Abuhin, Hockeylover, Brie – Thanks for the reviews. At least I know someone's reading, lol.

A/N - "Thoughts"

Chapter 3 - The New Trio

Sixteen-year-old Rebecca Braden ran around her room in a near panic. She had less than a hour before she had to leave for school and she was still trying to figure out what to wear for her first day. Around her, rejected clothes, scattered everywhere.

Rebecca had her father's light brown hair and brown eyes, but other than that, she was similar to her mother. Rebecca was the eternal optimist, always choosing to see the good in things, even in the darkest of places. Even though she was consider one of the more popular girls in the school, she was still friendly and nice to everyone, regardless of whom they were. But she was also a bit different; Amanda was a little wilder and more willing to take a chance than her mom was. Her wild side often got into her trouble and usually, she dragged the other two into it too. Lizzie often said it was her Uncle's influence.

Unlike Amanda, Rebecca had wanted to be a cheerleader and had been one since Junior High. While at first only going out because of what it represented, being consider cool and supposedly popular, she found out the she really did enjoy it, especially the competitions, and was really good at it too. Now she was co-captain of the varsity squad, which was rare for a junior.

Similar to her mom, she was a hopeless romantic. She believed in true love and that some people were just meant to be; like her best friends. While she did try to stay out of it, every once in awhile, she'd imagine locking them in a closet and not letting them out until they came to their senses.

Ever since Jason had been born, the three of them had been inseparable, even when various interests drew them apart. Rebecca knew she'd be lost without her best friends; they were what not just kept her happy, but grounded. She knew no matter how popular she got, Jason would always be there to give her a hard time or be there when she needed someone to talk to and Amanda was her sister, the girl who would keep her ego in check and share real secrets with. There were things that Amanda and Rebecca knew about each other, that not even Jason did.

While she did really believe her best friends were meant to be together and were just to stubborn to admit, she often wondered why it wasn't meant to be her and Jason. But she tried not to dwell on it, as she never really got an answer she liked.

Quickly looking at her clock, Rebecca swore to herself as she tore around her room, searching for the right outfit. As she was digging in her closet, Lizzie came to the bottom of the stairs and yelled upstairs, "Bec! Jason and Amanda are here!"

"Shit," she swore under her breath. "I'll be down in a minute!" she yelled back.

Lizzie chuckled to herself as she heard her daughter's answer and could hear her rummaging around in her room. Turning around, she walked into the kitchen and grinned to herself as she watched Amanda teasing Jason as he was wolfing down a second breakfast.

Aside from being more confident about herself and maturing a little, she was still the same Lizzie. A bit of klutziness was still there, but as Gordo often said, you can't have Lizzie without the klutz.

Even after more than forty years, the three old best friends were still as close as ever. With her being so close to the Gordon family, the Gordon children affectionately called her Aunt Liz. In turn, Rebecca called Miranda and Gordo, Aunt Miranda and Uncle Gordo. Both families often spent a lot of time together; barbeques, joint vacations, or just nights out together.

While deep down she had always hoped Rebecca and Jason would be the ones to get together, she was thrilled to see Amanda and Jason heading down that path. She was still the hopeless romantic, and even though it wasn't her daughter, she loved watched their relationship develop.

Since Rebecca was her only child, Lizzie had come to think of the two, especially Jason, as her own too and secretly loved it when all three were around the house. Secretly, she wanted a big family but it just wasn't in the cards. Miranda had often joked to her that anytime she got lonely and wanted to baby-sit, call her.

"Aunt Liz," Jason said, pretending to whine, "Make her stop."

Lizzie chuckled, "Amanda, let your boyfriend eat in peace. You'll have plenty of time to play with him afterwards," she said sarcastically. Lizzie than started laughing as she watched Amanda clench her jaw and quickly look down at the table, while Jason coughed and almost choked on the bite he had just taken. "They're so adorable," she thought amusedly to herself.

An awkward silence fell over the kitchen, as Jason went back to picking at his pancakes that Lizzie had made and Amanda looked down at the counter top, like she was admiring the pattern on it. Lizzie smirked and shook her head as she started cleaning up a little.

A few minutes later, Rebecca came racing down the stairs. "Bec, why do you wait till the last minute to get ready?"

"Not now Mom," Rebecca hissed at her as she quickly grabbed an apple. "Come on guys."

Jason and Amanda stood up and quickly got their stuff together. "Thanks for the food, Aunt Liz," Jason said as he followed the girls towards the door.

"Have a good first day kids," Lizzie called after them. She sighed as she heard Rebecca mumbled something back to her and then heard the door slam. Sighing to herself, she started to gather her stuff for work. "I remember when she was my constant shadow," Lizzie thought to herself sadly. "They're growing up way too fast. Soon they're gonna go to college, get married, have kids of their own."

Lizzie suddenly stopped in front of the door, with her bag and keys in hand. "Oh god...I sound like my mother," she thought sarcastically, shaking her head in disbelief before leaving.

Ever since one of the first days of freshman year, Jason, Rebecca, and Amanda have met at the same table in the cafeteria before homeroom. As they reached their table, Jason grinned as he saw his sister at another table, near the entrance. Maria was going to be a freshman this year and was going to the same school as Jason.

Rebecca saw him and followed his line of sight. She snickered as she grabbed Jason's elbow, "Leave her alone."

"Come on. Please," Jason pretended to plead with her, giving her puppy dog eyes. "I'll do anything."

Rebecca smirked, "Anything?" she teased.

Jason laughed softly, "Depends," he teased back, "What ya got in mind?" he shot back with an identical smirk.

As Amanda watched and listened to them, on the outside, she laughed along with them but on the inside, she started getting an uneasy, nervous feeling in her stomach the more Jason and Rebecca played back and forth. She knew that they were just fooling around like they always did, but it still made her uneasy and that's what really scared her.

After the bell rang for homeroom and Jason left the girls to head to his own, Rebecca and Amanda weaved through the halls towards theirs. Since their last names were close, Braden and Craft respectively, they had the same homeroom.

As the made their way, Rebecca glanced at her and snickered. Amanda looked over, "What?"

"You're pathetic, you know that," Rebecca answered with a smug grin.

Amanda almost stopped in the middle of the hall. "What's that supposed to mean?" she practically yelled.

Rebecca had to bite her lip as she tried not to laugh in her face. Grabbing her arm and dragging her into their homeroom, "Girl, I've known you since you were born and normally you are very calm, cool, and collective." she paused and her smirk widened, "Only one thing really gets under your skin and throws you off your game."

"Oh and what would that be?" Amanda asked with a mix of sarcasm and annoyance.

Leaning in a little, "Jason," she answered smugly. As Amanda's face faltered for a moment, Rebecca started laughing under her breath.

As Amanda sat in her seat, "Not everything I do is about Jason."

"No," Rebecca said leaning down against Amanda's desk. "No its not. But you get this like feral look in your eyes when ever you get possessive and jealous and most of the time," she said as she stood up, "its about him." Than before she left to go to her own desk, "By the way, he gets the same look," Rebecca said and than laughed as Amanda tried to glare at her but couldn't stop a subtle blush from appearing.

Around noon, Miranda was hunched over her drawing board, furiously drawing and erasing. As she put her pencil down for a moment, to relax her hand and take a look at what she had done so far, she suddenly felt a pair of arms wrap around her. Jumping in surprise because she had been so absorbed in her work that she hadn't heard anyone walk in, she also heard someone laughing softly in her ear.

Instantly recognizing it, she smirked, "What did I tell you about coming here? What if my husband finds out?" she teased.

"Than he'll just have to wait his turn," a voice answered and when Miranda laughed, Gordo leaned in and kissed her.

"Do you two ever give it a rest," Lizzie said as she walked in on them. "I've never seen two people paw over each other so much." While on the outside she teased them, but inside, she was very jealous of them.

Miranda just smirked and rolled her eyes. Looking over her shoulder and up at Gordo, "What are you doing here anyway?"

Gordo snickered, "I didn't have much to do today. Larry's still workin on the bugs in the new animation program, so I've basically got the rest of the day off and decided to treat my beautiful wife and our best friend to lunch." He glanced over at Lizzie, "Why don't you call Todd and see if he can join us."

Lizzie shook her head. "There's no way he'd leave his office. Ever since he got that promotion, it's like he lives in that office."

"Liz?" Miranda asked a little concern, she knew that Todd's new job was a very sore spot with Lizzie.

"Its ok. You two go, I gotta take care of the books anyway."

"You sure?" Miranda asked as she walked over to her. As Lizzie nodded, Miranda hugged her, "I'll be back in about an hour."

"Take your time. I can handle stuff for a lil while," Lizzie said as she hugged Gordo goodbye. Watching the happy couple walk out, Lizzie sighed softly. "I miss that." When they had been first married, Todd and her had been like that too but the higher Todd got in his job, the more Lizzie felt ignored. Sighing again, she ran a hand through her hair and walked over to her desk to go over the books for the shop.