Sandy was currently trying to teach me how to play golf. I wasn't sure why. Rose didn't seem like she was interested.
"Come on nice and easy, nice and easy, nice easy." He said. I looked up and stared at him. "I'll stop now."
I swung the club aiming for the overturned coffee mug which we had set up but instead hit it into the pool, where Rose retrieved it.
"I got it." She stated. By now, it should have been apparent that I wasn't the next Michelle Wie. I would say that I was pretty hopeless. I couldn't help but wonder if my arms were too short. Was that a thing?
"One more." Sandy urged.
"No more. I suck." I argued. "I just shouldn't play golf."
"You could play it but you wouldn't play it well." Rose quipped.
"Well there's more in Palm Springs than just golf." Sandy pointed out. "You can spa."
"I don't know I want someone touching my naked body." I told him. I knew they wouldn't do anything, but it still sounded uncomfortable.
"Have you ever played tennis?" Sandy asked.
"No, but I bet it would be easier than this." I replied. Plus, I would probably look cute in a tennis outfit.
"So what do you do?" Rose asked with a weird voice.
"She's very good with the ladies." Sandy said with a similar tone.
"Yes, she's very good with the ladies, unlike me." Rose agreed.
"She's standing right here with a putter in her hands." I replied in annoyance.
"Yeah, but you don't know how to use it." Sandy pointed out as she took it from me.
"That's why I don't want to go to Palm Springs." I declared. I wondered if Marissa would be able to sell it better than these two clowns.
"Well you're going because you did something nice for Olivia and she wants to repay you by taking us to her mansion in Palm Springs." Rose explained. "Without you, there is no deal. Why are you being so selfish?"
"I didn't say that I wasn't going." I remarked.
"This kid has a mansion on a golf course?" Sandy asked in disbelief before he swung the putter and hit it into the cup. Well, if I was related to him, I probably wouldn't have gotten those genes. I probably would have taken after Kirsten. I looked enough like her that people who didn't know better would think that I was her daughter.
"Well let's just hope that she's not into Marissa." I declared.
"So, are Olivia's parents going to be there? Have you met them?" He asked.
"No, we haven't met them but if there anywhere as cool as she is…" Rose started before I swung the putter again…and broke a window. I couldn't believe that she thought Olivia was cool.
"I'm telling Kirsten this is your fault." I stated. "I'm sticking to tennis."
I began to pack my suitcase. The downside to staying in someone else's house was Kaitlin and I wouldn't be able to have sex in it. We would probably be able to have our own room, but it would be inconvenient.
I went to the Cooper house to meet Kaitlin in the driveway.
"So, your grandpa and my mom are coming back today." She stated.
"I wonder if that means that Hailey will be gone when we get back from Palm Springs." I stated. "Anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to go to your room, because we might not be able to do anything until after we get back."
Twenty minutes later, I was wrapped in a sheet as I looked around her room. I had gotten to the point where I was comfortable with her seeing me naked, but only her. It still made me feel very uncomfortable but I loved her enough to be vulnerable with her.
"So, have you talked to your doctor about having an operation?" Kaitlin asked.
"I can't do anything with that until Sandy and Kirsten give me the okay." I replied. I had told her that before. "Anyway, I probably wouldn't want to do it until after school gets out so I don't miss any time."
"Kaitlin, are you packed..." Marissa asked as she and Summer walked in before walking right back out.
"We should probably put on some clothes." I stated.
"I don't think my clothes will fit you." She said. "How did you get to be so petite?"
"I guess I was just late going through puberty." I replied. Being short made it easier to pass as a girl. I put on my original clothes before we went to the living room.
"So, Summer I didn't know that you were going." I replied.
"I can't sabotage the trip if I'm not there." Summer responded. "What do you think about laxatives in Vicki's coffee?"
"I think it's a horrible idea." I remarked. At that point, I got a call from Sandy. "Hello?"
"So you're not going to Palm Springs." He told me.
"I'm not?" I asked in confusion,
"No, none of you are. I just got off the phone with my friend at Newport PD and it turns out that Olivia was arrested again and this time it's looking like there's going to be a stay in juvie."
"What did she do?" I asked.
"She set a house on a fire, no one was hurt, but she also was on cocaine," He explained. "Sorry that your plans have been ruined."
I couldn't help but feel relieved at that, I mean I knew that everyone else would be a disappointed but I wasn't.
"Well thanks for telling me." I replied.
"So Olivia is in Juvie." I told Kaitlin and Summer. Marissa had not come back inside yet. "Should we tell Marissa?"
"Hell no." Kaitlin replied. I knew that she was going to say that because she definitely hated Olivia.
"I don't think this is something that we can lie to her about." Summer remarked. "I guess I need to find a new way to sabotage Vicki and Cohen."
"Or you could just not do that." I proposed. "What do you possibly get out of sabotaging Rose and Vicki's relationship?"
"I don't know but the two of them have so much in common." She said. "I can't help that I don't like comics or that I was born a girl."
"Rose once told me that she had a crush on you ever since she was a kid." I explained. "I don't think that is going to just go away."
Even though I thought initially that Rose should be with Vicki, maybe now that I was actually getting to know Summer, she may have been the better choice. There was also something else on my mind but if was kind of hard to talk about.
"Hey, Kaitlin, can you please tell Marissa we're not going." I requested. "I have something that I need to talk to Summer about."
Kaitlin sighed and left because I was pretty sure that she did not want to do that.
"So your dad meets with trans patients, but does he also you know…perform operations?" I asked.
"I think so. I've never specifically asked him that question before." She admitted. "Are you thinking getting an operation?"
"I'm not going to lie and say that I hate I'm not all female." I admitted. "But I'm also scared. The only surgery I've ever had was when I was a baby…also in that same area. I don't even though know if Sandy and Kirsten or Dr. Carter will want me to, so it's probably a moot point."
"Well I could talk to my dad about it." She offered. "But you shouldn't feel like you should need to do it to be a girl."
I felt once again like I was looking at the Summer from Cotillion, Underneath her popular girl exterior, she really cared for people. At that point, my phone went off again.
"Hadley?" I answered.
"Hey, I was wondering if you and Kaitlin wanted to come over to my house." She asked.
"You're inviting us over?" I questioned. I hadn't ever been to Hadley's house and we had been friends basically since school started. To be fair, she hadn't ever been to my house either. Then again, I hadn't been to Summer or Vicki's houses either.
"Yeah I was just realizing that as long as we've been friends, we've never been to each other's houses." She declared. "Maybe you two could even sleep over."
"Well I guess I can considering that our weekend plans have suddenly freed up." I explained.
"So maybe you could tell me where you live and I can send someone to pick you up." She suggested.
Once the limo came to pick us up, I quickly found out that Hadley did not live in Newport Beach, but Anaheim.
"I can't believe that we didn't know Hadley lived out here.' Kaitlin told me.
"Well a lot of The Valley is filmed here, so I guess it makes sense." I remarked. It still seemed like a long way to go for school. I would have to ask Hadley why she did it when we got there. I was wearing a cropped white sweater that stopped above my bellybutton and destroyed jeans. I still didn't think I understood the whole ripped jeans thing. I supposed I had good legs though. Kaitlin was wearing a red off-shoulder sweater and black jeans.
Within a few minutes, we were at the gate. I thought I would be prepared considering where we lived, but I was definitely not prepared for what I saw. Hadley's house was massive, I supposed being a television producer was a pretty lucrative business. Hadley was wearing when we got out.
"This is massive." I stated.
"Yeah my dad likes to go big." She said.
"So why do you drive so far to go to school?" I inquired.
"Well there are two reasons for that." Hadley explained. "One both of my parents went to Harbor and two my dad wanted me to be taught by Ava Ramos."
"How did you know that she was there though? She wasn't even listed on the schedule." I pointed out. I had to be admit having her as a teacher was pretty awesome.
"He had some inside information." Hadley explained. "Now let me take you two to your room."
"Do you have a map of this place because I feel like I could get lost here?" Kaitlin inquired.
"I can print one off for you." Hadley replied. "I'm sorry if this is too much. I've just never had friends over. A lot of people are intimidated by my dad."
"You didn't tell him I'm…?" I asked.
"No." She replied. "I mean I don't think he would care but I don't like to tell other friends' secrets. So I'll give you some time to settle in and then we can go to the pool."
The room that we had was basically the size of the pool house. I could tell that we were going to gave a good time. I still didn't think it would be appropriate for us to have sex in it, even though we talked about sex with Hadley.
"Do you wanna take a nap?" I asked.
"I think I do, only because I love waking up next to you." She told me. We both changed into some shorts before we laid down in the bed. "God, this is so soft."
It didn't take me very long to fall asleep. It was probably an hour later when I was awoken by my phone going off. I didn't see who it was, but I didn't think Hadley would call us even though it was a bit of a walk from our room.
"Hello?" I answered.
"How's Malibu?" Rose asked. I was pretty sure that she was upset about not being able to come. Maybe we should have seen if the others could come but it probably would have been awkward since no one else really knew Hadley. She was at least more stable than Olivia, so that was a plus.
"We're in Anaheim." I corrected. "And I haven't seen much of it other than Hadley's."
"Don't you think it's a little unfair that you still get to go on vacation?" She asked.
"Look, I'm sorry that you couldn't come, but you don't exactly know Hadley and I'm pretty sure that she only invited us because we're friends with her." I pointed out. "Besides, you have Summer and Vicki to keep you company and Holly and Marissa are there as well and I'm only going to be gone for two days. Now if you excuse me, I need to go meet Hadley at the pool.
I hung up and looked over at Kaitlin.
"We should probably get ready." I stated.
"Maybe you should text Hadley so she'll know that we're ready." Kaitlin proposed. It seemed odd but it probably made more than finding her, telling her that we were ready and waiting for her to get ready. I texted her to meet us at the pool. I then put on a neon blue and pink bikini. Kaitlin put on a red top and blue bottom.
We then headed down to the pool. Even though I had been on the boardwalk, not having to worry about anyone leering at me.
We got to the pool where we saw Hadley wearing a grey bikini.
"Hey." She greeted us.
"Hey." Kaitlin reciprocated as we got into the water.
"So I know it's too late, but if either of us wanted to invite anyone, would you have been okay with it?" I asked.
"That would depend on who you wanted to bring, but probably not because I told my daddy that it would be just be the three of us." She stated.
"Then it's probably for the best that it's just us." I declared. "It could have gotten really complicated if we brought our sisters along."
"I mean your sister is okay, but I don't really think I would want Kaitlin's here." Hadley responded.
"Why not?" Kaitlin asked in half offense.
"I mean she does a lot of drama." Hadley pointed out. "I don't hate her because I don't know her, but all I know is what you two have told me about her."
"I mean she's not drama all of the time." Kaitlin declared. The thing was, if she wasn't related to Kaitlin, I probably wouldn't put up with Marissa, but I did not want to tell her that. Of course one of the other reasons we kept her around because it was probably not a good idea to leave her alone. It was kind of like they kept Damon around on The Vampire Diaries, but he was probably more useful than Marissa.
"I think I'm going to risk saying anything else because I don't want to ruin this." Hadley commented. The thing was it seemed like Kaitlin hated her half the time as well. "We should talk about something else? Like have either of you ever been to Disneyland?"
"Not since I was a kid." Kaitlin said.
"No.' I replied at the same time.
"Then I guess it's good news that we're going tomorrow." She said.
"Really?" I asked in disbelief. I had always wanted to go as a kid but I obviously couldn't afford it and it had never crossed my mind with all of the things that were going on. I really hoped that Mickey would be there and I would get to meet him. Yes, I knew it was just someone in a suit, but I did not care.
"If you want, I can get you two passes so you can go whenever you want." She offered.
"That's probably not a good idea since neither of us can drive right now.' Kaitlin declared. Plus us having passes meant that we would probably have to take other people. "Let's just stick to tomorrow. So what are we doing for dinner?"
"What did you want to do for dinner?" Hadley inquired. "We can go anywhere that you want in the city or we could get something delivered here if you don't want to go anywhere."
Later, after dinner, Kaitlin and I went back to our room. We had actually just ordered some pizza, but it was some of the best pizza that I had ever had. I was pretty sure that it was from the place that was voted "Best Pizza in Anaheim."
I was preparing to take a shower when Kaitlin spoke up.
"So I noticed that you seemed a little tense when Hadley said that she didn't want Marissa around." She remarked.
"I wasn't tense." I lied.
"Rhi, can you answer me something honestly?" She questioned. The fact that she was using that nickname made me nervous. "Do you like Marissa?"
I sighed. There were some things about her that I did like and there were other things about her that I didn't like. One of them was that she only knew that I was trans because Kaitlin had told her and she had also told Olivia that.
"Rhi?" She repeated.
"I'm trying to think of a way to answer this without making you angry." I admitted. It looked like I would have to tell her. "The thing is I probably wouldn't hang around her if she wasn't your sister."
"So you don't like her?" She asked.
"Some of the time I like her and some of the time I don't." I declared. "I love you but she is a lot to handle."
"So is your brother." Kaitlin pointed out.
"Yeah but he's in jail." I said. "And I'm willing to put up with Marissa because I want to be with you."
"Just taking your fucking shower." She told me. "I'm gonna see if I can find some dessert."
It seemed like my attempt to make her not mad at me was a failure. I sighed and got in the shower.
Once I got out of the shower, I got dressed and waited for her to get back. I really hoped that this fight wouldn't last throughout the trip. I hated fighting with my girlfriend. I knew Trey, the only person from my old life that I still considered family, was trouble. But at the same time, he had my back when I told him that I was trans. He was the first person who knew. That was when I realized that while I had only seen most of the bad times with Marissa, Kaitlin had probably seen the good times. I waited until she came back.
"I'm sorry." I stated. She seemed to be expecting me to say more. "The thing is I don't know Marissa the way you do. Remember how I compared you and her to Kirsten and Hailey? Well the thing is Sandy hates Hailey, or at least I think he does. I don't hate Marissa. I think she needs help, but maybe if she can get it, things will get better between the two of us."
"Apology accepted." She told me before she kissed me. "I want Marissa to get better too, but you don't need to be so hard on her. Though there's one more thing. Sandy and Kirsten are your parents and I don't think you should call them by their first names."
"You are one hundred percent right." I declared. I needed to repeat it to see how it sounded. "Remember how I compared you and her and my mom and Hailey? Well the thing is my dad hates Hailey, or at least I think he does…that sounds better."
The following day, Hadley took us to Disneyland and I had to say that it was amazing as I thought it would be. I GOT TO MEET MICKEY. Aside from meeting Kaitlin and my family, there was probably nothing in my life that was better than that. And I got to ride some rides. I thought my fear of heights would prevent me from enjoying some of the rollercoasters, but it didn't. Okay the Matterhorn did scare me a little, but Space Mountain and Splash Mountain were amazing. If I didn't have trouble getting there, I would totally want an annual pass.
After we got back, we couldn't help but notice an extra car. It seemed like Hadley's dad was there and we were going to meet him.
"Hi, Daddy." She greeted him. "These are my friends: Kaitlin and Rhiannon."
I noticed he was staring at me.
"I'm sorry, but I really want to put you on TV." He declared. That was not something that I expected to hear. "How would you like to be on The Valley?"
So let me start by saying that this wasn't a story that I quit because I wasn't interested. I quit because I realized how taxing the Oliver stuff was and I didn't want to do that again. So I just recently came up with idea to not do it. Instead, I'm going to focus on Rhiannon's journey as an actress. So Hadley's dad is played by Dax Sheppard. Anyway, please don't forget to review.