Tada, the in-crowd chapter 5!

Clare's POV

When I got home last night I closed shut the old red door and slid down the back of it. I smiled, cocking my head to touch my shoulder. I got up to turn the light switch on for the chandelier, and when I did, I saw it.

All of my country family, better known as my mother's side, was in the parlor talking amongst themselves. My mother rushed in wearing a short dress. It was strapless and red with black over the knee stilettos. Okay, my mom dressed over the top just a little but, but it was all right because we were the same size!

Anyways as I rushed past the crowd to see my favorite uncle…that sadly married the absolute worst woman in the universe existing. I snuck up behind him and hugged him around the waist. He turned around and flashed a smile of love.

"Hey! How's my favorite little niece?" He screamed in my ear. He had lung cancer and also brain tumors but he always gave it his all. I smiled at how amazingly strong he was all the time.

"Great and how's my favorite uncle?" I yelled back at him.

"Great, so where are the siblings… Oh. There they are!" They all came rushing down the stairs. Except for Darcy. Too cool for school was her motto. She smiled, huffed out a peppermint breath and rested her glittered nails on her hip.

She was wearing almost the exact same thing my mother was wearing. "Hey, Darc. You and mom plan outfits together?" I asked sarcastically. She smirked and gave me a 'humph.' She walked past me greeting everyone showing off her body since the last time we actually saw them was when we were twelve and thirteen.

After talking to about every single relative my uncle came back on over to chat.

"So how are grades?"

"Great, how's treatment going?"

"Amazing, they are almost done and five tumors are gone. Only three left."

"That's amazing. I'm really happy that you're almost out."

"It is isn't it? So fishing sounds good tomorrow afternoon right?"

"Sounds great."

Fishing was not my favorite thing to do, but Uncle Nathan loved it and it was always fun with him. I loved fishing with my uncle. Nobody else. I usually said yes because I did not know how much longer I had with him. I always tried not to think about that though, he would live.

I rushed up the stairs before my Aunt Karen could find me. That is the one person I hadn't talked to.

I got ready for bed and soon fell asleep. Yes. Dreaming about Eli.

I wanted to lie in bed for what felt like forever. I had stayed up all night talking to family and finding rooms for them. It was not hard since our mansion is huge, but the walk to find them all was really just too much.

I started getting ready.

I had on a short strapless yellow dress with yellow buttons on the bust with brown buckle boots. Hair was same as always and so was my makeup.

I trotted down the stairs and slipped on my leather shoulder duffle purse. "Morning Clare, you know you're brother Tyler sure is loud, I was sleeping last night and h-"My Aunt Karen stopped when she looked down at my dress.

"Aunt Karen?" I asked her, she looked dazed. "Clare, are you really wearing that dress to school?" She asked me.

Oh, here we go. My Aunt Karen was WAY over protective. Anything I ever put on was slutty to her. I could wear a winter parka and still look like a slut to her! "What's wrong with it?" I asked.

"Honey, it's above mid thigh. I think that's a little provocative." As soon as my Aunt said that, my mother came and walked past us retrieving a cup of coffee from our kitchen. She slinked back past us to her bedroom after saying "And Karen I think it's highly inappropriate you're looking at her in that way. I mean seriously, it's a little wrong."

She rested a hand on her shoulder sipped her coffee and was off. I know this may sound a little funny but my mom is the coolest. There are some days when I would rather hang out with her than Ali some days. We would go shopping and talk just as if best friends would. My mother was also hilarious.

She hated my father's family. They were all stuck up wine drinkers from New York and my mom's side was country beer drinker from Texas. I was a city girl from Toronto. I loved it here though and so did my siblings.

My mother was bottle blonde with brown hair underneath. She was skinny and her breasts were enormous. She was only about three inches taller than I was. All the girls in my family had short tiny figures.

All the men in my family were at least six feet, or taller. I slipped out the door soon before Ali and Bianca joined my side. "Hey there stranger!" B yelled. I laughed and apologized. "Sorry, I've just been so busy with Cheerleading, school, Eli, and to top it off this month my family is visiting.

Ali stepped in front of me pulling her hands up in front of our faces. "Which side…?" I rolled my eyes and slunk my head back. "Dad's side, I mean could she be more stuck up? Just buy me a monster sized eraser and I'll scribble out my figure."

The two girls laughed quickly before we entered the school doors. Spinning open my locker I looked to the side at my yellow and pink calendar. It had markings from siblings and friends birthdays, days when I tracked my period, and very important dates, like quizzes and such.

However, one thing stuck out to me most. You see I did these beauty pageants every year ever since I was three. I won every single one since I was three, and I will continue to win every one until im twenty.

The thirteenth of December was circled in electric blue pen about one hundred times. It was the day that I started my pageant practice today! My mouth dropped and I felt it touch the cold floor coated with a blanket of sand from dirty sneakers.

I felt two strong-arms wrap around my waist and a head drop to the crook of my neck to smell my pink wish perfume. I was too busy keeping my eyes glued to the special date. I knew it was Eli because I smelled his Axe cologne.

"Mmmm, Clare. You smell so good. Sexy." I heard him murmur under his breath. I usually would have giggled but I… you know was busy. "You're soooo softttt." Licking my neck with his hot tongue.

I had an instinct moan and it was just something that happened. I moaned and he smirked. My face remained glued to the thin important paper. I just could not believe it had been a year already and I still have not started taking my dance lessons for my contest!

He picked his head up from my shoulder. "You alright? Usually you hit me when I call you sexy. Wait I know you're waiting for a better aim." He slid out to the side and mumbled "okay" before shutting his eyes tight and placing his heads over his groin.

"Eli!" I raised my hand to hit him but looked at it and put it down. I brought my hands around his neck standing on my tiptoes.

Eli's POV

Clare buried her face in my chest and mumbled "it's nova you I habe pageant praxis." I am sure that is not what she said but that is what I got. "What?" She lifted her head from my striped cotton shirt. "I have pageant practice today with my mom."

I scrunched my eyebrows together and stared into her eyes. "You. You do pageants?" asked. She smiled big and nodded. "I love them! It is so fun to do all the makeup and wear the pretty dresses. I never get nervous and I never loose! But… this one…on December 30th is…hard." She said tilting her eyebrows towards her eye. "Hmm, well how come this one is so hard?" she huffed slamming her locker door shut. "Because, there are pageant girls coming from all over the world. I can't compete with some girl from…China!" She said flailing her arms everywhere.

"Who knows, she might even cheat, and if she cheats then I'll never be able to do a pageant again because everyone knows that cheaters usually win. Of course, it does not give them the same satisfaction that I get for entering the contest and loosing without cheating, but all my sisters and mom's sisters have gotten Miss. Canada! What if I don't, even my mom won!"

She said it all so fast all I heard was a few parts. "Clare, baby, none of those girls are as pretty as you. If they cheat, that is what they choose. At least you'll leave knowing you played fair." I rested my hand on her tiny shoulder.

Her crystal eyes about bulged out of their sockets. "So you're saying I'm going to loose?" She said. "What no! I…was saying…." The bell rung and I kissed her on the cheek. "I was saying if you loose it won't matter, it's just a pageant!"

I left Clare standing there upset. I know that it was a bad move to do that but I did not have a choice. I had a test and of course, my class was on the other side of school. My stomach started to hurt and my heart started to beat.

I knew why. Ten percent was because I was anxious for my test and ninety percent was because I hurt Clare's feelings. I was in front of my class and I saw my teacher handing out tests. Mr. Armstrong never let us in late if it was a test day, so I shrugged and spun my self around zooming to Clare.

She was walking away from her locker, with a sad expression on her face. It was weird, her high heel shoes made this sad clicking noise that sounded like a song. I rushed up to her and spun her around I kissed her full on the lips before she pushed me off.

"Clare? Babe, are you mad?"

"No, I just really need you're support on this."

"Baby you do have my support. I'll be there. Can I drive you home?"

"No, I drove this morning, you have a test."

I smirked and lifted her up in my arms bridal style.

"Ever heard of makeup work?" I asked running out the door with a screeching Clare.

I placed Clare down on her front steps. I had run her all the way from school to her house, leaving both ours cars in the Degrassi parking lot. "Eli, you didn't have to carry me all the way over here."

I kissed her on the lips for a while letting her know I wanted to. We kissed until I broke it and asked if I could come in. "Sure, but you can't see what I'm wearing. That would ruin the surprise." I smirked and then my smirk disappeared.

"W-what surprise?" I asked not wanting to sound too anxious.

She stuck her neck out farther so she could get closer to my face. "You are going to be there right?" She asked. "Of course." Eli friend, do not get your hopes up. She smiled and pushed open her door.

She made me sit in the living room while she got her parents. I was looking around her living room/ parlor area. Wow, she really had a nice house. The floors were marble and the furniture was red and sheer white. It looked comfortable but at the same time hard like no one had ever sat in it.

The ceilings were high up because I could see a distant large chandelier hanging from the high above ceilings, looking at it hurt my neck. I looked sideways to see the golden banister leading up two twin stairs cases on either side of the parlor.

Old paintings hung on the walls with family portraits and landscapes. There was a music room and the kitchen, but I had to walk around to find those things. I came back to the living room just in time to see Clare walking from the side of her house with her parents.

To be honest, I was about the height of her father, maybe taller. He had no wrinkles and was fit; he looked to be around twenty-eight. Her mom was pretty; she looked like she would work at buffalo wild wings or hooters. She looked nineteen.

Her mom smiled and gave me a big hug. She stepped back and motioned for me to shake her father's hand. I held mine out but her father stood their arms crossed scrunched eyes. "Daddy? Is there something wrong?" Clare asked.

I could tell her dad was not usually like this. He also was not too fond of boys either I could tell. I hesitantly brought my hand back to my side smiled and nodded. He gave a snorting sound and rolled his eyes.

He walked around me in a slow circle. Eyeing my up and down. He began to speak still circling me. "So, you're Eli? Hmmmp. You look…dangerous." He stopped and walked back to the confused girls. "I don't like him." He said characteristically.

"What? Why not?" Clare pouted. "Because, Eli? What kind of name is that? I mean he looks dangerous. He is wearing a leather jacket! What kind of car does he drive! A motorcycle! A Hearse! I knew it he drives a hearse! Does he throw you in the back of it!" He asked flailing his arms about.

I smirked. I could hear a silent crowd laughing as they do on those T.V shows. "Dad! He drives a jeep! What's so dangerous about that?" Clare asked. Clare's mother smiled and rested a hand on her husbands arm.

"Randal if I do recall you drove a motorcycle for quite sometime." I heard a giggled and knew it was my girlfriends. His face softened. "Oh, well, it's very nice to meet you." He said grinning and shaking my hand rapidly.

He sped off to a red jacket on a hook and keys and was out the door. Her mother smiled and said, "Are you kids hungry?"

"Actually, no. Do you know what day it is?" Clare asked.

"Baby it's pretty sad if you don't know what day it is." Her mom said resting a hand on her hip. "No, I mean do you know what day it is?"

"Mon…day?" Her mom said unsure. "Yes, but its December thirteenth and that is the day I start my pageant training." She said. Her mother's eyes widened. "OH! Right! I have your pageant dress picked out and all made up! Would you kids like to see?"

"Okay, but we can't show him what my talents costume is." Clare winked. Her mother giggled and led us upstairs. I was beyond confused. Clare and her mom acted like her and Ali.

Her mom pulled a bucket off a bed in the guestroom. She lifted out a teal long dress. She held it up to Clare. It was strapless and had a claw of diamonds strung onto the dress on the right. It went all the way down to the floor, had silk underneath, and net on the top.

I could not wait until I saw my beautiful Clare walking on stage in this dress. She smiled and gasped grabbing the dress from her mother's hands placing it back in the box, skipping back to her room with it.

I smirked exiting the room leaving her mother to clean up the Styrofoam drops that fell from the box. I followed Clare to her room to see just what this talent costume was. She was walking out of her room down the spiral staircase.

"So…are you gonna show me this…talent costume?"

She stole the smirk right off my lips. "Nope, I can't tell you. It is a surprise. Now, come with me. I want to show you something." She pulled my thick arms towards her big sitting room.

She sat me down on the hard furniture as she pulled out a photo album off a bookshelf. Her delicate hand slid down the maroon colored cover. It read 'Pageant Princess's' on the sides.

There was a rectangular photo in the center of about twenty girls. I could tell it was about a year ago because Clare did not look too much younger and the picture still had that glossy finish to it.

She folded it open and it made a creaky kind of cardboard bending noise when you first open a kid's picture book. In it, there was a photo of a young blonde girl. The photo looked to be around the 90's.

"See, that is my grandma's picture. She won Miss. Canada in the nineteen hundreds." She flipped the page and I saw a much more finished picture. "This is my mother. When she was in high school"

We went through the whole book up until an empty page. "This…" she ghosted her fingertips across the center of the page. "Will be mine."

I looked up into her blue eyes and smiled. "Wow. This really means a lot to your family huh babe?" She nodded and got up, placing the album back on the shelf. she sat on my lap and pulled her legs up onto the couch.

"That is why I need my boyfriend there to support me." Leaning her head on my chest I wrapped my finger in one of Clare's auburn curls. "Well, I'd love to be there." I said, taking my hands and trailing it along the hem of her thin yellow dress.

She starred down at her worn out boots and looked back to me. "Promise you will be there?" I nodded and she stuck up a pinky finger. I smirked at how childish and cute but then locked my smallest finger with hers.

"Pinky swear?" she asked resting her forehead on mine. I touched her nose with mine.

"Pinky swear."

All right. Yes, next chapter will be the pageant part… and maybe a little something else. Who wants Clare wearing a sexy talents costume for Eli?