Disclaimer: I don't own the BSC.

Changing Lanes

Chapter 7: Today

/

"Kristy."

I turned around. Jordan Pike was standing behind me, looking like he was in pain and about to runaway.

"What's up?" I asked as I tried to juggle my algebra textbook, backpack and an umbrella, trying to shove them all into my backpack at once.

"I..I.."

"Spit it out." Jordan's cheeks went bright pink. "Is it about Mary Anne?"

"How did you know?" He asked, looking down at his feet. Damn him for being so tall.

"I saw how you two were getting along Saturday night. Do you have a crush on her?" It was a bit weird. Jordan Pike was a freshman and just turned 15. Mary Anne was a senior and just turned 17. Usually the younger girl liked the older boy.

Jordan shrugged his shoulders. Obviously he wasn't telling me anything. "She's a cool chick."

I nodded my head. "Yeah she is." I finally managed to get everything in my bag. "Why don't you call her sometime?"

Jordan smiled. "Yeah, thanks Kristy." I watched as he walked away. I frowned and bit my lip as I kept staring. What had I done?

/

I dialed Mary Anne's number on the phone.

"Excuse me!" I heard Karen shriek from her room. "I'm already on the phone!"

I yanked my bedroom door open, stalked down the hallway and banged Karen's door open. "Get off the phone! I need it for like five minutes!"

Karen looked up at me. She knew she couldn't bat her eyelashes and I'd give up. She rolled her eyes. "Fine. Five minutes. Nancy, I'll call you back in five." She pressed the hang up button. "Are you inviting your boyfriend over for a quickie?"

I felt my cheeks burn. "No! I'm calling Mary Anne, you idiot!" I dialed the number again and left Karen's room, slamming her door with a loud bang and shaking of the walls. She was such a little bitch sometimes.

"Hello?"

"Mary Anne? It's Kristy."

"Oh, hey."

"Has anyone called you this afternoon?" I asked. I wondered if Jordan Pike went home and called Mary Anne straight away, listening to my advice. I hoped he hadn't.

"No, why? Were they meant to?"

I held a sigh of relief in. "No, I was just wondering. I had a feeling about something... but don't worry."

"Okay..." Mary Anne said, as if she wasn't exactly buying it. "Are you okay, Kristy?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. Um, I'll see you tomorrow at school."

"Okay, bye..."

"Bye."

I dropped the phone onto my desk. I realised that I just gave Mary Anne to be even more suspicious if Jordan Pike did call.

/

The rest of the week went without anything ordinary not happening. Mary Anne never gave a hint or mentioned if Jordan Pike did call of about my odd phone call Monday afternoon. Karen continued to be a bitch to everyone, but was an angel towards my parents. Cary came over and I helped him with his social science homework. I did my homework. I went to school. I felt like something bad was going to happen. How could things possibly stay so normal when they had been all over the place lately?

"What are we doing this weekend?" Claudia asked as I stood next to her, while she grabbed a few things from her locker after school on Friday.

I shrugged. "I don't think there's a party on, after last week."

"Yeah, I know. I tried to get Mary Anne to make plans but she said she was busy all weekend with homework and apparently she's gotta do something with her parents. She made it sound real suss."

"Maybe it's what she's really doing but."

Claudia looked at me. "Mary Anne is the worst liar ever. She couldn't look at me in the eye and she spoke very fast. She's up to something, I tell you!"

I laughed. "Uhuh, sure. Well, let's do something. Me and you."

"Double date? Me and Alan, you and Cary?" She wiggled her eyebrows. "I promise I'll keep my hands above the table, if you do!"

I whacked Claud in the arm. "Gross!" I said as we started to walk down the hall. "Do you want to sleepover mine tonight and we go somewhere to eat?"

"Yeah that sounds good! Where are we going to eat?"

"Pizza express will be packed tonight, so not there." Pizza Express on a Friday night was like New York City on New Years Eve. Horrible, packed and just way to busy. Most SHS students who had nothing better to do, usually spent their Friday nights at Pizza Express, loitering the car park.

"Renwick's? Alan and I go there, it doesn't really get packed."

I nodded. "Sounds good. My mom and Watson are going to some event in Stamford, and Tiffany Kilbourne is meant to be coming over to watch the younger ones."

"Well, I need to go home to get some stuff and then we can head over to yours." Claud said. "I'll call Alan at my house."

I watched Stacey walk across the student car park. I wondered if she and Sam would be seeing each other tonight. I wonder how I would explain Stacey at my house if she rocked up while Claud was there.

It would be very awkward and just on my part. I don't think Claudia and Stacey have spoken each other since they stopped being friends. They didn't have any classes together at school and they certainly didn't hang around each other anymore. "Sounds good, but I don't want to walk all the way back to my house. That's ages away from yours."

"We'll just wait until mom comes home. She finishes early on a Friday and I'll make her drive over! That's what she gets for being my mother!"

/

Thankfully Sam's car wasn't the in driveway when Claud's mom dropped us off. "Warning, craziness might be on the other side of this door." I said as I jammed my house key into the lock and turned the knob. "Karen's going through this stage." It was hard to believe that I was Karen's age when I came up with the BSC. We stepped through the front door and it was quite, which wasn't always a good thing. "Anybody home?"

"Kristy?" I heard my mom ask from the living room. We walked into the next room, where my mom was standing in a nice dress, putting on earrings. "Oh, hello Claudia."

"Hi Mrs Brewer." Claudia said, politely. "Nice dress."

Mom finished putting her earrings in and ran her hands down her dress. "Thank-you. Are you staying the night?"

"Yeah she is. Is that okay?"

"Yes, yes, of course. Sam said he'd be out late. Karen's at Nancy's. Tiffany is in the kitchen with Andrew and Emily Michelle, I'm assuming you won't be having dinner with them?"

"Nah, we're going out."

"Okay, just let Tiffany know that you'll be out. Watson and I will be at the Townsend hall in Stamford. We won't be back until late."

"Cool, I'll guess I'll see you later?" Sometimes on a weekend I wouldn't see my mom until the Monday. It was a bit odd, but I had a busy life and so did she.

"I will. Have a good time, girls."

"You too." Claudia said, before we started walking up the stairs. "I haven't seen Tiffany Kilbourne in years."

"She looks a lot like her mother, and Shannon. A mini-Shannon. It's almost scary who much they look a like."

"And now she baby-sits, just like Shannon did?"

"Rarely I think, just Andrew and Emily Michelle and Skylar Korman. She's fifteen, remember."

"Wow, they really do grow up fast." Claudia flopped down onto my bed.

"What time is Alan picking us up?" I asked as I put my book bag down next to my desk.

"7-ish..."

"I can't believe someone gave Alan Grey a license."

"I know. Hey, what is Shannon doing lately?"

Shannon Kilbourne lives across the road from me. She used to be a associate member of the BSC, taking in jobs when she could, if we needed her. She is one of the smartest people I know. She had spent a whole year in France during sophomore year. I hadn't kept in contact with Shannon, despite living across the road. "Busy, busy. I'm pretty sure she's applying to the Ivy's and apparently French college's."

"She's so smart. She's like Janine." Claud said, rolling over onto her stomach. "I think my parents wished that I was applying to an Ivy League."

I felt bad for Claud, having to live up to the standards that Janine had already set. "I think NYU is a good choice. Why don't you try Brown? They're Ivy but I think you might be able to get in. Especially after they see your art."

"You think? I don't want to go somewhere where they don't appreciate creativity." She looked at my closet door. "Can I help you get dressed? Pick out something classy? Something that will drive Cary crazy?"

I rolled my eyes. "Cary's already crazy."

/

"You look beautiful." Cary whispered in my ear as we walked from the car park to the entrance of Renwick's. I was wearing a long-sleeved black button-up shirt and a short dark red skirt, both of which, were Claudia's and black flats, that were my own. I didn't think I look anything more than I usually did, but when Cary said that, I felt my cheeks go warm. He wrapped his arm around my waist and kept his hand on my waist. The skin underneath burned.

"Thanks." I said, touching my hair nervously. "Claudia's doing again."

"I like it." He said.

We walked inside and I noticed that there were a lot of couples from SHS. I felt a little uncomfortable. I knew people knew about me and Cary, but to me, it was surreal, it wasn't happening. I was thanking my lucky stars that Sam and Stacey hadn't made an appearance. We sat down at a booth and a waitress quickly took our drink orders. I wonder if Cary thought I was one of those girls who ordered nothing but water or diet coke and ate salad. I itched at my hand.

"So." Claudia said, her hand was playing with her fork. "Nobody's saying anything. Awkward."

"We see each other everyday at school." Alan pointed out. "Kristy and I had maths last period like four hours ago."

I laughed. "Makes talking about something new, a bit hard." I said. "Unless it's every senior's favourite topic."

"College." We all droned in unison.

"I can't wait until I get that big, fat envelope with an acceptance letter from NYU." Claudia said, clasping her hands together, gazing off.

I clasped my hands together. "Michigan State for me."

Claudia giggled. "You dork!" She exclaimed. "Where are you going to go, Cary?"

I paused. I hadn't thought of the future. I hadn't planned on getting a boyfriend. I hadn't thought of this. Cary would most likely go to a different college, in a different state, hundreds of miles away and our lives wouldn't mesh together anymore. "I don't know yet. I don't even know what I want to study yet."

"Really? My parents have drilled into my head since Janine got into MIT. 'You must go to a good school, Claudia!' 'If you get into a good school, you can major in anything you want!' and that's why I picked NYU. My parents agree it's good and I want to major in art." Claud said. "It's the only way I could get them to pay for college."

"Your lucky. Your parents could've decided to not pay for college, just because you didn't want to what they wanted you to."

"I expected that my parents wanted me to end up like Janine. My older sister."

"My parents wish that I was a better role model for my brothers."

"Parents expect too much from us." Alan said. "And we never live up to it."

"Do you think we'll be like this to our kids?" I asked. I looked across at Claudia and Alan and Cary, all of their faces looked puzzled. Were we destined to be our parents?

/

The rest of the weekend went past fast. Friday night seemed to end on a good note, I think, I hoped. I'm pretty sure it did. Claudia went home late Saturday afternoon. I spent Sunday doing homework. A rather dull weekend after the ones I had been having lately. I kept thinking about Alan had said at dinner on Friday night. About our parents expecting too much from us. I thought about what Watson and my mom wanted from me. Good grades, graduate high school, go to college, grow up happy and live my life. Am I going to live up to this? I have good grades, I'm set to graduate, I'm about apply to college, I was happy. Was I? I felt happy. I hopped off the school bus and walked towards the entrance.

"Kristy!"

I turned around. Stacey was running towards me, her light blue and white cheerleaders uniform contrasting against the green lawn. "Yeah?"

She stopped when she reached me. She smiled. "I just wanted to say congrats!" She said.

I frowned in confusion. "Huh?"

"Cary. I just wanted say that I'm glad you two are going out." She said, continuing to smile at me. "I'm glad you found someone."

"Really? I,uh, thanks. It was a bit of a surprise."

"Well, I hope he's good for you. You need it." She said. "Bye!" She gave a little wave and walked off. I stared at her as she stopped and said hello to someone else. Why had she said something? Was it because I knew about her and Sam? Or was it genuine?