Sitting at the Rack nursing a strawberry kiwi smoothie, Amanda focused her rage. Just because of his stupid nose he'd slept with Jessi the night he'd declared his undying love for her in a romantic Shakespearean sonnet! She was beyond tears, grief, or even sadness. There'd be no piles of napkins today!

It was just like Jessi to trap him, ensnare him with her venomous charm and pluck his sweet innocence. Until this morning she'd learned that she loved Kyle's innocence, his naiveté. Despite the potential hardships presented by Latnok, she was resolved not to change his fundamental nature.

The train of thought reminded her she still needed to call Lori and Hillary to call things off.

Declan walked in to the Rack, seemingly avoiding her. He walked to the counter and ordered a drink from the new employee, Rachel. It took several minutes but when he turned toward the front door, she called to him. He appeared to be a little surprised to see her, which she took as a good sign. He hadn't ignored her from the outset.

Concern etched itself over his eyes. He hesitated slightly, "How are you feeling Amanda?"

She could be civil when necessary. "All right. Kyle explained everything yesterday."

He narrowed his eyes and looked at her closely. "Um, ok, I guess there's nothing else then." He turned to walk away.

"Wait!" She stood, perplexed. Declan was often confident and he was being much too careful with her. "Do you know already?"

"Know what?" He seemed much too innocent.

"Know about Jessi?"

"What about her," he asked, advancing.

"She slept with Kyle this morning in his tub," she said with finality.

"What?" He huffed and looked to the right. "No way!"

"Why not? She's wanted him ever since…" She let herself trail off. She'd been ready to lash out but Declan was innocent in this.

"Go on!" When she didn't, he added, "Ever since she dumped me!" She blushed as he turned on her, "And why do you think she slept with him? She was with me until midnight last night."

There was no way that was a mistake. Jessi had been barely dressed, sleeping in Kyle's tub with a huge grin on her face. There could be no other explanation. She couldn't bring herself to speak and kept her eyes down.

His next words were much softer. "We're dating again. We're taking it slow, but we're together."

"When?" she asked, refusing to be hopeful.

"Two nights ago, after you left here to find Kyle I think. She came out of nowhere and attacked me with her lips." He was close to blushing. "Uh, I mean, she kissed me." He turned to her once more. "Why would you think they slept together?"

The truth seemed best. "Sit, it'll take a bit." By the time she was done telling him about Kyle's sense of smell going crazy, she'd also implied that she'd been going crazy for Kyle, and had even mentioned her initial plan to corrupt him with Lori and Hillary's help. He stayed mostly quiet, but was clearly perturbed by Jessi sleeping in Kyle's tub wearing next to nothing.

In all that time he'd polished off his smoothie and was playing with his straw, swirling it around the dregs at the bottom of his glass. He didn't appear overly confident anymore. For that, Amanda felt bad. "We watched a movie at my place last night; I can't see why she'd do that. But," he added after a few moments, "it's pretty hard to explain."

He got up again, somberly thanking her, "Well, I'll see you around. I'm late now, but I was going to see her at home right now. I'll text you her answer." With that he left.

Just as he was at the door, he added, "You shouldn't leave your phone off when you give a friend your phone number. Couldn't reach you all day yesterday." He closed the door behind him.

Amanda pulled out her cell phone and looked at her inbox. It was empty.

She thumbed the send / receive icon in the corner. Sure enough, she could see her phone working to receive seven texts, all from Declan. As she scanned them all, she found it strange that she'd had to click that button. She'd never had to before.

She waited for Declan to text her before she fully released her anger. Having experienced Jessi's meddlesome ways several times before, she needed proof, and would use Declan's interest in Jessi to make her less angry at Kyle. It wouldn't exonerate him by any means. He couldn't have any other girl sleep in her tub. The minutes ticked by very slowly.

Just in case, she clicked on send/receive every minute.

***

When Jessi opened the door to the Rack, she scanned the sparse crowd. She recognized Amanda but no one else specifically. She'd been hoping to see Declan. Trying to be the model neighbor, she went up to her table.

"Hi Amanda," she said as Amanda stood, smiling, to greet her. In retrospect she'd said it perhaps a little too cheerfully, but then she'd never thought Amanda's fist would ever connect with her jaw. Amanda dropped her cell as she jumped on her, trying to scratch and pull her hair, shrieking.

A string of obscenities flew out of Amanda's mouth, making Jessi wonder why she was being attacked, and by whom. Amanda, while clinging to her, was no longer landing any blows but Jessi couldn't really justify flinging her against the opposite wall as a viable option.

People surrounded them, yelling "Cat fight!" and cheering in general. Even the new employee Rachel was smiling, enjoying the fight. Not that she would have called it that, except perhaps for that first punch. It was more, "Try not to hurt Kyle's girlfriend who's gone totally nuts." She ripped Amanda off her, and although Amanda continued to do her worst, put her down, deflecting every blow coming her way.

"Amanda, that's enough!" she spat. When Amanda didn't stop immediately, she brought her hand to her throat but made sure not to squeeze at all. "Stop!" The fury in Amanda's eyes didn't diminish at all but she complied. Glancing around, Jessi announced, "The cat fight's over everyone, I'd like to speak privately with my neighbor now, please." Her tone challenged everyone – they too could be held by the throat if they remained. Most left the Rack with their drinks. The remainder went to the furthest tables. Even the employee on duty was looking down, trying to look insignificant.

Satisfied, she released Amanda. "What did you do that for?"

***

Declan drove into the Rack's parking lot. He noticed three cars leaving hurriedly and a couple talking animatedly about a cat fight before they got into their car.

He ran to the front door and barged in, only to see Jessi and Amanda standing toe to toe. Amanda refused to listen despite Jessi's repeated attempts to explain her actions. He was intrigued at what actually took place.

Amanda and Jessi both saw him at the same time. "Declan!" they both cried. It was nice to be needed he guessed, but he knew this would be dangerous ground.

Reluctantly he took charge. "Ladies, to your corners please." When neither moved, he said it differently, "Girls, please sit down," indicating chairs that were several feet apart. He took a chair between them and sat down himself. Looking from one to the other, "Who wants to start?" He couldn't be seen favoring one over the other, even if one was his girlfriend.

Jessi was the first to speak, "Declan, I think we should have this conversation in your car."

Amanda followed it up, "You don't want to be known as a slut do you?" She practically yelled the nasty word, Declan was beside himself.

"How could I be labeled a slut if I've never had sex Amanda?"

"That's not what Declan told me all of five minutes ago!" Fire danced in her eyes.

Jessi turned on him, "You what?" She almost stood but he put his hand up.

"I didn't Jessi." Turning to Amanda, "I told you that we were dating but I never –"

Amanda interrupted him, "You texted me they did it!"

"No I didn't!" Amanda was really going crazy, she wasn't making sense. Pulling out his cell he pulled up the text he had sent her. It took more than half a minute but he did it in plain sight of both of them. "They're not here," he read, "coming back." He even showed it to her.

Amanda got up and grabbed her cell from the floor. She growled and shook it, repeatedly clicking the send/receive button. It took nearly a minute before her phone displayed the message. Her eyes opened wide as she read his text. "But I swear, just before you came in Jessi, I saw a text that said you did it last night." Some of the fire seemed to drain out of her.

Jessi's eyes opened wide, "You saw me in his bed this morning!" At the last moment she changed tub to bed.

"A ha! Would you think otherwise if you saw the same with Declan and another girl?"

"But nothing happened!" She spoke much closer to a whisper, "He had a nightmare almost all night; I tried to comfort him."

Declan interrupted Amanda, "By sleeping beside him?" He didn't know what to think? The pod children were definitely special but they sometimes behaved very strangely.

Amanda accused in a near whisper, "And you practically had nothing on!"

"I did nothing!" Jessi yelled, "We did nothing!" She looked affronted, totally shocked, "Not even a kiss, nothing!"

She got up and stormed off. Declan watched her go. Amanda whispered beside him, "I saw a text from you that said 'Yes they did.' I swear it."

"What happened," he mumbled the question mostly to himself.

"I punched her," she said.

He shook his head, speechless. After almost a minute, he turned to her, "It landed?"

"Her jaw, yeah." She paused, looking at her hand. "My fist hurts."

"Probably more than her jaw, yeah." He paused, "I don't recommend you try that again."

"I know," she sighed. "I know."

***

Fearing her cell wasn't working properly – Amanda really couldn't believe she'd dreamed up that text earlier – she turned it off and went home. Although she'd planned to wait until Lori and Hillary were done, she felt she had to do something, anything to stay sane.

She felt really bad, even though Declan was probably right. Other than for that first punch, she'd felt that Jessi had controlled the entire fight, easily controlled it. It scared her; she'd definitely need to go to confession. It was so unlike her to feel so much anger, so much hate. And yet despite all this, she still felt compelled to give Kyle a stern lecture that the tub was only for them, wallow central, and that no girl other than her should ever be able to sleep in it.

That thought actually brought a smile to her face. Who would have ever thought she'd ever want to sleep in a tub?

The smile was short lived however. Remembering the smile she'd had when she punched Jessi – and Jessi's surprised expression at that punch – she wondered if she was going mad. She'd always been so calm, so controlled, so even tempered. Now it seemed as though she was only living at the extremes of emotion, terrible sadness, tearful joy, and anger that led to her punching people!

If her mother ever heard about this, she'd be grounded for months and probably end up in a boarding school for the rest of summer. Forget that, her mother could never learn of this.

***

Hillary's cell vibrated in her pocket. Though they were watching the final minutes of a sappy chick flick, she excused herself from Lori to look at her phone. There was a transcription of the voice mail that had just been left. Scanning it quickly, she almost burst out laughing. She bit back the urge as hard as she could. Lori didn't even notice.

In her hand her phone vibrated again as another voice mail transcription came on screen. This one was predictably from the crazy girlfriend herself, Amanda.

She sat back down and watched the final five minutes of the movie. It had been much too predictable, though Lori was sniffling. She'd sniffled too, for appearances. As the credits began to roll, she turned to Lori and said, "Amanda's coming over. Rumor is Amanda had a cat fight with Jessi!" She watched Lori's face intently for a response. She smiled broadly as Lori's mouth opened wide as did her eyes. She squealed in true Hils fashion, "We can get the scoop straight from the horse's mouth!"

***

Hillary lived two streets over so Amanda decided to walk. She was beginning to question her sanity. She hoped Lori and Hillary would help ground her. The last thing she wanted right now was to see Jessi or Kyle. She berated herself audibly, "Get a grip Amanda, calm down!"

She took deep breaths as she walked. Fists at her sides, she purposefully ignored everything else around her.

***

There was no doubt in his mind, he had to call Kyle and tell him, not only as his friend, but as his protector, his comrade at arms. He'd risked a great relationship with Lori for Kyle. He'd even risk Jessi. Without Kyle he likely would have gone down a very destructive path in life. He owed him.

He sighed as Kyle's voice mail came on for the third time. "Third time's a charm," he muttered to himself before the beep sounded. "Kyle, I wanted to tell you this in person but you're not answering." He sighed, it had to be done. He continued with the voice mail.

***

Lori didn't know what to think. Amanda looked shaken, her hands tense, clenching periodically. Even though she'd hugged her once, she felt like hugging her again. Amanda, looking around at the expensive furnishings, stood at the centre of the living room, confused.

Lori thought of many things to say but they all sounded trite. Amanda appeared like she was struggling more than she ever had. Hillary came to the rescue, "Amanda, cupcake, please sit down. Relax, you don't have to tell us anything, but if you want to let it out, we're all ears."

She noticed Amanda glance her way. Their eyes met and they shared an understanding without exchanging a single word. Hillary didn't know the truth about Kyle or Jessi. As good a person as Hillary was, Lori feared that if Hillary ever knew, the tabloids would be all over them in a matter of hours. It'd be a circus.

Amanda sat and fidgeted slightly. She pulled at the bottom of her shirt, trying to straighten it.

Hillary put her hand on Amanda's shoulder. "Would you like a drink? Water, cream soda, vodka?" She added the last option after a brief pause.

After Amanda picked cream soda and Hillary left the room humming loudly, Amanda turned to her and whispered, "I'm going crazy." Lori urged her to explain and so she did. Her tone was lucid and even, she sounded calm enough despite her frenzied appearance. She didn't sound crazy to her. Oh no, she was. Seeing a hallucination was a definite sign of going crazy. And so was punching Jessi, who showed admirable restraint in not snapping Amanda in two.

Amanda finished her tale, every few moments looking for Hillary to return. "That's pretty much it I guess." Lori couldn't help but give her another hug.

Hillary yelled, "Anyone want brownies?"

Lori released Amanda then yelled back, "Bring'em on!" Hillary's brownies were the best.

***

Amanda felt a lot calmer. "These brownies are terrific Hillary," she said, after biting into her third piece. She'd finished her cream soda and was now drinking water. Poor combination she guessed, but the brownies were already so rich.

Hillary was all smiles. "Thanks! I'd make them more often but I wouldn't look as fabulous if I ate them all." Amanda rolled her eyes and noticed Lori do the same. "That's why I have friends over to eat them!" Hillary finished with a giggle.

She turned serious, "Spill the beans cupcake." When Amanda shared a glance with Lori, Hillary added, "When I was making the brownies I knew you'd be talking to Lori, so spill it girl, I want to hear it too."

She couldn't deny it. For Hillary's benefit she shared the fact she'd punched Jessi and the basic reason behind it but little else. She also mentioned Declan mediating over their dispute, and when Jessi had left in a huff, how she'd talked to Declan about everything, including their initial plans for Kyle.

Lori yelled, "What?" She looked up to the ceiling with her mouth hanging open. "Declan is closer to Kyle than to anyone else," she stressed her statements with aggressive hand movements. "He's going to tell him everything; our plans will be not only ruined but Kyle will be angry with all of us!"

Hillary added, "And you have to live with him!" She smiled when she turned to Amanda, "You only have to kiss him!" She crossed her arms and tapped her foot. "Tell me cupcake, is he a good kisser? I bet he's a quick learner huh?"

Lori fended Hillary off. "Not now Hils! We have to make it look like Declan got it wrong, that he inferred too much from something you said."

Hillary piped up, "Ooh, Plan D, D for Denial!"

Lori said, "We never implemented Plan C."

Amanda replied, "I'm calling it all off. I'll tell him myself what we planned but that it was all my idea and why." To Lori, "He won't be angry with you."

"Only with you," Lori said.

Hillary seemed to turn serious again. "Maybe you should go home now and tell him." Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she fished it out, glancing at the message before closing it with a snap. Her face didn't betray anything.

Amanda dreaded going home. It was only just after two, but she felt she needed to stay with Hillary and her infectious mood. It was so childish sometimes but it really helped her. It also helped that her mother wasn't going to be back home until 9pm. Impulsively, she said to Hillary, "Do you want to go to the mall?"

"I love the mall!" squealed Hillary. "We'll shop till we have blisters on our feet! We'll need pedicures!" She grabbed her purse which had been hanging on a hook by the front door. "Let's go now! The pedicure's on me."

Amanda had known that Hillary would react strongly to the mall but it still surprised her. "Let me freshen up first," she said, getting up. Realizing she'd never been inside Hillary's house before, she inquired about the bathroom.

***

Amanda thought to herself, "This is a really nice house." The bathroom itself was at least three times the size of hers. She fixed up her eyes and her hair in front of the largest and brightest mirror she'd ever seen before taking another calming breath. It had been a great idea to come here. Hillary was just the type of bubbly personality she needed to forget her troubles. She held no illusion that they wouldn't resurface, but at least she would handle them on her terms, not theirs.

Satisfied with her appearance, she opened the door only to find Lori about to knock. She looked serious. Her own smile vanished and the concoction in her stomach seemed to boil when Lori pushed her back into the bathroom and closed the door.

"Jessi and Declan are here."

Amanda smiled despite how she felt. It would be on their terms after all.

"So be it." She opened the door and pulled Lori along with her.