Chapter 4
Kelly and Trey arrived at Tasha's at the same time.
"Hey Babes" he poked Kelly in the shoulder until she complained. They weren't the greatest of friends but at least they got along, much to Kelly's happiness.
Jack and Ashley arrived shortly after, trailed by Gabe who didn't really want to be there.
Ace was standing near the window with Blake. "Whoa, did I miss something?"
"What?" Rachael said looking around.
"Are Jack and Ashley together?"
"No, I don't think so." Blake answered.
"Shoot. I wanted them to be. They're cute." The topics of conversation then entered the room and split like molecules reconfirming what Blake had just said.
Tasha and Chelsea were intently watching the crowd for Jon, who as of now, was not there. "Ohhh, there's Gabe…" Chelsea drifted off.
"I can't decide which girl he's fallen for-Liz or Ashley." Tasha said upon hearing her comment.
"I wish me…" Chelsea sighed
"You 2 are soooo not alike."
"Opposites attract. At least when I'm around him I don't fight with him."
"Instead he doesn't talk at all!" Tasha said sarcastically. "Those 3 are just so…I don't know. It should be interesting though to see which girl he goes with."
"Oh no. There's Jack. With Ashley." Chelsea sighed
Tasha groaned. "I forgot he was coming."
"And when was she invited?"
"He probably invited her. Are they together or something?" Chelsea regretted asking that.
"Probably, just to spite me!" Tasha frowned at the 2 as they walked in the door. Tasha hadn't gotten along with Ashley since she broke ties with the group. No hard feelings or anything, but Tasha still didn't like seeing "her guy" with Ashley.
"Well, the parties going well…." Chelsea tried to change the topic, which wasn't really being changed, but we'll pretend.
"No it's not. Jon isn't here, Jack just walked in with…HER, and I'm guyless." Tasha moaned. "Why me?"
"I'm guyless…for the moment." Chelsea smiled and got up to leave, seeing Gabe sitting by himself. "I'm going to talk to Gabe." Tasha just sighed. She knew Chelsea's attempts were in vain, the boy wasn't going to open up to her. Talking to him was like talking with a brick, only you might have more luck getting a brick to talk. Chelsea's head popped back in the door. "Oh, and I don't know what you're worried about, Jon just walked in." Tasha grinned and got up to go say 'hi'.
Ashley found Caroline sitting with Kelly and Trey outside on the backporch. "Hey guys!" Everyone smiled and said hello back. Trey was sitting next to Kelly and Ashley made a face at Caroline. One of those faces that meant 'what is going on between those 2?!' Caroline just shrugged back.
"I got my prom dress today." Caroline smiled and continued to describe it in detail.
"It sounds sooo pretty!" Kelly said. "I wish I could have a dress like that! I wish I had a date for that matter…"
"Don't we all…" Ashley sighed.
"Go with Jack!" Caroline elbowed her.
"What?"
"Yea, go with Jack! He'd go wid ya!" Trey smiled.
"Maybe, maybe! Gosh, prom is way over a month away…do we have to worry about it now?!" Ashley whined, trying desperately to change the topic.
"I second that!" Kelly added. "How bout some ice cream…I'm sure Tasha has some somewhere." The four got up and went in search in Tasha's freezer for some ice cream and pulled out some chocolate brownie stuff.
"Hey Jon," Tasha said walking up to him. "Want anything to drink?"
"Hey Tash, no thanks. Not really thirsty. Plus I can't stay long." Tasha frowned inside, she didn't want him to leave already! "Where's Nik?"
"I haven't a clue." Tasha glanced around and spotted him over by the TV. "There he is." She pointed in the direction and followed Jon over.
"Hey Nik," Jon greeted his friend who nodded in his direction and looked at Tasha and back at Jon.
"You two…" He made gestures which had to mean 'are you together?' Both looked at each other and grinned.
"Not that I know of…" Jon said. Tasha turned bright red and excused herself to find Chelsea.
As she approached the couch in the living room where she saw Chelsea hopelessly talking up Gabe, loud voices were heard coming from outside on the deck. "Oh boy." Tasha muttered as she headed in that direction, hoping none of her parents' furniture would end up being thrown around the lawn.
****
Su and Sheila were going at it, yelling every profanity they could think of at each other. No one knew what the fight was about, and to tell you the truth, they didn't either at this point. Su was angry, that was all she knew, angry at Sheila, and in order for Sheila, her best friend to get her angry, it had to be BAD. Sheila on the other hand had no idea why Su was angry, but she was so caught up in the fight that she was very angry by now. Su said something out of line and Sheila reacted by pushing her. Su crashed through the table and then, into the pool. The crowd that had now formed around them, started to laugh, but was quickly quieted when Su came screeching out of the pool, at Sheila. That was when Dan and Trey came to stop Su from doing any damage. They pulled the 2 girls away from each other and life continued at the party.
****
"Man, that was some fight!" Jack grinned from his seat at the table where the 5 had been eating ice cream.
"I thought Su was gonna kill Sheila! Did you see the look on her face?" Trey, "the hero", commented as he played with his spoon.
"That is going to leave some scars. I don't think they'll be on speaking terms on Monday." Kelly said watching Trey out of the corner of her eye.
"Definitely, I wonder what made them so mad? They're best friends!" Ashley said looking towards the pool and laughing remembering how Su fell in. "That was funny though"
"Sure was!" Jack laughed. "Anyone up for a swim?" He looked around at everyone at the table and finally got a few yes's.
"Well then, come on!" He jumped up and fully clothed, jumped in the pool. Ashley, Caroline and Trey just looked on, wondering if they should join him.
"He's crazy man…" Trey said scratching his head, "But you gotta hand it to him…let's go!" He ran off into the pool and was shortly followed by Caroline, Ashley and Kelly, who had to stop to take off their shoes.
******
Around 12:30, the party started to thin out. Chelsea and Tasha once again were sitting, watching everyone leave.
"Quite a party huh?" Chelsea said.
"Yea, tell me about it. I hope those guys in the pool didn't destroy anything.." Tasha said fidgeting with a pillow.
"Aww don't worry about it! It's a party, you gotta expect things like that. I can't believe I missed that fight though…" Chelsea smiled "Then again, maybe not! I was having a great conversation with Gabe."
"A one sided conversation you mean?" Tasha muttered. "Jon left early, but I think there may be something there!" she smiled and looked at Chelsea who had just had her pride bashed in.
"Ok fine, Gabe didn't talk, but who says that he isn't shy?"
"Gabe? The rock? Shy?!" Tasha laughed. "I can't see that."
"What happened between Jon and you?"
"Not much, but Nik asked if we were together and he said he didn't know… do you think that means anything?" Tasha had a dreamy look on her face and Chelsea just laughed.
"Maybe hun, Maybe."
*****
"Hey kids," Mrs. Kelly ruffled Jacks hair embarrassingly, and hugged Ashley. "Where's Liz?" was directed towards Gabe.
"I dunno." He muttered.
"Oh, Ash, dear, your mom called a few hours ago. She says…oh what's her name? Ann? Anna? Well anyway, she's in the hospital and her mom said she wanted you to go visit her."
"Anna? In the hospital? Why?" Ashley looked worried. "Jack can you take me there?"
"Sure thing." He said goodbye to his mother again and left with Gabe and Ashley to go to the hospital.
****
Jess was freaking out. "Why would she be in the hospital? You only go to the hospital if it's serious."
"I'm sure she's fine." Dave said trying to encourage her as he sped off down the highway.
"No! She wouldn't be in the HOSPITAL if she was fine. She's probably in a coma, dying!"
"Calm down, Jess. They would have told us if she was dying…" Dave tried again to calm her down but his efforts weren't working.
"That's just it! They didn't tell us because they didn't want us to worry!" Jess was practically jumping up and down in her seat from being so nervous.
"It would have been better than this." Dave mumbled under his breath, but Jess heard and gave him a bitter glare.
*****
Liz fumbled with her car keys. Why was she always the last to know? WHY? She finally got the car started and headed out the driveway at 2 AM, which was too early for her.
"I hope she's ok." Liz said aloud to herself. She pulled into Ace's driveway and Ace ran down the stairs.
"Oh my God-what have you heard?" Ace was barely out of her pajamas.
"Not much except that Anna's in the hospital."
"Why is she in the hospital?"
"I haven't a clue." Both conversations dribbled out and they sat in silence as they flew down the quiet streets of Ridgefield.
*****
Rachel and Gen arrived ahead of everyone else, having heard first. They rushed into the lobby and demanded of the nurse stationed there where Anna was.
"Carlen?" The nurse repeated. She sounded really annoyed, as if this wasn't important! "Ahh….Anna Carlen…room number 203 on the 4th floor."
"Umm…what floor are we on?" Ace said (can't you see her twirling her hair there?!)
"The nurse looked even more annoyed, like Ace was the DUMBEST blond ever to walk to planet. "We're on the FIRST floor." Emphasis on the first.
"Thanks." Both girls ran off towards the elevator and awaited its slow decent towards the first floor.
*****
Ashley, Jack, Gabe, Dave and Jess arrived at the same time, about 15 minutes after Rachel and Gen arrived, and ran into the lobby and confronted the same nurse, who was getting tired of all this commotion in the middle of the night. She instructed them where to go and they fled to the stairs, taking them 2 at a time.
Rachel noticed them first and ran up to Jess and Ashley, the most shaken in the group, and pulled them into a hug, which would have been looked at strangely at any other moment since Rachel wasn't the hugging type, but we'll overlook it now.
"What's wrong? Is she ok?" Jess demanded.
"She's sleeping now." A man in a white doctor's coat said from 5 feet away. The group crowded around him to hear what was wrong. He had already given this speech to Rachel and Gen but repeated it anyway.
"What's wrong? Why is she here?" Ashley asked.
"Well, Anna has had a small bought of meningitis. Fortunately it is the bacterial kind, but lucky for her, she is recovering nicely. Mrs. Carlen decided now would be a good time to tell you, however we weren't expecting everyone till morning." Everyone was relieved but still worried.
"Why weren't we told earlier?" Gen said, anger rising in her throat. At that moment Liz and Ace arrived, and the story had to be repeated.
"Well?" Ashley brought Gen's question back to topic after the doctor had finished his tale.
" I'm not quite sure about that. You'll have to ask Mrs. Carlen when she gets here in the morning." With that the doctor nodded at the crowd and left them sitting in the chairs outside Anna's room.