Nearly a week had passed since Abbie and Serena had left New York and they had spent all of their time with Abbie's grandparents. Abbie's grandpa Ted told them stories about World War 2 and the times when he and Abbie's grandma were still dating. "She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen and I vowed to make her mine," he told them. Abbie then said that she knew exactly how he felt because she feels the same way about Serena. Abbie's mother and stepfather didn't have a good marriage and Abbie thought it was nice to have such great role models when it came to relationships. Grandpa Ted pulled her aside and told her to take care of Serena. "She's counting on you," he said. "That girl looks at you with so much love in her eyes. You need to be strong for her, be her rock."

While Abbie and Grandpa Ted had their "man-to-man" talk, Serena spent time with Grandma Barbara or Barb as she liked to be called. She showed Serena her hope chest and the two of them went through old love letters and photos. Serena loved Grandma Barb's accent and thought she sounded like a country song. Grandma Barb was fascinated by Serena's traditional New England upbringing and the two of them spent hours swapping stories about the differences between growing up in Texas and growing up in New York. She then welcomed Serena to the family and started showing her pictures of Abbie as a little girl.

"I've never seen any of these before," Serena said excitedly. "She looks so cute."

"Abbie is a beautiful girl," Grandma Barb told her. "She has these exotic good looks that I've never seen before. She's not blonde and blue eyed like the rest of us. I always told my daughter that Abbie should be a model, but she never went for it. She said Abbie wasn't graceful enough and instead she devoted all of her time to those damn pageants. I love Addie and Libby, but they are never going to be Miss America. They're too plain, but not my Abbie. Abigail could be on the runways in Paris wearing dresses that cost thousands of dollars and gracing the cover of Vogue magazine."

"I've never seen anyone as beautiful as Abbie," Serena admitted.

"Are we being biased?" Grandma Barb asked and Serena started laughing.

"Of course not," Serena said.. "It doesn't matter if you're her grandma and I'm her girlfriend. I'm sure everyone other than your daughter feels the same way about Abbie."

"Take this," Grandma Barb said and handed Serena a picture of Abbie holding her two front teeth in her hand and touching her tongue to the now toothless area at the front of her mouth. Serena started to become a little unnerved when she saw blood on Abbie's hand and on her chin.

"What happened?" Serena asked. "Why is she so full of blood?"

Grandma Barb started to laugh. "Abbie was six-years-old when this was taken. Her two front teeth were loose and they came out on their own when we were eating apple pie together, but that wasn't enough excitement for Abbie. She thought it would be funny if she put fake blood on her hand and her face and scared her mother. We quickly snapped this photo and then she ran screaming to her mom with the teeth in one hand and a pair of pliers in the other. She told her mom that she had gotten the pliers and pulled the teeth out herself and that's why she was bleeding so much. Her mom was hysterical and rushed Abbie to the sink with a glass of warm water and salt so she could gargle. That's when Abbie let her in on the joke and my daughter started laughing. She actually started laughing. That was the first and only time she ever laughed at one of Abbie's pranks."

"I love her pranks," Serena said. "She was even voted Class Clown."

"I'm not surprised," Grandma Barb said. "That's Abbie's favorite childhood picture. Show it to her and have her tell you the story. She loves telling it. You'll see her eyes start to light up and she'll smile uncontrollably."

"I love her smile," Serena admitted. "I just love Abbie. I can honestly say I love everything about her."

"She loves you, too, sweetheart," Grandma Barb told her. "I was devastated when my daughter disowned her for being with you. What my daughter doesn't understand is it's now who you love, it's how you love. Abbie is a sweet girl with a lot of love to give and I'm really glad she has you."

"I'm glad I have her, too," Serena said. She didn't think it was possible, but she felt more at home in Texas with Abbie's grandparents than she ever felt in New York. Abbie's grandparents genuinely cared about her and her well-being. The four of them had dinner together and had conversations instead of just shoving large amounts of money at Serena and leaving her on her own. She also enjoyed seeing Abbie being loved and appreciated instead of ignored like she was with her mother and stepfather.

They were moving in to their apartment tomorrow and even though Abbie and Serena were thrilled about having their own place, they knew it wouldn't be long before they started missing Abbie's grandparents.

Meanwhile, in New York, the day had finally come when Olivia was supposed to move out of her childhood home and into her new apartment. She had been dreading this day all summer long. She had wanted Alex to help her move, but she had to get everything prepared for her fall semester. It's not that Olivia wanted Alex to actually help her move, she really just wanted some back-up for when she saw Jenny. Olivia had managed to avoid Jenny the entire summer, but now there was no such luck. Jenny would be in the next room and she would be seeing her every single day. Olivia knew Jenny was going to make everything as difficult as she could for Olivia. She would probably be showing up in Olivia's room wearing nothing but her underwear and saying that she wanted to talk. Olivia had hoped Jenny would be in a committed relationship with Becky, but that didn't look promising. Becky decided to give up on Jenny because she knew she would never commit to her. Everyone knew Jenny wanted Olivia and she'd stop at nothing until she had her.

After all of their parents had left, Dylan pulled out his camera and started recording his new roommates as they unpacked. Olivia was still on edge from her encounter with Mrs. Jacobson and she was in no mood to be the star of Dylan's student film. Mrs. Jacobson had pulled her aside and cheerfully told her that she was so glad to see her again and that she was all Jenny ever talked about. She then told her that the two of them were so cute together and that she was the best thing to ever happen to her daughter.

Olivia had wanted to stay in her room, but Dylan insisted on having a meeting in the living room so everyone could introduce themselves on camera. Scotty, Mark, and Chucky quickly arranged the couches and brought over some of the kitchen chairs so everyone would have a place to sit down. Olivia sat down next to her future stepbrother Scotty and her roommate Shante. Becky and Jenny took the love seat and Mark and Chucky sat on the chairs.

"I'm Dylan," he said to the camera. "And these are my roommates. We just moved into our apartment today and I know there is bound to be some drama eventually. Hopefully nothing too bad. My roommates are all beautiful, outgoing people, but I can tell they're just as nervous as I am. All eight of us come from a quaint little suburb called Fallbrook. Chucky and I went to South Fallbrook High and our other roommates went to North Fallbrook. You're probably wondering why I'm doing this for my class project. The answer is simple and you're going to find out over the course of this film. We're all teenagers and we're all on our own for the first time. Who we are now may or may not be who we are at the end of this film because of everything we're going to encounter on a daily basis. It's real. It's raw. It's..."

"Unfuckingbelievable," Jenny said and Dylan started laughing.

"With that being said, let's start with Jenny," Dylan said and pointed the camera at her. "Tell me a little about yourself."

"I'm Jennifer Jacobson, but everyone just calls me Jenny or Jay Jay," Jenny said excitedly. "It's my second year here at Hudson, but I guess I'm still a freshman because I don't have enough credits earned. Blah, blah, blah. At least I partied, right? Dylan, make sure you're getting my good side. Are you getting my good side? Make sure my boobs look big."

"They look great, Jenny," Dylan assured her even though he wasn't even attracted to girls.

"They better," she said. "I just got them done. 34 D, baby."

Olivia couldn't help looking at Jenny in her tube top. She knew Olivia was looking so she smiled and winked at her.

"What's your major?" Dylan asked.

"Being hot," Jenny said and winked at Olivia again.

"No, really, what do you want as a career?" he asked.

"Look at me," Jenny responded. "I'm hot. I don't need to be smart and I totally don't need a career. Once I'm out of college, I'll have women begging to take care of me. I can think of one in particular who already wants me. Her name is Olivia Benson."

"Fuck you," Olivia said and got up from the couch. "I'm done."

As soon as she made her way over to the balcony, Jenny got up from the couch and decided to follow her.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I don't want to talk to you," Olivia said.

"You've been checking me out all day. I know it's not talking you want to do with me."

"I'm with Alex," Olivia reminded her.

"Alex isn't here right now," Jenny said. She put her hands on either side of Olivia's waist and gave her a delicate kiss on the lips.

"Stop!" Olivia insisted. "I'm not yours anymore. I could have been if you hadn't broken up with me. I'm with Alex now and she's everything to me."

"If she's everything to you then why did you let me kiss you?" Jenny asked. "I know you said stop but that was–what–10 seconds later? You could have pushed me away the moment my lips touched yours, but you didn't, Olivia. You also didn't push me away when we were in my car the day before your graduation. You could have asked me to give you the key in the restaurant but you knew exactly what I had planned and you went along with it."

"I love Alex, I love Alex, I love Alex," Olivia repeated, trying to convince herself more than Jenny.

"Jenny, what the fuck, man?" Scotty said as he joined them on the balcony. "What are you doing?"

"Get out of here, Scotty. This doesn't concern you," Jenny insisted.

"You're straight trippin' if you think you're gonna hit it and quit it with my sister," he told Jenny. Olivia was waiting for her response, but she just rolled her eyes and turned to leave.

"Olivia, baby, you know where to find me," she said before leaving them alone.

"You okay?" Scotty asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Olivia said even though she was now crying.

"Come here," he said and opened his arms to hug her. She was able to find at least a little comfort by crying into his shoulder. "You're my sister, yo. Well, you will be when my dad and your mom get married. Just like I don't let anything happen to Tiffany or Ashley or Brittany, I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I mean, if you want to fuck Jenny then fuck Jenny. I won't rat you out. But I'm not going to let her take advantage of you."

"Thanks, Scotty," Olivia said. "But cheating isn't okay. I can't have sex with Jenny and then have sex with Alex. That's not my style."

"Your style?" Scotty asked and started laughing. "Look at you, Liv. You have skanky hos all over you."

"My girlfriend is not a skanky ho," Olivia insisted.

"Four Eyes? Nah," Scotty said and started laughing. "I bet she's a freak. Is she a freak? I bet she's into all kinds of shit. She probably keeps those glasses on, huh?"

"We are not having this conversation about my girlfriend," Olivia said even though she was actually starting to smile. "I'm gonna tell Shante you're talking like this. She'll kick your ass."

"Speaking of Shante, where is she?" Scotty asked. "I'm gonna go get me a piece of that."

Before Scotty and Shante could officially sexile Olivia, she grabbed her Walkman from her room and returned to the balcony. She sat there alone for another two hours while the rest of her roommates other than Scotty and Shante were hanging out in the living room. She played a mixed tape that Alex had made for her in case she ever felt lonely. Before each song, Alex had recorded a message explaining exactly why she had chosen that song for Olivia. Most of the songs were overly sentimental, but Olivia didn't mind. These were the songs they had listened to while kissing in the car or making love and Olivia wanted to be taken back to those moments. This was going to be a long school year and Olivia had no idea how she was going to make it through without Alex by her side.