Rachel's Party

Tim knocked on the Whitman's door.

Nicole answered with a smile. "You must be Tim."

"Hello Mrs...Professor Whitman, it's nice to meet you."

"Come in won't you?"

"Thank you."

"Sera will be down in just a moment."

"Great."

"I just want to thank you for persuading Sera to go with you tonight. I think it will be

good for her."

"Its my pleasure. I promise to look after her."

Sera descended the stairs two at a time.

"Uh oh, making promises to my mother already? That's scary! Hey Tim, Ready?"

"Hold on." Nicole said drawing her daughter close to her. "You'll be at Rachel's?"

"Yes mother."

"And you have your cell phone on?"

"Yes mother."

"And you'll be home at 10:30."

"Yes...NO! Mom!"

"Well we had such a nice pattern going, I wanted to give it a try."

"Goodbye Mom."

"Bye honey. Goodbye Tim. Take care of my little girl!"

"I promise."

"OK OK Suck up, can we go now?"

Sera smiled and pulled Tim out the door.

Sera whistled at his fire engine red truck in the drive. "Sweet ride!"

"My parents travel a lot, so they buy me and my older sister gifts as a way to assuage

their guilt."

"Must be nice!"

"Um, excuse me. Isn't that you're brand new SUV over there?"

Sera tossed him a look. "Shut up."

***********

Kyle sat on Isabel's bed watching her fling outfits out of her closet with alarming speed.

"You do know that the party is tonight right?"

She came out of the closet with a potential candidate and gave him a stern look.

As she stood at the mirror she held the outfit up to her and twisted her head

from side to side. Finally nodding her head she disappeared back in the closet.

When she reemerged she was wearing a completely different outfit than the one

she'd perused in the mirror.

"What? That's not..."

"Kyle, this is a process. I'm allowing you to be witness to my process because you are

my friend and I love you, but if you continue to interrupt my process you will be dealt

with."

She patted his head and returned to the mirror.

A knock at the door cut off any retort Kyle could have mustered.

"Come in."

"Hey Iz...oh hey Kyle. I didn't know you were here already."

"Just waiting, patiently, for Isabel to finish preparing."

His jovial tone subsided when he glanced at Iz's reflection and noticed her glare.

"Do you guys want to ride with us?"

Isabel looked at Kyle who shrugged his shoulders.

"Sure. Just let me do my makeup."

Kyle sighed deeply and fell back against Iz's bed muttering about the time that

'process' would take.

Isabel cleared her throat and he opened one eye to peer at her.

She swiped her hand across her face and Kyle's eyes widened as Isabel's perfect

party makeup was instantly in place.

He hopped off the bed. "Right. OK. Let's go."

Max watched as Kyle made his way down the stairs. "What's with him?"

"I think he just needs a release. This will be good for him."

"Maybe not so much when he sees who Sera's date is."

"What are you talking about?"

"Sera and Tim Malamud."

"WHAT?"

Max nodded.

"Oh this is going to be a long night."

TBC