Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters mentioned below in the chapter, except for Natalie, Sonya, Kari, Cassie, and Kristen.

From the previous chapter…

Ray, without realizing it, raced after Kristen. He arrived in the bus, just to see Kristen frown hard at Kai.

And box him in the head.

Obviously, they didn't know that Ray was there, listening to what they were saying.

"What was that for?"

"What, Kristen?"

"Why did you do that to Cassie?"

Kai didn't answer that question. He just looked up and saw Ray. Then he said to Kristen, "You see

her for the first time and you call her Cassie?"

Kristen was about to move on when Kai stopped her with the most shocking sentence.

"All right, all right. I'll try to be better to the rest of them, okay? By the way, in case you didn't know, your boyfriend's been listening to every word we've been saying." Kai snorted. And almost regretted it. Just almost.

"My boyfr-" Kristen started and turned around.

Oh my god, I hate my brother. Doesn't he know he's supposed to be my boyfriend???

Ray looked at the two of them.

"I thought he was supposed to be your boyfriend."

~* Words Hurt *~

Kristen glared at Kai for a second or two, then she turned to stare at Ray, who was staring back curiously, anxious of what she had to say.

"You're right, Ray. He is my boyfriend, although he wouldn't admit it."

Then she boxed Kai on the head again. This time, Kai did regret it.

Later that evening, Kristen avoided Ray and his questioningly gaze as much as she could. But dinnertime came soon, and Mister Dickenson himself called the hostel and said that he couldn't bring the whole lot of them out tonight, like he promised, as he had some matters of his own to settle.

"I promise that I'll bring you the next time," he had said in his usual jovial voice.

The new girls shrugged and the guys groaned. This meant that they would have to find their own plans. With the girls, whether they liked it or not.

"So, Cassie, what do you wanna eat?" Max smiled.

Cassie shrugged once more. "Don't know, don't care." As usual, that was her favorite phrase. She hadn't changed that much.

Tyson barely hid his groan. "Aw, come on, guys, I'm so hungry I could eat a pack of horses."

"You're always hungry." Max commented with good humor.

"Guess so, but we'd better go before it gets late." As they proceeded to get out of the hostel, two of the new girls started giggling.

Tyson couldn't help but be irate. "What is it now?"

One of the new girls, Natalie, smiled broadly and said, "Why don't we play a game?"

Even Kai couldn't take it. "Now?" he asked incredulously.

The other girl, who had raven black hair, Sonya, laughed. "Yeah, we've got this idea. Just listen to it. What say we write all our names down and go on individual dates with the person you picked out? Since there's a balanced sex ratio and all…"

Some of them were about to disagree but Tyson said in a near shout, "Fine. Whatever it takes to get all of you out the door!"

Nobody disagreed then. Tyson was pretty scary when he was denied the simply necessity of food.

So the 'game' went on. The girls got to choose, of course.

Sonya took out her hand out of the little makeshift box and smiled in chagrin as she saw Tyson's name in bold.

"Great! Bye guys!" Tyson said before he disappeared around a corner, practically dragging Sonya, who almost looked sorry for suggesting the idea of the game.

Then the picks went on. It was fate, really.

Max looked a bit regretful as he took Kari by the arm, but smiled good-naturedly at her. Dizzi pretended to complain of not having Kenny all to herself as Natalie laughed and dragged Kenny and Dizzi along.

Cassandra went first and got a slight, funny jolt when she touched one of the two remaining papers. Instinct told her to get that out. So she did.

The next thing she heard was Kai groaning softly. She laughed. "Bye guys!"

Kristen cursed and cursed as she turned off the lights and locked the door behind her. Ray was waiting for her, arms folded, staring her down.

She braved herself. "Going?"

Ray shrugged and walked off.

What chivalry, she thought with a mental frown. No wonder he doesn't have any girlfriend.

Or does he, a little part of her mind challenged.

This wasn't right… he never said anything about having a girlfriend or not.

Kristen ran and stopped Ray in his tracks, leaving him surprised.

"Is everything okay?" he asked when he saw Kristen's flustered face. He turned around and saw that no one was behind them, which meant that she wasn't being followed. So what was the problem?

"Am I walking too fast?" he asked again when she kept her head low and remained silent.

She suddenly shook her head fervently and started walking away.

Ray thought, she probably just wanted to walk ahead, and then he rolled his eyes.

The walk only lasted for a few minutes when Kristen suddenly wondered how close Ray was to her. She stopped walking and Ray nearly collided into her.

"What was that for?"

Kristen swerved around. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

Ray had to admit, he was surprised by her candor. Then he suddenly turned red with anger.

"Well, unlike you, I wouldn't go around seducing other people when I obviously have my own partner," he shot.

That hurt. It really did. The sharp ends of what he said pricked Kristen in parts that she never wanted to get involved with ever again.

Tears came to her eyes, but she turned around with her back to Ray. Ray noticed that her back was stiff, but right now, he was a bit too angry to care about anything else. Right now, he just wanted to clear the air.

But before he could say anything, Kristen beat him to it.

"So what is this? What are you calling me now? A whore? A harlot? A-"

"Look, I don't remember myself calling you anything of those. All I'm saying is that-"

Kristen turned around so fast that Ray thought she would lose her balance.

"Something in your words called me something, and don't you dare deny it!" Kristen was shouting now and there was unmistakable hurt and anger in her eyes.

Unfortunately, both the hurt and anger were reflected in Ray's eyes as well. What was he, a name-caller now? When all the while, he was being the spare wheel for her.

"Fine. If you're insisting that I called you something…" he searched his mind. "Will bitch do?!"

Smack. His left cheek stung with the sudden blow dealt by Kristen.

"Call… me anything… except… for a… bitch," she hissed through her teeth, as if she had difficulty breathing all of a sudden.

Ray regretted his anger. Regretted everything he had said to her. At that moment, he didn't even mind being the spare wheel and second choice. He wanted to say that he was terribly sorry. If only Kristen gave him the chance and not run away with tears welling up in her eyes.

People say in life, you get your own ups and downs. But Ray wouldn't have felt that bad if he didn't feel like he had been dealt with the biggest and worst deuce of his life.

A/N: how was that? to tell u guys the truth, I'm getting a little confused by the sudden new names myself. Even though I created them. How ironic. By the way, remember to review!!! Oh, and Clay Aiken rules!!!! And can anyone tell me if Clay and Carmen Rasmusen are going out together?