Justin awoke with a start, not completely sure of why he was awake. He'd been quite happy sleeping peacefully with the dog warming his feet by laying on them. At first it'd been hard to fall asleep what with the new noises and the light from the neighbors front porch shinning into his bedroom window. But finally drowsiness over took him around ten. Now he was pulled out of it, at what time he didn't know, for seemingly no reason.

A doorbell sounded and Playa let out a loud shriek-like whine. Was that what had woken him up? The door? Justin tossed his feet over the side and slowly headed out of the room. As soon as he opened the door Playa bolted out and down the hall, sliding to a stop infront to the door. Marcus was there, wearing black shorts, and grabbed her collar before opening the door.

There was a cheerful 'hi' which sounded like it came from a female. Marcus said nothing, but shifted his gaze down the hall. It was then that Justin realized Judy was standing next to him, (along with Steve who he didn't even know was in the house) pajamas rumpled and hair sticking up in all directions. She grunted and slowly shuffled towards the door when Marcus said, "It's for you."

She peered around the door frame before putting a hand on her hip and walking away.

"What are you doing here?"

Two girls stepped into the living room. One was short, obviously of Hispanic decent, with long brown hair with red streaks flowing down her back. She wore glasses similar to Judy's, and you could tell by her uneven skin tone that she wore no make-up, but for whatever reason it worked on her. Behind her was another girl, her hair cut short like Judy's, but because she was white and Judy was black, it hung differently. She was a plump girl too, but she was cute with a round face and button nose. Not exactly what Justin had expected when he said Judy would most likely have hot friends, but he still kept hope for the future.

"Is that how you talk to your bestfriend?" the Hispanic girl asked.

Playa wiggled her way free of Marcus and charged at the two girls. The Hispanic girl brushed her off with one hand, so Playa went after the other girl instead, jumping all around her. Marcus reached out to grab her, but Playa saw it coming and moved to the other side of the girl, out of his reach.

"Stupid dog," he muttered.

"It's fine Marcus, just leave her. They're used to Playa already," Judy said.

Her gaze then settled on the short Hispanic girl looking at her.

"At this hour, I have no friends."

"It's after eleven," the Hispanic girl defended.

"And? Your point being...?"

The Hispanic girl made a face and moved to follow Judy down the hall. Justin, mean while, stood by watching with both amusement and confusion.

"I don't understand how you can sleep so late in the day."

"That's because you're an insomniac and don't sleep at all."

"Maybe."

Judy stopped walking when Steve moved infront of her to get a better shot and she caught sight of herself in the camera lens.

"Oh my God," her hands clamped over he face and she turned away, "I've just been filed looking like complete crap. I don't have any make-up on and my hair is all over the place and my pajamas aren't cute."

"I don't have make-up on and my hair isn't done and I'm just wearing jeans and a sweatshirt."

Judy's fingers separated so she could give the Hispanic girl a look.

"Vicki..." she groaned.

The girl shrugged, "So, Juicy, introductions?" she motioned at Justin who was leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest.

"Justin, this is my supposed bestfriend Victoria, and that's Amanda over there. Amanda, Vicki, this is Justin, my new life-mate and this is Steve, the camera guy."

"Hi," Vicki waved at Justin as she looked him up and down , "God damn you tall people. Juicy, why are you always friends with people who dwarf me?"

"You're like five feet tall, most of the world dwarf's you."

"Five foot half an inch thank you. Five foot five when I put on my Chinese ho shoes."

Justin chuckled.

"Vicki, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"

Victoria shrugged.

"Boredom. We didn't have anything to do today, so we had Amanda's Grandmother drop us off."

"So you came to bug me? You knew I didn't have anything planned so you decided to come run it for me?"

Victoria grabbed Judy's arm and hugged it to herself while she batted her eyelashes.

"Think of it as enriching your day."

"To enrich my day I'd have to not only want you here, but I'd have to like you. That puts you out of the running. Amanda's still in though."

Amanda, who had taken a seat on the blue couch and was calmly petting Playa's tummy, let out a giggle that was so cute Justin had to chuckle himself.

"Whatever," Victoria sounded, letting go of Judy and heading back towards the living room.

"Just give us a few minutes to change okay?"

"Sure. We'll be downstairs."

Victoria and Amanda disappeared back into the living room, and then footsteps could be heard on the stairs, along with the sound of Play's eager feet running after them. Marcus had long sense disappeared back into his room.

"I'm sorry," Judy turned to Justin, "my friends do that sometimes, just randomly come over without any warning."

"It's cool," Justin waved it off, "Trace does exactly the same thing. I don't even have to be home for him to do it."

"Do you get as annoyed as I do?"

"Yep."

"Cool, I thought it was only me," she smirked, "well, lemme go get changed," she offered another smile before shuffling back down the hall and into her room, Justin into his.

When he emerged from his room again, having thrown on a clean shirt and mussed his hair alittle, Judy could be heard moving around in the kitchen. He walked through the hall, past her door where he could hear Crush scurrying around inside her tank, and into the kitchen to find Judy pulling a bowl out of a cabinet. Steve was zoomed in on her.

"Hi," she glanced up at him.

"Hey."

"You want?" she held up a box of 'Peanut Butter Captain Crunch.'

"Yeah, but first I gotta brush."

Judy nodded as he moved past her and over to the blue bathroom just outside the other end of the kitchen. When he returned the second time she was pulling two spoons out of a drawer.

"Just in time," she glanced at him as she shut the drawer with her hip, "I figure since we're in here I might as well tell you where everything is. Eating utensils, like forks and spoons are in this drawer, and cooking utensils, spatulas and mixing spoons and stuff are in this drawer. Dishes are in this cabinet, glasses and mugs are in the one next to it. Pots and pans are over here, the spices and stuff are in this cabinet over here. Marcus tries to hide the cookies from my mother and I on the top shelf but we know they're there anyway. Down here in this cabinet is all the canned goods, and the boxed stuff like crackers, cereal, blah blah blah. It's the same for that bottom cabinet over there," Justin followed her in a circle around the island.

"Waaay over here in this cabinet we keep all the towels and napkins and place setting stuff. And on this blue cart we keep all of Play's stuff. Her dog food, snacks, treats. These," she picked up a yellow box, "are her favorite."

"Scooby Snacks?" Justin laughed.

"Yep. She loved them. Can't get enough."

Proving Judy's point, Playa, having heard the rustling of the treats when Judy picked up the box, charged up the stairs and right into her master. Both her paws planted firmly in Judy's gut. The girl left out a grunt and stumbled backwards alittle at the force, before giving Justin a look as if to say, "See."

Judy set the box back in the cart and walked away. Playa sat down next to it, her nose gesturing towards it as she let out low whines.

"But she's only allowed to get one when she does something really good. For example, we're trying to train her to not run away every time we open the front door, so when she doesn't, she gets a Scooby Snack."

Having recognized the words, Playa's whines got alittle louder. Judy was immune to it though.

"Got cha," Justin said, "So, where's Diane? She still asleep?"

"She's at work. She's always at work. Sometimes, between our schedules, it'll be three or four days before I see her face."

"Where does she work?"

"The Sears Appliance Outlet store in San Leandro. She's the manager on the back forty lot, but they like to make her run the entire store, the result is really long hours."

Her tone lowered and became somewhat sad as she looked away, a wistful look on her face. But a split second later, she was back to her normal self, smiling at him.

"Here you go," she handed him one of the bowls before leading the way out of the room and down the stairs to the family room.

Playa opted to stay in the kitchen and stare at the box instead of following them.

Victoria and Amanda were seated side by side in the middle of the sofa, lazily staring at the TV screen.

"What took you so long?" Amanda asked.

Judy shrugged.

"Well, it's a good thing you're here. Amanda was doing her Kevin Bacon thing."

"Oh God," Judy's eyes rolled as she sat down.

"Her Kevin Bacon thing?" Justin questioned as he chomped down on a spoonful of cereal from a nearby chair.

"Amanda here can link any actor back to Kevin Bacon," Vicki explained.

"Right," Justin said.

"No, seriously I can. Give me someone."

Justin pondered for a moment.

"Uma Thermon."

"Easy," Amanda rattled off some movie names and sure enough Kevin Bacon came up in the end.

"Hmm," he sounded. Interesting.

"Give me another."

Judy amused her friend and named Hilary Swank and she flipped the channel from Mad TV despite Vicki's protests. Amanda rattled off more movie names and Justin noticed how neither Vicki or Judy seemed to really be paying all that much attention. Victoria gave another name, then proceeded to argue with Judy about the TV when she stopped on a show called 'The Look For Less'.

Once Amanda was done, a pleased look on her face, Vicki laid her head on the girl's thigh and said, "You know, you could just be naming all these people and movies and stuff cause I don't know the difference between one or the other, I wouldn't be able to tell you if you were right or not."

"Trust me, I'm right," Amanda said.

"I'm listening to her. She's right," Judy said.

A few minutes later, Judy had apparently become annoyed with Amanda's Kevin Bacon thing, and named Veronica Lake.

"Veronica Lake huh? Hmm... I'm going to have to think about that one. Hang on," Amanda tapped her chin with her pointer finger.

"Now that we have some time," Judy leaned forward to set her bowl on the coffee table, "what did you guys expect us to do all day? Justin, come sit over here. You're a buddy now, buddies don't sit in chairs. Those are for people we don't like," she waved him over, "like Steve."

While Steve shot her a playfully dirty look, Justin stood, set his bowl on the table, and sat down next to her on the couch. She gave him a reassuring smile and patted his leg before turning to her friends.

"So, what did you guys want to do?"

"Don't know. What were you two going to do?"

"Nothing," Judy laughed, "I'm not going anywhere or doing anything."

"Judy, you're never not doing anything or going anywhere."

"Well, today is that day my friend."

The green rotary dial phone on the other side of the room rang and Judy stood up to answer. With Amanda's pillow now gone, she fell against Justin and looked up at him with a smile.

"Hi," she said shyly.

"Hi," he had to grin at the nervousness in her eyes. Finally some normalcy. He was used to nervous 17 year old girls staring at him.

"You're... you're really big," she said, her voice meek and innocent.

Justin's eyes widened, wondering what she was looking at exactly.

"You're lucky I like you," Judy said with a smile into the receiver. She was quiet for a moment, "Umm-hmm... call me when you find out okay? All right, talk to you later."

She hung up and strolled back over to the couch, sitting down in her previous position.

"Well, we're not going anywhere today. But how does everyone feel about Cory and Sean coming over?"

"No! I cannot be in the same room with Cory. Every time I'm around that fool he attacks me. Remember when we went to Target and he was throwing those big bouncy balls at me?"

Judy began laughing hysterically at the memory and Justin decided right then and there that she had a killer laugh.

"You have a kick ass laugh," he told her. She only laughed harder and his brow furrowed.

"Sorry," she began once she started to sober up, "it's just, I hear that a lot, but it's always from girls. Girls always think I have a cool laugh and guys always think I sound like a witch."

"Well, I could see that."

Judy made a face and popped him gently on the arm.

"Hey!" she protested, "You better be nice to me mister," she instructed.

He merely nodded with a smile.

"My arm is falling asleep. Why are you laying on me anyway?" Amanda looked down at Vicki.

"Because, your closest to me. I'd sit on Judy but I'd have to climb over you."

"You're not sitting on me," Judy said, "I'm not a chair."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are-Juicy you know you're our official chair, just deal with it."

"I'm not a chair!" Judy exclaimed.

"What are you guys talking about?" Justin inquired.

"They always try to sit on me. Her, Juliet, Sean, everyone."

Justin's face only got more confused. Vicki noticed and sat up, then flung her hair to one side of her head before looking at him.

"She is hella comfortable. She's the honorary chair, she just needs to except that and move on."

"And she's hella soft too," Amanda piped up, grabbing Judy's wrist and running her hand back and forth over her forearm.

"That she is too. Her skin's hella soft, and so it her hair," Vicki leaned over Amanda and started running her hand over Judy's hair.

"Would you people stop petting me!" Judy gave them both looks and she leaned away from them, closer to Justin.

She turned and looked up at him, her voice lowering as if she didn't want them to hear, even though she really did.

"I'm sorry, I also forgot to warn you that my friends are freaks."

"Hey!" a pillow hit her in the back of the head.

"Hello?" Judy was on the phone once again an hour later, "Hey Cory, are you on your way yet?"

"Man," Vicki muttered, "I don't wanna hang out with that fool."

"Don't worry," Amanda patted Vicki's head, "I'll protect you."

Vicki laughed, wanting to remind Amanda that Cory was taller than both of them.

"What are you talkin about? Where are you walking too?" Judy's voice echoed through the room.

"What is that fool doing?" Vicki asked.

"He and Sean are walking to his Dad's house," Judy moved the phone away long enough to answer Vicki's question and then put it back to her ear, "What? I can't hear you. Why are you walking to your Dad's house? To get shoes?"

Vicki made a noise and exchanged a look with Amanda.

"What the hell is he doing? He left his house to go to his Dad's house to get shoes? What's wrong with the shoes he's wearing?"

Judy plugged one ear, her way of telling Vicki to shut up, and tried to listen to what Cory was telling her. But curiosity got the best of her.

"Cory? What's wrong with the shoes your wearing? You're not wearing shoes? Are you atleast wearing socks? Cory you know they're doing construction over there, why are you walking down the street barefoot?"

Vicki and Amanda started to laugh, loudly, and Judy shushed them.

"He's such an idiot!" Vicki exclaimed.

Judy wanted to tell them to be nice, but when Cory started screeching like a girl into the phone about stepping on rocks, she had to laugh herself.

"He's so dumb. Oh my God Amanda, how can you have a crush on that guy?"

Amanda shrugged, her cheeks turning rosy.

"I don't. I just thought he was cute when I first saw him."

"And kept me up all night talking about him."

"Ok thanks Vicki," Amanda gave her a stern look. Vicki just giggled to herself.

"Sweetie, do you want me to come pick you up?... Are you sure?... Okay. See you in a bit. Bye."

Judy went to sit down again and put her sock covered feet on the table.

"They're on their way in a minute."

"Call them back and tell them not to come over because we're leaving," Vicki said.

"But we're not leaving."

"So. They don't know that."

"Victoria..." Judy said, her tone chastising. "Fine, fine, whatever."

Turned out that Cory and Sean never made an appearance. Cory called back 10 minutes later, complaining that his feet hurt and he didn't feel like going anywhere anymore. Judy managed to surpress her giggles until she was off the phone with him. She knew he could hear Victoria mocking him in the background and she didn't want to further hurt his feelings.

The two girls hung around until seven-thirty that evening, when Judy kicked them out, saying she had to go over school stuff with Justin, and then get to bed early. Victoria told her she lived like an old person, before calling her ride to come get her. Judy was one of only three people who had their license out of the whole 'crew.'

"Kinda sucks I didn't get to meet Cory and Sean."

"It's alright. I need to prepare you for them anyway. Victoria and Amanda are enough for one day, wouldn't want to scare you away," Judy smiled and grabbed a hold of his hand.

She drug him into her bedroom and pushed him down to sit on the bed, Steve staying by the doorway so he got a full view of her room.

"Now," she said walking to the other side of the room and picking up two backpacks, "let's go over school stuff," she sat down next to him and put a blue backpack in his lap.

Justin looked at it oddly before setting it on the bed next to him and unzipping it. Inside were six binders, all different colors.

"Okay, so, you're lucky you came a couple weeks after the start of the semester, otherwise, it'd have been total chaos with both of us trying to figure out what's going on."

She took him through all the binders, explaining that they were already organized for him, and all the papers he would need were already in them, all he would need to do is keep up during the rest of the year.

"Now, this is the binder reminder, it's the school's little version of a day planner and I know it sounds lame but it actually works. Without this and my cellphone, I'm lost. I write down all my plans, school and non-school in here," he nodded along, "I filled out yours up until last Friday for you, you can continue it tomorrow if you want. But it's handy when your doing homework, because you can look at whatever club or whatever you have the next day, and know what your going to need the next day."

Justin nodded along with her, only half listening. School, binders, homework, now he remembered why he decided to get a tutor instead of going to a real school.

"Like tomorrow, we have a BSU meeting."

"BSU?"

"Black Student Union. I'm president of that club, and we're going to talking about Black History Month pamphlets that we're putting together, and a Relief Effort that I'm thinking of doing."

"What's the Relief Effort about?"

"Lots of things."

"Like?"

"Like, FGC."

"Huh?"

"Genital Cutting."

Justin's face squinted up and he squirmed.

"That's all I need to know. Thanks."

"I wasn't going to go into the gory details, wimp. The Relief Effort is for woman in Kenya that have been victims of FGC, as well as girls in Romania that are suffering a modern form of slavery, sex trafficking and forced into early marriages, and Native American women right here in the US that have been victims of sexual assault, because they're numbers are the highest of all minorities."

Justin just watched her for a moment, impressed with her explanation.

"I read about it in Seventeen magazine, it talked about some of the women and then gave the address's of where you could send donations, and I figured, 'hey, I know something that could help.'"

"That's really cool."

She shrugged modestly.

"Well, there's still a lot of work to be done, and only a few days to do it in, I'm not even sure we can pull it off yet. But anyway, that's what we'll be talking about tomorrow."

"So what else is on the list for tomorrow?" he peered down at the open planner in her lap.

"Not much, second period we have Spanish-."

"What's first period?"

"We don't have a first period. There's so many kids at Central Valley High that there's two different schedule options. First through sixth period, or second through seventh. I chose the second through seventh so I could sleep late."

"Ahh," he nodded.

"So, Spanish. I hate this class, I hate it with a passion. I never ever ever want to go, most of the time I skip it and go to Starbucks, but I didn't do all that great last semester so I really gotta try and pull grade up this time."

"What'd you get?"

"A C+."

Oh yeah. Big deal, like that was the worst thing a Senior could get.

"Third period, Government. We have a teacher named Ms. Break. A lot of people don't like her, but I actually think she's kinda cool. She's smart. This would probably be my favorite class if Trisha weren't in it."

"Can't stand her?" his eyes glanced at Steve when he lowered himself onto the floor infront of them and pointed the camera up.

"Nope. I'm a liberal, and I'm totally against the death penalty, but home girl is evil and needs to be destroyed."

Justin chuckled.

"She says stuff like all homosexuals should be killed, and everyone should have to speak English in America because it annoys her when she goes to Jack In the Box and can't understand the person taking her order. She thinks that we shouldn't allow immigrants, and that schools shouldn't get more federal funding because she went to several different Pleasanton private schools and there was nothing wrong there."

"Don't private schools get tuition from their students?" Justin asked.

"Yep. So what the hell would she know about the public school systems and the fact that a lot of them are getting rundown?"

"Sounds like a piece of work."

"She is. Especially considering she's Puerto Rican and speaks Spanish at home. And she's total hypocrite because she'll say we need stricter punishment for criminals, but then she drinks and drives, and has purse parties, which aren't exactly legal, and all this other stuff," Judy was getting riled up at just the thought of the girl.

Her eyes were turning cold and her breathing picked up.

"Whoa, take a breath Zena before you hurt yourself," Justin squeezed her shoulder as she sighed.

"I'm sorry, I just can't stand that girl. I have to hear her comments all period because I sit right behind her."

"Here, let's move on. Fourth period?"

"Fourth is Advanced Photography, which is pretty fun, but it can be stressful. Mr. Tiffany, my teacher, is always on my case about assignments. We're doing this school service folder thing for the district office, and he's down my back everyday about how many pictures me and Amelia have taken."

"Amelia?"

"She's my partner for the assignment. Usually we work alone but the class figured it'd be easier if we paired up with someone. The plus side is, if the district uses any of my pictures, me and Amelia get $50."

"That's a nice chunk of change."

He made that in 30 seconds during his normal work day, but he felt no need to say that. The proud grin she was sporting was too cute to ruin.

"For spending three seconds taking one picture, I'd say it is. Anyway this class has both Beginning and Advanced photo students mixed together. So when I'm not working, I'm explaining to someone how to do something else."

"Do you have a dark room?"

"Ofcourse. How else are you going to develop your own film?"

"Sweet."

Judy smiled at his eagerness. For the first time since he'd gotten there, he actually looked excited about something.

"But I usually work on digital, so I'm rarely back there."

Justin frowned.

"But I suppose we'll do one assignment traditionally so I can show you the ropes."

"Awesome!"

"Yeah, awesome. Now listen we still have more classes. Fifth period we have photography again."

"Why?"

"Well, the class is officially called 'School Service' and I was in the main office last semester, but this semester this girl Anna, who is also in our fourth period photo class was put in there with me, and we just do not get along."

"Why?"

"I don't know. She's just a bitch. I go out of my way to be nice, and she just looks me up and down and mutters behind my back. She's evil like Trisha. Actually they're good friends."

Justin snorted.

"Now, fifth period we are there to help out Mr. Tiffany and the beginning students. But usually it's just go to his box, mix chemicals in the back, and then we can work on our own projects."

"Got it. Next."

"Next is lunch. Monday's we have BSU, Tuesdays we have Amnesty International meetings, Wednesdays we have American Red Cross meetings, Thursdays we have JSA meetings, and Fridays we have Spectrum meetings."

"What's JSA?"

"Junior Statesmen of America. It's like the debate team only cooler because we actually get to meet our governmental representatives."

Justin gave her a look that clearly read 'nerd.'

"Don't know it."

"It's cool," she insisted.

There was the nerd look again.

"Don't knock it. Drop the fact that you're in this organization during an interview and it'll get you to the top of the list for any internship you want."

"Whatever. Tell me about Spectrum."

"Gay and Straight Alliance."

He nodded.

"These are the clubs we'll usually have, some days we'll have to go somewhere else like a Link Crew meeting or a Peer Mediators meeting or a Drama Club meeting."

"Your a Peer Mediator?"

"Ofcourse. People say that I have a calming effect on others."

His eyebrow raised as he held back the remark.

"You know what?" she said, "Stop it. Pay attention, this is important. Yes, we are now Peer Mediators, we are also Link Crew leaders. Basically, we look after 37 freshmen and make sure their year is going well and try to help them transition. It's actually pretty cool."

"Sounds like it."

"I know you're just saying that to humor me. Now, sixth period we have Math. It sucks more than Spanish. I hate it. Now basic addition? That was fun. Anyway, there's some cool people in there, like this kid Doug that sits behind me. If not for him I probably wouldn't even go."

Justin was dying to ask if she liked this guy Doug, but he didn't.

"Seventh period we have Journalism. I'm a co-buisness manager/staff writer."

"And that means what?"

"Well, it means I make sure all the ads are getting paid by the companies on time, and that all the newspapers are getting out to the subscribers on time, and that I write the occasional feature or opinion from time to time."

"Mulitasker."

"You know it. This class gets to be the most stressful and a lot of the time I'm in there just wondering why the hell I took it again, but for whatever reason I keep sticking it out."

"Why?"

She shrugged, "Just don't have the heart to leave I guess. Been doing it for three years. Plus I figure that if the other 30 people in the class can suffer through it, so can I. Who am I too back out on then during the final stretch of the year and create all this unneeded drama?"

He nodded, "They said something about you being a singer/actress?"

"Yeah. That's kinda on hold right now because of all this school stuff, but towards the end of the year we might start having Monday night, Wednesday night, and Friday night classes."

"Classes?"

"Yeah, on how to model, act, sing. Things like that. Training I guess. My turned down version of the Mickey Mouse Club you could say."

"Fun fun fun."

She gave him a sarcastic smile and shoved her reminder back into her backpack.

"Any questions?"

Justin was busy glancing at the clock, wondering why she wasn't half asleep yet.

"Isn't it past your bedtime?"

"Not on Sunday nights. Sunday nights it's 9:30."

"Why?"

"Because, the new Sex and the City episodes are on at nine. Speaking of which," she reached across him and picked up the remote.

She turned the TV on and changed to the appropriate channel in one swift motion. Justin watched with amusement as she made herself comfortable and started with unwavering interest as the theme music started.

"You know-," he started.

"Are you staying?" she asked.

He didn't really answer, but watched her, waiting to see what she'd say next.

"Cause if your staying, you have to learn the Sex and the City rules. Rule number one, is no speaking unless spoken to. Rule number two, when spoken to all answers are to be 5 words or shorter and said as quickly as humanly possible."