Title: Homemade Always Says It Best

Rating: This chapter is somewhere between PG and PG-13 for some slight sexual content.

Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine...I cannot claim them. They all belong to the hardworking people involved with Once and Again. Well, minus Devon.

Feedback: Yes please, I want to know what everyone thinks of this story so far.

Summary: This will be a J/K or Jessie and Katie story eventually. It's just my take on another way that the girls could have ended up discovering their feelings for each other.

Author's Note: I do love getting reviews…and I really appreciate them, thank you. What happens to a gal when a football game gets cancelled due to bad weather? Oh yeah, she gets time to update her stories. Well, at least that's what I do...

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Phone calls are such weird things. You press a few buttons on a telephone, and then you're automatically connected to another person's house. This can be either a miracle or a torture, depending on who happens to call you, or who you happen to need to call. Either way now, it is a very powerful thing indeed to have within our lives. It keeps us all connected to one another, no matter where we are now, because they even have cell phones. At the movies? You could be called. While out to eat? The phone rings. While in the shower? Of course, the phone rings then. While sitting on your bed waiting for your girlfriend to call?

The phone rings then. "Are you feeling better, Jess?" Only unfortunately for Jessie, her girlfriend was not on the other end of the phone. It was her boyfriend, Tad.

"No," Jessie faked another sneeze, then added in a fake-stuffy-nose voice. "I'm feeling worse." Only it came out, 'I'm fuh-ealing derwse.' She may be able to fake a sneeze, but fake a stuffy nose just wasn't her forte.

Tad could tell. Well, at least he thought that he could tell. It was impolite to ask though. "Aww, I'm sorry to hear that."

"I'm not." He was just too sweet sometimes. Jessie didn't deserve it.

"What?"

"Sorry, Grace was talking to me." She felt bad lying. That was all that she seemed to do to him lately, and she hated it. She had to tell him. There was no other way. She'd talk to Katie that night, and that was that. She and Katie would tell Sarah and Tad tomorrow.

"It's okay, Jess." Tad sighed. Maybe it was PMS. When in doubt, blame that. "So, what are you planning on doing tonight? Catching up on some sleep?"

"Yeah, I think so probably. I'll see you in school tomorrow." She might be 'sick', but she still had school to go to.

"Good night, Jessie."

"Nite, Tad."

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Tad glanced around his room for a moment after hanging up the phone with the blonde girl. He aimlessly picked the phone back up, and dialed a number he knew by heart. "Katie," he greeted when the girl answered.

"Tad," she automatically replied.

"Jess is acting weird." Katie and Jessie were best friends. So, it only made sense that the older girl would know what was going on with his girlfriend. She had to be able to help him. They were friends after all.

"So?"

"I think that she's seeing someone else." Oh. Katie's eyes closed. She didn't think that he'd figure it out that fast. She and Jessie had only just figured it out themselves a few days before. He was faster than either one of them had anticipated.

"What?" It had to be best to play dumb for the moment, plus Katie wasn't sure how stable her vocal cords were quite yet.

Tad sighed. That conversation was beginning to be embarrassing. His girlfriend might be cheating on him, so he consulted his best friend, who was her best friend. It just wasn't fair. "I think that she might be cheating on me."

"What? Why?"

"She says she has a cold…"

"She sounded sick earlier."

"She had a stuffed up nose, then suddenly she had a runny nose. She could talk just fine, and then she would have the stuffy nose back again." Katie held back a choking laugh upon hearing that. Jessie had thought that her fake cold would fool him.

Katie shrugged, even though Tad couldn't see her over the phone. "It happens to the best of us."

Tad scoffed, "This guy sure isn't one of the 'best of us' that's for sure."

Maybe he didn't know. Katie definitely was not a guy. Unless he thought that Katie became a guy, which would just be silly because she would make a horrible guy. Well, she did grow up with several brothers, but that didn't mean she wanted to be a guy. Oh, wait. She was rambling, and Tad wanted a response. "Guy?"

Tad sighed heavily. Katie wasn't even listening to him. Great. "The guy that Jessie is seeing."

"You don't even know if she's seeing someone else."

"Oh, but I do." His voice changed as he said this. It was as if he had a great plan, just waiting to be hatched. Hatched. Like a chicken. Eggs. Mm…Katie had momentarily forgotten that she was hungry…If she waited a little longer, then she could have a midnight snack. Of course, then she would stay up later because she would be full of energy, and then she'd be tired the next day in school…Who needed to be awake for history class anyway? Katie realized that her end of the phone was silent again. Oops.

"Don't try to sound diabolical. It doesn't work for you."

"Sorry," Tad forced a bit of a laugh. "I'm going to find out who he is."

"There's no guy dating Jessie." Oh God. He can't do that. He can't want to find out who Jessie was dating, or who she wanted to date anyway. "Besides you that is."

"We shall see…We shall see…"

"What did I say about being diabolical?"

Tad scoffed, his voice sounded a bit hollow. He was really determined to find this other guy in Jessie's life. "You're just jealous."

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The older girl flopped back down on her bed. Tomorrow was going to be horrible. It was Monday, which everyone knew was the worst day of the week. They even had songs about it being a horrible day of the week. It was the gossip day at school, from what had happened the week before, and now it was going to be the day that Tad was convinced he was going to find a guy that Jess was into that wasn't him. Only, he wouldn't find a guy…He'd find a Katie.

Oh God. She had cheated on her girlfriend with her best female friend, while her male best friend dated her female best friend. Oh God. She had done something wrong. Stupid stupid Singer. She should have known not to get involved with members of the same sex. They always lead to trouble, but at least they aren't as clueless as guys. Well, as clueless as Tad was being anyway. Guys weren't always that stupid. Tad was the first to wonder if Katie liked girls that way actually…She was about ready to hyperventilate. The older girl needed to talk to Jessie. And then there was that ringing in her head. What the heck. Ringing. She glanced over at the phone. It was…taunting her, ringing like that. Please let it be Jessie…

"Hey, Katie." A female voice greeted her on the other end of the phone, but it was Sarah.

"Hey there," she tried to calm herself down enough to sound normal. She didn't want Sarah wondering what was going on, like Tad did.

"You okay?"

Slow. Down. No wonder Sarah was wondering what was going on. "Why wouldn't I be?" Katie couldn't talk any faster if she was on fast-forward.

"You're just really quiet tonight."

"Sorry," Katie's breathing eased a bit. Sarah was just Sarah; it was okay. "Maybe I'm getting sick."

"From Jessie?"

"How'd you know that she was sick?"

Sarah laughed, recalling something from a few minutes earlier. "Tad called me."

Katie laughed too. It was obvious from the tone of Sarah's voice as to what kind of mood Tad had been in. He must have still been freaking-out when he talked to Sarah. "Oh my God. He called you too? I just talked to him a little while ago."

"Did he tell you his theory about Jessie cheating on him?"

"Yeah…It's crazy." Katie shook her head at the thought.

"Well, I don't know." Sarah paused, but Katie didn't say anything, so she continued. "I mean, she is really distant with him."

Katie immediately leaped to answer. It was the fastest answer that she had given all night. "That's not your place to judge. She's shy."

"Okay," Sarah tried to calm the other girl down. She didn't realize it was that upsetting to Katie. "I'm sorry. I know it's not my place to say. It's just that he's my friend, and I would feel bad if Jessie was cheating on him with some guy." There was another pause before Sarah continued. "Forgive me?"

Katie closed her eyes and decided to lie back down on her bed, "Yes."

"Good." Sarah smiled, and it carried over into her voice on the phone. "So, are you all ready for school tomorrow?"

The other girl groaned and rolled over on her bed. "You just had to bring up school?"

Sarah simply laughed. It wasn't a scornful laugh. Just, a laugh. "You know it. It always gets a reaction from you, so I know whether or not you're awake then."

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"Hey Billie," Jessie climbed onto her bed as the other girl picked up her phone.

Katie grinned. She'd been waiting for that call all night, which usually didn't take too long, but that night she had talked to everyone on the phone, or so it had seemed. "Billie!"

Jessie giggled, "I wish I got a greeting like that from everyone that I talk to on the phone."

Katie eased into the conversation. It was the first time that she hadn't been tense during a phone call all night. "Who else do you talk to on the phone?"

"Tad," Jessie easily replied. "Did you talk to Sarah tonight?" She meant to just sound a bit curious, but she was jealous without meaning to be. She wanted to be able to be the one to call Katie her girlfriend.

"I talked to Sarah and Tad." Katie frowned at the memories of the conversations.

Jessie smiled, allowing herself to flirt. "Oh, you should definitely stick to talking to just me."

"You think so?" Katie was amused at the idea, and it was obvious. The flirting was natural.

"I know so."

The older girl grinned, "I could work on that."

"So, what'd Sarah have to say?" The blonde girl re-adjusted her hair, so that it didn't cover the phone at all before asking another question. "What'd Tad have to say?"

Katie took a deep breath. "Honestly?"

"Of course," Jessie answered easily.

Katie mentally debated whether or not she should alert her almost-girlfriend to what was going on. She did deserve to know, but she didn't wand to freak her out…"Tad…thinks you're cheating on him."

"Oh my God!" The blonde's voice rose a bit. It always did when she was in a panic, just like Katie talked faster than normal. "He knows about us! What are we going to do? What do we tell him? What did you tell him?" She paused to take a breath. "What did you tell Sarah?" Another pause, only this time she was thinking to herself. A thought formed. "I missed my own coming-out!"

"Whoa, whoa. Slow down, Jess." Katie tried to stifle her laughter. Her best friend was so cute when she rambled. "He doesn't know about us."

Jessie' rambling halted. "But you said…"

"He thinks that it's with a guy."

"Oh," Jessie allowed herself a breath. Her heart stopped racing as much as before.

Katie knew that she had to soothe Jess until she was back to forming whole sentences. The blonde girl could really work herself up into a panic. "No one has come out to anyone yet."

"Oh," Jess let out a nervous chuckle.

"Well, except we came out to each other..." Both girls smiled at the memory of their first kisses. "And say something that isn't a letter of the alphabet now, please."

"Oh," Jessie giggled when she realized that she had just done it again. "Sorry. I'll stop."

"Good," Katie smiled, not unable to help herself from joking with her almost-girlfriend. "Panic much, Jess?"

The blonde girl rolled her eyes. "Be quiet."

"That's no fun." Katie wasn't able to work herself into too much of a fake pout, because Jessie interrupted her with a serious thought.

"Well, what do we tell them?"

"What do you want to tell them?" Katie thought for a moment. There were several questions actually. "Should we wait? So we don't spring this on them?" Good things come to those who wait.

Jessie bit her lip nervously, exactly like Katie did when she was deep in thought. "Waiting could be beneficial." Or it may hurt them even more.