The next time Ren talked to Elizabeth it was Saturday. Elizabeth invited her over and she ran over as fast as she could; she just needed to get away from her family. And being with Elizabeth was like a breath of fresh air. She'd never had a friend who won you over just by being herself.

"I hate you! I hope you DIE!"

"You hate me and you wish I DIED?"

"NOT REALLY, I just wish that you'd go into a coma and wake up after I'M dead!"

Ren heard this lovely conversation through an open window of the Jacobs' home, and paused with her finger over the doorbell. Hearing two girls screaming at each other was not exactly her cup of tea, but she rang the bell anyway, hoping that Elizabeth knew of a place in her house far away from the yelling.

Elizabeth didn't open the door, however; it was Zeke that came to the door. "Ren Rasmussen," he greeted her, a smile on his face. "I hope you're here to see me."

Smiling back, she admitted, "Technically, I'm here to see Elizabeth. Is she here?"

"Yes." He opened the door wider for her and stepped out of the way so she could come in. "But she's in the middle of a life and death match with our sisters. I was refereeing it."

"Sounds serious," Ren commented. "What's this fight about?"

"There's only three cookies left."

"Aren't there three sisters though? That's enough cookies to go around."

"Yes." He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and walked with her further into the house. "But my sisters are greedy and piggish. It's all or nothing."

Looking up at Zeke, Ren nodded. "Sounds like someone has a dysfunctional family."

"I'm perfect," Zeke protested. "It's just those other three morons that make my family look bad."

She laughed. "I believe you."

"It's the sad, sad truth." They entered the kitchen. "Elizabeth, your friend's here."

Elizabeth made a squeal of happiness and then jumped up off the floor to go see Ren. But first she smacked one of her sisters in the face with a roll of paper towel. "This fight will resume later. You leave my cookies the hell alone, you ass munchers."

The smallest of the two girls laughed, high pitched and evil. "The cookies are mine!"

Zeke grabbed her around the waist and dragged her away from the other girl. "Come on, Chloe, it's not a real fight unless Elizabeth's getting the crap kicked out of her. You and Leah have to wait until she comes back."

The two girls looked disheartened.

While she gingerly touched a small bite mark on her forearm, Elizabeth mumbled her introductions. "Ren, the cute, little one is Chloe. She doesn't bite people. The other stupid one is Leah. She does bite."

"I only bit because you were shoving your damn arm in my damn face!" Leah shot back. "If someone was shoving something in your face, wouldn't you just naturally try to bite it off?"

Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. "Not in all cases. Depends what the object is. And who the object belongs to."

Ren snickered. "This conversation is getting PG-13ish."

"I agree," Elizabeth said. "Want to go up to my room?"

Ren nodded and followed her up the stairs. Once they were in Elizabeth's small room, she took a tentative seat at her desk while Elizabeth sprawled out on her unmade bed.

Tossing a Magic Eight Ball up in the air and catching it, she asked, "So, how was the walk home with Chriiiiistopher?"

Ren picked up a pen and absentmindedly doodled on a scrap piece of paper. "Um, well, I kinda told him that I liked him."

She began to sing, "Ren and Chris, sitting in a tree, f-u-c-k-i-n-g!"

"That's not how that song goes, you heathen," Ren snapped. "And he doesn't like me back."

Like a dying fish, Elizabeth flopped off the bed to the ground.

"Goodness," Ren muttered. "Are you okay?"

"No!" she cried. "What is wrong with him?"

Ren sighed. "Nothing's wrong with him."

"But you're nice, and real purdy, and sometimes you're even funny, and you just were all like 'screw it' to your scary-ass friends all for HIM!"

"It wasn't just for him that I did that," she pointed out. "It was for me too, but yeah, he's why I was able to do it."

"Awwww," Elizabeth gushed. "Because he had unshakable faith in you!"

"No, he had no faith in me, and I wanted to show him that I was worth his time."

"How romantic."

Ren ran her fingers through her hair. "He's so cute!"

Elizabeth giggled tauntingly. "Hahahaha you're in loooove."

"I've never loved anyone before, so I don't know if I love him, but I sure do care about him a lot more than all the people I'm supposed to give a shit about."

"You've had to have loved someone in your life," Elizabeth protested.

"I can't love someone who doesn't love me back." She considered. "Unless you count Chris."

"HA!" Elizabeth chucked the Magic Eight Ball at her. "You ARE in love!"

"Whatever," she giggled.

"Consult the wise ball."

Grinning, Ren shook up the Magic Eight Ball, asked her question, and then read what it said. "'Ask later.'"

"Oh, what does it know?" Elizabeth grumbled. "I'm very wise. And I happen to say that you are in love, so grrr to you and that damn lying ball."

Later, they went downstairs because Elizabeth was hungry as usual. There was no one in the kitchen, which was unusual, so they tiptoed in quietly. Elizabeth carefully removed the lid from the cookie jar and was about to fish out the cookies when Zeke shouted something resembling a war cry and rammed her into the stove.

"Cheater!" he yelled.

"It's fair game!" she cried from the floor. "You ruptured eight of my internal organs and now I'm really pissed off! Give me my COOKIES!"

Zeke shoved a cookie in his mouth. "There goes ONE cookie!"

Elizabeth shrieked and leapt to her feet, chasing him around the table. As Ren watched them run in circles, she was rather concerned that Zeke was going to choke on the cookie he was chewing, but was quite amused anyway.

Hopping quickly on one foot, Zeke took off a sock, ran normally again, and threw it at her as hard as he could. She yelped as it hit the side of her head and bounced off.

"That's not fair! I don't have anything to take off and throw at you! I don't believe in socks!" She paused for a second and then said, "Oh yes I do."

Ren shouted, "Don't you take off your damn shirt, Elizabeth."

She dug in her pockets and threw pennies at her brother.

He shielded his face. "Owwie! You're pelting the cookies! You're pelting the cookies! Ow!"

Dropping a dollar bill, she stopped to pick it up and then, seeing Zeke racing towards her, fell forward onto her face. She screamed bloody murder as he dropped down and pinned her arms to the floor. She yelled as he began to pick her up, "I have a friend I can easily hook you up with so you don't have to be a loser whose only girlfriend ever worked at a library!"

He hesitated and then smiled. "Really? Who?"

"I'll tell you if you let me go," she challenged.

Ren said, "It's a trap! Her only other friend besides me is Gordie."

"Oh yeah," Zeke said slowly. He slung his sister over his shoulder and lugged her to the bathroom. "Mercy?"

"No, what are you gonna do, flush me?"

"I could flush the cookies."

She howled. "No! No! Jesus, no!"

Zeke dumped her in the bathtub and then quickly ran away, slamming the door behind him. He barricaded it with a chair. He dusted his hands off proudly and then looked at Ren, who was still watching in astonishment. "Cookie?"

She grinned, and accepted the peanut butter cookie from him. "Thanks. Aren't you going to let her out?"

He shrugged and then called, "Lizzy, do you want to come out of the bathroom?"

"Did you eat the cookies?"

"Yes."

"Then leave me be."

"See?" Zeke laughed. They wandered into the den and sat down on a loveseat. "So, Ren, what are you like?"

She giggled. "Um…I'm still trying to figure that out."

"Well, I know that this is a long shot, but maybe we could figure that out together, say during dinner tonight or something?"

"Jeez, Zeke, I barely know you. And there's this one guy--" she began.

"Oh, you have a boyfriend?"

"Well, no," she said. "But you know Chris? I really like him a lot, and--"

"Chris Chambers? He's a cool guy. Why aren't you going out if you both like each other?"

"That's the problem. He doesn't like me back."

Zeke nodded empathetically. "That's the shitter. But you know what, Ren? You can't spend your time trying to get one guy to like you. Maybe he'd just be a really good friend to you and you should leave it at that. You can't love someone who doesn't love you back."

Ren looked up into Zeke's bright blue eyes. She did like how his curly dark hair flopped over his forehead carelessly, and he had honest face. She knew he was right; she shouldn't waste time trying to get Chris to like her back. He was a really good friend right now, and maybe she shouldn't mess that up by complicating things. Plus, she really liked Elizabeth, so her brother probably had some of her good qualities.

"Okay."

"Really?" he asked, grinning widely. "You just made my day. Can I pick you up at seven?"

Feeling kind of guilty, Ren nodded. "Sounds good. Maybe we should let Elizabeth out now."

[AN: hahahaha don't worry, this is actually going somewhere. Oh, and I have to give my friend Veronica credit for the chapters to come because she's my muse! Hehehe I've never had a muse before:) And she gave me these ideas! I'd write the ideas right now but I'm tired and I'm going to bed.]