Chapter 11:

"Love is what's in the room at Christmas if you stop opening presents and stop to listen."

Alek leaned over and checked the time. 11:09. Now who in the world would that be? The answer clicked almost instantly. Bay.

His mom would be at work (he wasn't… Dolly's wasn't open on Sunday, due to the fact that Gary Smith was a devout Jew and refused to work on the Sabbath), and Nikki would be at daycare. Besides, she didn't even know how to find her way home.

He began his descent down the stairs, ignoring the ruffled mess in his hair, flattening it with his hand on the way. He opened the door, feeling sort of awkward that he was standing there in a pair of sweat pants and a baggy t-shirt.

"What do you want?" he snapped peevishly at the stocky figure. It was Bay alright.

He stopped suddenly. There was something wrong. Something definitely wrong. In those usually confident and bright eyes, there was a flickering dart of fear and fury.

"Bay? Are you ok?"

Without answering, she headed inside, pushing him off to the side.

"Bay!"

She turned around, struck him across the face, and let out a small whimper.

Alek was worried. Well, who wouldn't be?

xxx

Jason headed over to breakfast with Pat. He heard Pat suddenly suck in and looked up.

"What is it?"

He stopped and gaped.

The most beautiful girl he had ever seen was walking towards them. She had a long sheet of shimmering brown hair and flashing brown eyes. As she approached them, Jason felt his heart pounding in his chest. This girl was bad news. He could tell already. He gulped.

Pat didn't seem to understand the danger of the pretty new girl. As she got closer, Jason swallowed even harder. She could be a model, only if she hadn't had the hugest scowl on her face, and if her shirt was still black, instead of the smoky gray it had become. She sidled up and placed her arm around Jason's shoulder. He flinched.

Jason had never been one for physical touch.

The girl turned and laughed, a high, cruel sound. Jason hated her. He hated her from the start.

"Hey," she snarled viciously, leaning in towards Jason. Jason attempted to push her away.

Pat was eating this all up, he could tell. Was he the only one who could tell how shallow she was?

"I'm Becky."

"BECKY!" There was a cry from behind them, and Jason turned, only for a fist to connect with his jaw. An athletic boy with dark hair and muddy gray eyes like fish scales stood growling at him.

"You stay away from my girlfriend Escalante… you hear me?"

Jason shied away from him. Looking over at Pat, who had a bloody nose, he saw that he wasn't the only one who had been hurt.

"Oh come on Frankie," Becky said in a pitiful artificial fake voice. "I was just talking…"

Despite her protests, she was dragged away.

Jason looked at Pat. "That was weird."

xxx

West was feeling jealous. And depressed. And angry for that matter.

The guy who played Raoul, Paul, had been talking to Sarah. And he'd asked her out. Sarah had said yes.

And now West was mad.

He didn't blame her. That guy was way good-looking. Dark, long brown hair, with stunning blue eyes. He was good-looking—West would admit that. Maybe not so much as Jason was… but well… he didn't blame her.

But West was jealous.

A lot of other guys were jealous of Paul too. Everybody liked Sarah. She was beautiful, high spirited, and intense. She was also sincere.

But West had thought that he was special.

And probably everybody else did too, he reminded himself.

It wasn't Paul's fault that he liked Sarah. What was not to like?

West hit himself hard across the head. "Ok, fine," he said. "I'll go visit Jason."

Then he remembered that Sarah was coming with him. It wouldn't be so bad after all.

Xxx

"Julie…" Connor stammered, trying to not show the disgust clearly written across his face.

Jorge smirked. This was going exactly the right way.

"Oh my God JULIE it's so cute!" Kathy was exclaiming, while Connor looked at her in horror.

"I've been trying to get her to do something to her hair for about a year now," Kathy beamed. "Jorge, did you make her do this?"

Jorge grinned sheepishly as Kathy's smile slowly faded away as she glanced at his attire.

"Why Jorge, don't you look… erm… nice…" she slowly muttered.

Jorge and Julie headed up the stairs, Julie singing Jesse McCartney's Beautiful Soul at the top of her lungs. Jorge liked the way his dad flinched. Jorge headed into his room, put the My Chemical Romance CD in the stereo, tribute to his father, and turned the volume as loud as he could. He glanced out his door and saw Kath cower away.

Julie came into his room. He hugged her. This was turning out exactly the way they wanted.