Sunday, April 4th: 9:10 pm

Diary,

Sorry for the wait, diary. I kind of got tied up so I couldn't write until now. After the pool, Liz wanted me to come back to her house to meet some friends for ice cream and I just couldn't say no. At first I didn't like Liz too much but after today, I've realized that she's actually a pretty cool girl. Too bad she can't see Flash for what he really is.

Okay. Enough chit-chat. Let's get down to the juicy bits: I got the lowdown on Betty and Peter!

Liz met me at the pool at around 2:30. Dressed in a turquoise tube-top bikini, she pulled up a lounge chair and began to lay out with me. Liz is a pretty girl, no doubt. She's got a sort of California look to her. Blonde, tall, and very tan. I had never noticed how tan she was until now. Silently, and somewhat bitterly, I told myself that it was just the turquoise of her bikini that made her look so tan.

We said our hello's, made some small talk, blah blah blah. You know how it goes. After awhile we went quiet as we soaked in the cancer rays. This silence gave me time to figure out a way to bring up Peter and Betty.

"I was surprised to see you at Peter's." Liz said, completely out of the blue. It was like she had read my mind!

"Oh?" I smiled over at her for a second then rested my head back against the lounge chair again. "Well, my Aunt Anna is neighbors with Peter's aunt and I was just saying hello."

"Really?" I could tell from her tone that she was confused about something. "Then why did his aunt say that you were there to see him?"

I had my super big Jacky-O sunglasses on so Liz couldn't see when I squeezed my eyes shut. I had completely forgotten that when Aunt May had introduced Betty and Liz to me she had mentioned that I was there to see Peter. I had no way of covering that one up so it was time for a subject change!

"So, Liz… I didn't know that you and Betty were friends." This would definitely get her off that subject. It was public knowledge at Midtown High that Liz hated Betty. No one really knew why. They used to be friends but ever since Betty dropped out, Liz seemed to have nothing nice to say about her.

She coughed loudly. "Puh-lease! I'm not friends with her. She thinks we're still friends but I can't help what she thinks."

"I didn't know that." I lied. "Isn't she going out with Peter?"

"Yeah." There was a deep undertone of disgust in her voice. Could it be possible that she was jealous…? No, that couldn't have been it. She was going out with Flash, the guy she had been chasing after ever since he hit puberty. I only knew this because all that time that she had been chasing him, he had been chasing me.

There was silence and then Liz suddenly blurted out, "But I think she has a thing for Ned Leeds."

My eyes widened. I turned onto my side so that I was facing her. Slowly I lowered my sunglasses so that I could peek over the top rim. "Who is Ned Leeds?"

"A guy she works with at the Daily Bugle. She still calls me every night to gossip. It used to be all about Peter but lately it's been more about Ned." Liz also turned onto her side. "She has been moaning and crying about Peter a lot lately. Says he's hiding something from her." She shrugged her shoulders. "Peter is Midtown High's only professional wallflower. How much could he be hiding?"

I busted out laughing. How much could he be hiding? Golly. That's a good question.

We kept on talking but the conversation slowly steered away from Peter and Betty. Eventually we started to get too hot so she invited me over to her house where a few friends were going to come over for ice cream.

Her house was amazing! Three stories of pure elegance; Snowy-white marble floors, ceiling-to-floor French windows, white granite tables and countertops. My mouth would have dropped but I caught it in the knick of time. I didn't want her to see my amazement. For all she knew, I was just as rich as her. Although that definitely was not the case, I wanted her to think that.

"Mark!" Liz's voice seemed to echo through the house. We heard a little boy begin to cry and then a man's voice called out to us.

"Liz, thank God you're back." He called out and we followed his voice into the living room. The living room was decorated just like the rest of the house: in white. There were white leather sofas, a white marble floor and a white shaggy rug. In fact, the only thing that wasn't white was an orange and black Calico cat that slept on the sofa.

"I can't get this kid to stop crying." Mark said, the sound of pain evident in his voice. He sat on the shaggy white rug with a toddler. Mark faced the crying child and began to make a teddy bear dance in front of the boy's face. The little boy immediately swatted it out of Mark's hand. "See? I hate kids, Liz! You're supposed to be babysitting… not me!"

"I told you, Mark," Liz began to rummage through her purse as she kneeled in front of the boy. "All you have to do is give him chapstick and he'll be happy for hours." She found her chapstick and instantly the boy stopped crying. His eyes went wide in wonderment as Liz popped off the top and handed him the tube. "Here, honey. By the way MJ, this is my step-brother, Mark Raxton." Liz glanced up at me then stood on her feet again. Mark stood and shook my hand, a broad smile on his face.

"Pleased to meet you, MJ." Mark smiled then dropped his hand after shaking mine. "Hey, Liz? Sorry to jet on you two but I gotta go to work. I'll catch you later."

He left after Liz and I said goodbye. She looked at the little boy who was still playing with the chapstick, reapplying coat after coat of the clear balm to his lips.

"Want to give me a hand getting the ice cream stuff out?" Liz asked as she took a few steps towards what I assumed was the kitchen. "Everyone should be here soon."

"Sure but," I looked at the little boy again. "What about your brother? Is it okay if we leave him in here alone?"

"He's not my brother. He's the neighbors' kid. I just babysit him sometimes. But yeah, he'll be fine in here. I can guarantee as long as he has the chapstick in his hand, he won't move from that spot."

I still felt a little uneasy leaving him in here alone but I followed her into the kitchen anyways. We got out three flavors of ice cream (Vanilla, Strawberry and Mint Chocolate Chip) then placed a stack of spoons and plates on the marble countertop. Liz was busy looking in the cabinets for sprinkles when I started to get even more antsy about leaving that little kid alone in the living room. What if he had found a light socket…? Or what if he had gotten curious and tried to eat the tube of chapstick? Or worse than that, what if he were choking on the tube of chapstick??

"Hey, Liz?" I took a backwards step towards the living room. "I'm just going to bring that kid in here, okay?"

Head still inside the cabinet in her search for sprinkles, I heard a muffled "Sure."

I went back into the living room but the little boy wasn't sitting where he had been earlier. Instantly, I began to panic.

"Kid?" I had to opt for "kid" since I didn't know his real name. "Where did you go?" I looked around the living room. No kid there. I went back into the hallway leading to the living room. Still no kid there.

I retraced my steps and stepped into the living room once again. I looked behind one sofa but the kid wasn't there either. By this point my heart was pounding against my chest. I looked behind the other larger sofa and, to my utmost relief, the kid was huddled behind it.

I sighed in relief. "Phew! Why are you hiding back here, kid?" The little boy looked up at me, his big green eyes looking right into mine. "…And what are you doing?"

"Chapped." He said simply, as if that one word could explain it all. My brows furrowed in puzzlement as I looked down on him. It was then that I noticed the placid Calico cat in front of him.

My eyes immediately began to water as laughter wracked my body.

The toddler held the cat's tale in his hand and lifted it up so that he could carefully apply the chapstick onto the cat's little butt.

"Kitty chapped." He said again as he continued to apply the chapstick.

Diary, if you could see a cat's little butt you would agree that to a toddler, it would look very chapped!

Now, we must ask ourselves… is this the first time that he had done this with Liz's chapstick or the 100th time?