Thank you to anybody who read chapter one, and a special thanks to LilBadger101 for being my first reviewer. This one is for you! Also, huge thanks to Jessymessy101, CSI001 and GoonieGirl for your reviews. Hope you all like this next chapter! Anyway, as promised, this chapter is about the girls. And it is the longest chapter I have ever written for any story. So that's why it took me so long to get it up. Next update will be faster, I promise. In this one there is a lot more randomness but also a bit of a back story on each of the OCs. Hope you like it! Review please!
"Where are Lexi and Wendy gone?" Mandy asked.
"I think they've gone back up to Lexi's apartment to get the curling iron?" Abby answered.
"Oh right. Then where's Kelly?" Mandy asked.
"Right here! Sorry, Greg just called me to say they're outside Hodges place now." Kelly told them, coming into the room where the two girls were applying make-up.
"We're going to be so late..." Mandy moaned.
"They expect that. Besides, you and Henry live so far away now it's going to take them ages to get there." Abby said to her.
"Its still just as close to the lab as me and Wendy's old place was." Mandy reminded her.
"Only its at the opposite said of the lab." Kelly pointed out.
"Yeah, so it's way further away than everyone elses." Abby added.
"We're back..." Wendy called, closing the front door of Kelly and Greg's apartment and coming in to find her friends, Lexi in tow.
"Did you get the curling iron?" Kelly asked.
"No, we needed to go put it back." Wendy explained.
"Which we did." Lexi giggled.
"Are you girls nearly ready?" Wendy asked them.
"Yes, I just need to try and squeeze into some jeans." Mandy said, gesturing to the grey sweatpants she was currently wearing.
"We should totally go shopping soon for more maternity stuff." Lexi told her.
"Yeah, that boutique we were in on Thursday?" Abby asked.
"The one with the really cute stripy tops?" Lexi squealed.
"Yeah!" Abby nodded.
"Yeah!" Lexi echoed.
"Does anybody know where I put my eyeliner?" Wendy interrupted.
"Somebody left eyeliner in the lving room, on..." Mandy began.
"The coffee table! That's where I put it!" Wendy realized, darting off to get it.
"Kelly?" Abby called.
"In the bedroom." Kelly told her.
"Hey, do you have any bronzer here? I left mine at home." Abby asked.
"Yeah, its in my purple bag which is in the bathroom I think." Kelly smiled.
"Thanks." Abby called, going to the bathroom.
"Abby?" Lexi called.
"Yeah?" Abby called back, finding the bronzer and going to find her other friend.
"Which shoes?" Lexi asked her, holding up three pairs of shoes.
"Definately not the first ones. Second are good, but you don't want to be making too much noise on the plastic part of the floor if you have to get up. But then again, they're so much cuter than the third ones." Abby mused, examining the shoes.
"I could ask Archie if we could sit on the aisle?" Lexi suggested.
"Perfect. Second ones then." Abby agreed.
"They all look the same to me." Mandy observed.
"Me too. I guess some things never change." Wendy agreed.
"Are these jeans alright?" Mandy asked her.
"Yes, they look perfect." Wendy nodded.
"They do, but not with those shoes." Abby told her.
"Not this again." Mandy sighed.
"Lexi, Kelly!" Abby yelled.
"Qui?" Kelly asked, aprriving into the bedroom with Lexi.
"Tell Mandy about the shoes." Abby told them.
"Show me?" Kelly asked.
"Oh God no." Lexi gasped.
"No way." Kelly agreed, shaking her head.
"Wait a minute, Kelly, where's your closet?" Abby asked.
"In this way remember?" Kelly told her, walking towards the closet.
"Let's see..." Lexi murmured, opening the doors and looking through the shoes.
"You're a size five, right Mandy?" Abby called.
"Right." Mandy nodded.
"These ones." Lexi said, producing a pair of Kelly's shoes and presenting them to Mandy.
"How are they any different to the ones I'm wearing?" Mandy asked.
"For starters, the strap is thinner, the toes are less open, the..." Lexi begun.
"Alright I get it. I'll wear those." Mandy smiled, putting on the shoes and rolling her eyes.
"Much better." Kelly smiled.
"Definately." Abby agreed.
"Totes." Lexi giggled.
"Guys? Are we ready?" Wendy asked.
"You look gorgeous." Kelly told her.
"Thank you. You all look pretty good too." Wendy smiled.
"Anybody in particular?" Lexi asked.
"Mandy. And Kelly. And Abby." Wendy told her.
"Meanie." Lexi moaned.
"You were the one who asked." Wendy reminded her.
"Yeah. I was the one who asked." Lexi agreed.
"Come on, we're already ten minutes late." Mandy said.
"Alright. You're driving again, right Wendy?" Kellyy asked.
"Sure. Even though it's Abby's car." Wendy said.
"I told you, I like guns better than cars." Abby insisted.
"And yet you have a million dollar sports car." Wendy said, rolling her eyes.
"It did not cost a million dollars. And it was a gift." Abby told her.
"From who?" Mandy asked.
"My parents." Abby said.
"Oh yeah, aren't they super rich?" Wendy remembered.
"And super obnoxious." Lexi cut in.
"Did we ever tell you about the time they tried to swap her for another daughter?" Kelly asked them.
"No?" Wendy gasped.
"For real?" Mandy asked.
"She was about what? Nine?" Kelly asked.
"Ten. I was ten years old, and I went through phases. I was constantly going back and forth between the tmboy I wanted to be and the girlie-girl my oarents wanted me to be. So I was in a tomboy phase, five brothers and no sisters you know? And me and Ollie were playing some game with fake guns at some big charity ball my parents were hosting, and I was getting my pink frilly dress all dirty..." Abby said.
"She showed us a photo later, that dress was like WOW. Picture princess Grace Kelly's white dress, but in pink, and the skirt was like, these delicate ruffles with just,..." Lexi recalled.
"Lexi?" Wendy remineded.
"Sorry, dream world. Carry on." Lexi said.
"This is the best bit. They went over to some other little girl sitting down daintily drinking her tea and asked her if she would come take a picture with the family because their daughter had gotten too dirty and would ruin the family photograph." Abby laughed.
"Woah. What did she say?" Mandy asked.
"No. She said it wasn't fair on their real daughter. And then nine years later they met at forensic college." Abby told them.
"And they're still best friends now." Kelly smiled.
"It was you?" Wendy asked her.
"Yep. I was more of a shy girl, and my parents were always putting pressure on me to be smart, and do the best at school and run the fastest and drink my tea the right way. I remember how jealous I was of the little girl who got to play and run around at that charity thing. But we were only invited because we were Lexi's families neighbours." Kelly nodded.
"My mom was a weather lady for six years. That was why she was invited to this charity dinner. And we were allowed to bring guests so we invited our niehgbours." Lexi explained.
"Me and Lexi used to lean out our windows every morning and coordinate our outfits." Kelly remembered.
"They were normally pink." Lexi added.
"I started talking to Abby at that dinner because I loved her dress. I think I troed to buy it off her actually." Lexi continued.
"I remember that. I told you you could have it for five bucks. And you were shocked and asked me what was wrong with it." Abby nodded.
"That was funny." Lexi giggled.
"All the while I was daintily sipping my tea." Kelly smiled.
"Me and Mandy met my first day at the lab. She came right up to my table and told me she was the fingerprints tech and we girls had to stick together so if I had any problems I had to come to her and not Archie or Bobby or Henry. And definately not Hodges." Wendy told them.
"How are you and Hodges anyway?" Lexi asked.
"We're pretty good actually. I mean, we fight a little, but thqt's normal, right?" Wendy told them.
"Just so long as you can make up after and it's not happening too regularly it's fine. I'm moody with Henry all the time now, but he's just so sweet to me it's hard to stay too mad." Mandy told them.
"Nobody can stay mad at Henry for long." Abby agreed.
"True. He is just so cute like." Lexi giggled.
"Hey. Hands off." Mandy warned them jokingly.
"My hands weren't on! I'm a married woman now, remember?" Lexi protested.
"How's that working out for you?" Kelly asked her.
"Pretty well so far. It's just the same as dating except I'm wearing a ring and I own half of everything he does!" Lexi told them.
"That's good." Kelly smiled.
"Me and Nick are getting closer to that point I think." Abby told them.
"You think?" Wendy asked.
"Yeah. I can kinda tell it's coming soon enough." Abby nodded.
"And do you want it?" Kelly asked.
"Hell yeah. I really want to become Mrs Abby Stokes." Abby grinned.
"It does have a ring to it." Mandy nodded.
"Kind of like Mrs Kelly Sanders." Kelly smiled.
"Remember when you used to doodle that all over your notebooks?" Lexi asked her.
"Don't remind me..." Kelly moaned.
"You've got to admit, Mrs Lexi Saders had a ring to it too." Lexi said.
"You've got to admit, you kepp forgetting you're already Mrs Lexi Johnson." Kelly reminded her.
"I was just trying it out. Mrs Lexi Andrews, now that's good. Mrs Lexi Hodges, no way, sorry Wendy." Lexi continued.
"It's cool. I think it's because we all call him that anyway, we can't imagine anybody else with the same name. If he ever does ask me to marry him, I'm keeping my last name." Wendy told them.
"Do you think he ever will?" Mandy asked her.
"No." Wendy said hgonestly.
"Really?" Kelly asked.
"Hodges is... difficult..." Wendy shrugged.
"You haven't slept together yet have you?" Lexi gasped.
"Is that bad?" Wendy asked.
"Not bad. Just wierd." Kelly said.
"Wierd how?" Wendy asked.
"Just is." Abby told her.
"It normally happens faster than that." Mandy explained.
"When was the first time you and Henry slept together?" Wendy asked her.
"Do we have to get into this conversation?" Mandy groaned.
"Kinda. Come on, we all know it happened some time. At least seven months ago." Kelly laughed, gesturing to Mandy's stomach.
"The night we got back from California." Mandy told them.
"For me and Greg it was the night we got off that island." Kelly said.
"But you guys weren't even in the same room." Wendy remembered.
"Yeah, you were sharing with me and Lexi." Abby remembered.
"And Greg was sharing with Nick." Lexi added.
"We kinda dosed Hodges up on chloroform and used his room." Kelly confessed.
"You did what?" Wendy asked, l;aughing.
"Hey, it was hisw fault for demanding he had his own room. Everybody else was cool with sharing." Kelly insisted.
"I wondered where Greg was all those nights. He certainly wasn't in the room." Abby remembered.
"So wait, you and Nick were doing it at the hotel too?" Lexi asked her.
"We beat all of you guys." Abby shook her head.
"Wait... not on the island?" Mandy asked.
"Kinda." Abby shrugged.
"Not surprising. You guys were pretty close to it when me and Hodges found you that time after our fruitless search of the island." Wendy recalled.
"I'm just surprised that none of us noticed." Mandy said.
"I'm just surprised about Wendy and Hodges." Lexi said.
"Not back to this again." Wendy groaned.
"Seriously though. Are you guys ok?" Kelly asked her.
"Yes we are fine. Just because we haven't slept together yet does not mean we have some big problem." Wendy insisted.
"Sure." Kelly said.
"Whatever." Lexi said.
"Yeah." Abby said.
"If you say so." Mandy said.
"Stop doing that." Wendy told them.
"What?" Lexi asked.
"Group answering." Wendy told them.
"Wait what?" Kelly asked.
"Huh?" Mandy asked.
"Group answering?" Abby echoed.
"I don't gettit?" Lexi said.
"There you go again. It's what you three did at the beginning of that holiday." Wendy sauid, gesturing to the three blondes.
"I'm still confused." Mandy said.
"Me too." Kelly agreed.
"Same." Abby said.
"Yeah." Lexi echoed.
"All four of you don't have to asnwer. You're basically saying the exact same thing except in different words. And it's kind of blonde." Wendy explained.
"You, know the three of us are still blonde." Abby reminded her.
"Yeah, and I find that term offensive." Lexi told her.
"The word blonde should describe hair colour and not IQ." Kelly explained.
"I'm kinda with them on this one." Mandy nodded.
"Whatever." Wendy sighed.
"See, that could be described as a blonde thing to say." Abby told her.
"Whatever? No, that's a Hodges thing to say." Wendy laughed.
"Hey Lexi, you never told us when you and Archie's first time was." Kelly told her.
"Um...really...what do you know..." Lexi mumbled.
"Lexi?" Abby asked.
"Yeah? What is it?" she said eagerly.
"Is there something you're not telling us?" Abby asked.
"Who me? No way. Hey, look at that building." Lexi said quickly.
"You mean the one we've passed every day for six years?" Wendy asked her, rasing her eyebrows.
"Have we? Really? Wow. You know, it's amazing the things we take for granted all the time when we..." Lexi continued.
"B.A." Kelly called.
"B.A?" Mandy repeated.
"Babble alert." Kelly explained.
"She only does it when she's nervous." Abby added.
"Which isn't often." Kelly told them.
"Wait a minute you guys have slept together right?" Abby asked Lexi.
"Of course we have. What do you think I am some sort of nun? No offence Wendy." Lexi said.
"See. There's the Lexi we know and love." Kelly smiled.
"Now whats the deal with you and Archie?" Mandy asked her.
"You promise you won't tell anybody this?" Lexi asked them.
"Of course." Mandy said.
"Sure." Abby nodded.
"Tell us!" Kelly insisted.
"I actually slept with him ages ago. Like, before we both ended up at the lab." Lexi confessed.
"Like when you were still a brunette?" Kelly asked.
"Yeah. And I don't think he knows yet so please don't say anything." Lexi begged.
"He doesn't know?" Abby gasped.
"We were both kinda drunk. And it was a long time ago. And I had brown hair. And I still went by Alexandra." Lexi explained.
"So that's what Lexi is short for." Mandy nodded.
"Tell us everything. I want the whole story." Kelly told her.
"Me too." Mandy said.
"Same." Abby nodded.
"Group answering..." Wendy reminded them, laughing.
"Ssshhh." Mandy laughed back.
"Well, I was still in college. Archie had just finished. And we met at a bar one night, then went onto a club and then went back to his apartment. I left before morning because I kinda freaked out a little..." Lexi explained.
"Wait, YOU freaked out?" Kelly interrupted.
"It happens." Lexi told them.
"Rarely." Kelly said.
"Go on Lexi. What happened next?" Abby asked.
"Well, I left my number out for him, with a note just asking him to call me if he felt like it." Lexi told them.
"And did he?" Wendy asked.
"Nope." Lexi sighed,
"He never called you back?" Mandy asked.
"Nu-uh. I guess he just wanted a one night stand or something." Lexi shrugged.
"Wait, I remember you telling us this. He''s the Aisan guy with suspenders and glasses?" Abby asked her.
"Archie had suspenders and glasses?" Wendy laughed.
"Yup. And his entire front room was plastered with Star Trek posters." Lexi giggled.
"The guy you told us about though, his name wasn't Archie?" Kelly remembered.
"I know, that's what took me so long to figure out it was him. I mean, his hair shorter now, he's lost the suspenders and glasses, he has a different apartment, and his name is different." Lexi explained.
"Why would a guy make up a fake name?" Kelly wondered.
"Wait a minute, was his name Simon?" Wendy asked.
"Yeah. How did you know?" Lexi asked.
"It's his actual first name. Simon Archibald Johnson." Wendy explained.
"I'm married to the guy and I didn't know that?" Lexi gasped.
"Greg told me I think. He hated the name Simon after you know that serial killer guy?" Wendy explained.
"No, but I'm guessing he was called Simon." Lexi said.
"Yeah. So he went by Archibald for a bit, but Greg shortened it to Archie and it just stuck." Wendy explained.
"Oh. That makes sense now." Lexi nodded.
"He still didn't call you back." Kelly reminded her.
"When did you find out it was him?" Mandy asked.
"Remember when we were on that island?" Lexi told them.
"Yes." They all chorused.
"Well me and Archie went to get coconuts. And I kinda fell out of the tree and he caught me and we were just there for like, a minute. Nothing actually happened but at that moment I kinda just knew. The same like, chemistry." Lexi told them.
"Woah. Are you ever going to tell him?" Kelly asked her.
"I don't really know how to." Lexi shrugged.
"And he still didn't call you back." Kelly repeated.
"That is true." Abby nodded.
"Now, back to you Wendy." Mandy sm,iled.
"Why do you guys care so much about my relationship with Hodges?" Wendy asked them.
"I think we're all just curious to hear about what Hodges is actually like beneath the well starched clothes." Lexi giggled.
"Oh yeah, like I'm gonna tell you that." Wnedy laughed.
"Hey no fair." Lexi moaned.
"You have to tell us." Abby agreed.
"I don't ask you about your sex life." Wendy told them.
"Hey, I'd be happy to share. Archie is like…" Lexi begun, but the others cut her off.
"TMI. Archie's my friend." Wendy told her.
"Yeah, we do not need to hear it." Kelly laughed.
"Tell me later?" Mandy whispered.
"Of course." Lexi nodded.
"Mandy!" Wendy gasped.
"Sorry. Just curious." Mandy shrugged.
"Hey look, we're here." Kelly realized.
"And only ten minutes late." Abby laughed.
"We all ready?" Wendy asked.
"Let's go." Lexi nodded.
Before that spring break in California, those five girls wouldn't really have considered themselves friends. Mandy and Wendy were smart, slightly clumsy and stubborn and very independent, while Kelly, Lexi and Abby were ditsy, dumb, shallow, giggly, a little annoying and very blonde. They used to drive Mandy and Wendy crazy, especially since they were certain the only reason the three of them had even been allowed into the club was because Archie and Greg were attracted to them. Which, of course, was completely true. The conversation had gone a bit like this.
"I can't believe Abby Lexi and Kelly from dayshift stumbled into our meeting today."
"Hey, with their IQ, I don't think they got what was going on."
"They aren't exactly the sharpest tools in the shed."
"Hot though."
"Tell me about it.
"Maybe we should invite them to the waterpark on Saturday."
"I like the way you think."
Archie had been just a little annoyed when he realized all three girls were crazy about Greg. Like, seriously crazy. And of course, Greg loved the attention. At first. After a little while, even he got tired of it. And Archie never quite forgave them. Hodges didn't understand their silliness and Henry resented them for calling him "cute" As in, the teddy bear way. And Wendy and Mandy sometimes felt like they were letting down the female race. So they weren't exactly their biggest fans either. But a lot changed on that holiday. Somehow, with a mixture of advice from the others and the realization that some guys want to hold a conversation rather than be depended on every second, they started to change. And the lab rats opinions of them changed too.
Once three blondes, barely distinguishable from each other in personality, now they were three blondes, but three very different charecters.
Abby Martinengo, daughter of a fairly wealthy family. She was half Italian, but had lived her whole life in the U.S. of A. She had grown up with five older brothers who had taught her to fish, play baseball and run faster than most of them. She'd also grown up with her father, a busy lawyer who'd akways been more interested in 'his boys' and the heirs to his law firm than his daughter who tried to impress him with sports tropheys and tickets to matches she was playing in. He never came. Her mother though, she never left her alone. Also a blonde, and ditsy by nature rather than choice, she had always wanted a daughter. The same way she'd wanted one of those really expensive china dolls you kept in a glass cabinet when she was younger. Which she still was. Blinded by Mr. Martinego's money in a neighbourhood where there was very little, she married him after dating for two months and despite being eight years younger than him. As Kelly would later point out, it was a love story similar to that of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet in pride and prejudice and Gabby and Carlos in Desperate Housewives. And now she finally had her china doll. A china doll who was the school athletics champion and begged her mther to send her to breakdancing class instead of ballet. But as her brothers grew older, and had less time to play sports with her and lend her their baseball caps, Abby finally gave in. She was sick of being a disappointment. So she gave up trying to please her father and started wearing short shorts and flimsy little tops. Her skirts got shorter, he hair got longer. Her tops grew smaller, her bras got bigger. Her shoes became higher, and the time she spent playing sports became shorter. And eventually, it vanished altogether. Another thing she maintained through her time from top scorer of home runs to head cheerleader was her knowledge. She was smart. But once she realized her new clothes and the make-up she'd started wearing gave her the ability to bend and twist boys to her will, to use her body to turn her grades to A's and everybodies boyfriends into hers, she figured, whats the point. Why should she work hard for a grade if she knew what her result would be anyway? Why study and work hard when she could probably get any job she wanted? So she settled into the life of a blonde. The love of guns came from the Italian side of her. Apparently her great grandfather had been in the mafia. And the first time she'd ever laid hands on the gun her father kept in his desk drawer to protect him from the people he'd put in jail, she'd fallen in love. And with a job she loved and three best friends just like the girl she'd let herself become, she was happy. It had taken Nick Stokes to change her back to the way she was before, to make her realize how much better she could be.
It hadn't been so easy for Lexi Johnson, formerly Alexandra Mitchells. Daughter of a weather lady and a hardware shop owner, her family were neither rich nor poor. They were neither over protective or careless. They were neither out of touch nor particularly glamorous. They didn't stand for anything or support any politicians or celebrities or football teams more than any others. They were the definition of middle class. And middle everything else. Whereas Lexi was anything but. From a young age she spent her pocket money on clothes and make-up and shoes. She decorated her room once or twice a year. Changed her hairstyle every two months. Took every extra curricular activity under the sun. Something went wrong when she was born though, because everyone who knew her knew that Alexandra Mitchell was a natural blonde. Unfortunately, her hair was brown. She was smart, with a B plus average, yet was completely clueless and utterly dumb. It was strange that someone could take longer to understand a knock knock joke than to write a paper on molecular bonding in tissue cells. But that was just Alexandra. She got her first boyfriend in kindergarten, Sam Kennedy. It lasted three days, and consisted mostly of kisses on the cheek, holding hands at break time, and hsaring juice boxes and cookies. In elementary school, she started a club, The Pink Patrol. Their mission was to make the playground a better place by wearing pink every day and spreading the pinkness to the other classmates. In middle school she joined every club in existence and won the record for the amount of pictures in one yearbook. And in high school she became the head cheerleader. She sat at the top of the popular table and probably dated the football quarterback for two years. She was constantly on a diet, and was so beautiful and fashionable that every other girl in her school wanted to be like her. But she envied her best friend for one thing, her blonde hair. She was twenty one when she, Kelly and Abby died her hair. That was the same night she decided to officially change her name to Lexi. Because she was officially an adult, free to do whatever she wanted. And what she wanted was the two things she had been banned from doing. Changing her name and dying her hair. Lexi was a classic dumb blonde, with some added smartness. So when she and Kelly became best friends with Abby, and they formed a sort of blonde society, she found it easier to slip even further into her ways to get the guys. So less of the molecular bonding in tissue cells and more of the not getting knock knock jokes. And she considered marrying Archie to be the best thing she'd ever done.
Kelly Arnolds had always been a shy girl. She was very smart, and studious, and avoided social contact if possible. Then Lexi moved in across the road. Kelly was sent over with some house warming cookies her mom had baked and Lexi looked her up and down, sizing her up, before shrugging and inviting her in. Within two weeks she was wearing contact lenses instead of her thick rimmed glasses, her hair had been taking out of the permanent French plaits and was blow dryed to perfection each morning, her resignation letter was handed in to the girl scouts and she spent her afternoons with Lexi rather than reading. They became instant best friends, who shared everything from secrets to sleepovers to clothes to friendship bracelets. Kelly had her first boyfriend in elementary school. Of course, Lexi set them up. Lexi had always been the slightly prettier one, the more outgoing one, the more popular one. But Kelly wasn't far off. She did everything her friend did. And yet was always one step behind. She sat at the popuar table, and joined the cheerleaders. She had expensive clothes and loads of shoes. And yet she was always lacking something. It was the attitude. It was the natural popularity. It was the zest. And while she had plenty of boyfriends and many admirers, she was always second best to Lexi. Kelly was an only child, and her parents spent most of their time abroad with work. She spent her whole life under the care of one of the various nannies her parents had hired for her. Or more often, in Lexi's company. And while they were best friends and equals, Kelly admired Lexi a lot more than Lexi admired her. She was seventeen when she officially ditched the books and started to play dumb, like Lexi and all the other popular girls did. Because, as they all told her, she wasn't going to get anywhere by being bookish. And once she started pretending to be a typical dumb blonde, it was hard to stop. And so even while she could feel herself losing Greg to a suddenly sassy and confident Lexi, she couldn't get back to the girl she used to be. She couldn't let herself become someone who could hold a conversation, who didn't echo the thoughts of her friends and giggle all the time. It was like she'd forgotten. But luckily for her, and for Greg Sanders, she did.
These three girls became best friends in college, and stuck together through everything. Mandy and Wendy became friends with them after the trip to California, and although the three girls acted like themselves now, they were still finding out new things about them every day. Abut they were pretty sure it was a friendship that was going to last a long time.
Nobody was anticipating the events of Friday the thirteenth of August.