A/N – "Thoughts"

Chapter 4 – In Denial

It was early October and homecoming weekend for Hill Ridge High School.

As Amanda Craft sat in the Hill Ridge High School cafeteria poking around at her lunch looking for something edible, she slowly looked up and saw one of her best friends staring back at her with an amused grin. "What?" Amanda asked.

Rebecca Braden just continued to grin at her, annoying the hell out of Amanda. After a few minutes, "Why don't you just tell him?" Rebecca asked her rhetorically.

Amanda swallowed the lump in her throat, "Tell who what?" She knew exactly what she meant but just didn't want to admit it and maybe change the subject.

Snickering softly, "Tell Jason that you want to ravish his body," Rebecca teased and laughed as she saw Amanda's face heat up and look away. "Come on, everyone knows you have the hots for each other. Including you two, just neither of you wants to be the first to admit it. You want nothing more than to throw him on your bed and take him."

Amanda looked down at the table, trying desperately to ignore the mental image. "No I don't," she mumbled as she looked down at her tray and picked at her food some more. Before Rebecca could tease her any farther, they were interrupted.

"Is too much to ask for to have french fries that aren't soggy and a cheeseburger that doesn't look like a piece of rubber," Jason said as he put his tray onto the table and sat down next to Amanda. "You two coming to my game this afternoon?" Jason asked as he grabbed a French fry. Looking at it for a moment, he shook his head in disgust and quickly popped it in his mouth.

"Can't," Rebecca said, "I gotta work on the homecoming parade and then the squad is meeting early before the game." Rebecca was on the varsity cheerleading squad. "You guys are coming to the dance right?" she asked with an evil grin.

When Amanda and Jason groaned, Rebecca laughed at them. "Oh come on."

"I should at least make an appearance, I guess," Jason mumbled. "How about we show up, hang out for a little while and then we can take off."

"I guess," Amanda said and then hearing Rebecca snicker, kicked her under the table.

"You two will do anything to be alone," Rebecca teased as she rubbed her shin. As both of them glared at her, Rebecca just started laughing harder.

That afternoon, as Amanda was sitting in the bleachers at the high school's soccer field watching Jason play, she hadn't realized she was watching him so intently until a voice broke snapped her out of her trance.

"How can you drool over my brother?"

Amanda looked over and grinned as she saw who was sitting down next to her. "Hey," she greeted with a smile.

"Hi," Maria, Jason's sister, said back.

"You're accusing me of drooling? I got here near the end of the JV game and if I remember correctly, you weren't exactly paying attention to the outside world. In fact, I remember you staring, open mouthed, at your own friend," Amanda shot back

Maria smirked at the older girl and laughed a little at herself, "Maybe."

With the other two Tudgeman children, the twins, took after their mother, Eric Tudgeman was his father. He was tall, lanky, and had a quirky, sometimes really offbeat, sense of humor. But underneath the odd, sometime weird exterior, there was really a nice guy that Maria had become close friends with since they were little and lately, that friendship was developing into something else.

Just as they were talking about him, he joined them on the bleachers. "Hello ladies," Eric said with a goofy smile as he sat down next to Maria. "Um, Mar, I was wondering if you were going with anyone to the dance tonight?"

A small smile spread on Maria's lips, "Nope. I just figured we'd go together," she told him matter of factly and chuckled softly at dumbstruck expression on Eric's face.

Amanda grinned as she watched the two the banter back and forth. A few minutes later, the final whistle blew and after a quick team meeting, Jason walked over. "Nice game," Amanda told him. She watched as a small smile spread across his lips. "Just don't let it go to your head," she quickly added.

Jason snickered under his breath. "You want a ride home?"

"I think its only fair after making me seat on these cold, hard bleachers for almost two hours," she retorted with a grin. For a brief moment, the two just looked at each other with identical smiles.

Jason was first to break their stare as he turned his attention to the other two and cleared his throat. Eric glanced at Jason and grinned sheepishly, "I better get going. I'll call you later Mar. Bye," and then he jogged off towards the parking lot where his mother was waiting for him.

Ignoring the way his sister was glaring at him for interrupting them, "I'll meet you two at the gym. I should be out in about fifteen minutes."

As he jogged off towards the locker room, Maria snickered as she saw Amanda watching him run away from them. Rolling her eyes, she walked with her towards the gym.

After dropping Amanda off at her home, which was the house behind them, Maria and Jason walked into their house. As Maria went upstairs, Jason dumped his soccer bag and book bag at the base of the stairs and walked into the kitchen.

Sitting at the kitchen table was his other sister, Natalie. "Hey Nat," he said as he passed her and playful rubbed her head.

Natalie glared at him for interrupting her coloring. After sticking her tongue out at him, returned to her coloring book.

Laughing softly to himself, he put his head into the refrigerator to get something to drink. As he did, he heard his mother's voice, "Jason." Grabbing a soda and shutting the refrigerator, he watched his mother walk into the kitchen carrying a sketch pad. "Are you going to homecoming tonight?"

"The game no, but the dance for a little while. Why?"

Putting the pad on the countertop, "Nat's going to Abuelos' for the night and Maria's going to the game and dance. I wanted to know where you'd be."

"Uh uh," he said sarcastically and giving his mom a smirk; he knew their was an ulterior motive laying beneath the surface. "I'm prolly gonna pick Amanda up around seven thirty and hang out somewhere until the dance."

Pausing in the doorway, he looked at his mom with a smirk, "Just don't give me another sister, ok?" he said sarcastically before walking out of the kitchen.

Miranda rolled her eyes as she watched her eldest walk out. After a moment or two, she heard the back door open and felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist. Miranda smiled as she felt a hand gently pull back her raven locks.

"So everything set for tonight?" a very familiar voice said softly into her ear.

Leaning back against Gordo's chest, "Mmm hmm. My parents pick Nat up in about a half hour, Maria leaves about seven and Jason, a half an hour later." Turning around she looked into her husband's blue eyes, "I'd say we have the house all to ourselves for at least a good three hours," Miranda told him with a devious smile.

"Excellent. You know we should send all of them to our parents for a weekend, give us some more time alone together."

"Down boy," Miranda teased and glanced at Natalie who was too engrossed in her coloring at the kitchen table to pay them any notice.

But they're moment was still interrupted; Maria yelled from her bedroom, "Mom! I need help with my hair."

Miranda chuckled softly. "I'll go help Maria. Can you help get Natalie cleaned up and ready to go?"

"You bet," Gordo nodded and kissed his wife, "Till tonight."

"Tonight," Miranda said to him before heading upstairs to help her daughter.

Gordo smiled to himself as he walked over to the kitchen table, "Come on Nattie," he said using his special nickname for her, "We gotta get you cleaned up before Abuela Sanchez gets here." Natalie looked up at him with a lopsided grin and stuck her arms up at him.

"Nat, you're too big to be carried," Gordo said at first but when Natalie stuck out her bottom lip at him, Gordo's defenses crumbled quickly. "Fine," he said lifting her up. "You know one of these days, thanks to you, your mom is gonna have my head," he teased and Natalie just giggled as she adjusted herself in her father's arms.