AN: I AM SO SORRY! To all of my faithful, I apologize, repeatedly and profusely. I am so busy lately, and haven't even watched the movies in almost a year...the inspiration was starting to die, and I needed some new...Anyway, I hope to be updating relatively regularly from now on, at least on this story. Say, every two weeks, at the very most. I will try to finish it for those of you who still love me!

"Movie Marathon!"

It was Friday, at long last. The night of the get-together at Adam's house. And Maurae was lounging on her back on her bed, staring at the ceiling as Switchfoot blasted her ears. She didn't realize that Carrie had been shouting her name for five minutes until the redhead yanked the headphones off her ears completely and tossed them aside.

"Your ride is here," she said grumpily. Maurae blinked and sat up, glancing at the door, where Adam and his older brother, last year's Blake graduate Daniel, were leaning on the doorjamb, smirking at her. She rolled her eyes at the both of them and swung her legs off the bed, slipping her feet into the shoes waiting for them.

"You sure you can handle a weekend alone in this big, scary dorm without me?" Maurae teased her roommate. Carrie only scowled. Maurae continued to smile at her pleasantly until Carrie's facade broke and she ducked her head to hide a smile. "Better. Sure you don't want to come? I'm always outnumbered at these things."

"You'd think she'd be used to it by now," Daniel quipped, looking pointedly at his watch. "Come on, girl, we have to go. Carrie, it was nice to meet you."

"You too." Carrie picked up her roommate's overnight bag (aka her hockey bag stuffed with clothes instead of gear) and shoved it at Adam, who, still smirking, hoisted it over his shoulder and started to walk away. Maurae made a face at Carrie, but saluted her sarcastically, then laughed as Daniel grabbed her arm and dragged her (almost literally) down the hall after his younger brother.

"See you!" she called before she pulled herself free and bounded down the stairs ahead of the burly college boy. He sighed and followed her more decorously, but nonetheless enthusiastically, and Carrie lost sight of them. She shook her head in amusement and irritation over her roommate's antics and went back into her room, closing the door and flopping down on her bed, bored out of her mind.

Maurae, on the other hand, was psyched to get out of the dorms for the weekend, and away from her psycho new coach. "Be glad you made Varsity, Ads," she said, catching up to her best friend and slipping her arm through his. "Orion is a nightmare, honestly." She rolled her eyes. "He has us skating like sixty laps before practice, and he'll make us skate more laps if we screw up from exhaustion." She scoffed and sighed, hugging his arm. "How has practice been for you? I bet the Varsity guys are giving you a hard time, huh?" She hadn't really seen her best friend long enough to talk to him during the past week, and it showed in how fast she was talking.

"Slow down, Ro," he teased, tossing her bag in the backseat of his brother's car and holding the door for her. She flushed at her unusual enthusiasm and shut up, ducking in after her bag so he could close the door. "I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to answer your questions this weekend."

"Of course," she said, suddenly quiet. She sat back in the seat and crossed her arms over the seatbelt, silent as Daniel climbed into the driver's seat.

"Suddenly nothing to say?" he asked, grinning, starting the car and leaving the parking lot.

"Just thinking," she said with a shrug.

"Deep thoughts? Thinking about your date to Homecoming?"

"Funny, Daniel," she said, flushing. "Nobody wants to go with a big tomboy like me," she added with as nonchalant a shrug she could muster. She looked out the window, as if that could hide her bright red face The older Banks raised an eyebrow, but let it go. Adam, however, turned in his seat and looked at her, opening his eyes wide.

"Why do you always do that?" he asked quietly. The seriousness in his voice made her turn from the view outside to look at him.

"Do what?" she shot back, knowing what was coming, but unable to resist baiting him again.

"Why do you always put yourself down, like you don't matter to the rest of the world? Do you hear Connie or Jules saying no one will go with them because they're tomboys? No. So why do you insist you're less than you are?"

"Look, Ads, I didn't mean anything by it. All I meant was that no one's asked me."

"Then why didn't you say just that, instead of insisting that no one would want to go with you?"

"I-"

"Why don't you two just go together?" Daniel spoke up to cut them both off before they got started. Maurae and Adam shut up, sure enough, but only for a minute.

"What?" Maurae asked finally, not daring to look at her best friend when she asked it.

"Honestly, that's the best solution, isn't it? You're best friends, so you know you'll have fun, even if you do end up ditching the dance and going to someone's room to play video games or watch movies or some of the same shit you do every weekend." Adam was glaring at his brother by then, but Maurae was looking terrified. Thanks to Carrie, she was now afraid to be alone with her best friend...but that was ridiculous. Why should she be? So Carrie thought he loved her...so what? He was still Adam, wasn't he?

"Where did you cook this up, in chemistry class?" she finally shot at him. "A wonder you didn't make something explode!"

"Whos' to say I didn't?" And the subject was officially changed, though not closed. Not if Daniel Banks had anything to say about it, and he did... a lot to say, in fact.

He saw the way they were around each other, though Maurae obviously was either ignorant of the tension or trying to figure it out. And he knew perfectly well how his brother felt about the female center forward. "What are we watching tonight?" Maurae asked finally, uncrossing her arms so she could sit on her hands and lean forward a bit.

"Um, we thought we'd wait for everybody to show up and then we'd decide," Adam said. "Which should probably be done by around...I dunno, nine-ish? You know how it gets with more than like four people."

"Yeah," she said with a smile. "What do we got for eats?"

"Honestly!" Daniel teased. "An English student, and you ask 'what do we got?' What are they teaching you in that place?"

She snorted. "I can talk whatever way I want to, English or no," she said. "Besides, I can use big words in a sentence, when you don't even know what they mean, college boy."

"Aren't you a bit young to be flirting with college men?" Daniel retorted.

"Sure, if there were any men around," she rejoindered triumphantly, as Adam grinned.

"She got you good with that one, Dan," he snickered.

"Careful, or I might just drop the both of you off right here," Daniel said, though both knew he was teasing. At least, they hoped he was teasing. Just in case he wasn't, they both stopped their banter until they'd reached the Banks' house.

Maurae grabbed her bag and carried it into the house, glaring at first Daniel then Adam when they tried to be gentlemen and carry it for her. "You know, maybe guys like it when you let them be gentlemen once in a while, Maurae," Daniel said. "It has nothing to do with being a tomboy, and it has even less to do with insulting your feminism."

"What are you going on about?" she snapped. "I can carry my own damn bag once in a while!" Then she lugged it up the stairs to the guest room that was designated hers every time she decided to come stay, slamming the door behind her, leaving the two brothers standing on the landing, shaking their heads and sighing in defeat. She was just too stubborn for her own good. And she wondered why the boys at Eden Hall were too intimidated to ask her to the dance!

She spent a good half hour reading on the bed, waiting for everyone else to show up, before someone came and knocked on the door. "It's open," she said, setting the book down and looking up expectantly when the door inched open.

Adam and Charlie appeared, both grinning. "Everybody's here. We've narrowed the movies down to three," Charlie said in greeting.

"Shoot," she said, rolling onto her stomach and using her arms, push-up style, to lift herself onto her knees. "What three?"

"The first Star Wars, Spaceballs, and a James Bond movie."

"No to Spaceballs, you know I hate it," she replied instantly.

"Yes, we know you think it's a'bloody travesty,'" Adam said with a grin. "But the Star Wars was a surprising success with everybody, and the trouble with James Bond is that there's so many to choose from."

"I say Star Wars," she replied. "But you already knew that."

"Yeah. That's what we told everyone, but Daniel said we should ask you to be polite. He's putting it in now, I think. Come on." She slid off the bed and linked arms with the two boys. Adam closed the door as they left and let Maurae and Charlie preceed him down the stairs. Loud voices were already coming from the living room where they'd left the rest, and he wondered whether Fulton and Daniel were having a fight, or whether Shayne had taken exception to his brother, as she'd already done once that evening.

It turned out to be Shayne, yelling at Daniel's friend Rick, whom, she claimed, had grabbed her butt. Fulton had his arm around her waist and was holding her back from jumping on the bigger boy, the one smirking at her from a safe distance. Maurae smiled and raised an eyebrow.

"Typical Shayne," she said in a voice loud enough to carry over her cousin's shouts. Immediately, the darker girl stopped struggling in Fulton's arms and glared at her. "Oh, please. As if I'm afraid of that look," she said.

"He grabbed my ass, Rae." Maurae tilted her head and looked over at the leering boy, raised her eyebrow further and smiled wickedly.

"So were you trying to punch him, or kick him?" she asked blandly.

"Oh, no!" Daniel said, jumping instantly between Maurae and his friend. "You aren't going to be beating anyone up tonight. Either of you."

"Take it easy, Daniel," Maurae said, waving a hand dismissively as she took a seat on an armchair. "I don't hit other girls." And as Shayne opened her mouth to refute it and ruin the insult, Maurae spoke up loudly again with, "And Shay doesn't count."

"Make up your mind, already," her cousin declared. "Are you on my side or not?"

"Of course I am, love," she drawled in response. "I threatened to beat up someone bigger than me for you, didn't I?" Shayne rolled her eyes and wriggled out of Fulton's grip to sit on the couch in a huff. "You just aren't used to being the only girl in a crowd of teenage boys."

"That's right," Shayne said, imitating her careless drawl. "When was the last time I stopped by your house?" A surprised snort of laughter escaped Maurae before she managed to control herself enough to frown at Shayne. The banter war between the two girls had effectively diffused the situation, which had been Maurae's intention to begin with, though she hadn't planned on Shayne's help; her memory of the other teen was of a semi-volatile temper that usually took much longer to cool after igniting.

"So, are we watching this movie or what? I do have homework I could be doing," Maurae said. Several incredulous stares were thrown her way. The only person, in fact, that she didn't get one from, was Adam, who'd been thinking along the same lines.

"You have all weekend to do your homeowork," Daniel finally said, picking up the remote and starting the movie.

Maurae settled back in bliss as the opening strains of Star Wars filled the air, not noticing the amused smirk Shayne sent her over her sigh of delight, or the smile Adam gave her as he settled onto the floor next to the coffee table. Or Daniel's expressive eye-roll when she squirmed in her chair and began reciting lines with the characters. It was how she watched movies, and half the time she didn't realize she was doing it. It could be irritating if she started speaking out loud, but right then she was only moving her lips.

She barely moved, even to shift position, until the ending credits had started to roll. And it was still only barely seven pm. Daniel's friend Rick, sat up and looked the room over at large. "I say we break for food and watch the next one."

Maurae had only opened her mouth when Adam broke in. "We know you're okay with it, Ro," he said, not even having looked at her. A small, secret smile tugged at his lips. "You can't seem to say no to Star Wars."

"Oh shut up, you!" she said, sticking her tongue out at him like the mature adult she claimed to be. He only shook his head, grinning. "Bite me," she muttered, swinging her legs off the arm of the chair she'd been perched in, and groaning as they started to tingle with suddenly renewed blood flow. He only smiled his charming, good boy smile and offered her a hand up, which she accepted, using him to stabalize herself as the tingles turned to pain and then subsided enough for her to walk into the kitchen, albeit shakily.

"This is fun," Charlie said from behind them. Both turned and moved a little farther apart to offer the third member of their trio some room. "I love watching movies instead of doing homework or practicing with that..."

"Charlie," Maurae chided.

"I'm serious, he's like...like Bombay got when we called him Captain Blood!" Maurae sighed.

"I thought we agreed not to talk about that this weekend," she started. Charlie shrugged. "I love watching movies too," she said firmly, her lips a thin line, warning her friend not to ruin the good mood that watching Star Wars with friends had engendered. "Especially Star Wars."

"We know," the boys said in unison, then grinned at her. It was a mark of how good of friends they really were. Maurae locked arms with Charlie and dragged him into the kitchen, where she grabbed a slice of pizza in one hand and a plate in the other and stood watching in awe and disgust as Fulton shoved a handful of Cheetos into his mouth. There was a similar expression of stunned disbelief on Shayne's face, quickly morphing into identical disgust.

"Well, at least I wasn't planning on kissing him," she said dryly, sending a smug smirk towards Shayne. Fulton reddened and Shayne glared murderously at her cousin, silently vowing revenge.

"Well at least I have someone to kiss," she shot back viciously. Maurae's face went dead pale and Shayne suddenly worried that she'd finally gone too far with her cool-tempered cousin; she knew that her so-called "lack" of a love-life was a sore spot with Maurae. The rest of the room's occupants were waiting, holding their breaths, to see what the girl would do or say.

Sure enough, her eyes glittered dangerously as she opened her mouth to reply. "If you weren't my cousin, I'd strangle you for that," she said softly.

"It slipped out."

"I'm sure it did. Make sure nothing else I want kept private slips out, shall we." Even Shayne could tell it wasn't a question. Adam, Charlie, and Fulton breathed a sigh of relief. None of them had looked forward to the possibility of having to hold Maurae back. The smaller girl was terrifying when she was outraged; she didn't seem to care if she got hurt herself, so long as the other person felt her anger. Shayne knew this well, from the rare occasions during their shared childhood when Maurae had lost her temper. Maurae smiled then, and put the pizza on the plate she was holding before it dripped grease onto the tile floor. "I'm up for the second movie. Who's with me?" She didn't wait for an answer, but cheerfully left the room and returned to her favorite chair.