Stoneybrook Ayr

That's it, they've GRADUATED!

The students sat in their seats, playing with their navy and white caps and gowns. Some turned to wave to friends and family, some whispered with classmates sitting near them, and some slouched in their chairs, ready for the ceremony to start.

It had taken four years, some felt like the time had passed in no time at all, others felt it had dragged out forever. All the winter lodge trips, boy toy auctions, homecomings, proms, dances, parties. The trips to Disney World, California, Australia. The hook ups, the break ups, the scandals. This class had been through a lot together, and this was it. The end. Graduation.

"Mariah!" Dave exclaimed, knocking on the door he knew was hers.

He was going to go crazy thinking about his sister. He knew his mom was working a lot before he left, but he hoped she didn't forget that Dave wasn't home and that Janey couldn't be left by herself. He had tried to make arrangements for her to stay at friends houses as much as possible, but he wasn't sure how that was working. In all the previous years Dave had made sure that Janey went to their aunt's house in New Hampshire, and missed school the week he was at the Lodge, but this year his aunt was overseas and Dave was anxious.

He bit his lip as he waited for Mariah to open the door.

Mariah's mother had been glad to have her babysit her brother so she could get out of the house and get some Christmas shopping done, and she was looking forward to her cookie baking session with Dave and his sister as well. It would be fun. James was watching some television while they waited for their guests to arrive.

Mariah had seen the latest blog entry that Flair had made and had been very confused. She had been pretty sure that those things the blogger had said were just jokes, at least until Cokie had confirmed that she and Logan were really expecting a baby. She didn't really have an opinion on them, but she had noticed that Mary Anne had looked quite upset since the news had broken. That was why she'd decided to visit her.

She rang the doorbell, and waited for a response.

Mariah was bored, which was a bit dangerous considering it was a Wednesday night and there was little to do in Stoneybrook, so shed decided to go get a coffee. There was no one there that she was really friends with, but there was Dave, and he looked lonely. Mariah hated when people were lonely.

"Hi," she said, dropping into the seat across from him. "How are you?"

Mariah and Nicole had decided to go see a movie together, and they'd finally picked Breaking Dawn Pt. Two. It had been a long time since they'd hung out, but Mariah was glad she'd made plans to get together with her.

"So what's new?" She asked

Mariah had just about gotten over the fact that she hadn't been getting any good parts in any shows when an actual speaking role fell into her lap. She was just so excited that she had to tell someone, and the only one around was Miranda.

She sighed. It wasn't that she didn't love her twin -- she did -- it was more that her twin didn't exactly care for soap operas. Or really Mariah acting in them.

"Guess what," she said, expectantly.

To: Mariah Shillaber
From: Alexandra Noelle Gentile
Subject: Hangin out

Hey Mariah,
it's Andi! Do you wanna hang out someday? I wanna talk about our aspiring careers. Nobody really gets me but you do. You know what it's like to sacrifice everything to become what you dream of. Please get back to me!

Xoxo Andi Noelle

Cary put down his binoculars and sighed. Nothing interesting was going on in his neighborhood. For reasons unknown to him, his neighbors decided to be boring tonight. It was a shame too. He thought it was going to be the night the unmarried couple two doors down were going to break up.

With a frown, Cary climbed down his fortress where the Riddler, his dog, was waiting for him with his leash in his mouth. He took the leash and petted the Riddler affectionately. "I get the hint. It can't be anymore boring out there," he said as he attached the leash to his dog's collar.

Once he was sure the Riddler wouldn't break free, Cary led his dog out of the yard and down the street. When they reached the corner of his block, the Riddler decided they needed to go left. Cary let the dog lead the way. It was much more preferable than sitting around waiting for his neighbors get interesting. Two blocks later, Cary saw a classmate walking around and gently got the Riddler to go in the right direction. "Good night for a walk," he commented, deciding not to go with 'the eagle has landed' for his opening. "Do you do this often?"

Mariah hadn't made cheerleading.

Truthfully, Mariah hadn't expected to make cheerleading, but she was still upset about not making cheerleading.

She was also a bit confused about the conversation she'd had the other day with Miranda, but Mariah was always confused so that wasn't new.

So she'd decided to call Andi and invite her over. It was better than being sad and confused all alone.

"Hi," she said dully as she opened the door. "I'm making cookies."

After spending most of the evening watching TV in her room, Miranda went down to the kitchen for a soda.  She was considering going out for awhile, since being home was boring her to death.  She had just went into the kitchen when she saw Mariah by the refrigerator.

"Grab me a Dr. Pepper?" she asked Mariah as she sat at the table and leaned her chair all the way back.  She put her feet up on the table top and kicked her slippers off.

Great Barrier Reef
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_barrier_reef

Afternoon: Whale Watching
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_watching_in_Sydney

The flight from LA to Melbourne was long, but most of the travellers slept through the night. A full day was planned, which is an important step towards beating jetlag.

*

Mariah was officially bored. The gap between New York and the trip to Australia had been longer -- and duller -- than she'd anticipated -- and she was fed up with Stoneybrook, Connecticut, and the fact that there was nothing to do there.

So she carried Patches downstairs and found Miranda in the living room with the television on. She sighed, loudly, and dramatically.

"Miranda, I'm bored," Mariah said, whining loudly. "There's like nothing to do here."

After the encounter she'd had with Diana, Mariah had come home, thoroughly annoyed. She'd just been trying to be nice and Diana had been so mean and Mariah hadn't really understood what she'd been saying half the time and basically Mariah was really confused. This was typical for her, to be honest.

She arrived home to find that she'd received two new scripts -- one for The Bold and the Beautiful and one for The Young and the Restless -- and that Miranda was sitting at the table opposite them. She sighed. But she sat anyways because Miranda was her twin and she wasn't the one she was annoyed with anyways.

"Hi," she said, softly. "What have you been up to?"

Mariah was again bored. She'd had to get out of the house -- her brother and sister were both annoying her -- and so she'd found herself downtown yet again. This time, Andi was nowhere in sight.

However, Diana Roberts was. And she'd spotted Mariah. Mariah held back a sigh.

"Hey," she said, cautiously. "How are you?"

They had been going to school together for years and there was simply no reason for her to be impolite.

Perhaps it was time to admit that soap operas were not going to be Mariah's big break after all. That going to New York and being extras and getting bit parts in the shows was a colossal waste of time. That Miranda was right -- she was never really cut out to be an actress. Mariah couldn't do that. She couldn't admit that her dream was not exactly coming to fruition. That being Dead Body Number Three or Angry Runaway wasn't exactly high art. Mariah didn't care.

Still, she had spent the first month and a half of summer vacation out in New York, and her return to Stoneybrook was not met with a lot of attention. Miranda had her life...and Mariah wasn't really into that.

So on day two of being back in Stoneybrook, Mariah Shillaber found herself aimlessly walking downtown, with no particular destination in mind.

And then -- out of the blue -- she spotted someone she knew. An old friend, even.

"Hey," she called, trying to get the person's attention. "Do you want to hang out?"