Author's Note: Thanks to everyone for being so patient with me. Here's the next (really) long overdue chapter. Let me know what you think.

Chapter Six: Sunshine and Christi

Christi leaned her back against the door of Sunshine's car and slung one arm lazily over the back of the seats. She lowered her eyelids seductively and allowed one sleeve of her cardigan to drop off her shoulder, revealing the lacy camisole she wore underneath.

"Sunshine," she said, "you are too cute."

Sunshine cowered a little closer to his own door.

"Look at you," Christi continued to coo, "sitting over there being all shy."

Sunshine tried to force himself to smile, but only managed to slightly raise one corner of his mouth to have it immediately drop back down.

"Oh, come on now, little Sunshine," Christi said, scooting nearer to her prey and placing her hand on his upper thigh, "You don't have to be shy with me, Sunshine. I won't tell anyone your secrets…or our secrets." Her hand began a steady rhythm up and down his thigh as Sunshine just stared down at it. It was steadily rising higher with every caress and his hands gripped a little tighter on the steering wheel.

Meanwhile, Kelly crawled under the covers of her bed. Images of Christi and Sunshine in compromising positions flooded through her already aching mind. There was no escape from them. She saw it when she closed her eyes, she saw it when she opened them. It was a nightmare that wouldn't end. Perhaps there was hope that Sunshine would turn down a tramp like Christi, but then Kelly knew Christi. Girls like Christi didn't stop until they got their way, and Christi seldom had trouble getting her way with men. And, despite his good nature and intentions, Sunshine was still very much a man.

And she had spotted them. Cecile had understood that she didn't feel like going out anywhere to celebrate. Ray had cornered her at one point, but she told him that she felt like she was going to throw up and didn't want to do anything but go home and cuddle up in her own bed. He tried for a bit longer to get her to go out with him to party, but he finally got the message and offered her a ride home.

Kelly let out a loud cry of frustration before finally burying her head under her pillow and crying herself to sleep. The only thought that comforted her was that she had an entire weekend to harden herself against the thought of Sunshine and Christi walking down the halls hand in hand.

"Sunshine, I can't figure out why you keep pulling away from me. Don't you think I'm pretty?" Christi asked.

"Yeah, I mean, of course I think you're pretty. You're very pretty, Christi…"

"Well then, come here!" Christi said and practically crawled into Sunshine's lap. He had no escape. Christi began trailing kisses across his neck and cheeks.

"Christi!" He exclaimed.

In the morning, Kelly woke up even more tired than she had been before she had fallen asleep. It had been a completely restless slumber and more than likely the reason she felt like there was a train running through her head. All she wanted to do was crawl into a hole and forget everything she had seen after the game last night. Instead, she crawled out of bed and went to the kitchen for breakfast. Stupid, evil cheerleader.

Gerry looked at his little sister when she trudged into the kitchen. "What happened to you?"

"Rough sleep." Kelly hissed, "What did you get into last night?"

"Not a lot. None of us really felt like partying. We played like hell last night. You know it, we know it, everyone knows it."

"Yeah, what's up with that? You guys have so much talent and you seem like you have fun together…what's going on?"

"I think it's just all this outside stuff, you know. It's really putting a strain on everyone." Gerry said.

"It all just seems so stupid."

"Tell me about it."

Kelly dropped her head to the table with a groan. She heard Gerry stand up and walk out of the kitchen. She desperately needed an Aspirin to stop her head from pounding. Christi had Sunshine, the football team was playing like crap, and there were people protesting every morning at the gate of her school. Things could not possibly get any worse.

"Gerry Bertier! I do not want you consorting with THOSE people!" Mrs. Bertier's voice bellowed from the other room.

Kelly was wrong. Things could always get worse. Never say that things can't get any worse, because that's normally when they do. She thought that maybe she should go back to bed and pretend that everything was all a very bad dream, but she also knew that that would be useless. The world had practically gone crazy, and she was smack dab in the middle of all the fun.

The rest of the weekend went by fairly uneventful. Kelly's headache lasted for the entire length of it and Gerry and their mother's constant fighting did not help to ease it. She was almost thankful when Monday came and she had school to look forward to. The protestors seemed almost like a peaceful refuge compared to the war that was raging in her own home between her mother and brother. She was in Gerry's camaro before he was. She was probably in that car and ready to go before her brother was even fully awake. She just wanted out of that house. She wasn't sure she was ready to see Sunshine and Christi together, but what choice did she have? When Gerry came to the car, he seemed unnaturally happy considering the weekend that he had been through.

"What are you so happy about?" she asked.

Gerry looked over at her and grinned like she hadn't seen him grin in what had to be years. "We've got a plan!" he exclaimed.

He looked so stupidly happy, Kelly could not hold in her chuckle. She shook her head and continued to giggle at him for half of the ride to school.

The protestors were as enthusiastic as ever at the gates and Kelly walked by giving them all the attention she felt they deserved. None. She spotted Rev and had half a mind to run up and kiss him just to shock them all into silence, but she knew that Rev would be the one to bare the brunt of the consequences for such an action and she could never bring herself to do that to him. Instead, she cast him a smile and a little wave as she dashed up the stone steps into the school to get to class.

She strode through those halls like a woman on a mission, and she was. Her mission: to avoid Sunshine at any and all costs. When had life become so complicated? It didn't used to be so. She got into the room for her first class and released a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. Relief could not quite cover the feeling that she had. She took her seat and happily listened to every single word that came out of the teacher's mouth.

Class, however, was over far too soon and she was back in the halls again. This time, her eyes fell almost immediately on Sunshine. He was leaning against a locker with Christi standing in front of him. The sight of him was enough to steal the air from her lungs. Why did she care so much? What was he to her? Nothing…or everything. She couldn't figure out which one it was yet.

Sunshine spotted Kelly out of the corner of his eye. He wanted to go to her. He wanted to talk to her and ask her why he had seen her leaving the game with Ray on Friday. But what would Gerry say? Maybe she would come to him. He saw her start to walk in his direction and then vaguely remembered that Christi was in front of him rambling on about something or other that was completely unimportant to him. He watched the way Kelly was walking. She seemed determined to walk right past him and Christi seemed determined not to shut up. It was supposed to be the other way around in his head. He wanted Christi to walk past him, completely unnoticed, and he wanted Kelly standing in front of him, smiling and laughing and talking. Oh, Gerry was going to have his head before the season was over.

Wait! Where did she go? He blinked. He had blinked and in that amount of time, Kelly had disappeared around the corner. How had he not seen her pass? Had he gone temporarily blind? He must have.

Kelly braced herself against the wall and tried to catch her breath. She had practically just sprinted past Sunshine and Christi to avoid having to talk to them. They were looking far too cozy for her comfort level and she just wasn't ready to deal with it. Ray chose that moment to appear.

"Hey, Kelly." He said.

"Oh," she smiled weakly, "hey, Ray."

"What's wrong?" he asked, "You seem out of breath."

"No. No. Just, uh," she began fanning herself, "just a little hot."

That seemed acceptable to Ray. "Can I walk you to class?"

Kelly couldn't think of one reason not to let Ray walk her to her next class. "Sure, Ray. That would be nice."

"Great." Ray said and put his hand on the small of her back to guide her through the crowded halls. As they were walking, Kelly spotted a notice on one of the bulletin boards showing that there was to be a football meeting that night in the gymnasium. Odd time for a football meeting, even for Boone. Seemed funny to her, but she would just ask Gerry about it later.

Sunshine stepped around the corner and saw Kelly walking down the hall with Ray's hand on her back. There was sudden know that formed out of nowhere in his stomach. He knew that he needed to stay away from Kelly, he didn't want to piss off his captain, but…shouldn't that rule apply to everybody on the team? Why was it okay for Ray to put his grubby hands all over her?

Sunshine shoved the thought from his mind and continued on his way to his classroom, staring at his feet as he walked. Thinking like that wasn't going to solve anything. He just needed to accept the situation and go about his business as usual. What else could he do?

He could walk over there and put his fist through Ray's face, that's what he could do. But he wouldn't. He would go to class, attempt to pay attention, but spend the entire time thinking about Kelly. Just like every other day…only this day the thoughts would be tainted with images of her and Ray.