Part 10: Summer Time!

21st of July, 2005 (Thursday) – Orange County, California (15 Years Old)

"Boys, meet my best friend, Alex." Jodie came walking in, dragging along a beautiful blonde, with a prominent purple streak in her hair. She was dressed in a pleated chequered mini skirt with black converse, and matched with a simple yet stylish singlet.

"Morning," the blonde greeted awkwardly.

"Hey, I'm Ryan," Ryan waved slightly from his bed.

Seth was silent.

"Ehhem." Ryan faked a cough, trying to wake the other boy up from his little trance, "Seth…" he whispered.

Jodie rolled her eyes at her cousin before turning back to her friend, "that idiot there is my cousin, Seth," she pointed at the curly head boy, "don't mind him, he's not getting' any…" she whispered loudly.

Alex chuckled, revealing her perfectly straight white teeth, "I see."

"Anyways, we'll be off… don't come find us unless it's an emergency!" Jodie called already out the pool house, still pulling Alex along by the wrist.

This was when Seth's brain decidedly began to function again, "Huh… Where'd they go?" He looked around the place lost.

"Uh they went back," Ryan looked up from his comic book just to catch Seth getting up, "where are you going?"

"To look for them of course…"

The blonde boy shook his head, and looked down at his comic again, "I don't think you should do that."

"Why?"

"Jodie told us not to look for them unless it's an 'EMERGENCY'." Ryan tried to emphasize.

"Oh c'mon! You can so beat Jodie up, come with me." Seth whined.

"Nah ah." Ryan shook his head again, something he always does around Seth, "You're not getting me into any fights."

"Fine." The curly haired boy plopped back down onto his seat.

Evanston, Illinois

"Boo!"

Jessie nearly fell off the chair she was sitting on, "Oh my god."

"Sorry." Katie grinned.

"Hey Katie," Jessie looked at the clock, "You're early."

"Yeah, Grace and I are apparently going shopping…" Katie shrugged and sat on the table instead of a near by chair.

"You're probably gonna have to wait a while, she only just got into the shower." The blonde continued eating her breakfast, elbows on either side of the bowl, her head on her left palm.

"Oh. Well then, I'll just keep you company." The brunette's smile growing even wider, looking slightly too happy about the fact that she has to wait.

Mumbling, "You mean it the other way around…" Jessie peered up at her, a spoon still in her mouth.

If Katie had a camera with her, she'd definitely take a shot of that, it was too cute to even be described. She was so busy staring at the younger girl that she forgot to answer the question.

"Hello? Katie?"

"Hmm?"

"Did you just phase out on me?" Jessie mocked a hurt expression, "I'm hurt…"

"Sorry, it's just… you looked like a little baby when you glanced up at me." Katie cooed. "It was so adorable."

Jessie's face blushed bright red upon hearing the older girl describe her as 'adorable'. "I don't know whether I should take offence on you for describing me as 'adorable'."

"It's a compliment, girls should be more adorable these days, not those slutty mcsluts, who turned adult too young." Katie looked up at the ceiling, her legs swinging lightly.

"Okay…"

"Hey Katie," Grace breezed in grabbing an orange out of the fridge, "sorry, just got out of the shower. So are you ready to go?" She finally took a first look in her friend's direction, only to realize her step sister was there as well. Trying to not be snobby and mean, she said, "Morning," directing it at the blonde.

Looking just a little shocked, "Morning."

Katie's eyes darted between the two before breaking the tension, "Yup I'm ready to go, c'mon." She jumped off the bench and began to walk towards the front door, Grace following suit. "Bye Jessie."

"Bye." She called, not sure if the other girl heard, because the door shut just as the words left her mouth.

Orange County, California

"Jodie, phone." Seth walked in grudgingly with a phone in hand, not bother to knock.

She saw some one quickly scramble behind Jodie's bed, and saw his cousin walk out of her toilet.

"Do you ever knock!?" Jodie glared at him, "Al was trying to get changed…"

He lifted his arms up in surrender, slowly backing out of the room just in time to see Alex's head pop up on the other side. "Sorry."

Sighing, she took the phone out of his hand, and closed the door again. "Hello," she plopped onto her bed,

"For Christ's sake Jodie, where the hell did you take my phone!?" Summer's voice rang through the hand phone, luckily Jodie held it at an arm lengths away from her ear.

Getting up from behind the bed, the blonde looked on amused as she stood there adjusting her shirt and skirt.

"Don't worry, it's in a safe place, in good hands…" Jodie laughed.

"You turned it off!" the girl yelled on the phone yet again.

"Of course I turned it off," she rolled her eyes at no one in particular, "it wouldn't fucking shut up."

"Of course it didn't! I was trying to call it all morning!"

"Why don't you come over and pick it up…" Jodie smirked wickedly, "or I can always come over you prefer…"

"Eew! Don't think I don't know what you're thinking." Jodie could just imagine Summer flailing her arms in the air on the other end, "God, at times like these I could finally see the resemblance between you and Seth."

"Oh and what do we not resemble each other?"

"You're…" Summer stopped, "I'm not falling for that one."

"Oh… and what were you going to fall for? I didn't see no traps there, it was a genuine question."

"Eugh. I'll be over at Coop's in half, be there to return my phone."

"Okay then, see you princess…" Jodie smirked before turning the phone off, sighing, she says to the ceiling above, "She so loves me…"

A face hovered above her, finally bringing Jodie back to the present; she had momentarily forgotten that her friend was there.

"Who loves you?" Alex asked.

"Summer."

Her left brow raised, "Summer?"

"She's a girl…" Jodie threw a pillow at the blonde, which the other girl caught.

Sitting down properly on the foot of the bed, "That's a name?!"

"Yes it is, and you'll be meeting her in half an hour."

"She's coming over here?"

"No we're going next door."

"Next door? She lives next door?"

"No, her best friend lives next door, we're going next door to drop off the phone when she arrives there."

"Oh." She paused for a second, "can't you go alone?"

"I can, but I feel it unsafe to leave you here," Alex laughed at Jodie's reasoning, "plus, meeting those two girls is practically like meeting the rest of the town around here."

"Not gettin' you…"

"How should I put it… they're like your typical Newport Barbies… they come with wealth, popularity and smoking hot BEEAUUTY!" Jodie especially elongated the 'beauty' with a tint of enthusiasm.

Pointing a suspicious finger at her friend, "Are you just saying that to make me go?"

"Guess you'll just have to wait and see…" she wriggled her eyebrows playfully.

Evanston, Illinois

"So, how do I look?" Katie came out of her change room sporting a black skirt, barely long enough to cover up her upper thighs.

Grace peeked her head out from her cubicle, "Nice, but be aware, that will definitely attract a lot of gawking and excessive amount of drooling."

Katie laughed, "I'll take it then…"

"Here try this on," Grace threw a purple and white sweater over the top of the change rooms, and it landed safely on the taller girl's head.

"Thanks," a muffled voice came through the jumper.

Peeling the jumper off her face, she took a good look at it before slipping it on above her tank top. She turned to look at herself in the mirror, assessing her front, back and side; she liked it.

"Aren't you having it?" Katie asked, still looking at her image in the mirror.

"I liked it, but it didn't fit…"

"Oh… No worries, I'll have it then," she laughed.

"Yeah, well you should thank me for finding it," Grace walked out with a few shirts and pants.

"Oh thank you the great and almighty!"

After paying for everything, they left the shop and did a bit more window shopping before meeting up with Tad for lunch. Sadly enough, he was with a friend when they found him. Both girls dropped their heads and sighed before walking as ungrudgingly as possible over to the table. 'Not again…' they thought simultaneously.

"Hey ladies!" the guy said over eagerly, causing both girls to scrunch their faces momentarily at him.

"Hi." They said in unison.

"Grace, Katie," he pointed at the girls respectively, "meet my friend, Russell."

"Nice to meet you two," he stood up smiling, extending his arm for a shake from both girls.

"Yeah, nice to meet you too," Katie shook politely, followed by Grace.

A little while of chatting and waiting for their meal to come, Grace and Katie both took a toilet break.

"He's gay." Katie said out of the blue in the ladies' room.

"Huh?"

"Russell, he's gay."

"How do you know, he told you?" Grace peered at her curiously.

"No. C'mon Grace; 'Brad Pitt is so damn hot', 'have you checked out his body?'" Katie imitated the way Russell spoke, "Tell me no straight guys say that."

"It was a little weird, but can't a guy appreciate another guy's hot body?"

"They can, but they don't say the word 'hot' in the same sentence with another guy's name, unless they were referring to their girlfriends."

"True. And I thought you were gonna say you knew because you were gay too." Grace said nonchalantly, rinsing her hands.

Katie looked at Grace in the mirror, her jaw hanging, "how'd you… how'd you know."

"I'm not blind Singer, I do notice how you and that Sarah are always flirting…" Grace cringed at the name 'Sarah'. "Plus, we've known each other since forever; I think I know you well enough." The lanky girl just nodded her head, "so I'm on the right track?"

"Yes."

Orange County, California

"Alex, c'mon, we're already running late to meet 'em." Jodie called from the front door.

"You were the one spending forever on the phone to someone…" the blonde came running towards the door. "I must be crazy to have thought that you've changed."

"Hey," the brunette swatted her friend's arm.

"Why aren't Ryan and Set coming again?"

"'Cause they're not invited."

"Okay… Why?"

"Well you see, if they came, then there would be competition," Jodie explained walking down the driveway. "Seth has had a thing for Summer since… dinosaurs roamed the earth, and Ryan has something for Marissa… but who doesn't?!"

"Hmm…"