Alright, new chapter, here we go. And in case anyone's noticing this, if some characters are a bit OOC, just remember that they're several years older, and probably would have matured a bit more.

xx

Chapter 2 – Compare and Contrast

When I woke up, I smelt pancakes instead of overly applied, rose scented room freshener. I opened my eyes, and saw a simple white door instead of a massive half-wall of a door. And I woke up feeling happy and refreshed, which was a definite first.

Yawning, I kicked the covers off and slowly sat up, looking towards the plain white blind that covered the window. Small rays of sun were sneaking in, and I could already tell that today was going to be good, in terms of weather.

Right then, the door suddenly opened, and I turned to see Izzy poking her head in. "Oh hey, you're awake!" She said with a laugh. "There's some pancakes waiting in the kitchen if you want some!" She darted back out immediately after.

I swung my legs around to the side of the bed and stood up, adjusting the sleeve of the nightshirt that Izzy had loaned to me. I grabbed the black leggings from the small dresser and quickly put them on, then going out to the hallway.

Another thing that I suddenly noticed – I was walking on carpet which was light brown. Back at the mansion, all of the girls had the luxury of getting up and standing on a freezing cold tiled floor, which was even worse in the winter. But stepping onto something warm and soft at this time of the morning was something else.

I walked slowly down the short hallway, and eventually entered a fairly large room, with two couches, a sofa, a television and a small fireplace on one side, a round table with five chairs in the centre, and a tiled kitchen area which had creamy white benchtops. Momentarily I completely forgot why I was here.

I had arrived very early in the morning, about half past one, according to Izzy. We went in through a back entrance, meaning that all I saw was the hallway, the bedroom I slept in and the bathroom. Now, I was standing in the living area with nothing to rush to, from some life-threatening challenge to being on kitchen duty (which required us to be wearing the scantiest apron possible, as well as a G-string). It was going to be one of the best days of my life.

Pancakes suddenly pushed into my mind, as did the smell back up my nose. I sighed and looked to the table again, spotting a plate with a stack of about three pancakes in front of one seat. A bottle of maple syrup, a bowl of whipped cream and a bowl of berries were also on the table.

"The guy in the next door apartment made those!" Izzy said as she came in through the main door, which was open. "He ended up eating some of them, but left enough for us!"

"Is he a cook or something?" I asked, walking over to the plate of pancakes and pulling out the chair to sit down.

"Oh, he makes awesome food, but he's not cooking for a living. He just bought a load of pancake mix yesterday or something, and I think his roommates wanted none, so… yeah!"

"Izzy, have you got any more pancakes left?" A voice called from outside.

"Huh?" Izzy stepped onto the balcony and looked to her right. "Oh, hi Emma!" She waved at someone. "Yeah, we got like three spares! Why?"

"Oh, we had about nine or ten pancakes, but Owen ate the whole lot. And Noah got the last of the cereal too."

I brushed the conversation aside and turned to my breakfast, grabbing the maple syrup and squirting some on top. Then putting a dollop of cream on, as well as a few berries, I was ready to eat. And, all of a sudden, I was starving.

"Oh my gosh, that looks so good…" I heard Zoey say from the hallway, and turned to see her walk out. "So much better than at the mansion."

Izzy then walked back inside with a slightly short Asian girl in purple pyjamas following her, a plate in hand. "So the extras… uh, I think I already put them in the fridge…" Izzy said slowly, going over to the fridge and pulling it open, then taking out a small container afterwards. "You mind them a little bit cold?"

"Oh, not at all. Just as long as they're not so cold that they need reheating." The girl replied with a smile, then looking to me and Zoey. "Are these… new roommates of yours?"

"Erm… sort of?" Izzy laughed.

"Yeah, I guess we sort of are." Zoey put in. I don't know for how long though…"

"Alright… thanks for the pancakes!" The girl smiled at Izzy again before walking out.

"Did you have people here before?" I asked, the thought having just struck me.

"Yeah!" Izzy said as she shut the door and turned to face us. "There was Eva, buuut she's kinda having a bit of a vacation at the local anger management place."

It was silent for a while – I was astonished to hear what Izzy had just said, and Zoey looked to be as well.

"Anger management place?" I repeated.

"Yep, you probably wouldn't want to meet her either." Izzy continued, cringing slightly.

"Oh no, I would never want to meet her now that I've heard that!" Zoey said, shaking her head. "Is she… meant to come back at some point?"

"Yeah, I don't remember when though… Izzy's just gonna check."

I turned back to my pancakes as Izzy bounded out of the room, and picked up my fork to continue eating.

Like Zoey had said earlier, they were a lot better than back at the mansion. Last time I could remember pancakes being made for breakfast there, they didn't taste that great at all, and I had sworn I could see nail clippings and hairs all through them.

I was pulled back down to earth as I heard a slightly distant gasp from Izzy. "She's coming back in like two days!" She exclaimed as she running back into the room.

"Two… days?" Zoey repeated, sounding nervous all of a sudden. "What do we do then?"

"I dunno… I don't think there's any other apartments free here…"

"How many are there in this block?" I asked.

"Eight. Four up top, and four on the bottom. Hold up, Izzy's gonna be back." Izzy jogged back outside and called out to another person. "Hey Noah! All the apartments here are taken, right?"

No reply for a few seconds, until someone yelled out "yep" in response to Izzy's question.

"So I guess we'll have to find somewhere to stay." I said after swallowing a mouthful of pancake and syrup. "How though? It's not like we've got any money to pay for rent and all that."

"Well… we gotta find something, but first, I think Izzy needs to take you guys to get better stuff than a black top and black pants!" Izzy laughed as she picked up two plates of pancakes and walked over to the table.

Once breakfast was all done, I was back in my temporary bedroom, and had changed into the clothes I was wearing the previous night, as I had nothing else, and any clothes Izzy offered for me to borrow were not really my style.

"Hey Gwen, did I miss anything while I was gone?" Izzy called from her own bedroom.

I opened my mouth to reply, but immediately shut it and went out of the room, going across the hallway. Izzy was in the opposing room, fully dressed also and sitting on her bed.

"Not really that much." I said, shrugging. "But you did miss a few challenges. Like paintball… and a really long trust challenge… you left just after the canoe one, right?"

"Yep-yep, that's when Izzy left! Hey, what's the date today?"

I looked around the room for a calendar, and spotted one hanging on the wall above Izzy's bed, with some amount of days crossed off. I took a couple of steps closer to have a proper look, and could only laugh as I saw that it was Saturday. "Tenth of September. Challenge day." I said. "And I think I've managed to miss the boot camp one that had been planned for ages."

"Woohoo, awesome!" Izzy cheered, leaping up and throwing her hands in the air. "Who wants to do that anyway?" She shrugged and laughed.

"What did we miss?" Zoey asked from the kitchen, having volunteered to wash the breakfast dishes.

"The boot camp challenge!" I called back. "And most probably a lot of other… stuff."

"Oh, yes! I'd been dreading that ever since it was announced. Now I don't even have to bother about going!"

"Yeeha, party!" Izzy shouted, falling back onto her bed so that she was lying across it. "Hey, when did those challenges start getting used? Izzy can't remember."

I looked up at the roof as I racked my brains for an answer, taking note that Zoey arrived two weeks after they started, so she had missed the first four. "We've done them for about… a month now… I think it was the thirtieth of July when we started, but Chris had them announced way back in the start of June." I said after a full minute of thinking. "It feels like it's been five months instead of one and a half. Half the reason why we hated them, I guess."

"Hm… yeah, that sounds right." Izzy nodded in agreement, then quickly looking over her shoulder at her small bedside clock. "Whoa-ho, look at the time! We gotta go soon!"

I spent the next ten minutes just sitting in my room, looking through a bunch of magazines that Izzy had dumped by the nightstand for me to read. There wasn't really a lot that interested me, apart from the odd celebrity news – I even saw an article about Bridgette leaving the mansion, which was apparently 'sad' and 'devastating'. And like pretty much all gossip magazines these days, it was mostly a bunch of lies. But I just read on, interested in what they thought about the matter, and was so engrossed in it, I didn't hear Izzy calling my name until she bounded into the room, giving me a slight fright.

"Uh… are we going now?" I asked, putting the magazine down.

"Yep, now!" Izzy replied with a grin. "Oh yeah, and you might wanna have a sweater or something overtop… I dunno if they'll recognise us out in public or not."

My heart suddenly sank as I heard those words. It was still possible that other people would think I looked very familiar, in a famous way. And that was really the last thing I wanted. But new clothes? I knew I could do with those as well.

"Well… I guess right now I'd be not wanting to go out at all, but I don't want to have to go another day with wearing this." I gestured to my leggings and top. "So… I'll come."

"Awesome! Emma's got a sweater you can borrow – I asked her earlier just in case. Anyway, the bus is gonna be going past in a couple of minutes, so we better go!" Izzy leapt back out to the hallway, and ran off to the right.

I stared at the doorway for a couple of minutes, thinking about what could happen while we were out. Deciding it wasn't really that much of an issue, I moved the magazine I had been reading over to the pile on the nightstand, then getting up and slowly walking out.

Five minutes later, I was walking down the street with Izzy and Zoey, the early autumn breeze blowing past us. In terms of clothing, I had ended up with a purple and black sweater over my tank top, whilst Zoey had a lighter purple one, as well as borrowed jeans from Izzy.

As soon as we turned the corner, a bus came into my view, which was just a few seconds away from stopping at the even closer bus stop.

"Let's go!" Izzy cheered, leaping onto the bus as soon as the doors opened. "Three return tickets to this stop, please!" She told the bus driver, pulling out what looked like a fifty dollar bill from her wallet.

I slowly followed Zoey on, and we went down the aisle until we stopped at one of the middle row of seats, and sat on the left side. Izzy soon bounded over with three tickets in hand, taking the seat in front of us.

"I think this is the first time I've been on a bus in a long time." Zoey said with a slight giggle. "It… feels kinda weird now, just because we were all stuck at the mansion, and only ever travelled in limousines if we were going anywhere."

"Yeah, it's totally different!" Izzy replied, also laughing. "It doesn't take that long to get used to, so you'll be fine!"

I decided to not join in on the conversation this time, and just stared out the window, watching the Beverly Hills scenery pass by. And although it was apparently a fifteen minute bus ride, it only felt like five minutes had passed before the bus stopped outside a large shopping centre, which had quite a few people milling around outside.

"Let's go!" Izzy said with a whoop, distracting me from my thoughts as I turned to see her running down the aisle and off the bus. "Come on guys, let's do some shopping!"

I looked to Zoey, just as she stood up and walked out to the aisle. I quickly followed, and soon we were standing outside the shopping centre, ten or so feet away from a carpark entrance.

"So where to from here?" I asked as the bus pulled away.

"Into the shopping centre, of course!" Izzy replied with a laugh. "Hey, you guys want a coffee first? Izzy knows a really good café!"

"Oh my gosh, yes please!" Zoey gushed. "I haven't had a really good coffee in a long time…

"Awesome! What about you Gwen?"

It only took me a few seconds to figure out my answer. "Yeah, I could probably do with one." I replied, nodding.

"Alright! Now let's go inside and find this café!"

Right at that moment, all that was on my mind was coffee. Coffee, coffee, coffee. And all of a sudden, accommodation. Especially if I'd have to leave a couple of days later due to the Eva girl coming back from the anger management centre.

"Izzy, when we get back to your apartment, do you think we'd be able to look up places where I can stay once your… friend comes back?" I asked as we walked down a path through the carpark.

"Oh, sure!" Izzy replied, slowing down slightly to walk next to me. "Izzy knows some other people who might be able to take you in!"

I could only hope that these people were at least decent.

xx

Going on a trip for three days next week, so I may or may not have the next chapter up by Thursday/Friday, and it could end up being the day after.