Things Change

Chapter: 4 Things Become Complicated

By

Orion 101

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters presented in this story, they are all the property of Klasky Csupo and Nickelodeon. Nor am I making any money or receiving any form of compensation for this story, unless you consider the admiration and flattering reviews from my fellow writers' compensation.

A/N: I bet a lot of people are surprised I decided to use Savannah as the fourth competitor instead of Nicole. Fear not Nicole fans she will have a role in this story though not necessarily what you might expect.

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Chuckie was experiencing his first Saturday of his new high school year back home and was currently walking to the house of his best friend Tommy Pickles. As of late Tommy seemed to be angry with the redhead but he couldn't figure out why. After some thinking he concluded that it must be because they hadn't spent a lot of time together since he got back. Chuckie hadn't meant to exclude his best friend it's just that everyone was making such a big fuss over him being back he liked the attention, well today he was going fix that by resolving a matter he never got around to. He knocked on the front door to the Pickles residence and Didi opened the door.

"Hello Mrs. Pickles is Tommy home?" Chuckie asked politely.

"Yes he's upstairs in his room come right in," she said before letting him come inside the house and go upstairs. Chuckie reached his bedroom door and knocked waiting for a response from inside.

"Tommy it's me Chuckie. Can I come in?" he asked from outside. After a few seconds of silence a glum voice came from inside.

"Sure Chuckie come in," said Tommy. Chuckie came in and sat down next to his friend.

"So Tommy what up?" asked Chuckie trying to get the ball rolling.

"I don't know you tell me," Tommy said with a hint of sarcasm on his voice.

"Tommy what's wrong with you, did I do something wrong?" asked Chuckie concerned. Tommy looked at Chuckie and started to feel down about the way he was acting after all it wasn't really Chuckies' fault what was happening with Lil. He didn't even know that she was into him, still he didn't want to admit to Chuckie that he was jealous of him, but what other way did he have to explain his behavior.

"Is this because I wasn't able to listen to the question you wanted to ask me a while ago?" Chuckie asked.

"Huh," Tommy could only mutter.

"On the day I came back when we went over to your house and Angelica invited me to her families Christmas party, after she left you wanted to ask for my advice for something but my mom called me on the phone and I had to leave. You never really got around to asking me again and I just let the matter drop, is that what's bugging you?"

"Um, yes," is all Tommy could say in response. This was a fortunate turn of events for him, not only did he not have to admit to being jealous of his best friend but he would be able to get the advice he wanted without bringing the matter up again.

"Well spill, what is it?" Chuckie asked expectedly.

"Oh well, you know how you were gone for six months," Tommy started off.

"Yeah," Chuckie said nodding his head.

"Well while you were gone stuff sort of started happening with me and Lil," Tommy said not sure how to phrase this.

"What kind of stuff?" Chuckie pushed on.

"Well first it started off with us just hanging out like we usually do but then I started noticing stuff. Like the way she laughed when she heard a joke or when she would mess around with us when she was in one of her moods. Or when we had our usual wheel barrow races and I would always get excited when she picked me as her partner. There would even be times when I wished it was just me and her hanging out you know without the other tagging along," Tommy stated blushing slightly.

"Tommy are you saying what I think your saying?" Chuckie said as realization began to hit him.

"Yeah, I am Chuckie, I think I like her, I mean really like her," Tommy blurted out embarrassed.

"Tommy that great," said Chuckie with his trademark smile planted on his face.

"I'm not so sure I think it's so great Chuckie," Tommy said with a sigh.

"Why what's wrong Tommy?" Chuckie asked his pal.

"I would have thought out of all people you would be able to guess," Tommy said looking Chuckie in the eye.

"Oh scared of rejection huh," Chuckie stated the obvious.

"Yep," Tommy said as simply as he could put it.

"Well you shouldn't be," Chuckie assured his friend.

"I shouldn't?" Tommy was surprised.

"No if you like a girl you should just tell her and see if likes you," Chuckie stated as if it were easy as pie.

"Yeah because that's so what you did with all the girls you've liked," Tommy pointed out.

"Duh of course I couldn't do any of that stuff, that's because I'm Chuckie Finster loser, but your Tommy Pickles winner, I remember back I when you were ten you had a whole crowd of girls chasing after you. Okay it was because you won that award the point is they were after you, you've always been the one who was ahead on top of thing Tommy that's been one of the reasons I've always looked up to you, well not literally because I've always been the taller one but you get my meaning. You can get a girl just by talking to her Tommy, someone like me could never do something like that," Chuckie continued explaining to his friend.

While he was going on Tommy just stared flabbergasted, hearing Chuckie talk about how much better he was and how much of a loser her thought himself to be simply boggled his mind. It was like he wasn't even aware of how attractive he had become since he came back, but that couldn't be true could it? Then again considering Chuckie's low opinion of himself this could indeed be the case. He snapped back into reality as Chuckie started to end his rant.

"Tommy it's crazy for you to be afraid of rejection from a girl, you're the boy wonder," Chuckie said.

"I think that title belongs to someone Chuckie," Tommy reminded his friend jokingly, getting some of his humor back.

"Yeah well as long as you don't tell anyone I said it I won't have to worry about being sued," Chuckie joked back. It had been a while since the two had joke like this and they both shared a good laugh.

"Thanks for the reassurance Chuckie but what if it ruins my friendship with her?" Tommy asked still a little nervous.

"Tommy the eight of us have been friends nearly our whole lives nothing could ruin our friendship," Chuckie said putting his left arm on Tommy's shoulder.

…………………………………………………

Chuckie was just entering the Java Lava and found it with a greater number of people then he usually remembered it having. He shrugged it off and noticed both Lil and Kimi at the counter selling drinks and walked over to report to his post.

"Hi guys I'm here to take over my shift," he says to the girls. Kimi looks like she's thrilled and throws off her apron before jumping over the counter.

"Finally I was about to think you had forgotten now I won't have to cancel," Kimi blurted out.

"Cancel what?" Chuckie asked his sister curious as to what she was referring to. She was about to answer when she heard the door open and smiled at who came through.

"Z, you made it," she yelled before rushing up and hugging him.

"Of course Kimi, hey Chuckie nice to see you back you look great," he said noticing the red head.

"Yeah thanks Z, so you and my sister are going to hang out later?" he asks suspiciously.

"Nope were dating," Z says.

"What!" Chuckie shouts out.

"Uh I forgot to tell you," Kimi says quickly then pushes Z out the door. Chuckie could only watch as they left.

"I guess were all growing up huh," Lil interrupts as she gives Chuckie a dreamy look.

"Huh oh Lil sorry I forgot you were their," Chuckie replies casually. Lil looks a little taken back by this comment but quickly shakes it off.

"Say why are you still here doesn't your shift end with Kimi's?" Chuckie asks.

"Oh I just thought I'd give you some help," Lil answered smiling at him. While they were talking they were being watched by their parents Chas and Betty, who looked on with mixed reactions.

"Isn't seeing the two of them together the sweetest thing you ever seen Chassy boy," Betty replied.

"I guess so I just hope things don't get to complicated for the two of them friends who get involved can be seriously affected when it ends, trust me I know," Chas said regrettably.

"Maybe so but if they did end up together that means you and I would be in-laws," she said as she slapped him on the shoulder making him spill his very hot coffee on his shirt.

……………………………..

The weekend passed and soon the kids were back in school Monday and some of them had things on their minds other than education. Most particularly in the town high school in Chuckie, Susie, Angelica and Savanna's homeroom. Heir the four of them were listening to their teacher's lectures, well Chuckie was anyhow, the three girls were paying attention to him. Chuckie was currently engrossed in the lecture for today when he received a tap on the shoulder, he looked to see a guy sitting next to him handing him a note. Chuckie carefully took it and read the contents.

"Hey how about tomorrow's homeroom I sit next to you," the note was signed Savanna. Chuckie looked across the room and saw the teen queen winking at him from across the room; he blushed and put the note in his pocket. Before long he got another tap on the shoulder, this time it was from the guy on his other side. He read the note and was surprised by what this one said.

"Hi Chuckie this new school year can be confusing how about after we get together and go over some of the stuff, my parents won't be home so no one will disturb us," this was from Susie. It seemed normal but Chuckie's instincts told them something wasn't right, he looked over to where Susie was and could swear he saw her blushing.

"This is getting too weird," Chuckie said to himself. He didn't have time to digest this as his back was tapped on and the guy in back of him passed him a note. It smelled of perfume and Chuckie didn't have to think real hard to guess who it was from, yet he opened it anyway.

"Hey Chuckie I thought after school I could give you a "special" tour," the note was from Angelica like he had thought and the words special were given special emphasis and the bottom of the note had a lipstick kiss mark on it. It was with this that Chuckie knew something was up, little did he realize his problems were about to get worse as he looked up and saw the teacher looking down at him.

"Hello Mr. Finster would you be so kind as to read all three of the notes you received in front of the class, after all we wouldn't want everyone else to feel left out would we? Chuckie groaned as he walked up in front of the class and was forced to read his notes in front of everyone. Soon the teacher would come to regret it as well for while he was reading them Chuckie received whistles, cheers, and several different forms congratulations from the boys in his classroom. Things got so out of hand that the teacher had to send Chuckie into the hallway for causing a disturbance; all the while the three girls were glaring daggers at each other.

"Well my life just became more complicated," Chuckie sighed as he talked to himself. Soon the period was over and he noticed Susie come out of the classroom first, she came up to him holding her book close to her in a fidgety manner.

"Sorry you got in trouble for my note," she said regrettably.

"That's okay it wasn't just yours and you could have known that would happen," Chuckie replied calmly.

"So what do you say?" she asks hopefully.

"About what?" Chuckie asked confused.

"About coming over after school so we can talk about the new lessons," she said one more time with the blush more obvious now as she held onto the book tighter.

"Oh that," Chuckie replied, he was hesitant to say anything at first but after thinking about it for awhile he answered yes.

"Great see you there," Susie said excitedly as she walked off looking like she had just won the lottery. Chuckie didn't have time consider the ramifications of what he had just done before who else but Sean Butler came up to him smiling.

"Hey Finster how's it hanging," said Sean smiling.

"Everything's okay I guess how are you," Chuckie replied, during the time when Angelica had made him her project he had hung out with Sean and his friends and even though Chuckie had decided to be himself and go back to his own crowd the two of them were still friendly.

"The same, anyway Savanna told me to invite you to her party this Wednesday night," Sean said calmly.

"She did?" Chuckie said surprised.

"Yep see you at the place," Sean said giving Chuckie a thumbs up before leaving. He had just turned the corner when Angelica made her appearance, instantly giving him her trademark flirt smile.

"Hey Chuckie," she said sweetly.

"Hey Angelica," Chuckie replied nervously.

"So have you thought about what I said there are some places I didn't show you in the school yet," Angelica asked as she gave Chuckie her eyeing glance.

"Um I already promised Susie I would come over to talk about the new school stuff after school sorry," Chuckie said half expecting her to become enraged and go off on him. Yet to his surprise her smiling demeanor remained the same.

"Oh well maybe next time huh," she said then walked off.

"Yeah, I guess," Chuckie was surprised by how calmly she reacted. Of course if he was paying better attention to where she was going he would have noticed she was headed in the direction of the meeting room of the culture club instead of the cafeteria for their lunch period. She knocked on the door and upon entering found herself in the presence of Susie's little culture club buddies, they all looked up surprised to see Angelica their.

"Hey Angie what are you doing here, come to join our club," he asked hopefully like many of the guys in school he was very attracted to her.

"Nope but I did come to tell you something, after school today some new cultural material will be at the mall that'll really help you with the culture festival you're planning next month. Just thought I'd give you the heads up," she said before leaving the room with a wicked smile.

Meanwhile over in the Middle School Tommy and Kimi were in their class working on their group project. Well everyone else was working Tommy and Kimi were fanaticizing about their own love lives or in Tommy's case his lack of one. Tommy then looked over at Kimi and got an idea; he began tapping on Kimi's shoulder and woke her from her daze.

"Huh Tommy, do you need something?" Kimi asked.

"Yeah after school today could you help me talk to Lil when were all walking home, by you know keeping Phil and Dil busy?" he asked and then gave her a pleading look. Kimi was one of the enlightened "many" who knew of Tommy's crush on Lil and replied with a smile.

"Sure Tommy and good luck," she said giving him a wink.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Tommy tried to deny but his blush was too obvious.

Back over to the high school Chuckie was just finishing his lunch when Susie came down to sit beside him with a disappointed look on her face.

"Sorry Chuckie I have to cancel on you today, something came up at the last minute with my culture club and I have to help them out, okay," Susie told her "friend".

"Okay Susie we can just we can meet tomorrow then," Chuckie said giving her a smile. Susie smiled back and walked off to make further arrangements with her club. What neither of them noticed was that Angelica was watching from her own table smirking at her sneakiness, now was the time to make her move. She got up and walked next to Chuckie then sat down and casually began talking to him.

"Hey Chuckie I was over at the next table and I heard what happened so you and me on for later today," she asked batting her eyes.

"Yeah I guess so Angelica," Chuckie said.

"Great meet me at the front of the school after the last bell, oh and bring a set of swimming trunks," she replied as she was getting up. Chuckie was about to ask why he needed a pair of swimming trunks when Angelica leaned over kissed him on the cheek, then walked of happily. Chuckie only touched his cheek slightly and figured he'd better do as she instructed.

Later that day Chuckie met Angelica in front of the school with the swimming trunks in his backpack he had had them for gym class so he didn't have to go all the way home.

"Follow me Chuckie I'll show you the parts of the school that not everyone sees," she requested as she sauntered off in front of him clearly showing off her form for him, not that he was complaining. The two of the walked over to the stairway where they went down to the lower floors, Chuckie had never been down there before and was surprised the school had a lower level.

"Say Angelica, where are we going?" he asked.

"Simple you know I'm head of the swim team right," she said turning to him.

"Uh huh," Chuckie said while nodding his head.

"Well we don't practice in the gym swimming pool we have our own private one underneath the school to use and I happen to have the key," she said dangling the key in front of him.

"Why isn't the rest of the swim team coming?" Chuckie asked beginning to get nervous about what was happening.

"We don't meet again until so today it'll be just the two of us," she said placing her finger under his chin. Chuckie was turning red all over this time, until today he was sure Angelica had been being extra nice to him because she had an ulterior motive, but now he was getting the feeling she was just after him. His head told him to get out of there, but his new teenage body and its overactive hormones made him keep walking until they reached a door. Angelica placed her key inside and unlocked it revealing the underground swimming pool behind it. As they walked in Angelica stopped him and pointed out what was obviously the locker room.

"You can change in their then when your done I'll come in and change," she said. Chuckie did as he was told and came out then allowed Angelica to enter, when she came out she was wearing a two piece red string bikini, Chuckie couldn't take his eyes off her. Likewise she was admiring him with his shirt off she could fully see how well his muscles had filled out recently, he wasn't a jock but his build was slim, lean, well muscled and pleasing to the eye. It was like Peter Parker after he was bitten by the spider. She slowly walked past him into the pool then sat down on the side of the pool and gently slid in.

"Well what are you waiting for the waters fine, unless you're afraid of water, like Tommy," she joked.

"Ha ha very funny, you know I wasn't afraid of water, and Tommy got over his fear," Chuckie replied.

"Yeah prove it come on in," she invited in a teasing manner.

"Okay," Chuckie said with a smile as he backed up a little. At first Angelica didn't know what he was doing but she soon realized as he came running up and jumped into the pool splashing her.

"That wasn't funny Finster," she said becoming angry.

"Was too," Chuckie retorted as he splashed her once more. Angelica getting a mischievous look in her eyes decided to fight fire with fire.

"Well take some of your own medicine," she said with a smirk as she splashed him back soon the two of them were involved in a water fight.

……………………………………….

While this was going on the rest of the gang were walking home from school, it was time to put Tommy's plan into action.

"Hey guys want to race home?" she called out to the group.

"Sure," Phil and Dil replied as they followed Kimi in her mock race. Lil was set to join them but was grabbed by Tommy before she could get far.

"Um Lil, could we talk for a minute?" Tommy asked weakly.

"Okay, what do you want to talk about Tommy?" Lil asked.

"Well you know how lately we've all started taking an interest in dating and girlfriend boyfriend stuff. Well me and you have known each other since we were both little kids and stuff and we get along great and everything so I thought maybe this weekend you and I could," Tommy didn't even get to finish his sentence before Lil cut him off.

"Tommy I think we should just be friends okay," she said as gently as she could. She didn't want to hurt Tommy, she really did think he was a great guy and if circumstances were different she might consider his offer but her interests were in other directions now.

"How come?" Tommy asked sullenly, in truth he knew the answer but felt he needed her to confirm it. Lil was caught now she didn't want to tell him she was interested in his best friend not yet anyway. She had to think of something fast or else this would end badly.

"I just don't think it's a good idea for friends to start dating," she said. It wasn't until the words left her mouth that she realized how hypocritical what she just said was but by then it was too late.

"Yeah whatever," Tommy said as he walked off dejected. He felt like his whole world had just shattered.

……………………………………….

Angelica and Chuckie meanwhile had finished their water fight and were now having a race, it ended in a tie with both of them grabbing on to the edge of the pool and panting for breath.

"That was fun," said Angelica as she regained her breath.

"Yeah we should do this again some time," Chuckie said as he began to get out of the pool.

"You mean it," she asked hopefully as she began to get out of the pool herself. She was begging to slip though just as Chuckie grabbed her hand. Grateful for the assist she allowed him to pull her out of the pool where once she was fully pulled out the momentum caused her to slam into Chuckie and he grabbed her to keep her from falling back in. Without realizing he now held her in his arms, the two of them stayed like that for a while before Chuckie not fully knowing why leaned forward and kissed her full on lips.

To say Angelica was pleased was putting it mildly, this was what she wanted after all she just had no idea it would be this simple. She quickly returned the kiss and wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him closer to her. The two of them enjoyed this sweet moment for six minutes before they separated finally realizing the gravity of the situation.

"Wow did you learn that while you were away?" she asked having to again regain her breath.

"No, actually that was my first kiss," Chuckie replied back nervously.

"Mine too," she answered back in a surprisingly soft sweet voice. She then began leaning forward for another kiss but was cut off by Chuckie speaking.

"Maybe we should go I have homework to finish," Chuckie said quickly. Angelica was a little disappointed but relented anyway she had got a taste of what she desired and was willing to wait for more. The two of them changed into their regular clothes and walked out of the school exchanged goodbyes before heading to their respective homes. Both having a lot to think about concerning the day's events.

Chuckie was almost to his house when he spotted Susie walking along the same route; she saw him and ran up to him with a smile.

"Hi Susie I thought you had work with your club," Chuckie replied. Susie just got an angry look in her eyes before shaking it off and smiling again.

"Oh that it turns out my club got some "bogus information" from somebody so now I'm free. I was on my way to your house when I saw you so you still up for coming over my house today?" she asked.

"Of course I said I would and I that's what I'm going to do," Chuckie stated.

"That's one of the things I like about you Chuckie you stand by your principles," Susie said as she took his hand and led him to her house. The two of them entered her house and entered the living room, where Chuckie began to pull out his things.

"Hold on Chuckie it'll be more comfortable if we do this up in my room," Susie said. Chuckie had been in Susie's room lots of times before so he saw nothing wrong with this, the two went to her room sat down on her bed and began going over the material they had learned in class. They were both very bright students so it wasn't very difficult. Chuckie however found himself stealing glances at Susie. He couldn't help himself she was so beautiful and he had had a crush on her since before he could remember learning to talk.

"Is their something wrong Chuckie?" Susie asked noticing his nervousness.

"No nothing wrong," Chuckie said noticing her full ruby lips as she talked. Not being able to help himself he gave her a kiss. Susie for her part was genuinely surprised she had invited Chuckie over here to spend time with him and had not expected them to advance to this. That's not to say she didn't enjoy the situation though, quite the contrary she soon found herself leaning in and returning the kiss dropping the books she was holding and ignoring the fact that they fell of the bed the two of them were sitting on and cluttered to the floor.

The two of them kissed for several minutes, Chuckie had fantasized about this several times in his adolescence but he never dreamed it could become a reality he put his arm around her and began rubbing her back. Susie had moved her hand to hold his free hand and began to gently stroke it she could feel his breath on her as they kissed, for her this was pure bliss. It was interrupted however when Chuckie inexplicitly broke their kiss and got up beginning to stammer.

"Sorry I didn't mean to, I mean, uh I think I should go," he said quickly gathering his things.

"No wait Chuckie you don't have to go I'm not upset really," she said trying to grab his hand; she desperately wanted to continue this.

"I have to it's getting late, I'll see you tomorrow though," he said as he rushed out of her door and out of the house.

End of Chapter: 4

Well things have gotten more interesting for our favorite carrot top. What will this do to the gang and what affect will Lil's answer to Tommy have on their friendship. What will happen at Savannah's party, find out in Chapter: 5 entitled The Bet.

AN/ I know last chapter I said this chapter would be titled the bet, however the plot ran longer than originally intended so I divided it into two chapters. Hope it didn't cause too much confusion.