OK…I don't know what I've brought upon myself – I've somehow managed to burden myself with FOUR fics together!!!! Two Mediator, one Drake & Josh and one Princess Diaries. Aaaaahhh!! But I've finally decided that I'm keeping the D&J and PD fanfics on hold for now, until I complete Ghosts equal to BOYFRIEND-STEALERS and A Fate Undeserved. Because, as I may have mentioned before, Mediator is my bane of existence, even though I love D&J and PD too.

OK…I know I'm babbling. So RER (Read Enjoy Review).

A FATE UNDESERVED

CHAPTER THREE

'HOLD YOUR HORSES'

At the Coffee Clutch with Paul, the ladies' room

I stared at myself in the mirror. I was pretty much a wreck. No lip gloss. Hair last combed about twelve hours ago. Clothes crumpled, creased and shirt stained from deep red puttanesca sauce at lunch.

Paul was being an extremely boring date. All he did was babble endlessly about him and his life, while I was left to battle with myself from falling off to sleep. Seriously, he needed lessons on how to entertain a girl who had been FORCED by circumstances to come on a date with him. Wow. Now I that I thought about it, it was pretty ironic – I had to go on a date with another guy for my dream-boy's sake. Heh.

Talking about Jesse, he shocked the living daylights out of me when he suddenly materialized by my side. "Eek!" I squealed, immediately going red. "J-J-Jesse! What're you doing here?"

"Oh," said Jesse. "Actually, I've come to watch you on your little…rendezvous with Mr. Freaky Blue Eyes."

"I…I…"

"Anyway," said Jesse, crossing his arms and looked straight ahead at me with a stony expression. My gaze darted a little towards his amazing biceps. "I'm here to ask why you ditched me."

Whoops. "I…well…you see, Paul taught me how to resurrect a ghost, so he wanted something in return. And unfortunately, he has a major crush on me, so –" Jesse cut me off with a chuckle. "Whaaat!" I whined. I know, I know, I know!! Whining in front of your dreamboy – major no-no. But I couldn't help it.

"Oh, nothing," said Jesse, still laughing a little. "Absolutely nothing. Please continue."

"So he wanted me to be his girlfriend, but I made him settle for a single date."

"I see." He didn't somehow look convinced.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Look," I spat, in an icy tone that surprised even me. "I'm enduring this torture for you on the first place. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be forced to go on a date with Paul Slater. So don't you act smart with me."

Jesse looked amused. "Okay," he said finally, his scarred eyebrow up with amusement. "Sorry."

"Yeah." There was a pause for a couple of seconds, then I said, "Listen, I'm so sorry I forgot about this before, but, uh, you had told your mom that you'd be sleeping over at a friend's one night. What happened?"

"Well, for one, it's an understood thing that I'd be at school directly from my friend's place. And she wouldn't find it strange if I went to the Clutch with my friends directly after school or come home even by eleven – that's my curfew. My sisters are quite envious of my long curfew."

I was surprised at this. "You have sisters?"

"Yeah," said Jesse. "Sure I do. Four of them."

"Oh. I see."

"Yeah…What's the time?"

"Eight."

"So I'll meet you at your place in about two hours?"

"Yeah," I replied quickly. "Sure. Two hours. I'll call on you if I'm home earlier than that."

"'Kay. See ya." He vanished.

I gave myself one last look in the mirror, then headed out of the ladies' room to endure the rest of my torture.

Later, at home

I had returned home after my date with Paul, buying the candles from the convenience store on the way back. I had the Portuguese script carefully stored in my closet. I hadn't got the time to write it out backwards, so I'd have to ask Jesse to help me with that.

I was just about to take off my shirt to change into my tracks, when Jesse appeared beside me with his arms crossed over his chest. Although taken aback, I wasn't as startled as before – I was starting to get used to Jesse's sudden materialization habits. I hurriedly pulled my shirt back down over my bare stomach.

"Oh, hey Jesse," I said. "What's up?"

"Hi."

"So, um, you here to get resurrected?"

Jesse nodded patiently at my stupidly obvious question. "You need any, uh, help?"

"Yeah, about that," I said. "Look, I have to chant this Portuguese script backwards, and I have the original script, so you'll have to help me to write it out backwards."

"Sure," said Jesse.

"Okay." I went to my closet and pulled out the Zip-Loc back in which I had kept the old, yellowing, silver-fishy scroll. Hey, can you blame me for not being keen on having an ancient, yellow piece of paper bang in the middle of all my clothing?

I went to my study table. I took out the script and carefully smoothed it over and placed it in front of me, then took out a notebook and a pen.

Jesse walked up to me. "May I take a chair?"

"Yeah," I said. "Sure."

So he pulled up a chair from near the window, placed it next to me, and sat down. Thankfully, the script wasn't too long, so we finished writing it backwards in about twenty minutes.

I stood up with the backward script, then handed it too Jesse, who had stood up too. "Hold this while I get out all the stuff." He nodded.

I got out the candles and matches.

"Jesse," I said. "We can't possibly do this in my bedroom. If I get caught I'll be sent straight to the psychiatrist."

Jesse nodded. "You're right, querida. But where do we do this?"

"Um…how about at school?"

"You mean in the basilica?"

"Yeah, I guess. The basilica should be a good place. No one's there at this hour."

"C'mon."

"Are we going to walk all the way there?"

"No way. You crazy? I'm just gonna shift."

"Shift?" He looked confused.

"Yeah. Mediators can go to a place by just thinking of it really hard. It's like how ghosts get around, but for us, it's harder."

"Oh."

"Let's go."

We both shifted to the basilica.

I clutched my head. Everything was hazy and the world seemed to be spinning around me. I managed to decipher that we were in the basilica. I lost my balance, but just as I was about to fall, a pair of strong hands caught me. Guess who it was. Shock of shocks. Jesse.

"Whoa," I mumbled, standing up, turning to Jesse, and smoothing down my hair. "Thanks."

"No problem," said Jesse. "Let's get started."

I nodded, bending down to pick up the candles that had fallen out of my hands when I shifted.

I instructed Jesse to stand in a particular spot while I lit each candle, dripped a little wax on the floor, then fixed it in the melted wax. In this way, I made a square of candles around him. Then I fished a rubber band out of my pocket and tied up my hair.

"Okay," I said to Jesse. "Toss me the notebook."

He did just as I said.

As I flipped open to the correct page, I said to Jesse, "Jesse. I should warn you. No matter how much you prepare yourself for this, you're still in for a shock. And I haven't ever done this before, so don't get your hopes up too high. Okay?"

"Um, yes."

"All right. Ready?"

"Yup."

"Fine." I took a deep breath, looked into the notebook, and started chanting. After I had chanted for about thirty seconds, green tendrils of smoke started to pour out around Jesse from nowhere. (A/N: Reminder – in an exorcism, the smoke is red) He looked a bit nervous. I looked up, but didn't stop chanting.

A minute gone, the green smoke had enveloped Jesse so it was absolutely impossible to make out even the tiniest part of him. Just as I said the last few words, the green smoke just disappeared in a flash and it was clear for me to see – Jesse lying on the floor, unconscious. And I almost burst with joy when I realized he wasn't glowing.

I chucked the notebook blindly to one side and ran towards Jesse. I sat on the floor and took his head into my lap. I shook his face. "Jesse! Jesse! Wake up!" No luck. I put my ear against his chest to fell his breath. Oh no. His breathing was erratic and unstable, and barely there.

Without thinking, I crashed my own lips to his and resuscitated him. Thank goodness I had learnt CPR and gotten an A-plus on it when I took a job as a lifeguard at the beach (on Andy's insistence) two summers ago (A/N: In case you're saying 'What the hell, PGP, Suze wasn't even in Carmel two summers ago!' I remind you, this is my own setup and in this setup Suze has been in Carmel all her life.)

No luck. I tried again. This time Jesse sprung up with a sputter – his eyes popping open in a fraction of a second – like an old engine springing back to life. He looked around himself for a few seconds, then his gaze flickered to me.

"S-Susannah?"

"Yeah, Jesse. Are you all right?"

In reply, he placed a hand behind my neck, pulled me forward and kissed me.

Awww!!! That was so sweet! I hope you thought so too! And don't worry…I haven't given up on Ghosts equal to BOYFRIEND STEALERS at ALL…as I've made clear by updating it regularly. Hope the chapter was good. Review please!!!!!!!!!!

Love ya guys!

Hugs n' kisses,

PGP