The Pike family waited at the train station- well some of it.
Claire, Margo and Vanessa, and Mr and Mrs Pike, stood waiting.
Mrs Pike's face was strained, whether from the 45 minute car ride with three squabbling sisters or the anticipation of Mallory's arrival it was hard to tell.
The triplets and Nicky had declined to come, and so at home with them was Dawn, babysitting Nicky.
"I'm too old to have a babysitter!" Nicky Pike had protested.
"We'll baby-sit him Mum." The triplets said, smiling. Eventually it had been decided that whilst the triplets were older enough to not need a babysitter for the hour or two that the adults would be away, Nicky was not, and the triplets couldn't be trusted to do it.
"Hey, here's her train." Vanessa said, in straight prose, no rhymes.
The train pulled to a noisy halt and passengers disembarked, whilst their luggage was unloaded and left by the side of the train. "There's Mal's stuff! Let's go wait by it for her." the adults said. Vanessa and Claire followed obediently, whilst Margo wandered over to examine the train tracks.
A group of elderly people disembarked the train, chatting eagerly. Behind them came a few couples. A couple of minutes passed, the stream of people getting off the train changed to a trickle.
Mr Pike sighed impatiently. "What if she missed the train?" Mrs Pike worried.
At last, 10 minutes after the final person departed from the train, the doors opened again and a figure stepped out.
"Hey Mum, Dad." Mallory said casually, taking her headphones off briefly to get a better grip on her bag.
Mrs Pike hugged her hard and Mallory flinched away, disentangling herself with ease and slipping her headphones on. "So, where's the car?" she asked, totally ignoring her siblings who stood looking at her.
Mr Pike pointed and Mallory led the way, followed by her family.
The ride home was quiet as Mallory stared out the window, and her family attempted to engage her in conversation. "So Mal, are you glad to be home?"
Shrugs.
"What's boarding school like?"
"S'ok."
The ride home was quiet.
Dawn Schafer looked up from her homework and did a quick run through of where everyone was. The triplets, gone to a friend's place. Nicky in the living room watching T.V. "Are you okay Nick?" she called.
"Yeah" Nicky shouted back.
She turned back to her homework just in time to hear the sound of wheels in the driveway. "Hey, they're home." Nicky called, coming into the room where Dawn was.
Dawn got up and put her homework away.
"Hey guys, we're home" Mrs Pike called as she came through the door.
"Oh hi Dawn, just hang on a sec and I'll pay you." Mrs Pike went into the kitchen. Claire, Margo and Vanessa followed her and then Dawn heard their footsteps on the stairs.
She turned back around and gasped in shock. Mallory entered the house, nodded at Dawn and stopped, waiting for her to say something.
"Hi Mal," Dawn said awkwardly, smiling.
"Hello Dawn. It's…good to see you."
"Yeah, you too." Dawn said. "Look, I have to go," she said, as Mrs Pike paid her, "But it's really great to see you, I hope you come to the meeting tomorrow."
Mallory looked puzzled. 'Meeting?"
"Of the club." Dawn explained.
Mallory frowned, "Still on is it?" and then smiled. "Well, sure, I guess I can do that."
Dawn headed out the door; half certain Mallory had sneered at her. No, Mal's probably just tired.
The next day Dawn arrived at Claudia's house at 5:28 scowling at the clock as she came in.
"What's up with you?" Kristy asked from her position in the director's chair.
"Nothing, I was just hoping to be a bit early so I could talk to you guys about something." Dawn said disappointedly.
"Later" Kristy said briefly, shooting her a curious look and looking at the door. Swift footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs and Jessi burst into the room, flinging herself down on the rug and looking around the room. "Mal's not here yet?"
"No." Kristy smiled. By 5:30, the rest of the club had assembled sitting in their customary places but still no Mal.
The phone rang at precisely 5:30, Dawn answering it calmly and sitting up a job for Kristy.
Mallory waited outside the front door, checking her watch, it was35 past 5. Automatically she felt guilty, and then laughed it off. 'it's just a stupid club Mal' she reminded herself, opening the door to Claudia's house and breezing past her surprised parents who looked at each other, wondering who the strange girl heading up the stairs was.
Again an unaccountable feeling of nervousness pervaded her and Mallory paused at the closed door to Claudia's room.
She glanced down at herself, adjusting her shirt, and wiping a bit of carpet fluff off her black, knee length boots, tucked securely away under her pants.
A burst of laughter from inside the room comforted her, and Mallory pushed open the door.
Silence fell.
6 pairs of eyes turned to the door.
Whatever Mallory had imagined about her return, it wouldn't be the looks of disbelief on their faces.
Jessi spoke up from her position on the floor. "Mal? You're here."
She stood up and awkwardly came over to Mal, hugging her. Mal hugged her back.
"It's great to see you Jessi." She said flatly, standing in the middle of the room and looking around at her old friends.
Kristy, still in Jeans and a t-shirt although not sporting any pictures of dogs at least. Her hair, still in the pony tail, actually looked like she brushed it occasionally.
Mary-Anne, who still dressed like a kid in an old storybook. Stacey and Claudia in 'popular girl' clothing, tight jeans, small tops. Mallory's eyes rested on Claudia's earrings, a coke bottle and a wine bottle and she frowned, aware in the back of her head that once she would have found them both cute and cool, and now they just looked ridiculously pathetic.
Jessi wore her usual tracksuit over her ballet gear, and she smiled brightly as Mal looked at her.
Lastly Mallory turned to Dawn, whose casual style she'd always liked the most and a smile was forced out of her when she noticed that Dawn was wearing a similar outfit to hers, the same long pants but her sleeveless top was red, and Mallory's was black. On her feet she wore low black shoes. 'Hey Dawn.' Mallory said.
"What the hell happened to you?" Kristy burst out disbelievingly, ignoring the censuring looks she got from the others.
Mallory turned to face her, a sneer on her face. "I was wondering," she said coldly, in a voice none of the others had ever heard before "when you would revert back to your rude thirteen years old self, but I gave you a little more credit than that, I didn't think you'd last 5 seconds."
"Sorry" Kristy said, abashed. "I just meant, you look different."
Mallory scowled. "It's amazing what two and a half years can do, isn't it girls?" she addressed the room.
'Yeah'. The girls thought in unison, each feeling varying degrees of emotions.
Despite her shock, Stacey couldn't help but notice that Mallory's new brown hair looked much better than her frizzy reddish hair.
"Somewhere in those two and a half years Mal's learnt what eyeliner and mascara is" Claudia whispered to Stacey. "Yeah, but it's so…not Mal." She whispered back.
"If we are all finished judging me, I thought we were here for a reason." Mallory said, looking at Kristy. "We aren't all judging you" Jessi put in, and Dawn nodded shooting Kristy a dirty look.
Way to make her feel welcome.
The phone rang. "And we are here for a reason," Kristy said, picking up the phone.
"Hey Mal," Kristy asked, a little stiffly "You want to sit for Lucy Newton?"
Mallory looked at her, and reveled in the familiarity of it all. Of course, life in Stoneybrook could never be the eclectic life away from it. Never the fast switching between stiff exams and hard classes, to drinks and dancing afterwards. Mallory looked at Kristy and in her eyes saw the girl she used to be, clean as anything, never even heard the word pot unless it was followed by "plant", awkward and gangling, letting red hair and glasses slow her down.
"No thanks." She said. "I'm busy Saturday."
"Doing what?" Jessi asked curiously.
Dawn, who'd been silently appraising her up until then jumped in before Mallory could.
"Hey, she just got back, she can sit later."
"Okay" Kristy shrugged, passing the job on.
"It's six." Claudia announced, adjusting her earring in the mirror.
"Okay." Mallory said. I'm out of here. She glanced around at these people who'd been her friends, who she'd once admired and respected, and wished to be like, and stood up.
"Bye guys."