sorry for short chapter. i did decide to continue.

She woke up to the light of a new day. She yawned and stretched a bit then laid her head back on her pillow, hoping to fall asleep again. Just for a minute. Though, the talking in the kitchen kept her up as she strained her ears to try to listen. All she heard was the vibration of the voices. She lazily crawled out of bed, running a hand through her hair. She caught a glance of her messy, bed-headed, tank-top wearing, short-short donning refection. She smacked her lips a bit and continued to the kitchen.

"Ah! There she is! Miss I-like-to-go-to-random-bars-and-ignore-my-friends-slash-roomates," Toni Monetti commented. Ah, yes. Toni Monetti. Rachel's best friend, since forever, and the daughter of a rich and powerful business man. Though, her father does try to finance his only child, Toni's too proud to take any money.

Rachel looked from Toni "Argent" Monetti, to her other friend, Kori Ander. Rachel couldn't believe how beautiful her friends are. Kori's naturally tanned, sun-kissed skin, was so lively and beautiful compared to Rachel's own pale, dull, almost gray skin. Kori has long, beautiful, red hair flowing down to her hips. She has a perfect figure with such long legs. Her skin was perfect, her full, plump lips were perfect, her sexy accent was just gravy-if you will. Her friend Toni was a different kind of beauty. A beauty such as her own, a kind of dark and gothic beauty.

Toni has short, spikey hair that's red at the tips. She too had an accent, an Australian one. Rachel began to wonder why she was the only one without an accent. Toni had her own kind of gothic-loli style, frill and lace. She has a pale skin, almost completely white, though Rachel's was almost grey. Toni stood, leaned over the counter, her large tee-shirt falling over her shorts- if she was wearing any. Kori was on the other side of the counter, in a small satin nightgown.

"Yes, friend Rachel! You missed the night of movies last night. Where were you?"

Rachel bit her bottom lip to hold back a smile. She walked into the kitchen and reached up to the cabinet to get a bowl. "Out," she replied rather nonchalantly.

"Oh my God," Toni started, biting into a bright red apple, "You were with a guy last night."

Rachel stayed quiet as she poured some milk over her sugary cereal. She was starting to think that her friends knew her way too well, and she'd never get away with keeping any kind of secret.

"Well? Are you going to tell us about him?" Toni continued.

"Well, he's… different than the guys I normally bring back."

"Hm, how so?"

"He's funny. He seems kinda smart I guess. Gentlemanly."

"Oh… So where does he work? What's his first name? His last name? Does he have a car? Is he in college? Out of college? How old is he? Is he hot? …And does he have a single brother?" Toni interrogated.

"I don't know. Garfield. I don't know. I'm not sure. I don't know. He looks about my age but I'm not sure. I don't know. Yes, he is very hot. And I'll ask him," She informed her, shoveling the cereal into her mouth.

Toni shrugged and seemed rather content with the answers she received, "Maybe you should carry pepper spray. You don't seem to know him that well…"

"No, really Toni. He's a good guy. I met him at that bar last night. He's taking me out to dinner tonight."

"Boyfriend Richard took me out to dinner last night…" Kori stated.

"Awesome," Rachel answered.

"Yes, and it must have been a nice place because he was rewarded well," Toni added, taking another chunk out of her apple.

"What?" Kori asked.

"Well, I have the room next to you and we have thin walls…"

Kori blushed a rosy pink. "Well…"

"Good morning," Richard Grayson greeted, coming out of Kori's room.

Rachel nodded in his direction. She respected him, she felt that he was perfect for Kori. Respectful, charming, filthy rich… The son of Bruce Wayne. Rachel wasn't sure who 'Bruce' was, but she was sure he had money, and tons of it. Richard is very handsome with his spikey black hair, pools of blue eyes, and a tall muscular physique. Yes, he is perfect, just like his girlfriend.

He took one look at Rachel then gave her his million dollar smile, "You met a guy last night, didn't you?"

Rachel huffed indignantly, "You spend too much time here, Dick."

He gave a look of triumph as he poured his coffee, "Whatever, Rachel. Just don't get into any trouble, I'm not sure if I can bail you out again."

"Yeah, yeah," She crossed her arms. She turned, setting the bowl into the sink and started back to her room. She walked into her room, closing the door behind her. She took a look at her dog, laying on her bed. Natasha was almost full-sized now. That's like a medium sized dog. She's a Siberian Husky, and the cutest one at that. She has black around her eyes, almost like eyeliner.

She threw on a pair of yoga pants and a loose fitting tee-shirt, along with a pair of converse sneakers. She hooked the dog on the leash and was out the door in no time. Natasha is trained and well behaved so walking her was never a problem.

"Hey!" Someone called from behind her. Rachel turned to see a tall, thin girl. Blonde hair, blue eyes, light skin. She seemed familiar. "Wait up!" She had her own dog, a small white Chihuahua in a pink sweat suit that matched her own.

"Uh, what's up?" Rachel asked in her raspy monotone.

The blonde paced next to her, giving Rachel a charming smile, "Well, we met last night. I'm Tara."

"I'm Rachel. You know, you seem like a nice girl and all, but I'm not really looking for a friend…"

"Oh. Me neither, though I was just wondering about you and Gar?"

Rachel began to wonder what this blonde bimbo could want. If she wanted Garfield, well that was fine. But he didn't show much interest in her, and maybe Rachel should tell her not to waste her time. Actually, since she said it was a blind date, she probably doesn't know him that well anyway. So why would she care?

"Uh, we only just met. Not much to tell. Why?"

"Well, I really like him, I mean who wouldn't? All I'm saying is, from what I hear? You're not his type. And-"

Rachel stopped her right there. "You don't know me."

"Well, you're not his type. This weird goth, creepy café dweller, chess playing type?"

"How do you know that?"

"I'm well known around here. Tara Markov? Yes, that's me, ask anyone. I guess you could say I asked around about you. Anyways, maybe you could back off of Gar? Save him and yourself from the trouble? I'm more of his type."

This girl was really getting on Rachel's nerves. Who does she think she is to ask around about her, then hunt her down? Was that really necessary? Then, act like she knows her so well and is doing her a favor. No. Rachel wasn't sure what was so special about this Gar character, but she was sure that she wasn't too fond of this Tara.

"Well, thank you, Tara. But I would appreciate if you maybe leave me alone and stay out of it? Thanks, bye."

"Okay, Rachel. We'll talk later. Nice seeing you!" Tara jogged ahead of Rachel and that was that.

"No, I swear. She talked to me first! She was just there," Gar shrugged. "Tara came late, so I went with Rachel and-"

"You did what?" Gar's best friend Victor replied. He was a bit older than Gar, already out of college. He was around twenty-five, where-as Gar had just turned twenty-one. He had dark skin, tall and muscular. Mostly from his high school days of football. He was handsome, bald, and pretty popular around town.

"What?" Gar was confused. He held the controller in his hand, leaning and turning as his car dodged bombs and cars and signs.

"Tara is a nice girl, Gar. She doesn't even know you and she like loves you, man!"

"Yeah, well Rachel's a nice girl too! She's smart, and gorgeous!"

"Ok, where does she work?"

"I dunno."

"Where does she live?"

Gar shrugged.

"She going to college?"

"Well, I'm not sure. Summer just started like a week ago, no one cares about college yet!"

"Well, you're making a mistake."

"We'll see."

"When can I meet her?" Victor asked, passing Gar in the game.

"I don't know. She won't even give me her number yet. But we're going out tonight."

"What about Tara?"

"She called me almost a million times today. I dunno, Vic. I guess I just hope that things between Rae and I go great!" He confided as he passed the finish line, first place. He jumped up off the couch and pumped his fist in the air. He never beats Vic! He couldn't help but feel lucky once more, and he wasn't sure what it was, but he was very lucky this week.

"Hey, guys," Richard called, entering Gar's house.

"Dick, Dude! You just missed me kick Vic's ass in Mega Monkey's 5: On the Road."

"Yeah, well I was just with Kori. What happened last night wasn't worth missing for this."

"Nice!" Vic regarded, fist-pounding Richard.

"Yeah, well I met an amazing girl last night," Gar informed.

"Really?"

"Yeah, her name is Rachel and-"

"Rachel? Rachel Roth?"

"Uh, dude? Creepy much? How do you know that?" Gar sauntered over to the fridge and pulled out a couple of beers, passing them around. He leaned against the counter and took a sip from the can.

"She's Kori's roommate. I was talking to her this morning."

"Awesome, did she mention me at all?"

"She said she had a date, but it's not like she'd talk to me anyways."

"Oh," Gar replied. Then he began to wonder if maybe he liked her better than she liked him. Heck, maybe she won't even show up tonight! Though, his luck had seemed plentiful lately…

"What's she like?" Victor asked Richard.

"Well. She's kinda quiet, she reads a lot, she likes tea. Actually, we call her the 'Ice Queen'…"

"What?" Gar spoke up. "Ice Queen? Why? She seemed nice!"

Richard seemed to scoff at this. "She is! Just sometimes, she can be a royal bitch. Don't let her get you into trouble. She's… well she's really shut in and like in a shell. She's tough too, Dude. Vicious. Don't get on her bad side. Kori says she has issues with her father, but I'm not sure what that's about. Other than that she's a pretty decent person…"

The room got quiet. Victor had a look of 'Told ya so' on his face. Gar couldn't believe his ears. Cold? Shut in? That wasn't anything like the bold, out-going person from last night. Could a person really change that much? Maybe they were talking about two different girls? It made no sense! Then, Gar believed he had it all figured out.

"Dude, you're just jealous," He accused.

"Jealous? Gar, I have a girlfriend. Rachel is a fine girl, she just needs to get used to you. She actually talks to me now," Richard defended.

"Whatever, dude."