YOU WERE THERE
Chapter 1
It was a balmy August day in San Francisco, and Kate Saunders, the preppy cheerleader who everyone privately referred to as the "Hussy of Hillridge" was standing in the middle of the street, crying. Why was she crying? Because nobody was there for her. Her parents - who called her the bastard child - were off in Cheyenne on a business meeting, two states away, and all her friends, Claire, Gretchen, even, maybe, Lizzie and Gordo, were over in Hillridge enjoying their summer vacation. Her parents had brought her up to live with Aunt Gloria in San Fran, in a one bedroom apartment in the Marine District. And, for her, life sucked. That's why she was crying, because she was sick and tired and fed up with nobody caring.
"Wow," she thought. She'd just ate up 20 minutes sitting there crying in the middle of Bay Street.
"I should do this more often. God, that felt good," she said to herself.
She thought about her Aunt Gloria. Home, to her, was not the one bedroom cubicle in the middle of Gaytown, USA (A/N: I'm not trying to offend anybody, but that is a very Kate thing to say.). Home was placid Hillridge with Ethan and all her friends.
She wondered what all her friends were doing in Hillridge. The beach? The movies? Who knew.
Suddenly, a car driving down the street startled her. It was a new Dodge Neon - a very familiar Dodge Neon. Wait a second, that was Gordo's car! What the hell was he doing in San Fran at this hour? She checked her watch. 11:52. "Holy shit!" she thought. Gloria's expecting me.
Then the car pulled up right next to where she was standing. The window rolled down and a familiar head popped out the window.
"What the hell? KATE? What are you doing in San Francisco?"
"GORDO! What the hell are YOU doing in San Francisco?"
"I'm taking film classes at Cal State San Fran. You?", said Gordo, getting out of the car.
"My parents...you know."
"Oh." Gordo didn't bother to ask for further clarification. He knew Kate's parents didn't get along and that they often shipped their daughter over to live with relatives.
"I was just heading over to my dorm. What are you doing?"
"Well, I was just sitting here crying in the middle of the street thinking about how no one cared about me..." trailed off Kate, and the emotions were coming back now.
"Kate. Stop that. There are lots of people who care about you. Your friends care about you. Your aunt cares about you. Shit, I care about you."
"You do?"
"Yeah, of course! I would not want anything bad to happen to you. Look, I was thinking."
"About what?"
"About how much my life sucks. I'm taking these classes for 6 hours a day all summer. Lizzie broke up with me, and Rand's over in Mexico."
"Wow. So we both have stuff to bitch about."
"Yeah", he said, chuckling.
"Look, Kate, it's almost 12:30. I'm getting cold and tired, and I know you are too. Tomorrow, do you want to go do something? There's a whole big city out here. We can go to the wharf, Golden Gate Bridge, anything you want. Tomorrow's Saturday, so no classes, and I need to get out of the dorm and do something with soembody."
Oh, come on Kate, your life can't get any worse, she thought. "Well, uh, OK."
"Great!"
"Yeah, pick me up at 893 Alhambra Avenue at, say, nine-ish?"
"Sounds good to me."
"See ya," said Kate, wrapping Gordo up in a hug.
"Bye!" said Gordo, getting in his car and driving off, and thinking, "This could be the start of a new Kate."
A/N: You like-y? Read and review and you will have my undying gratitude. Seriously, no more chapters until I get three reviews. That's not that many, so click the little button below and tell me something, good or bad!