A/N: So I have this new chapter out, and I'm sitting here hoping that you all enjoy it! I think a lot of you will! So Read and Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own NDSSG or Best Buy or Cedars Sinai Medical Center... or Yale!

Chapter 14: When The Real Suzie Reveals Herself

Moze's POV

My life was once again all better.

And the secret that Ned and I shared was sealed with a kiss.

Yeah, but there was one minor problem.

Suzie Crabgrass.

I guess now I realize that she wasn't really a problem, minor or major. Just like me, she was going through senior year drama that I wasn't even aware of, since I was caught up in all of my melodrama. It's funny how blind you are to other people's issues just because you have your own.

:When The Real Suzie Reveals Herself:

"Jingle bells! Jingle bells! Jingle all the way! Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh, hey! Don't you just love Christmas?"

"So chipper Moze. Your trip to the cabins was fun?" My mother asked. Yes, I was back from the cabins, and it was more than fun. It was life-altering! Ned and I were friends again, and we kissed like we had never kissed before! It's been about four years since Ned and I have kissed, and this was the most amazing so far. All I can say is this:

He didn't kiss me the way a friend would.

So obviously there was still something there between us! And that made me a very, very happy woman.

Now if only I could get Ned to admit it…

"Mom, the cabins was exactly what I needed." I told her, turning to face her. "With everything going on, it was a break from reality."

"That's good, because I've been wanting to talk about—"

"—and I'm not exactly down from my high. So I'm still in La-La Land and do not want to talk about anything that has happened in reality, okay?" There was no way I was going to talk to my mother about her and dad's illicit affairs because… I was so on Ned right now. He was the only thing on my mind! But when wasn't he?

There was a knock on my door, and I rushed over to answer it.

"Ned! You're here early!" I said, the usual butterflies running loose in my stomach.

"Yeah. We need to get this done early. Christmas is tomorrow."

Ned and I decided that, since neither of us had done any Christmas shopping, doing it together would be faster and more fun. Besides, we were friends again and it just seemed right to make up for the time we lost when we were mad at each other.

"Well, let me get dressed and I'll be down in a minute." Before I ran up the stairs, I added, "And you need to say hello to my mom. She's missed you around here."

When I got to my room, I looked through my closet for something to wear. I didn't want to just wear anything, like I would've pre-passionately-kissing-Ned. A cute sweat suit would've been my choice back then, but now I wanted to wear something impressive. Something that would make Ned's mouth drop… or something relatively close.

But then I thought about the outfit he was wearing downstairs. T-shirt and jeans with Vans… something very simple and very Ned-esque. I didn't want to look like I was going on a date with him while he looked like he was just, well, Christmas shopping at the mall. So instead of sexifying myself up, I decided to wear a pair of cute skinny jeans with sailboats on the back pockets and a cute pink turtle neck with a loose collar, white and pink Chucks on my feet.

After grabbing a purse, I rushed down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Ned was speaking with my mother. "Hey! There you are, honey." Mom spoke with a wide grin on her face. "You ready to go? Do you need some extra money?"

"No, no." I assured her. "I have everything I need, thanks. Ned and I will be leaving now."

"Alright. Have fun. And be careful out there! The roads are slick, and it's the day before Christmas. Some crazy people are on the highways." She said in her matronly manner.

"I hear you. Bye Mom!" I exited the kitchen and headed towards the front door while Ned said bye as well. Finally, we got into his car and headed towards the mall. "Jeez, I made a list of what I'm going to get everybody, but I'm still not really sure. I really do hate Christmas shopping. I just want to fast forward to getting the gifts."

"Definitely." Ned agreed. He cleared his throat and looked over at me sideways. "So… you and your parents are cool?"

I looked out of the window and sighed. "Not exactly. My mom's been trying to talk to me about it, but I've been brushing her off. I really don't want to talk about it—ever. It's just so big and… and the timing is awful. I just want to stay in my Dreamland and pretend it never happened."

He smiled. "Sounds like you but… you do know that you'll have to talk to them about it eventually, right?"

"Of course I know that." I turned the knob on the radio up, signifying the end of the conversation. Singing along to Boys Like Girls' The Great Escape, I let Ned know that I wasn't mad at him for trying to help. I just wanted him to realize that it was a sensitive subject that I wasn't ready to talk to anyone about, not even him or my parents.

As the chorus came on, Ned began to sing with me, which caused us to laugh and just fall back into the routine that Ned and I had before we fell out of our friendship. Just driving in his car to the mall and being together felt so right! We were back where we were supposed to be and it felt really good.

We pulled into the parking lot driveway and headed on inside, chattering about what we'd get who. As soon as we entered, we headed to Best Buy to look around for Cookie's Christmas gift. "He deserves the best gift, I swear he does." After everything Cookie had done over the years for his friends—especially for Ned and me—he deserved something spectacular and out of this world.

"Moze, wait." Ned said as he looked around the place with a frown. "Cookie makes most of the stuff in here himself… and his inventions are kind of better than everything in here."

"I forgot how technologically advanced he is. Damn him for being so freaking smart." I said with a pout. "What would Cookie want, anyway? He makes whatever he wants in his house."

Ned scratched his neck. "Ever since he had that crazy makeover and changed from nerd to cool guy, his clothes are awesome, so some wardrobe seems out of the question. Any kind of electronic is not a possibility since he already has everything."

A light bulb went off in my head as realization somewhat dawned on me. "Dude, the answer is right in front of us!"

Ned squinted his eyes and looked straight forward. "What, you're talking about that new iPod? He created his own iPod called cookPod, remember? That's a pointless gift, Moze."

"No, Ned!" I snapped, moving his face so he would look at me instead of at the iPod. "Not literally in front of us. Figuratively. Ned, like we said, Cookie makes everything, and do you know how much stuff he's made for us? Dude, let's make something for him?"

"Moze, neither of us likes science in any shape or form. And we definitely have no kind of clue how to create anything nearly as cool as Cookie." He said while folding his arms over his chest. "Now, last year we got Cookie a hundred dollar gift card to Wal-Mart. This year, we should give him a hundred dollar gift card to Target. Huh? How does that sound?"

"No!" I exclaimed, grabbing his arm and pulling him out of the store. "We are not going to get Cookie a gift card again. Last year, he said he wanted it, so we got it for him. But this year, we're going to make him something that is sentimental… do you see where I'm going with it?"

A look of epiphany appeared on his face. "Oh! I get it now! Awesome. Good idea." He smiled and put his arm around my shoulder. "You know what it should be? Three pictures—framed pictures. The first will be of the three of us when we were just tiny tots. The second one will be of the three of us in middle school. And the third—the last one… it'll be the most recent picture we took in the cabins a couple of days ago."

My eyes widened in excitement. "Oh my gosh! That is the perfect idea!" I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and squealed. "You are a genius."

"I'm a genius? You're the one who thought of the whole creativity gig. All praises go to you, sweetheart. You are the reason the idea even popped into my head." He looked around and said, "You know, I have got to go to the bathroom, so just wait right here and I'll be right back, okay?"

"Yeah, cool. See you in a minute."

He hurried off to the nearest bathroom, which was like a five-minute walk from where we stood, and I went over to Accessorize, where I looked at cute jewelry, some stuff that I'm sure Lisa, Kesha, and Kath would love. I could probably go elementary school and get us all some matching, but fashionable, friendship bracelets.

Just as the idea briefly crossed my mind, a cute pink dress caught my attention. I brought my eyes up to the girl wearing it and saw Suzie Crabgrass standing there, looking more pissed than I could imagine. Immediately, I realized that she saw me with Ned and was expecting a confrontation.

Instead of waiting for her to come over to me, I walked over to her and said, "Look, Suzie. I know that you may be upset but—"

"Moze, what're you doing here?" She snapped, looking at me with narrowed eyes.

A look of confusion appeared on my face. "Well, I'm Christmas shopping with—"

"With Ned?" She questioned.

I nodded my head, waiting for her explosion to occur. Instead, I heard nothing but Suzie saying, "Ah, gosh! I forgot you two were going to be here! Dang it, I wish I'd remembered. Now I have to go before Ned sees me!"

This time I narrowed my eyes.Was shehere with another dude?"What're you talking about? Why do you have to leave just because Ned and I are here?"

"Look, I just don't want anyone to see me here with my sister, okay?" She admitted, looking around as if she was fearful of something—or someone.

"Your sister? Suzie, you have a sister?"

"Yeah, she's five years older than me." She told me, looking behind her, which was outside of the store. "Damn it, here she comes now. Uh, laugh! Like I said something really hilarious!" She demanded before she let out a loud chortle.

I followed along and laughed along with her. Hell, I might as well. After pretending to be Logan's girlfriend, I was a pro at all of this faking-it stuff. "That was funny, Suzie!" I exclaimed, getting a little too much into character. "You are hilarious! I wish I had more friends like you! I wish I knew more people like you! But no one can compare to you, Suzie Crabgrass! No one, indeed."

Just as these words left my mouth, a tall, gorgeous blonde stepped beside Suzie, a bright smile on her face. The resemblance was obvious, but the older girl looked so much more sophisticated and just had a certain aura around her that made her seem… otherworldly. And as I looked at her beside Suzie, the girl I knew seemed to shrink in comparison to her older sister.

This sister of hers was the someone that totally compared to Suzie.

"Moze—I mean, Jennifer, this is Amanda… my older sister." Suzie grumbled. "She's in town for the holidays."

A smile appeared on my face. "Hi! Wow. Suzie, I had no clue you had a sister."

"She doesn't really talk about me often." Amanda explained with a pleasant smirk… a smirk that seemed completely innocent, but I saw a similar smirk appear on Suzie's face many times, and that smirk meant much more that Amanda was letting on. When Suzie and I were fighting over Ned, she shot me that fake smirk many times before… but when Amanda did it, it just seemed so natural and almost nice, if you can believe it. Suzie was trying to do all of Amanda's tricks, but Amanda was the master, and no one can come close to the master. "So you and Suzie are pretty good friends?"

"Yeah! The best. She and I play volleyball together." I explained, willing to put Suzie in the limelight and lie, because Suzie was totally not on the volleyball team anymore; not after the stunt she pulled."She and I are the captains. She's an awesome player."

"Oh! You still play volleyball?" Amanda questioned while looking at her with a slight frown. "I thought you gave that up. You can't really do anything with it, no offense Jennifer. I'm sure you're fantastic."

Suzie glared at her sister. "And when you were in high school, being a cheerleader got you places?"

"Of course it got me places. It got me into the best sorority at Yale, and after that, got me a job at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, which houses all of the biggest celebrities in Hollywood." She smiled pleasantly. "So being a cheerleader gave me plenty of connections that volleyball won't be able to get you." She turned to me. "You look like a smart girl. I'm guessing you're an official in the student government, right?"

"Vice president, yes." I answered uncomfortably.

"Exactly! That can get you a lot of places if you go to college and meet the right people." She furrowed her brows. "So what colleges have you applied to this year?"

"Um, quite a few."

"Well, any in the west coast?" She asked.

I nodded my head. "Stanford's the one I'm rooting to get into."

"Stanford! Oh my gosh! That's awesome! I know a lot of professors who work over there! If you get in, I can be your connection!" She let out a squeal of excitement that was almost identical to Suzie's, though Amanda's was cuter. "That would be so great if I could help you out!"

A genuine smile came onto my face. "Better than great! Wow, thanks Amanda!"

She pulled a card out of her purse and said, "My friend's call me Mandy." She turned to Suzie. "I met someone over at the Prada store. Let's meet up in about thirty minutes to head on home so we can prepare our voices for caroling—that is, if you even want to go. I know your voice isn't that great, and you feel somewhat inadequate with the rest of us singing."

"See you later Amanda!" Suzie put on a cheesy smile and waved her sister away.

When she was gone, she turned to me while releasing an exhausted breath. "I cannot stand her, Moze." She spoke as she leaned against the wall in exasperation. "Do you know how hard it is being in her shadow? Everything I don't do is criticized and followed up by a 'Why can't you be more like Amanda?' And then everything that I actually do, it's criticized even more and followed up by a 'Why can't you be more like Amanda?' I mean… she graduated from high school with a GPA higher than a 4.0, thanks to all of the AP classes she took. She was prom queen and homecoming queen since her sophomore year and she had a boyfriend all throughout high school, who she is now engaged to! She even won cutest couple all four years in a row! And just look at her! She is gorgeous! All of the guys want a piece of Mandy! That is why I don't want anybody knowing that I have a sister. If Amanda knew that I have a boyfriend, she would try to seduce him for fun. And Ned is really the only good thing I have going for myself. He's one of the few things my parents are proud of me for. I love him, and I don't want anyone to take him away from me, especially not Amanda."

Wow.

Never had I heard of someone bitchier than Suzie herself.

But, what do you expect? Amanda was the original Crabgrass. She probably created being a bitch… unless their mother had even more skills than both of the sisters put together. Anyway! To see Suzie so vulnerable shocked me beyond all reasonable explanation. She had always been an untouchable… bitch, for lack of a better word. Suzie carried herself like she was better than everybody else. Just by walking down the hallway, she convinced people that she was better than everybody else.

In reality, she was only carrying herself in such a way because her sister could do it better than her. Her sister and she were in a sibling rivalry. The competition—probably vying for their parents' or friends' affection and acceptance—was tough, and Amanda appeared to be winning. Since I was an only child, I really didn't understand the whole sibling concept, but I knew that it could get dirty sometimes. In Suzie's case, it was already foul.

And then the fact that she said all of those things about Ned! Oh, did she make me feel guilty or did she make me feel guilty? The weekend in the cabins, I freaking made out with her beloved boyfriend? How bad did that make me feel? There was more to Suzie that I knew, and I was starting to see why Suzie is the way that she is.

"You know… maybe you should stop comparing yourself to her." I suggested quietly.

She stared at me for a long second before saying, "I don't compare myself to her."

I bunched my eyebrows together and looked towards the ceiling, not knowing how to word what I was going to say. "Uh… yeah, you sort of do. From the display that I just saw between you and Amanda, and the story you told me about her… it seems like you try to be like her in hopes of obtaining some of her… I don't want to say status, but—"

"But nothing." She stood straighter, going back into the usual Suzie Crabgrass stance. "Jennifer Mosley, you know nothing about what you just saw or what I just said. From all you know, I don't have a sister, because I've never mentioned her to you or anyone else."

"Well, she did give me her card so—"

Suzie snatched the card from my hand and tore it into small pieces. "What card?" she hissed. "LikeI said, no Amanda, understood?"

I rolled my eyes. "You try to be like her, Suzie, but you don't give the job much justice. Find who you really are instead of prancing around in her shadow. When you do that, maybe she'll be standing in your shadow." I turned on my heel, but before I left, I said, "Maybe you'd be way happier if you did."

I headed out of the store and walked back to where I promised to meet Ned again. He was standing there, looking around confusedly before he spotted me. "Oh! There you are." He walked over and asked, "Where'd you disappear to?"

Sighing, I answered, "At some girl store." I looped my arm through his and guided him in the opposite direction of where I saw Suzie. "Now, we figured out what we're getting Cookie. Let's start searching for our parents' gifts, okay?"

He swerved and made a U-Turn back to Best Buy. "Then the dad's of our households would love something from here." He spoke, making me laugh.

As we browsed the video cameras, I asked him, "Hey… does Suzie have any siblings?"

"… Not that I know of. Why?"

"That's what I thought. No reason, Ned."

"Can I ask you a question?" Ned now asked.

"Shoot." I picked up one of the video cameras and put it on Ned. I watched him through the lens as if it were a documentary. "Go ahead and tell me what's on your mind, Ned."

He smiled that cute smile he has when he's about to say something that makes him nervous. "Um… will you do me a favor?"

I continued to look at him through the lens. "That depends on what it is."

"I want you to talk to your parents." With that, he turned away and continued to gaze at the camcorders he thought his dad would desire. I kept on watching Ned through the lens, thinking over the favor he had asked me to do for him. He really was concerned about the relationship I had between my parents.

Finally, I put the camera down and stood beside him. "Ned," I said softly, waiting for his eyes to meet mine, "I can do that."

"Wait… so you're telling me that she has a sister who is bitchier than the Queen herself?" Logan asked in total disbelief. "That's just too hard for me to comprehend. Are you serious? And she's hiding it from everybody? And she chose you of all people to tell? The girl who has a crush on her boyfriend is the one she confides this deep, dark secret in?"

"Logan, shut up." I snapped over the phone while I continued wrapping the gifts I'd gotten for all of my friends. "It's not even that she's keeping a huge secret like that that baffles me. It's the fact that I actually understand her. It's like she's actually human to me now."

"That coming from you was like a Lifetime Achievement Award acceptance speech from a celebrity." Logan spoke, laughter laced through his voice.

As I laughed at his words, I asked, "So you're going to the Christmas gathering the night after Christmas?"

"Considering the fact that I'm Jewish…"

Again I laughed. "It's nothing, like, a big deal, and it really doesn't have anything to do with Christmas. Just friends hanging out for our own little party. There are so many parties during Christmas around here, but none of us really likes going to any. The Christmas season is about family, and we're like a small little family. Besides, the New Year's parties are always so awesome that you want to have a lot of energy saved up."

Logan laughed. "Yeah, I'll totally be there. So, what're you doing tomorrow with the dysfunctional family?"

I told Logan minor details of my argument with my parents. Not the entire story. I loved Logan, but I didn't want to tell him all of my parent's business. Ned knew because the guy was practically family to the Mosley household.

Thinking about that reminded me of what I had to do.

"Oh, we're just having the annual Bigby-Cook-Mosley Christmas get-together where we sing songs and exchange Christmas gifts and all of that fun corniness."

"Hey, squeeze every drip of corniness out of it, Moze. This will probably be the last time in a long time that your families will be like that. I mean, you all are going to college. Maybe the adults can continue the tradition but, without the kids, how fun could it be?"

Too bad he didn't know that even after I left, the annual party could not continue since my parents would no longer be together but with their other significant other.

"You're right. But I'll have to call you later, alright Logan?"

"Cool. Have a very Merry Christmas!" He said.

I grinned. "Yeah. Happy Hanukkah, Logan!"

"Mazel tov, Moze. L'chaim! And tell your hot mom I said good night!"

I laughed at his departing words while closing my cell phone. How much more could I love the guy? But thoughts of him disappeared slowly as I remembered what I was coming downstairs for. I had to carry out Ned's favor.

"Mom, Dad." I spoke to them as I walked into the living room. Letting out a deep breath, I said, "I think we need to talk."

:End:

Finally, I saw why Suzie was the way she was. It was just too bad that the second I started to actually feel somewhat bad for the girl… she showed why I hated her so much again.

Still, I would soon discover I had a lot more, or a lot less, problems to worry about.

I'm still not sure which one.

A/N: It's been a while… but the chapter is here and that's all that matters! I hope you enjoyed it after such a long wait. You guys are probably mad as hell, but every break I get, I try to publish a couple of chapters, and since I'm on Spring Break now, I put out a chapter! Oh, and I actually worked at Cedars Sinai as a volunteer last summer. I didn't get to see any celebrities, but even if I had... I signed a contract and wouldn't be able to tell anybody about it... So anyway, go ahead and READ AND REVIEW and tell me what you think. Much Love!