I was previously informed that this chapter was like Mean Girls. I didn't mean to do that, It was just a weird coincidence. Maybe I did it subconsciously, because I watched the end of Mean Girls like a couple of day before I wrote the chapter. Well, I'm really sorry about my updating, I am horrible and I promise that I will not be as slow and lazy.
Okay, this chapter takes place about three months later. Maria and Matthew have made a few friends, and started calling Luke 'Dad'.
--------------------------------------A Different Kind of Family-----------------------------------
----------------------------------------------Who are you?--------------------------------------------
"Did you see her eyes?" Maria exclaimed, throwing her back in laughter. "They looked they were about to pop out of her head!"
"I know!" Janis said opening the diner door. "And then the way you 'accidentally' knocked her purse over, sending her deluxe size box of condoms exploding onto the floor. It was classics." Janis recollects as her Maria walk up to the counter and have a seat.
"Who had condoms exploding out of their purse?" Luke asked turning around.
"Just this girl at school." Maria said.
"That girl who was spreading rumors about people?" Luke asked.
"That's the one." Maria told him, remembering when she first heard what Rebekah Cassel did.
FlAsHbAcK
It was a chilly October Thursday. Maria was walking down the corridor at school to her locker, when she passed by a locker that had 'Trash' spray-painted on its door. 'You would think that this town could come up with better insults.' Maria thought to her self as she begun to take her books out of her book bag and place them in her locker. As Maria closed her locker door she saw that the graffitied locker was Janis'.
"Who did this?" Janis bellowed.
Everyone in the hall stopped what they were doing and looked at Janis and her locker. Some looked on in amusement, others in horror. Janis waited for someone to say something, but after a minute of silence she growled out in frustration and stomped down the hallway towards Principal Mathers' office. (A/N: 5 gold stars to whoever can figure out which actor this is supposed to be.)
Soon after, Rebekah and the rest of her polo-wearing, suck-up friends turned around the corner laughing their fake laughs and smiling their fake smiles. One member of Rebekah's posse saw the graffitied locker.
She giggled. "Isn't that Janis Tucker's locker?" All of the girls finish their (most recent) laugh and looked over at the locker.
As Rebekah gazed at the word 'Trash', her eyes shown with an evil joyness about them. "You know, I believe that is Janis Tucker's locker." She said chuckling in self-satisfaction. "Come on girls. We have an FCA meeting to get to." She said and the girls continued on their prance towards the gym.
After the prissy posse left, Janis and Principal Mathers went to Janis' locker to look at the damage. While they were talking Peter came up to Maria.
"Confused?" He asked with a grin.
Maria jumped back against her lockers. "Holy crap! You scared me!" She said her, her hand placed over her heart.
"So it seems." He replied. Then just stood their looking at her.
"What?" She asked in confused.
"You never answered my question." He told her.
"What question?" She thought for a moment. "Oh! Yeah, I am kinda confused."
"Meet me after school." He said walking away.
"Okay." She called and started walking in the opposite direction. Then she stopped and turned around. "But wait! Peter! Where are we meeting?" She asked.
"I'll find you!" He called over his shoulder with his omnipresent smirk still on his face.
LaTeR tHaT dAy
Maria was walking around by her locker when she saw Peter sitting outside the main office reading. She went and sat down beside him.
She put her face right next to his and asked, "You gonna tell me now?"
"Yes." He said not moving. Then very quickly jumped up pulling her by her arm with him. "Let's go." He said raising his eyebrows at her.
Peter and Maria walked through a path in some nearby woods until they reached an old tree house on top of a giant Oak Tree. Peter began to climb up the very old looking rope ladder. Maria was hesitant and didn't follow.
Peter noticed this and paused. "Are you coming?"
"…"
"It's safe, I promise." He told her.
Maria nodded and very carefully followed him up the rope ladder and into the rickety old tree house. Once inside Maria saw drawings all over the walls and an old couch in the corner.
"Nice."
"Thanks." He replied. "So, you want to know what happened."
"Yeah." She replied. "Why are you telling me? I mean, it seems like no one wants to bring up whatever it is that happened."
"I'm telling you because you befriended Janis." Peter said to her.
"Oh, okay."
"Now, the first thing you need to know is that Rebekah was adopted. She never met he birth parents, they just left her on the front steps of the Cassel's house. She has this thought in her head that because she's adopted, she's not as good as everyone else, so she has make up for it by being the best at everything and getting everything that she wants. Janis and I were best friends. You know, next-door neighbors and our birthdays are like a month apart. We've both lived here our entire lives. So in Jr. High, Janis decides that she wants me. I still to this day have no idea why, but nonetheless she wants to 'go out' with me. I didn't want to go out with her, but I was nice so Janis pretended to be my girlfriend. When Rebekah found out she was upset. How could anyone choose Janis over Rebekah Cassel? Was basically her thought process, so Rebekah had this party. She invited basically everyone in school, and then we played truth or dare. Rebekah dared Janis to get inside of a trashcan."
Maria starts to laugh a little.
"It may seem funny now, but it won't be later. Okay so they put her in the trashcan and then rolled her down the hill. I, of course, ran down after her to see if she was okay. She said she wanted to stay in the trashcan and hide. She wanted me to get in with her, so I did. Janis was upset so I was comforting her. As I was giving her a kiss on the cheek, Rebekah came down the hill. And said 'Oh my god what are you doing!' very loudly. Then she said 'I can't believe your doing IT in a trashcan!' and ran back up the hill and to her friends. A few weeks later Janis' father died unexpectedly from a heart attack. She's an emotional eater, and so she put on some weight. Then there was a rumor spread around that Janis was pregnant. That summer, Janis' mother sent her off to get help with her eating disorder, and my parents sent me off to boot camp. We were ordered not to speak to each other any more, and we haven't spoken since." Peter said looking down at his hands.
"Wow." Maria said and then remained speechless for a moment. "But wouldn't people have know she wasn't pregnant when Janis didn't have the baby?" Maria asked curiously.
"Well, people thought that she went to an abortion clinic and some sort of camp I guess, instead of an eating disorder clinic." Peter said looking sad. "That's what I hate about this town, people start believing a rumor that was blown way out of proportion instead of the truth."
In ThE present
"So Dad, hit me up with a turkey burger." Maria said drumming her hands on the counter at the diner.
This went unnoticed by Luke who was staring at whoever had just walked in the door.
"Luke!" The girl said excitedly. Luke smiled nervously and came around the counter.
"Hey." Luke said giving her a hug.
"How is everyone?" The girl asked him.
"Everybody's good." He said nodding and smiling. "So you want some coffee?"
"Oh that would be good, but could I get to-go? I need to go talk to Lane." She said.
"Oh sure." Luke told her, filling her to-go cup. "Well, here you go." He said bringing her cup around the counter to her. "It was good to see you." He said giving her another hug.
"You too. Bye Luke." She said waving and then turning around and walking away.
Luke watched her leave and returned to the counter.
"Dad?" Maria called. "Dad?"
"Huh?" Luke responded, coming out of his daze.
"Turkey burger?" Maria said.
"What? Oh yeah sure." He said and turned around. Then he turned back around. "Would you like anything Janis?"
"Umm sure. Let me get a chocolate/strawberry milkshake." Janis told him with a smile.
"Pick one Janis. You can't have both." Luke said pretending to be irritated.
"You and I both know that I can have both. Come on!" She pleaded.
"Fine!" Luke said throwing up his hands an going into the kitchen. While he was in the kitchen the girl who was in the diner earlier returned.
"Where is Luke?" She asked to herself.
"He went into the kitchen, he should be back out in a second." Maria told her.
"Oh, uh thanks." She replied looking a little confused. She sat down at a stool fidgeting uncomfortably.
"If you're in a rush I could get him for you." Maria said.
"Oh no, that won't be necessary. I just need to ask him a question, no rush." She said and continued fidgeting.
Moments later Luke appeared from the kitchen with a plate in one hand and a glass in the other. He placed them down in front of Maria and Janis, and then looked up to see that the girl had returned.
"Rory." Luke said to her. "You're back."
"Yeah well, Lane wasn't home, so I was wondering when she's scheduled to work next." Rory said to him with pleading eyes.
"Oh uh let me go check." Luke said with a strange tome.
"Hey Dad, while your back there could you get me some orange juice?" Maria asked.
"Yeah sure." He said. Not realizing that he had just opened up a can of worms.
Rory eyes popped open wide with shock and she turned to look at Maria.
Janis saw her face and chuckled. She nudged Maria with her elbow and gestured over at Rory. "Look, second pair of popped eyeballs today."
Maria looked up and laughed.
Rory looked at her face. 'She does sort of look like Luke except more exotic.' Rory thought to herself. "Are you Luke's daughter?" Rory asked surprising herself.
Maria stopped laughing and turned to her. "Yes." She replied with a tome of curiosity in her voice. "Who are you?"
"Oh, I umm, I'm uhh--"
"I got Lane's hours for you Rory." Luke said putting down a piece of paper on the counter in front of her. "And the ketchup for you Maria."
"Well, thanks again Luke." Rory said walking back out of the diner.
"Bye." He said.
"Dad, who was that?" Maria asked.
"Huh? Her? Oh, she's just uh, a girl who uh, used to live in town. Lane's friend." Luke said and then went to record in his ledger.
TBCPhew! That was reeeaaaallllly long chapter. That has got to be a record of the longest chapter I have EVER written. Well, I hope that you like this next installment. It would be much appreciated if you would review. Gracias…