Unbreakable Red Silken Thread

by Rufus T. Serenity

Fate, destiny, chance, and luck. Four of the most powerful forces in existence, and all of them have had it out for Cody Emmett Jameson Anderson, Heather Wilson, and Gwen Fahlenbock since the days they were born. Fortunately, those same four forces have got it in for each other as well. Rated M for sex and other mature, darkly realistic subject matters.

10. Destiny: A Ugly Truth

Author's Notes: Hello everyone! This time for the author's notes we are doing something a little different, again. Instead of me speaking, I'm going to give the introductorily duties to my good friend and writing partner Kenju! Also, keep in mind that many of the words you are about to read from him were written before the fifth chapter was uploaded. So this has been a long time coming! :)

"Well, if the last chapter didn't raise eyebrows, I'm sure this one will. Heather is a very different person here from how she was back in Total Drama for a number of reasons, the least of which being three years have passed. To put simply, Heather is a very sexual person, to a point that isn't exactly healthy. Not all character development is good, but at the same time in Heather's case it means she isn't finished yet. This story is about character growth and development; seeing how characters react and respond to different events in their lives and the results of those reactions and responses. There will still be some time skips on occasion, but this is the true starting point of the story. Everything has been leading to and building up to now. NOW is when the stage is set, NOW is when we will get to see just who the characters of this story are, and starting NOW is when you the readers will get to learn what made the characters who they are. Thank you for staying with us this far, and I hope you'll continue to stick with us now that the real story has begun.

One additional note, to anyone concerned about the amount of lemons and limes so far, we want to assure our readers it's for a purpose. That purpose is the upcoming drought of anything even remotely citrus in flavor. The next chapter has the last lemon/lime that you guys are going to see until at least chapter 21. So we wanted to give you guys enough to hold you over.

All right, the long awaited time is here! Sort of...well, kind of. This chapter and the next is where the core plot will be introduced, while the chapter following those will be when it actually starts. Now, we're pretty sure that many of you if not most of you will have a good idea of what the plot will be by the end of this chapter.

Likewise we're pretty sure that the good idea most of you will have is going to be at minimum 50% WRONG if not more. That being said we still look forward to hearing your thoughts and predictions through reviews and PM's."

In addition to those awesome words, I, Rufus, would only like to add that this chapter takes place the day right after the previous one. So no time skip…YAY!

Also, I LOVE that the tenth chapter of this story is so many things: the last chapter of 2014, the 10-chapter mark, the 100-review mark, the 100 thousand word mark, and the 10,000 total views mark! Also, this chapter is by far the longest one for this story so far! It clocks in at OVER 25,000 words! I CAN'T express how thankful I am to all you wonderful people out there who made this story able to cross SO MANY milestones all with the same chapter!

And what's even better than that is that this chapter will be updated the day before my birthday so all of the reviews for this chapter will be a kind of birthday present! :)

Oh, and there's one last important thing to note…this story now has fan-art! Our gracious reader and fan CMR Rosa commissioned the awesome deviantART artist "qMargot" to make pictures of the OCs Saria and Jessica from the previous chapter! I plan on having links to these pictures, and any other pictures people have made based on my works on my profile page soon. But in the meantime, please feel free to go to the deviantART page of "qMargot" to see them. Once again, from both Kenju and myself THANK YOU CMR Rosa for commissioning these pictures! :)

Now on that note, please enjoy tenth chapter of "Unbreakable Red Silken Thread": Destiny: A Ugly Truth

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Saturday, September 20th 2014

Heather's red Mercedes pulled into the driveway of the Bergin household just as her dashboard's green digital clock turned to 9:00 AM. She wore a small smile of pride at pulling in at exactly nine o'clock; punctuality was something she was a very firm believer in, after all. As she got out of the car, she ignored the throbbing protest of her thighs and back that was just now beginning to settle in. A little sore from head to toe, it was a good kind of sore she had become well acquainted with in recent months. Not only had Cody taken up her offer from last night, but also apparently he had been just as dissatisfied as she had been with Saria's 'performance' and more than made up for it himself. If this was what she got as a consolation prize after a shitty threesome, it was almost enough to make her wish the next one would turn out bad as well.

Almost. Pushing back the annoying itch she was feeling to the back of her mind she shifted her focus to the house before her.

It was a pale green wooden two story with a wide patio that went around the second floor doubling as an overhang. The patio itself was unusual, having at least twenty glass panels running the length of the wooden frame to form a ledge. She could see several wooden chairs and a large picnic table umbrella hinting at the fact that there was quite a bit of space up there. Added to that there were quite a few windows on every wall, several of them quite large. If she had to guess the house had more windows than wood in its construction. A short distance from the house was a large garage, the patio connecting to its upper floor and acting as a roof for the walkway leading from the house. She could see two cars within the overhangs partial protection, and another four behind them in the garage itself.

While nervousness was something that rarely affected Heather, she was feeling more than little right now. The main reason (she told herself) was due to the rather vague text message Jasmine had sent her earlier, an apology in advance if her family were a little…eager when meeting her. The other reason (that she was trying to ignore) was the fact that this was not something she had a great deal of experience with. The vast majority of her time was spent either alone or with Cody, so she was still getting use to being around other people again.

Walking the short distance from where she had parked to the front door, she was pleased to see the address on the doorframe matching the one Jasmine had given her. Unlike Cody's GPS (which had mysteriously vanished to the bottom of a campus dumpster) or mapQuest, the Aussie's directions had been simple and easy to follow. Ringing the doorbell, she waited, and not twenty seconds later the door opened to reveal a very tall dark skinned young man several years older than her. His skin was a nearly identical shade of Jasmine's copper brown if only a bit darker. The first thing Heather noticed however was the look of surprise on his face that quickly shifted to a mixture of curiosity and interest. The Queen Bee couldn't help but smirk at the reaction, she could tell that just seeing her was enough to send both of his brains straight into the gutter like so many before him. On the one hand, it was annoying and most of the time unwanted, but on the other hand, she couldn't deny that a small part of her would always love getting this reaction out of complete strangers.

Realizing that he might be tongue-tied; Heather decided to break the ice. "Is this the Bergin residence? I'm Heather Wilson and I-AH!"

That was as far as she got before his face shifted back to a look of surprise that then grew into a large smile. Like a bear trap his arms sprung and wrapped tightly around her before bringing her into the house. Trapped within his arms as he rocked from side to side (which Heather imagined was an excuse to feel her up, though she wasn't completely sure), Heather was powerless as the young man hugging her tightly. "So you're this 'Eather we've been 'earing so much about!? 'Bout time we met you! It's not every day we meet a friend of my lil sis!" Then, finally releasing her he turned his head over his shoulder and shouted, "'Ey, everyone! 'Eather's finally 'ere!"

Within an instant six people had seemingly materialized before her. She cringed as she heard an unbidden voice in the back of her mind call out 'Energize'. Ten seconds after that, she heard a toilet flushing followed by fast yet still thundering footsteps from down the hall. Jasmine came to a sliding stop wearing a look of honest-to-god fright. It was a jarring contrast to the almost creepily happy faces surrounding it.

Amid the joyful exclamations (the most notable of which being Jasmine's mother nearly in tears crying out, "Oh God…you do exist!"), Heather took a moment to observe the people surrounding her; with the first thing that literally stood out was just how freaking tall they all were! Jasmine was tall, she knew that, and she knew that she had a large family, and while she knew that the genes had to have come from her parents she had never once considered the fact that the rest of her family would share those same genes.

Heather, in all her five foot four glory, was surrounded by a family of giants! Jasmine was easily the tallest, but the Aussie' father and three older brothers were all pretty close to her in height, the shortest being less than a heads difference. Her father's face was slightly wrinkled with age and his hair was starting to grey around the edges. The other two brothers appeared to be a few years older than the one who greeted her. The first, who she guessed to be the eldest and in his late twenties had a very athletic build, combined with his height everything about him screamed track star. The other, who she guessed to be a few years younger also happened to be the only one in the entire house wearing glasses and the only one to shake her hand instead of nearly suffocating her with a bone crushing hug, something about him felt familiar, very similar to Cody but she couldn't pin down what it was exactly. The mother was short compared to the rest of the family, but she was still close to Cody's height, just a little bit taller. Judging by the hug she gave her, Heather was willing to bet she was stronger too. That left the two younger sisters, whom Heather remembered Jasmine telling her had just turned fourteen and twelve respectively a month ago. The younger was only a few inches shorter than Heather while the older was eye level with her. If Jasmine and their mother were anything to go by, Heather knew they were going to be knockouts once puberty was finished with them.

'God have mercy on the poor souls that work up the balls to ask them out, they'll probably faint and piss themselves when they meet the family,' Heather thought to herself with some amusement.

Even though she wasn't exactly comfortable with so many people crowding around her or touching her, Heather was careful to keep her unease hidden, or at least hidden well enough that nobody aside from Jasmine noticed. Maintaining her façade and even managing to summon some of her usual swagger, the Queen Bee endured an hour of relentless questioning from the Bergin family covering everything from her home town to her plans (or lack thereof) for the future.

'I knew Jasmine didn't have many friends, but I didn't think she had so few that meeting one was considered a national holiday!' She mused to herself.

Despite that, Heather found most of the Bergin family to be tolerable, though tedious. The only one she wasn't too keen on was Steven, the youngest of the three brothers and who had been the one to meet her at the door. Every so often he would give her a subtle look and was quick to give seemingly innocent little compliments along the lines of 'quite the little cutie' or 'cute little thing'. The highlight of the hour long family interrogation Q&A for the Queen Bee had been when their mother finally caught onto what Steven was doing and bonked him on the head.

Finally, just when Heather was starting to fidget and beginning to have trouble maintaining her composure, Jasmine was able to pry her away from her family and get to her room with the painful excuse that they had some 'girl talk' to catch up on. The Aussie made sure to lock the door once they were safely within.

While Jasmine was checking to make sure the lock was working right, Heather took a moment to study her friend's room.

At first Heather was surprised, but then it quickly passed the more she saw. It was easily twice the size of her and Cody's dorm bedroom and had a single theme to it that everything lended itself to. The walls were painted in stripes of various shades of green to give the impression of being deep within a jungle or forest and covered in animal posters that ranged from birds to large predators. There were a few comic book posters she didn't recognize around the room as well but the overall theme of the room was nature. She noted that there wasn't much in the way of furniture, and what little she did have wasn't exactly eye catching with the single exception being the long (custom made) bed. It's large comforter having an overlapping flower motif that while fitting the rooms overall image of nature was unusually girly for the Aussie. There was a large but otherwise plain clothing dresser and she could see the open door of her closet at the room's far end. With her grey eyes scanning the room, Heather caught sight of several bookshelves that she hadn't noticed before due to them being higher than eye level (for her at least). She couldn't make out the titles, but if the rest of the room was anything to go by there was a pretty good chance they had something to do with animals, plants, or something related to nature. Taking a few steps into the room, one thing caught her eye as different from everything else.

There, sitting on the bed was a stuffed animal; a giraffe that looked like it had seen better days. Seeing the old stuffed toy jogged a memory from the previous week when Jasmine had been on 'fire watch duty' as she attempted to master the art of stir-fry. Shortly after they had first started exchanging letters Sammy sent it to Jasmine as a thank you present, with the very young child mistakenly believing that giraffes lived in Australia at the time. That brought up a second memory, of how Jasmine had sent her a stuffed koala as a thank you present for the gift. If the look in her eye at the time had been any indication, that ratty and faded old stuffed giraffe was in all likelihood the Aussie's single most treasured possession.

"Sorry 'bout Steven flirtin' with ya so much," Jasmine said awkwardly.

"It's nothing really," Heather replied casually as she continued to study her friend's room. "Trust me, at this point I'm beyond use to it." Coming to a stop she turned to face Jasmine and immediately picked up on just how nervous the poor girl was. While there could have been any number of reasons as to why, from embarrassment of how her family had reacted to some of the questions they had asked her, Heather was willing to bet it had more to do with the reason she was here in the first place.

"So, uh…'ow was last night?"

Heather gave a sigh, the stress of the previous hour-long inquisition having almost put last night out of her mind completely. "It didn't go over as well as I had hoped it would. Saria wasn't quite as personable sober as she had been with a few Jell-o shots in her."

Jasmine gave a mildly disapproving glare that Heather waved off as the Aussie made her way towards the bed and sat down, her feet reaching the floor over the edge. Heather followed suit and sat next to her, leaving just a little space between them.

Clearly nervous, Jasmine cut to the chase. "So, now's where you'll give me advice for Sammy?"

"...Possibly," Heather began but continued before she could comment on her response. "I have to stress something first." She paused for a few moments making sure that she had Jasmine's full attention.

"There are no guarantees that any advice or tips I give you will actually work. I've only met that little mouse you call Sammy once, and she didn't exactly say much, if you'll recall. All I have to go on is what you have told me, what little I saw that day, and a lot of guess work. I think I can help you, but you have to understand that there is always the chance that things might not go the way I think they will or the way you hope they will. Are you still okay with that?"

Seeing Jasmine nod her head, Heather started to run everything over mentally. Recalling her observations of both Jasmine and Sammy, along with what she had been told, she could see multiple chessboards spanning out before her.

"Alright, first I need to know something. How much does Sammy mean to you?" Jasmine was about to answer, only for the Queen Bee to hold up her hand, signaling her to remain silent. "I want you to think seriously about that for a minute, and I mean to really think hard because this is not going to be easy. The only way I can help you is if Sammy is important enough that you are willing to go as far as you need to go for her."

Colored curious by that statement, Jasmine asked, "Just what do ya mean by that?"

"I've thought more about what I told you the other day, and while I still stand by it, I hadn't realized until last night just what you might have to deal with. Just as I hadn't considered what you'd have to be willing to do, to give up, if your relationship depended on it until an hour ago," Heather explained before pausing. Remembering where her thoughts had drifted to before falling sleep, the memory of burning the bridge with her only remaining friend after graduating was insignificant compared to what Jasmine had to lose. "I'm going to be blunt here," she continued as she looked over the different games playing out in her mind. Many possible games, but only two possible outcomes, and the vast majority of them were losses. "No matter what happens, you're going to go through a lot of toil and grief to make this work. Even in the best-case scenario there are going to be times you ask yourself if it's really worth it." Not one, not one of the games she could see was a perfect win. Though outnumbered by losses, there were still plenty of wins; all of them came from loosing something however. The sheer volume of factors was just too high. "If you're serious about this, you have to be willing to pay the price," she warned, nearly cringing at just how bad the odds really were here.

Despite herself, the Aussie gave a nervous chuckling-snort. "Ya make it sound like I'm makin' some kinda life or death decision, 'Eather."

Her expression was as deadpan and serious as could be, a stark contrast to the wavering nervous grin of Jasmine's. "That's because it is one." She waited until every last trace of Jasmine's grin had vanished before continuing. "Back in high school, I was the Queen Bee, the top of the food chain. It wasn't easy getting there, and it took a lot to get there both times. The first time, before Total Drama Island and then again after World Tour torched my reputation. The second time was actually the harder of the two because I had to rebuild my image first. Because of that, when Cody and me stated out as friends it was in secret. I didn't want him hurting my image just by being seen near me, and that continued even after we became a couple."

Jasmine nodded; confused as to why Heather was telling her this when she and Cody had already told her their story the day they first met. Still, trusting that there was a larger point she was trying to make, Jasmine humored the Queen Bee by asking the same question she had last time. "So what changed things for ya?"

Just as she had the first time she told the story, Heather suddenly turned evasive, only offering the same reason she had then. "I made a mistake, and I hurt Cody," she paused as her expression turned dower. "After that, I finally realized how much he really meant to me. We came clean, and we went public with our relationship."

"I'm so up a gum tree as to why ya feel the need to repeat this," Jasmine said, "but just like before it all sounds rather romantic to me."

"I know that you've already heard this…and it is romantic when I look back on it now, but there is more to it that you haven't heard. What came after we went public, what came after 'happily ever after'," Heather explained, noting to herself that she now had Jasmine's complete attention. "After me and Cody went public, I became an outcast, a pariah. I was dethroned again and I knew that I wouldn't be able to take it a third time. With one exception, who later turned out to be a complete and total bitch, the entire popular crowd treated me like I had leprosy. And as if that wasn't bad enough, I couldn't even turn to Cody's friends because of all the shit I put them through over the years. So, for my entire senior year, aside from Cody, I only had two other people I could even talk to. One was the 'friend' that later turned out to be a complete bitch, and the other Lindsay, who I could only talk to once or twice a week over Skype."

When Heather saw the look of suspicion on Jasmine's face she paused, sighed, and answered the question she knew was begging to be asked. "Yes, that Lindsay, Lindsay Mills, from Total Drama. Cody…convinced me to try and branch out a little. It took a few days but he is still pretty well connected with most of the others from the show. He was able to convince Tyler that he wasn't after his girlfriend and got her number for me. After I apologized for…pretty much everything, we spent most of the day talking and catching up with each other…we became a BFF's, for real this time," Heather paused to let everything sink in for a moment before continuing, the small smile she had been wearing quickly disappearing as she did.

"The point I am trying to make is that aside from Cody, I had almost nothing and no one for almost an entire year. Sure, I could call up Jess and catch up on the latest gossip, and Lindsay would always give me a listening ear, but…" she paused, looking away from Jasmine as she swallowed and pushed down those feelings she kept under lock and key. "Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all bad. I did have Cody, he was always there for me and I loved the time we spent together. But it took me months to get use to how quiet my life became. You wouldn't believe how lonely I was whenever Cody wasn't there, and I've never exactly been good with being alone. I missed having my bitchy clique to talk to and gossip with all day, I missed going and hanging out at the other popular kids' parties every week. I've never regretted my choice, but at the same time it was a hell of a lot harder than I thought it would be and I'm still dealing with the consequences even now."

Hearing all of this of course made Jasmine more than a little afraid. Licking her dried lips she asked the question Heather had been waiting for since she gave her first warning. "Just what might 'appen with me if I take up your advice then? What might I 'ave you give up?"

Heather remained quite as she ran a grand 'worst case' total, the silence only making Jasmine feel even more unnerved so Heather cut it short to the highest numbers. Finally, taking in a long deep breath she spoke. "Your siblings and parents." As expected Jasmine reeled back from the blow. "You had some reservations when you told me and Cody that you are a lesbian, but have you thought about the possible repercussions with your family finding out?" The look on Jasmine's face said that she had but she preferred to not to. "And then you have what could befall Sammy should you go forward with your relationship," Heather added.

"What do ya mean by that?"

"I mean that right now you're the only good thing she has in her life. Outside of you, she has nothing. If you're willing to go forward with this, you not only have to remain with Sammy as you are now but you'll have take on even more for her, and you have to be willing to live with the consequences if the relationship goes up in flames. You might end up losing your closest friend, Sammy might end up losing her only friend and both of you will not only have to go on without the other but you won't be able to undo your choices. If you go forward with this, if you push things to the next level of a relationship you will never be able to go back to just friends or undo everyone knowing you're lesbians."

By the look on Jasmine's face, Heather might as well have called forth the fourth horsemen of the apocalypse and set him upon her 'to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth'. Needless to say, she was looking quite uncomfortable when she finally spoke up. "Why are ya makin' such a big deal outta this? 'N why are ya so sure that everyone will 'ave to find out in the first place?"

"Sammy," Heather started and continued slowly to make sure there was no misunderstanding. "The way she is now, mentally and emotionally, the only way to make a relationship with her work is for you to never show any doubt, fear, or uncertainty over you being together."

"You know bloody well that that isn't possible," Jasmine countered. "No one can be in a relationship 'n not feel those things."

"I never said that," Heather countered, pinching the bridge of her nose, she knew she had to explain things in very basic and very simple terms. "I said that you couldn't show those things, there's a huge difference between feeling something and showing it." The Queen Bee then added, "Let me ask you again. How much does Sammy mean to you? What are you willing to do for her, to give up for her?"

Jasmine was quiet, clearly trying to come up with a response now that she was beginning to understand just how big of a deal this really was. Heather could clearly see more and more doubts filling her face, but at the same time she was clinging on through sheer stubbornness and refused to say 'no' while being unwilling or at least too afraid of saying 'yes' to answer.

Feeling the same twinge in her chest twisting and tugging that pushed her to agree with going public with her and Cody's relationship, she dug her nails into her palms.

'Goddamn you Cody for making me soft!' Heather mentally cursed.

"Okay, let's try a different approach. I want you to close your eyes," Jasmine did so and she continued. "Now, I want to think back to the happiest memory you have of Sammy, the happiest you've ever seen her. Nod your head when you can see it clear enough that you could relive it." After a few seconds, Jasmine nodded her head as she smiled. "Good. Now with that memory in place, I also want you to think of saddest you've ever seen Sammy; the most hurt and pained memory you have of her. Once you've got both images in your mind, I want to really focus on them until I tell you to open your eyes."

Silence filled the air, as Jasmine's eyes remained shut for several minutes. The look on the Aussie's ebony face shifted into a neutral frown.

Finally, Heather decided enough time had passed. "Now, open your eyes and look at me." Jasmine did so and after spending a good thirty seconds looking her directly in the eye she spoke. "Those two memories are your choices for how everyday of the rest of your lives are going to be. Which one is up to you."

"I don't think it's really that bad," Jasmine refuted, unknowingly pushing the Asian closer and closer to wanting to strangle her.

Trying a different angle, Heather brought out the big guns.

"Jazz, do you remember the day we first met, how you were acting and what you were dealing with?" Heather asked flatly. It took a moment but she could see the line of reasoning already fighting its way through the Aussie's stubborn mind. "No one, no matter how patient or strong they are can live like that for the rest of their lives. You either have to put on your big girl panties and grab this with both hands, or one day you're going to have had enough. And if that happens, you'll leave Sammy. And when that happens, Sammy will be completely alone and miserable for the rest of her life, and when that happens you will blame yourself for the rest of your life."

Jasmine, looking for something to argue with, some weak point in the rather dire nature of Heather's warning, noticed something, finally catching onto the Asian's choice of words since this all started. Not just her words, but her tone, her posture, everything Jasmine had learned from her years of friendship with Sammy was telling her that Heather was not simply giving her an idle possibility of what could happen, she was damn certain of what would happen. "Ya seem to be speakin' from experience. I think ya know more about this than your lettin' on."

"I do," Heather confirmed, her expression settling into what Jasmine knew to be a forced calmness. "The reason is because Cody put on his big girl panties for me."

Jasmine was stricken silent by that unexpected twist.

Heather was quiet for several long moments before she started to explain, her thumbnail picking at the other manicured fingernails of her right hand. "I told you that I forced Cody to keep our relationship a secret for an entire year, and you already know generally that Cody didn't like that, but what you don't know is just how bad it really was for him," pausing, she felt 'that' door trying to open again, but pushed it shut tight as she continued, and let loose one of the two key details she and Cody had kept from their friend.

"I hadn't realized it either until after I cheated on him."

While Jasmine sat in shock of the literal bombshell that had just been dropped on her, she couldn't help but notice the slight shudder in the girl's breath. With a second inhale, it was gone, but for that one moment, that one brief moment, Jasmine saw something she had never seen in Heather, something she couldn't even begin to describe.

"I…had just managed to reclaim my crown as Queen Bee, the second time. Summer break was just starting and my friends were throwing a party, same as they did every year. I, had a little too much to drink, and, I…made a mistake. I woke up the next morning naked with a girl I didn't recognize and had never met before. Some friend of a friend…but, still, it had happened. At first, I was afraid. How he would react? What he would think? What he would say? But then, I just…I thought that, since it was with a girl, he wouldn't care. It wasn't like there was some chance of me getting knocked up with someone else's kid; he wouldn't think he was getting sloppy seconds or anything like that. I thought that…I knew Cody was a pervert, the same as any other guy, and I knew that like any other straight guy he thought lesbians were hot, so what did I have to worry about?"

Heather paused then, swallowing thickly several time and steeling her nerves as she relived that night in her mind.

"It was rare, but, me and Cody had argued before a few times, I had yelled at him plenty early on, but he had never…I honestly didn't think Cody was even capable of being angry, I didn't think he had a temper…I had seen him upset a few times, I had seen him miffed and annoyed, but…nothing could have prepared me for the raw anger he let loose that night." Her voice and expression was one who had seen something that they had thought to be impossible.

"I learned two things that night, and I don't think I'll ever be able to forget them for as long as I live. The first is that Cody has a nearly perfect memory, or at least one that's close. Cody might not be as smart as Cameron, but his memory is almost as good. The second thing I learned was that Cody does in fact have a temper, one almost as bad as mine. I stood there for over an hour, just…he broadsided me with every single slight, every single thing I had put him through and done to him since our relationship started, how he hated it being a secret from the very start. His voice got so shot that I didn't think he would ever be able to talk again, but he just kept shouting, yelling until his voice gave out." At that point she giggled, though it carried not the least bit of joy. "When he was finished, when it was finally was over, I thought that was it, that I had taken everything Cody had to throw at me…but I was wrong. He had saved his biggest bombshell to use as a parting shot."

Taking a deep breath, Heather let the second detail they had kept from her fall.

"I don't know if he couldn't yell at me anymore, or if he just ran out of things to yell at me about, but when it was over…Cody broke up with me!"

To say Jasmine was surprised or shocked by this would have been an understatement beyond measure. When Heather and Cody had given her the general story of their relationship, it sounded over all like a very sweet, almost to the point of being a Disney romance, a perfect pair made for the other that just had to overcome their difference in social standing to be together. As Jasmine processed these new details, the Queen Bee took a moment to gather herself before continuing. "He told me to leave his house and that he never wanted to see me again…honestly I was so shocked that I just…did that, I was numb and completely blindsided. It wasn't until I got home that I even realized what had just happened happened."

Letting her words sink in, Heather continued. "I had broken a few hearts before, but never really thought about what it was like, how much it…how much it hurt. I had no idea just how fucking painful it was to be on the receiving end." Heather paused for a moment before chuckling dryly. It was a far cry from the barking laugh she had heard a short while ago, but it was still painful to hear. "You know, it's almost funny, but it wasn't a jock or some prep, but a geek that broke my heart." Heather laughed a few times in her awful, barking laugh having returned. It was seeing the horrified look on Jasmine's face that caused Heather to stop and wrap her story up.

"I'll spare you the details, but I spent the next few weeks trying to get Cody to take me back. It took him breaking up with me to realize just how much he meant to me, how much I really loved him. Just when I was ready to give up, he gave me a second chance, but it came with a price. He told me that if I really wanted him as a boyfriend, we would go public with our relationship. The reason I'm telling you this is so that you know everyone, everyone, no matter how good of a person they are or strong they are has a breaking point." Having finished her story Heather then turned away from Jasmine, needing a moment to push down the painful memories she had dug up retelling the tale.

In the silence that followed, the Aussie was thinking over what she had just been told. She didn't want to believe Heather when she said that if nothing changed in her and Sammy's relationship she would be worn down eventually and give up on her friend; but the proof was literally sitting less than a foot away from her. Cody, for all his merits and for as much as he loved Heather, had crumbled under the weight of the one sided circumstances of their relationship. When those issues were resolved, however, it didn't just immediately fix all their problems, if anything it just brought on more problems that Cody had to weather and take on. He traded the crushing one sided unfairness of having to keep their relationship a secret for the crushing weight of having to fill in the void going public had made in Heather's personal and social life. Only now was she starting to see the bigger picture and understand the gravity of Heather's warning. If she went forward with her and Sammy's relationship, she would have to do for Sammy what Cody had done for Heather.

This realization then lead to an even more shocking one, an understanding and appreciation for what Cody told her the day they first met. When he told her that he knew what it was like to be in a secret relationship that chafed you she hadn't actually believed him, not completely anyways. Sure, their story did have some similarities to her own, but now that she had the full story, or at least more of it, she realized that Cody had indeed been in her shoes after all, and Heather, in her own way, had been in Sammy's.

Oddly enough, now knowing what she did about the two and just how similar their problem had been to her own gave her a newfound respect for Cody. Despite his somewhat perverted and childish nature, there truly was more to him than he or by extension Heather let on. She was clearly the more dominant of the pair and appeared to be the one taking the lead in their relationship, but that was only possible because Cody had the strength to carry the both of them for as long as he did. Metaphorically speaking, the pants Heather was wearing now in their relationship were in fact Cody's.

And if Jasmine wanted her relationship to work out, she had to do the same for Sammy as he had for Heather. It was, to be honest, scary, no other way to put it. But when she thought about her friends and how happy they always seemed, even though she now knew it had been far from perfect, her choice was an easy one.

"'Kay, 'Eather. I'll accept your offer. I'll do whatever I need to do for Sammy," Jasmine said with a nodding of her head as she steeled herself.

Heather nodded, moved a little closer, flashing a smirk before asking, "Are you absolutely sure?"

Jasmine didn't notice this and simply reaffirmed her answer.

"Alright then, we'll start out with something very, simple. Jasmine…" Heather paused for a moment before adding, "Kiss me."

Jasmine bawked and fumed at that. Standing from her bed she glared down at the smaller woman. "Fuck you, 'Eather! I thought you were serious about 'elping me and ya wouldn't just be screwin' with me 'ead!"

Heather crossed her arms and appeared to be as calm and cool as ever. "I am serious about this; I warned you that there would be consequences if you choose to pursue Sammy." She then stood up and approached Jasmine, while doing so she spoke, "Let me ask you question. How do you think Sammy would have responded if she had been the one that asked you for that kiss?"

"Bollocks!" Jasmine fumed at Heather. "If Sammy ever managed to work up the nerve to ask me for a kiss, I'd do it for 'er with no questions asked," she refuted with just a hint of anger still in her tone.

"Would still be true if you were in public, or with either of your families?" Heather asked, an edge finding its way to her voice.

"What are ya…?" Jasmine started to ask, still not quite getting what the point was before shaking her head. "Sammy's not like that, she would never ask me to do such a thing, either in public or 'round our families."

Growing annoyed at how the Amazon before her wasn't able to grasp such a simple question, Heather's right eye gave a brief twitch. Reaching up and grabbing Jasmine's shoulders she pulled her down to her level. Jasmine was so surprised by the action that she didn't offer any resistance. Now able to look the taller woman in the eye, the edge in Heather's voice grew deeper. "That isn't the point; I asked if you would kiss her if she asked you too! Not if she would ever ask you to kiss her!"

Hearing that made Jasmine pause, and thinking over the wording of the question for a moment she understood what Heather was getting at. The question had been directed to her and was regarding her, not Sammy. It didn't matter whether Sammy ever made such a request or not, what was important is if Jasmine would have acted on it.

Seeing that Jasmine was beginning to understand what she was getting at, Heather continued. "Remember what I told you earlier? You can't show fear, or worry, or doubt. You will feel them, they will be there, but you can't let them show." The Queen Bee then grabbed Jasmine's cheeks tightly as her grey gaze hardened. "If you push for this relationship to go to the next level, Sammy is going to be completely and utterly dependent on you for some time, not days, not weeks, but months, possibly even years. That means you have to be strong for her first and yourself second. You can't let her fears or her uncertainties hinder or hold her back, and the only way you can do that is if you don't let either of your fears or either of your doubts hold you back". Heather paused and looked around the room for a moment, seemingly trying to piece together something in her mind before continuing. "A normal relationship is a partnership, two people, two equals working together. If one needs help the other is there for them; but you aren't going to have that, not for a long time. You have to put yourself, your doubts, your fears, and your problems at the bottom of the pile, you have to ignore them because believe me when I say this, you're going to have your hands full dealing with Sammy's."

The young Asian's eyes then began to lose focus, lost in some distant memory as she spoke. "If she comes crying to you in the middle of the day because of something her bitch of a sister did to her, she needs to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you'll not only be there but you'll support her one hundred percent. If she call's you with a problem, no matter what it is, no matter how minor it might be, if she is hurt, alone, tired, bored, horny, sad, angry, or whatever…if she needs something, you have to be willing to be there and give it to her!" Then, just as suddenly as it came, the fire in her soul seemed to disappear making Jasmine feel a little more at ease. Then she felt a tap on the side of her head, a bonk from Heather, mirroring her mother's treatment of Steven earlier. "You have to remember that, Jazz, you can never forget it, not for one second," Heather said with a voice calm but strong. "If Sammy ever works up the nerve to ask you for a kiss, or attempts to kiss you without any prompt or warning and you freeze up, Sammy will fall back to square one and lose whatever progress she made to get that far. And when that happens it will be twice as hard for her to get there again."

With that, Heather released Jasmine's face from her manicured grip and Jasmine raised herself back to her full height with an expression fit for having one's mind blown. Now much calmer and able to think over what Heather has told her, Jasmine asked, "Why didn't ya just start with that instead of wastin' all of this time, 'Eather?"

"I needed to see how you would react to something unexpected because I don't have enough to work with for manipulating or guiding Sammy. I can't predict how someone is going to react or how they think unless I've seen enough to get a good feel for them. For some people that's easier than others, and while there are some things that are always true they wouldn't be enough to help you, not in the way you need," offering a smirk that was somewhere between playful and teasing she continued. "I said that I was going to help you, and I am, but before I can teach you how to guide and direct her, I have to teach you how to manipulate yourself. The key details are something you have to know or figure out for yourself. To be frank, I can't make your relationship work, but I can help you in a general sense and give you the tools you need to work with." Heather pointed out before the Queen Bee returned to sit on Jasmine's bed, motioning for the Aussie to sit next to her.

Sitting next to Heather, the Amazon sighed. "Ya know, this isn't exactly what I thought you'd be doin' when I asked ya for relationship advice. I thought you'd just give me some pointers, a few little tips, maybe."

"That wouldn't be enough for this kind of a problem, and if it was I would have told you yesterday instead of coming here in person this early on a weekend," Heather explained. "There are no shortcuts to make a relationship work. Believe me, I've been looking for years and if they did exist I would have found one or at least have gotten the sense of knowing what to look for. There's no magic button or crystal ball that will tell you everything that's going to happen. You can limit possibilities, you can direct probabilities, but when those fail you've got to have the balls to learn what you need, experience new things, and to brave waters that you wouldn't have dreamed traveling before. Even if your experiences are shitter than an outhouse after Owen plowing through a Mexican buffet, you can still learn from them and take something away from it. That's why I told you yesterday that I didn't have the time to help you. I can teach you the basics of manipulating other people and what to look for, but aside from that I can also offer a few of the lessons I've learned the hard way so you don't have to."

Jasmine stared at Heather in amazement. She knew that Heather was smart, bloody brilliant even, but she had never heard her speak so intelligently and passionately about things so, for lack of a better pair of words, nice and optimistic, as this.

The Queen Bee noticed this and presented a small smirk for the Aussie's stricken stare. "I know this from personal experience, another part of Cody and my romance that you've only heard a little of, Jazz." Unlike before, Heather didn't try for a moment to stop this memory from rising to the surface. "After I stopped caring what other people thought, and I started living my life for myself, I still felt pressure and fear from time to time, especially early on after we went public. I've found that it helps me to focus on a memory, a good one, and use it to ignore whatever was going on around us." Her smirk took on a tinge of fondness to it, almost enough for it to be called a smile.

"I learned that trick the first day of our senior year by complete accident. We walked in hand-and-hand. The second we walked in through the main entrance everyone was focused on us…every student, every teacher, even the fucking janitor. I could hear them, it was like the entire school was a graveyard, but the whispering and murmuring was everywhere. Cody's hand was starting to twitch and I knew he was starting to lose his nerve," shaking her head Heather's smirk shifted into a small but honest smile. "He looked so afraid, and I knew what I needed to do. It was like we were about to jump off of a high cliff into shark-infested waters again. But as afraid as I was, I knew how much it mattered to him, how important it was to him…and I remembered how much it hurt when I lost him. I never wanted to feel that pain, or cause him to feel it again. I knew that he loved me, and this was my chance to prove how much I loved him. That's when it hit me, how I was feeling must have been how he felt the first time he told me that he loved me. I know it's cheesier than a Hallmark card dipped in fresh cheddar; but that memory, the first time he worked up the courage to tell me that he loved me did the trick. I played that memory over and over in my head when I pulled Cody's face down to mine and then tried to suck out his tonsils out in front of the entire school."

After allowing the memory to play over a few times, she finally looked back up at Jasmine. "It takes a lot of time and a lot of practice to get good at kissing, but even if your partner is horrible and has no experience, you can still tell what it means to them by how much effort and feeling they put into it. That's actually the first step in manipulate someone, learning their preferences and tastes. By doing that you'll actually learn a lot more about them. For example, I love French kissing, the sheer passion and want it expresses, how it makes me feel desired, and wanted. Cody, on the other hand, even though he has no problems French kissing me at the drop of a hat, prefers boring sappy little kisses. To him, it's not about passion or desire; it's about connection and presence. You can use anything, any interaction with someone to learn about them, you just have to figure out what you are seeing and what it means. As odd as it might sound, you can learn a lot about Sammy that way. The problem is, the more you learn about her preferences and likes, the more you know about her preferences and likes, that's a two edged sword depending on how you feel about them. You can't be afraid to learn things about her that you might not particularly…like."

Jasmine sent Heather a slightly confused but somewhat understanding look at that last part. However she was caught off guard by what her attempt to understand Heather's cryptic statement had blinded her to. She felt a smaller but determined mass crash into her and push her onto her floral comforter. Unbeknownst to Jasmine in her current state, Heather had decided that now was the time to pounce and help both the Aussie and herself. Taking advantage of the stronger and taller girl's state of deep thought, the much shorter and weaker Heather was able to slam into Jasmine like a lithe wrecking ball. As you'd expect, Jasmine fell onto her back like a falling building. Like a predator creeping through the forest, Heather climbed onto of the ebony goddess; straddling the giant's hips and savoring the connecting of their curves. She quickly worked her way up the raven-haired ebony giant's muscular yet slender form, loving how the muscles beneath the warm expense of black felt both hard yet soft. The Queen Bee crept and crawled and caressed with her body until she reached the Aussie's face. Raven black hair spilling out over them like mischievous tendrils; they softly caressed her with a seductive charm. Heather was savoring the experience as she could almost feel herself melting, her soft curves and toned form twining with the more toned, voluptuous girl beneath her.

Jasmine's face, however, made it obvious that she wasn't savoring this one bit. Heather didn't really care. What she did care about was that panic was overpowering her reasoning as it looked like Jasmine was about to scream or yell or curse…any one of which would have signaled her family to what was going on. And Heather was determined to not allow that to happen, not yet anyways.

So, with previous desire now rocketed forward by devious necessity, Heather cut off whatever Jasmine was about to do with a puckered tulip of thinly fleshy pink. All the while she could feel the itch in the back of her mind growing into a familiar heat.

The petite lips of pink battered and savaged the limp bonbon brims of Jasmine's lips. The wet sucking that sounded off was like toy popguns. Heather held nothing back, having dreamed of these lips almost since she had first met Jasmine. She wanted her, had desires for her and even acted on a few of them with Cody, but outside of Lindsay all those years ago in the crappy communal showers of Camp Wawanakwa, Heather had never wanted a woman as badly as she wanted Jasmine.

Jasmine then felt a tongue slide greedily into her mouth, charging with the gusto and experience of one well versed in the carnal arts there was no doubt in her mind that Heather knew what she was doing. The Queen Bee's kisses were deep; burning with passion and fueled by lust her tongue flittered and glided around the inside of the Aussie's mouth and around her teeth.

Finding herself in a wilderness more uncharted than the most barren plains of the Outback, even within her own room, Jasmine had been too stunned to do anything at first. But as her mind slowly regained itself and as her thinking abilities were returned to her, Jasmine acted against this change. With a single hard shove she pushed the smaller and lighter girl away and broke the kiss before spitting and sputtering as she continued to pry the Asian lamprey from her.

Surprisingly, Heather remained perfectly in place on top of her. Two factors were in play that allowed her to remain on her new perch despite the vast difference in size and strength between them. The first was that even Jasmine, for all her power and muscle was feeling like jelly from the surging heat of Heather's kisses amid the electrical storm of her body's confusion. The second factor was Heather had quite a bit of experience when it came to remaining mounted on a writhing person in bed (though in a different manner), thanks to Cody.

Knowing that she could remain where she was for as long as she wanted, Heather lowered her head until it was right next to one of Jasmine's ears. With a husky breath the Queen Bee whispered, "I wouldn't do anything if I were you. Start screaming or making too much noise, one of your siblings or god forbid your parents might come in and see this. Imagine the looks on their faces at seeing their daughter or their sister tangled up with a hot Asian chick?"

That simple suggestion was enough to make Jasmine stop resisting her and begin to panic, feeling both powerless and helpless she stilled.

Seeing this, Heather frowned and sat up though remained on top of Australian giant. She then shook her head as she spoke. "You failed Jasmine…again."

The Aussie Amazon was equal parts furious and curious at the remark.

"What do ya mean!?"

"You can't show fear; you can't hesitate or freeze up like that!" Heather remained her sharply. "The threat and the source aren't important, the reaction is! If you're going to be there for Sammy, you have to be there for her one hundred percent, full time, twenty four seven."

"I don't think that-!"

"That's the problem!" Heather nearly shouted, quickly cutting Jasmine off. "The problem is that you are thinking, that you do think! Thinking is where doubt waits and festers. You can't do squat for Sammy if you keep thinking and second-guessing yourself! You need to stop thinking and learn how to react without thinking when something happens you didn't expect or count on!"

Her expression was one of annoyance, lacking even the slightest trace of passion or seduction that was pouring from her moments earlier. "You can't half-ass this Jazz. If you're going to use anything that I teach you, you have to go all the way with it. Manipulation and control are not toys, they are tools, weapons, and you have to understand that. Starting and stopping or going half way and backtracking are just going to make Sammy afraid and withdraw from you. You have to be consistent, no mixed signals, no stuttering and no cowering." Heather added plainly, still sitting on top of her.

Seeing that Jasmine was thinking over her words over, once again thinking, Heather put her hands on the sides of her face and nearly growled, "The day I met you, you were a towering, fearless, aggressive, assertive, Amazonian badass bitch that made a huge fucking pothole with a single stomp, not a second-guessing and fearful little mouse!" She then paused, letting her words sink in before continuing. "And if anything can happen once, it can happen again. I can't teach you the way you are now, but I know you can learn this. Now, close your eyes!" Jasmine immediately reacted to the barking command and screwed her eyes shut tight. With the same tone as before, the miniature Asian drill instructor pushed forward with her plan. "Now, think back to the day we first met, I want you to remember everything that had happened from the minute you woke up to when I cut you off."

Heather was surprised to see how quickly there was a visible reaction to her instructions. Jasmine's ebony lips pulled down into a frown and her brow becoming drawn up. "Now," Heather continued, "remember that second mental image from earlier, the saddest and most painful memory you have of Sammy. Whatever it was that caused that memory, I want you to imagine it happening over, and over, and over again. I want you to watch it from start to finish until I say otherwise."

Jasmine expression slowly changed as Heather observed. Her hands closed into fists and her brow tightened at first, and her breathing became shallower. From there her firsts tightened, her nails digging into the flesh of her palms to the point Heather wondered if she was drawing blood. Her frown twitched, the twitching pulling back on one side until the other side joined it, eventually revealing Jasmine's clenched teeth.

"Now, take that bitch that stormed up to me and demanded me to get out of Cody's car, and imagine that she met whatever it was that hurt Sammy, whatever it was that made Sammy cry."

The Australian Amazon's breathing went from shallow and angry to deep and wrathful. Her nostrils flared as a hardened scowl spread across her face like a fissure in the earth.

"Do you trust me?" Heather asked simply.

Jasmine, scowl deepening, nodded to confirm that she did.

"Then open your eyes, and let me talk to that bitch I cut off when we first met."

Ebony lids parted rather than opened to reveal a pair of obsidian eyes.

As they did, Heather felt a small surge pass through her. It was Jasmine, the same girl she had been talking to and known for weeks now, but at the same time it wasn't. The previous day when she suggested manipulating Sammy to help her, she had seen a brief flash of…something, but it was gone in an instant, replaced with a towering giant of rage and anger. What she saw now however, what lay before her was what she had caught but a glimpse of in that brief flash, that less than an instant moment in time. Gone were her gentle meekness, the weighty doubt, and loving concern that had always been in her jet-black eyes. What remained in their place were confidence, determination, and strength.

'That, I was not expected! I knew there was something else there, but I never thought it was anything like this!' Heather thought to herself as she pushed aside the growing itch gnawing and begging to be sated. Overcoming her own arousal, a difficult task at this point, Heather leaned over Jasmine and asked her a second time, "Do you trust me?" Jasmine confirmed that she did with a nod, same as before. Seeing this, Heather once again brought her face down to Jasmine's and kissed her.

For an instant Jasmine froze, and Heather started to pull away once again in frustration. In the back of her mind, Jasmine heard some of Heather's earlier words trickle and flow across her ears like slowly melting ice.

'You can't show fear, or worry, or doubt. You will feel them, they will be there, but you can't let them show.'

Steeling herself, Jasmine leaned up and followed Heather's lead, surprising her with a kiss that was followed by a raging torrent. Three years of pent up passion, need, and want were trying to escape through a tiny fissure of a massive emotional dam.

As she enjoyed the light chocolate lips of the Australian goddess under her, Heather took the opportunity to see what she could learn of her. She gave Jasmine an A+ for effort…but a C- for technique. There was a hunger to them, a yearning for something long denied. Her rushed pace spoke of many hurried and brief encounters, stolen moments in time but never a chance to fully bask in their warmth. The stillness of her arms, her hands and tongue lended to one that was accustom to being guided or lead, not one who took charge. Each scrap of information she filed away for later.

With the current lack of resistance, Heather decided to take things up a notch. Slowly and carefully, she moved her hands, grabbing Jasmine's shoulders mid-kiss; she pulled Jasmine closer to her and deepened the kiss. As the making out continued, Heather felt a pair of shaking arms move up to her own shoulders and mirror her actions as Jasmine matched Heather's increased efforts. The escalation of passion continued for several minutes before Heather raised the bar a second notch.

The Queen Bee slid one of her hands down from Jasmine's shoulder, not once breaking the heated make-out session, continuing to build up the rhythm and pace of her lips and tongue. Her perfectly manicured nails lightly scraped the glistening Aussie's skin, making sure Jasmine noticed it and felt it moving downward. Soon her hand had reached its target, the taller girl's glorious breasts. Jasmine panicked amid the kisses, expecting to feel a pinch or a squeeze any moment. But it didn't happen…it never came. Instead, she felt Heather's fingers come close to them, her nails graze under them but never actually touching them. The Queen Bee was teasing her, she could feel the grin on her lips as they kissed, but she couldn't fathom why. It was similar to Sammy, but not the same, not by a long shot. The few times they had gone beyond just kissing each other, Sammy always came up just short of actually touching her breasts, too afraid of going any further. But this, this was different, deliberate. A tiny part of her noticed the twitching of her hands, how just when they would have reached her mounds they would pull back before the hand would.

That one observation aside, Jasmine was…a jumbled mess, in short. Her thoughts swirled within a haze of emotions and instincts. The nerves alive with pulses that formed her gateways to the outside world were a crisscrossing storm that suddenly made all of reality not make sense. Her very being was becoming a boiling stew of strife and surging impulses. Confusion, fear, and even terror salted a erupting geyser of despair and self-loathing that had its thick broth built upon the lingering worry of a family member walking in on her right now and the festering guilt of her cheating on the person who she loved as much as life itself.

And those feelings were only increased when she felt Heather's other hand descend from its perch. This one gliding along the ebony terrain of her exposed stomach. It slid downward until it reached right above her hips, only an inch from her tight tan short-short covered backside. Just like its sister roving about her chest, the second hand never actually grabbed or groped anything, instead it hovered and teased the jiggly mounds of arousing flesh but not once did so much as a single nail actually make contact.

This was the straw that broke the camel's back as the twin teasings of her tits and ass were beginning to trigger Jasmine's naturally perfected fight or flight instincts and adrenaline surged through her imposing form like molten silver.

'This is wrong! I'm cheatin' on Sammy!' One part of Jasmine screamed.

'Remember, 'Eather's trying to 'elp you!' Another part of her being countered.

''Ow the bloody 'ell is makin' out with me 'elping me!?'

'I don't know, but I trust 'Eather, and I believe that she's tryin' to 'elp me.'

'What if I'm wrong!? What if she's just tryin' to feel me up, to take advantage of me!?'

'Then I'll kick her little ass!'

As this mental and emotional tug of war was waged, more bits and pieces from earlier that morning floated by her mind: she had to be willing to go all the way, she couldn't half-ass it, she couldn't start and stop, she couldn't show doubt or fear, and she had to be willing to become anything and everything for Sammy if she is going to use what Heather offered her.

At that moment, everything clicked into place and Jasmine finally fully realized exactly what it was Heather had been hinting at since the other day. What she meant about being ready for something unexpected, why she couldn't be afraid of learning things she might not like about Sammy, why she had to be strong for both of them, and why she was teasing her but stopping short on purpose now.

''Eather was tellin' me that I can't be afraid of what I might do or need to do, up to and includin' 'aving sex with Sammy. I've gotta get use to takin' the bull by the horns. Sammy needs me to be strong and sure, ready and willin' to do anythin' that I need to do, for 'er. 'N it can't just start right before me and Sammy fuck each other. I've gotta start right now!'

Not knowing of Jasmine's epiphany, Heather started pulling away to catch her breath. She just barely noticed something changing in her friend's eyes, a new resolve having clawed its way to the surface, one that she recognized and had seen several times before. The leash chaining the Australian Amazon to decency and restraint had just snapped.

Jasmine acted before her mind even registered it. She had fought through the flickering of fear and doubt that nearly crippled her newly found resolve. No more and never again. Closing her eyes and focusing on why she was doing this allowed her to surpass it. Where a nearly dead ember once flickered was now an unstoppable brush fire.

Jumping headlong into mental waters previously only given a fleeting glance, Jasmine rolled herself over, taking the much smaller Asian Queen Bee with her. Caught completely off guard, Heather soon found herself pinned down by a massive weight as a wet warmth spearheaded by a soft yet tensed pike of muscle forced its way past her lips. It took several long moments for Heather to realize that natural order had been subverted, that Jasmine was kissing her.

Heather hesitated only as long as the realization itself took before returning to the fray with her full force. Her pink lips were crashing against Jasmine's brown ones. While her hands still weren't truly groping Jasmine's breasts or ass, her teasing grew more extreme. Skills honed by years of experience began their task of overpowering the Amazon sexually.

Jasmine nearly froze at the sudden surge that flashed across her lips and skin. Between fluttering kisses, Heather was nipping at her lips and tongue. The movements of her hands becoming more precise, her nails grazing and gliding only over places that caused her to move and hitch her breathing. Her own body was betraying her now. Resisting was becoming more and more difficult as the teases weaved and cried out silent promises. There was no booming demand given, no thunderous proposals offered. No, it was a nearly silent whisper, no more than a tickle that hinted at what could be. It had started as nothing, a weak breeze, but now, it was…compelling to say the least. Rather than growing in strength it multiplied in number almost. She could feel it, the urge to give in, to allow Heather to have her way with her, to offer herself to someone other than Sammy of her own free will.

But then, Jasmine thought back to her first memory of Sammy, the happiest one she had, how much she wanted to see that smile every day and every night.

To paraphrase Marlon Brando's Col. Kurtz in the movie Apocalypse Now, it was like Jasmine had been shot, with a diamond, a diamond bullet right in her forehead, and she thought 'My God, the genius of that'. Suddenly everything made sense.

Heather was seducing her!

That was it. That was what this was all about. Controlling, manipulating, directing, the warning about just how they weren't toys. Little bits and pieces, like bread crumbs Heather had been leaving them for her and letting her put them together. Every time she thought she had it figured out there would be another piece, another part, something else. But now she had it, she had the full and complete idea of just what Heather had in mind, how she is helping her. And that didn't involve letting Heather have her way!

The Outback Survivalist forced her way through Heather's seductions. For the first time in her life, Jasmine attempted to make another submit to her will, to direct them where she wanted them, manipulate what they were doing, control what was happening.

The leviathan length of her tongue rammed itself into the fortress of Heather's mouth, determined to trample anything that tried to oppose her. Jasmine offered to herself Heather's mouth with even greater effort than when the Queen Bee had ravaged hers. Thinly pressed against her chocolate lips as they were wrestling into submission Heather's pink ones was an animalistic hunger that bordered predatory. The Aussie was sucking hard, almost like she was trying to drink Heather dry, swallow her very essence until she was as hollow as an empty aboriginal vase.

Shifting her legs out over Heather's, Jasmine straddled her hips and bucked against the Asian's smaller form like a massive tidal wave. Heather had an eye for her breasts; she knew that they attracted her like a moth to the flame. And when Heather felt the soft weight of Jasmine's large bust bearing down on her, the twin chocolate mountains pressing down on her olive hills the effect was substantial, just as she knew it would be. Jasmine had taken the upper hand.

Calloused hands swept across Heather's body, offering themselves to greedy handfuls of the skin exposed by her clothing until they reached the Queen Bee's breasts, with each easily fitting into her hands, Jasmine began to squeeze and grope, her mind idle noticing they were roughly the same size as Sammy's, Jasmine started to imagine that she was finally giving those wonderful pale orbs the ravaging she always wanted to.

The Queen Bee was now moaning and writhing under her, weakening and growing more docile with each kiss from her lips and grope of her hands.

Jasmine didn't notice this; instead she focused on the image of Sammy that made her so happy, and imagining that she was finally doing to Sammy what she had always wanted. Her memories of the past and hopes for the future merging with the present.

So far buried in the moment and so far removed from reality as she was, Jasmine was pulled back by a surprising sensation. It was a pair of tiny hands pushing against her chest, not groping or rubbing but actually pushing. And it was a hard pushing. Looking down for the first time since taking command of the situation, Jasmine saw Heather's hands pushing her up and off of her, or least attempting to. Not knowing why, the knowledge that Heather was trying with all of her might to repel her but it was completely ineffective made Jasmine even more rallied up. Even with her love of Sammy, something in her wanted more, to go further and dominate the bitchy gal.

Nevertheless, she stopped herself when she saw the pleading look in Heather's grey eyes. With considerable effort, Jasmine stopped herself and pulled back, rising off the Queen Bee. "What's wrong, 'Eather?"

Heather didn't answer her; instead she took in several massive gasps of air, almost sounding like someone who had just been drowning.

"My lun-*gasp*-gs *pant* don't have the same *gasp* can't hold as much *pant* as yours." Heather finally answered between labored breaths before she found herself laughing. Not chuckling, but actually laughing. Once her breathing returned to normal, or at least normal enough, she spoke. "That's quite enough. As tempting as it would be to continue, I don't know if I'd survive. You passed Jazz, with flying colors." Giving a warm, near smile of a smirk she added, "it took you awhile but the wait was worth it. You should be just fine now, all you need to do is focus on that same feeling, dig up that bitch from that day, and wear it like a mask of love and war."

Getting off of Heather, after catching her own breath Jasmine nodded, "Thanks, 'Eather."

"It was my pleasure…literally."

Both girls released the same pearls of laughter as it filled the room. Smiling warmly, Jasmine thought back to what Cody told her while they were shopping for furniture that day that felt like so long ago.

'Look, I can understand why people don't believe me at first, especially anyone that knows how she was on Total Drama, but there is a lot more to her than most people pick up on. You just have to spend some time around her and get to know her.'

It was only now that Jasmine saw the truth of those words. And that same truth had led her back to something particular during their make-out session, something that had stumped her even now.

"Say, 'Eather." Jasmine said after the laugher had finished. "I know ya 'ave been starin' at me babs and bum plenty since we met, but why didn't ya take the opportunity to feel them up when ya ad the chance?"

Heather's smirk was still firmly in place, but Jasmine could have sworn there was a pink hue to her cheeks. "As surprising as this might sound given my track record, it wouldn't have been right. I was trying to help make a point, grabbing your goods, while very tempting, wouldn't have helped you figure anything out," Heather replied to Jasmine's partial shock. "Besides, I never take anything that someone else doesn't offer or give me. I believe in passion in the bedroom, but I also believe in power, true power. And true power can't be taken by force; it has to be given willingly."

Though she only agreed with most of that answer personally, it was further proof of Heather's hidden character. It also made her glad to know that her trust hadn't been misplaced. Heather's help and advice, as unconventional as it might have been, was spot on. But then she remembered something else, what she had originally thought Heather was going to help her with. "So," Jasmine finally said after nodding her head at Heather's answer, "just what am I suppose to do exactly?"

The Queen Bee's mood dropped. "What is the problem?"

"Well, as 'elpful as your advice so far as been, I didn't haven't the foggiest 'bout what I'm suppose to do with it, 'bout 'ow I'm suppose to 'elp Sammy specifically." Jasmine explained.

Heather voice was flat and deadpan as she pinched the bridge between her eyes. "Have you been listening to a single word that I said? There are no short cuts and no easy ways to make it happen, it takes time, work, and effort. You can't just snap your fingers and expect everything to change overnight. You've got the tools you need to work with now; you just need to use them.

Jasmine, still dubious asked, "'Ow does not bein' afraid tell me what I need to do?"

Once again, getting frustrated, Heather bonked the Aussie on the head for a second time. With a rumbling growl behind her words, Heather said, yet again, this time slowly, "There. Are. No. Fucking. Shortcuts! You've got to figure it out for yourself!" Composing herself she rolled her eyes. "But, if I were you, I would start with trying to fix how she sees you, get out of the supporter and comforter role and get into the authoritative role with her. And before you ask, basically it means be more assertive, more active with her. Don't push Sammy too hard or far but don't let it keep going like it is now, letting her call all the shots and decide everything all the time." Recalling her own past and how her own relationships had started off, Heather found herself getting a bit lost. "Start with small things before working your way up to bigger ones. Small touches at first and working your way up to prolonged holds. Stroking her hair, putting her in your lap when you're both sitting down on the couch or bed, and keeping her there for a while. Kiss her as a greeting when in private. Make the kisses longer as time goes on. Let those huge hands of yours roughly feel her up even when you aren't aiming to make out or fu-!" Heather suddenly stopped, finding her face getting red. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Heather had listed off some of her own fantasies of what would happen with the Aussie if she were in Sammy's shoes. Coughing in embarrassment, the Queen Bee clung to just enough of her usual dignity to add, "But more than anything, changing your looks to catch Sammy's eye would help."

Still a little shocked by what she had just heard, it took Jasmine a few seconds to respond. Once she did, she said, "But 'ow I'm a suppose to do that? I don't 'ave any dresses, and I've never even thought of puttin' on make-up before."

"It doesn't take a dress or lipstick to get a person to notice you've changed something about yourself, especially if you're aiming for subtle, sexy hints."

Getting more and more embarrassed by where this train of thought might lead to, Jasmine asked, "Ju-just what do ya mean by that?"

"Where do you keep your underwear?" Heather asked bluntly and directly.

Despite her ebony face catching the blazing fire of an embarrassed flush, Jasmine meekly pointed to her dressed and quietly commented, "It's the top shelf."

Rising up from the bed, Heather opened the top drawer with a hopeful gleam in her eyes. After looking inside of the drawer, that hopeful gleam vanished and she bitterly frowned. Without saying a word she pulled out an example of what dominated the underwear drawer, a pair of plain white cotton panties. Focusing on the red-faced Jasmine, the Queen Bee asked with mild annoyance, "Is this really all you have?"

Jasmine flushed a darker shade of red. "Well…with six kids to take care of, my parents never 'ad a lotta money to spend on each kid."

Still frowning, Heather opened up the other drawers, and then she moved to the closet. It was the same song everywhere. She found jeans, shorts, shirts, bras, and panties, all similar and basic, nothing special or out of the ordinary. Hell, the Aussie's Indiana Jones get-up that she was currently wearing (and she's wore the majority of the times that Heather had seen her) was the most unique and eye-catching thing she owned. It almost made Heather weep.

Instead of weeping, the Queen Bee allowed her frown to deepen even further. "It's not much to work with, less than I thought it would be, and I had low expectations. But I can make do with it, for now," she said to herself before turning to face Jasmine again. "But the two of us are going to have a day-long shopping spree very soon. We're going to get you some frilly panties and cleavage-flashing tops even if it kills you."

'It just might.' Jasmine thought wirily.

"Anyway, are you willing to part with a few of your t-shirts, the plain white ones?" Heather asked.

"Why?"

"I can use them to help you, but the shirts will be lost if I do."

The Aussie frowned but then sighed. "That's fine, at this point I 'ave no reason to not trust you. You've been keeping your promise to 'elp me so far."

Heather's smirk changed to one Jasmine hadn't seen yet. "Please keep that in mind for what's coming next." She said, confirming Jasmine's theory that this particular smirk was not a good one. "Also, do you have any scissors in this house?"

Jasmine nodded.

"Good. Then please be a dear and get them for me. Also, I'll need a marker too, a sharpie if possible."

Jasmine understood by this point what Heather was planning on doing with her t-shirts, that they would be lost by virtue of being cut up, though she couldn't grasp the reason why. Regardless, she left and room and returned shortly with the requested items. When she returned, she noticed that Heather had pulled shut the blinds of her windows and several of her t-shirts were laid out on the bed. The Queen Bee was studying them intently. All of them were the same uniform plain white cotton, nothing special.

Not looking away from the shirts, Heather said, "I want you to make very sure that the door is locked after you close it."

Jasmine did so, sensing that she wasn't going to like what was coming next at all.

Sure enough, she doesn't.

After she heard the door lock, Heather turned towards Jasmine with her hands out, accepting the marker and scissors. "Now, please stand in the middle of the room, take off your shirt and bra, and put this on." She then threw one of the t-shirts that had been on the bed, which Jasmine caught.

Jasmine froze up, before gritting her teeth. Seeing this, Heather smirked before turning around, with her back to the Aussie. Thankful that Heather at least had the decency not to look; Jasmine begrudgingly complied with her request. Once she was finished, she informed Heather that she had done as she asked.

The Queen Bee turned around and started to approach her with the marker in hand. She uncapped it, and began circling the towering Aussie several times. "Raise your arms out to your sides, and then over your head."

"Not until you tell me just what it is that your planning on doin'."

"We, or I rather, am going to make you some push-up bras."

That got Jasmine's attention. "Just 'ow do ya plan on doin' that? Ya know how to sew and stitch 'em yourself?"

Heather scoffed. "It doesn't take anywhere near that much work. And I know how to do it because I use to do it for myself."

Sighing, Jasmine raised her arms out to her sides and over her head, with her fingertips so close to the ceiling that she would have been able to touch it if she got on her tippy-toes. Taking the marker, Heather drew a line starting under Jasmine's bust that went around to her back. Determined to distract herself from the odd situation, Jasmine asked, "So, why did ya make your own bras, anyway? I thought your family was pretty cashed up."

Not looking up from her work, Heather then drew a pair of lines starting at the center of the t-shirt's neck that spread out, crossing over her breasts like a large upside down V. A part of Heather longed to trade the marker for one of her fingers, but she restrained herself. After capping the marker, Heather continued on, ignoring her question, "Now take off the shirt."

Once a few moments of hesitation passed, Jasmine did so, making sure to cover her breasts with one arm as she did so. Due to the size of the breasts in question, this proved to be an ineffective means of covering herself. Heather still got to see a generous amount of ebony cleavage both above and below the slender, toned arm. Heather just barely controlled herself and handed Jasmine another shirt.

Sitting on the bed, Heather started cutting the cotton material around the lines she drawn. While doing so, she decided to throw the poor girl a bone to calm her nerves. "To answer your question, yes, I do come from a rich family. Two, in fact, since after my parents divorced my mother remarried."

"Sorry, 'Eather."

Heather, still focused on the shirt she was cutting, waved it off. "Don't worry about it. It's been a long time since I stopped caring about them," she said. "And to answer the second part of your question, the reason I made my own bras is because of my small bust, even for someone of Asian descent it's not exactly…eye catching, and I wasn't always as confident as I am now." Heather didn't notice the expression of shock on Jasmine's face. "I know I have curves in all the right places, but I didn't have enough to get noticed. I started out stuffing my bras, but a near…incident in gym class killed that idea. After that, I took to enhancing what I already had instead of trying to add to it."

Jasmine watched as Heather finished cutting out the large swath of material from the front of the shirt before turning it over to the back, then starting to cut down the center from the bottom, stopping just below the line that had been marked under her bust. She then watched as Heather took a second t-shirt and cut off everything from the half-way point, again around where her bust line was, before cutting off the sleeves.

Heather then stood and motioned for Jasmine to come over to her. "Okay, I think I've got it done, but let's see. Take off your t-shirt." The Aussie Amazon did so, but not without covering herself same as before. This caused the Queen Bee to scoff before asking, "Is this what you were like in gym class too? Remember, you can't show fear if you want to help Sammy!"

"There's a 'uge bloody difference between fear and modesty!" Jasmine stated with a certain familiar edge to her tone.

"That changes once you get more active with your partner," Heather fired back with a knowing smirk.

Heather then handed the first t-shirt that she had worked on, the one cut down the back with the large upside down V cut out of the front, to Jasmine. The Aussie stared at it for a moment before sighing and slipping it on like a vest.

"Put your arms over your head and arch your back, I need you to push out your bust as much as you can." Heather instructed.

Wanting to just get it over with by this point Jasmine complied, and watched in mild surprise as Heather took the two cut lengths that made up the remains of the sides and back of the shirt and pulled them up from under her breasts before running them through the sleeve holes and tying them through the neck hole of the shirt.

"You can put your arms down now." She then handed the towering Australian the former t-shirt now tank top, which was slipped over the vest style bra.

Lastly, Heather handed Jasmine her shirt back, which she put on and quickly, buttoned up before tucking in.

Heather studied her with a contemplative look before telling Jasmine, "Undo the top three buttons."

Jasmine groaned, but complied while doing so she added, "I guess I'm past the point of questionin' ya." She had just undone the last button by the time that she had finished speaking. The Outback Survivalist realized something was up, however, when she noticed that Heather's eyes had widened and a whisper of a cruse slipped under her breath. Furrowing her brows, Jasmine asked, "What's wrong? Did I put it on wrong?"

Heather said nothing. Without blinking or taking her eyes off of Jasmine, the Queen Bee grabbed the Aussie's wrist and pulled her over to the mirror attached to the back of the closet door.

The Australian gasped. Jasmine's tightened slits of annoyance vanished as her eyes became as wide as Heather's, if not even more so. She simply couldn't accept who the woman staring back at her from the mirror was.

It was her face, her clothes, but as far as she was concerned, it couldn't be her body.

The unbuttoned shirt revealed a very generous expanse of copper colored cleavage, and while she knew that her breasts were moderately large for someone of her build, being proportionate to her size, the effect of Heather's work were extremely noticeable. With her breasts being pushed together and up, it gave them the illusion of even greater size.

Feeling embarrassed, surprised, dumbfounded, and confused all at once, Jasmine turned to Heather and asked in sheet disbelief, "Ow did ya come up with this!?"

"Hello! Look at my boobs! Does this look like a good-sized rack to you?" Heather snapped, cupping her own twins and lifting them up. "I've been using tricks like that since I was fifteen just so guys would think I had breasts. You want someone's attention? Let them know you have something. You want someone's interest? Show them a little. You want someone's heart? Give them something worth seeing."

"I think I'm showing too much!" Jasmine said sounding the most frightened Heather had ever heard her.

The combination of the comment and her tone of voice caused Heather to start laughing once again, and though still embarrassed, Jasmine ended up joining the Queen Bee soon after.

Smirking, in a very good mood now, Heather, with great difficulty, said, "You can button up the second and third buttons…for now. I just wanted you to get a good look at my hard work. As much as I'd prefer seeing you like this, I know you're not ready for it yet."

Jasmine was very thankful to hear that. She quickly buttoned up all of the buttons but the top one. Even with just the one button opened Jasmine was surprised by the difference. "This change is rather strikin'." She commented, mostly to herself.

"I agree," Heather said, stepping behind the giant girl. After doing so, she grabbed her shoulders, and pulled her back a bit. While doing so, Heather said, "You need to stop slouching so much. Stand and sit up straight, and square your shoulders. Don't shrink back from your reflection like it's going to bite you. You need to get use to at least appearing confident and in control. And for God's sake try to smile a little. Don't look so serious all the time, at least when with Sammy or me and Cody. But don't make the smile to obvious…just make it friendly. Believe me, I know it takes a long time for even the smallest smile to seem genuine, or be genuine."

Once she was happy with Jasmine's posture and poise, Heather asked, "Could you walk a few paces out and back to me?"

Reasonably happy with what she has seen so far, Jasmine did as she was asked, only for Heather to ask her to do it again, which she did. Returning the second time, Jasmine saw Heather frowning slightly. The Queen Bee, still frowning asked, "Have you ever worn heels before?"

"No," Jasmine replied. "I'm already somewhere 'alf way 'tween six n' a 'alf 'n seven feet tall. Why on Earth would I try to make myself even taller?"

Heather nodded, before informing Jasmine, "I'm going to teach you something that every woman needs to know how to do…and that's strut."

"At least it's not how to walk or run in 'eels," Jasmine muttered.

Heather, without saying a word, demonstrated for the Aussie by walking some distance, adding a slight sway to her hips, but not enough to be overly exaggerated or cartoony. When Heather turned and walked back towards Jasmine, she asked, "Do you think you can do that?"

Jasmine frowned and bit her lip, but nodded.

About ten minutes later, Jasmine was parading around her room, with Heather smiling and clapping in approval. "That's perfect, Jazz," the Queen Bee cited with praise. "Now you walk like a woman and not a guy, Sammy's sure to notice it." Then she pointed out, "The key is to remember yourself, don't just feel confident but be confident, about yourself and your body. As long as you can do that, it will show."

Hearing that made Jasmine shrink away, remarking, "That's not how I'm use to thinking or feeling, ya know. My freakish height always makes me stick out, always different."

Heather scoffed before asking, "Have you ever seen a short runway model before?"

Jasmine frowned. "Ya don't need to flatter me, ya know."

Heather's jaw nearly dropped to the floor as her brain crashed for a few seconds. Once her brain finished reloaded from its total system crash, Heather had just one thought.

'I wouldn't have believed it was fucking possible for her to have self confidence or image issues if I wasn't standing here myself!'

With her mouth still hanging opened, Heather dragged Jasmine by the hand back to the mirror. Once they were both in front of the huge piece of reflective glass, Heather asked, "What do you see?"

Raising an eyebrow, Jasmine answered, "Uh…I see myself."

"That is a good thing. You should also remember what you see."

Jasmine's confusion only increased. "'N just what do I see?"

"A six foot six bronze skinned goddess with abs any man would kill for and a double D forty two bust line that any woman would thank their lucky starts to have!" Heather nearly shouted, dumbfounded and slightly furious that Jasmine couldn't see the obvious. "You are beautiful! You are attractive! And if you can't see that, you are fucking blind! I've seen…two; maybe three women in-person that have you beat in the looks department. Anyone who doesn't see how hot you are is either blind, in denial, or so dumb that they don't deserve to pass on their genes! It's only because of the lifetime of emotional abuse that she's been through that I haven't felt obligated to steal you away from Sammy for her not jumping your bones after three years!" Heather ranted.

Jasmine simply stared into the dark eyes of the doppelganger staring back at her in deep uncertainty. "Are ya bein' serious or are ya just tryin' to get into my pants?"

"Have you given any thought as to why I've been trying so hard to get into your pants!?" Heather was nearly yelling at this point and had to physically restrain herself from bonking Jasmine on the head. "I've got the money, body, and experience to have any guy or girl I want, but I also have very high standards. Standards you more than meet!"

Having said that, Heather took a few steps back and let Jasmine to reflect on her words. The Aussie stared at herself, dumbfounded by Heather's words. To be perfectly honest, she had never really thought of that before, never giving any thought to why Heather had pursued her as she had. If nothing else, Jasmine knew that Heather did in fact have unreasonably high standards when it came to almost everything, from the clothes she wore to the food she ate, so it wasn't difficult to imagine those same unreasonably high standards were at their highest when it came to the women she pursued.

Reaching out with one hand, Jasmine touched the face in the mirror, feeling only the cold smoothness of the mirror's surface under her fingertips. Then, she brought the same hand to her own face, moving the same fingers down the warm ebony skin. At that moment, something in Jasmine's being clicked into place. She was beautiful! She was attractive! Enough so that someone like Heather was actively pursuing her! While she had no desire to return those feelings, Jasmine couldn't deny that it was flattering. Still looking at the mirror, Jasmine's chocolate lips pulled back into a beaming smile.

Seeing this, Heather's smirk grew, knowing that her point had finally sunken in. "If you remember that, if you know who you are and be yourself, you'll do fine. Just remember what I said before, be more assertive, more affectionate, and more open with her. Throw in some touches and holds to establish a physical boundary to work within and build up from there. Show Sammy what you have to offer her, let her know that you are interested and not only want more from her, but are willing to give more to her. And if her bitch of a sister shows up, don't run away, stay with Sammy, stand up to her, don't back down. If Amy threatens Sammy in any way, threaten her back, warn her, and roughen her up a little if you need to. Remember to be more proactive, don't just stand there and let Sammy cry on your shoulder, put yourself between the two and block Amy from getting anywhere near her if you can. Once Sammy sees you as someone that can and will protect her, not just someone that will comfort her, you'll start to establish a level of influence to work with."

Closing her eyes and lowering her head, Heather chose her next words carefully. "Once you have a measure of influence over her, use it to gain more ground to help her. Little things, small things, like asking her to wear a particular shirt that you think is cute, or make a suggestion for where you should go out on your next date. Get her comfortable with you making choices and decisions for her or for the both of you. Work with that, build on it, and eventually you'll have enough control over her that she will listen to you over anyone else, including, and especially Amy."

Jasmine tapped her chocolate lips in thought, before smiling at Heather as she said, "Thank you, 'Eather…for everythin'." But then her face became one of nervousness. "But what should I do if it doesn't work out? If I somehow screw things up?"

The Aussie's skull was assaulted by another bonk, though a lighter one than the previous strikes. "If nothing else, remember that there are no shortcuts, it will take time, and both of you will make mistakes." Heather repeated, by this point getting as sick of those same words as Jasmine was. "But as long as you think there is a chance, keep working for it and keep fighting for it. And you never know, Sammy might surprise you if she's given the chance."

Jasmine looked grateful for that answer.

That was just enough for Heather to switch to a subtle sinister smirk. "But," The Queen Bee started with her old haughty tone, "if worst comes to worst and things don't work out…then you're always welcome to stay at our place and shack up with me and Cody."

Jasmine glared at the Queen Bee.

Heather shrugged before pointing out, "I'm just being honest, a rarity with most people, I might add." Jasmine was unfazed by the addition. "If it makes you feel any better, I'll stop trying to get into your pants if Sammy calls things off for good."

"Uh…thanks…I think?" Jasmine said dumbfounded.

"But, to be perfectly honest, I don't think that will happen. Sammy already trusts you, and a blind person could see how much she loves you."

Hearing that made the smile on Jasmine's face return in full. She knew Heather was a convincing liar, but she could also tell when she was being sincere, and this was one of those few times. "Once again, thanks for everythin', 'Eather. Ya might 'ave a 'ard time showin' it, but you're a true friend." She then looked at the clock on her wall. "Say, we musta been at this longer than I woulda guessed. It's almost time for lunch. Would you like to stick 'round and join us?"

The near smile smirk Heather gave her friend was all the answer her needed.

She was in a good mood.

---

Saturday, October 4th

Heather was in a foul mood.

She had been having a bad day, or rather a bad run of days lately. Starting with a parking ticket thanks to her parking in a illegal spot due to the lack of parking spaces (with the people in charge taking out most of the spots of one of the biggest parking lots for an additional arts building in their infinite fucking wisdom!), followed by her car door getting dinged up by some dumbass in an AMC Pacer, her car woes came to a grand culmination with her car breaking down after her last class and with it now being in the shop. The crown jewel to this was the fact that her car broke down on a cloudless day with the temperature well over a hundred. As if that all wasn't enough, she knew that Cody would be in class for another hour, and his phone would be off (with him being one of the only people she knew who actually turned off their phone during class).

Now, she was waiting at one of the shuttle bus stops, with the knowledge that she would have to use the colleges' public transportation system making the moody Queen Bee even moodier. Her foot tapped impatiently while she waited for the slow and often cramped shuttle bus, which would take thirty minutes to get to her dorm that was only ten minutes away thanks to all the other stops it had to make first. Heather was this close to cursing all of existence and punching the first person she saw!

"G'day 'Eather!" A voice called out, the Australian accent being unmistakable.

Shaken out of her intense and bitter brooding, Heather looked around until she saw someone getting out a familiar jeep parked nearby, a certain towering black Australian that looked like an insanely hot Indiana Jones cos-player.

"Hello Jasmine," Heather said managing to keep her tone civil despite her bitter mood, "How have you been?"

"Can't complain too much," the Aussie answered, looking oddly uncomfortable. The shifting of her stance and gaze was one familiar to Heather from years of growing up in a family of high-class socialites. She was hiding something and she wanted something. "Ya waitin' for the 'ol shuttle bus?" Heather nodded. At hearing that, Jasmine's ebony face lit up with a sudden cheer that screamed of artifice or at least of being played up. "Say, 'ow would ya like a ride to your dorm!?"

There was silence for a few moments. Heather couldn't help but stare at Jasmine with a raised eyebrow. The intimidating Aussie found herself slightly fidgeting under the gaze of the Asian who was just over two feet shorter than she was. Jasmine was never like this, she never attempted to be secretive or subtle, she was always blunt and direct. This was reeking of 'smooth'.

Heather hated smooth. But, a ride to her dorm was a ride to her dorm.

"Thanks, Jazz, you're a lifesaver," Heather said thankfully while tossing her backpack into the backseat and Jasmine said it was no problem. After she had buckled in and Jasmine started driving, Heather asked, "So, how have things been between you and Sammy? I haven't heard from you in a few weeks."

Jasmine instantly became a little more nervous, fidgeting in her seat.

'Bingo,' Heather thought as she watched the taller teen's reactions to her question.

"Things have been goin' well…very well, in fact. Sammy's been very…responsive to me bein' more forward. Our relationship 'as grown by leaps and bounds," Jasmine answered with a luminescent blush.

"I knew it would." Heather smirked with pride in her work. "Did anything in particular help out? The strutting, the push up bra?"

"So far…what's seems to have gotten the biggest reaction was when I threatened to shove Amy's face into 'er 'ouse's toilet after she walked in on us snogging. When Amy kept tryin' to make Sammy feel like shit, I did something 'bout it."

That caught Heather's attention. "Oh? What did you do?"

Jasmine grinned, "I believe the term for what I did is…a 'swirly'." The grin grew.

Heather looked at Jasmine both dumbfounded and impressed. With that look present, she asked, "Did you seriously shove Amy's face down into a toilet, and then flush it over and over again?"

"You're supposed to flush the toilet?" Jasmine asked as she stared at her blankly.

The two stared at each other in silence; thankfully Jasmine was at a long red light.

Heather's stare suddenly broke and she erupted into a thunderstorm of laughter. Eventually she reclaimed enough power over her voice to speak. "That's the funniest thing I've heard in ages! Ha, you water boarded Amy McAuley with a toilet! Hahahahaha!"

Jasmine also exploded into laughter at realizing that Heather was right. As the Aussie continued to drive much of their talking was further jokes at Amy's expense. Jasmine couldn't help but think that this might have been the first time she had heard Heather laugh like this, outside of when they had arrived at the Genghis Grill.

Eventually though, the laughter did stop and as it did Heather started to notice something. Jasmine was driving around in circles through the back roads that were connected to the campus. The Queen Bee knew that Jasmine had a very good sense of direction when it came to these roads, so she knew something was up. Jasmine wanted something and she was stalling, likely waiting for a good opening or trying to build up her nerve.

Truthfully, she was irked that one of the few people who she thought of as a friend felt the need to try and play it smooth like this, especially when they were so bad at it. Regardless, Heather bided her time to see what it was Jasmine wanted. She had no pressing engagements to get to, no homework to speak of, and she knew Cody was going to be awhile. Not to mention the fact she was now curious as to just what it was Jasmine wanted. Before coming to her for relationship advice, the Aussie hadn't actually asked for anything from either her or Cody. With that in mind, she decided to let Jasmine ask her for whatever it is she wanted when she was ready.

Jasmine kept driving until she was a block from Heather and Cody's dorm; pulling into an empty parking space she parked her jeep.

"Say, 'Eather-" Jasmine started to say.

'Here it comes,' Heather thought to herself.

"-I really 'ate 'aving to do this but I've gotta ask ya for a 'uge favor." By this point, Jasmine's ebony face was starting to brighten with the glow of a furious blush.

This caused Heather to raise both an eyebrow and her hopes. As far as she knew, there was only one subject that Jasmine was uncomfortable with. Keeping her cool, Heather asked, "Yes? I'm listening?"

"Ya know 'ow ya 'n Cody let other shelias spend the night with ya?" Jasmine asked, her face now obviously red.

Heather could have sworn that her heart had skipped a beat. "Yes?"

"'N ya know 'ow you've been askin' me if I wanted to take part in your, uh…trysts?" Jasmine asked, by now looking like she was being cooked alive from her burning blush.

"Yes?" Heather asked, by this point she felt her mood soaring.

"Well…"Jasmine said after what felt like forever to Heather, "…can me and Sammy-"

Heather had to restrain herself to contain her excitement!

"-use ya place for our first time?"

It was like a light went off and all the fire in Heather's being had been put out. With some heavy bitterness leaking into her voice, the Queen Bee asked flatly, "What?"

"Sammy's been gettin' frisky lately. For the first time since we became a couple, she's openly said that she wants to finally, uh, get physical. I can't let this opportunity slide by! Not after three years of barely gettin' to second base, we need more!" Then her face and voice got softer and more regretful when she continued with, "But we are at a loss as to where we can go. Both of our 'ouses are out. If we want to a motel or somethin' outta the blue it would be suspicious. Then I thought your place, 'Eather. You two have somethin' of a reputation for havin' other girls ova, so at best it would be a friendly sleep over, at worst us comin' there would look like us bein' part of a, uh, I think…foursome, is the correct word?"

Heather sighed as she said, "I told that you can't sh-"

"I know, I know! I can't show any fear," Jasmine said, cutting Heather off. "But this isn't fear. I'm just bein' practical. Your dorm is the only place I can think of where she'll feel comfortable enough and where we wouldn't 'ave to worry 'bout any sudden interruptions. It's our first time, we want it to be…you know, 'appy, nothing marrin' it or draggin' it down. After that, we'll see what happens and talk 'bout coming out of the closet, but we just want to have this as special. Whata ya say. 'Eather?"

The former Queen Bee thought the situation over for a few moments. On the one hand, she could perfectly understand the older girl's plight and her reasoning. But at the same time, today had not exactly been kind to her, and she didn't appreciate Jasmine giving her the go around like that. Had she just been up front and honest with her she might have been a bit more understanding. As it was, she was short on charity and good will.

"Jasmine, I've never considered allowing anyone to fuck in my bed unless me, Cody or both of us are a part of it." She saw Jasmine slightly slump in her seat, with the Aussie still towering over Heather regardless. "And I do not appreciate it when people try to schmooze me for favors like that. If you need something, or you want something, just give it to me straight from now on, okay?" Seeing Jasmine nod she continued. "That being said, I will make an exception this one time and this one time only."

Jasmine's face beamed the strongest smile that Heather had ever seen on it as without warning, the Aussie's long arms wrapped around Heather, lifted her slightly out of her seat, and dragged her into an awkwardly positioned but emotionally sincere hug. This was uncomfortable on three different fronts; she felt the seat belt digging into her shoulder, she felt her side being pressed against the seat divider, and Jasmine's larger breasts were suffocating her.

Jasmine didn't notice any of this discomfort as she kept hugging Heather. "Thank you so much 'Eather! You can't even begin to get 'ow much this means to me! I've be'n wantin' to root Sammy raw for literally years and now I finally can! You've just made me 'appier than a dingo at a roo buffet! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

After what felt like hours of oxygen deprivation, Jasmine finally released Heather. In the brief silence that followed, Heather reflected further on what had just happened. She hated being lifted into the air like that, hated being powerless like that. At least outside of the bedroom with a select few certain people. She had a reputation to maintain, after all. She did, however, enjoy being pressed up between the Aussie's massive melons.

After coughing to break the lingering tension, Heather regained her composure. "Glad to see that you're happy that I accepted, but I do have one condition for you." She waited until she was sure that she had Jasmine's full attention before continuing further. "I told you before, I have certain minimum standards, and you know that you've had my attention since we first met. Now, I don't mind helping people to a limit, especially good friends. But you are asking me to let you and Sammy, one of if not the hottest lesbian couple that I've met in-person, to have sex in my bed, after rebuffing me for weeks, for nothing." Jasmine couldn't stop herself from blushing like mad at the unheard of praise from Heather of all people. Even if Heather was one of her only friends, she didn't say many nice things about, well, anyone really. When she praised something, whatever it was, it was, it meant it not only met Heather's standards, but it was something she wanted.

"You are my friend, and I know Cody counts you as a close friend as well. You helped us, a lot when we first came here, but, this? Without getting anything out of the deal?" The blush left Jasmine's face; a look of dread took its place. "You can pop Sammy's cherry and you can ride her raw for days on end if you want to, hell I'll let you use my toy box if you want, but whatever you do in my bed, me and Cody at minimum get a front row seat for the entire thing. Take or leave it."

Jasmine look of dread was soon replaced with embarrassment and terror. Even so, she said in a softer voice, "I was 'alf suspectin' that you'd ask for somethin' like that. I'm not 'appy with the idea, but it's not a deal-breaker. I've gotta run this by Sammy and ask 'er if she's okay with it. I'll call or text ya with our answer."

The Outback Survivalist might have had more to say but then her phone started ringing. She answered the phone, the second she did her face contorted into one of worry.

"Sammy…wh-what's…Sammy, what's the matter, Sammy!? Is it…what did she do!? Okay, okay…just relax, just keep the door locked, throw something 'eavy in front of it if you 'ave to. Can ya do that for me? Good. I'll be right there. I'm near 'Eather 's dorm. I'll be there in less than ten minutes. I love ya too, with all my 'eart. I'll be right 'ere. 'Old on."

Jasmine then hung up her phone and looked at Heather, who had a look of confusion on her face. "I'm sorry 'Eather but I've got to go. It's an emergency it sounds like. Amy's up to somethin' and I've gotta get over their before she breaks Sammy's door down."

"I understand," Heather said. "My dorm isn't that far from here, I can easily walk the rest of the way." She added while grabbing her backpack from the back of the jeep.

After Heather had gotten it, Jasmine said, "Thanks for everythin', 'Eather. All of it."

"You're welcome." Heather said, before adding a second later, "But don't forget about my price. I help out my friends but generosity is not part of my nature. I only give so many freebees before I start charging, and my prices are pretty damn high when I start adding interest."

"I've come to expect nothing less. You'll get my answer for me and Sammy soon." Jasmine said from her jeep before peeling out of the parking lot like a bat out of Hell.

---

The walk to and inside the dorm building itself was uneventful, but Heather preferred that as it allowed her to ignore both how tired she was and her previously pissed off mood in favor of what might hopefully be coming her way. She was pleased, very pleased with today's turn of events. It wasn't as good as getting Jasmine herself in the sack, but it was almost as good, especially after the previous shitty threesome with Saria. The possibility of a live sex show staring Jasmine and Sammy was an enticing one to say the least.

'Maybe today wasn't a complete bust after all?'

As Heather entered the main lobby of the dorm, she heard a pair of voices shouting at each other, nearly killing her new found good mood. She released a sigh of deep loathing and resentment as she recognized the voices belonging to the couple whose arguing filled the halls of their floor.

As she passed them with every intention of ignoring their existence, Heather got her first good look at the guy, though she only saw his face for a second as she passed him. Just as Heather had noticed last time, he was easily six and a half feet tall and built like a tank with thick and fully developed muscles proudly displayed by a black short sleeved shirt. He was also wearing black jeans and sneakers that matched his short buzz cut hair. Lastly, even though she had only seen it for a brief moment Heather knew he had enough piercings in his ears that he looked like he fell in tackle box. In short, he looked almost like the stereotypical punk.

Even though she didn't get a good look at the girl, and she had only seen her once before, Heather had the same thoughts about the duo as she did last time.

'They look like gutter trash.'

With that being all of the thought she deemed them worthy of, Heather went to her and Cody's mailbox to see if anything important or interesting came in. She found a nearby trashcan and began the process of 'sorting and filing' its contents.

'Preapproved credit card, early invitation to father's for Thanksgiving, religious propaganda, donation card for animal shelter, claim that aliens are real and abducting Canadians, political propaganda, store cata-'

Smack!

Heather had just dropped the last piece of mail when she had heard the familiar sound of someone getting bitch slapped echo through the otherwise empty lobby.

Turning back towards the previously arguing couple out of instinct to see what was going on, Heather saw that the girl apparently had enough and had slapped her boyfriend.

Heather smirked. 'Hopefully that will shut him up.'

SMACK!

Heather's smirked changed to a look of horror when the guy backhanded the girl hard enough to knock her to the ground. She started trying to push herself up as her boyfriend was slowly walking towards her.

"Fucking hell!" Heather muttered under her breath. Without a second thought she started digging through the contents of her purse for a particular item. By the time she found it, the guy was lifting the girl to her feet.

Moving as quickly as she could without her steps making too much noise, Heather approached the guy, who had by this point raised his girlfriend to her feet by one of her wrists. Complaints about him hurting her were ignored as he started cursing up a storm for her slapping him.

This having long since passed the point Heather would stand; she tapped the guy's shoulder. The unexpected feeling of someone jabbing his shoulder surprised the guy enough that he stopped cursing at his girlfriend.

"This had better be goo-!"

Fffffffffff!

"-AH! My eyes!? You fucking bitch!" The guy cried out in pain as Heather's pepper spray assaulted his teal eyes.

Not giving the cretin a chance to react she kneed him in the groin and dropped him to his knees.

With the punk having been put in his place, at least for the time being, Heather smirked in victory over her "kill". Not bothering to take time to gloat for a change, Heather turned her attention to the young woman who had fallen back to the floor. Her expression was one of shock, or at least what Heather thought it was shock. Her bangs covered a large portion of the right half of her face.

"Are you okay?" Heather asked as she offered her hand to help her up.

Taking the offered hand, she pulled herself up using Heather's body weight as a balance. Once she was back on her feet, she dusted herself off though she was looking down as she did so. "I'm fine; it was my fault, anyway." Her voice was downtrodden, and very raspy.

For some reason her voice caught Heather's attention. Between her years as a cheerleader and a lifetime of partying she had heard plenty of raspy and hoarse voices before, but this one was unique, familiar.

'That voice? I know I've heard it before, but where?'

Just as the Queen Bee was about to ask what the hell she meant by it being her fault, she pushed back her bang and Heather got a good look at her face for the first time.

Heather felt like someone had just punched her in the stomach. Recoiling, she took a step away from the confused woman before looking back at the face of the still kneeling (and cursing) young man behind them. She then looked at the young woman once again. Seeing her a second time erased any lingering doubts. There was simply no mistaking that face or those eyes looking down into hers.

'Ho. Lee. She. It!'

Judging by Heather's reaction, one could be forgiven for assuming that the young woman was some manner of tentacle faced Lovecraftian star-spawn of Cthulhu, or in Heather's case, a knife-wielding sumo wrestler.

But Heather saw none of those terrifying things before her. What she saw was much, much worse. The stuff of nightmares.

Without thinking, the Queen Bee grabbed the young woman by the arm and pulled her towards the elevator, surprising her as they marched past the guy who Heather kicked in the stones a second time without missing a step. Fortunately, the elevator was on the ground floor and opened when Heather punched the up button.

Once they were both inside and it started to moving, the woman (still in Heather's grasp) spoke with a voice mostly monotone though with thin shavings of worry layered within asked, "Why did you do that?"

"Because that son of a bitch deserved it!" Heather hissed.

"It's none of your business, and I don't need your help," was her nearly robotic response.

Heather didn't respond at first, instead she silently studied that other woman's face, as if looking for something. Eventually, Heather shook her head before asking, "Do you even know who I am?"

The woman released a small snort before replying with a slightly irate edge, "I don't exactly spend a lot of time socializing. It's not my thing."

On that less than positive note, the elevator doors opened to Heather's floor. As she dragged the taller woman behind her the Queen Bee noticed that she was trying, though barely, and failing, to escape from her grip.

'This is beyond sad. She has at least half a foot on me, a boarder build, and, I'm being unnaturally generous when I say this, fifty pounds on me...but she's barely even trying!' Heather thought with more than a hint of disgust.

Heather frowned as she realized that now she wasn't even trying to get away. The Queen Bee started trembling as she dragged the taller and heavier young woman with one hand, while opening the door to the dorm with the other. The second it was open Heather pulled her in and slammed the door behind them before locking it.

The taller young woman jumped at the sound of the door being slammed shut then went stiff as a board. In her stiffened state, Heather steered her into the dorm's kitchen though she offered no resistance when she was set down onto one of the table's chairs.

"I'm fine, I don't need your help," she protested, her raspy voice sounding more like a begrudgingly and lazily made recording.

"I can't believe this, I just fucking can't! It's simply not fucking possible! This is the kind of thing a pathetic wannabe writer would pull out of his uncreative ass! This has got to be a joke, a farce of fate. Whatever tight-ass sadist of a deity is up there in the clouds watching us like an omnipresent pervert must be laughing His sick, fucking ass off!" Heather ranted, not really paying attention to what the other young woman was saying while she walked in small circles around the dorms small kitchen area.

"What are you talking about?"

Heather just looked her with a completely somber expression before asking, "Have you really forgotten me?" Several long moments of silence and no visible reaction from the other woman said everything. Seeing that, Heather sat down across her and after a few seconds asked a second question plainly.

"What the fuck happened to you, Gwen?"

Though Gwen still didn't recognize who she was, hearing her own name freed her coal black eyes from their previously dull stare to widen with confusion and fear.

Seeing this reaction, Heather scoffed and tried again.

"I haven't changed that much, have I…Weird Goth Girl?"

Gwen simply stared at her savior in raw disbelief before finally finding her voice and speaking. "Ha-He…Heather?"

Heather nodded but said nothing as a thick silence reigned.

In the silence that dominated the air between the two former Total Drama contestants, Heather got her first good look at Gwen. In some ways, she looked more or less the same but there were changes as well even in the things that were mostly the same. Her face, at least the half she could see, looked almost identical to how it had during their run on Total Drama. Her hair was a few inches longer and now entirely its natural black color, the dyed teal-blue strains nowhere to be seen. Her skin was the same marble white she remembered, though her formerly shy but bright coal black eyes were now set deep in pools of mascara. Her lips, once painted warm blue-green were now a cold jet black. Heather did notice the same black chocker covering her neck as she had worn back then.

More noteworthy were the complete differences from the neck down, however. Gwen had grown a fair bit taller since Total Drama World Tour. In the passing of three years, the Goth had gone from five foot even to an impressive five foot eight, a full half a foot taller than Heather. She had gained a few pounds since the show ending, not enough that one would say she had a gut or could be called fat or even chunky, but her near skeletal frame had filled out. The third most notable change between then and now however (after her height and loss of any and all color) was defiantly her bust. When Heather had sized her up back on Total Drama Island, she had pegged Gwen at the lower end of the C cup range. Now they were either the largest a C cup could reach or the smallest a D cup could be. Heather couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy as her former arch nemeses had gained inches both in height and bust while she had barely changed at all. Finding her eyes pulled back to her bust Heather's mood continued to sour.

'She's got to be stuffing that thing!' Heather thought bitterly.

In all fairness to Heather, part of the reason her attention was pulled to Gwen's breasts was due to the fact that they were so shamelessly displayed in the black and teal green top she was wearing. They weren't as large as Lindsay's (whose were?) or even Jasmine's, but the sheer amount of boob exposed to any and all prying eyes made Heather think of just what those grander gazongas would look like when barely bound in more revealing tops. She just couldn't to believe that someone like Gwen of all people would wear something so revealing in public. She couldn't tell if the top was long or short sleeved, however, because the Goth was also wearing a black leather jacket. The jacket itself was unusual in that it looked like it was either much older or far more worn than the rest of her clothing. Moving downward, Heather's grey eyes took in the black leather pants that looked so tight that they might have been a size too small. Last but not least, upon reaching Gwen's feet Heather saw she had traded her thick combat boots for a pair of sexy but uncomfortable looking dark heeled boots.

After the shock of seeing all those differences wore off, Heather noticed the greatest difference between the Gwen from Total Drama and the Gwen in front of her now. This Gwen looked much more sickly, and that was saying something. Even with her added weight and larger breasts, she somehow looked less among the living and more a member of the dead than she had before, and she had looked like a reject from The Nightmare Before Christmas during Total Drama's three seasons in Heather's eyes.

A surface more glacial in nature than ice or her snow-white skin dominated Gwen's face now. It was an absolute lack of emotion, a passiveness that actually robbed her face of its appealing characteristics and created the illusion of plainness. Her face could have easily been the most beautiful Heather ever had seen, if only there was some hint of a personality within it. Instead, her face showed a perfect indifference, a flawless detachment from existence. A monotonous, unacknowledged fatalism that would have any insults or praises slide off of her battered ego like rainwater on a window.

It took Gwen a while for her brain to click, to acknowledge that this woman sitting across from her was in fact the same one who had tormented her during the three seasons Total Drama had run. Once it did, however, the Goth's reaction was instant, with it being the second showing of emotion Heather had seen from her, fear and shock.

"What are you doing here? How long as you been here? And why did you attack Duncan like that!?"

Heather frowned before remarking, "I've probably been here about as long as you have. I'm attending to get a better idea of what I want to do with my future. As for why I helped you and brought you here, I did it for Cody."

That got another reaction out of Gwen, who displayed the most emotion Heather had seen from her yet. A scoff and a nasty laugh that was without nasty intent. Once those two indicators of emotion passed, Gwen asked, "What does he have to do with anything?"

Heather simply nodded towards a picture on the wall near Gwen, who turned to look where she was indicating. It was a picture of Cody and Heather at what Gwen assumed to be their senior prom. Cody, against what Gwen would have guessed, was taller than Heather and wearing a cliché black and white tuxedo. Heather in turn was wearing a simple yet elegant grey dress. The Queen Bee was standing in front of Cody, with his arms wrapped around her from behind. Oddly, at least to the Goth, both of them were smiling happily at the camera. Gwen was shocked.

Seeing this, Heather got up to make some tea, needing to calm her nerves. She took a few steps before stopping and turning back towards Gwen asking, "Would you like a cup of tea?"

Gwen numbly accepted the offer while not taking her eyes off the picture.

Heather turned on a pot of hot water for the tea and then returned to the entranced Goth. When she returned, Gwen asked, finally looking back at the Queen Bee, "How? How did it happen? How long has it been going on for?"

"It's a very long story, but it started on the way back from World Tour technically, though officially it's been two years now," Heather said smiling as she flashed Gwen the sapphire ring that Cody had given her. "He spoils me sometimes but I'm honestly happy." The Queen Bee then noticed how quiet Gwen was after hearing that, before asking, "So, what have you been up to since World Tour?"

Heather studied Gwen's face, finding it to be mostly the same glacial indifference but she could detect a subtle back and forth switching between confusion and the beginnings of grief. Gwen was about to say something when a series of scratching sounds started to fill the room. Hearing this caused Heather to groan before remarking, "Damn…I forgot to let them out. I'll be right back."

After Heather walked out of the room and out of sight, Gwen stood to get a better look at the space around her. The thing that stuck out the most was just how many pictures were hanging off the walls. She guessed that there were at least ten, with the couple in question at various locations, in different clothing, and even two of them showing Heather being taller than Cody. The one thing they all had in common was what they showed, a happy, loving couple.

As Gwen stared at the pictures mounted before her, with her pale face staring back through the glass of their frames. For some reason, the Goth was feeling a little colder than usual.

---

The two ferrets bolted out of the room the moment Heather opened the living room door with Heather following behind them as they ran into the kitchen. As she entered the room, Heather paused and her mouth hung slightly open at what she saw was in the room. Or, more accurately, what wasn't in the room.

Gwen

The Goth had vanished. The room was completely empty without so much as a sign that Gwen had ever even been there.

"I didn't even hear her leave…" Heather said, now feeling even more worried.

With nothing else to do, the Queen Bee poured herself the cups of tea meant for her and Gwen, before drinking them both. She paid no attention to the ferrets that were running around her legs trying to get her attention.

She had remained in this state until she heard the door open. Looking at the clock, Heather saw that Cody was about two hours later than she usually was after his classes. "Hey, sorry I'm late." Cody said as he entered their dorm. "But I needed to stop by the library and get some books for an upcoming project, and then I ran into Cameron and Shawn, and then we kind of lost track of-UFF!"

Cody was silenced mid-sentence because of Heather guiding him into a deep kiss. After several minutes, Heather finally released the Tech Geek's lips.

When it was over, while smiling, Cody said, "That's a hell of a way to say you missed me, not that I'm complaining but what was that for?"

Heather was quiet for a moment, which made Cody curious and a little worried. Eventually, she answered, "Something…happened today, and it made me realize just how lucky I am."

Cody answered her answer with another deep kiss, just as hungry and just as loving. When it ended, he reminded his girlfriend, "I'm the lucky one."

---

And the events of the night went a long way in proving that to be the case. He didn't know what had brought it on, but Heather seemed to have a craving for him he hadn't seen since they first started having sex. What amazed Cody the most however was that after giving him an excellent blowjob; she finished it with a facial. Now, he knew that Heather had no issues with giving him blowjobs even thought they weren't exactly her favorite thing in the world. But more than that, the facial had him concerned. Cody knew Heather well enough to know that it hadn't been an accident as she claimed, and that she did it on purpose confused him because facials were on the short list of things she outright hated. He could count on one hand the number of times she allowed it and that included this one. He wasn't complaining because there was something unexplainably arousing about the sight, but he was going to keep his eyes out and ear to the ground for the next few days.

By the time Cody fell asleep, he was more exhausted than he had been since their last anniversary. The Tech Geek was out cold with a massive smile on his face while spooning behind Heather. His light snoring was the only sound filling the otherwise silent dorm.

Despite being just as tired as her lover, Heather was wide-awake. Her body ached in a way it hadn't in months. Even so, the soreness surging around her body was at the back of her mind because of what else had happened today offered little room for anything else.

Her thoughts kept going back to Gwen, and the various revelations that followed the Goth like a long shadow in the sunlight. Heather thought of Gwen, what she saw today between her and Duncan…and all of those nights she had heard them arguing without giving a second thought. It made her sick and nervous on multiple levels.

Eventually, the sickness and nervousness broke through even the Queen Bee's iron nerves. With reluctance, Heather detangled herself from her sleeping boyfriend's embrace. Before Cody could notice her absence she slid her pillow into the space between his arms and the Tech Geek snuggled up to the pillow, causing Heather to smile at the sight.

But she didn't allow that small joy she felt deter her from her new goal. Quickly but carefully, she crept from the bedroom to the living room, holding her smart phone. After a few seconds in the total darkness making sure Cody's snoring was still heard, Heather made a call.

After several rings, an extremely pissed off voice was heard on the other end.

"Look, I'm sorry for walking you up Jo but…yes, I know you can kick my ass but this is important! I have to ask you for a huge favor…huge enough that I'm calling you this late!" Heather paused. "I need you to find out what dorm room Gwen Fahlenbock is staying in…she might be sharing a room with Duncan Nelson, so I'll need his room information as well." She paused again as she heard the Jockette's answer. "Thanks Jo. Again, I'm sorry for having to call you so late." Then, despite herself, she felt a small smirk grace her lips. "Tell Brick that I said hello when he wakes up. Bye."

With that, Heather hung up before she slowly crept back into her bedroom, suddenly eager for the next morning to come. Before Cody woke up, she hoped to have what she asked for. Once she did, Heather could decide how to deal with this possibly massive problem.

---

And that was the latest chapter of this story! As always, we hope you all enjoyed it! :)

So, let's address the elephant in the room. After ten chapters and over one hundred thousand words, only NOW has Gwen, the other main character whose been listed since the beginning of the story, finally shown up! Obviously I could say more about this…but I won't spoil what exactly will happen. ;)

To make up for that, I've got a humorous little bit about the Goth to share with you. Would you like to know where I got many of the ideas for how Gwen is described in this chapter in terms of personality and where I was when I found it? I was in the doctor's office, less than a week ago, waiting for over an hour to get called, and while waiting I was looking up reviews of Roger Ebert from his "Great movies" list, specifically the review for the film "The Matchstick Girl". So, just to clarify, I got most of those details of Gwen being devoid of emotion from a review of a movie that I've never seen while waiting to see the doctor! It's an example of an old saying; inspiration can come from anything or anywhere! :)

Also, Kenju and me were truly shocked that no one picked up on the hint that the arguing couple who were referenced in chapter nine was in fact Gwen and Duncan! All well, that just hopefully means that this sudden reveal was all the more effective.

On top of that, to anyone that has a problem or is confused at how Duncan could get into an art collage, think back and remember what his gift to Courtney was on TDI. ;)

And this is likely obviously but both Kenju and me had a BLAST writing that super-long Heather/Jasmine scene, with nice bits of Heather/Jasmine lime! ;)

Another big development is we've shown you a small glimpse into some of the major events of Heather and Cody's past, but still we haven't given them a proper flashback chapter. The reason should now be obvious just why this is the case. If we made a chapter earlier detailing the argument between Heather and Cody, this chapter would have had a lot of rehashing of things readers already knew and had less impact. We haven't given you a full flashback yet because we're going to be bringing that point in time up again one more time (the full flashback). Two hints and the full deal are better than reading the whole thing over three times.

Also, following a similar train of thought, this chapter reveals several small things too. One, Cody, Heather, and Jasmine all know Cameron. Two, Cody and Heather know Brick. Three, Brick is going out with Jo. How all of these things happened will be explained later on.

Oh, and again in a similar train of thought, but of a different kind, the next chapter will have the introduction of a character that several people have been asking about, a character who will be almost as important a secondary character to this story as Jasmine. Guess who? ;)

The few Australian phrases used in this chapter are "up a gum tree" meaning "confused" and "cashed up" meaning "having plenty of ready money".

Until next time, read, review, favor, follow, and spread the word! :)