Heya everybody!

So, I know this chapter is highly overdue, and I am so sorry this took so long. Things started to spiral into insanity around Thanksgiving, and I haven't managed to regain my footing yet. Big apology...^.^'

Scores: We're drawing close to my first checkpoint. :)

CrazyKitten2112: 410pts

Indigo Starling: 432pts

Kiwi Werewolf: 50 pts

Jennifer Adams: 30 pts

As always, a big thanks to my guest reviewer. I feel bad about not being able to offer any points, but there are simply too many anonymous reviewers under the guest name, however I do appreciate it a lot! :)

Okay, so, I'm not going to do a lot of talking, since I figure you all really just want to read the chapter, so here it is.

I own only the things of my own imagination. :)

~Giving Thanks~

Silence followed the simultaneous outbursts. Jasamin cocked her head, brow furrowed, and Alexander's mouth hung open, blue eyes sparkling with a look that the girl couldn't quite decipher. It was he who broke the silence.

"You did what!"

"I...It was compulsive," Jasamin started distractedly. "I mean, she was just there, and totally getting it, and making me feel like I'm not the only person in the world who's had bad experiences, and I just, sort of, did it." Then, her eyebrows, if it was possible, knit closer together. "You like Noah?"

"You kissed Christina Berryhill!" Alexander reached out and gave her shoulders a shake, as though trying to wake her. "Hello! Earth to Jazz! That was a horrible idea! She hates Sheana, who's been friends with Chris since they were in diapers, and is straight. Imagine how she'll react to you!"

"You know, if you think about it, that's rather silly. I mean, Chris is friends with three other gay girls, but the only girl Rose is really concerned about is the straight one. I mean, you don't have to have grown up with Chris to think she a catch. She's kind, and patient, and she can almost always make you laugh. Plus she has the prettiest eyes-"

"Are you out of your mind?"

"No!" Jasamin crossed her arms in defense. "I'm allowed to appreciate what that stupidbitch can't." Jasamin was no stranger to curses, she'd been using them since she was talking, no thanks to her dad, but somehow, it felt different this time. The word felt new, and satisfying. "Chris deserves better than her."

"You really have lost it!" Alexander threw up his hands, voice going high.

"Maybe...you're gay?"

"Okay, that is so not the present issue," the boy snapped, glaring at her, "and anyways, why do you sound so weirded out? You're gay."

"I'm not weirded out, but I'm allowed to be a little surprised when someone like you comes out."

"What does that mean?" Alexander's glare hardened.

Jasamin huffed, blowing mousy strands from her eyes. "It means, usually there are signs before a person comes out. You didn't show any signs. How long have you known you're gay?"

Alexander let out a slow breath, and set his drumsticks down carelessly on the bookshelf. They rolled precariously off of the shelf, and clattered to the thickly carpeted floor. Alexander didn't seem to care as he flopped down onto his bed, which was stationed right beside the shelf. "I don't actually know if I'm gay, but there's never been a girl that makes me feel the way I do around Noah."

"Are you going to go for it?"

"Hey! You're trying to distract from the real issue. Rose is going to have your head when she finds out!"

"Rose won't find out." Jasamin waved him off. "The only way that happens is I Chris tells her, and we all know that kind of trouble is the last thing Chris wants. She'll avoid it at all costs and that means she won't be telling Rose anything. Now answer my question."

"If you're not worried about it than why did you tell me? Alexander persisted, sitting up. "Now I have to keep it a secret, too!"

Jasamin crossed her arms. "I'm a girl. When girls have problems they tell people, and you're the person I trust most with the information. I mean, you won't tell Rose will you?"

"No."

"Okay, then. Now answer my question."

"No."

"Why not?" Jasamin pouted, plopping onto his bed. "I answered your question!"

"Okay, one: I didn't ask a question, and two: I meant 'no' as in 'no, I'm not going for it."

"What? Why not?"

"Are you kidding me? That would be almost as stupid as you kissing Chris," Alexander scoffed, flopping back.

"Okay, ouch." Jasamin winced. "Anyways, why do you think that? It's not like there's anything conflicting." She held up a hand, ticking her points off on her finger. "We already know he's gay, he's single, he doesn't like anybody that I know about, and even if he's not interested in a relationship, it's not like you two will get awkward and never speak again. I mean, come on, he's Noah."

"I don't know, Jazz." Alexaner blew out and breath, and slung an arm over his face. "I already knows who he is and what he wants, and me? I'm not so sure. You really think that's what he wants? Or deserves?"

"Then find out," Jasamin suggested, leaning on an elbow.

"And how do you suggest I do that?" Alexander questioned, propping himself up on his own elbow, and n a mockingly thoughtful voice he went on, "Hmm...Oh! I know! How about I kiss Liam? I mean, who cares if he has a boyfriend, right? It's not like he's going to find out."

"Well that was harsh." Jasamin shifted slightly. "And totally not what I was saying. You don't have to kiss a guy. You can tell if you kiss a girl, too."

"How? I thought the point was to find out if I like guys?"

"Sure, and if you kiss a guy and it feels really good, then you know, just like if you kiss and girl and feel nothing you know."

"How do you know it's just because you don't like the girl?" Alexander challenged.

"There's a difference, trust me," Jasamin assured. "A kiss isn't as simple as black or white, there are tons of shades of gray. Kissing Andrew was nothing like kissing Lilah, but I could still tell that Lilah wasn't, you know right."

"Maybe that's because Lilah is the lesbian version of a pig, or player, or whatever you want to call it," Alexander offered.

"Does Lilah know you talk about her like that?" Jasamin smirked.

"Please, that's the big joke at home. Alejandro swears its biological, but Leslie likes to claim she learned it from her."

"I think your family needs to get their priorities straight." Jasamin raised her eyebrows at the boy.

"You're one to talk," Alexander retorted, but Jasamin shook her head before he could say anymore.

"Don't go there," she warned, flopping back onto her back.

There was an uncertain pause then: "You know what I think? I think you girls read way too much into a kiss." Alexander leaned over so his face was inches from his friend's. "You just want to find meaning in places it really isn't."

"Well, you know what I think?" She looped her hand in his shirt, and pulled him closer, so she was whispering directly into his ear. "I think boys are shallow and don't know how to feel."

Alexander bit his lip, hesitated, then had an idea. He pulled away and smirked at her. "So how did you feel when you kissed Chris?"

Jasamin looked completely taken off guard, and swallowed. "Forget about that, okay?" she muttered, looking away. "We're talking about you right now."

"Right, you were telling me to kiss a girl, and then...what? Say: 'Yeah, I don't actually like you. I was just testing whether or not I was gay.'"

"Kiss a girl that you know you won't have any strings attached. Just like Andrew for me, and Lilah. We both know both of them only like one time things anyway."

"Well, I can't kiss my sister," Alexander pointed out.

Jasamin rolled her eyes, then, leaned forward, and pressed her lips to his, feeling him jerk in surprise. She pulled away rather quickly, wiping her mouth. Alexander was staring at her blankly, mouth agape, eyes wide. She grinned, and raised an eyebrow. "Kiss 'em or ditch 'em?"

"Kiss 'em or Ditch 'em" was a game that had been played at Headline for years, until the year before when a group of sixth graders had snuck into the senor high homecoming and played, then gone home for winter break and told their parents all about it. The game had been placed under the radar since then, but they still played it at parties off of campus on occasion.

The rules of the game were pretty basic. Everyone playing would place their names in one of four jars, two for the guys, one which contained girl's names and the other contained other guys, and two for the girls, under the same idea. Then, the jars would be passed around the room, and everyone would draw from the appropriate jar. The name you drew was the person you had to kiss, and once the kiss was done, someone would ask, "Kiss 'em or Ditch em?", "Kiss 'em" meant you would do it again, while "Ditch 'em" meant you wouldn't. It was a loose idea, since most only said "Kiss 'em" if they really liked it, or was running out of options. If both participants replied "Kiss 'em" then they would be the official couple of that game, and would be out. If the reply was "Ditch 'em" then the ditched individual would then be allowed to select the next person for their ditcher to kiss. Anyone left without a match at the end of the game was considered the "Loser in Love".

It was, conceivably, a singles games, and was notorious for starting relationships, but mostly, it was just an excuse for people to kiss as many others as possible. Like a twisted version of Spin the Bottle.

Alexander blinked away the memories, and tried to work together his response. "Ditch 'em."

Jasamin laughed, ruffling his hair. "Congratulations, Beat. There's a ninety-five percent chance you're gay."

"Only ninety-five?"

Jasamin shugged. "Have to account for the chance that the shock was just to much for your tiny, shallow brain."

Alexander laughed. "You're a nut, Jazz."

"So I've been told."

~Giving Thanks~

Shaena chewed on a nail as she check her phone again. Still no response. She jerked sharply on the nail, and it came loose, taking skin with it. She yelped, and stared at the injury, before cursing and dropping her phone on the bed, making her way to the bathroom. She flicked on the cold water, and stuck her finger under, running scenarios over in her head. She hadn't seen Chris since Lauren had come through, informing them that Jasamin was awake, but had stormed off after a rather unpleasant confrontation with Lauren. They had split up to find her, and now Chris was the only one unaccounted for, Noah had reported seeing her by Alexander's room nearly an hour ago.

She was painfully aware of exactly who she was acting like, but to be fair this wasn't a situation like Chris being at a football game, with her phone turned off because of a teacher, and surrounded by people who would be certain to make sure she was the first to know if anything went wrong. This was very different, and in situations like this, it wasn't like Chris to blatantly ignore messages.

"What did you do?" Shaena jumped, and whirled around, coming face-to-face with Chris, who was watching her from the door of the bathroom, face etched with concern.

"What are you talking about?" Shaena demanded, shutting off the water, and twisting her thumb into the fabric of her black t-shirt.

"How'd you mess up your finger like that?" Chris explained, nodding at her crude wrapping. "Looks like it hurt."

"Messed up cutting my nails, and had to pull it off is all," Sheana lied, slipping past her friend. Chris glanced around the room, raising an eyebrow.

"Really? What were you using?"

"What does that mean?"

Chris smirked, and, from her pocket, produced the black nail clippers. It had been a joke when they went to L.A two years before, who could by the stupidest keep sake. They had found them in a gift shop on a peer, and had decided, just for good measure, to buy only one between the two of them. Lauren had nearly died laughing when they had revealed it, and Noah had waved an annoyed hand and snapped, "Fine whatever. You win." It was the only pair they had.

Shaena bit her cheek. "Huh, I guess I loose."

Chris laughed, and tossed the small device over to her, saying, "So, now you're going to tell me the truth, right?"

Shaena shrugged, and dropped the thing on her night stand. "What do you want me to say?" she asked, leaning against her headboard. "You insist on going off of your own, then don't show up after we've already confirmed Jasamin's alright, or even bother to let anyone know where you are."

"You were worried about me?" Chris laughed, and falling tiredly onto her friend's bed.

"Of course I was worried," Shaena snapped, flopping down beside her. "I thought Crazy-homophobia-guy had jumped you or something."

"Aw, come on, Shae." Chris nudged her friend playfully. "Have a little faith in me. I could take that guy in my sleep."

"Yeah, I guess you could, huh?" Shaena nudged her back, smiling. "Still, though, I'm allowed to worry. I mean really worry, not just pretend to be worried so I look like a good person or something."

If Chris realized that she was talking about her girlfriend, she didn't say anything about it. She propped herself on one elbow, and said, "So, I've decided what I'm going to do for my Post-Thanksgiving-feast speech."

"Really?" Shaena glanced over at her. "What?"

~Giving Thanks~

The room fell quiet as Chris cleared her throat on-stage, one hand holding the microphone, and the other a glass of water.

She gave a half-smile. "Hey, everybody!"

A low murmur of greeting followed her words, and when they were finished, Chris continued, "Well, its nice to see that everyone fits this year. For those of you weren't here, last year we had people stuck out in the hall it was so crowded. How about we start off by showing how thankful we are for the construction team that made us a bigger cafeteria, yes?"

The room erupted into cheering and clapping, that made Chris grin broadly.

When it settled down, she went on. "Okay, well, as is tradition, I will make my speech, although, it may be, a little lame. Everybody's already stolen all of the original ideas." Low chuckles followed her words as everyone remembered last year, when Colby McKinly wrote a rap for his speech.

Chris walked to the edge of the stage and took a seat, swinging a foot absently as she said, "What am I thankful for? The big question of the night." She took a deep breath, eyes traveling up to the ceiling. "I have a lot to be thankful for. I thankful for Rose Creed my amazing girlfriend. Hard to believe a catch like that is interested in me, huh?"

There was a pause, then someone whistled loudly, and a smattering of cheers sounded in the room. Behind Chris, Rose's face appeared on the screen, blushing and looking surprised. She was even more fake than the cheers skittering across the room.

"I'm thankful also for Shaena Carter, who's been there through everything. My rock. My best friend. The dark to my twistie." When Shaena's face appeared on the screen, she was grinning as wide as ever, hands raised in a "what-are-you-gonna-do" manner.

Lauren rolled her eyes and made an irritated sound from her position beside Dekka. "What?"

The blond girl nodded over at where Rose was seated. The girl was frowning, annoyed blue eyes watching Shaena. "Chris is going to get crap for including Shaena."

"It isn't Rose's place to tell Chris who to be thankful for," Dekka said. "Chris shouldn't worry about it."

Lauren rolled her eyes. "You've been here long enough. You know how their relationship works."

"Doesn't seem like it works at all to me." Lauren stiffled a laugh and Dekka's half-irritated comment.

On stage, Chris was moving on. "I'm thankful for this school. Thankful for the opportunities it provides to us, and the memories it allows us to make. I'm grateful for the band, because being with those people is always good for a laugh" Chuckles filled the room as the screen behind her flashed a picture of the school, it's hallways, the band room, and the band's members, always laughing, or pulling faces, or providing a good laugh for others.

Then it flashed on a small figurine.

The only thing Dekka could think of that even half-resembled the thing was a furless, werewolf, walking on two legs, like in cheap movies, and mauled by a bear. It had lanky, awkwardly turned legs and arms, and lines drug inexplicably into its torso and across it's face. What was obviously meant to be ears stuck out form the head like a chimpanzee's and the face was distorted, half smooth and half covered in the peculiar lines.

Chris chose that moment to glace back at the screen, as she said, "I'm also thankful for-" She burst suddenly into unabashed snickers. "What the-" When she had gotten her laughter back down to controlled chuckles she said uncertainly. "I'm thankful for that think. I don't know what it is, but apparently I'm grateful for it." Laughter filled the room.

"What the hell is that?" Lilah wondered, looking over to know to Lauren, who was staring at the think, looking intensely confused.

She spoke slowly, as though each word took immense concentration. "I have no idea."

Dekka felt someone tap her shoulder, and turned to see Andrew, grinning devilishly. "That's what the sculptor thought you should have looked like at homecoming."

"Shut up, Dean," Lauren snapped, reaching back and flipping the bill of the boy's hat, and wearing her playful grin.

Andrew matching it, straightening his hat calmly, then raised his hands. "Alright, alright! But don't come crying to me when that thing comes to life and eats our friend for bad impersonation, alright, Red?"

Both girls rolled their eyes, and turned back to the stage, where Chris was still caught up in her snickering. "She's so stumped." Jasamin, seated on Dekka's other side, laughed.

Chris glanced back at the screen, then at the crowd, and back to the screen before managing to say through her laughter. "What on earth is that? Sean?"

Sean's head popped out from behind his camera, a grin plastered stupidly across his face. "It's you! I made it myself."

The cafeteria erupted then, into a roar of laughter. On stage Chris doubled over, nearly falling off of the edge of the stage.

The room quieted gradually, and Chris straitened, face a bright pink, and took a deep breath, wiping away tears and glancing from the picture to Sean. "You made that?" She managed, voice lighter than normal from the effort of keeping it under control.

"Yeah!" Sean nodded vigorously, obviously having as much trouble keeping laughter out of his voice. "Don't you like it?"

"Sean, I love you, but you should stick to your video camera...and never do..." she gave the screen another sidelong look, then finish, "that again."

Everyone laughed again. When the room was back down to a low murmur of noise, Chris, who was sill glancing periodically at the screen, before falling back into snickers, said in an all-to-serious voice, "You know, I am actually very thankful for that thing. It has officially provided me with the best laugh of the day. Thank you, Sean."

Sean nodded, waving to the cheering crowd, then disappeared behind his equipment again.

"So, moving on-Sean! Get that thing off of the screen! It's distracting me!" Chris demanded through another wave of laughter as she glanced back at it again. "Thank you." She cleared her throat as he obliged. "Now, where was I?" A pause. "No, I'm being seriously, I totally Forgot."

Voices jumbled together as everyone began to answer at once, and it took a moment for a usable response to surface.

"Oh, yeah, I was thankful for all of the school things." She nodded as the voice finally broke through, and started the speech back up. "Right. I'm also thankful for the little things. Like chocolate. Who is is thankful for chocolate?" A round of roaring cheers. "How about...tutoring? Couldn't pass math without tutoring, right?" More cheers.

"Well, I can," Lauren put in quietly, hidden mostly by the noise around her. Only those at the table heard, and they laughed.

Chris was on her feet now, and of the stage, walking around amongst the people, with Sean making sure she remained on the large screen. As the room quieted, Crhis taised the microphone again. "There is one more thing I'm thankful for..." She stopped in the center of the room between the groupd of table at the front, and those at the back, so that she was seen by all sides of the room, and in turn, could see them all as well. "I'm thankful for my mother. I know that sounds cliché, but it's not for the reasons most people are. It's not for giving birth to me, or supporting me, or just loving me for who I am. Sure I'm grateful for all of those things as well, but that's not really why I'm mentioning her here."

"I'm thankful because she taught me the most important lesson of my life. A lesson that I think everyone should learn." She took a deep breath, eyes closed, and everyone in the room seemed to lean forward, as though some magnetic force were drawing them closer. "My mother nearly killed me."

No one breathed. They sat, every person in the room, staring at her with undivided attention, as though the price of even one second of distraction could make the girl before them suddenly vanish. Normally, she would have been reveling in this, but today, it seemed that the attention was the last thing she wanted. As though she'd been half-hoping no one would care enough to listen.

"My mother lived by the bottle. She was a drunk more days then not. Not that she was a mean drunk. Just stupid, and a little panicky."

A memory surfaced in Dekka's consciousness, one she hadn't even realized was still there. Once when she was ten, her aunt had gotten drunk, and they had found her driving in a ditch, rather than on a road, on their way home from dinner. She'd had absolutely no idea why her brother was so annoyed by her choice of road. At the time, she had though it rather funny to watch her dad force the drunk woman into their car so her mother could drive her home, and he could take the car. Now, however, the memory was not a fond one. It was rather embarrassing. She imagined a woman with Chris's round, soft features and dyed blond hair trying to understand why it was wrong for her to drive in a ditch.

"Long story short; I climbed onto the roof to collect a frisbee, and fell. Broke me arm." Many people winced, and instinctively rubbed their arms. "She freaked out. I guess the alcohol had her convinced I was dieing or something. She threw me in the car and took off for the hospital. In her hurry, she ran a red light, and nearly got us run over by this semi." There was a collective gasp. Many people leaned over and whispered to their neighbors. "She swerved to avoid him, and flipped the car, and sometime during the crash, I don't remember when, since it's all a blur in my memory, but sometime during it, my ribs snapped."

Hands all around the room went to rib cages, people murmuring, wincing, coughing to free their throat of the sick feeling. Jasamin wrapped her arms protectively around her torso.

"A bad break," Chris went on. "Also, this sever head injury. I could've died. Almost did. When I got out, they took me to my grandmother's. She told me that the state had decided that it was in my best interest to be taken out of my mother's care, and that she agreed. She told my mom that she was going to fight for custody of me, and that the only was she was allowing my mom back into my life was if she cleaned up. For a long time, I didn't understand. I hated the world and everyone in it. It wasn't fair,. My dad had left not even a year before, and now they had ripped my mom away?"

Dekka recalled having a conversation with Chris in which she spoke briefly about the problems abandonment had caused for her. "For those of you who remember my first two years here, it was bad, huh?"

The room fell into disgruntled murmurs of agreement. "She used to bitter and hateful." Dekka gave a low, disbelieving laugh. "Never saw that coming."

Lauren smiled. "Well, anyone who hadn't seen her in four years wouldn't believe it's the same girl. She's made quite the turn around."

"And then there was my grandmother, who I wanted to hate for being part of that, but couldn't stand not having around," Chris was continuing. "The abandonment issues were bad. I couldn't be left alone in a room, refused to sleep alone in a room, my grandmother had to move my mattress to her room.

She paused, scanned the crowd. When she spoke this time it was like someone had dumped cold water over Dekka's head. Her voice was contemptuous. That much hatred didn't seem possible coming out of the mouth of this girl, who was always patient and good-natured. "And then, two-and-a-half years after later, who should show up at the door? My mom. By then I was old enough to come to a realization. There was only one person to blame for everything that happened, and it wasn't my grandmother, or the people I'd been acting so hostile towards for the past couple of years. It was hers. She was the one who was always drunk. She could've stopped, couldn've at least tried, but she didn't. She was the one who got in that car intoxicated, rather than calling only two houses down to my best friend's house, where her dad was, and her brother, who was old enough to drive. My mother chose to ruin my life. And now she was back? To what? Do it again. Maybe this time she'd actually manage to kill me, or paralyze me, or jack up my brain so bad that I'd have to have a nurse the rest of my life. Suddenly I didn't hate the world, or my grandmother. I hated her."

If someone were to walk in at this moment, Dekka figured they wouldn't believe what they had just walked into. A room full of people from five to eighteen, completely silent, and staring with intense concentration at this one person. It was as though everything else had stopped, and they were suspended in time and space, waiting to the resolution. "A few months went by, and one day my grandmother sat me down, and said, 'Look, Chris, I know you aren't in a good mind set with your mother right now, and you have every right not to be, but I really think you should talk to her. Hear what she has to say. I think it'll be good for the both of you.'" Chris gave a short laugh. "This is going to sound odd, but the reason I decided to listen was the fact that she called me Chris, she only ever called me Christina. So I did. I talked to my mom, and what I found was that my mother, after getting past sulking over her lose, had go to rehab. She was, as of that day, two years sober. I thought that my mother had chosen alcohol over me, but in reality, that was far from the truth. My mother chose to fight herself for me, it just took some time for her to win the war. That's why I chose to give her a second chance. To forgive her. Now, she is five years sober, she has a good job, a better house, a boyfriend. She worked to create a life not just for herself, but for me. Two years ago I was allowed to move back in with her."

The crowd cheered, and Chris grinned. "I'm thankful for my mother because she taught me the most important lesson of my life. She taught me to always forgive, to always give second chances, because anyone can change if they want to bad enough. This holiday is for remembering what you have, and what you have learned. I hope tonight, we can all celebrate what we have learned over the course of these past twelve months."

Everyone cheered, so loud that they seemed to be clogging Dekka's ears, and blocking out the rest of the sound, making it a dull it a dull buzz.

Chris handed the microphone over to Shaena, and they stood in wait for a time, until the crowd settled. Then, Shaena opened her speech with: "You aren't going to put up one of your creations while I'm talking, are you Sean?"

The second speech was considerably shorter, and soon enough, they had been released for the festivities.

Lauren stood, stretching, and said, "They should have one speech at the beginning, and one in the middle, or end or something, so we're not spending quite as long sitting."

"You sit for an hour at a time every day at school." Julie pointed out.

"Seven times," Andrew added, flicking his dark hair out of his eyes. "With only five minute intervals between."

"Six times," Lauren corrected. "P.E."

"Well aren't you so smart?" Andrew frowned leaning back.

Lauren rolled her eyes. "I hope you fall backwards."

"I second that motion," Julie chimed in, shooting Andrew an irritable, sideways glare.

"What are you snapping at me for? I'm on your side," Andrew objected, sitting up properly.

"I didn't snap at you," Julie replied, scratching at something on the table in front of her. "I stated an opinion. If I'd snapped at you, then you wouldn't still be grinning."

"I'm not grinning." Andrew made an attempt at wiping the expression off of his face. "My ego is extremely bruised right now."

"Oh, yes, I can feel the pain radiating from your very core." Julie didn't even looked up fom her work on the table.

"Julie, your sarcasm is showing," he laughed at himself, despite the fact that no one else did.

"Okay, that was way lower than your normal standard." Julie laughed standing. "I'm so apalled that I'm going to go be somewhere else now."

"Haha, rejected," a boy with buzz-cut blond hair by the name of Tristan laughed from his spot beside Andrew.

"I'll show you rejected!" Andrew growled, pouncing on the boy, who gave a surprised yelp, and wrestling him into a head lock.

Julie had passed where Dekka and Lauren were standing, and had stopped, looking at them as they watched the exchange. "Are you coming? Or are you enjoying watching the hopeless animals fight over the last morsels of their dignities?"

Lauren laughed, soft, but slightly barking, and tugged on Dekka's arm lightly as she replied, "Nah. Come on, let's allow them to pick the bones in peace."

Dekka let out an amused chuckle, and turned, uninterested in watching Tristan land awkward , but playful blows any longer, and allowed Lauren to lead her by the wrist to the desert table. It was something she'd been doing since the day they'd met. At first it had bothered her. It was uncomfortable, and slightly demeaning, like she was a puppy that she had to lead around by a leash.

However, when Dekka had said something about it, Lauren had only smiled. "It's not that I think you're some sort of small child that needs me to lead her around all the time. In fact, it's quite the opposite. I know that you don't think you need anybody, and if it were up to you, you'd be in some secluded corner. That's why I do it. Everyone needs people, whether they think they do or not. Beside, I like having you around."

Since then, Dekka had decided no harm, no foul, and at any rate, at least this way it wasn't obvious how much she enjoyed the company as well. This way, she could pretend she wasn't getting attached again.

By now, she'd even grown used to the electric current that went through her when Lauren's surprisingly strong hand wrapped gently around her wrist.

Chris was already at the able, picking idly at the lid of a pie. Lauren released Dekka' wrist and cocked her head so far that she was leaned over, trying to get within Chris's sight range. Dekka thought she looked humorously similar to a bird. When she decided that approach wasn't working, she straightened crossing her arms. "Aren't you allergic to nuts?"

The younger girl jumped, snapping back to reality, and frowning at the lid she'd been playing with, and the pie inside, not even a square inch of which, wasn't covered by peacons. "Uh...yeah, I am." Confusion was strong in her voice, but then, she recovered and scoffed. "Well, it's not like I was going to eat it or anything."

"Then what were you doing, hm?" The smug raise of the older girl's eyebrow caused Chris's scowl to deepen.

"Nothing, it was just something for my hands to do." She crossed her arms, and turned away. "What are you, my mom?"

"Oh!" Lauren raised her eyebrows at Dekka, half laughing. She jerked her head in the other girl's direction and said, "Someone's feeling snappy tonight. Hey, what crawled up your butt and died?"

Dekka stiffled a laugh. The expressions the kids at Headline managed to come up with never ceased to amaze her.

"Nothing," Chris snapped.

Lauren looked as though she were going to press the issue, but Shaena appeared, stopping her. She draped an arm over Chris's shoulder, an act that their height difference was just enough to make look awkward. She nodded at her friend. "Great speech, huh?"

"Yeah. Really inspiring. Especially the part where you included Shaena despite Rose's clear distaste for her," Lauren joked. Then, realization flashed across her face as something clicked in her head.

It took a few more seconds for Dekka to connect the same dots. Shaena stuck out her hand importantly, exclaiming, "Wait, wait, wait wait! Do you hear that?" Dekka frowned, she couldnt' hear anything special; just the music, and loud conversations. She watched as a grin spread across Shaena's face. "It's nice isn't it? No Rose."

Then the pieces fit together, and Dekka glanced over at Lauren, who nodded as though Dekka's look of realization was enough to prove her right, then said, "You know what would be even nicer? Getting out of all of this noise! Come on!" And with that, and a plate of cookies, Lauren was leading them out of the cafeteria.

"Only at Headline," Shaena laughed, shaking her head as they reached their destination. "Is it not weird to hang out in the bathroom."

"With food," Dekka added with a smirk, watching Lauren flop down one of the couches and place the cookies on a table.

The other girl pulled a face. "Haha, you two are so funny...and wrong. This is the bathroom lobby. Completely different circumstances."

"Okay, allow me to rephrase my earlier statement," Shaena amended, deciding on a cushiony chair. "Only at Headline is there such a thing as a 'bathroom lobby'."

Lauren gave a half-smile, then, changed her attention to Chris. "Alright, Grumpy, no lies. What are we looking at this time?"

"How do you mean?" Chris's innocent play was fooling nobody. Shaena cocked her head as Chris leaned on the arm of her chair, arms crossed and not meeting Lauren's eye.

"Hey! She said no lying!" Shaena chastised, poking her friend sharply in the side.

"Ow!" Chris whined, swatting the other girls hand away. "Don't do that! It hurts, you ham!"

"Oh, we're doing that again are we?" Shaena leaned over, raising a foot. "I'll show you what I think of ham!" Then she used it to shove the girl off of the arm of the chair.

"The two of you have the attention spans of squirrels. With ADHD." Dekka couldn't help but laugh at Lauren's annoyed comments.

"Oh yeah, we were talking about your crazy girlfriend." Shaena laughed as Chris pulled her ou of the chair and onto the floor, where they grappled control, and laughed like maniacs.

"She's not crazy," Chris objected though her laughter.

"Oh really?" Shaena wondered pinning Chris. "Then what do you call it? Jealous? Grouchy?"

"Bitchy," Lauren suggested, as the door opened and Lilah slipped in.

"Who's bitchy?" the dark-haired girl questioned, taking a seat beside the blond.

"Rose."

"Oh yeah. I second that motion." Lilah nodded, taking a cookie. "So what went down this time? She look royally pissed off when I saw her." She waved the cookie absently as she spoke.

"She was rearing to fight about me including Shaena in my speech, and I told her I wasn't interested in having the fight tonight, is all." Chris shoved Shaena off, and sat up. "Then she just stormed off. Guess no fighting means no talking."

"Does that mean she's not coming to Colorado with us?" Shaena asked hopefully.

"Colorado?" Lauren's head snapped up. "When are you going to Colorado?"

"Over winter break," Lilah scoffed. "They're bailing on the party."

"How, you're supposed to be hosting it?" Lauren bit into a cookie, frowning deeply.

"Switched with Lilah. She'll be hosting the Winter party, and I'm going to take the summer ."

"Why?" Lauren pressed.

Chris smiled brightly. "Cedric's going to propose."

Lauren chocked on her bite of cookie, and Lilah thumped her back, while Dekka furrowed her brow. "Who's Cedric?"

"Cedric Duke," Shaena supplied. "Julie's dad. He and Janet have been dating for nearly three yeas, and planned this big family trip for Christmas so he could propose with everyone there. He though it would be more special that way, since they both have pre-started families."

"Janet's my mom, by the way," Chris added before Dekka could ask.

She nodded, and traded the question for: "So you and Julie are going to be sisters?" It was actually a rather funny though. Chris, wild and loud, in the same house as Julie, quiet and always so calm it's actually scary. Lauren saw the humor too.

"That weddings going to be so weird."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Chris joked.

"Anyways," Lilah moved along. "What're you doing over break, sunshine? Headed home or Christmas with the folks?"

Dekka shook her head. "The less time I spend at home the better?"

Lilah looked torn between being pleased and sympathetic. "Sorry to hear that. You should come spend the holidays with the thieves. I'll be tons more fun than hanging around her for two weeks."

"Not sure my parents would be up for that either," Dekka admitted. The last thing she wanted was to give her dad a reason to pull her out. She actually rather liked Headline.

"Don't say anything. The school's not going to follow you to the airport to make sure you board a flight home. Just don't sign the sheet that says you staying here. As far as your parents will know, you're here, and as far as the school knows, you're at home."

"What if her parents call," Lauren challenged, nudging Lilah playfully with a foot.

"Do your parents call?" Dekka shook her head, and Lilah stuck her tongue out at Lauren, as though a point had been proven. Lauren stuck her out too.

"So will you come?" Lilah continued, lashing out at Lauren with a foot.

Lauren caught her by the heel and tugged, pulling Lilah from her chair. The girl hit the floor with a hard thunk! And groaned, pulling a face, then fell over giggling. Lauren smirked before tunign back to Dekka. "As little sense as Lilah's theory makes, she's actually got a point. This place doesn't have much to offer with so few people around. Take it from a girl who lives here."

Dekka's mouth twitched upwards as she watched Lilah attempt to wrestle Lauren to the floor. It was a food thing they were distracted and not expecting an immediate answer. Otherwise she might have just shrugged and said, "I don't know. Are you going?" But not that she had time to think, it was clear that it was not a good idea. The answer was obvious. It was a party of the theives, and Lauren was practically the king(queen?) of the Thieves.

"The thieves." Another odd Headline name, and, rather shockingly, not created by Andrew. Noah claimed it had been around since before he ever came to Headline. It was short for "Thick as a band of theives".

"Actually," Noah had said thoughtfully when she'd asked, "It started the year my oldest brother was in the sixth grade, and that was, like twelve years ago."

The thieves were a large network of smaller groups of friends that linked together through mutual friendships, and invisible strings of loyalty. They were the largest group in the school, and possibly the most tightly knit, and fiercely protective. She hadn't realized how deeply the ties ran until after Adam's attack on Jasamin. Now, anytime he came near a someone tied to the thieves, every member in the vicinity stiffened, like a dog on high alert, ready to jump in at any second. Adam seemed to notice as well, for he had become considerably less avid in his campaign to turn the whole school against the GAP's.

"Why not?" She finally replied as Lauren managed to tug her foot back, then sat on it so Lilah couldn't use it as leverage again.

Lilah laughed as she scrabbled onto the couch. "Well, look who's finally figuring out how to save everyone's time and energy by just saying yes," She teased, wrapping her arms around Lauren's waist and tugging, sending her to the floor. She then bounced to the spot between Dekka and the arm of the couch, sticking her tongue out at her opponent over Dekka's shoulder.

Lauren growled, leaping over Dekka at her, threatening, "I'm going to rip that thing out of your mouth and feed it to Harper! And when she says, 'This is good, what is it?' I'm going to say, 'Well, shouldn't you know? It's been in your mouth before!'"

Shaena made an indignant sound and clapped her hands over her ears, complaining, "Really?" while Chris fell over laughing beside her.

Dekka stood abruptly, and circled around the couch to lean against the long table that stretched out under the mirror. The sounds of Lilah and Lauren's fighting died almost instantly, and Lauren's head popped up over the back of it, hair falling into her face in the most oddly perfect way possible.

"Oh, I see how it is!" she pouted, plopping her chin into the crook of her arm, which she had rested on the back of the couch. "No support from you, huh?"

"You looked like you had it under control." She shrugged. "Besides, I didn't want to get kicked or something." This was only partially true. Mostly, however, she had needed to cool the sudden rush of heat that had gone through her body at the sudden close proximity.

Lauren opened her mouth, face taking on an expression Dekka recognized all to well. It was the expression she took on when she'd just thought of a way to thoroughly embarrass a person.

However, she was distracted by the door opening, and Beat stumbling in, face etched with concern.

"What do you think you're doing, squash breath?" Lilah demanded,, shoving Lauren away, and looking thoroughly mortified. "This is the girls' bathroom."

"Funny how she doesn't care who knows how many girls she has under her belt, but the moment he catches her wrestling with Lauren she gets all flustered." Chris snickered at Shaena's comment, which Dekka only barely noticed. She was looking at Lauren, mouthing, squash breath?

I'll explain later.

"It's Jazz," Beat explained breathlessly, ignoring the girl's insult. "She just got a call from her dad."

"Her dad?" Lauren sat up straight. "What did he want?"

"He wants her to come home for winter break."

Ah, here we go again. What? Did you think I was going to let the drama take a break? Nah!

So, admittedly, I was having major writer's block with this speech and the transition into the festivities, and I'm still not satisfied with how it came out, but I think the rest of the chapter was decent, so I hope that makes up for it. ^.^"

Question Time!

scene from this chapter? 10

quote? (Everyone remembers how this one works, yes? 20 pts)

Trivia question!

1. What is Lauren's nickname? (10 pts)

Challenge!

1. Who can guess what sparked the sudden desire from Jasamin's dad to have her home? (15 for effort 50 for the first correct, 30 for every correct answer after that.)

2. Take a gamble at the events of next chapter using this hint. The title is Blown Away. (All you country fans!;) 50 pts for the first correct answer, 45 for every one after, and 30 for effort.

Okay, also, I'm giving everyone a fair warning. There is zero chance of an update next weekend. I'm going to all-region band clinic, so I won't have any time for writing, sorry...:'( And, next chapter is going to have quite a bit in it. In fact, so much, that I may end up splitting it into two, or three chapters, I'm not sure, but it could take some time to get together, so I may not be back for a couple of weeks. Just thought you should all know ahead of time so you don't worry.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to drop off a review! :)