I groaned and fell back onto the bed, the soft impact of the mattress feeling even better than it had yesterday. I could only take so many words and numbers floating through my mind before I felt like using the wall as a punching bag.

It was only seconds later that a shadow fell over me, "Hi!" I looked up at the hyper girl standing over me, her ever-optimistic grin in place. How she could do that without straining a muscle, I’ll never know.

Then of course, it took fewer muscles to smile than to frown. Luckily, I chose to look rather indifferent and didn’t do either. No muscles required. Anyway, I must be tired if I’m thinking about smiling and how much damage it does to your face.

"What," I replied, staring back at Spaz. I don’t understand why some people think it’s their job to try and make me more cheerful. Then again, she was like this to everybody.

"Let’s go to Tibby’s," she told me, "Everyone is going and they wanted me to ask you to come. So…will you?" She grinned again, so much that my own face was hurting.

"Sure, why not," I answered, shrugging and sliding off the bed. She pretty much rushed out the door at the thought of food. I followed behind her at a slower pace.

When we finally arrived, I saw what she meant by everyone being there. Both girls in my classes and the guys from the lodging house were there. You could barely hear anything over the talking, laughing and yelling filling the place. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the waiters who worked there. While they would be getting a lot of money, they had to put up with all of us.

Almost every booth was filled, so I decided to take an empty one near the back. Laying my hands down on the table, I placed my head down. I had no idea how much I would eventually regret it.

"What are you doing by yourself," a voice asked. I raised my head first and then my eyes. Sparks and a few others were standing there.

"Because I want to be," I replied, not really caring at the moment if it hurt their feelings.

"Can we sit here," Sparks questioned, acting as if she hadn’t heard what I had just said.

"Go ahead," I said sarcastically, reluctantly moving over to the wall, letting other people in. I doubted she would have recognized my sarcasm anyway. Stutter, Sodapop, Bookworm, and Nova sat down. Three sat on the other side, while Nova and Bookworm sat on my side. Glancing around quickly, I noticed some of the other girls sitting with the guys, obviously flirting a bit with them…one thing I would never dream of doing.

"So…anything fun going on," Sodapop asked in a sarcastic tone. Pretty much everyone knew the answer to that question…no.

"What do you think," I questioned back, rolling my eyes.

"I think you need to chill out," Stutter spoke up. I smiled slightly, knowing of my reputation of being too quiet and unemotional.

"I know, we can have a party," Sparks exclaimed.

"When," Sodapop asked, "Perhaps when we’re finally out of school. We’ve barely started and I already want out."

"Tomorrow," Sparks told her.

"We don’t get out until next year," Sodapop explained to the girl, "Until then, there’s no time for parties."

"Sure there is," Spaz appeared at our table, "Just the girls…we can all sleep-over!"

"We already live together," Nova said, "It’s not exactly something different."

"We could think of something to do," Bookworm commented, "We don’t really know each other. It could be a chance to do that."

"I wanna come too," a voice sounded…a male voice to be exact. We all turned to see who it was. Jack Kelly grinned at us from the booth behind ours.

"Girls only," Sodapop told Jack. We had met all the guys on our first day there. They eventually decided to come up and meet the crazy girls upstairs.

"Hear that guys…they aren’t gonna let us come," he said, speaking to everyone at his booth. A collective groan came from the table.

"Why not," Blink asked, peering over the back of the seat. He gave us the most pathetic look he could with one eye. I actually found it rather amusing.

"You girls still embarrassed about this morning," Jack asked.

"I think you guys should be more embarrassed," Nova pointed out, "The looks on your faces were priceless!" The girls at the table laughed as a few of the guys turned red, thinking about the experience.

"And what exactly happened this morning," a voice nobody recognized joined in. A guy turned around, resting his arm on the back of the booth, grinning at the looks on their faces.

"Who are you," Sparks asked, "I didn’t see you yesterday."

"I’m new," he said, "The bulls found me and are forcing me to go to school, staring tomorrow. I’m Comedy." He had black hair and deep brown eyes. He stood at 5 foot 8, "So, what were you talking about?"

"Nothing," Race told him quickly, "Nothing important." He was very unconvincing, but Comedy didn’t push it.

"How about Friday," Sparks asked, coming back to their previous conversation.

"That sounds like an eternity away," Stutter said, leaning her head back in slight frustration. She came face-to-face with another guy, who was turned back to listen in on their conversation. In surprise, she sat back up, groaning when their heads smacked together.

"Sorry," Swifty apologized quickly, bringing his hand back to rub at the sore spot.

"I think they gave you the wrong nickname," Stutter mumbled. Swifty looked embarrassed at this, and apologized again.

"I didn’t mean to," he told her, speaking quickly, "I was just listening and then you leaned back and smacked into me. But I was here, so maybe I knocked into you. I’m so sorry. It won’t happen again. It was just an accident."

"Don’t worry about it," Stutter cut him off, smiling at the flustered look on his face, "It was my fault too."

"Call it even," he asked and she nodded. He grinned and then turned back to his table.

"What time," Mush asked when Stutter rejoined the conversation.

"Why do you want to know," Bookworm asked him.

"Come on, it’ll be fun," Mush said, "I know some fun games."

"Spin the bottle doesn’t count," Nova commented with a smile, "Like we’ve said before…no boys allowed."

"They’re trying to ruin our fun," Mush muttered over to Blink, "I wasn’t thinking of that anyway." The girls laughed at this, not quite believing him. Even if Mush was telling the truth, the girls liked to tease the guys about the fact that girls were now taking over the lodging house.

It wasn’t until this moment that they noticed the waiter that was standing at the end of their table impatiently, ready to take down their order. He was tapping his foot against the ground and glaring at them.

"Sorry," Bookworm told him, suddenly remembering why they were there in the first place.

"What’s on the menu," Sparks asked him. The waiter sighed before listing off the foods they had in a bored voice, his eyes staring off at the ceiling. They ordered, some purposely taking their time to annoy the man, but eventually they all told what they wanted.

XXX

When they returned to the lodging house, the girls were surprised to see that two bunk beds had been placed in their room. The top of one was occupied by a new girl, who turned quickly at the sound of more people entering. She didn’t look very excited to be there. Neither did the two other girls occupying the bottom of that bunk and the top of the other.

The one who had turned had dark brown hair and hazel eyes, dark lashes surrounding them. She had olive skin and stood at about 5 foot 2. It was obvious that she was Italian.

The second girl shifted her light brown eyes to them. She had very dark brown hair, natural chestnut-brown highlights running through it. She had a trim athletic build and a long oval face. She stood at 5 foot 3, "I’m Cady Galty, but call me Ducati." She paused for a second, everyone gazing at her in confusion, "Don’t ask." Ducati pointed over to the first girl, "From what I get, her name is Isabella Angelo, but call her Blitz. After that she started rambling in Italian."

"My name is Elizabeth, but my friends call me Snow," the third girl spoke up. She had brown hair that reached her mid back and green eyes. Her hair was done up in pigtail braids. She stood at 5 foot 1 and had very fair skin.

The girls looked in on the new arrivals, wondering if this would make life any different than it had been before. They guessed that they would have to find out.

Shout-Outs:

Buttons14 – Yeah, I saw the play on words. Anyway, I’m glad you liked the chapter.

Geometrygal – Yeah, I love English too! Well obviously…I think I write a bit too much sometimes. Yeah, I like Zodiac and her fixation with astrology too.

Koodles4you – You’ll be seeing more of Knife in future chapters. Hope you liked this longer chapter.

SmartassLeprechaun – You go back to school in…30 days! Not fair, I am so jealous! I go back in a week! I don’t wanna go back, even though I’m gonna be a Senior. But my old Drama teacher retired and I’m gonna miss her. And my boyfriend already graduated!!! : (

Sparks Kelly – Yeah, I like the Queens girls. Though, it is kinda hard to write them. Hope you liked the chapter.

ShortAtntionSpaz – Hmmm, well because of the length of this chapter, do I get a longer review? I love long reviews! Actually, I don’t care what length. Sorry, it’s late, but I’m writing this anyway.

My Dog Ate My Penname – Yeah, Knife is some character. I’m glad you liked it. Hope you liked this one too.

Chapter 10