Nearly everything in this chapter is mine!

Jen flew down the hill to her house. By now it was at least 7:15, opps make that sixteen. Jen's mom was serious about punctuality. If dinner is at 6:30 you better be washing your hands at 6:25 and setting the table at 27. She pedaled up her driveway. Short, paved and straight thank goodness. She got off, opened the side gate, pushed the bike into the backyard, flipped the kickstand, pulled off her helmet and ran up the back steps. Jen pulled at the sliding door's handle but it wouldn't budge. Her mom always locked the door at seven unless she was going out later, which wasn't often. Jen sighed and rapped her knuckles on the glass.

A few seconds later her mom walked in from the kitchen. Bethany McEvoy was a short woman in her late forties with perfectly curled blond hair. When I say short I mean short. At exactly 4ft most 10 year olds were taller than her. Jen was short too, 4'6" at the moment though she was hoping for one last growth spurt. Besides being short and having sharp facial features Jen looked nothing like her mom. Auburn vs blond, blue vs hazel. They had different body frames too. Jen had curves where her mother had angles. Then of corse are their different personalities.

Bethany held her head as high as someone her hight could, she kept her hair perfectly curled and her makeup masterfully applied. Needless to say she was a perfectionist, and maybe OCD. Ok defiantly OCD. Everything had to be exactly where it belonged, if it wasn't the woman would have a minor heart attack and proceed to clean the entire house. Jen, as a typical teenager slouched, and didn't care where anything was as long as she could find it. Unlike most teenagers however Jen had a thing against makeup. This is how I was born, if you don't like my face, don't look at it! Was her motto. But besides a few issues with their conflicting personalities they got along pretty well. Unless Jen was late. Bethany glared at her daughter through the glass before sliding the door open. Jen sighed and began,

"I'm sorry i'm late I stayed after with the science club 'till five and then the professor asked me if I could run something over to one of his associates. And I want to get on his good side so I said sure, then I got lost on the way their and the guy had a two mile long driveway-"

"Shush, not another word young lady, I was worried sick a few more minutes and I was going to call the police!"

"Well if you'd let me get a cellphone-"

"You know how I feel about modern technology, you could have used the school phone."

"The main office closes after hours."

"Borrow someone else's."

"No way, that would be so embarrassing." Jen's mom crossed her arms.

"What do you want from me!" They shouted at the exact same time. After a brief silence Jen burst out laughing and was quickly joined by her mother.

"Come on, I kept your dinner warm." Bethany said as soon as she stopped laughing. Jen smiled, slipped off her sweatshirt and sneakers and headed into the kitchen.

"Mac and chesse." Her mom said. "Nothing fancy I got off work late today." She frowned. Her punctuality issue also applied to leaving places on time. Jen shook her head and dug in, suddenly starving. "And, about that cellphone." Jen's mom said "If you can pay for the phone and the plan." Jen couldn't believe what she was hearing. "I don't see why you can't have one." She finished.

"Oh my god mom! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Jen squealed crushing the woman in a bear hug.

"Woah hun your going to crush me and I haven't even told you the catch." Jen let go still beaming. "I don't want to see it. If I see it I smash it understood?" Jen nodded though she knew Mom was serious about the smashing. "Well I'm sure you have homework to do and its already late so get to it." Bethany said. Jen put her bowl in the sink and raced upstairs to her room.

Her room was geek heaven. Twin bed and drawers shoved in a conner to make room for a wall of book shelves and a huge desk. In the last corner was a pile of three old beanbag chairs and countless pillows. That was her favorite place to plot world domination, eh, I mean do homework. The desk was for real projects. It was currently covered with the bones in a human hand. Not real of corse, just a model that Jen had been disassembling and reassembling for fun.

She put her bag on the back of the chair and changed into pajamas though the sky wasn't totally dark yet. If it were up to me everyone would wear pjs all the time she thought. Why are people only supposed to 100% comfortable when we're sleeping and unconscious so we can't even enjoy the wonderful flannel fuzziness? She sat down at her desk and finished taking apart the bones in the fingers. When she was done she reached for her school books and stopped short. Ah screw homework, most kids do it on the bus anyway. Jen grabbed a book from her shelf that she had started yesterday. The Science Of Movement, and dove under her forest green sheets. Three hours later Bethany went up to tell Jen to go to sleep and found her conked out with a book in her hand. Typical, she thought, she grabbed a bookmark and set the book aside. She sighed. Teenagers, they sleep like rocks.

I had an idea the other day that this could be a Maximum Ride crossover but that would mean Bethany's character wasn't necessary and I love her! So yeah, ideas, suggestions, comments?

Sam