Chapter 2

"So..." Rae said still keeping focused on the road. One thing she hates about New York pedestrians is that they think they can walk across the street whenever they want. A huge gaggle was crossing, even though they didnt have the walk sign, causing Rae and all the car behind her to stop and wait for them to clear the intersection.

"Sooo...what?" Maureen said turning her body to face Rae giving her a confused look.

"So what took you so long to come out of school today?"

"Oh" Maureen said perking up. "I had to stay after and talk to Mr. Jessick about my math grade. I really want to get an A this semester" Maureen turned and reached back to grab her bag from the back seat and proceeded to take out a folder. "He was so great. He gave me a bunch of problem sets to work on. You know for practice. If I do really well on the..." Maureen was cut off by Rae's hand reaching over and closing the folder she'd taken out of her bag.

"Whoa now. Put it away. I DO NOT need to see that. That is private, you know confidential. You don't have to share." she said pushing the folder back into Maureen's bag as if she'd just been forced to look at something completely inappropriate. Which for her, at least from today until late sunday, it was. "You know what weekend it is, right?" she said looking over at her friend.

"Oh yeah. It's your "blow off all my responsibilities until the very last minute" weekend. How could I forget?"

"Ummm...I don't know but I'm really offended that ya did. So put the homework away or I will be forced to do some damage."

Araeyah had made a deal with herself at the beginning of the school year. She decided that if she was on her game one hundred percent taking care of all of her responsibilities, that on the last weekend of every month she would give herself a break. She would eat what she wanted, go where she wanted, and procrastinate all she wanted and not feel at all guilty about it. So she made it a point to stay on top of shit so when the last weekend of the month came, she would flake on every responsibilty (within reason of course) without one shred of remorse. This weekend was that weekend and boy did she have a good time planned for the two of them.

"Anyways you are the ONLY senior I know who stays after, on a Friday no less, to ask about how to get your grade up. I mean, you couldn't have ask him on one of the other four days you saw him this week? Thanks to your tardiness, I had to entertain that clown of a security gaurd for five minutes of my life that I will never get back" and boy was she serious.

Maureen rolled her eyes and laughed at how dramatic Rae was being.

"Well, I am so sorry. And to answer your question, no I couldn't have. And before you ask, yes I did try. We just always seemed miss each other"

"Well lucky me" she said flipping through the radio stations before she settled on a good song and in true Rae fashion began putting on a show for anyone too nosey to keep their eyes out of her car. "He's a good time cowboy casanova leaning up against the record machine. He looks like a cool drink of water but he's candy coated misery"

Rae snapped out her performance when the song suddenly changed to Katy Perry's Wide Awake.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she said with a look of fire in her eyes that told her friend she had just made a big mistake. No one comes between her and her girl Carrie. "I was listening to that!"

Maureen laughed "I know. I heard, along with everyone else in the vacinity". Rae looked around and saw people on the street staring at her.

"Well, I can't help that I'm entertaining. Hey, maybe I should make some videos and put them on youtube...get my big break. OMG you could totally follow me around with a camera" Maureen gave her a sideways look. "What? People always tell me I should have my own reality tv show. The two of us could totally make that happen. It could be like Sex and the City except there's only two of us instead of four and you know we're younger but that can overlooked. Also there wouldn't be nearly as much sex but we could make up for that by being all cute and funny and totally spontaneous! What do you say?" Maureen still had the same sideways glance from a minute earlier when Rae had started on this rant. She was really amused at how serious and excited Rae seemed about the whole idea. Any excitement she had a second before fell from her face as she assessed Maureen's expression.

"No, you don't think so? Ok, well jeez it was just a suggestion. You don't have to keep looking at me like I have three heads." Maureen laughed and shook her head and turned the radio back on the country station they had listening to before as they pulled into the parking lot where her dad worked.

Rae quickly found a parking spot and turned off her car before turning, putting a her hand on Maureen's shoulder and looking at her while giving a big reassuring smile.

"Now, there's no need to be nervous. I'm a genius at this meeting the parents thing. I mean come on, let's face it, your mom loved me in like 2.5 seconds flat" Maureen opened her mouth to say something but was cut off as Rae continued to talk. "I know, I know. Your mom is not your dad. He may be a tough cookie but just think of me as a glass of milk. You get what I'm trying to say don't you?" she held her face together for as long as she could before she just had to let it out. She threw her head back and laughed at herself, Maureen swiftly joining in.

If she was honest with herself, she was the one who was nervous to meet Maureen's dad. She didn't know why she was nervous, she just was. Ok that's not entirely true. She knew exactly why she was nervous...because she was about to meet Elliot Stabler, the badass NYPD detective that every kid in school knew meant business when it came to his kids and who they were hanging out with. Rae had been to Maureen's house plenty of times for dinner and to study but everytime she was there Det. Stabler was working some big case and would never come home until after she'd already left. This weekend Maureen was gonna be staying with Araeyah and her father had insisted that she couldn't go unless he met her first. So here they were at the 16th precinct and Rae had a strange feeling, like she was about to meet her maker.

They got out of the car and were walking up to the precinct doors. Maureen watched as people, mostly men and a few women too, practically broke their necks trying to keep their eyes on Rae as she walked past. She had beautiful naturally tanned skin, big brown eyes framed by long lashes, and her lips were the perfect size lightly coated with non-colored chapstick. She wore a long hippie looking tie dyed skirt and a green rock the vote t-shirt she'd gotten during the last presidential election (even though she wasn't old enough to vote then). The skirt sat perfectly on her hips and the shirt rode up when walked showing just enough of her middrift to make people want to see more. She had long black hair with dark brown highlights, natural of course, that came down to the middle of her back and flowed in the breeze as she walked. She had used a handful of hair to make a braid that came across her forehead like a headband, giving her that much more of an exotic look. She wore a messenger bag, strap draped across her body, and bohemian sandles to complete her look. She was just barely five foot two but she walked like a runway model, with ease and grace and a sexy amount of confidence. Everything about her was naturally beautiful. She didn't wear make up outside of the ocasional eyeliner, mascara, and a little lip gloss. When she didn't wear her glasses, like today, she wore clear contacts. Her look was timeless and Maureen had to admit to herself that sometimes she was jealous.

It baffled Maureen how Rae was completely oblivious to how gorgeuos people found her to be and how she never paid any mind to the amount of attention she got because of it. Well, except for when the attention came from Officer Petty. She definitely noticed it then.

"What are you over there chuckling about?" Maureen was so lost in her thoughts about her friend that she didn't realize she had chuckled aloud.

"Oh nothing" she said with a little smirk as she opened the door to the precinct and led the way to the elevator.

On the ride up, Rae's nerves seemed to calm and she gained a bit of confidence. She touched her messenger bag that held what she thought was gonna be her secret weapon inside. The elevator came to a stop with a light ding and the doors slid open. She she saw cops, both in uniform and out, moving through the halls like they were on a mission. They stepped off the elevator and walked toward the squad room doors. Rae took a deep breathe and touched her bag one last time as she and Maureen approached her dad who was sitting at his desk hunched over a stack of files.

She thought to herself, "well, time to make some magic happen."