-Chapter 11-

Kissimmee, Florida
The Lyons House
Saturday, November 3rd
4:23 A.M.

Early Saturday morning, Massie and her parents stood outside of the Lyons house. She was still wearing her plane outfit from yesterday. There were heavy bags under her eyes (the guy sitting behind her had a serious snoring problem) that no amount of makeup could conceal. Her Valentino tote bag was slipping down her arm, and she felt like she was about to collapse under the weight of her Louis Vuitton suitcases.

In short: The plane ride was not very enjoyable.

Massie yawned, and tapped her mother on the shoulder. "I thought we were going to Orlando, Florida," she said.

"Kissimmee is a suburb of Orlando," Kendra replied sleepily.

William Block rang the doorbell. It was another thirty seconds before a very sleepy Jay Lyons opened the door for them. Once he saw his old friend, William, his eyes brightened. "William! What are you doing here?"

"Surprise!" William said weakly. "We're here on a little vacation. I thought we would stay with you, since we really need to catch up, and Massie and Claire can bond!"

"Hi, Mr. Lyons," Massie spoke up. She knew she had to be polite.

"Oh, hello, Massie. You can call me Jay," he said. "What are you guys waiting for? Come on in!"

Massie and her parents stepped inside the house. It wasn't as small as she thought it would be. The Lyons were middle class, after all. Jay closed the door behind them. He ran up the stairs and screamed, "Judi! Todd! Claire! I have a surprise for you!"

"OMG, are Sarah, Sari, and Mandy here?" Claire's voice floated down the stairs. At the sound of her voice, Massie straightened her back and smiled brightly.

Claire ran down the stairs. Massie took note of her Powerpuff Girls pajamas and messy white-blonde hair. Her bangs actually looked kind of cute. Her baby blue eyes looked bright and innocent. Claire actually looked cute in fifth grade (not that that was a bad thing). Massie smoothed her auburn hair and held out her hand. "Hi, I'm Massie Block."

Claire shook it firmly, a smile on her face. "I'm Claire Lyons. Are you in fifth grade too?"

Massie nodded. "Yeah, I got to Presbyterian Middle School in Westchester, New York."

"What's West Chester?" Claire asked, and Massie was reminded of the day they first met in seventh grade, when Claire had said 'Westchester' the exact same way and she was doing now.

"It's Westchester." Massie shrugged. "Just a suburb of New York City. Nothing special." She didn't want to tell Claire that it was a high-class suburb, where everyone wore designer clothes, and Powerpuff Girls pajamas were not acceptable there.

"Cool. I've always wanted to go to New York."

"Maybe you can come visit sometime?" Massie offered.

"I'd love to! Hey, you wanna stay in my room?"

"That was the plan all along." Massie couldn't believe how well she and Claire were getting along. She followed her upstairs, dragging her Louis Vuitton suitcase behind her. Once they reached Claire's room, she dropped her suitcase on the ground and collapsed.

"Massie, you okay?" Claire giggled. She knew Massie was faking it.

"Mmrp."

"Fine, I get it," Claire said. "You need help unpacking." She unzipped Massie's suitcase and started hanging her clothes up. "Whoa, these are cuh-yute! And totally affordable."

Massie smirked to herself. This was going great. Claire threw the set of black satin & lace pajamas at Massie, who immediately sat up and put them on. She had to admit, she actually looked good in them.

Suddenly, she felt something hit her side. "Pillow fight!" Claire screamed.

Massie smiled. It'd been a while since she was involved in one of those. She grabbed her favorite pillow in the shape of an M (for Massie, obviously) and hurled it at Claire. Soon, the two of them were involved in a huge pillow fight, that ended in them both being covered in feathers and stuffing.

Claire yawned, and said, "It's five o'clock in the morning. Do you want to sleep?"

Massie shook her head. "'Course not."

Claire examined Massie's perfectly manicured nails. "Who did your nails?" she asked.

"Me," Massie said confidently.

"Can you please do my nails? I have some nail polish." Claire walked over to her desk and grabbed a bottle of pale pink nail polish. Massie grimaced at the sight of the bottle. It was one of those that said it was 'no chip,' but it actually chipped after a few mere hours of painting your nails.

Massie sighed, and took the nail polish from Claire. Now was not the time to give her a lesson on the do's and don'ts of nail polish. She wished she could, but that would mean exposing her true identity. So she began painting her nails. She tried her best to make it look good, and it was kinda working. After a few minutes, she was done.

"Thanks, Mass," Claire said. "Can I call you that?"

"Sure," Massie said.

"So . . ." Claire said. "What TV shows do you watch?"

Massie thought about her answer for a few seconds. "Well, I watch Disney Channel. And Pretty Little Liars." She thought it was safe to say Pretty Little Liars, because doesn't everyone watch that show? She couldn't mention anything else. Unless she had to.

"Wait, Pretty Little Liars? I never heard of that show," Claire said.

Did Claire seriously not know what PLL was? "Oh, it's just a show on ABC Family," Massie quickly explained.

"I don't think that show exists."

"Of course it does, be-" Wait a minute. Massie did the math in her head. In eighth grade, the show was in the beginning of its third season. So that meant . . . the show premiered next year, given that she was in fifth grade right now. Whoops. "Oh, right." She smacked herself in the forehead. "I forgot. The show premiers next year."

"Then how did you get to watch it?" Claire asked.

"My dad has connections," Massie lied. "I got to see the Pilot episode. Sometimes, I even get to see them film new episodes."

"Wait, I thought you guys were middle-class," Claire said. "At least that's the impression I got."

Yes! Massie thought. If Claire thought she was middle-class, that meant her plan had worked. She made a mental note to make sure that Claire never asked William and Kendra whether they were middle-class or not. "Oh yeah, we are," she said. "My dad won this contest, so yeah."

"Okay." Claire seemed to buy the story. "So what's Westchester like?"

"Cold," Massie said. "It's so nice and sunny here in Orlando - I mean, Kissimmee."

"Yeah, but what about what it looks like?"

"Oh! Uh . . . it's really pretty there, and nothing like NYC. There's single family houses instead of apartments. It's a nice place, really. Everyone knows everyone, and they're all really friendly."

"What's your school like?"

"Just a regular public school. It's like your school." Massie tried to lie naturally, but it always came out strained. Maybe fifth-grade Massie wasn't as good as lying as the eighth-grade Massie. No, that wasn't it. She just couldn't lie to Claire, sweet, innocent Claire. Wait. Then she realized that she wasn't lying, she did go to a public school (in fifth grade, at least).

"Who are your friends? My best friends in the whole wide world are Sarah, Sari, and Mandy." Claire held out her arms. "These are some friendship bracelets we made together."

"Cool." Massie managed a smile, even though it was the opposite of cool. "My best friend is Hanna Harrington," she lied for the millionth time that day. How LBR-like would it be to say I have no friends, and everyone at my school hates me.

"Do you want to make some friendship bracelets?" Claire offered. "I have some string. That way, you can remember me forever."

"Sounds great!" Massie said.

Claire ran over to her desk, reached in the drawer, and pulled out a box of colored string. She walked back over to Massie. "Ready?"

"You betcha." Massie grabbed some strands of string, tried to start making her friendship bracelet, and then stopped, because she totally didn't know how to make these.

Meanwhile, Claire had already started, and it was turning out really well. She looked up, seeing that Massie hadn't even started, and said, "Do you need help?"

"Uh, yeah," Massie said. "A lot, actually. I've never made any of these." That's because I buy all my jewelry at [designer] stories, and don't believe in homemade bracelets/necklaces.

"Don't worry, I'll help you."

Within a few minutes, Massie had mastered the basics of friendship-bracelet-making. It was surprisingly easy, and fun. "Thanks," she told Claire. And she meant it.

They continued to talk until it was 7 o'clock in the morning, and Massie didn't even feel tired. They heard footsteps ascending the stairs, and quickly pretended to sleep. Judi Lyons walked in, and said, "Well, well, well, what do we have here? Why are you two sleeping on the ground?"

No answer.

"I know you're awake, girls." Judi threw a pillow at her daughter. Claire didn't budge. "The Blocks are leaving for Disney World in thirty minutes. And they're taking you with them, Claire."

Massie and Claire sat up immediately. "I knew that would work," Judi said.

"Mom, get out. We're getting ready, 'kay?" Claire said. Judi nodded, and exited the room.

Claire turned to Massie. "You ready for Disney World?"

"Given."

The Lyons House
The Kitchen
Saturday, November 2nd
9:09 P.M.

Massie couldn't believe it. Things were going well. Too well. Disney World was great, and what was even better was that she got to spend time with Claire. They had gone on almost all the rides in Magic Kingdom, and Massie took a lot of pictures. She hoped that these memories would last forever.

"Hey, kids," Judi said, approaching Massie and Claire. "How was your day?" The rest of Claire's family didn't get to go (Todd had thrown a fit, being only 8 years old).

"Great!" Claire said with a huge grin on her face. She nudged Massie. "Remember when your dad almost threw up on that teacup ride?"

"That was so funny!" Massie exclaimed. "And remember Space Mountain? That was so awesome."

"Totally," Claire agreed.

"Hey, Dad, where are we going tomorrow?" Massie asked.

"Epcot," William replied.

"Are you going to get us 'passports?'" Massie didn't care if it sounded childish, she loved visiting all those countries at the World showcase at Epcot. She always had.

William nodded.

"Yay!" Massie and Claire cheered. This was going to be the best four-day weekend ever. No Ahnna, no Hanna, and no Alicia to ruin it. Just Massie and Claire, enjoying their vacation.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang. "I'll get it," Massie said. She stood up and bolted for the door. In one swift motion, she swung the door open, and gasped. She had spoken too soon. She wanted to slam the door in the person's face, but decided against it, since it would be rude, and this wasn't her house.

"Hey, May-sie," an all-too-familiar voice said.

Ha, I tend to make all my cliffhangers about not knowing who's at the door...lol. Well, you kind of know. Care to make any guesses? At least I'm finally getting back on track with updating. :D And I haven't been to Disney World in three years, so I tried to remember as much as I could.

Review? It makes my day (and I really need something to cheer me up, because of exams).

New stories: Dancing Queen, get lost in the music, & friendship never dies (one-shot). Read them, please?

xx,
Rachel