By the time we settle down and Jessie is done with her homework and Karen is done with finishing her work Jessie leaps up and drags me to the stove. She stares at it then glances away and then stares at me.

"Well," she says as if the food should be ready.

"Hm," I reply calmly.

"Work your magic. I'd like a meal and it better be amazing or else."

"Or else what exactly," I ask curiously.

"You won't be sleeping over here as I planned with my mom but didn't care to tell you for the sake of it being a surprise," she says happily

"Your mom is letting me sleep over here after I corrupted her precious daughter," I reply disbelieving what she said as I poke her in the stomach.

"Yeah, she likes you a lot or it could be your charms that she loves," she jokes.

"Hm, I'm glad I can be of service to cheer her up after she has to put up with you all day," I tease. Jessie just slaps my arm, not in a painful way, but playful.

"Ha Ha. If you don't start cooking you will not have a place to sleep tonight," she jokes back.

A few minutes later after we calm down from laughing Jessie's chopping up vegetables and I'm making the salad dressing, which is my own secret mixing of many things together. Jessie laughs at me as I measure everything out as if I'm doing a lab experiment. A good forty five minutes later we're finishing up and Jessie starts to set the table. It's just me, Jessie and her mom tonight. Eli had band practice and then check out some other band that's their competition or other. Jessie calls me over and tells me to bring the food. I balance everything on my arms as though I'm waitress. This of course leads Jessie to laugh and mock me.

"Awww mom, make sure to give her a good tip, ok." Karen smiles at Jessie's antics, pauses for a minute and then laughs herself. She always does that when Jessie's laughing, I'm not sure why, but I'm sure I'll come up with a conspiracy on it. After I'm done setting everything down and everyone has drinks we all stare at the food. I'm not sure why but Jessie looks really confused.

"What, what's wrong with it?" I ask worried.

"Nothing, it just…it actually looks good," she teases but smiles in disbelief.

"Again, I can't stress how I wanted to be a chef and did I fail to mention my brother went to culinary school for a while and he would teach me because it would help him remember things?" I say back in a tone implying that I kinda cheated on a test.

"It looks very good Katie, I'm impressed," Karen says calmly.

"Thanks," I say nonchalantly.

"There doesn't seem to be any meat, did you know Jessie is a vegetarian," she asks curiously.

"No, I just don't cook meat since eating meat increases your chances of breast cancer by like thirty percent of something like that," I say back.

"Really?" she replies astonished.

"Yeah, I read it in some study. It has to do with the fat in it and the affects on our bodies."

"But Katie, you eat meat," Jessie jumps in.

"True, but I don't eat read meat, only chicken and turkey bothers me because it makes you sleepy from the..ah..triptafen and I eat tuna, but in small amounts."

"Wow Katie, you're so informative tonight. Who woulda known a girl who skips school would be so full of random facts and slight signs of intelligence?" Jessie jokes back. She smiles after she's done laughing at her own joke.

"You still wouldn't have it any other way," I say back.

"Well, lets eat before this food gets anymore cold," replies Karen. Half way through the dinner everyone has had a taste of everything and Karen frowns at her salad.

"Is it ok?" I ask after noticing what seems like confusion.

"Yes, I'm wondering what this dressing is, it's amazing. I can taste things I've had before mixed in but it's very different."

"Thanks, I try. I figure a salad is usually boring so I put in my own things in a random mixture of certain dressings and a little bit of dill to give it a zing, because I'm crazy as Jessie likes to say,'' I say adding a little bit of mockery towards Jessie.

"I love it. What do you use?" Karen asks politely, not in the demanding way my relatives asked when I used it at some family thing.

"It's a secret, but I'll make you a bottle before I leave," I say happily. I love it when people are nice and their tone is considerate, genuinely so. Jessie gets it from her mom, clearly.

Soon we're done with dinner and a few minutes later Jessie and Karen insist on cleaning off the table since I made dinner but I refuse. Soon after everything is clean, Jessie and I excuse ourselves and head upstairs after Karen says that she loved the meal.

Once upstairs Jessie thanks me for dinner also, but soon teases me about it. She still can't believe I cooked it and thinks what really happened is that I had little umpa loompa men helping me out because they got sick of the chocolate factory and Willie Wonka's madness. We laugh and fall into bed together.

"Jess, leave the conspiracy theories to me, ok?" I say back jokingly as we lay closely since its kind of a small bed, but neither of us seem to mind. On occasion I catch my breath because Jessie's hand grazes mine. We get to talking about the day and how it couldn't have possibly been any longer, how I think time slows down in every high school just for the fun of psychological torture.

"You're crazy and I know, I know, I wouldn't have it any other way," she says quickly, leaving me with my mouth hanging half open, my comeback taken from me. All I can do is pout.

"No fair. We need to not hang out so much because I cannot have this madness," I say in a serious tone even though I'm joking. Jessie doesn't seem to think I'm joking. She sits up and looks directly in my eyes.

"Katie, I like you being my friend, I like spending time with you," she says gently but in all seriousness.

"Jess, I do too, I was only kidding," I say light-heartedly.

"Ok," she says taking a slow breath. A few seconds later its dead silent and I don't really know what to do about it so I do the only thing I can. I tickle her until she can't breathe.

"Stop!" Jessie screams through loud laughter. Since I love making her laugh I don't think I'm going to stop unless…

"Say uncle," I say laughing back with her.

"Uncle, UNCLE," she screams. I stop and she remains really close to me. My heart is pounding from all the laughter. Note to self: tickle Jessie more often if it means she'll move closer to me. We stay close like that until we fall into a half sleep. Jessie comes out of her haze and forces me out of my own content state of sleepiness.

"Katie, change into your pajamas and we'll get ready for bed," she says in a parental tone. I swear I heard a hint of Karen's voice in Jessie's. I turn over and mumble that I'm ok and that these jeans need to be broken in anyways.

"Katherine Singer, wake up, change and come back to bed," she says back in a very calm, controlled manner.

"Yes, ma'am," I reply happily but tiredly. I get up quickly after that and declare that Jessie is going to make a very good wife one day. That thought makes me sad in all honesty because…she's not going to be my wife. She'll probably have that nice house in a modern house with two kids and a nice husband…but I get up anyway, slowly, now that I'm depressed and go to change in the bathroom. When I come back Jessie is still changing. Her back is to me but she puts a t-shirt on, it seems like slow motion in my head. Kill me now, someone please, and quickly. I stare, feel bad and look away abruptly. I climb into bed and Jessie soon gets in after me. She turns off the light and turns towards me.

"You ok?" she asks calmly.

"Yeah, just thinking about Tad's party," I say trying to divert my thoughts away from how I can smell Jessie's hair.

"Oh yeah, I um..hate parties so I think I won't be staying there long, but it should be fun until someone does something stupid," she says back.

"It's ok, I'll protect you from the stupid morons," I respond gallantly.

"Ok," she says contently, "I'll hold you to it." A few minutes later we're both asleep and off to dream land.

In the morning I wake quietly and realize my arm is wrapped around Jessie's waist and that her arm is overlapping my own. I stiffen and try to remain calm. I feel her back against my chest, providing warmth. As slowly as humanly possible I take my arm away from her waist chanting in my head I Am A Cat, I Am Stealthy, I Am A Cat, I am Stealth Personified. She stirs a little and goes back to sleep. I go downstairs and I more or less plop down into the chair. Karen looks over at me from the living room and says good morning, half giving me a heart attack. I clutch my chest.

"Hi," I say startled.

"Didn't mean to scare you," she says gently.

"No problem, at least that proves my heart works," I respond, relying on my humor to save me from an awkward moment. Instead Karen comes over and sits next to me. She stares at me for a few seconds, making me quite nervous. Maybe she opened Jessie's bedroom door and saw my arm wrapped around her daughter's waist…

"I wanted to thank you again for last night. It's been a while since we had any real food.." she pauses, "and since Jessie has laughed so much," she says calmly but with an edge of seriousness.

"Glad I could be of service," I say back, relaxing.

"Really Katie, since you and Jessie have become friends she smiles more and laughs more…she has happiness in her voice when she talks. I'm just glad she's made a good friend," she states calmly and smiles lightly.

"I'm glad Jessie's my friend. She's different from the people at school."

"She's amazing. But then again I'm biased. I couldn't have hoped for a more amazing, beautiful daughter," she says with so much sincerity and delight in her voice it makes me sad that my own mother would never say those things about me or even bother to notice.

"Thanks for creating her. She wouldn't be my friend if you hadn't," I respond with sincerity. Karen smiles, puts her hand on my shoulder and excuses herself to take a shower. I sit for a little while longer but go back up to Jessie's room. I get back in bed and just stare at her. She's…beautiful. She's more than amazing. Those are my last thoughts before I fall back to sleep.