Sugar and Spice: Everything Changes
By Misha

Disclaimer and Notes in Chapter One.

Chapter Twenty-Six: The New Girl

"You ready for school?" Christopher asked her Tuesday morning.

Christa rolled her eyes. "As ready as I'll ever be." She looked at the red uniform skirt. "This uniform is really ugly though."

"Aren't they always ugly?" Christopher teased.

"Pretty much." Christa agreed, though silently she was thinking that Chilton's blue had suited her more than the ugly red of her new uniform did.

"I know it's not easy being the new girl," Christopher commented, handing her her backpack.

"I'm used to it." Christa reminded him. "Honestly, I'll be fine. I've never had any issues fitting in."

It was true, she was easy going and knew how to play by the rules of the upper class and that made the transition easier. Though, until Connecticut she had never made any close friendships and even those she hadn't made at school. But, she'd still made friends and managed to fit in and that was what mattered. She didn't need a new best friend, she was happy with the ones she had, she just needed to not be a social outcast.

"Well, I'd still like to take you out for dinner tonight," Christopher told her, "We'll call it your celebration for making it through your first day. Sherri recommended this place that she's been dying to try, so I thought we'd all go there for dinner."

Christa fought the urge to roll her eyes. Sherri, of course. She'd only seen her father's girlfriend once over the weekend, thankfully, but she'd come up in conversation a lot and it was obvious that Christopher was very serious about her.

"Sounds like a plan," Christa agreed instead, even though spending the evening with Sherri wasn't her idea of a celebration. Still, for her dad's sake, she'd resolved to play nice. "Oh, I wanted to ask you about something," she said, pretending she had just remembered.

"What?" Christopher asked with a smile.

"Can I go to Yale in two weeks?" Christa asked. "Colin and Logan have invited me up for the weekend. They want to show me around the campus. I can sleep on the couch in one of their dorms." To her surprise, Colin and Logan were not flatmates. She hadn't heard much about Colin's dormmates, but Logan had bonded extremely well with one of his: an Australian named Finn.

Christopher raised an eyebrow. "You think ten minutes before you leave for school is a good time to bring this up?"

"There are worst times," Christa said with a shrug, "Dad, it'll be good for me to check out Yale and see what an Ivy League school is like and Colin and Logan are good guys."

"They did seem like nice guys," Christopher agreed, "I'll think about it," he promised her.

Thinking about it was better than a no and Christa knew better than to push her dad. Still, she had one more tactic to try. "Thank you. It's just… It'd be nice to have something to look forward to, you know? To know that even if settling in takes longer than I expect, I'll have a visit with my friends to look forward to."

Christopher's face softened. "They mean a lot to you, don't they?"

"They're my best friends." Christa said simply.

Christopher studied her for a long moment. "And you're not having sex with either of them?" He asked her.

"No." Christa said honestly, though her mind flashed back to that last night with Colin and how close they had come to making her a liar.

"Then, I guess you can go," Christopher told her, "But there will be ground rules. We'll talk about it later, though, ok?"

"Ok." Christa said with a grin, giving her dad a hug. "Thank you, you're the best!" She knew that she had been manipulative, using Christopher's guilt about their frequent moves against him, but it had worked and that was what mattered.

"You're new here." The redhead sitting next to Christa in first period drawled.

"Yes, I am." Christa said dryly.

"I like the hair." The girl said with a smile. "My parents would kill me."

"My dad doesn't care," Christa told her, she laughed, "I guess it's one advantage to having a dad in his 30s." She wasn't ashamed of her back story and she found that her classmates tended to be intrigued by the circumstances of her birth; it was the parents that tended to be more judgmental. Most of the girls her age tended to find the story romantic or exciting, even though Christa knew that very few of them could imagine making the same choices that her mother had.

"So you're going to be the one with the hot dad," the redhead joked, "I'm Samantha Ashby."

"Christa Hayden." Christa introduced.

Just then the teacher came in and class started, ending conversation, but after class Samantha lingered.

"Eat lunch with me," she suggested, "after seeing the same faces since kindergarten, it's nice to see new blood."

"Sounds like a plan." Christa agreed. Well, this school was easier to adjust to than Chilton, Maybe because there was no Paris and even then, she'd had an easier time at Chilton than Rory had, probably because she had a very different personality.

"But if your father's not cute, you're on your own." Samantha teased as they left the classroom.

Christa laughed, confident that her friend's would indeed find Christopher attractive, her friends in California certainly had.

"Christa, this is Becca, Lara, and April." Samantha introduced at lunch time since Christa had taken the redhead up on her offer and joined her group. "Christa just moved here."

Christa nodded at the girls, all of whom she recognized from shared classes.

"Where did you move from?" Lara, a sleek blonde, asked, obviously studying Christa and trying to decide whether she passed inspection. Not that it was easy to tell when they all had to wear the same uniform, but Christa saw her appraising her shoes and her jewellery. No doubt checking to make sure she really belonged and that she wasn't a charity case. Because while brains were appreciated in theory, social standing was more important in reality.

"Connecticut, but before that we lived in California." Christa answered, just as her phone rang.

"Hide your phone," April, who had curly brown hair and a lot of freckles, advised, "There are teachers who will confiscate if they even see it. So uncool."

"We'll tell you which ones," Samantha promised, "Definitely Mr. Fraser, who teaches political science. He's a complete stick in the mud."

"I have him after lunch," Christa said with a groan said and then answered the call after checking to see who it was. "Hey Colin."

"Hey, I figured I'd see how your first day was going." He told her. "And hopefully timed it to catch you at lunch."

"You did." Christa told him, surprised that he had thought to call.

"Good and now I'm going to up your social credit," he told her, "Ask me about Yale."

"My first day is going well," Christa said with a laugh, "And I take it Yale hasn't asked you to leave yet?"

She could see the girls give her appraising looks at the mention of Yale.

"Not yet," Colin answered, "Are the other girls impressed?"

"Very." Christa told him. It was an easy gambit, but it worked because high school girls who dated college boys were always cooler. "I'm glad you called, but I should probably go since I'm not really supposed to have my phone."

"Yes, getting your phone confiscated on the first day would be bad," Colin agreed. "And probably not help our cause to get you up here as soon as possible."

"Probably not." Christa greed. "I'll send you an e-mail tonight sharing all the details," she promised before hanging up. When she did, she noticed that all four girls were staring at her.

"So who was that?" Samantha asked curiously.

"My friend Colin." Christa said with a shrug. "He was calling to see how my day is going."

"And he goes to Yale?" Lara asked and there was some respect in her voice.

"Yeah, he just started," Christa confirmed. "I'm going to visit him and our other friend Logan in a few weeks."

"I wish I had friends in college." Samantha sighed. "High school is so boring."

"High school boys are the worst." April added. "I'm so sick of the boys around here. I need new blood."

Christa nodded in agreement and grinned, pretty sure that she had found her people. It might not the same kind of friendship that she had Logan and the others, but it should make the adjustment easier.