Chapter Twenty-Four: Threat It's Monday and Stephanie Valentine isn't in a good mood because it's that time of the month. Yeah, mother nature has visited her. And her parents are back to work, they left this morning. Their break is over. She doesn't even bother to make herself breakfast. When Brooke arrives, she leaves the house with her backpack and enters her car - her movements are almost robotic. "Hey," Brooke greets once Steph enters. "Good morning," Steph grumbles, buckling her seatbelt, then placing her backpack on her lap. Brooke notices her countenance and knows almost immediately that something is wrong. "What's wrong? Woke up on the wrong side of the bed?" Brooke says the last part jokingly in an attempt to lighten the atmosphere. It does not work. "Mother nature visited and I just have this feeling in my gut that today is gonna be a bad day." "Don't be pessimistic and you're always cranky when aunt flow visits," Brooke points out. "Whatever. Just drive us to that hel
Chapter Twenty-Five: Dump Her Ass Brooke pulls into Stephanie's driveway. She's in the driver's seat watching Stephanie who is in the passenger's seat carefully. After Steph dropped the most shocking news of the year, she walked ahead and got to Brooke's car. It took a few seconds for Brooke to get herself and her stuff together before following her. She met Steph leaning on the passenger's side with a distant look on her face. She had unlocked her car and they both got in. There was this awkward kind of silence and Brooke watched Steph who was looking out the window. Brooke took a deep breath and started the car. Throughout the ride, Brooke kept giving Steph glances waiting patiently for Steph to speak, but she didn't say even a word. Now, she's parked in Steph's driveway, watching her carefully. After a few agonizing seconds, Steph steps out with her backpack, heading into the house- her movements almost robotic. Brooke watches her in confusion, her eyes following her movements
Chapter Twenty-Six: Acting Strange It's Thursday and school's just starting. Brooke and Stephanie get into the school and head for Brooke's locker. Steph waits for her as Brooke gets her notes for class. "There's a party this weekend," Brooke announces. "Wow! That's cool but guess what?" Steph says dryly. "I don't care." "Sure you don't but you're going. We are going," Brooke declares. "Good luck with that," Steph huffs. "What if I get Luke to make you come, huh?" Brooke wiggles her eyebrows suggestively with a smirk. "Not gonna happen," Steph says with a gloomy sigh. She has been trying to avoid Luke but it isn't exactly working. He makes conversation whenever he sees her and that makes it difficult. On the good days that she's succeeding in avoiding him, she'll get this ache in her that she'll want to see him- even if it's just his face. If she hears his voice, butterflies flutter in her stomach. All this trying to avoid him seems to make her want to spend more time with him
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Old Lady "Thanks for the ride," Stephanie says to Brooke as she alights in front of Chris' house. "You're welcome. Say hi to Chris," Brooke replies and drives away. Stephanie walks onto the porch and rings the doorbell. Kate opens the door with a huge smile on her face. "Stephanie, welcome. Come on in," she opens the door wider for her to come in. "Thank you." "How are you? Your family? Everything?" Kate asks with a beam. "Great. Everything's going great." Ever since Steph first babysat Emily, Kate has been acting all nice and extra sweet to her and it's kinda strange to her. "That's good to hear," she smiles before yelling, "Emily, Stephanie's here." "Really?" Emily's voice comes from upstairs. Some seconds later, she's running down the stairs and jumps into Steph's arms. Kate smiles at the sight. Emily likes her babysitter who would most likely end up being Christopher's girlfriend. "Stephanie!" Emily giggles. "Emily!" Steph smiles and squeezes both
Chapter Twenty-Eight: La Vida Loca "Mum, can you help me with my hair?" Brooke yells from her position in her room. She's sitting in front of her dresser, staring at her reflection in the mirror with a curling iron in her hand. "I'm coming dear." She hears her mum yell back. Her mum strolls into the room a few seconds later. "Let me get this done for you and you'll be ready," her mum says as she touches Brooke's hair from behind her. Brooke hands her mum the curling iron and she begins work on her hair. A few minutes later, she's done. Brooke and her mum stare at their reflections in the mirror, having a lot of similar features. Her mum rests her hand on one of Brooke's shoulders and squeezes it gently in assurance. One of Brooke's hands reaches up to hold hers. "You look stunning dear. Cole is one lucky guy." "Thanks, Mum," Brooke blushes. "Cole would be here any minute from now," her mum announces. "Yeah." As if on cue, they both hear the sound of a car pulling onto their
Chapter Twenty-Nine: First Time? "I can't believe I'm attending another party after that awful last one," Steph avers as they exit the car. "Stop whining and try to enjoy the night. And that party wasn't awful, baby girl." Brooke croons as they both stare at the house hosting the party which is the brightest one in the neighbourhood. Stephanie has never been to this side of town but it's not like she attends parties. "Okay, this baby girl thing needs to stop," Steph demands as they walk up to the wide-open front door. "Whose house is this anyway?" Steph glances at Brooke. Brooke shrugs. "I don't know. I heard about it from someone in school and apparently, everyone is going." "So you have no idea who's throwing the party?" Steph questions as she looks at the lawn littered with trash, cups, bottles, and whatnot. "Does it matter?" Brooke retorts. "It matters to me," Steph mumbles to herself. Steph notices a guy on the porch checking Brooke out but she doesn't seem to notice or
Chapter Thirty: Truth or Dare Stephanie returns to the living room to join Brooke and the others. She had found the bathroom and just washed her face. She sits beside Luke again but gives more space between them than before. She sees that Brooke is busy with Cole. They're whispering things into each other's ears and giggling. Well, Brooke is giggling. Steph thinks of an idea and pulls out her phone to text Brooke. Steph: Would you guys stop that? Brooke feels her phone vibrate so stops playing with Cole to pull out her phone. She gives Steph a glance after seeing that the text is from her. She unlocks her phone and reads the text which brings a smirk on her face. Brooke: Go get your own boyfriend. She looks at Cole but sees he's now talking to Luke so he hadn't seen the text. Steph groans when she reads Brooke's reply and that makes Luke shift his gaze to her. "Are you okay?" He asks. Steph covers her phone's screen. "Yes. I'm fine. Don't worry about me," she answers with a f
Chapter Thirty-One: Makeover It’s Wednesday today, four days since Stephanie attended that party. When she eventually returned home, her parents were asleep and she tried her best not to wake them. The game of Truth or Dare continued at the party. Aspen came back but didn’t join them in the game. She had this gloomy look on her face. The game went on with stupid, crazy dares and embarrassing truths. The game ended when - was it Mia - dared Chris to kiss Ivy. Chris had simply stood and walked away with Cleo trailing him. After he left, others didn’t continue the game - they had lost interest. On Sunday morning, her dad was kinda pissed that she was out that late but her mum calmed him down. Her mum on the other hand was happy, something about her beginning to behave like a normal high school teenager. Apparently, she wasn’t behaving like one before. Her father eventually let it slide after giving her a warning - if she stays out so late again, she would be grounded for the rest of her