Author's Note: Hey everyone! Or as Kyle's cousin Kyle from South Park would say "I'm baaaaaaack!"

The Harrington Home

Natalie Harrington's Bedroom

Saturday, March 3

12:00pm

Natalie sat at her computer. She had just returned from the sleepover at Christina's. She knew she should be floating on cloud nine right now. She and Seth had been partners in math (by choice!) yesterday and she and her friends and her friends had had the best gossip session the night before.

So why was she upset? Well truth was she was…worried. Her birthday was the next day and she would be turning thirteen!

The only problem was her friends had barely even mentioned it and they hadn't even asked her what she was doing or if she wanted to hang out with them or anything. She even tried bringing it up and her friends seemed to change the subject real quickly.

Part of her was outraged. Didn't they make a whole big thing about Christina's birthday? Yes, Christina was their alpha but so what, Natalie was their beta and they should make a deal about her birthday too.

The other part of her was just hurt, she felt a strange sense of betrayal like her friends had forgotten or didn't even care. Had she done something that upset them and out of spite they didn't want to celebrate her birthday with her?

"Hey Natty!" Natalie spun around and saw her mother coming into her room.

"Hey mom" Natalie muttered.

"What's up? Excited for your b'day tomorrow?" Dylan asked.

"Yeah…sure… whatever" Natalie said.

"You're going to be thirteen! I can't believe it's been thirteen years since I had my little Natalie" Dylan said.

"OK mom that's enough" Natalie said.

"What's wrong?" Dylan asked.

"Nothing" Natalie muttered.

"OK Natalie Alyssa Harrington, I know that tone and that tone means that something is wrong" Dylan said putting her hands on her hips.

"Mom enough with the drama seriously" Natalie said.

"I'm just showing an interest in my own daughter's life" Dylan said.

Natalie rolled her eyes she knew that her mother was just trying to do everything she could to make sure Natalie didn't have the relationship that Dylan had with her mother…strained.

"Well that's enough interest for today" Natalie said.

"Well I didn't know you had such a 'secret life'" Dylan said using quotes.

Natalie rolled her eyes "where's Nick?" she asked.

"I think he's at the park with his friends…they're doing some sort of project for technology class or that's what he told me" Dylan said.

"Probably making another stupid rapping video" Natalie said.

"Probably."

"So you agree? His rapping is stupid?" Natalie asked glad to have changed the subject.

"It's what he likes to do…leave him alone. Now, I'm going to the gym to meet your father so you can now be in peace" Dylan said.

"Thank Gawd" Natalie muttered.

Natalie's phone buzzed with the song "Sexy Back" by Justin Timberlake…Christina's customized ringtone that she programed.

Christina: heyyy who wants 2 go 2 the country club 2mrrw? 1pm

Natalie blinked at the screen and almost did a double take so Christina did forget about her birthday SOME FRIEND!

Kat: I heart that! Totes in :)

OK so apparently Kat didn't care either and after seeing 2 more texts within the group it became clear that neither did Tori and Ellie.

Natalie just bit her lip and didn't respond it became obvious that she had such great friends. She went over to her magazine rack to see if any of her new magazine's came and sure enough she saw one of the new Elle magazines so she flopped on her bed and decided to browse through the pictures hoping to forget the crappy feeling she felt at the minute.

Westchester Country Club

Sunday, March 4

1:00pm

After being practically dragged out of her house and into the Fisher's white escalade Natalie was the farthest thing from happy and it was her birthday nonetheless!

"Ehmagawd I cannawt wait" Christina practically shouted as the gates opened and Harold drove through.

"I'm sure you are" Natalie muttered after all Christina had done what she did best. Take all the focus and make everything all about her. She was still in shock I mean she had been friends with Christina, Kat, Tori, and Ellie since birth and yet they all had managed to forget that she was thirteen on this exact day.

"Hey guys, do you know…" but Natalie was cut off.

"One second Nat!" Christina said holding her finger up to her friend's face "park here Harold!" Christina commanded.

Natalie honestly didn't want to "wait one second" she was sick of this whole thing and she just wanted to scream.

"Oh shit!" Kat said.

Christina turned and gave Kat a 'warning' glare since Harold was in the front seat and probably heard her.

"What happened?" Tori asked.

"I dropped my phone…I think it fell beneath the seat" Kat said.

"Why don't you just stay with Harold and look for it" Christina said winking at Kat.

"Nat, can you help me look for it" Kat said.

"Sure" Natalie replied.

"Alright, come on Tori, Ellie we'll meet you guys inside later bitches" Christina said and Natalie could swear she saw her friends laughing…probably about how funny it was that they 'forgot' her birthday.

"Ugh if I lose this phone who knows what my mama will do to me!" Kat said.

"Why? She'll just buy you another one" Natalie said.

"Well ahbviously she would it's my pa I'm worried about. Leo told me he heard them talking and pa was saying how 'they should start teaching me responsibility' or whatever" Kat said.

"Sucks" Natalie said.

"Why are you so upset?" Kat asked.

Natalie widened her eyes "SERIOUSLY!" she was thinking in her head and was literally about a second away from completely losing it.

All of the sudden they heard her ringtone "Shine Bright Like a Diamond" and Kat picked up her phone from underneath the seat "it was right here all along" she said as if it were obvious "you ready?"

"Sure" Natalie muttered.

Harold opened the door for the girls and they walked across the parking lot drop off area where several elderly people got out of a car. The doorman held the door for the girls who walked by and muttered 'thank you.'

"And you are?" a woman at the front desk asked.

"We're here for Chrissy" Kat said.

"Oh…yes" the woman smirked for a second "right this way."

Meanwhile, from her post underneath the table beside the door to the main room Ellie saw the receptionist, Kat, and Natalie heading towards the room. Ellie darted into the room where everyone was waiting "HIDE! NOW!" she mouthed and everyone hid in the nearest place they could find.

The receptionist led Kat and Natalie down the long hallway and they passed the area where several people were having a late lunch.

"Where's Christina?" Natalie asked after not seeing them among the dining guests.

"Oh…yes we had to move you to the back room" the receptionist said.

"Okay?" Natalie said as if it were a question.

The receptionist opened the door to the main room and Natalie saw the light flicker on and Christina jumped out from under the table.

"SURPRISE!" shouted everyone as they jumped out from under the table.

"Ehmagawd!" Natalie said stumbling backwards.

"Happy Birthday Natalie!" Christina ran forward to give her friend a hug.

"I thought you forgot!" Natalie said.

"Puh lease Nat how lame do you think I am?" Christina asked.

Natalie just shrugged and the PC: 2 gathered together and took it all in. As Natalie looked around the room she saw a familiar crowd of people that had attended their Halloween Party all the way back in October. This also included certain individuals and one particular person known as Seth Hubble.

"I see you lookin" Tori said nudging her friend.

"Shut up!" Natalie said smirking.

"Rate?" Natalie asked.

"9" Christina said.

"How do I become a ten?" Natalie asked.

"Put on a touch more gloss and fix your hair a bit, come on" Christina said as she led her friend towards the girl's restroom.

Ten minutes later Natalie came out looking at least like a 9.5 and walked over to where she could see her crush standing amongst some of the boys eating a brownie. Christina led the rest of the girls so they could talk to their crushes as well.

"Hey" Natalie said to Seth.

Seth licked his fingers of chocolate and smiled "hey! Were you surprised?"

"Definitely" Natalie said.

"Did they make it obvious? That they were hiding something?" Seth asked.

"Not at all" Natalie said.

"They have some great food here" Seth said.

"Do they?" Natalie asked batting her eyelashes.

"Yeah…they even have a chocolate fountain!" Seth said pointing to the corner of the room where a chocolate fountain stood on a cart surrounded by marshmallows and strawberries.

"Ehmagawd I need that!" Natalie said.

"Me too" Seth said as they both looked at each other and ran over.

Meanwhile also standing at the snacks table was Kat who was busy chatting with her crush/sort-of-boyfriend, Ryan.

"Hey you sexy ho" Ryan said.

"Aren't I?" Kat asked.

"Uh huh" Ryan said smirking.

"It's a shame that they don't have any grapes here huh?" Kat asked.

"I love grapes" Ryan said in an old lady voice since it was a constant joke between the two of them.

"Oh dammit!" Kat said cracking up.

"Shut up! I kill you" Ryan said trying not to laugh.

"Remember when we got kicked out of the mall?" Ryan asked.

"Yes…and if you're thinking of pulling another one of your shit jokes now I will kill you" Kat said.

"No, I will cut you" Ryan said.

Kat cackled "do you need time out?"

Ryan responded by shaking his hips towards Kat "with you, yeah."

Kat looked at him "TURN OFF" she said cackling.

"Ice, Ice baby" Ryan sang.

Kat decided to give in and started dancing with Ryan.

Hillside Definite School

The Cafeteria

Tuesday, March 6

12:30pm

"Ehmagawd I still cannawt get over how fab that party was!" Ryan said in a girly voice and Kat flirt-slugged him.

Tori just laughed as she stared at her on/off crush she was happy for Kat that she was with him and figured if anyone was his match it was definitely Kat.

She turned and went back to the conversation she was having with her other sort of crush, Jack.

"So I asked my sister if she knew your brothers" he said.

"Really? What did she say?" Tori asked.

"She knows them and I heard her talking with one of her friend's on the phone that she thinks one of them is cute" Jack said.

"Haha really? They're two little devils if anything!" Tori said.

Jack just laughed and looked at the food she had bought from the cafeteria "Um, what is that?" he asked.

"I think it's supposed to be pasta but now I'm having second thoughts."

"I would be too" Jack said glancing over at something and Tori followed his gaze as she saw he was staring at Tyler.

She almost wanted to ask Jack what Tyler had told him just last Friday but didn't want to seem like she was butting in. She half hoped he would say 'hey did you hear such and such about Tyler?' Maybe it had to do with Ellie but Tori wasn't sure if it was positive or negative.

"You OK?" she asked.

"Yeah, never better" Jack said sighing.

"You sure?"

"Um…yeah" Jack said.

Tori tried to give him her best 'you're not fooling me' look. Jack looked at her as if to be confused and tried his best to avoid eye contact.

As she stared at Ellie she saw how happy her friend truly was…to finally have a crush who liked her back after all in the past 3 years or so Ellie had had 3 different crushes and all of them hadn't liked her back.

On the other hand she wasn't sure if she should be worried or what. Up until now Tyler had seemed too good to be true and Tori wondered what if he had some deep dark secret that no one but Jack knew about? What if he was cheating on Ellie? What if? What if?

Tori tried not to overthink it maybe she was going in the complete opposite direction or maybe it was a guy thing that was going on with him either way she figured it was probably none of her business anyway or Jack would have told her what was wrong…right?

"You OK Tori? You look like you're confused" Jack said.

"What…just in a daze that's all" Tori tried to laugh.

Jack took a deep breath before looking over at Tyler and looking back at Tori "alright…when I said I was fine before well" he took another deep breath "I lied. If I tell you though you have to swear not to tell anyone especially Ellie do you understand?"

Tori nodded and Jack whispered something in her ear that almost seemed hard to hear. It wasn't because she couldn't hear what Jack was saying she could hear him fine. It was more that she was in shock.

"Ehmagawd! Why. Hasn't. He. Told. Her!?" Tori asked.

"He doesn't know how too" Jack said.

Tori shrugged, she knew Ellie was sensitive to things and figured Tyler must know this too but still she had the right to know. "Who else knows?" she asked.

"Just me, Ian, Ryan, and Seth and obviously all the teachers" Jack said.

"Wow…I feel so bad" Tori said as she was relatively speechless.

"You don't think we all are? It literally was just out of nowhere" Jack said.

But instead of asking more questions Tori just looked at Ellie and almost felt like crying.

Hillside Definite School

Thursday, March 8

2:50pm

"So you must've hated that picture we watched in Social Studies or what?" Tyler asked.

"Propaganda and Stereotypes…I can't handle this anymore!" Ellie said jokingly throwing up her hands.

Tyler laughed, "And then when he asked someone to summarize it he asked you…coincidence?"

"I think not" Ellie said.

"Think fast!" Tyler said as he dug a paper airplane out of his bag and tossed it at Ellie.

"Hey!" Ellie shouted.

"I'm innocent" Tyler said smirking.

"OK, whatever you say" Ellie said trying not to smile.

Tyler took a deep breath and stopped "this is where we met isn't it?"

"First day of school" Ellie said.

"Yup…and I called you England" Tyler said.

"Only you" Ellie said shaking her head.

"I have a question?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah?"

"You know how sometimes you don't want to tell someone something because you're afraid they'll get hurt?"

"Yeah? I guess" Ellie said.

"Well…I have something I need to tell you" Tyler said.

"What?" Ellie asked.

Tyler took a deep breath and stared at the ground before looking up at Ellie and they both locked eyes.

PLEASE REVIEW! XD (In order to update I'd appreciate at least 3)