Part 1:



Rhia Shredden sat alone in her house. The 14 year old girl flipped through channel after channel of shit on t.v. She was a pretty girl, with blue-grey eyes and long, straight red hair, but at this moment she had a very far away look to her. Her brow was stitched in the middle and her round, plump lips were set off to a pout a little to the side.

Hearing the telephone ring, Rhia tossed the remote on the couch and began searching for the noisy culprit. "Good God!" she muttered as her hands searched fervently through the cushions. When her fingertips finally collided with the cold plastic of the phone her mind drifted back to him, as it had so many times lately. I will not think about him! she thought angrily to herself. I have a boyfriend! I have a boyfriend! I have a ....... Her thought process trailed off as she realised that, trapped in her own little world, she had waited too long and the machine had picked up the call.

"Shit." she muttered. She punched in 311 but apparently they hadn't cared enough to leave a message. Therefore Rhia didn't care enough to call back. "Probably some wacked out bill collector."

It was bad enough Kelly Cambel had been harrasing her lately. Rhia thought back on that for a moment too, standing in the mall with Kelly and Jessica.

"Whats wrong with Andrew, " Kelly had taunted, "that leaves you wanting to be someone els's whore?"

"You're so right Kelly." Jessica had replied smartly and sarcastically. She flicked a bit of her hair back over her shoulder and stood there, as though thinking, chewing on one acrylic nail while she finished her statement with mock innocence. "But I'm afraid Rhi is actually quite bad at being a whore. Perhaps you proffer private lessons?"

That last statement had really ended the conversation as Kelly stomped off with her blonde hair bouncing out of her ponytail. Jessica laughed aloud, sweeping her long light brown mane out of her pale, thin face. Her brown eyes glittered and she almost looked preppy for a moment- or at least happy. One can't really look preppy with a tattered Mudvayne shirt, black fingernail polish, way too many bangles and the amount of eye-liner and mascara Jessica insisted on wearing. No matter how much of a hooker it made her look like.

Part 2-



Tired of remembering, Rhia slipped into bed. Technically she turned the tv to a music channel and fell fitfully asleep on the couch.

The next day, after bouncily putting on clothes, she walked to the small so-called cafe next to her parents house. There, as arranged, sat Jessica.

"Hey!" she called, stationing herself between her friend and a barstool. The music was pounding and this 'small little quiet cafe' was full of bustling teens and young adults.

"I don't think they should call this a cafe anymore." Jessica yelled. "Maybe a nightclub, or they could turn it into a Spencers restaraunt!" The place really was riminescent of a Spencers. Over the last year it had gone from pastels and floral designs to black lights, strobe lights, and glow in the dark paint ON the waiters. Also, interestingly enough, they had begun to sell glow stick necklaces with your food. Go figure.

"Taking the blacklights out might help." Rhia admitted, over a rousing chorus of teens shouting B.Y.O.B. as loud as possible. Rhia turned to examine the place as Jessica handed her a coke with a glow in the dark umbrella. how corny........ Rhia thought as she took a gulp. Scanning the restaraunt she saw a group of freaky looking fifteen year olds, some of whom had wildly dyed hair and mohawks. Rhia absentmindedly stirred the ice in her coke with the umbrella before realising who she had been staring at for the past 3 minutes.

Flushing, she did a complete 180 and grasped tightly to Jessica's arm. Rhia felt goosebumps rise along the tops of her arms and down her back. In a word, she freaked.

"Dude, what is freaking wrong with you?" Jessica inquired, annoyed at the fingernails in her arm. Looking up, brow furrowed, she quickly scanned the shop for whatever had frightened Rhia so badly. Her gaze rested momentarily on a guy in the group of freaks. "Oh." she stated matter-of-factly. "Hey Rhi, look, theres Chris." sarcastically she pulled her arms away from Rhia and waved one of the punks over to their table.

"No shit sherlock." Rhia muttered. "Oh, no! He's coming over here!" she gave an agonized moan and quicly tried to straighten up. Regaining her composure, to look less like a frightened girl and more like....... she was a rabid puppy with a grin pasted on her face.

"You look like a dead duck." Jessica observed. "I don't get it. Girl, get a hold of yourself, I understand that Andrew is a dip-shit. So dump him already! You and Chris are such a good match anyway." Seeing Chris look uncertainly at the two, halfway to the table, she gave him another wave over, winning herself a glare from Rhiannonn that would have melted an solid steel. Finally Chris arrived at their table, still trying to apologize to the masses for all the groups he had had to push through. "Hey babes." Chris grinned. "You two looked like you were having a private conversation over here, wasn't sure if I should bust in." "Not at all." Jessica slurped on her lime smoothie. Rhia slipped into a seat on the left, leaving an open seat for Chris between the two girls. Playfully he put his arms around Rhia, producing an odd reaction. He may not have been able to see it, but Jessica almost spewed lime slushie from her nose. The expression on Rhia's face was a mix of horror, happiness and something else. Jessica wasn't sure whethere she was toing to faint or explode in wild ecstatic laughter.

Part 3:

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"I think your choking her." Jessica managed to gasp out, through clenched teeth. Turning her face away from the two people beside her she tried to hide her laughter in vain. Finally Chris let go of Rhia and slipped into the open barstool. Shaking, Rhia righted herself on her barstool and took a deep breath, almost causing herself to choke on her next drink of her cola.

"So whats up with you two?" Chris asked perkily. "Nothing here." replied Jessica, "What about you Rhi?" She flicked a peice of ice at the back of Rhia's head as Chris motioned for a coke from a waiter."I'm.. fine... thank you.." Said Rhia in a very low voice. She had been trying not to think about Chris for a week and thankfully hadn't seen him either. Now she was sitting by him, he had put his arms around her, and she was acting like a total weirdo.

However, Chris didn't seem to notice too much. Grabbing the coke the waiter handed him, he smiled in thanks and turned back around to the girls. "Come on chicks, something has to have happened, two beautiful babes like you in this small town?" Rhia turned vaguely pink at the word beautiful but besides that didn't manage to get much else out. "Not unless you count Rhi getting in a fight with Miss Priss." Jessica drawled.

Chris turned in suprise towards Rhia. "You got in a fight?" Rhia, now forced to say SOMETHING blinked. Her mind had gone blank the second he had turned and she had noticed that he smelled really good. Slowly thought returned to her and she tried to pull herself together. "I guess you could call it that." she admitted. She gave her ice a little swirl with her straw. "It was more of a battle of wits than an actual fight but she got all mad like she usually does and huffed off."

"I would geuss so." Chris said, grinning again. "God help whoever gets into a verbal war with you." Seeing a friend wave him over to another table he quickly addressed both girls again. "Whoops, seems like I'm going to have to go anyway." he said. "Parting is such sweet sorrow." He turned to leave and then, apparently remembering something turned back around for a split second. "See you in class tomorrow Jess." They Hi-Fived, and then to Rhia's amazement and vague horror he leaned down and kissed Rhia on the cheek. "Love you too Rhia, say hi to Brie when you see her." He walked off leaving one stunned teenager, and one convulsed in silent laughter at the look on her friends face. Rhi fell sideways off her stool to land with a hard thump on her butt in the tile floor.