Read Me : Woah! The big 2-0. Chapter Number 20! I'm getting all excited. Right now, I'm all bunged up because of hay fever so…and I thought I should alert you all now. I will be on holiday from the 10th of July to the 24th – in Spain, the land of the colorful piñatas! So I won't be able to update then, but I'll try and get us much in so you have plenty to read while I'm away. Also, I may not update a couple of days after I return because my parents have very FOOLISHLY and SELFISHLY booked the holiday when my pre-ordered copy of Harry Potter 6 arrives at my house, and since I'm a total HP Freak, that will be read as soon as I come back. I might even out-nerd myself and post my comments on HPANA and Veritaserum forums. Ah, the life of a nerd is a good one.

Disclaimer : I WISH I OWNED EVERYTHING! But sadly, I don't own much, except the clothes on my back…actually, come to think of it, my parents bought them for me. How depressing. Anyway, I do own the OC's, and the title of the story, but obviously not the language it's in, because that belongs to the French. Sayonara and read on!

"The response has been abseloutely immense!"

Zoey sat in the middle of one side of the long, rectangular table. Nicole, Rebecca and Kristen sat on the other side, an empty seat beside Rebecca. In front of them all were little place cards ("Incase I forget my name," Rebecca laughed), a bottle of water and a plate. In the middle of the table, was a pile of notebooks, and to the right and left of this pile, platters of sushi.

"I put the posters up this morning and I've already over a hundred responses," Zoey placed her hands on the table, "but I've picked a winner already."

Immediately, the sushi rolled out of all three girls' mouths.

"Eh? I thought we were going to be consulted about this!"

"Don't we get a say?"

"Unfair," Nicole finished lamely, picking up her sushi moodily with her chopsticks.

"I was thinking about it," Zoey admitted, "but you guys just agree to disagree. Besides, they were real good. Amazing."

"Can we see them?" Kristen asked through a mouthful of rice. Rebecca grimaced.

"Sure…" Zoey lifted some notebooks and produced three sheets of paper, obviously photocopied previous to the little 'meeting' and handed them to the girls.

"These are good," Rebecca agreed, looking at the faux-fur collars and rimmed boots.

"Who designed these?" Kristen asked, setting the paper down beside her.

"Hey, sorry I'm late guys."

Adrienne House pulled back the vacant seat beside Rebecca and sat down. She shuffled it in, flicked her hair behind her shoulder and slid off her jacket. The three girls suddenly realized that to answer their question, they just had to look at the place card that read 'Adrienne' ("Aw," she said, picking it up and looking close, "it's so cute. It has my name on it.").

"There was this sale on at the PCA School Store for gummy bears," she held up a bag close to the size of Zoey's head guiltily, "I couldn't resist."

Adrienne House did these designs? Rebecca thought, No way! I thought she was too busy curling her fringe.

"Anyway, I thought we could discuss what we need to design etcetera," Zoey continued once Adrienne had settled down, "the sewing department have volunteered to make some of the clothes. But we'll still have to make some. And we'll need to do castings as soon as possible, so we know our models measurements."

Adrienne slid a purple gummy worm into her mouth.

"I just want to say thanks for the chance to show my work guys. It's way cool –"

But Rebecca couldn't concentrate on Adrienne's words. She tried to, she really tried, but Adrienne's fringe was really distracting. It wasn't a normal fringe, like bangs like hers or Kristen's, and it wasn't sweeping, like Zoey's. It was almost bangs, except it had a lot more volume, and the ends were all curled upwards, hiding her eyebrows. Every time Adrienne moved, the ends would ping out of place then settle back down like a piano key. And sadly, Adrienne was the kind of girl who talked animatedly.

"I've been a closet designer for ages –"

Ping-flick-flick.

Rebecca tried to drag her eyes away, but anytime she would, another couple of hairs would pop up again, catching her eye.

"– it's kinda my dream, to let everyone see. I know they're elaborate, but I had a look at Becca's ideas and they're couture-esque as well, so I'm alright."

Fringey-flick-ping-flick.

Oh my God just PIN IT BACK! Rebecca's brain was screaming. She had to exercise every ounce of self-control she had not to open her mouth and say something. She knew it had gotten worse now, because Nicole was staring as well, and so was Kristen, who was still trying to pick up her sushi. In fact, the only person who wasn't phased was Zoey.

Even Adrienne was a bit put off, because she kept looking up at her fringe every paragraph or two.

Cut it off! CUT IT OFF! Kristen began pinning back her bangs, in hope that Adrienne would take a hint.

I seriously doubt she could pin it up. It has a mind of it's own.

Nicole began rubbing her forehead.

"So…it's majorly cool and all. Maybe, we should –"

Rebecca scraped back her chair. Kristen and Nicole did the same.

"Sorry, I left something in my room," they lied, running into the corridor.

"That fringe," Kristen hissed, "is so annoying!"

"It's distracting it practically does the talking," Rebecca sighed, "what could we do?"

"If only she could pin it down," Nicole bit her lip, "but we have little chance sneaking a big piece of Sellotape around Adrienne's forehead."

The meeting excused about an hour later, (the girls had finally decided to bring everyone down pink baseball caps, forcing Adrienne to put hers on so it would control her maniacal fringe) the girls, with Adrienne, watched America's Next Top Model re-runs for a bit, before they all drifted off to other engagements.

"I have a date with Nate!" Nicole squealed excitedly, clapping her hands together and disappearing up to the room to get changed.

"Shannon's birthday's next week," Adrienne said, standing up, "so I gotta go and plan the party with Christina."

"I've gotta go do some stupid art painting for term credit," Kristen groaned, reluctantly getting up from her seat and leaving the student lounge with her school bag on her shoulder.

"We have English essays to do," Zoey told Rebecca, as she sunk further into the bean bag, "I wanna do mine in the room. Do you wanna join me?"

"Nah, it's okay, my laptop's down here," she patted her school bag, "and besides, a new Kath and Kim's coming on. I'll see you later Zo."

Okay, uneventful and kinda short but never fear! I have plenty to come, big, big plot lines. When I mean big, I mean immense. When I mean immense, I mean…er…actually I really do just mean immense. And shocking, so it's only fair I let the characters have a little bit of a rest with such trying times ahead. MrsLoganReese, thanks for saying I'm funny. I don't mean to be funny, but I'm just clinically insane, so there you go. Eat your pies with your whipped crème fraiche and be merry, joyful and Valhalla-bound. I love y'all, smoochies, N x