Two more weeks had passed. Two weeks of Kimi being a cheerleader, and two weeks of not seeing Lil outside of school. Cheerleading practice lasted two hours after school and you only got one break. In fact she was in the gym practicing her stretches with her eyes closed while the girls were in the locker room changing. She knew most of the girls who were now cheerleaders and those that she hadn't known were also her friends. It was Wednesday afternoon, a day with no homework for a change, and on Friday a homecoming game was coming up. Kimi had gotten to know a lot of the football players, but she still hadn't chosen the one she was going to get with first.

"Hey Kim," someone said, sitting down across from her and spreading her legs out for stretches. Kimi opened her eyes and looked at Cassandra Bates who was reaching for her left toes.

"Hey Cassie, what's up?" Kimi asked her.

"Nothing," Cassie said. "So, are you going to the homecoming dance?"

"Yeah. Of course, I don't have a date yet, but I will have one by tomorrow."

Cassie laughed. "I had my date since last year."

Kimi laughed too. "I do have my dress though. Oh my goodness my dress is so pretty. You really have to see how good it looks."

"My dress is really cute too, and Jake rented us this white Jag. We are going to look so good."

"This year I'm running for prom queen so I decided not to run for homecoming," Kimi told her, as if she didn't know. The people running for homecoming was this girl on the squad named Deanna, two girls named Kayla, a girl named Sari, and Lil was also running. Of course it didn't look like Lil was getting popular, so Kimi was voting for Deanna. Besides, she didn't want Lil to win anything this year.

"Homecoming is going to be so fun," Cassie said sighing. "My parents extended my curfew until midnight so I am going to have some fun!"

"I can't wait for the pep rally," Vicky Shaw said, slipping down to the floor while doing the splits. "Pep rallies are always the greatest."

"Who are you voting for queen?" Kimi asked them.

"I am voting for Sari," Vicky answered. "I don't think any of them has queen potential except for her."

"I'm voting for Lil," Cassie said, looking at Kimi. "She called me yesterday and asked for my vote so I said yes, and you all know how much I hate to lie. Who are you voting for Kim?"

"Deanna," she replied nonchalantly. "She's always been really nice to me so I thought, why not help out the team? She might pay me back when I run for prom queen."

"Isn't Lil your best friend?"

"Well…she used to be until she started putting down the things I like. Let's use cheerleading as an example. She called it a waste of time. She doesn't even know that you can get a scholarship for college."

"Lil said that this is a waste of time?" Cassie asked. "She told me that she was happy I made the squad and that she would've tried out if she remembered when they were."

"She lied to you then," Kimi revealed. "I was at her house not too long before tryouts and reminded her."

Cassie gasped. One thing about her was that she never told anyone lies or made promises that she couldn't keep. If anyone asked you if you looked fat in some jeans she would gently tell you the truth. If she said that she was going to vote for you then by all means she would. So she hated it when people took advantage of her generosity and when they told her lies.

"She probably knew that if she tried out she wouldn't have made it," Vicky said, "although that doesn't give her a reason to lie to do."

"Well I'm just going to tell her that I changed my mind. My vote goes to someone more deserving and before Lil called I was going to vote for Kayla Pritchett. I guess I'm just going to vote for her still."

Score one, Kimi. None, Lil.

When Kimi walked through the door a feeling of emptiness overwhelmed her. She walked into the kitchen where she found a note from Kira. It read:

Kimi-chan,

Your father invited me to dinner and I accepted. I wanted to wait until you were home, but I knew you'd understand.

Love,

Your mother

Kimi read the note over three times as a smile replaced the frown once on her lips. Her parents were out on a date and it was a school night. That meant that they both had work in the morning. Knowing her parents her mother wasn't going to return home until later that night. In fact, Kimi might even be asleep by then. She dug into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone, pressing 3 on her speed dial.

"Hello," Lil answered.

"Hey. Guess what."

"Sounds like practice went well," Lil said nonchalantly.

"Yeah, but that's not it."

"Well, what is?" Lil asked, not the least bit sounding interested.

"My mom isn't home. She went out on a date!"

"So? She's still married."

Kimi's happy mood faded away so quickly it was as if she was shot with tranquilizers. "She went out with my dad."

Lil was silent on the other end before finally answering. "So? They're still married. I don't know why you sound all happy about it."

Kimi's mood sunk even lower, almost to the point that she wanted to cry. Of course she thought of Cassandra who had also been upset when she found out Lil had lied to her. For an entire hour in practice obviously it was bothering her because she skipped steps in routines and was so off track. Her eyes looked so empty that the head cheerleader even asked her if she wanted to leave the rest of the practice because she looked like someone had died. Kimi's eyes suddenly flared to anger. It seemed like they were fighting a lot lately.

"I'm happy about it because they are my parents and I thought you would be happy about it because you were my friend," Kimi snapped. "In case you forgot my parents have been separated for two years and I have been hurting."

"Well I'm sorry, but it's something that—"

"That you should understand, seeing that your parents are divorced and it fucked you up," Kimi exclaimed.

"What?" Lil asked in surprise.

"You know what I said, I screamed it loud enough. You know what else you are Lil, a liar and you are a loser. You aren't going to win homecoming queen and you won't have a boyfriend by the end of the year either. In fact you keep eating the way that you do and you'll be dead. Of course it's not like I care, because already you're dead to me you bitch."

Kimi closed her flip phone so that her call with Lil would be hung up and then she slammed her phone down on the counter. "I hate her," she screamed. She didn't know what she was going to do. Lil was supposed to be her best friend. Best friends were supposed to be happy when their friends were. She felt like walking over to Lil's house and stabbing her in her heart, where it would hurt the most.

She was hurting too. As she walked over to the bathroom on the first floor she was hurting so much that she thought she wasn't going to make it. Her stomach was starting to feel nauseas and she didn't know if it was because her body knew what she was going to do, or if she was just really sick. She sat down and brought her knees up to her chest, leaning over the toilet bowl until she did it.

She cried as she threw up until her insides were hurting. She threw up until she couldn't do it anymore and then instead of going into the kitchen to put someone on her stomach she walked into her room and closed and locked the door. Then once again she screamed.