okay now for the apologies: i'm sooooooo sorry for not updating in a more timely fashion but 1. i had major state exams to do 2. i was on holidays for 5 and a half weeks with no proper computer access 3. when i got home the computer had been dismantled with nowhere to put it back and set it up again 4. i just started a new school year with so many projects i've got no time to myself. so that's it. once again i'm really sorry and thanks to everyone who reviewed! hear it is!( finally) hope you enjoy! and don't forget to review!

Chapter 2: Life

Sometimes life does exactly the opposite of what you wanted to happen. And other times its better than your wildest dreams.

For me it was better than any thing I could have imagined. I mean, until Luke came to our school I'd hardly even thought about what I wanted to do after school. I knew that I was good at sorting out other people's problems but I didn't see any of the other things I could do.

My whole life I'd been told that I was just mayonnaise. And after you've been told something so many times you begin to believe it. It's only natural.

And I accepted that that was what I was. I had no real problem with being mayonnaise. But then Luke came along. Luke came along and made me see that I was more than just mayonnaise. He was the only one who saw me as what I could be with just a little bit of effort. Special sauce.

Looking back now I think that I always wanted to be something exciting like, special sauce. I mean don't get me wrong; there is absolutely nothing wrong with mayonnaise. Almost everybody likes mayonnaise. It's always the same, it never changes. And you know that it's always there as a back up.

That's what I was. A back up plan. Always there to smooth things over and make sure things didn't get out of hand. But Luke made me see that I could do that without fading into the background.

I could give people advice as to how to fix their problems themselves instead of fixing them for them temporarily. I could actually become Annie.

And that's what I did.

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That night when I got home I could smell delicious smells all the way from the lift. Scott was cooking! I love it when he cooks because it means that I don't have to!

Well I don't really cook. I re-heat. I never had a reason to learn. I mean, I have been dating the world's best cook since I was sixteen. When did I ever have to learn for my self?

I opened the front door and called out " I'm home."

" I'm in the kitchen," Scott called back.

As I walked into the kitchen I smiled. "I wouldn't expect you to be anywhere else." I gave him a quick peck on the cheek and went to put my stuff away in the hall closet.

"Hey, honey what's for dinner?"

"Fettuccine with salmon flakes in a white wine sauce," he answered. " Oh and I've got some pannacotta that I nicked from the restaurant in the fridge."

"Have I ever told you how much I love you?" I asked him sitting down at the breakfast bar.

" Yes you have," he replied with a smirk. " In fact you tell me every time I bring dessert home from work. Why else do you think I bring it home so often?"

" I just thought that you liked to spoil me," I said with a pout.

" I do," he stated. " But a man has got to have something in it for himself too."

"Oi, don't be cheeky!" I told him while swatting him across the back of the head with a tea towel.

This of course led to a full-blown tea-towel war. These occur surprisingly often in our three bedroom penthouse apartment. And this one ended in the same way that they all end. In a full on make-out session. And it ended the way many of them ended. With Scott suddenly pulling away and turning the heat off on our dinner. It's like he has this oven clock in his head and the alarm always goes off at just the right time.

"Dinner will be about five minutes, okay babe?" he told me without turning round.

"Yep that's fine. I'll go set the table."

As I was setting the dining table I thought to myself that we'd have to have a dinner party soon with all the gang. Maybe we could have it when Luke and Geri-Lynn were in town. This got me thinking about our last dinner party and how much fun we'd all had. Everyone except Luke had been there. He'd been off on location at the time but he had rung half way through and we'd put him on speaker. The last dinner party had been a month or so before Kwang and Cara had gotten married. This got me thinking how good we all had it. We had all really lucked out with our careers and just our futures in general.

Cara and Kwang had gotten married a few months ago and now live in Toronto. They are blissfully happy together and both doing really well in their careers. Cara now, ironically, designs clothes for large girls. Not that she's large herself anymore. In our senior year she joined the gym and found that she actually enjoyed exercise when she didn't have a teacher yelling at her. She also has a popular health and exercise column in a teen magazine.

Kwang is a successful freelance photographer. He has caught his fair share of celebs with their trousers down or stumbling out of some a-list club at the wee hours of the morning and always on film! He also does commissioned photographs of families, pets and kids.

Trina and Steve now live in New York. Trina is an actress on Broadway. It's what she's always wanted to do and she's never been happier. Stevie boy is on the reserve team for the New York Yankees. We are ever hopeful that he will make the first team and hit a home run!

Scott and Geri-Lynn live in L.A. Scott is still doing the films and has an Oscar under his belt. Geri is the assistant editor at a current affairs magazine, 'L.A. Today'. We don't see them as often as we'd like but we do make sure that we see them at least three or four times a year.

And Scott and I? Well we live in Washington D.C. Scott is the head chef in a fancy restaurant called 'Willow' and actually enjoys getting up and going to work in the morning. It helps that he doesn't have to be in until 10.30 every morning! I have my own therapist's office that specialises in children and teens. You'd be surprised how many messed up kids there are out there. So far it's going very well and we have a very high success rate.

For a while I considered going into politics. I even started doing political science in college but in the end I didn't care enough about it to do it justice. I was committed but not as committed as I needed to be. And I felt that I could do more good helping people with their problems first hand.

While we were eating I told Scott about how I was thinking that we should have a dinner party soon.

"That's a good idea", he said enthusiastically. "I've got a new French recipe that I want to try out. I could do it at the dinner party and see how they all like it. If they like it I might put it on the menu."

" I was thinking that we could have it in a couple of weeks. Scott and Geri are coming to D.C. for a film premier."

" You should ring Cara and Trina tomorrow and see if they are able to come down. We haven't had all of us together since Christmas and the wedding."

"Yeah I will." I was really looking forward to having everyone together again. I missed not being able to see them all whenever I wanted. They really were the family that I got to choose.

After dinner and clearing away I said " I think I'm going to go to bed. I'm exhausted. And I've got an early start tomorrow followed by a completely full day."

Ten minutes later I was lying in bed snuggling down for a good night's rest when I heard the door creak open. I pretended to be asleep so that Scott wouldn't try to talk to me. That plan went out the window. He quickly undressed and climbed into bed with me.

After a minute or so he started nuzzling my shoulder. And try as I might I couldn't stop the sigh that I gave. He knew just the right buttons to push. He slowly started kissing my shoulder blades, moving up towards my neck and around to my face. Then he placed small kisses all over my face before moving down to my collarbone and then back up to my lips again. I couldn't take it anymore and started kissing him back. Sleep was the farthest thing from my mind as I kissed him back, first on the lips and then on the place on his neck where his pulse was.

I could feel his pulse quickening and within no time his hands were roaming all over the place. I quickly followed suit and in no time at all we were both rid of our clothes.

I'm sure you all know what happened next so I'll save you the sordid details! I had quite a good night all in all though!