It was at least 15 minutes before at least one of the three (Miranda, Gordo, Aunt Jane) noticed Lizzie had disappeared into the mass of people walking the streets. Who first noticed is still a mystery, but there was a massive panic among the three when the revelation came about. They decided the best way to find her would be just...walk back down the street
Lizzie's plan for trying to find the other three was pretty much the same, only she had two things hindering her journey. Their names were Phil and Keely. Lizzie liked the two strangers, but she couldn't see how they were helping her by pulling her into random stores of their choice.
"Hey you guys? Could we please not stop anywhere else?" Lizzie asked, annoyance present in her voice.
"Well, Lizzie, what if they stopped in a store?" Phil responded lamely. "I mean, if you don't want our help, you can just go look for them yourself." He added, spitefully.
"Phil! Stop it. Lizzie, I'll help you. Phil can do what he wants." Keely said.
All Lizzie could do was smile and say thank you to this stranger who decided to leave her best friend to help her in her "quest." She also couldn't help but smile at the look on Phil's face as they left the store.
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"Have you guys decided on where you want to go yet?" Raven asked.
"No, we're up to going anywhere, really." Louis replied.
"Alright, we could go to Fisherman's Wharf, stop by Ghiradelli Square, then walk down to Pier 39." Raven suggested.
Louis, Twitty, Tawny, and Ren all nodded their heads and set off with Chelsea, Eddie, and Raven for their day in town.
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Meanwhile, Phil was fuming. He was still standing in the store Keely and Lizzie left him in 30 minutes before.
'How could she just leave me like that? Especially for someone she doesn't even know!'
If he didn't know any better, he'd say she had a big fat lesbian crush on Lizzie, but he knew himself to be the object of her affection - or at least people had said he was - so the whole situation boggled his mind and thoroughly pissed him off.
After a few more minutes of quiet reflection, he decided to leave. He was going to walk back down to the BART station, and spend the rest of the day by himself and somewhere else.
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Lizzie and Keely only had to wander around for another 5 minutes before Lizzie spotted someone she recognized.
"GORDO! GORDO! Over here!" she yelled.
Gordo walked (or pushed, actually) his way through the crowd of people, grabbed Lizzie's arm, and started to pull her to where he was before.
Lizzie knew she couldn't just leave Keely, so she grabbed her hand and pulled her along with her.
Gordo, Lizzie, and Keely stopped at a fairly un-crowded place where Miranda and Aunt Jane were already waiting.
Lizzie prepared herself for the verbal beatdown from her aunt, which never came. Instead, she was wrapped into a monstrous hug.
"We were all so worried! Thank God you're alright!"
"Well, my friend Keely helped me look for you guys."
'Friend? We just met each other no longer than two hours ago.' Keely thought. The rest of her thoughts were interrupted when she, too, was pulled into a monstrous hug.
"Thank you so much! If your parents will allow it, would you like to join us for dinner?" Aunt Jane asked.
"Well..." she didn't want to say no, because she really did want to get to know Lizzie, but she also didn't want to tell Lizzie's aunt she was totally unsupervised, and she definitely didn't want to have to deal with Phil until tomorrow at the earliest. So she did the only thing she could think of.
"...of course, I'll call my mom right now."
Keely took out her cell phone and dialed a random string of numbers. After making up a conversation with her "mother" she told Aunt Jane:
"She's fine with it, but she's working late tonight and can't pick me up. If it wouldn't be too much of an inconvenience, could I stay the night? You can say no, because you don't really know me, I can just take the BART home." Keely said, barely pausing to breathe.
"There's no such thing as an inconvenience . Of course you can stay. Will your mother pick you up in the morning?"
"No, if you could just take me to the nearest BART station in the morning, I'm meeting my mom in San Francisco tomorrow for lunch."
"Sure, honey." Aunt Jane replied, disbelief apparent in her voice.
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The 7 new friends had been walking around San Francisco for a couple hours when Ren spoke for the first time all day.
"Are there any book stores around here?"
"Yea, there one about a block away." Raven replied.
"Ok, I'm going to go check it out. You guys can do whatever. Come get me when you're all ready to leave."
Before anyone (Tawny) had a chance to object, she was out the door and on her way.
"What's the deal with you sister, Louis?" Eddie asked.
"Who knows, who cares." Louis responded, bracing himself for some retaliation from Tawny, but she was too busy chatting away with Chelsea.
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Phil still wasn't sure where to go. He soon made up his mind to not venture too far and just get off at the next stop - somewhere in San Francisco.
After wandering for a while, Phil went into a bookstore/cafe to relax for a bit. After getting his drink, he saw that the only table that wasn't full had a dark-haired occupant immersed in her book - How to Cope When the Rest of the World is Insane - and slowly walked towards the table.
"May I sit here, ma'am?"
She looked him over, smiled, and replied, "Sure."
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(a/n: Ok, I finally updated!
I just know sooooooo many people were waiting...(coughsarcasmcough)
Anyway, in case you were wondering, everything Keely said was supposed to sound stupid and bad and not make a whole lot of sense. If it sounded clever and good and made a whole lot of sense, that's fine too.
There was actually some TSR in this chapter! I'm proud of myself for that. The Lizzie McGuire will get less...heavy(?) soon. The word lesbian makes an appearance in this chapter also, so I think it's safe to say I'm moving right along.)
