A/N: I am sooo sorry that I took so long to update! Between all the school work I've been getting, overlapping projects, and the activities I participate in, I've just been swamped this month. I haven't even had time to go online much, and I practically live on my computer. I would also like to blame writer's block. My brain just hasn't been working lately. BUT! Here's the new chapter! Finally. ~Kris
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Katie tugged at her shirt, making sure it hung right, and glanced at her reflection in the elevator's mirrors. Low-rise jean, crimson tank top…check, check. Light make-up—in reddish hues, of course. Check. At the first sleepover Katie had been invited to with Amber and her friends, they had all immediately studied Katie and informed her that reddish hues would do wonders for her. One of the girls had sighed and said, "I wish I could say that. Everyone knows that red is the sexiest color, but only when it matches your complexion, hair, and eyes."
She hadn't even been aware that colors could clash with your complexion, hair, and eyes.
"Heeey," Joni greeted her at the door. They both air-kissed in the vicinity of each other's cheeks and she continued, "We're all in Amber's room, of course."
Katie grinned, following the older girl down the hall. "Of course."
"Katydid is here," Joni announced as she opened the door to her cousin's room.
"Hey, Katie!"
Katie smiled at the familiar faces of her new-found friends as she dropped her bag in the pile near the bed. There was Mai in all her regal blonde-ness, sitting next to Natalie, who was a Junior and as dark as Mai was light. Delilah was flipping through a magazine with one hand and playing with her fiery hair with the other, looking entirely bored—quite the contrary to the perky Japanese freshman Carla (who Katie had noted was really more of a "hanger-on" to Delilah then a friend). Joni took a seat next to her twin sister, Jeri, and Katie sat at the computer.
She automatically looked at a list on Amber's wall to see who was in the lead with their favorite game—nicknaming each other. The results were:
Delilah – 8, with Dee, Dee Dee, Li, Lilah, Deli (Dee-lie), Deli (Deh-lee), Lily, Lils.
Katherine – 7, with Katie, Kate, Kates, Katydid, Kat, Kitty, Kit Kat
Ambriel - 6, with Amber, Ambry, Ames, Bri, Angel, Montreal (it wasn't worth asking where that last one came from).
Joni - 5, with Jone, Jone-alone, Jones, Jonesy, Jonalie.
Natalie - 4, with Nat, Nat Nat, Nat-ah-lie, Nafafalie.
Maira – 3, with Mai, Rah Rah, Cheerleader
Carla - 3, with Car, Carls, Vroom.
Jeri – 2, with Jer, Jer-Bear (although she had the least, she was the most irritated by them)
Katie frowned slightly. She was only one away from being tied for first. Which meant she would need two more nicknames to be on top, where she belonged.
Her thoughts froze. Wait, what? "On top, where I belong?" I never thought that before…
A boy's voice interrupted her thoughts. "Katie, sweetheart, love of my life."
She swiveled around in the chair, saw Nick's friend Charlie grinning at her from the doorway, and crossed her arms, simultaneously rolling her eyes. "What, Charlie?"
His eyes widened and he batted his eyelashes at her. "Can you grab me a soda?"
"You're already standing up, dork."
"Pleeaaassse?"
"No."
A hand reached out and yanked Charlie away from the doorway. As the boy was pulled away from the room, the girls heard Nick say, "Leave the girls alone, Charlie."
"You know," Amber said slyly, and Katie's attention immediately turned to her, "Charlie really does like you, Katie. I don't know why you don't just tell him it's okay to ask you out already."
"Yeah, he's yummy," Carla chirped, anxious to please.
Amber rolled her eyes. "He's a boy, Carla, not a piece of candy."
Carla nodded her head so hard Katie was surprised it didn't fly off. "Oh, yeah, yeah. Of course, I mean, he's good looking is all."
"Natalie."
Natalie coolly raised one eyebrow. "Amber."
"Please, proceed."
"My pleasure." Natalie turned her fiercely superior gaze on Carla. "Carla."
The younger girl gulped. Katie knew that when Natalie gave you that cool, direct look, it felt like in that moment she owned you. "Natalie?"
"How about you shut up?"
"Sounds good," Carla said with a weak smile.
Katie shook her head. Carla could be so stupid sometimes, but she was secretly happy the attention had been diverted from her. The girls still didn't know about her crush on Freddy, and she had long ago decided that they wouldn't know as long as possible. It wasn't that she didn't trust them, she just didn't trust them. She knew that they wouldn't outright tell someone, but they would have a lot of fun playing games with that knowledge, dropping hints here and there and messing with Freddy's mind.
And sometimes…Sometimes the "games" Amber and her friends played turned dangerous. Especially when someone had ticked them off.
Katie had been scared at first when she had first seen Amber's friends hurt someone for "looking at them wrong." This—or something worse—was what would happen to her if she ever offended Amber or her friends. But then the next day, Amber had looked and her and laughed and made Katie happy again. This was Amber, for goodness sake, the same popular, lots-of-friends Amber from elementary, and they were friends. Katie had seen a number of Amber's friends insulting her other friends, and nothing had happened to them. Maybe Amber wasn't exactly ruling the school—she was, after all, only a sophomore—but she did have some popularity, and she had connections through Nick and numerous other people. No one was going to mess around with her.
Besides, it wasn't Amber who was dangerous. Sure, she could come up with some wicked plans, and sure, sometimes she was a real witch, but she never did anything physical. It was some of her friends who were the dangerous ones, and who acted upon a casual mention of "Oh, she did this to me," on their own, and those friends liked Katie.
So, all in all, Katie had realized that as long as she didn't do anything mortally offend anyone, she would be fine, and that hadn't been anything she didn't know before Amber came. It was basically the same principal with Summer and her other friends, really.
Katie's thoughts froze. Summer. Oh, damn it!
"Amber, I need to use your phone."
Amber looked up from where she, Mai, and Joni were studying a picture of a cute model in Mai's magazine. "Go ahead."
Katie mentally swore as she dialed Summer's number.
"Hello, Hathaway residence, may I ask who's calling?"
"Autumn? It's Katie. Is Summer there?"
"No. She's at Tomika's house right now."
"She's at Tomika's?" Suddenly, Katie was furious. "Didn't she remember that we had plans tonight?! Hello, what is she thinking, just going somewhere else?!"
Autumn went quite for a while before answering. "Well, where are you? Wouldn't you be here by now?"
"I'm at Amber's house."
"Oh. But you're mad that Summer is at Tomika's house?"
Katie was at a loss for words. "You—I—oh, shut up!" And with that, she hung up.
Delilah looked up, one eyebrow raised. That seemed to be a popular look around here. "Who were you talking to, the Seasons?"
"What?" Katie snapped, her mind still on the matter of Summer.
"Who's Autumn?"
"Summer's younger sister. She's twelve. The brat."
"Wait, wait, wait," Jeri interrupted. "Summer and Autumn? What's the baby's name, Winter? Spring?"
Katie smirked. "Autumn is the baby. Their older brother is in college, though, and his name is June."
Joni shook her head. "Their mother needs therapy."
"Do you know that parents giving their twins similar names and dressing them identically during adolescence will usually result in the children needing therapy?" said Jeri in her low, too-good-to-really-be-paying-attention tone and she studied her nails.
Her sister threw her arms around Jeri's neck, and kissed her on the cheek; Jeri didn't even blink. "Of course I knew, Jer-bear—"
"Don't call me that."
"—because we're the ones they based that theory on."
"Amazing, considering it was widely in circulation before we were born."
"Someone saw into the future. Honestly, Jer, where's your imagination?"
"You've got all the imagination—I've got all the brains."
"Now that's not fair," Amber chided. "What's Nick got, then?"
Jeri shrugged. "Nick is obsolete. He's a vegetable." She said it with such a matter-of-fact tone, that the rest of the girls couldn't help but laugh.
"I resent that."
Startled by the voice, the girls all turned to look at Nick, who was leaning in the doorway. At seeing him, the girls cracked up again, so he waited until they had calmed down before continuing, "We need help with homework, Amber."
"We've already finished ours for the weekend, so I guess we can help. Which subject do you need help on?"
Nick shrugged. "All of them."
Sighing, all of the girls stopped what they were doing, clearing as large a space as they could in Amber's room. Taking that as a consent that they would help, Nick disappeared before coming back with the rest of his friends in tow, each of them carrying books, papers, and writing utensils. While they were rearranging themselves so that they could all fit and still have a place to write, Katie managed to end up sitting next to Charlie. As she looked at him smiling at her, she thought, Maybe giving him a chance wouldn't hurt…
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Now, because I took so damn long to update, here are some quick facts that were once planned for chapters, but will probably never be seen in the story:
- Katie was a brand new transfer student when Dewey first arrived at Horace Green. She had previously gone to a private all-girls school just outside of the city with Amber, Mai, Joni, and Jeri.
- Of the seven girls mentioned in this chapter, only two of them go to Katie's high school (Amber and Natalie). Mai and the twins still go to the all-girls school, and Delilah and Carly go to a local public school.
- Despite what you may want to think, Amber is relatively smart. She's extremely good at math, and she transferred to Katie's high school because it has a better mathematics program. Unfortunately, that's pretty much the only subject she excels at—unlike Katie, who gets straight A's.
- Zack and Elsa have been going out for just under a year. Other members of the band who have a girlfriend/boyfriend are Alicia, who's dating a Junior, Gordon, who's dating a Freshman, and Eleni and Michelle are dating two second-string football players.
- Ned and Patty have broken up. Ned is currently single, a fact that Summer, Katie, and Dewey have tried to change a number of times.
And now, to thank my lovely reviewers!
Thank you to: thefourthwheel (I'm so glad you're still reading!), Jewelkitten, wiseoldman (Yay! Another Katie/Freddy fan!), Princess 642, The CheezHead, quitesirius, audi katia (I press the B button at the top of my MS Word screen…), Blondie0276, iluvnoodles, megaroony, kiephra (Thank you for telling me, I'm soo mortified that I spelt it "Dewy." -_-;), and FrozenJelloRoxMySox (Thank you, and I'm sorry you've had to wait for so long)