It was a bit of a walk in order to get there, but Crystal finally managed to get to Goth Boy's house within less than an hour...

As she made her way up to the front-porch, Crystal couldn't help but notice that the bike-rack that was located right next to her clique-leader's house didn't have any bicycles parked at it, with exception of one. Now, this wouldn't be much of an issue for someone like her, especially considering that she doesn't ride bikes for a living; however, the rack was usually filled with the ones that members of her clique own, regardless if it's either day or night that she comes here. Seeing that the rack had nobody's bike parked at it made her believe that none of the other members of her clique decided to show up tonight, or considering how long she's been gone, left and moved on to do other things; either way, it was a rather depressing sight for the rebel to see on her first day coming back to this house. At least she knew whose bike it was parked by its lonesome at that rack.

Upon approaching the front-door of the house, Crystal gave it a firm knock and stepped back, waiting for Goth Boy to answer. Eventually, someone did answer the door for the rebel within seconds; but instead of it Goth Boy, it was someone else who answered. This person was a girl with extremely spiky and messy black hair, along with visible fangs sticking out of her mouth; and her outfit consisted in a purple Japanese dress with a pink corset covering the top part of it. This girl is Yuki Aoki; one of the goths who Crystal was probably the closest with out of everyone in her clique, aside from Goth Boy and a few of the others; and she's also considered to be the most excitable out of everyone from the clique too.

"Crystal?" Yuki asked in surprise. "Is that really you?"

"Yeah, it's me." Crystal replied with a smile, as she stepped into the house. "By the way, you're not dreaming; so, whatever you do, don't try to pinch yourself, believing that you'll wake up or something."

"Ow!" It would appear that, despite the rebel warning her not to, Yuki decided to pinch herself anyway...much to her friend's annoyance. "Yep, Yuki's awake."

Rather than comment or scold her friend for what she just did, Crystal ultimately decided to let it go, and instead decided to question her about the current state of their clique. "So...how's everyone been doing while I was gone?"

"Do you mean the rest of our clique?" Yuki got a simple nod after that was asked. "Well, Yuki hates to be the bearer of bad news, but...most of our friends have...eh, left."

"Really?" The rebel asked, sounding a bit saddened, yet not all too surprised to be hearing this; she had a hunch about it while she was outside anyway.

"Yeah." Yuki answered while nodding her head. "Yuki thinks the only people who hang out with us nowadays is just Ray, Raven, and Violet; everyone else...they're off doing their own thing now."

"So, how are they doing?"

"They've been doing alright. Ray and Raven had just started dating about a year or two again, and as for Violet...well, she and Lord Daniel broke up..."

"Really?" Crystal asked again; but this time, it clearly sounded like she knew something like what was just said was bound to happen. "Violet's relationship with that guy from Cutopia, the section of Wales where everything is covered in cuteness and flowers, didn't end up working out."

"No, it didn't; but, on the bright side, Violet is interested in some new guy who just moved in the other day." Yuki says optimistically. "He's some blue-haired guy who's now working at Gino's Pizzeria, and has a huge liking for racing from what Yuki's heard."

"Then let's hope that this guy turns out to be more interesting than Daniel was, because if he isn't, then I'm just going to have to find her a new boyfriend myself."

It was around this time that Goth Boy finally decided to come along and make his presence known. Goth Boy was pretty much your standard everyday goth; he had black hair with one part of it dyed red and covering his right eye, and he'd usually wore gray eye-shadow, a dark-gray tank-top, black pants, and a lot of bracelets that had spikes on them. Most of his classmates, and even his clique-members, would often tell you that he was a very disgruntled person to be around; but almost a majority of his friends, especially Yuki, would tell you that he's actually not that bad a guy, despite his usually pessimistic attitude. Now, Crystal's overall opinion of him was pretty much down the middle; she's fully aware of his pessimism, yet she does see some good in him regardless.

"I knew I heard someone familiar." Goth Boy said in his usual monotone voice; however, one could easily see a slight smirk on the clique-leader's face as he said this. "I'm glad to see that you're back, Crystal."

"Same to you too, man." Crystal replied back, before immediately taking notice of her clique-leader's arms, which were a little more muscular than the last time the rebel had seen them. "Someone's been visiting the gym recently."

"As a matter of fact, I have; me and Yuki have been going to the one that's next to the mall every Saturday night together."

"It's true." Yuki chimes in, all while nodding her head at everything that was being said by her clique-leader. "By the way, Goth Boy has gotten a lot better at doing push-ups than he did back in high-school."

"No need for the reminder, sweetheart..." Goth Boy then muttered in annoyance.

"Hey, dude; it's funnier to think about it now than-" It was at this moment, Crystal suddenly realized one of the words that her clique-leader had just said in his previous sentence. "Wait a minute...did you call Yuki 'sweetheart'?"

"Yeah, I did; me and her are dating now." Goth Boy answered bluntly, leaving the rebellious goth standing there in awe at everything she was just told.

"But...what happened to that Winter girl you've been dating the first day I met you? Did you break up with her or something?"

"It's a very long story..." Goth Boy answered solemnly, before proceeded to explain what happened between him and his previous girlfriend. "Months after you and your friend left for college, Winter came up to me and said that she was moving out of town for...reasons I was never really told; but presumably, it was family-related since she had brought up her uncle somewhere in the mix. I wasn't so sure what to think of this, but then...she told me that, because of this, it would be better if we broke up; because she didn't think we'd be able to maintain a long-distance relationship together. I was obviously pissed, and...we fought about it, until she had enough and left." He then paused and sighed, having to remember what happened immediately after that fight. "The next day, I went to her house to apologize and hopefully make amends...only for me to find out that she had already packed up everything and left..."

"Oh..."

"Throughout the next few months after that, I was just so...angry about it, to the point where I kept myself from talking to any of my friends about it..." Goth Boy paused again, letting out another sigh, before expressing a soft, yet somewhat sad, smile. "Thankfully, somewhere along the way, Yuki came along and...I guess you can say that the rest was history."

"Yuki decided to check up on him one night, and even offered to take him out to get some drinks at the bar together." Yuki then explained soon after. "Then after that, one thing led to another during our conversation, until the next thing you know, we were both making out with each other out in the bar's parking-lot; and from that day forward, a relationship between us began."

"Well, I'm happy for you guys." Crystal says as a smile formed on her face; although, it was quite clear that a part of her was disappointed by this too. "I guess I should be going now; you guys probably have plans of your own for tonight, and I don't want to be in your way."

"We were planning on just staying home for tonight." Goth Boy assured the rebel. "But thanks for being courteous anyway."

"Anyways, I'm gonna get going now." Crystal says as she made her way out the door. "I'll hopefully see you guys sometime tomorrow."

"I'm sure we will."

"If you want, you can come find us at the Boardwalk tomorrow morning." Yuki immediately told the rebel, much to her clique-leader's dismay. "Me and Goth Boy have jobs down there."

"You guys have jobs down at the Boardwalk?" Crystal asked, completely astounded by her two friend's choice of work. "No offense, dudes; but neither of you seem like the type of people to work at the beach..."

"We're not; but there were two jobs that were easy enough for us to tolerate." Goth Boy muttered, angrily. "Yuki's got a job down at the scuba-stand, while I unfortunately get a job working at the 'Turkey-on-a-Fork' cart..."

"You're joking..." The rebel says, nearly chuckling; when she saw the serious look on her clique-leader's face, she knew he wasn't. "Oh my God..." She said before ultimately breaking down into laughter.

"It's not funny..." Goth Boy then muttered, now glaring at the rebel in annoyance. "It was the only available job there for me to work somewhere next to my girlfriend."

"I know; but the least you could've done was work at the tattoo-parlor, not the...'Turkey-on-a-Fork'." The rebel says, slowly attempting to calm herself down. "I mean, that cart is where all the dorks work at, not you."

"As I've said before, my options there were limited..."

"At least you look cute in your uniform." Yuki comments, causing her boyfriend to get even more annoyed with them.

"Would you two quit bringing it up already?"

"Hey, you brought it up first; not us." Crystal reminded in a joking manner, only to receive an irritated glare from her clique-leader as her only response from him. "You know what; I think I'm just going to leave now..."

"Fine by me..." Goth Boy muttered before walking off to the living-room.

"Don't forget to come by the Boardwalk whenever you feel like it." Yuki reminded the rebel, right as the former was about to follow her boyfriend into the next room.

"I'll think about it, but I can't promise anything; I'm not very fond of going to the beach, knowing that 'you know who' works there..." Crystal said, causing the other goth girl to cringe awkwardly. "I guess if Katie's cool with it, then we'll be able stop by."

"Great." Yuki says with a smile. "We hope to see you girls tomorrow then."

"We'll see." Crystal says before finally exiting the house, heading off presumably back to her own.

Back at the Morris's House...

After a few more rounds of chess with her dad, Katie decided to go upstairs and call it a night. She wasn't planning on going to bed just yet; but what she was wanting to do at the moment was unpack everything that she had taken with her to college, since she had completely forgotten to do that after she received her father's presents hours ago. So, since it wasn't exactly late just yet, the tomboy proceeded to do just that.

First and foremost, Katie started unpacking whatever clothes she had brought with her, putting them all back into her closet and dresser; the ones that went into the latter of which took nearly no time at all, since she she'd usually keep everything folded and organized neatly, both in her luggage and out. The next thing she did was put her laptop back onto her desk, which, just like her folded clothing, didn't take any very long to do; in fact, it took about ten seconds. Last, but not least, Katie took out the books she had previously bought back in New York and placed them onto a shelf that was inside her closet, which was usually where she'd put most of her books anyway; she really needs to consider buying herself a bookshelf one day. Once that all of that was done, Katie can finally sit down and relax.

For the remainder of the night, Katie just say at her desk and just looked up a few things on her laptop; most of which were either skateboarding or dental-related stuff. Everything was quiet for the first few minutes, but then the sound of loud rock music began to play from the house that was right next to hers; and to make matters worse, the music was coming from the house where her new neighbor was now living in; and even more worse, her bedroom was directly next to the room where the music was playing. Now, Katie wouldn't mind this all too much, but she knew that the rest of the neighborhood will. At the very least, it was nice to know that her new neighbor has a good taste in music, because she actually knew the song they were playing right now; it was 'It's my Life' by Bon Jovi.

Without letting another second pass her by, Katie got out of her seat and quickly went over to her bedroom window, where upon opening the curtains, she was greeted with the sight of her new neighbor in the room across from hers. The neighbor was a man with spiky red hair, a slightly visibly goatee below his lip, and what appeared to be a dark-blue snake tattoo that started on one arm to the other; he also wore a black leather jacket with a white t-shirt underneath, light-blue jeans, black shoes, as well as dark-blue sunglasses. Their neighbor had the looks of a biker down, just like her father said; however, Katie was expecting this guy to be a muscle-bound brute from the way her father was describing him as, and somewhat threatening too; but from the looks of him, that doesn't appear to be the case.

Katie was about to open the window, get the guy's attention, and then finally confront him; but right before she could do any of that, she couldn't help but remain standing there and watch what the guy was doing. So far, the guy was just standing next to his bed, sorting out what appeared to be auto-repair tools, all while watching something that was on the television that was on top of his dresser. For a split second, Katie could've sworn she saw him saying something to the open door next to the dresser, implying that this new guy said something to someone either downstairs or on the same floor as him; presumably, either a friend, relative, or maybe even his girlfriend. This was going to be the moment where Katie was going to confront this guy, but right before she could get her window open in order to do it, the man did something that she wasn't expecting: he actually lowered the music down to a relatively fair volume.

'Well, I guess that problem solved itself quite easily...' Katie thought to herself in surprise, before grabbing a hold of the curtain. 'Looks like I won't have to-'

Katie was about to close the curtain and call it a night, until she immediately looked forward and noticed that her neighbor was now beginning to off his jacket, revealing both the muscles and the dark-blue snake tattoo on his arm, causing her to blush upon sight of them; granted, she was already made aware of this thanks to her dad, but she couldn't help but feel surprised by this nonetheless. She continued to watch as the neighbor placed his jacket aside on a nearby chair, before proceeding to put the bundles of tools away into separate small cardboard boxes that were on the edge of his bed. It wasn't until he was completely finished with his chore that the neighbor finally took notice of the tomboy watching him from next door, causing both of them to react in surprise.

"Shit!" The tomboy gasped, before immediately closing the curtain and slamming her back against the wall next to her window.

"Is everything alright in there, Kathryn?" Maxwell asked from outside his daughter's bedroom. "I thought I heard you panicking about something."

"I-It's nothing, dad..." Katie assured her father as she got up from the wall. "I just dropped one of my books on the floor by accident, that's all."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure of it, dad." The tomboy reassures her father as she went to sit back down at her desk. "If something were to occur that was more severe than...that, then I would immediately be informing you about it."

It would appear that Maxwell willingly accepted what his daughter was telling him, although it seemed fairly obvious that Katie wasn't telling him the whole story; but despite that though, he decided not to question her about it any further. "Very well then." He ultimately says. "I guess I'll be going to bed now. Don't stay up too late, dear."

"I won't." Katie said through a chuckle, as she heard her father beginning to walk away; once he was gone, her smile turned into an awkward frown. 'Goddamn it...why didn't I just go back to my laptop instead of just stand there and watch that guy like an idiot?' She thought to herself as she leaned forward against her desk.

Note: So, another chapter where more characters are being introduced; this time, Goth Boy, Yuki, and even a bit of a glimpse at Katie's new neighbor. Originally, I also wanted to introduce Ray and Raven in here too, specifically during Crystal's part of this chapter; but then I changed my mind on it afterwards.

Now, let's see what reviews we have for today...

lordgemini: I wasn't intending to make it out as if James is hated by everyone; he's just supposed to be your average 'bad boy who's secretly a geek' kind of person and that's it; if anything, Katie's neutral with him more than anything, even if James can be a bit moody sometimes. As for her relationship with Stacy, I'd say it's the same as the one she has with James; they're just neutral with each other, and that's it.

Now that their first day back in Simport is coming to an end, Katie and Crystal will face a new day in the next chapter. See you all next time, my fellow readers.