Here's the next chapter! Thank you for reviewing, pirateships45 and Ali6132.

At school, Heather told Dakota and Lindsay about Courtney, only revealing the father to Dakota. Lindsay seemed to have forgotten the vampire rumour, but Heather wasn't going to give her any chance to remember.

Dakota's green eyes went wide with surprise and a touch of sympathy. "Wow. Poor girl. So that's why she hasn't come to school. I wouldn't, either, not if she's showing. Maybe we should do something to help her."

"Ooh! I know!" Lindsay squealed. "Baby shower!"

"She wants to keep it quiet, Lindsiot." Heather told her minion harshly. "A baby shower isn't exactly appropriate when she doesn't even want said baby."

"Who would've thought," Dakota mused, "Miss Most Likely To Succeed would be the one to become a teenage mom."

"She got Most Likely To Succeed again?" Heather sighed. "I didn't bother finding out about it. I should've known – she got it freshman and sophomore year too. I wonder who'll get it now she's gone. Who got it among the guys in our grade?"

Dakota shrugged. "That Noah guy, I think. You know, the scrawny kid who comes top of all the exams? He's not even in school this year – Sierra says that Cody told her that Noah's skipped senior year and is in his first year of college."

Heather tossed her head. "I just wanted to know who it was – no background information, Kota. Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Courtney?"

"Heather, are you going to tell anyone else?" Dakota asked.

"I'm not that mean." the paler girl answered, looking incredulous that her best friend would even ask her that. "I'm not going to help her or anything – she's the one who let him knock her up – but she's already screwed up enough." She turned to Lindsay. "Listen, you better not tell anyone anything. Don't even mention a word about Courtney to anyone."

"I swear I will not tell anyone anything about Courtney." Lindsay vowed. And she meant to keep it secret. She really did. But in one of Lindsay's classes, she overheard another girl saying that she thought Courtney had dropped out because she'd gone to law school early. Lindsay completely forgot that it was a secret, much less that she'd promised not to tell.

"Actually," Lindsay said, turning around, "Courtney's pregnant. That's why she hasn't come back."

The news spread like wildfire after that, and eventually it got back to Sierra, who immediately put it on her blog, finishing the article with: Any connection to the vampire story? Might Courtney be giving birth to...a half-vampire baby?

Sierra went straight to Heather the next day, asking if she knew anything about it. "No." Heather partially lied. "Courtney and I aren't friends any more. Why would I know anything about her?"

"You know why." Sierra insisted. "Come on, Heather, the people need to know this!"

Heather folded her arms, looked Sierra in the eye, and lied flawlessly "I know nothing about it, and if I did, I wouldn't tell you anyway. Not because I like Courtney, but because she's already ruined her life by becoming a teenage mom. As far as I'm concerned, her life's already been messed up. I don't need to do any more."

Sierra didn't leave her alone until Heather said "You keep bugging me, and I will feed from Cody on Friday night and make you watch!"

Sierra's dark eyes became almost black with fury, but she managed to keep her temper, simply spinning on her heel and walking off, wondering if she should warn her Codykins.

Jose seemed to have heard about Courtney by the time he arrived the next night, much to Alejandro's annoyance. "So I hear I have an unborn nephew?" he said happily. "Guess you'll have to grow up a bit more, Al."

"Don't call me that." Alejandro said, trying desperately to keep his temper in check. "And for your information, Courtney doesn't want me around, so I won't be around him. How did you find out, anyway?"

"You know that Sierra chick from the high school, with the gossip page?" Jose said. "I got it out of her. Somehow, she manages to hear everything, and she posts it all on her blog."

But about a month later, something good finally happened. One Sunday morning, Heather woke to find Alejandro already passionately kissing her, with one hand under her pyjama top and tracing up and down her side.

She pushed him off gently. "What are you so happy about?" she asked. She had learned that Alejandro was more affectionate when he was happier.

"Jose's leaving." he explained. "He said last night that annoying me again was getting old and that he was moving on. Finally, I'm free!"

Heather smiled back. "Finally. You two were keeping me up all night with your arguments." she teased. "I guess someone in your family can take a hint when they're not wanted."

Alejandro instantly understood that she was talking about her reactions back when they first met, and said playfully, "It's harder to take a hint when you always are wanted. Even if a certain stubborn chica insists the contrary."

Heather rolled her eyes. "Please. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only person to think someone being in my room in the middle of the night was really creepy."

"No one else seemed to mind."

"Only because you compelled them not to mind, I'll bet."

"You were the only one I had to do that to."

Heather paused, thoughtfully. "How come I didn't notice my thought pattern changing? That first night, when you kissed me, I regretted it the moment after I'd said it, but only for a second. I don't remember being willing to let you. But I noticed it when you made me break my silence."

"It depends on how stubborn you are." Alejandro explained. "You wanted me to leave you alone on the first night, and I told you I would go if you let me kiss you, so I had to only try a little bit. The night you refused to talk to me, I had to try a little harder, because you were so determined to ignore me."

Heather couldn't see the point of getting worked up about it any more. She was settled into immortality, and actually liked it a whole lot better than her old life.

Suddenly, another thought occurred to her. "I've already asked you why it was me. But I've never wondered why it was you."

"What do you mean?" Alejandro asked, genuinely curious and a bit confused.

"I'll be honest here." Heather said. "I've never felt this way about anyone I've dated. I mean, I took boys more seriously than you've ever taken girls – like, they had to make an effort if they wanted to get any. Not that any of them did, but I actually did have something for them. But right from the start, when I actually started to like you, it felt different. I wanted to like those guys. I never ever wanted to like you. So why you?"

Alejandro laughed. "My guess is because we have a lot in common. More alike than even I realized at first – Sierra gave me a lot of notes, and to be honest, you sounded like me."

Heather shrugged. "Whatever. Anyway, are you actually going to spend the day awake so we can actually hang out? I haven't got anything planned. Dakota's got a photo shoot, and Lindsay already arranged for her and Beth to get spa treatment together."

"Well," said Alejandro slyly, "I could finish what I started when I woke you up..."

Usually, Heather would refuse to do that when she'd just woken up. But she had nothing better to do, so she simply lay back and pulled him on top of her.

I know, a ton of stuff went down in this chapter. The Jose subplot was going nowhere, so sorry for people who got interested there. Hopefully Courtney's plot will have more going for it.