disclaimer: characters not mine. ms. martin owns them. most of them :)

a/n: i wrote this a loooong time ago, so if some of the story lines seem off it's because i wrote this before things like mallory left for riverbend and mary anne's house burned down... i wrote this in MY bsc world :)

One.

Mary Anne

I look at my watch.

I smooth my hair.

I adjust my bookbag on my shoulder.

I look at my watch again.

Jesus. Where is this girl?

From about five feet away, I hear Dawn sigh loudly. I ignore her.

I look at my watch again.

"Mary Anne I want to i go. /i " Dawn says in her usual whiney way.

"Calm down. Start walking if you don't want to wait." I snapped back at her. I have no patience with my step-sister these days. Other than occasionally running into eachother at home and the ride to and from school, I pretty much ignore her. From what I gather, the feeling is mutual. She's whining because we are standing at my locker and school ended 10 minutes ago. Dawn doesn't have her license and I am her only chance for a ride.

Dawn doesn't respond - she never does. She just sighs again and crosses her arms across her chest.

"Mary Anne!"

I spin around and here she comes. Petite, long bleached blonde hair, heavy makeup, short skirt. It still amazes me how much Kristy Thomas has changed. I see her around all the time, of course, but it still comes as a shock. The second week of freshman year she started dating a boy named Derek Higgins and dropped out all of our lives completely. No explanation. Slowly her hair and clothes changed, and she started hanging out with a new crowd, the crowd Derek belonged to, which mostly consisted of wannabe musicians and burnouts. By Sophmore year she had quite a reputation for being easy. Of course by then all of us former baby-sitters had pretty much gone our seperate ways. And then, out of the blue, one week before graduation, I open my locker to find a not from Kristy requesting a meeting after school. I considered not bothering but morbid curiosity overcame me.

Kristy ran to us, breathless. "Sorry I'm late, Mrs. Houston was being a total bitch. I don't know why she bothers this late in the game... hey, Dawn!"

Dawn gave Kristy a dirty look and went back to sulking.

Doesn't faze Kristy a bit. "So how have you been? Valedictorian Mary Anne Spier! Wow, right?"

"Yeah, wow. What's this about Kristy?"

She looked a little surprised at my bluntness. She isn't the only one who's changed. I got blonde highlights a spine over the past four years. "Oh, well... I was thinking we could go somewhere and talk... maybe eat..."

With a final heavy sigh from Dawn, she walks away, Probably to walk home. I don't say anything to her. I merely reguard Kristy with suspicion.

Kristy stares back at me evenly. "Look, I know you don't trust me and I hurt you and we haven't really spoken in three years, but just give me an hour, okay? I want to make things right before it's all over."

I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I know that isn't all there is to it."

"Well, I have an idea..."

Of course she does. It's kind of comforting to know that Kristy is still her old self somewhere in there. "One hour."

Her face broke out in bright smile. "Great. I'll drive. Want to go to the Rosebud?"

I shrug at her and start walking toward the parking lot. We push open the doors and Kristy is fumbling with keys. She pushes a button and disarms the alarm on a brand-new black BMW. I forget to be chilly for a moment. "This is i your /i car?" I ask, stupified. I'd seen the car in the lot the past couple weeks and had admired and envied it.

Kristy grinned. "Graduation present. Watson. He spoils me. Mom was pissed."

I opened the passenger door and slid into the lush automobile, looking around in envy. "Wow."

"Thanks."

I suddenly remembered I was being cool with her and wiped the stupid smile off my face. I said nothing more, and neither did she. She started up the car, and blasted hip-hop over a chest-thumping sound system. We arrived at the Rosebud Cafe within about three minutes. Kristy didn't seem to care about speed limits.

There were quite a few cars parked in front of the Rosebud Cafe, all of them belonging to SHS students. My breath hitched slightly when I saw the Taurus belonging to Logan Bruno, but went ahead anyway. Kristy gave me a funny look as she held the door open for me.

"So what's this idea of yours?" I asked before we had even sat down, scanning the room for Logan.

"Mallory! Hey!" Kristy called out, ignoring me.

Mallory Pike was crowded into a booth with six other girls. I do not like Mallory at all. Once she straightened her hair and put in contacts, she turned into the same superficial brat as all of the other "popular" girls. She looked up and grinned at Kristy, who was waving her over. Figures they would be friends.

As she made her way over to us, she was stopped suddenly when a guy stood directly in front of her. It was Logan.

I watched, trying not to be interested, as Logan placed his hand on Mallory's hip and whispered in her ear. Mallory giggled uncomfortably, her eyes meeting with mine momentarily.

"What's with that?" Kristy asked quietly from beside me.

"You guys are friends, I thought you would know." I snapped back, then grimaced. That came out a little more bitchy than I had intended. "Sorry."

"It's okay. What ever happened between you guys anyway?"

"Oh... it's nothing." Nobody knew what happened between Logan and I, and I intended to keep it that way.

Logan and I had enjoyed an on/off relationship for some time, but in junior year we had decided to stop being silly and be serious about eachother. It had been a wonderful six months, and I had truly believed I was in love with him. When junior prom rolled around, Logan booked us a limo... and a hotel room. I had not objected. I felt we were ready. We'd spent the prom in a dream state, and the limo ride to the hotel had been very touchy feely. We got in the room, we took off our clothes, we lay in bed... and I changed my mind. I stopped Logan and said I just couldn't do it.

Logan did not agree. And we were in such a posistion that he could just go ahead before I could do anything about it. I had pleaded with him to stop, but it was too late... so I had just laid there with tears streaming down my face while he stole my virginity. One thing to be thankful for, he finished quickly. As soon as he was done I had rolled over, curled into a ball, and sobbed. He had tried to console me, apologize, touch me, but I just kept crying. After what seemed like hours (but in reality had been only 45 minutes after we had gone into the room) he silently got dressed and left. We haven't spoken to eachother since.

I could not take my eyes off of Logan's hand on Mallory's hip. Something was going on there.

Finally he let her go and she joined us at our table. "Hey Mary Anne!" she said happily, as if she had not just been flirting with my ex-boyfriend.

"Hey." I replied, giving her a look that made her squirm.

"So, my idea." Kristy said loudly. She could see the tension.

"Right! Isn't it great, Mary Anne?" Mallory asked.

"I don't know it yet."

"Oh! Kristy did you want me to tell her?" Kristy nodded. "Okay, well, Mom got the house in Sea City again, as usual. But we have some problems. Nicky and Byron have to go to summer school, among other things. So the other day, Mom calls Kristy tol tell her the trip's being canceled -"

"I was supposed to go to help out." Kristy interjected. "So I ask her to wait a few days to cancel, because maybe I could take the two weeks. I knew Watson would pay for it. So I got to thinking... who could I bring?"

Kristy and Mallory stared at me, grinning expectantly.

"Who?" I asked. Clueless.

"The Baby-Sitter's Club!" Kristy squealed.

Finally I got it. "Oh... oh. Kristy, I don't know... I mean, you guys have your crowd, I have mine, Dawn's an alien, Jessi's in New York... and Abby..."

"It would be good for Abby. I think it would be good for all of us. Two weeks on the beach, no parents..."

I was still skeptical. "I don't know if they'll go for it." By "they" I meant Claudia Kishi and Stacey McGill. Us three are a tight group.

"You can't say that unless you ask them, Mary Anne." Kristy said quietly, her face falling.

Looking at Kristy's face, I felt a tug on my heart. I may try to be cool and collected, but I'm still a sucker for a sad face. "Okay. I'll ask them."

"Great!" Kristy jumped up. "Let's go now! Mal, you need a ride home?"

Next thing I knew we were all crowded into Kristy's car, talking excitedly. The more I thought about it, the more fun it sounded. It had been almost four years since we had all been friends, and I missed the old group.

We pulled into Mallory's driveway, and I headed across the backyard to Stacey's house while they ran inside to tell Mrs. Pike. I let myself in Stacey's back door calling her name.

"Upstairs!" She shouted back.

I went up the stair and found Stacey in her room at her computer. "Are you doing homework?"

"Nah. downloading some songs Claudia sent me. I didn't even hear you pull up!"

"Actually.. I came here with Kristy and Mallory."

Stacey raised her eyebrows and turned to me to give me her full attention. I explained Kristy's idea to her quickly. "I know it sounds dumb, I don't even know why I'm asking you..."

"Actually..." Stacey said softly. "I think it sounds great."

I was silent, waiting for an explanation.

"Mary Anne, don't you remember how much fun you and I had there? I know it's been a long time and some of us have gone our seperate ways, but it's still i us /i . I think it would be totally fun."

I nodded in agreement. "You know, it was pretty easy to talk to Kristy just now, even after all of this time."

Stacey's computer beeped. "Hey! Claudia's sending me a message. I'm going to tell her to come over."

The doorbell rang. I heard Kristy calling our names. I grinned. "I'll go let them in."

I rushed downstairs and opened the door. Kristy and Mallory barreled in, laughing. "Claudia's coming over." I told them.

"Awesome! Call Dawn!" Kristy replied.

Trying not to be negative, I agreed and called my house. Dawn picked up after three rings. I explained the situation to her and got silence.

"Dawn?"

"What?"

"So what do you think?"

More silence. Then a sigh. "You mean you actually want me to come?"

No. "Of course they want you to come. Come over to Stacey's right now, okay? Everyone's here."

Even more silence. Then, finally, "I guess." and the phone hung up.

That's what's to be expected from Dawn these days. I carried the phone to the front porch, where I could hear Kristy, Stacey, and Mallory talking excitedly. "We're waiting for Claudia." Stacey informed me.

"Order a pizza, I'm starving." Kristy said, gesturing to the phone in my hand. "I'm buying."

I smiled to myself at Kristy's bossiness and dialed Pizza Express. This could be interesting.