CHAPTER 2
A Brotherly Lecture during the Calm Before The Storm
As Usual, I don't own any of the Characters of Lizzie McGuire The character of Kendal Saunders and the other characters are of my own creation
Chapter 2 was originally supposed to be part of Chapter 1, but I thought it would make that chapter too long. I gave Kate a brother who is five years older than she is, and who is a salaried firefighter/paramedic on the rescue unit that responds 'first due' to Hillridge, he...and the Atlantis (The city I've made Hillridge a part of) Fire Department figure prominently in this story. This story is actually a crossover between Lizzie McGuire, and the series of novels that I'm writing, all of which are about the crew of the same rescue unit (Rescue 3) that is featured in the story. Atlantis is a fictional coastal city in Virginia, south of Virginia Beach (I decided we needed another beach resort in the Old Dominion).
This chapter introduces him and starts explaining some things about Kate, and why she's the way she is
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"You mind telling me just what the hell it is you have against Lizzie...? Kate's older brother Kenny asked...loudly...from behind his closed bedroom door. Kate rolled her eyes as she pushed a folded pair of 'Diesel' jeans into a blue and gold HHS cheering squad gym bag. Her bangs fluttered in an angry, up-puffed breath as she yanked the gym bag's zipper closed. "...She's nice...hell, Kate, she's one of the sweetest people I know, she..."
"...Doesn't need to be on the cheering squad!" Kate groused hotly, shooting a look of death at her brother's bedroom as she did so. There was a long ten count before either of them spoke, one of those pauses that authors often refer to as 'pregnant'.
"What's the matter, Kate..." Kenny began, speaking in that calm, precise tone that all but drips sarcasm. His door opened, and he stuck his head out, looking around and over towards his sister. "You afraid of the competition, or is she just not nasty enough for you guys..."
Kate's mouth dropped open in pained surprise as Kenny disappeared back into his room, slamming the door with a sledgehammer meets railroad tie 'thunk!' She stood and turned, her long hair twirling as she spun, and stalked across the hall, twisting the doorknob and palming the door to Kenny's room open hard enough to bounce it off the wall.
"What exactly do you mean by that, Kenny?!" Kate all but spat at her brother, who yelped 'Kate!..' and quickly yanked a pair of navy blue uniform pants all the way up, stuffing the tails of a powder blue shirt in as he did so. 'Can't you at least knock?' he continued as he started buttoning the shirt. As tall as she was, Kate had to look up at him. Kenny Saunders topped out at six-two in his socks; the uniform shoes would add another half inch to that. The expression she was shooting up at him was not, right at that moment, overburdened with sisterly adoration.
"You have nothing on my fantasies about Brad Pitt and Ryan Philippe, and I'm waiting...what did you mean 'Not nasty enough....' "She said, then asked, one eyebrow cocking upward above a pretty, tilted blue eye as she spoke.
"Just what I said, Kate..." Kenny replied, "You're my sister, I love you more than life itself...most of the time..." His attention was diverted for a second as he glanced around the room, then looked down at his bed and began searching among the folds of a dark green bedspread. "...Where the heck did I put that thing..."
Kate gently shook her head and rolled her eyes as her gaze fell on the oak dresser that matched her brothers' bedroom suite. She walked over and picked up an item that was sitting among the change, wallet, and keys scattered across the top of the dresser.
"Looking for this?" She asked, holding it out, her brother said 'Huh?", turned, and took the silver name tag from her, saying 'yeah, thanks' as Kate did the little head-shake number again and mumbled 'an' you call me an airhead...' in a less than cheerful tone of voice
Kenny pointedly ignored the comment that, normally, would have won his sister a couple of good-natured barbs. "Like I said, most of the time..." he continued as he walked to the dresser and, standing in front of the mirror, positioned the name tag above his right pocket, and snapped the pin backs in place with the practiced ease of someone who had performed that chore a few thousand times before. The left shoulder of the shirt he had attached the nametag to sported a round gold and blue Commonwealth of Virginia EMT patch with a PARAMEDIC rocker beneath it. A colorful pentagonal patch showing the Atlantis city seal inside a Maltese cross surrounded by the words ATLANTIS FIRE RESCUE EMS resided on the right shoulder. "...You go into your diva mode," He continued as he checked himself in the mirror. "Like you've been in all afternoon, and God, you get on my nerves..."
"Diva mode..."
"Yes, Kate, Diva mode...as in..." He turned towards her and made airborne quotation marks. "...'I am a cheerleader, and everyone loves me and I'm better than everyone else..." He walked back over to the bed, sat, dragged his black work boots over with his right foot, and started putting them on.
"I'm not like that...." Kate told her brother, quickly averting her eyes.
"Oh, really..? Then answer my question...why are you so against Lizzie being a cheerleader...we won't even go into 'why do you hate her so much' right now...'
"I don't hate her..." Kate informed her brother, conveniently forgetting a comment she had made that very morning. A quick flash of the look on Lizzie's face when she said it flickered before her eyes, she gave her head a little shake, quickly banishing it.. "I just...I just don't think she's cheerleader material..."
"WHAT..." Kenny looked up from tying one of the boots. "...Pray tell, is cheerleader material"
"She's a dork, Kenny..." Kate blurted, her voice rising to an indignant squeak on 'Dork', "God, she can't even walk without tripping over herself..." Again, conveniently overlooking a certain routine she had seen Lizzie practicing that morning. "And she hangs around with such losers..."
Kenny stood, grabbed a shift bag that was very similar to his sister's gym bag, except for being dark blue, and having the AFD logo on it, from his bed.
"First, the fact that you and your little group of princesses don't like someone does not automatically make them a dork, as you so elegantly term it... Kate rolled her eyes and fluttered her banks with an angry exhalation.. "and, as I seem to recall, whether you choose to remember it or not, that little loser, as you call her, has pulled your fat outa the fire a few times over the last couple of years..."
"Uh!..." Kate tilted her head, giving her brother an open-mouthed look of disbelief
"When has she ever done anything for me, Kenny..."
Kenny Saunders turned towards his sister, and looked at her goggle eyed. "You have got to be kidding, Kate... are you really that ungrateful?"
"Nooo..."
"You don't remember..." Kenny continued, cutting her off. "...that idiot Claire putting you on top of a pyramid, and you spraining your wrist when it collapsed...you were lucky as hell that's all you did, by the way... and her immediately kicking you off of the cheering squad..."
"She didn't kick me off, Kenny, we weren't but in the seventh grade, she couldn't 'kick me off'...she just ...
"...told you that they didn't need you on the squad if you couldn't cheer, then treated you like crap, ignored you, and generally made sure you damn well knew she didn't want you around. I guess not wanting you to hang around with them any more and telling you not to sit with them at lunch was out of concern for your well-being." Kenny sniped, huffing a snort of derision. "Y'all's cheering sponsor really dropped the ball on that one...I do, by the way, seem to remember you crying your eyes out that night..."." Kenny Saunders not only remembered it, he remembered feeling like someone was squeezing his heart in a machinist's vice that evening when he heard his sister sobbing. Kate started to say something; Kenny just held his hand up. "And who was the little..." More aerial quotes. "Loser, as you call her, who invited you to her house, and spent about a week..."
"It was three days..."
Oh you do remember...showing you how to do one handed cartwheels...yeah, you're right, gotta be spastic to be able to do that... even though you'd barely spoken a civil word to her for almost a year, so Claire wouldn't have any choice but to let you hang around with her again..."
"Lizzie did that because Claire was being such a bi..."
"Seems she was taught well, Kate..
"Kenneeee..." Kate whined, not believing what her brother had just said.
"And let's keep going...Fifteenth birthday party...that, by the way, you told everyone was your fourteenth..." Kate's face turned a delightful shade of red. "Who ended up calling her mom to come get all of Amy's idiot friends out of the house...knowing she was going to get grounded..." Kenny Saunders had been ready to strangle his cousin that night almost three years ago. He had just been assigned to a station, and was at work, their parents had both been out of town, and Amy had used the occasion to turn Kate's birthday party into her party...and Kate had been so hurt.... "And who offered to let you go with them to a movie so you'd have a decent birthday...oh, that's right, they're losers, I guess that wouldn't have been all that great..."
Kate just glared at him silently.
"And now for the real biggie...the statue..."
"That was an accident..."
"That Lizzie took the blame for..."
"She just did that to make herself look good..." Kate huffed. Kenny glared down at her, giving it another long ten count before he spoke.
"You're a good one to talk!" Kate returned her brother's angry glare. "She did that, by the way, so the dance wouldn't get canceled..." He snorted; chuckled derisively as he shook his head, then looked back at his younger sister. "...Yeah...that really sounds like something a ..." Kenny again wrote quotation marks in the air. "...Loser would do..." Kate had the decency to blush bright red. "Oh, and newsflash...a 'loser' wouldn't have had almost two hundred kids in her back yard that night who showed up because they were grateful for what she did...and, by the way, because an awful lot of people really like her..." Kate rolled her eyes at him. "No, don't roll your eyes at me. She has no clue what a great kid she really is, or how popular she really is. And as for you, Miss Priss.."
"Don't call me that..."
"You coulda gone and thanked her...but noooo..."
""Kenny, please..."
"You, the High Princess of Hillridge, slam her for messing up your dance..."
"Alright, alright, already..." Kate told him, holding a hand up. She pushed away from the doorframe, turned, and picked her own gym bag up.
"And who else have you and the other little princesses declared losers? Gordo? Why, because he isn't impressed to the point of awe with you guys? And I'd be careful, by the way, you guys may end up working for him one day..."
"Oh, please..."
"Newsflash, Kate, the main goal of high school is not to show what a cute little social butterfly you are...believe it or not, there's not much call for cheerleaders out in the real world. The fact that you can execute a perfect Russian, or toe spin won't get you far at a job interview..."
She just glared at him as he continued.
"And Miranda...she is such a sweet kid...what, do you guys have something against nice..."
"NO!" Kate blurted. " "
"Ya must, ...and if you want to see a couple of losers, I'd take a long look at that pair you hang around with...what juvenile detention facility did that Tanya chick escape from, anyway?"
"Tanya's Ok..." This time it was Kenny's turn to roll his eyes. "She's just kind of...Intense..."
"Intense...?" Kenny turned, giving Kate one of those sarcastically inquisitive looks featuring near vertical eyebrows. "Intense...then I guess Al Capone was just ambitious..."
"She's not..." A sudden and unwelcome image of Tanya's right foot coming back flickered into sharp, mental focus. "That bad..." Kate didn't sound at all convinced. Her brother picked up on it in a heartbeat.
"Uh huh..." was Kenny's only reply as the two of them walked down the long hallway towards the big rancher's living area.
"And you take up for Miranda...?"
"Yeah, Kate, I do..."
"She can be a total bitch..."
"When she's taking up for her friends...I remember, when you guys were in about the forth grade, her beating the snot outa some guy who kept bothering you...that kid that kept calling you 'string bean', and tripping you..."
"That was a long time ago, things change..." Kate started to say as another unwanted flash of Tanya trying to kick Lizzie...she had been aiming for Lizzie's face...popped into focus. Then a memory of Miranda screaming in with fire in her eyes... Kate squeezed her eyes closed, shaking her head, wondering at the same time if either of her two alleged best friends would have jumped in like that to defend her.
"You Ok..." Kenny asked her, concerned.
"Yeah, just a long day, an' I gotta stay up an' work on tryouts with Claire till who knows when...little bit of a headache..." Kate lied as the unfinished thought 'Lizzie and Miranda would have...' began to form itself. She quickly banished it.
"You are a little bit of a headache..." He told her with a burst of loving brotherly malice. Kate, despite her anger, couldn't help but give him a quick smile. She had changed out of the tight top and jeans that Kenny referred to as (among other things) her 'Diva uniform', and was wearing a pair of jeans with a loose fitting red, purple and blue tie dyed 'T' shirt. She didn't have any make-up on (And truth be known, didn't need any make-up). Her hair was down and loose across her shoulders, and before the night was through, she would probably secure it into a ponytail with the scrungy that was stuffed in one of her pockets. She looked exactly like the sweet, bubbly teenager that she was deathly afraid to let any of her peers know that she actually was. Just as she was deathly, afraid to let them know that she was indeed a year...almost a year and a half...older then the rest of her class.
Kenny walked to the counter, reached in a bag of Chips Ahoy cookies, and extracted two of them. They disappeared in something under two seconds flat. He caught the look Kate was sending his way, extended the bag towards her and mumbled 'Wrmmnt srmn' through a mouth full of cookies. Kate gently shook her head, rolled her eyes...and took three cookies from the proffered bag.
"If I wasn't so pissed at you, I'd comment on how much of a pig you are..." Kate commented, taking a bite out of one of the cookies. Her eyes fell on a calendar secured to the side of the refrigerator with a pair of magnets. A night shot of AFD Truck Ten with its tower up and both 750 gpm basket nozzles in service at the Baycove Apartments fire last year graced the 'April' page. The kind of calendar found in the homes of all paid firefighters...a shift calendar, with the days designated in three separate colors...in this case red, green, and yellow...to designate which shift was on duty on any given day. Atlantis Firefighters worked one on, one off, one on, one off, one on, then four off, and Kenny was on 'C' shift, designated by the yellow squares. 'C' shift was two days into one of it's four day breaks. Kate's head swiveled towards her brother, the pinched look of hurt anger replaced by a look of puzzlement..
"Wait a minute...This is a 'B' shift day...what are you going in for anyway..?
"Mike King's on vacation for a week, and I want to make sure I get all of my sticks in this month, so I told 'em I'd take a couple of his shifts...the overtime ain't bad either..."
"Y'all have run your butts off this month, you an' Adam've gotten a bunch of good ALS calls..." Kate told him, falling into use of Fire-EMS lingo with the casual ease that comes to almost all kids who live in a fire department household.
"And not one of 'em a trauma call. Every one of 'em medicals."
"Oh..." Kate noted, then she looked up with a crooked and mischievous smirk on her face. "You and Gary riding' together...Oh My GOD..." Kate had secretly crushed on Gary Barnette, who was assigned to 'B' shift on Rescue 3, stationed at Fire Station 28, about eight miles from their house, ever since her brother had gotten his Paramedic certification and been assigned to 'C' shift on the same unit.
"I'm sure that Ashlie and Pattie..." Kenny began, referring to his and Gary's fiancées "...Will be pacing the apron, shotguns in hand, to fight off the hordes of lust-crazed women intent on defiling our bodies..." Kate rolled her eyes at him, this time in the joking manner of younger sisters about to lovingly slam their older brothers the world over.
"Pattie, maybe...I seriously doubt that Ashlie has anything to worry about..." Kate noted, deadpan. Her brother reached over and furled her hair, actually getting a quick smile out of her as he headed towards the back door.
"None of the others can handle my blatant and raw masculinity..."
"Oh, PUH-LEASE..." Kate blurted with comically over exaggerated sarcasm. "It's really getting deep now..."
Kenny walked around the counter that separated the big, airy kitchen from the breakfast nook and pushed the back door open, Kate following close behind. All of the family's vehicles were parked on the concrete parking area, Kenny's immaculately waxed and polished silver and black Chevy Silverado pick-up included. Kate's Sebring...equally as well kept as her brother's ride...was next to it.
Damn...you got a jacket or anything in your car..?" Kenny asked his sister as the suddenly chilly air hit them.
"Yeah, my cheering jacket..." Kate replied, looking up as she spoke, her face contorted into the grimace worn by amateur weather forecasters the world over. The crisp blue Old Dominion sky had been chased off by solemn gray clouds that seemed to be flirting with the tree tops. It felt more like late Fall than early spring, and not only was it chilly, it was damp chilly. Kate could feel the moisture in the air "It's gonna rain, you guys are libel to get wet..." Kate told her brother, looking down and over at him as she spoke.
"Least we won't run any brush fires..." Kenny told her as he walked around to the driver's side of the big 4x4. He opened the driver's door, and tossed the shift bag onto the passenger seat then turned as he dug the keys from his pocket. He turned and looked at Kate, was nibbling on another of the cookies, her gym bag dangling from her left hand. Kenny Saunders adored his little sister, and that's what infuriated him when she entered what he referred to as her Diva mode. Kenny knew what kind of person Kate really was.
He also knew part of what her problem was, even though she never came out and said it. The reason that his sister was a full year behind everyone, something he blamed himself for. Of course, their dad's comment, something he hadn't meant for his daughter to hear, was the real culprit. Bernard and Adele Saunders were good people...they just didn't have much of a clue about how to be parents...
"They wouldn't care, sis...none of your real friends..." Kate just tilted her head and looked at him. "You know what I'm talking about. "
"I don't want to talk about it..." she said softly. Kenny just nodded, knowing that trying to talk to her about it was futile. She would open up about it when she was ready, and not before. "Kenny..." She was looking up at him with a look of concern on her face.
"It wasn't your fault...you weren't but eight..."
And you weren't but three, and I should've made sure you weren't following me when I went out, or at least made sure you weren't on the ice..." He replied. Kate knew she'd never convince him otherwise.
I'm sorry I jumped on you like I did, Kate..." He told her, leaning back against the side of his pick-up for a moment. "But I..." he looked thoughtful for a second. "I just don't want you to become someone you might regret being..."
Kate tilted her head, and gave him a confused grimace. A sheaf of blond hair slid from her right shoulder and became a gold-spun fan
"What do ya mean by that...?" Kate asked her brother. He pulled one side of his bottom lip beneath his top teeth in a thoughtful grimace, maintaining that expression for several seconds before he finally spoke.
"Most of the time...most of the time...I think I'm one of the luckiest older brothers alive to have a sister like you...."
"Thanks, Ke..."
"Hold up before you thank me too fast, sis..." He told her. "Then, all of a sudden, you'll pull something that makes me wonder where the hell the sweet little sister I adore so much disappeared to. You were so common to Lizzie and Miranda one day at the Digital Bean, I almost just walked out...I actually went back in and apologized to them..."
"I just...They just..." Kate let out a sigh. "I don't know."
"They were your best friends, Kate...D'you know it really hurts Lizzie when you treat her like that?"
"I'm sure it does..." Kate blurted even as, again, the quick flash of hurt in Lizzie's eyes, and the all but unseen quiver of her bottom lip that morning flashed into focus.
"It does Kate...She still thinks the world of you, whether you realize it or not..." He looked at his little sister thoughtfully. "You know, Sis, you an' Lizzie are a lot more alike than you want to admit..."
"No way..."
"That's a complement, by the way...to both of you." He told her. "And I'm gonna tell ya something else. If anything, God forbid, ever happened to Lizzie, whether you know it or not, you'd be devastated." Kate just looked at her brother, unsure of how to reply to that. Kenny glanced at his watch. "Damn, twenty after five..." Unlike many salaried fire departments, AFD's shift change was at 6PM rather that 8AM. "I gotta get...Think about what I told ya sis, OK."
"Ok," Kate told her brother, pursing her lips. Her tone of voice did not exactly fill Kenny with overwhelming trust.
"I mean it Kate..."
O-kayee' I will..." She repeated. The two of them looked at each other for a second or so before Kate finally spoke again. She and Kenny had promised each other one thing when he got in the fire department. They would never...ever...part company mad at each other when Kenny left for work. "Hey..." She said as the pickups big V-8 kicked over with a guttural rumble. Kenny looked at her to see what form their traditional goodbye took this time "I hope, just about the time you guys sit down for supper, you get punched out on a two alarm dump fire..."
""Ouch...." Kenny said, grimacing comically. He then looked at Kate brightly. And I hope, oh, beloved sister, that tomorrow morning..." Kate tilted her head, standing hipshot, pretty smirk on her face. "Some evil freshman breaks into your gym lockers, and fills all of your gym shorts with itching powder..."
"Ooooh" Kate grimaced, then said. "Be safe bro..."
"I will...See ya tomorrow night, you an' Claire have fun tonight..." He told her, then dropped the big Chevy into gear, and backed around. Kate watched as pulled forward and around the side of the house, throwing a wave over his shoulder.
Kenny, she thought to herself, is the only real family I have. My dear mother and father, being deeply dedicated to, respectively, their careers and social standing, gave their children a passing thought occasionally and grew interested only if it appear that they might do something to (horrors) embarrass them. Kate could still remember the shouted arguments that ensued when Kenny announced that he was applying for the Fire Department. (She still shuddered when she remembered her mom's disgust-dripping 'One of my children...a mere civil servant...) The two of them, after a little over three years, still barely communicated. Kenny and Ashlie were getting an apartment together sometime in the next few months...
"And leaving me here to fend for myself...." Kate said aloud to herself. She started to walk over to her car, then changed direction and walked back towards the kitchen door, pulling it open and sticking her head inside.
"Mom, I'm on the way to Claire's!" She called through the door. No reply. Kate rolled her eyes and sighed. An unpleasant memory of the phone call she had made to her mom at the birthday party from hell started playing on an endless loop through her head.
"Mommmmm!!"
"Will you be home for supper"? Her mom called from deep within the house. Kate thought 'Earth to Mom'.
"I'll be spending the night, Mom..." Can't you please just pretend you're a little interested in my life? Kate thought forlornly to herself. "We talked about it last night, and I reminded you this morning...remember?"
"Well..." There was a pause. "Be good..." Kate waited a couple more minutes, waiting for her mom to tell her to be careful. Or ask her if she had everything for school. Or something. "Don't hold the door open, Kate, it's getting chilly out..."
Kate rolled her eyes and let the door close, shaking her head. She walked back across towards her car, digging her keys from her purse as she did so.
'Wonder what it's like to have parents that actually seem to care about you....' She thought to herself as she all but flung her gym bag into the convertibles back seat to join her backpack. Kate climbed in and slammed the door. 'Buy her a brand new convertible for her birthday, maybe she won't bug us...' 'Pink' blasted from the speakers as Kate started up, she cut the volume back some (That in itself an indication of her mood) and pulled the seatbelt around. 'Here...the best computer and entertainment center that money can buy, now stay in your room, we have important things to do...' She banged the shifter into reverse and backed around, then shifted into drive, pulling off with a little squelp of rubber against concrete. 'Oh, you have a game to cheer at tonight...no, we won't be there, there are far more important things to deal with than our daughter's trivial little high school pursuits...' Kate felt tightness in her throat, felt a tear trickle from her right eye and dribble around the curve of her cheek. The night of that birthday party...Lizzie's mom making the three mile drive between their houses in what seemed like nothing flat...and her own mom's reaction when Kate had said 'Mom, I need you...' Kate reached up, and wiped her eyes as her vision began to shimmer.
And her dad...the comment he'd made...admittedly, jokingly...to their mom one afternoon, the morning after she got home from camp, what was it almost five years ago,,,amazing how long something can hurt...her dad...saying 'Great, now I have to explain that despite her blond hair and the way she looks, my daughter is not a bimbo.'
Her mom hadn't said a thing in her defense. Ok, they hadn't realized that she was standing in the mud room, looking for a 'T' shirt that she couldn't find (One, she suddenly realized, that Lizzie had given her as a Christmas present...) as they sat in the breakfast nook, drinking morning coffee, but she could've said something. Kate had abandoned the search, had walked through the family room, and back to her room, grabbing the phone and calling Lizzie...
Lizzie had gone somewhere with her parents...Kate had always secretly wondered, if Lizzie had been home that morning...
The only time Lizzie had ever been mean to her...without provocation at any rate...had been three days later, at the digital bean...a snide comment about the fact that Kate, now that she owned a bra, didn't feel the need to call her friends any more.
Kate had countered, with one of that cat's claw broadsides that Junior High age girls do so well, that Lizzie, herself apparently was too feeble minded to figure out the use of the telephone herself. Kate, still reeling from the hurt of her dad's comment, had gone to level one nasty, throwing the first wedge into the rift that opened between her and Lizzie.
Kate rolled down their driveway and hung a right on Island Pine Drive, then followed that out to Amber Pointe Parkway. Another tear coursed its way down her cheek as she turned left on Amber Pointe.
It wouldn't for Kenny and Ethan; I'd probably be in a padded room at Eastern State right now, Kate thought, reaching up and wiping away a tear with the back of her hand. (She remembered overhearing Lizzie mention her and Ethan at lunch one day, and getting ready to slam her, then realizing what she was saying. That she was glad Ethan had finally asked Kate to go out with him...and the memory of what she said next, something that Kate had all but shut out, because it didn't fit with the image she tried to force Lizzie into. 'Kate always looks so happy when she's with him...' Miranda and Gordo had even had to agree with that. Ethan Craft...who Lizzie had crushed on all the way through Junior High. And Lizzie had said that even after the way I treat her. .
Kenny's voice, only five or so minutes ago, saying 'She still thinks the world of you, whether you realize it or not...' popped into that mental MP3 player nestled beneath her long blond hair.
Another tear trickled down her cheek.
Lizzie had tried to apologize for what she had said, but Kate had rebuffed her. Then Kate had made the HJHS cheering squad, and Lizzie hadn't. And all the way through this, Miranda and Gordo had stuck right by Lizzie...And Kate had just gotten nastier and nastier to them, as if trying to justify her own actions...
To this day, Kate wasn't sure what started it, why Lizzie had gone off on her the way she did at the 'Bean. By the time it struck her that maybe she should have asked, it had probably been too late.
Sorry it took me so long to update, I was going to try to add a little more, but things got hectic. Please, feel free to teto tell me what you think! More to come soon, I promise!