A/N: Short, more filler and background info. Things will pick up again soon, I promise!

Chapter 11

The following Monday morning dawned much colder with grey sheets of rain, the first time Jess had seen any real precipitation since she had arrived in Southern California. Since she was still without a car Jess had to bike to college through intermittent showers while wearing a heavy jacket, hood up tightly over her head. As sloppy as the weather was, she knew it was still nothing compared to the piles of snow and evil slippery ice that everyone was dealing with back in South Jersey and felt grateful yet again that her mother hadn't chosen a really Arctic-like place to move, like Toronto.

When she took a seat at her customary desk in Geometry class, she was unsurprised to see many of her fellow students were absent, including Stacy. If she wasn't so used to it, she wouldn't have felt like going out in these conditions either.

After her last class ended she headed straight for the clothing boutique to begin her first day on the job. Luckily business was slow so Evie had plenty of time to show Jess all the nuances of retail sales. The pretty African-American manager seemed relieved that her new hire was a quick study and after a while she became chatty about non-work related topics.

"So have you made a lot of new friends here yet?" Evie inquired as she helped Jess tag a new shipment of long peasant skirts.

"A few, I guess." Jess related the main events of the past weekend, about meeting the Dogtowners at Bicknell Hill, the session at P.O.P. and a brief rundown of the Zephyr shop party, leaving out the cattiness from the other girls, her makeout session with Jay and the incident involving Jay's mom.

Evie nodded understandingly. "Yeah, my little brother Marty skates with those guys sometimes when he's not busy with his oh-so demanding girlfriend."

Jess smirked sarcastically. "Oh, gotta love girls like that."

"Yeah, especially when they find a sugar-sweet guy to be at their beck and call," Evie grumbled. "I mean, I love the boy and all, but he's a total pushover! Oh well, as long as she doesn't break his heart."

Hmm, Marty sounds just like the kind of guy Angel wants, Jess thought with a private snicker. Too bad he's also seeing someone else. Maybe it is true that all of the good ones are taken…

Evie glanced up at the big Mickey Mouse clock that adorned the wall beside the register. "Almost four-thirty. I think you're cool to take off for the day, Jess. Probably gonna close up at five today, dead as it's been here."

Jess got up and pulled on her jacket, automatically flipping the hood up to cover her long dark hair although the view out of the front window revealed that the rain had quit falling. "When do you want me to come back…if you do want me back?"

"Oh! Yeah, I think you'll work out," her new boss replied with a grin. "Come back on Wednesday afternoon and I'll have a regular schedule made out for you."

"Great! See you then!"

Jess cycled through the Venice streets for home, hoping the rain would hold off for the trip. It did, but moments after grabbing the mail and letting herself in, a new squall line began rolling in with dusk hard behind it. Her mom wasn't home from work yet so the house was dark. She flipped on the tall lamp by the couch and began sifting through the mail, giving a squeak of delight when she saw one of the letters was addressed to her. It was from Naomi, her best friend and former schoolmate back in Philadelphia. Naomi was in the grade below hers and was now in her senior year, Jess having graduated last year. Seeing her name written in her friend's distinctive loopy scrawl on the envelope made Jess really miss the East Coast for the first time since she had moved out West, and her eyes involuntarily began to mist. Not wanting her mom to come home and find her bawling on the couch, she took the letter into her room, carefully opened it, and began reading:

Jess! Dear God, you have no idea how much I miss you right now and how disbelieving I am that you're gone and all we have are some pieces of paper and the occasional phone call to communicate. Poor substitute for the way it used to be, huh?

Anyway, how is California treating you? Did you find a job yet? Does the sun shine all the time (well, not at night obviously but you get the idea!) Are the boys as cute as the ones on TV? And most importantly, can you get decent bagels and lox out there, or am I going to have to send you guys a care package? Ha, ha! Ok, that's enough questions. There's not a whole lot of news to talk about from here, really. We had about a foot of snow over the weekend – bet you don't miss that huh? But of course everything's running like normal now. No snow days for us! Rachel G. finally dumped Bobby and now he's seeing Rachel C., which is definitely an improvement. We know how much of a phony Rachel G. has always been. Bobby's way too good for the likes of her.

Went into the city last week and got the new ELO album and the "Dream On" single from Aerosmith. Do you have it yet? Steven Tyler is sooo foxy. Sigh! The guy at the record store said there's going to be a Ramones album coming out soon, too. It better be as good as their live shows. Speaking of shows, have you been to any out there yet? I bet LA gets more shows than even Philly does. I'm happy for you and your mom that you got away from here but I sure do miss you. Maybe I'll get an after school job and make enough money fly out to see you, wouldn't that be the best?

Ok, I'm gonna quit now before I start rambling at you too much. But please write back as soon as you can and tell me all about your new life out there. And send pictures of your new house and some cute surfer boys, too! Love ya, miss ya!

Xoxoxo,

Nay-nay

Jess smiled wryly as she refolded the letter and put it back in the envelope before placing it carefully on her bedside table. Maybe in a day or two she'd ask her mom if she could call Naomi, or maybe she would save the money and write her back instead. She missed everyone on the East Coast a lot, but if she was going to be happy in LA she would have to learn to put all that behind her and embrace the ways of the West Coast. At least so far –with one or two notable exceptions – the locals had been pretty receptive of her, which certainly helped with the adjustment. For a moment her mind flitted back to the party at the Zephyr shop and her short but interesting makeout session with Jay. What a strange turn of events that had been, she silently reflected. When would she seem him again, and what would happen? Hell, he might not even talk to her, or he could try to have her alone in the back room again within two minutes. With a guy like that, there was just no telling. The sound of the front door opening made her start from her reverie. Her mom was home – time to think about dinner instead.