The music of their teen years blared out of the door and they walked into what looked like a winter wonderland. Silvery and sparkly snowflake centerpieces with accents of blue and gold, which were the SHS school colors. Beautiful white glittery tablecloths with blue and gold confetti sprinkled atop what looked to be about 30 tables scattered throughout the ballroom with place settings and name cards. The light wooden dance floor was in front of a tiny stage with a few steps on either side and looked portable so it was clearly brought in for the occasion. A single microphone sat in the middle of it with large speakers on each side of the stage. The ballroom itself was gorgeous on its own but Cokie's decorations made it look spectacular. Kristy made a point to stop Cokie to tell her what a wonderful job she did. Kristy yelled to the girls over the music, "I'm gonna go walk around!" "Ok" mouthed Mary Anne.

Kristy casually strolled over to the bar area to order a drink. As she waited for it, she heard a loud "Hey you!" as she felt a simultaneous tap on her shoulder. She turned around to face Abby Stevenson, the former alternate officer of the Babysitter's Club and her old neighbor. Kristy remembered Abby's distinctive dark brown and tight curly hair but that night, her hair was blown out straight and was full of golden blonde highlights. She looked stunning in a simple black halter dress and some square diamond earrings and a matching necklace. A bewildered Kristy shouted, "Abby! Holy crap! Look at you!" and she gave her a big hug before asking, "How are you?!"

With a big smile, Abby replied "I'm good, I'm good. How about you?" "I'm doing great" said Kristy. "I still live here in Stoneybrook and I work at an insurance company just a few minutes away from here, actually."

"Nice" said Abby, who then asked "So, are you married? Kids?" Kristy responded, "No and no. Happily single" and not wanting to get further into her personal life or discuss her sexual orientation, quickly asked Abby "and how about you?"

"Oh yes. I've been married 6 years. I got married right out of college and I have 3 kids" said Abby.

"Whaat?" Kristy exclaimed. "How did you have time to have 3?!"

Abby replied "Well, I had twins."

"Oh, ok" said Kristy to Abby before she continued on. "My daughter, Kelly is 4 and my boys, Zack and David are 2."

"Congrats. That's wonderful. You don't live locally do you?" Kristy asked. "I mean, I never see you."

Abby said. "Oh no. I live in Alabama now."

"Say what?" asked a surprised Kristy.

"Yep. Afraid so. A Jewish girl from Long Island in the heart of dixie."

Kristy asked, "How in the world did you end up there?" She replied. "My husband is from Alabama but we met at NYU. After graduation, he went back home and took a job with the State of Alabama. He proposed to me about a month after he went back, I said yes, packed my bag and the rest is history. I'll never get used to it but I sure love that man" she said. Then she added "He still works for the state so we can't really live anywhere else."

Kristy asked "What do you do?"

"I'm actually a photographer. I do a lot of southern weddings, debutante balls..and my husband pulled some strings so I'm the official photographer for any state government event" said Abby.

Kristy said "That's too cool. Hey, I gotta ask. Do your kids have little southern accents?"

Abby burst out laughing and said "Yes! Totally!" as she sarcastically rolled her eyes.

Kristy told her, "Hey, all the girls are here. Dawn came from Cali too. Come on!" ask she grabbed her arm and dragged her to the table where the BSC was sitting. Luckily they were all still there. They all shared a hug and Abby sat down at the table while they all shared updates about their lives. Mary Anne asked "Hey, is Anna here?" referring to Abby's twin sister.

"Oh yeah, she's around" Abby replied. "She works in Japan as an investment banker." Then adding "American company though."

"Whoa!" exclaimed Mary Anne, as equally shocked reactions came from the rest of the ladies before Kristy then remembered that she never got her drink so she stood up and said "I'll be right back, girls."

She made her way through the crowd that had now formed in the ballroom before getting back to the bar. As she was handed her martini, another familiar face greeted her as she turned around. She sighed and said "Alan Gray.." He was easy to recognize although he looked a little different, having gained a bit of weight and looked a bit too weathered for 28.

"Hey Kris!" he shouted over the music. "Wow. You look pretty."

"Uh..thanks" she said, really not wanting to talk to her obnoxious ex-boyfriend but still trying to be polite, asked him "How are you?"

He said "I'm doing ok. I live in Hollywood."

"Jeez" thought Kristy to herself. "Does everyone live in California now?" before asking him "and what do you do out there?"

"Well, I do stand up comedy."

"Of course" Kristy again thought to herself before Alan added "but it doesn't always pay the bills so I bartend too."

That explained a bit why Alan looked a little beat up, Kristy figuring he probably drank a lot. It was barely another 10 seconds before Alan put his arm around Kristy and whispered in her ear "you know, I have a room in this hotel. You wanna check it out?"

"Seriously, Alan?" Kristy angrily asked before slipping his arm off her.

"Yeah, why not? You look really hot" replied Alan.

No longer feeling the need to be nice or just blurt out that she's gay, said "well, you don't. So no thank you."

Not even taken aback, Alan asked "Is Claudia here, then?"

"Unbelievable" thought Kristy and she said "I don't know..but take care, Alan" and walked away.

"Eww eww EWW!" said Kristy to herself as she walked back to the table. She noticed Claudia and Dawn were both gone as she sat with Mary Anne, Stacey and Mary Anne and Dawn's husband's who had now arrived. "Hey boys" said Kristy. "Where did Dawn go?"

Ben replied, "She's just in the bathroom."

"Ok" said Kristy. "How about Claud?"

"She went to get a drink" said Stacey.

Kristy said "Oh my gosh, you guys. I just saw Alan Gray."

"Ew" said Stacey as she rolled her eyes.

Kristy said "that's not even the worst part. He asked me to go back to his hotel room!" Which made all the ladies at the table crack up before Stacey asked "Where did you see him?"

"At the bar. He looks like he drinks a lot now too" replied Kristy, adding "he's all disheveled and bloated-" Stacey cut Kristy off, standing up, laughing and then shouting "Ahhh! Claudia is at the bar. I gotta go rescue her!"and she then disappeared into the crowd, squeezing her way past many people, most of whom she really didn't recognize. Almost to the bar, she finally saw a face she knew. Her ex-boyfriend Robert Brewster, who looked just as handsome as he was in high school. She quickly pushed that fact out of her mind and mustered out, "Oh. Hey Robert."

He said with much more enthusiasm " Stacey! Wow. I can't believe you're here. You look great! What a great dress!

"Thank you" she replied, subtly eyeing him up and down in his nice suit and said, "You too."

He then very gently slipped his arm around her upper waist as he led her away from the crowd. Once off to the side, he asked, "How are you doing, Stace?"

"I'm doing fine, Robert." she replied, feeling super awkward. "So what's your deal?"

"Well, I live in Colorado now" he said. "I went to school in Boulder and I just decided to stay. It's gorgeous."

"Yeah, I'll bet. What do you do these days?" asked Stacey.

"I teach high school science" he said, adding "and I'm also the varsity football coach."

Stacey laughed and said "I'm a teacher too. 11th and 12th grade calculus."

"Oh, how funny" he said. Before she could stop herself, Stacey blurted out. "Are you married?"

Robert replied, almost in a hesitant way, said. "Yeah. I married Andie." Stacey cringed a little inside as she remembered Andie Gentile. Her former friend who stole Robert from her in 8th grade. After Stacey and Robert got back together from 10th grade to 12th grade, Andie managed to snatch him away again. Obviously that time it was for good. Robert, probably sensing her vibe said, "she isn't here. She stayed home with the kids." Relieved she wouldn't have to see her, Stacey asked, "How many kids?"

"Two" he replied. "A boy and a girl. Mason is 3 and Sienna is 5 months."

"Ugh." Thought Stacey who disliked both of those names but said to Robert "Well, congratulations."

"..and how about you?" he asked. "Still in California?"

She replied "Yes. I never left. I have a 4 year old daughter from my previous relationship but I'm engaged now."

"That's great, Stacey" he said.

Stacey really didn't have much else to say to Robert, other than telling him she was pregnant but she didn't feel like that was any of his business so she decided to end their slightly awkward conversation with, "Well, it was great to see you but I gotta go get Claudia-" before Claudia popped up right behind Robert and jokingly asking "Get me what?!"

Robert turned around and said, "Hey Claudia! Come here!" as he opened up his arms for a hug."

"Hey you" she said, hugging him back, which didn't bother Stacey as they were friends in high school too.

After a really brief chat between those two, Stacey interjected "Ok, well we're going to go mingle. It was nice seeing you, Robert."

"You too" he said before putting his hand on the side of her shoulder for a few seconds, then giving her a gentle hug and whispering to her "I do miss you, Stace. I'm so sorry." He then pulled away and turned to Claudia and said "Great to see you too, Claudia. Take care."

After he walked away, Claudia turned to Stacey and asked "Ok, WHAT did he just say to you?"

" He..apologized." replied a dumbfounded Stacey.

"Good!" proclaimed Claudia, who then joked "he probably hates his life with Andie anyway."

Stacey laughed and said "yeah, probably."

"She's probably just as miserable being married to that cheater too" added Claudia, who then said "So..gross Alan Gray just hit on me at the bar."

Stacey said "Ha! I figured. He did the same thing to Kristy. I was coming to save you!"

Claudia linked arms with Stacey and asked "wanna go try to find some decent people to talk to now?"

"Good idea" said Stacey as they began to mingle with the crowd, eventually running into and having decent conversations with both Trevor Sandbourne and Austin Bentley. Claudia also had a wonderful chat with Emily Bernstein from the middle school and high school newspaper, who gave Claudia a personals column and who, aside from her Grandmother Mimi, was one of the first people who made Claudia realize she wasn't as dumb as she thought. Claudia was pleased to find out that Emily had realized her journalism dream and was a columnist for a local newspaper in Virginia, where she now lived.

Eventually, all the BSC girls caught back up with each other, sitting down and eating dinner once it was served. The night turned into a complete whirlwind, filled with drinking, dancing, laughing and chatting with an endless amount of former classmates. They had been there for hours, having a wonderful time before the music slowly faded away and Kristy and Mary Anne recognized the now familiar voice of Cokie Mason booming from the speakers, "Welcome everyone, to the Stoneybrook High School 10 year reunion!"