Recollect

"Ohmigod, these invites are so cool! Look at them!"

"What is the list? How do we get in?"

"Ooh, this is kind of like Legacy! Except I've never been to Legacy..."

I smiled as I heard exclaims of excitement the students were giving over the invites to the Billings fundraiser. The formal invitation for the actual fundraiser was out, and we were going to give the informal invites regarding to the masquerade ball later. I trudged my way through the heavy student body and the slush on the ground, trying to get to Coffee Carma, and still be in Noelle's good graces.

Finally reaching the door, I opened it, feeling the blast of the warm air enveloping me. The coffee took over my senses, and I had a slight feeling I was in Barnes&Noble, drinking coffee and reading a book. It was slightly empty, but as I looked to be right, I saw my friends huddling together.

"Hey guys," I said as I entered. I received hello's back, but I saw a couple of eye rolls from Amberly and Missy. Not that I really cared.

"So, what's going on?" I asked while I pulled up a chair, and sat next to Noelle. She was sitting all by herself at the end of the table. She sighed and ran her hand through her soft, brown hair.

"I already told you about the next two parties, but we have to get decorations, get dresses, pay the people, run a fucking website, and take care of all the money we're getting in. These girls are idiots," she added. Noelle sighed and fixed her skirt. It was a dark turquoise skirt, slightly pinched and embellished in a way to create the look of plaid, although diagonal. "It's Dolce I have to wear it, regardless of the weather," she said this morning before we left for school.

I looked around, and everyone seemed really busy. I shrugged. In front of me, there was a fruit basket and coffee out on the table; kudos to Amberly for practically owning Coffee Carma on campus, and giving us all the refreshments.

"What's the problem?"

Noelle leaned back in her chair and gave a laugh. "Nothing in particular, except we have to get our dresses," she said. Noelle looked genuinely happy, so I smiled back.

"Wait. What about the politicians? How's everything going on with that?" I stuffed a strawberry in my mouth.

Noelle looked at the laptop in front of her. "Fine; father is taking care of all of that. I think he's feeling guilty for not telling me about Billings, but at least it's working," she added. I chuckled.

I rummaged around the fruit basket until I found a strawberry. "Have you thought of any ideas for the other parties?"

Noelle nodded. "For the second party, after the masquerade, we're doing a future theme, and the third one, we're doing 1960's retro theme. Like from London, the whole underground idea. Maybe a little bit of mod?"

What the hell was she talking about? "Mod? What is that? And I have no idea what you mean by 'London Retro theme.' Come on, spill!" I demanded.

She only laughed. "Nah, I'll let you sweat it out in anticipation. Don't worry, it'll be awesome," she assured me. "On the other hand," she looked at the laptop, "we have at least sixteen thousand dollars worth of stuff on the website, and it seems like everyone wants them." Noelle looked up and smiled at me.

Holy crap, people had already bought sixteen thousand dollars worth of electronics? Oh. My. God. This fundraiser was going to be fantastic.

Noelle smirked at the state I was in. "Reed, we're dealing with Upper Eastsiders. They're obviously going by all this shit." She looked at the screen again. "Yep; they're willing to help Billings out."

I couldn't help but smile and throw in a little laugh. "Yeah, who wouldn't want to buy," I looked at the Fendi clutch that was laid out on the screen, "a one thousand dollar clutch? I mean, it's a total must have. Like, I so need to get it!"

She raised a perfect eyebrow at me. "Do not imitate me. Period." Noelle noticed my slightly shocked and embarrassed face, and she smirked. "Get a grip- I won't bite." Involuntarily, a tiny sigh of relief was let out from my mouth. "And that's Kiran you're imitating."

Ah, yes, I did get it wrong after all.

I looked up and saw everyone clustered around three sets of laptops, pointing and making sounds of approvals. "Are they also looking at dresses too?" I asked.

Noelle leaned back in her chair. "Uh, they should be finding some halls and hotels for the other parties, but..." She frowned and then shrugged. "Whatever. I think we need a break anyway," she said.

I fought the urge to laugh. Noelle was actually giving some people a break? She was willing to be nice and let us have some fun?

I cleared my throat. "Have you found any dresses yet?"

Her eyes instantly brightened and Noelle leaned forward towards the computer. "OK, I found this awesome Prada dress. Here," she turned the laptop towards me, "look at it. It's for you."

Oh my, it was… grand. It was a soft, copper tone mixed in with gold, and there were lavender with hints of darker shades of violet on it. It was strapless, and the back view showed that the dress was not very modest. The purple wound itself around the actual dress, and it cascaded down, along with the gold part of the dress. There were subtle hints of gold and lavender embellishments. The cloth was wrinkled in divine perfection, giving it an earthy feel, despite its ridiculous price. I loved it.

I was speechless. "It's… wow. It's gorgeous." I looked at Noelle and there was a smile plastered on her face.

"Really? Well then, let me just type this in…" She proceeded to take the laptop away from me, and started clicking and smiling as she did so. It took me a while to figure out what she was doing.

"What the hell Noelle? You are not buying that for me!" I tried to grab it, but she yanked it further down from me.

"Nope. I'm buying this little sucker for you. Now deal with it." I sighed, knowing all too well it was going to impossible to tell Noelle no. Once she started on something, she was bound to finish it no matter what.

I groaned and rested my head on the table. I heard a low chuckle coming from Noelle, and it made me want to bang my head on the table.

I was appreciative that Noelle wanted to buy something for me, but on several occasions, I felt like a charity case. These people had money to burn, and it was all OK with me. But I felt pitied. Pitied because I was not rich, pitied because of all the hardships I went through. So, was it a good thing or a bad thing?

I would have to think about that.

"Sawyer!" someone squealed. I lifted my head up and saw Amberly rushing over to Sawyer. I rolled my eyes in distaste. She was wearing her usual matchy-matchy outfit, consisting of a white scarf around her neck. I glanced over to the other girls and I saw Astrid and Tiffany sniggering. And I could've sworn I saw Kiki blush.

Amberly was animatedly talking to Sawyer, and he clearly looked like he needed to get away. He had a long black coat on and books to his side. His face was pink from the cold and his blonde locks were thrown all over his face.

"Damn, that girl can't stop talking, can she?" said Noelle. Hesitantly, I looked over to the laptop screen and saw that it said the dress was bought, as were several other items. I just lifted a simple eyebrow, and resumed resting my head on the table.

"I feel sorry for him." Amberly was throwing her hands and her annoying voice at Sawyer so much, I felt like I needed to rescue him. Amberly was not good for him. She was an annoying rich bitch, and he deserved someone else. She couldn't have someone as good as Sawyer.

As if my mind and body were different beings, I got up and went over to Sawyer and Amberly, ignoring Noelle's questions and grabbing my purse as I left. Although he laughed and smiled when he needed to, he looked distressed. Sawyer was switching his feet back and forth, and he kept flickering his gorgeous eyes to someplace else. I smiled as I approached him. The chatter behind me was getting louder and louder. Sawyer's eyes were fixed on Amberly; he was such a gentleman.

"Amberly, don't you need to be working on the fundraiser instead of slaking off? Hmm?" I said. I looked at Sawyer, and his expression was guarded. "Hey, Sawyer," I greeted.

"Hello," he greeted shyly.

Amberly scoffed. "Shouldn't you be doing something also? And FYI, I wasn't slaking off; in fact, I recall you coming thirty minutes later." She gave me a tight, fake smile as if she had won. Oh, I hated her.

"Go sit down, Amberly. For your own sake," I threatened.

She clicked her tongue in disapproval, but to her credit, she left. I turned to Sawyer.

"So, what's up?"

My smile quickly faded as I realized Sawyer didn't look too happy. He had a look of dissatisfaction, and his piercing gaze made me feel all hot and… nervous.

He gave a tiny laugh and ran his hand through his hair. "When did you start doing that?" Sawyer shifted his books to his other arm and he raised his head, as if he knew something I didn't.

I was taken aback. "Wha-what do you mean?" I saw Sawyer's jaw somewhat clench. All right then.

"Bossing other people around. When did you start doing that?"

He had to be joking. This was ludicrous. I just saved his ass! He practically begged for me to save him, and now what? This is what I got?

"Excuse me? You were the one who needed my assistance! You kept on looking at me and-"

"-and I didn't except you to be rude," he finished sternly, with a note of finality. "I was doing fine."

I was angry. Who the hell was he to say something like that? He didn't know me. I quickly concluded that Sawyer was the judgmental type. He made opinions in less than a second, and he had no right to do that. Yes, I was angry.

I scoffed and looked up at him, defiance written all over my face. "You don't know me," I all but sneered. Anger and frustration poured over me, and it didn't help that Sawyer's face betrayed nothing.

"Everything alright, guys?" Noelle came over, curiosity blatant on her striking features. I observed, with a great sense of relief, no one else noticed our tiny brawl, aside from Amberly who was smirking her ass off.

Sawyer didn't say anything; he just kept looking at me. And looking, and looking…

"Yeah, everything's alright. I was ju-just going to go…" I shouldered my purse, and proceeded not to look at either Sawyer or Noelle. I could feel the penetrating glares of the two, four tiny daggers wanting answers from me.

I could deal with that later.

I left in a great hurry, feeling extremely stupid and hurt. I honestly thought that I was helping Sawyer. Everything I did was under good intentions, but that left me all confused and suddenly tired.

"Josh, it will be OK. Trust me when I say that. Everything will be fine," Ivy rested her hands on Josh's arms, "and it'll all be over. Don't worry, OK?" She laid her hand on his cheek, and he looked at her hopefully.

I stopped dead in my tracks. I saw the two were resting on the wall outside the cafeteria. There was no one else in the campus, and their voices were clear as a bell. I inched forward, trying to get a better view. Ivy was in front of Josh, her back facing me.

Josh sighed. "I don't know… It's just... I feel so bad! What's going to happen when they realize we-"

"-we did nothing. Period. It's not a big deal. Even you said it was for the better, right? You agreed with them. Just relax; please." Ivy gave him a kiss on the lips, and I just about puked. "Come on, let's go inside," she said in a soothing voice. Josh nodded, intertwined his hand around Ivy's, and they both left.

I stood there for a couple of minutes, drinking in the conversation. Josh and Ivy were hiding something big. Really big. And no way in hell was I going to forget that. I was going to find out what exactly they agreed on, no matter what the cost.

dun, dun, dun. so, what are josh and ivy hiding? sorry folks, i can't give anything away... ok so i lied about not being able to update for a while. but here you go! oh, i also wanted to thank dancerx3d for suggesting, a few chapters ago, for a future theme party. thanks!

i know that several authors have pictures of dresses that they've described on their story, but unfortunatly, i don't have one. it's based off one of my drawings i've done, and i'd love to put it up on the internet, but frankly, i'm scared and i don't feel like doing it. sorry if the description isn't that good; it's kinda of hard to do so, and i've been redrawing it because i didn't like the initial design in the first place.

oh, and don't forget to check out my new vampire diaries fanfic (if you're a fan) called enigma. yes, i know it's pretty much the same title as one of the stories on private, but i totally got permission from the author, so it's all good.

reviews please! and i hope you're having a wonderful holiday!