felt stupid. She felt stupid, because obviously she wasn't as good at reading people as she had thought. Sara had pegged Calleigh Duquesne for a Barbie doll from the moment she had seen her, figured she was one of those who used their long, blonde hair and southern accent to charm their way to school. Well, this was certainly a wake-up call. You see? Only a couple of weeks in this city and she was already getting infected with the vanity that Miami held so much of.

As wrong as she might have been, she couldn't possibly be the first to make that assumption.

After another 35 minutes of working on their respective assignments, and Catherine and Eric debating the best and the worst of old school rock (they never agreed on anything), Maxine lead the conversation towards a more personal matter.

"So… Greg's coming to visit."

That effectively got her everyone's attention.

"Greg? As in used-to-live-here Greg?" Natalia asked, a bit high-pitched.

"Yup."

"As in fuck-friend Greg?" Catherine caught on, and Calleigh and Eric couldn't help but laugh in unison at the strawberry blonde's bluntness.

Fuck friends? Up until this moment, the thought that eighteen year olds had fuck friends hadn't even grazed Sara's mind. Not all teenagers have even had sex at eighteen. It left her wondering if some of the rumors she had heard may in fact be true…

"Yup." Maxine smiled triumphantly.

"Well, this will be interesting."

"When is he coming?" Natalia asked.

Sara didn't understand a damn thing.

"In a couple of weeks" Maxine replied, smiling. The day was turning out good for her.

"And how exactly does that… leave you two?" Natalia asked, referring to their previous… Well, she supposed she could call it a relationship. Arrangement was quite possibly a better fitting term.

"Hopefully, exactly where we left of" Maxine said with a twinkle in her eye to suggest that she meant what she said in every dirty way imaginable.

Calleigh noticed the very understandably confused look on Sara's face. "Greg is a friend of ours, he moved a little over a year ago" she explained.

"Maxine and him were extra friendly, though. If you know what I mean" Catherine chimed in, her tone of voice not leaving anyone in the dark about what she meant.

"Oh… Okay" Sara said, it was the only answer she felt she could come up with in this particular context.

"How about you?" Catherine said, turning herself as well as all her attention towards Sara. "You got anyone special to fill your... female needs?"

Calleigh rolled her eyes. Leave it to Catherine to ask people about their sexual preferences and partners the first time she meets them.

"Uhm, no?" Sara replied, still taken aback by the question, and a little outraged even.

"Just asking. This city increases the sex drive."

Ryan had told her that Catherine spoke first and thought later, but still? Come on. In fact, Sara was beginning to feel a bit crowded. She had never been overly sociable and five was indeed a crowd, she decided.

"Ignore her" Ryan declared.

"Whatever." Catherine decided to leave the subject. Clearly, Sara wasn't game. She guessed she would have to do her right hand herself after all.

"Eric I know how you can make yourself useful…" Calleigh said, taking her eyes off her books to meet his brown ones. "In a cookie-unrelated matter."

"I'm listening."

"I need your help with this" she said, pointing to her notebook. Eric wrinkled his brows, if he didn't know better he would say she was flirting (friendly flirting was after all a big part of their relationship) because he couldn't think of a subject in which she would need his help.

She noticed the confused look on his face, read his mind perfectly. "It's Spanish."

"Oh. Sure, what do you need?" He leaned in closer to read the paper she had lying in front of her.

"I need you to help me translate this sentence" she said, pointing. "It's a novel, and this is the only part I haven't been able to figure out. I forgot my dictionary at school."

As he began reading, he tried not to notice the sweet smell of her shampoo. Safe to say, he failed.

Tu amor me inspira, tu ternura me conmueve y tus besos me enloquecen.

"It means…" He hesitated, before continuing in a slightly lowered voice. " It means: Your love inspires me, your tenderness touches me and your kisses drive me crazy."

The small talk around the kitchen table died away as Eric read. He read it with empathy, and… sincerity. The way only Eric Delko could, Calleigh thought to herself.

Little taken aback, she pursed her lips and looked up at him again. "Thanks" she smiled. Hearing his voice utter those words; she was introduced to a feeling she had never encountered before and failed miserably to put words to. "I have to go to the bathroom," she said, avoiding the, amused she figured, looks of Catherine and Maxine on the way. They had noticed her reaction, she was sure. She would definitely hear about it too, but if she could delay it then that was exactly what she would do.

Catherine tried to hold it in, she really did…. But she simply couldn't. It was right there.

"Impressive, Eric. Is that your secret? Do you Spanish your way into girls hearts?"

"Or you know, pants?" Maxine added. She thought what Catherine had just a few seconds ago; it was right there. "That's cute," she added, and Eric didn't know if she referred to his creeping blush or not.

"I'll try it on you one day" he replied, unsuccessfully attempting to joke it away.

"I would ask you to take notes, Ryan, but for some reason I cannot seem to understand - you have a girlfriend." Catherine teased.

"An incredibly hot girlfriend" Ryan grinned, placing an arm around a blushing yet smiling Natalia. Maxine turned to Sara, doing her best to include the girl who was obviously not the most talkative in their conversation. "To this day it remains a mystery how he pulled that off."

Sara chuckled, and Maxine was happy to see that it was indeed possible to lure a laugh out of her.

"That's true" Calleigh chimed in as she re-entered the kitchen and positioned herself in the chair next to Eric's.

"You know, Sara…" Catherine began, and Sara already knew she wouldn't want to answer whatever came next. "We could hook you up. Since you're new in the city and all, I mean" Catherine smirked. She would be lying if she said she wasn't enjoying making other's feel just a tiny bit uncomfortable in her presence.

"No thanks" Sara replied, an attempt to politely decline the offer.

"You sure? We know the guys around here. We're assets, use us!" Catherine kept nagging.

"I'm good." Sara's voice didn't hold the same politeness to it this time. Now, this is where most people would've stopped and changed subjects. Catherine Flynn weren't like most people.

"Hey, if guys aren't your thing then I know lots of girl's too."

The others discreetly exchanged looks, noticing Sara's expression.

"Cathe-" Ryan began, but he was cut off before he got the chance to speak up.

"Look, I don't need your help, Catherine" Sara angrily replied, pretty much hissing as she said Catherine's name. "So just drop it, and keep your prying nose out of my business."

"Hey, I don't care what team you play for, I'm no homophobe. I was just asking" Catherine said smugly, not at all shook up by the brunette in front of her who was getting angrier by the second. Sare felt the anger rise within her. She wasn't gay, and she could've announced that and ended the conversation. However, the strawberry blonde's way of going about it and seemingly no respect for other people's privacy had Sara at boiling point. "Well, what makes you think you can just go ahead and engage yourself in my privacy?" She sounded furious yet disbelieving.

"Cath-" Ryan tried again, and once again he was cut off. No one of them liked where this was headed. Storm warning, everyone.

"It's fun?" Catherine grinned, still not letting the fury of the somewhat taller girl get to her. All she received was an eye roll and a stare that made Catherine happy there was no such thing as laser eyes. "Man, you really can't take a joke can you?" Catherine finished.

Natalia buried her head in her hands as a reaction to Catherine's lack of knowing when to stop pressing people's buttons. "Oh my God" she whispered under her breath.

"I'm going home" Sara announced, clearly not in her best mood, as she walked over to pick up her jacket and put on her shoes.

"It was nice to meet you" Sara said sternly to the others, jaw clenched, making sure Catherine saw that she definitely didn't find it nice to meet her.

Besides their goodbyes, no one dared to open their mouths until they heard the door shut. "That could have gone better," Maxine said dryly.

"Yeah" Catherine snorted.

"Catherine, you have to admit that you sometimes can be very straight forward" Ryan tried, knowing he was entering dangerous waters.

"And that's a bad thing? It's not my fault your friend was born without a sense of humor." Ryan could have protested, but he knee from experience that a discussion with Catherine never worked in his favor. "Okay."

"Yeah, isn't it weird that not all people want to talk about their sex life with strangers?" a smiling Calleigh chimed in.

"To be fair, she was just as nosy upon meeting us" Eric argued, remembering his first meeting with Catherine a little over a year ago. She had asked him face on if he had any STDs, given the things she had heard, and he had to explain to her that he was not a man whore. It was quite a lovely first meeting. He didn't have any, by the way.

"That's true, me and Ryan totally got the first degree" Natalia added.

"Okay, I get it! "Catherine relented, acknowledging the fact that she liked to pry. "Don't tell me you weren't wondering too, though."

"We love you and your prying, Catherine. It's just not for everyone" Maxine said matter-of-factly, a smile on her face.

"Yeah, what would my day have been without you interrogating me?" Calleigh grinned.

"She's the only one I haven't cracked yet," Catherine said, pointing to the blonde as she spoke to the others.

"You see, that's what I was talking about. If you're not ready for countless sexual remarks, you're not ready for us!" Maxine declared, holding a cookie up in the air as to signalize she had the last word in the conversation.

The other's laughed. Ryan sighed. He gave up, there's no way he would ever have normal friends.