Disclaimer: Actually, there's nothing to disclaim in this one, cuz none of the old characters are in this one.

Chapter 3: How wierd is this?

Julian's cell phone rang as he sat trying to solve an algebra equation. He looked at it and smiled, his best friend, Andy Powell was calling. Andy had played on the Pee-Wee Ducks with him, and now was at Eden Hall, he had to rush home after practice so they hadn't had a chance to talk.

"Hey man," Julian said answering it, "what's up?"

"Dude!" Andy said, enthusiastically, "Did you see that girl?"

"Which one?" Julian laughed, Andy was always looking at girls, "We started at a new school today; there were lots of girls."

"The one on the team," Andy said, as if this was obvious. "Kitty Portman, she's seriously hot man."

"I didn't notice," Julian said, he still wasn't sure how kosher liking Kitty was. "I was too busy watching her play."

"That she's so good just adds to it." Andy said, "Isn't she like your almost sister or something?"

"Her mom is my dad's ex wife." Julian explained. "And her dad dated my mom in high school."

"So what does that make you two?" Andy said.

"Nothing," Julian said, "I don't think. It's really weird."

"But like you're cool if I ask her out?" Andy asked.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Julian questioned. "I met the girl for the first time today."

"Just checking!" Andy laughed. "Didn't want to disturb the big bro vibe if you had one going."

"There is no vibe. She's not my sister," Julian said, "She's not even my step sister. She's just a girl."

"Cool, I gotta go, Mom's got dinner going. Talk to you later Banksie!"

"See you Andy." Julian hung up the phone. He shook his head. This was typical Andy, see what he wanted and go right after it. They were so alike, in that they often wanted the same thing, but they were different in that Andy actually went after it, where as he just sort of kept it to himself. But did he really want to ask Kitty out? Was that even allowed? Had Andy put it right? Was she his "almost sister?" These thoughts were very weird.

"So do you like him?" Lexi asked Kitty that night while Kitty was trying to get through the Shakespeare reading she had to do for English.

"Who?" Kitty said, blowing off the question. "Shakespeare? Yeah, he's OK."

"Not Shakespeare," Lexi said, sitting down on the end of Kitty's bed. "Julian Banks? I mean you asked him to sit with us. Do you like him?"

"As a person?" Kitty said. "He seems nice enough, I guess."

"That's not what I meant and you know it!" Lexi said. "Are you crushing?"

"He's practically my step brother," Kitty said, "Don't be gross."

"He is not practically your step brother." Lexi laughed. "I mean you didn't know him before today."

"Look, I don't expect you to get it." Kitty said, "I barely get it. But Adam was married to my mom, and Heather was with my dad for almost two years. Julian and I were born on the same day, which would be weird enough except then Adam decided to name him Julian, after my mother Julie, which just makes everything incredibly confusing and difficult. Although I've always told my parents that I get it, because they decided to tell me the whole story two years ago."

"That's good," Lexi said, "I wish my dad was that forthcoming with me. I know like nothing about his life."

"Yeah, uh the stuff they told me isn't exactly the kind of things you want to know about your parents." She said. "Did you know that your dad was with my mom, until she started dating my godfather when she was seventeen?"

"I didn't know that, like I said, I don't really know a whole lot about my dad." Lexi said, then the rest of the statement sunk in. "Wait, your godfather is your mom's ex boyfriend?"

"Mhm, Luis Mendoza." Kitty said. "He's also my dad's business partner. See until two years ago, he was just Uncle Luis, but now I know the whole story."

"You have a very screwed up family," Lexi noted. "I'm kind of glad that I don't know all of those kinds of things about my parents."

"Trust me, I would be much happier not knowing them," Kitty sighed, "But they mean well, I guess."

"But that doesn't answer my question," Lexi smiled, "Do you have a crush on Julian Banks?"

"NO!" Kitty said, definitively, although on the inside it was much less definitive, "I don't."

"Good." Lexi smiled, "I needed to check that before I started my campaign."

"You make it sound like a war," Kitty rolled her eyes.

"Who said it wasn't?" Lexi laughed.

The next day in biology class Kitty noticed an empty seat next to Julian. She looked around, but noticed no other empty seats. She took a deep breath and got ready for the few minutes of awkward conversation that would go on before the bell rang.

"Hi," she said, walking up, holding the straps of her backpack. "Is anyone sitting here?"

"No," the tall blonde boy sitting on the other side of the empty seat said, smiling at her. Julian looked pleadingly at the other kid.

"Great thanks." She said, plopping her bag and then herself down.

"You're Kitty Portman right?" The blonde kid said.

"Yeah," she looked at him confused. "How did you know that?"

"I'm Andy Powell; I'm on the hockey team with you, and Banksie here." Andy pointed to Julian, who was pretending to stare at his notes. "You two know each other right?"

"Yes, we've all established that Kitty and I know each other." Julian said, looking up. It came out with much more malice than he intended it to.

"Yeah," Kitty nodded, awk wardly, trying to come up with a way to change the subject. "So practice yesterday was good."

"Yeah, you play really well," Andy smiled, "you're a resident right?"

"Uh huh," Kitty said, it was pretty widely known, and pretty obvious the kids who were residents and the kids who commuted. Residents were usually children of alumni or on scholarships and commuters were usually wealthy kids from the Minneapolis area.

"Where are you from?" Julian rolled his eyes, Andy was laying it on thick for this girl.

"Chicago," Kitty explained, "well just outside of Chicago actually. But my parents went here."

"Cool," Andy said. Just get to it. Julian thought, thinking that if he thought the message hard enough, Andy would just get this whole thing over with. "So, being new around here, do you want someone to show you around?" Suddenly what Andy was doing clicked with Kitty.

"That could be nice." She said.

"Maybe, this Friday?" He grinned at her.

"This Friday works for me." She said with a flirtatious smile.

"Great," Andy said, as the bell rang. "I can show you the mall." He whispered as the teacher walked in.

"Sounds good." She said quietly. Things were going to be great, good thing she had decided to come.

Julian walked out of biology. Part of him was glad that Andy had talked to Kitty, largely because it meant that he didn't have to talk to her, but another part was nagging that it should be him showing her around. He was walking down the hallway, when he was stopped by a perky looking redhead.

"Hi Julian!" She said, smiling at him. "You probably don't remember me, we had lunch together yesterday. I'm Lexi Vanderbilt, Kitty's roommate?"

"Right, hi," he said, he kept walking.

"So how do you like the school?" Lexi said following after him.

"It's good." He said, awkwardly looking around. Why was no one he knew here?

"Right, well," Lexi smiled, "I should get to class. It was good talking to you." She bounced away just as quickly as she came.

"Um, bye." He said waving. Why were girls so weird?

A/N: Ok, so this'll probably be it for a couple of days at least. But please review please please!