Disclaimer: See the previous chapters. I own my characters.

Note: This chapter is from Aurora's POV, and starts where Chapter 5 left off.

Chapter 6: The Slumber Party, Part 1

Aurora's POV

After the movie was finished, it was time for the guys to leave. We all said good-bye, and each girl gave her boyfriend a kiss of varying degrees. Before Dylan left, however, he took me out onto the porch to talk alone.

"Aurora, I just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday," he began once we were sitting on the porch swing.

"Thanks, Dylan. You know, this has been one of the best birthdays I've ever had. I'm grateful to have such great friends that I can share my birthday with."

Dylan smiled and started moving the swing. After a moment of what appeared to be deep thought, he stopped the swing with his feet. "Aurora, have you seen your father's latest painting?"

"No. Why?"

"It reminds me of someone, but I can't figure out who. I feel like I should know, but I don't. It's bugging me."

"Well, why don't we go take a look at it?"

"Wait...there's something else I have to tell you. When we were watching the movie...well, I really liked it."

"I did, too, except for the parts when the curse was revealed and the pirates looked like rotting corpses."

"Really? Those were my favorite parts."

"They were? Well, it can't be helped; you're a guy. You go for the gruesome things."

"Actually, that isn't why I liked it." Before I could question him further, he stood. "I really have to go. I'll come over in the morning, all right? We can look at the painting then."

"Okay," I said, standing myself. Dylan turned away from me for a moment. When his eyes met mine again, I noticed something different about him. Then, like lightning, he placed a quick kiss on my cheek and took off. He stopped at the end of the driveway and said, "See you in the morning!"

"Bye!" I called back, waving. I was glad it was late; the darkness hid my blush and the night air cooled my burning cheeks. When I went back inside and up to my room, I saw that Lilly had gone home and the other girls had already arranged their sleeping bags. Anna was the first one to see me when I walked in. "So, what happened?" she asked as the others quicly approached to find out all of the details. The girls were the lionesses surrounding the gazelle named 'Me'.

"Huh?"

"What happened between you and Dylan on the porch?" Susan asked.

"Nothing," I replied, the blush returning to my cheeks.

Kim said, "You're lying. I can tell."

"N-no, I'm not."

"Yes you are." Jaclyn giggled. "You're blushing and stuttering. Those are two signs that you're lying, and that something happened."

Anna prodded, "So, spill. Give us all the details."

"Nothing happened!" I said adamantly. "We just talked."

"What about?"

"About my dad's new painting, and about the movie."

"Oh, I see," Kim said knowingly. "What did he say about the movie?"

"That he liked it, especially the parts when the pirates looked all freaky."

"Well, small wonder there," Jaclyn whispered loud enough for everyone to hear.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Well, that was when you would cuddle closer to him and bury your head in his shoulder."

I was about to protest when Susan said, "Aurora, don't even try to argue. We saw you do it, and we saw the look on his face. He was in Heaven."

I cocked my head to the side. "Really?"

"Really. And I have a feeling you didn't totally hate it, either."

"Actually...I kinda liked it. I felt really safe."

"Aww," the girls said in unison.

"Shut up!" I said, feeling the blush returning.

"Hey, why don't we go look at the painting? We can see what Dylan was talking about," Jaclyn suggested.

All of the other girls agreed, so we walked down the hallway to my father's studio. Sitting on an easel was Dad's latest painting. When I got a good look at it, I noticed that he had put himself and Mom as teenagers in the foreground.

"Aww! Aurora, this is so sweet!" Kim said, pointing to my parents. "Who are these people?"

"My Mom and Dad. RT stands for Rudy Tabootie, and PS stands for Penny Sanchez."

"Then, who are they?" Susan queried, gesturing to the other couple. I looked at the two teenagers walking down the road for a long moment. Then, it clicked.

"That's me! But then...that must mean...oh, no."

"What?" Anna asked.

"That's Dylan. No wonder he said they looked familiar. It's us."

The girls let out another collective, "Aww!" that caused me to turn red again.

"Does anyone want to listen to some CD's?" I asked, trying to get their minds off the painting.

"Yeah, sure. Why don't you bring the CD player in here?" Kim suggested.

"No. Why don't you girls just give it a rest? We should talk about one of your relationships," I retorted.

"Oh, please. Our relationships are old news. You and Dylan are the hot new topic of discussion, and we won't rest until we get you two together!" Anna said confidently.

"It won't take long," Susan replied. "I can tell something happened between you two. Did he kiss you?"

After a long moment of silence, I nodded slowly.

"On the lips?"

"On the cheek," I replied. "It was really quick, and he left right after."

"But still, it's a start. That means he's definitely interested," Jaclyn said. "Now you just need to get him to bite, and reel him in."

"Are we talking about fishing, or are we talking about Dylan?" I asked.

"I just meant it figuratively. I was using the fishing thing to represent what you have to do in order to get Dylan to ask you out."

"Oh."

"Now, when are you going to see him next?" Susan asked.

"He's coming over in the morning."

"Well then," Kim said in a southern accent, "we are just going to have to doll you up so that you can get his attention. You'll look sweeter than a Georgia peach when we're done with you. Make that a Louisiana peach, or whatever they're famous for."

"That would be crawfish." Kim wrinkled her nose at my remark. "What, are you going to do something from Moulin Rouge?" I asked.

"Hey, that's not a bad idea!" Anna said. "Just kidding. But I think we can pull something together. We'll just need to raid your closet." The girls ran toward my closet, opening the door and cramming inside. A moment later, I could see various articles of clothing being thrown onto my bedroom floor.

Fifteen minutes later, I was staring at the ensemble the girls had put together for me. It was a pink tee shirt, white turtleneck, a dark blue hip-hugger jean skirt that went to about mid-thigh, and pink tennis shoes. "Well, what do you think?" Jaclyn asked.

"It's...nice," I replied. "But how about this?" I walked over to the pile and pulled out my favorite pair of jeans and a sage green, off-the-shoulder sweater, with white sandals.

"Ooh, that's cute, too," Susan said.

Anna relented, "Okay, you can wear that. But you have to let us do your makeup and hair."

"All right, that you can do. Just try not to make me look like a tramp."

"We won't, don't worry."

"Good."

The girls spent the next hour trying to decide how to do my hair and makeup. When they were done, we all went down to the kitchen to make sundaes; since my parents had gone to their bedroom on the third floor, and the kitchen was on the first floor, we could be as loud as we wanted. Within minutes the kitchen was covered in various ice creams and toppings, and we all sat in the middle of the floor, enjoying our creations. "So..." Jaclyn began.

"What?" I wondered.

"What did his lips feel like?"

"WHAT!"

"You heard me."

"How'm I supposed to answer that?"

"It's easy. Just describe them."

I thought back to both kisses earlier that evening. Both had been far quicker than I remembered, now that I thought about it. But I could still tell that his lips were warm, soft, and tender. I told this to the girls. Susan smiled.

"Have you noticed him wearing lip balm more than usual?"

"Um...I don't know, maybe. Why?"

"He was planning this. Maybe he wanted to kiss you anyway, so the dare just helped him along. Then, at the point when he had planned to kiss you, it had already happened. Therefore, he kissed you on the cheek so that he wouldn't freak you out or seem too forward."

I stared at Susan. "How do you know so much about guys?"

"I want to be a psychiatrist when I get older. I've been studying behavioral psychology books in my spare time. It's all typical male psyche behavior; that is, typical for a sensitive, dreamy, artistic type."

I gave Susan a weird look. "Whatever you say."

Okay! Finally finished! I'm sorry this isn't longer; I promise I'll try to have the next part up ASAP. But I wanted to at least get this part out to all of you before you bit my head off. My writer's block is still going strong, even though I have a new Danny Phantom story i'm working on. Watch out for it!