Note: I'm so, so, so, so, so sorry for the long wait for this chapter. That is, if anyone even cares anymore, it's just been that long. In my defense, I've been going through some stuff, so I haven't been updating anything, or reviewing. I just haven't been on. So, anyway, I'm really sorry, and updates will definitely be more frequent! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters: they all, along with School of Rock, belong to Mike White and Paramount Pictures, except for Kaleb Brown. He's mine, figuratively speaking. I also own the plot and a couple names, but other than that, nada. As well, I do not, in any way, shape, or form, own Chex cereal, or the Maury show.


Chapter 2 - Babysitting

Summer's eyes opened with a speed unbeknownst to her as the bedside alarm clock blared a pulsating beep. Realizing where she was, Summer groaned and flung her hand in an attempt to squash miniature black box. Unfortunately, it only turned off.

Shifting again in order to fall back to sleep, Summer decided to ignore why she was supposed to be waking up early in the first place. Summer's parents were going out for the day. They had told Summer that they were planning on heading over the bridge, and just shopping, eating, and anything else that tickled their fancy. Summer's mom had seemed fairly excited at the prospect: she hadn't been able to leave the house since Parker was born, and the prospect of dressing up and walking without a screaming baby seemed to excite her. Of course, they had asked Summer to babysit, being the responsible, more-than-willing older sister that she was.

Beep beep beep beep…

Damn, cried Summer inwardly as she threw a hand forward to slam the alarm quiet: she had only pressed the Snooze button. Ignoring the time once again, she turned over to readjust in her bed.

"Summer, that's the second time I've heard your alarm, and if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to fall back asleep just now."

Summer groaned at the sound of her mother's voice. Practically tumbling out of her bed, Summer scratched her head, yawned, and pulled her door open. If her parents wanted her awake at such an indecent hour, they deserved the monster they had just woken up.

Her mom was too excited to notice her daughter's fearful appearance and the look of apprehension on her face. Clapping her hands slightly at the sight of her daughter on the stairs, she smiled. "Perfect! Parker's still asleep, he's laying up in my bed, okay? The baby monitor is sitting on the counter by the sink, baby food's all in the pantry, but the formula's in his bag… You can have anything that you can make for lunch, and you can invite Marta over if you want."

"How about Zack?"

"No."

Summer clicked her tongue. "Why not?"

Mrs. Hathaway sighed in an impatient manner. "Don't think I don't know what goes on between you. It's Marta, or no one."

Summer crossed her arms, but didn't argue. There was no point. It seemed to her that her parents worked in reverse: they had always trusted and liked Zack while they had been friends and classmates, and although they became slightly weary when they were informed of their daughter's and his relationship, they openly invited him and his family over anytime. Now, though, that the two had been together for such a long time, Mrs. Hathaway especially didn't seem to trust him, thinking that… things… were going on between them, even though the thing that Summer's mom feared most hadn't occurred at all.

"Don't give me that look, Summer Hathaway, I don't appreciate it," continued her mother. "I want you to behave, and be good, okay? Don't do anything stupid. This is a big deal for us, leaving you home all day --"

"Mom, I get it. Go," Summer huffed.

Mrs. Hathaway frowned, but walked towards the door, Mr. Hathaway probably already waiting outside. "Have fun!" she said before closing the oak doors behind her.

Summer simply grunted as she walked down the rest of the stairs and into the kitchen, where she poured herself a bowl of Chex, with a little extra sugar, and plopped onto a bar stool. Still trying to wake up, she turned on the TV to the first talk show she could find. Lucky for her, Maury was on with his specialty, young mothers with no fathers for their babies.

After a few minutes of watching the show in a sleepy stupor and letting her cereal go fairly soggy, the phone rang. Jumping up as quick as she could, Summer reached the phone on the second ring.

"Hello?"

"Hey Tink." It was Marta.

"Hey… God, what time is it? You could've woken Parker!"

"Well it's about time, isn't it? Ten to eleven!"

"Look at his eyes! Look at them! Do they not look identical? HE IS MAH BABY'S DADDY!"

A snort could be heard from Marta's end of the line. "What, pray tell, are you watching?"

Summer silently rolled her eyes. "I just turned the TV on, give me a break. Do you want to come over in a bit?"

"Duh. Why do you think I called?" asked Marta.

Summer chuckled. "I should've guessed. Give me, say, half an hour, so I can shower. I feel like a beast."

"You probably look like one too."

"Ha, ha," Summer said sarcastically. "Damnit!" she yelped, as she heard her younger brother crying upstairs. "Be here around half past, okay?"

"Gotcha."

----

After an hour and a half of attempts, Summer pumped her fist in triumph. Marta just rolled her eyes, obviously bored and frustrated. "I never knew it took that long to feed a kid and put it to sleep."

Summer shrugged. "Good thing you don't live around here, I guess… That was pretty short compared to the last couple days."

The girls made their way down to the TV room in the basement, where Summer and Zack had sat when he had found out she could play guitar. Marta plopped onto the loveseat, turning on the wide screen to the movie already in the player: Aladdin.

Summer laughed. "Parker loves that movie. The way he squeals when it's on, you'd think he really feels a connection with Abu."

Marta gave a half-hearted smile.

"And he loves Jasmine. I mean, you should see him, man. He reaches out for the screen like there was no tomo--"

"Freddy wants to have sex."

Silence filled the room at Marta's sudden confession. Summer stopped in mid-sentence, arms frozen in the air as she stared at her best friend. Marta just shifted on the cold leather, cheeks burning up in apparent humiliation.

Summer opened and closed her mouth several times before any sound came out. "Uh… woah?"

Marta sighed. "I know."

Summer sat down beside her best friend. "So… What happened? How'd the topic come up."

Marta took her time crossing her legs, seemingly wanting time to think about how to phrase it. "Well, yesterday, you know he was over… So, we were downstairs watching a movie… Well, not actually watching the movie--"

"I get it, go on."

"Yeah, so you know, we were just, you know… Kissing or whatever, and then he just stopped and asked if… Asked if… Well…"

Summer was growing impatient at Marta's stuttering. "Asked what?"

"Asked if I had a…"

Summer couldn't believe Marta's modesty. "Twink, you've never, ever, been shy about anything. It's me here, just spit it out."

"He asked if I had a condom."

"Aak."

"I know."

"So then what?" Summer's curiosity was getting the better of her.

Marta's cheeks were an interesting shade of pinkish-red. "Well, we stopped, and I was all, 'what?' and he was totally like, 'well, do you?' and I didn't know what to do, so I just said no, because I didn't. So we sat up again, and it was really awkward, and then he just said, 'I want to do it.' And I laughed because he said it as if we were in grade seven again, you know, but he was all serious and he said he loved me and all this…"

Summer couldn't believe it. "And then you said…?"

"I said I'd think about it."

"And do you want to?"

"'Want to' what?"

Summer rolled her eyes. "Do you want to do… it?"

Marta swallowed hard and looked away. "I'm not sure."

The two of them were silent for a moment. Summer was trying to collect her thoughts on what to tell her best friend, while Marta sat there, looking off at some unknown point. After a couple minutes of making sure Marta had it all out of her, Summer opened her mouth to give her advice, only to shut it quickly when she realized that Marta wasn't finished.

"Had you thought that me and him already… did it?"

Summer furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "Well, I'd've thought if you had done it you would've told me."

Marta nodded her head. "Oh, well yeah, no doubt… I guess you're the wrong person to ask."

"Why?" Summer asked.

Marta looked uncomfortable, but spoke anyway. "Well, a couple minutes after… that all happened, he just kind of looked at me and said, 'We might as well.' And I just looked at him back 'cause I had no idea what he was talking about… He went on about how people going out for as long as we have usually have already done it by now, and even if we haven't, everyone probably thinks so. I didn't know what to say to that."

Summer felt immensely sorry for her best friend, and slightly angry at Freddy. "Well, that's not fair of him at all!"

Marta looked hopeful. "Really?"

"Really! I mean, just 'cause he's horny doesn't mean you are! And plus, you guys have been on and off for just about a year now, right? But when you think about it, the actual relationship time has only been about four months, if you take away all the time you were on your breaks and stuff."

Marta looked relieved.

"And not only that, but what they say in all those videos is so true, even if it is cheesy: just 'cause other people do it, or your boyfriend wants to, or other people think you have doesn't mean you have to."

Marta nodded her head slowly, taking it all in.

"And," Summer continued, reading her friend's mind, "if he breaks up with you because of it… Well, his supposed 'break-ups' haven't exactly lasted all as long as he thought they would in the past, have they?"

Marta laughed at that.

Summer grinned. "It's something he'll get over, if you're not ready."

Marta sucked on her finger. "But what if I am?"

It was Summer's turn to blush. "Well… that's up to you, isn't it? I guess. I'm not going to stop you… If you want to, the power be with you, right?"

Marta smiled. "Yeah… I'm hungry."

Summer's jaw dropped. "I just gave one of the best supporting speeches of my life, and you conclude it with, 'I'm hungry'?"

"Thanks?" Marta tried as she stood up off the couch. Summer just whacked her with a pillow as she too stood up. Making their way up the stairs towards the kitchen, Marta spoke again. "Thanks for real, though. You made sense back there."

Summer smiled. "It's what I'm here for, isn't it?"

Marta ran into the kitchen and pulled open the fridge. "Yeah. Can I stay for supper tonight?"

"Have you ever not been allowed to stay? I'm guessing we're going out, mom's going to be too tired from bossing dad around all day to cook," Summer said.

"Amen," replied Marta, tearing into an apple. She shrieked as she did so. "God that's cold!"

Parker started crying upstairs Summer sighed heavily. "Well, it should only be another couple hours until mom and dad get home. After that, they can take care of him."

"Are you getting paid for any of this? I mean, it's a whole day, and you could be doing way better things, right?" Marta asked rather pointedly.

"I might be, I didn't ask. It's not that bad, though. I mean, I'm his sister, it comes with the territory. He doesn't cry much, either, he's been pretty good today," Summer replied, making her way towards the stairs.

Marta nodded, rubbing her hands over her teeth. "Yeah, I guess. I still think that total silence would be even better."

Summer scoffed. "It's obviously been a while since you've had a baby in the house."

Marta rolled her eyes. "There's never been a baby in the house, genius."


A/N - Hopefully that was alright... This story's going to be a bit heavier than You Never Know, but if no one likes that, I can change it. I guess. But I'm really hoping you guys like it, because I have a real vision for this whole thing. Anyway, please review, and I'm so sorry for the whole wait!