Heard It Through The Grapevine

This takes place on Monday, the day after the hot tub party and the first day back at school.

The bell for first period resounded through the halls, but none of the seniors moved a muscle in the direction of their classes. It was the first day back from spring break, and no one was in any hurry to 'get their learn on', as Jason so aptly put it.

At the moment, Jason was nowhere to be found, which was strange. While he wasn't the first student in the building by any means, he always managed to get to school at the last possible minute that allowed him to visit his locker and wrestle with Brendan before class.

Instead, Brendan was sitting on the floor in front of his locker, unconsciously wondering where his sparring partner was as his eyes raced across the dense text of his Physics textbook. His teacher, Mr. Baier, was a crazy old man – quite the eccentric – and Brendan knew he'd ask oral questions today in hopes of embarrassing his lethargic students. And after having nothing to say in response to all of Baier's questions except the ever-popular "Uhhh," Brendan wanted to brush up his formulas before class.

There were five minutes between the first bell and the beginning of class, and the students, especially the seniors, were used to taking advantage of that. They usually never moved until there was one minute left, sprinting through the halls and barreling down the stairs at breakneck speed. It was what they had been doing for their entire four years at PC High, and it wasn't anything strange to see a tall senior boy racing down the hall as if he was trying to catch the Roadrunner, his backpack in one hand and the other hand holding up his baggy pants to prevent him from mooning the hall monitors.

No one seemed to mind this no-holds-barred race. It was a tradition reserved especially for the seniors, for some reason; none of the other classes had the unique problem of having only thirty seconds to race from the third floor all the way down to the basement. Whereas it would have been impossible for the other three grades, the seniors viewed such a challenge as nothing out of the ordinary. Their lockers had been on the top floor of PC High since their freshman year, and they were used to clambering down three flights of stairs and an additional flight for the basement. Even the senior class shirt jokingly commented on their predicament, boasting the equation, "Four years of high school times three flights of stairs equals the best legs in town".

There were still four minutes left until the bell, and none of the students were showing any interest in their upcoming kamikaze mission. Some were asleep in the nooks and crannies of the hallway, others were sitting in large groups on the floor and talking. Still others were sipping coffee and trying desperately to stay awake.

Sonny finished up at his locker and zipped his backpack shut. He spied Brendan on the floor nearby and sauntered over, slinging his green backpack on the tiles and sitting down on top of it.

"Hey, Brend-o," he grinned, jostling his friend on the shoulder.

Brendan looked up from his text in surprise, his eyes wide behind the lenses of his silver glasses. The stunned look on his face bled away when he recognized the intruder.

"How's it going, Sonny?" he smiled in response, fighting back a yawn. He glanced at the clock in the hall and snapped his book shut. Three more minutes weren't going to save his life or anything. "How was your break?"

"Pretty good," Sonny nodded, struggling to keep from letting his grin spread too wide. "What about you? Where did you guys go?"

"Me, Jenny, Jeff, Lauren, Ryan, and Mon went to Cancun," he replied. "It was great. Boiling, but great."

"See anyone else there?" Sonny asked, already knowing the answer.

"Oh, yeah," Brendan nodded emphatically. "I saw Johnny and Kyle and a couple other cross country kids, and about twenty or so other kids from PC."

Sonny nodded. "I thought so."

"So you never told me where you went."

"I went to North Carolina," Sonny smiled. "Knew a nice little place there."

Brendan nodded, despite not really having a clue as to what Sonny was talking about. "How was the weather?"

"Perfect," Sonny sighed, his mind already flashing back to quaint, serene little Clover. "Everything was perfect."

Brendan was smiling at the far-off look in his friend's eyes. "Well, that's good – sounds like you had a great time. Everyone needs one of those 'perfect' vacations at least once."

"I'll say," Sonny agreed. "And it was perfect. Jason and I are already planning our next trip there."

"Jason was with you?" Brendan asked, not sounding very surprised. As best friends since their tricycle days, there was very little that Sonny and Jason didn't do together.

Sonny nodded. "Yup. We took a plane down and drove back up."

"Did anyone else go down there with y-" Brendan's question was cut off when his eyes landed on two of his classmates that had just stepped into view. Sonny followed his gaze and a ghost of a smirk floated across his lips before disappearing altogether as he fought to keep a straight face.

Jason Morgan had finally made it to school, with two minutes on the clock. And he wasn't alone – the young woman whose steps matched his was none other than Elizabeth.

Sonny almost chuckled as he thought of how their other friends would react to the news of their eventful spring break. After always hearing about Jason's 'outsider' girlfriends – girls from other schools and a couple even from neighboring community colleges – the boys were going to go nuts over the new development of him hooking up with PC High's resident Golden Girl. They'd never let him live it down.

And now Jason was walking in step with Elizabeth, both of them chattering away during their slow walk to his locker. They were clearly in their own universe, as they didn't even notice the strange looks directed at them from all ends of the hallway.

Sonny's eyes twinkled when he saw Caroline Benson grab onto the arm of one her friends, leech-like, as she gaped at her friend and his new companion. Carol and Jason had been friends for a while, and Sonny knew the sighting of the new 'couple' came as quite a shock to her.

Nearby, Lauren Pietras was trying to do a handstand against the wall across from the lockers, and even though her long brown locks had formed a curtain over her face, she still managed to glimpse her two friends. Sonny knew that Jason would be in for it later.

Emily Bowen was actively engaged in an argument with her boyfriend Alex – nicknamed Ace - but even she stopped mid-yell to stare at the newest arrivals. Next to her, Ace was also gaping at the couple. Elizabeth was friends with him as well – better friends than she was with Emily – and her choice in companionship threw the young man for a loop.

Taggert and Luke came bursting into view, both of them racing to their lockers in an attempt to grab their books and speed off to class without missing a beat, but the sight of Jason and Elizabeth walking practically arm-in-arm down the hall had them skidding to a stop.

Next to him, Brendan had regained his voice. "Wait – Jason and Beth?" He swallowed, squinting at the couple as if he expected them to vanish into thin air. "I didn't know – are they going out now?"

Sonny snickered, not blaming him for his apparent confusion. "Yup."

His one-word answer had Brendan gaping at him, as if he was the ring-leader of the greatest secret conspiracy known to man. "Since when?" he demanded.

"Since North Carolina," Sonny smirked, pushing himself up from the floor and grabbing his back pack by the black straps. Without another word, he turned and walked slowly down the hall, smiling. With one eye on the clock – which read only a minute-twenty to go – and one eye on his friends, Sonny was able to gleefully watch the scene unfold before him.

He could tell Elizabeth was teasing Jason by the way her eyes were sparkling and her nose was crinkling. Her nose always crinkled when she made fun of him, and it was just another one of her personality quirks that Jason found absolutely adorable. But not as adorable as the way she mangled her lip whenever she was thinking or nervous – she had to have been going through chap stick like nobody's business.

Sonny watched as Jason turned his head away, trying to fight away a smile despite Elizabeth's relentless teasing. And then he was facing her, lightly pushing her back but moving with her, never increasing the distance between them.

Her back hit the lockers with a clang, but she was still laughing, her blue eyes still sparkling with mirth. He leaned forward, playfully glaring at her and pretending to grab her. She just kept giggling, and pushed him back a fraction of an inch, just enough to get him to put his hands down and not enough to put more space between them. He gave up trying to scare her and settled for latching gently onto her waist, playfully giving her a shake. She stepped on his toes and he quickly withdrew his hands, trying to reach for his lock without tearing his eyes off of her.

Jason's locker was the one right next to the ones Elizabeth was leaning against, and she chattered on as his fingers adroitly flipped the combination lock open. He dumped his books in, not even paying attention to which ones he was grabbing because he was too busy watching her. They were still laughing and teasing each other, with as much familiarity as if they'd been spending almost every waking minute together.

And they had – but their classmates didn't know that. Carol was about ready to have a heart attack, and Sonny was afraid that Emily would soon go into cardiac arrest herself. Even Marcus and Luke stood rooted to the floor, all consideration for the school bell gone.

Jason shut his locker door with a bang, and Elizabeth pulled herself forward and away from the lockers. Sonny saw Carol size up the moment and just as the tall blonde decided to seize it and ambush her two friends, the school bell resounded through the halls.

"Crap," Jason muttered, backing away from Elizabeth. "I have to make it down to the science wing in no time flat because class just started."

Elizabeth waved him on, urging him to make a run for his classroom. "Go, I'll catch you later – I have Español right here." She was gesturing to the room directly across from her. "Go – Baier's always late to class, but still. Go, Jason."

She didn't need to order him anymore; Jason smiled at her, tipped his head, spun around, and was racing off to his Physics class. Brendan, though in the same class, could do little but sit in front of his locker, trying to decide if what he just saw had really happened.

Sonny smirked at him as he approached his Spanish class. "Aren't you late, Brend-o?"

Brendan snapped out of his trance with an apprehensive look at the clock, and quick as a flash, the slender newspaper editor was on his feet and making a beeline for the stairs Jason had just tumbled down.

Sonny smirked as he neared Elizabeth, who was holding the classroom door for him. As he passed her, he winked and shot her his signature dimpled smile.

"Get used to that reaction, Bonnie."

She rolled her eyes and shoved his shoulder, pushing him into the room where Mr. Lewis was already instructing everyone to get out their Practica to correct homework.

"I wouldn't sound so smug, Clyde – no one's found out about you and Bren yet."

A few pairs of eyes near the door flew up at their hushed conversation.

"Who and Bren?"

Elizabeth nudged Sonny triumphantly on the shoulder, wiggling her eyebrows at him as they took their seats next to each other. "Exactly."


The bell for third period rang and Sonny made his way from the basement to the Main Office. Today was the day he had to give a special Student Union announcement over the intercom system after the regular announcements. Their organization had been approached by a local food-packing charity that packed lunches for poor inner city kids, and they had been asked to participate in a paper bag drive. The goal was to accumulate 20,000, and even though PC High boasted only fourteen hundred students, Sonny knew the tentative goal could be more than doubled. And it was facts like that which made him so proud to be the president of such a caring and generous student body.

He had just ascended the flight of stairs from the basement up to the main floor when he was jostled from behind by two pairs of strong arms. Looking back in surprise, he found himself face to face with Luke Spencer and Marcus Taggert.

"OK, Sonny," Luke began, trying to get a better grip on the textbooks he carried in his free hand. "It's time for you to level with us."

"Yeah," Marcus broke in, inadvertently shoving some small, spectacled, rollie-backpack-lugging freshman into the wall as the three boys walked down the hall. "Word around the halls is that you and Brenda are a thing now."

Sonny almost choked on his own saliva. "What?" he croaked, struggling to keep up the pace with both Luke and Taggerts' arms draped across his shoulders. "How could word have gotten around so fast? It's only third hour!"

Luke shrugged. "It's the Word, man. No one can deny its power. Even if there's absolutely no substance to it – as is often the case – it still flies. Especially if it's bad, but that's a whole other can of worms."

"And the Word dictates that you and Barrett are an item," Taggert repeated pointedly. "True or not?"

"True."

Both boys fell into silence as the pondered his answer, and Sonny almost sighed with relief when he saw the Main Office.

"Damn," Luke muttered. "Now I have to wear a dress."

Sonny furrowed his brows, certain he heard wrong. "Come again?"

Luke sighed heavily, dragging a hand through the unkempt blonde fuzz he always hoped passed for hair. "Carol told me, and I didn't believe her. Her track record's pretty shady when it comes to rumors, you know," he added defensively. Taggert nodded reassuringly. "And she said it was true, and I said it wasn't. So we did what we always do – we made a bet. And now I have to wear a dress."

Sonny shrugged out from between the two and grabbed the door handle of the Main Office. How news had gotten out so fast, he had no clue. That was one of the problems of being in a small school – nothing could ever be kept a secret. Sometimes it was good, like when they need volunteers for their projects or had to put out other news to the student body. And other times, it wasn't so great.

"Try silk," he advised his crestfallen friend. "I hear it's slimming."


The bell signaling the end of seventh period resounded through the halls, and the juniors and seniors flooded into the main artery of the building, engaging in what was often called the "canned sardine death march" to get to their lockers. Sophomores and freshmen were still in class – they had lunch in period six, and class during seven-eight, while the upperclassmen had class during six-seven and lunch during eighth.

Elizabeth was already at her locker at the far end of the hallway, trying to cram her books into her congested locker and retrieving her lunch at the same time without being buried under an avalanche of books and papers. Petey was also at her locker, humming California Dreamer from the Mama's and Papa's as she dumped in her notebooks and pulled out some lunch money and her keys.

"See you later, Beth," she smiled at her friend, who was still crouched on the floor trying to wrestle her lunch out of her locker. "And by the way," she added, walking backwards toward the stairs so that she could still watch Elizabeth. "You and Jason? About damn time, girl!"

Elizabeth groaned and, blushing, tried to bury her face into her locker. It was not a wise move, as her nose soon smashed against her Anatomy and Physiology workbook. "Shut it, Petey."

Lauren just laughed and whirled around, skipping down the stairs to the parking lot, leaving Elizabeth to just shake her head. With Lauren, she knew that this was just the beginning of a long series of ribbing and teasing and crude jokes.

But that wasn't too bad, she decided, shoving her lock into the hole and miraculously managing to close it. She'd rather be teased and have Jason than…not be teased. Yeah.

She stood up and grabbed her paper bag lunch, having left her backpack in her locker. She'd have to come up later to grab her text for the next class, but for now, it felt good not to carry her backpack around.

Jason was still at his locker, his head buried inside as he reorganized the contents for maximum efficiency when he only had a few seconds left on the clock. This, Elizabeth had decided a long time ago, was the moment she loved the most, except for after school, of course.

Even back when she thought she didn't have a snowball's chance in Hell with Jason, she loved this moment. Back when Jason had Marketing in first semester and Calculus in tenth hour, she'd race up to her locker after Calc and quickly get her things and start walking for the lunchroom.

Usually, she was lucky – her timing was perfect. As she was walking nonchalantly down the hall, he'd be running up from the catacombs of the school – also known as the basement – and she'd get to see him go to his locker and then she'd walk past. Sometimes, her timing was a little off, and he'd already be done by the time she reached him. That was when he'd walk ahead of her, and she'd get to let her eyes trail from his shiny golden hair to his chapped heels as they flopped in his Jesus sandals. Other times, she would walk right in front of him, and if she really forced herself to admit it, she'd acknowledge the fact that she swayed her hips just a little bit more in that particular situation.

She didn't know what it was about this moment, but she always loved to walk down the hall and see him at his locker, unaffected by the general chaos in the hall, his head buried in the depths of the beige locker.

But now, she didn't have to worry about timing anymore. Because whichever time she arrived at would be the right time. Either that, or he'd be waiting for her.

He heard her footsteps approaching and pulled his head out of his locker, flashing her a grin. "Hey."

"Hey, yourself," she returned smoothly, leaning a jean-clad hip against another locker. "Ready?"

He grabbed his lunch from his locker, waving it at her as he slammed the door shut. Though they often went out to lunch together, Elizabeth was the only reason he ever considered bringing a brown bag lunch. If he stayed in, he normally got cafeteria food – cheeseburger with mustard and ketchup, tater tots, pop-tart, and fruit punch. Nothing more, nothing less. But that required standing in line for ten minutes, and if a packed lunch meant that he'd get to simply sit down with Elizabeth and not waste any idle time, he was all for it.

"Ready."

She pushed away from the locker and matched step with him as they walked down the hall and descended the staircase. She wasn't aware of the smirks or the knowing glances they got along the way; she didn't see how Ace grinned crookedly, how Rose licked her lips in a vain attempt to conceal a smile, or how Brendan tipped his chin at them to Ryan.

Jason didn't say much on the way down the stairs, just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other and not falling on his face. It was funny how, despite all the time he'd spent with Elizabeth, she still made him feel so nervous and jittery, so utterly and ridiculously self-conscious that he had to stop and laugh at himself. It had never happened with any other girl – usually, he got the feeling that they were the ones that were nervous. But Elizabeth was different, and he didn't mind the perpetual butterflies in his stomach when he was with her because, well, he was with her.

Emily and Carol were chatting by the doors of the library, no doubt about recent developments on the hookup front, as Jason and Elizabeth exited the stairwell and stepped into the hall that eventually led to the Commons, also known as the cafeteria.

Jason sneaked a sidelong glance at Elizabeth as they walked leisurely down the hall. "So, um, do you want to do something this weekend?"

Elizabeth twisted her lips to the side as she looked up at him. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "But I can't – Sonny and I are supposed to go down to the city. There's an anti-war rally going on, and we never miss those."

"An anti-war rally?" he repeated. "Oh, yeah, I read about that in the paper. They're already saying that the turnout is supposed to be huge."

She nodded firmly. "Mm-hmm. After all, the war started about a year after election, and it's still not showing any signs of letting up. Plus, they were supposed to hand over power a long time ago, and that never happened. You can bet that a lot of people are pissed off."

He was watching her carefully as she rambled on. "And what about you? Where do you fit in?"

Elizabeth bit her lip, trying to think of the best way to answer. When she spoke, her voice was honest. "Look, I'm not going to lie – I have political beliefs. Strong ones. But I don't try to force them on anyone, no matter how…adamant I may seem." Jason nodded and she continued. "I'm personally a hard-core Democrat. Obviously, I wasn't old enough to vote in the last election, but I was dead-set against the winner. I had this terrible feeling of foreboding when he was sworn in – kind of like, what in the world are we getting ourselves into, you know? And since I wasn't able to voice my opinion in the election, I decided I had to voice it in other ways."

Jason nodded. "Trust me – I totally understand what you mean. More than you know, actually."

"I just decided that I had views and ideas and if I wasn't going to fight for them, no one was," she continued. "So I started attending rallies and signing petitions and stuff. Not all of it was against the President – it was for legislation and stuff. I wrote our congressman so much that his aides probably mentioned me, because I got a personal letter from him. My parents didn't really pay attention, because they didn't really get involved in politics, you know? They still don't. As much as I'm embarrassed to say it, I don't even think they're registered to vote. They just don't care." She shrugged, brushing it off. "So when Sonny and I first became friends, we discovered that we shared a lot of the same political beliefs. His family has a tradition of being hard-core Democrats, so he kind of inherited it from them, so to speak. They're very active in town meetings and stuff, so it was all good. And ever since then, we just ended up doing this sort of thing together."

"What about Brenda?" Jason wanted to know.

Elizabeth shrugged. "Bren has her beliefs, but she doesn't want to align herself with any party, I guess. Her parents are Republican, and she knows that she's not, but then again, she's not willing to call herself a Democrat either. The thing is that she likes certain aspects of the Republican party and certain aspects of the Democratic, so it'll be interesting to see what she does for the upcoming November election."

Jason nodded, processing the information, and now it was Elizabeth's turn to ask him a question.

"What about you?" she inquired. "What's your political preference?"

Jason looked down at her, swinging his lunch bag from his long fingers. "Total Democrat."

Elizabeth's eyes lit up. "Really?"

He nodded. "Yeah. But get this – the parental units are die-hard Reps."

Elizabeth chuckled. "You're kidding."

"Nope," he sighed, shaking his head. "Needless to say, it makes for some pretty interesting dinner conversations. I swear, ordinary pizza night can turn into crossfire at our house, especially when my sister comes home."

"I can imagine. How do you survive?"

He looked at her with wide eyes. "I'm surviving?"

She laughed, hitting his shoulder. "You know what I mean."

Jason shrugged. "They hate it, actually," he snickered. "That I'm a Democrat, I mean. But even more so, they hate that I'm more liberal than they are."

Elizabeth nodded. "Doesn't surprise me at all."

"I remember my mom once told me that when I moved away for college, my voters' registration wouldn't be valid anymore because I'd be leaving the precinct, and she said that she wouldn't tell me how to re-register or whatever because I'd just vote against her man, and I was like, What the hell? It made no sense whatsoever. She said she was joking, but I don't trust her."

Elizabeth laughed easily, and then another thought dawned on her. "Hey, how do you feel about the war?"

Jason sighed heavily. "I was for it in the beginning, but then I just totally lost faith in it. Both the cause, the effect, and the administration, I mean. I think they should turn over power immediately and call our men home."

Elizabeth nodded. "So why don't you join me and Sonny this weekend?"

Jason considered it, wincing. "I don't think I can."

"Oh, come on," Elizabeth wheedled. "Why not?"

"Because I'm kinda grounded from political events for the rest of forever," he admitted hesitantly.

Elizabeth's brows pulled into a deep V. "What? What are you talking about? Why?"

Jason rubbed the back of his neck, thinking of how best to launch into this explanation. "OK, here goes. Do you remember back when me and Sonny went to that Senate Youth Leadership Conference thing?"

Elizabeth nodded. "Middle of junior year. I remember – Sonny told me about it."

Jason smirked. "Well, he obviously didn't tell you all about it."

Elizabeth was watching him with her head tilted. "Go on – I'm intrigued now."

"We shared a room at the Hilton in D.C.," Jason explained. "There were about twenty other kids there, from schools all over America. And on the fifth day, we were told that we'd be meeting with the President of the United States for a special press conference type thing. I'm still not sure what it was."

Elizabeth's blue eyes were as wide as saucers and her bottom lip had found itself in a perilous position between her top and bottom teeth. "Go on."

"So we all got dressed. Dress code was simple – black pants, white shirt, blue jacket, black shoes. So we're all ready and they inspect us to make sure, I don't know, that we didn't have stink bombs in our pockets or something. Okay, probably more like knives or whatever, but it was still pretty stupid." He paused for a moment, snickering. "You know, my parents flew up for a day to see this, too. Oh, man."

Elizabeth's teeth had a death grip on her lip, and she squeezed her fingers into her bagged lunch. "Go on."

"OK. So we're at the White House, the President is standing there, he's giving some speech and everyone's quiet and the cameras are flashing and whatnot. Sonny was next to me, and he was like, 'I so don't want to do this', and of course, I couldn't blame him. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't want to either. So then he took a group picture with all of us, and then we were supposed to stand in single file and shake his hand, and this was all being recorded and stuff."

He licked his lips and his shoulders shook with laughter. "So we're standing in line, inching forward, and Sonny's in front of me. The President shakes his hand and makes some really lame joke, and Sonny gives that wow, are you stupid, Sir laugh. And then it's my turn. But what no one had noticed was that by this time, I had added something to my outfit – a Democrat donkey pin."

Elizabeth's eyes shot open. "You didn't."

He nodded mischievously. "I did."

He was rewarded with her amazed laughter. "Oh, my god, you have got to be kidding me! That's amazing! Holy cow!"

"It gets better," he promised, liking the sound of her laugh. "And so then it's my turn, and I shake the President's hand while glancing pointedly – once – down at my pin, and I can't stop myself from saying, 'Bring it on'. I swear, I'm not even making this up," he added when Elizabeth burst into laughter. "I don't know what got into me, but I said it. And kinda loudly, too. The kid behind me – he was gay, and also against the President – found me later and told me that I was his new hero. And I remember saying it and moving on as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, but I swear to you, the man's smile kinda faltered, and he didn't even look directly at the kid behind me in line. It was great."

"Well, I'll tell you one thing," Elizabeth got out, gaping at him in awe. "You're certainly my hero."

Jason smiled cockily, puffing out his chest. "Why, thank you. Took you long enough."

She rolled her eyes at him and beckoned for him to continue. "So? I know there's more – I can see it in your eyes."

"Well," he started, unconsciously biting his own lip. "Like I said, they were recording that for each kid, and my parents saw it. And what's more, they heard what I said." Elizabeth groaned audibly, covering her mouth with her hand. "Yeah. They were completely mortified, and they banned me indefinitely from all sorts of political activity until I'm dead and have been buried for at least three days."

"You can run for Senate then," Elizabeth quipped, recalling the story in the news about a deceased man being reelected into the upper house of legislature.

"Yeah, no kidding," Jason snickered.

"You are…terrible," she finished, shoving him lightly away from her as they neared the library.

"Terribly amazing, you mean," he corrected, stepping next to her and giving her a light push.

"You're ridiculous!" Elizabeth laughed, trying to shove him again. He dug his heels into the ground and she failed to get any leverage. "Who does something like that, anyway?"

"Your hero, I believe," he replied witheringly. "Isn't that what you said?" His fingers found her waist and she squealed and tried to squirm away when he tickled her.

They were directly across the library now, laughing and fighting and completely wrapped up in each other – literally. From the doorways, Carol and Emily just gaped at them.

"Oh, my god," Emily whistled. "I can say with complete honesty that I never thought I'd see that."

"Me either," Carol agreed. "I mean, it came out of nowhere."

"I know!" Emily burst out, shifting her books to the other hand. "And look at them now!"

The tall blonde shook her head. "They certainly are ones for PDA."

"Would you laugh at me if I said I thought that Jason had a thing for her for a while?" Emily asked hesitantly, her eyes glued to the couple as Jason took a quick look around the halls for any authority figures and then picked Elizabeth up and swung her around, laughing as the petite brunette squealed.

"Actually, no," Carol confessed in a hushed voice as she watched the same scene. "I just can't believe that I didn't see it sooner – Jason and I have been friends for, like, forever, and we hang out all the time. I can't believe I didn't pick up on it."

"He was really secretive about it," Emily reassured her. "Ace said that Sonny didn't even know until only a while ago."

"Are we talking about Jason and Elizabeth?" inquired Lexi Cassidine as she exited the library with a copy of Kafka's Metamorphosis in her dainty fingers.

"What else?" Carol laughed. "They're all anyone's talking about."

Lexi snickered. "With good cause, though, you've got to admit. Those two came totally out of the blue."

"Jason and Beth, you mean?" Felicia Jones asked, joining the huddle. Her blonde curls bounced gaily as she cocked her head to the side, snapping her gum loudly. "I know! I mean, who saw that coming?"

"I heard that Jason's had a thing for her since she came here sophomore year," Lexi said seriously. "And that he made Sonny be friends with her so that he could get to know her through him."

"Really?" Carol asked, already filing that away for future reference.

"Are we talking about Beth and her new lover?" came Jenny's cheerfully sinister voice from behind them. The girls spun around and grinned at their friend as she joined the expanding circle. "Because Brendan definitely told me that they spent spring break together."

"Oh, my god!" Emily squealed, bobbing up and down in excitement. "You're kidding!"

Jenny shook her head proudly. "Nope. Brendan heard it straight from Sonny. Said that they spent a full week at the beach." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. "One can only wonder just what they'd be doing there, on the dunes by the ocean, him in his trunks, her in her bikini…"

Carol had to bite her lip from screaming out loud in the middle of the hallway – the hall monitors, if they showed up, wouldn't be too pleased. "Oh, man, oh, man!"

"Hey, do you think they're, you know…?" Emily asked, clearing her throat to leave no doubt of the meaning of her words.

"I don't know," Lexi said hesitantly. "They just got together, and Elizabeth doesn't seem like the type…I mean, I don't know her as well as the rest of you guys, but from what I can see, she's a really nice girl. She doesn't seem like the type."

"Well, she doesn't seem like the type that would jump into Jason's arms in the middle of the hallway either," Carol pointed out, "but Em and I just saw that."

Jenny grabbed her arm instantly, her eyes wide. "Are you serious?" When Carly nodded, the tall brunette clapped her hands together. "That settles it – they're together. They've got to be!"

Lexi almost choked at Jenny's bluntness, but the other girls didn't notice.

"Lucky girl," Felicia grinned, crinkling her nose. "What I wouldn't give to have Jason Morgan."

Carol smiled wickedly, causing the rest of the girls to gape at her.

"You're kidding," Emily said in a hushed monotone. "Oh, my god, you are #$ kidding me."

"Interesting choice of words," Carol smirked at her friend. "And no, I'm not kidding." Especially when she hadn't said anything to begin with.

"You've been with Jason?" Jenny demanded. "And you never said anything? Damn it, woman, what were you thinking?"

Carol smiled innocently. "What are you talking about, Jenny dear?"

As Jenny muffled a scream of frustration, Felicia commanded her attention. "You slept with Jason? Well? Damn it, how was he?"

Carol's eyes glittered. She was loving the attention, that was for sure. It didn't really matter that she had only gone to second base with Jason once back in sophomore year – she didn't mind pretending they'd struck a homer. "Well, I'm sure I don't need to state the obvious, but I will – Jason Morgan is an animal."

This sent the girls into a chorus of squeals, all of them demanding details from a suddenly tight-lipped Carol. Emily spun around to search the hallways for their newest it couple, and wasn't surprised to see that they had already ducked into the lunch room.

"You know, I bet they are together," she asserted. "They were all over each other in the hallway – you saw them."

"Man," Felicia sighed. "She's got to be the luckiest girl ever."

"You know, come to think of it," Jenny began slowly. "I thought I heard Caitlin saying that she heard that they'd done it over Spring Break."

"Oh, man – on the beach?"

"They did it on the beach? Woah!"

"Actually," came a voice from behind them. "You've got it all wrong."

The girls all jumped and turned around, staring wide-eyed at Brenda, who was leaning casually against the wall behind them, her backpack on her back and her lunch in her hand.

"The first time they did it was on the track outside, and they've done it about a billion times since. And then right before spring break, Elizabeth found out she was pregnant, and so they got married in North Carolina but didn't tell her parents and now they're renting out an apartment together and plan on living happily ever after."

She took a moment to study their shocked faces, smirking in amusement.

"Or, you know, they slowly became friends and kissed for the first time over break, and right now they aren't even sure if they're a couple or not." She shrugged indifferently, the corner of her mouth curving upwards into a smile. "Take your pick – whichever one sounds more exciting."

With a small laugh, Brenda Barrett sauntered toward the cafeteria to join Sonny and the 'happily ever after' pair for lunch, leaving her friends gaping at her retreating form.