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.

Heather glared at Cary as she walked past him to put the pizza boxes down on the table in their corner of the bowling alley. Instead of pre-ordering them over the internet and having his mom bring them over like a normal person would, Cary handed her a fifty dollar bill and told her to use her own judgment when it came to toppings. Then he insisted that she leave her backpack behind. She ended up waiting for almost an hour without nothing to distract her. Only the thought of humiliating Cary on the lanes kept her from going insane.

She grabbed her backpack as she glanced around at the people should would be spending a couple of hours with. This was an interesting group of people involved. Only with Cary would it be even possible. If anyone had told Heather she would be bowling with Mary Anne Spier back in the day, she would have laughed in their face. Now the joke was on her younger self. "We have one medium veggie, one medium pepperoni, and one large meat lovers," she said as she as she handed everyone a plate for their pizza. "Let's chow down so we can crush Cary."

Sunny had finally mustered up her courage to have a conversation with RJ -- Katie was right, she really had to stop acting like a preteen with a crush on him -- and she had decided to do so during lunch.

She slid into the chair across from him and beamed at him.

"Can I sit here?" Sunny asked, hoping the answer was yes.

Katie wanted to know what Sunny had done about RJ. She hadn't been at school for the week; nobody had wanted her to go, especially her mom. She was scared they might call social services on her, which Krysia had already done once. Luckily Katie's step dad was the perfect husband, and her siblings were too scared to be anything but Lovely and mom, well, mom was mom. She could convince anybody of her excellence if it was just for a few hours. Then the shakes began. Katie's mom had been pretty once; Katie took after her mostly, but now her hair was a bleached shade of blonde that wasn't kept neat, her body was nearly as emaciated as her daughter's and her eyes were frequently clouded over. Come to think of it, mom and daughter did have their similarities still.

Katie texted Sunny.

what are the happs with RJ?

Sunny had had to go to the A&P to get some random things -- the days that she had had to do the grocery shopping for her family had passed, but she still needed snacks -- and she had sort of been at least a little bit hoping to not run into Logan.

It wasn't like she didn't want to see him, it was more she didn't know how to deal with him. For all her trouble back in Palo, Sunny hadn't actually known anyone who had been pregnant or who had gotten a girl pregnant. It was just awkward.

Still, there he was, and she didn't want to be rude, so she smiled nervously at him. He was her friend after all.

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

"What do you think of this?" Mary Anne asked, holding up a light blue babydoll dress. She was already eyeing a pair of black leggings to wear underneath on a rack a few over.

She grinned over at Sunny, "I kinda like it...but I don't know if I can pull it off."

They had decided to head over to the mall after school that day and look for some clothes that spoke Spring out to them.

Mary Anne was sitting in one of the many over-sized armchairs that the main room had in the lodge. But she wasn't just in any armchair - it was the one she had been coming to for as many years as they had come to the lodge. It was the perfect one - in the perfect location, where she could feel the warmth from the fireplace, but stare meaninglessly out the humongous window that covered most of the wall the fireplace was on. It was so comforting to her and her favorite place to snuggle with a blanket and read.

She heard someone plunk down into the chair next to her, and raised her eyebrows over her book to see who. It was Sunny. She placed a bookmark into the fold of the pages, and set the book down into her lap. "Hey," she smiled warmly, "this is a good spot to warm up."

"Tell me again why we have to be here," Sunny demanded of Katie, zipping her sweatshirt up as far as it could go. "I want to go home," she added in a whine. "There's snow everywhere."

There was snow in Stoneybrook too, but it wasn't so cold there.

"Are you having fun?"

The students arrived at the Lodge mid-morning, and just like every other year, hot chocolate and cookies were waiting for them.

Sunny hadn't been out with Stacey in awhile, and she had surprised herself by asking her friend out for a shopping trip. She needed new clothes, and she knew that Stacey would want to shop with her.

"Thanks for coming with me," she said happily. "I really appreciate it."

Fresh from hanging out with Katie, Sunny had decided to actually do something about her current lack of socializing with friends, and she'd asked Mary Anne if she could hang out with her that night. She had been pleased, yet surprised, when her friend had suggested a sleepover.

So she was at Mary Anne and Dawn's house waiting for them to open the door.

"You're sure this is okay?" She asked in lieu of a greeting.

Sunny and Katie were seated on the bed in Katie's room, the house being empty other than little Olivia who was playing on the floor with some stray make up from Katie's collection. Katie sat with her guitar, strumming different tunes and picking on the strings, just making music as she went along.

"So the world didn't end" Katie said, playing a few notes of Moonlight Sonata.

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Pushing her brimming shopping cart through the A&P, Mari couldn't help but smile at the fact that it looked like she was grocery shopping for her entire family instead of just for her party. Although, there would hopefully be more guests at her party than there were members of her family.

Stopping in the produce section, she glanced at the various fruits and vegetables, trying to decide which to buy for the Christmas trees she was going to make with them. Spying Sunny nearby, she smiled and waved at her. "Hey!"

It had been awhile since Sunny had been to a legit party party, and she had hesitated a bit before agreeing to come, but she had decided that going to a party wouldn't hurt, especially since she was with Katie.

"Who do you know here?" She asked, a bit nervous. Sunny didn't recognize anyone.

Dawn had been studying when the new Flair post came out. It had been online for a good five minutes when she finally took a study break and checked out her friends page. She was outraged by what she read. Flair had some gall to post such an obvious lie. Before she could comment and give Flair a piece of her mind, she saw Cokie's comments and Mary Anne's non-comment and realized it was true.

The urge to confront Logan was strong, but Dawn needed to be there for her sister first. Her homework forgotten, she went to Mary Anne's room and found it empty. She managed to keep calm as she went from room to room and didn't find her sister. Dawn figured that she went out for a walk and hoped she would come home soon. It was only when she opened the coat closet and saw Mary Anne's coat next to hers, that she found herself losing her calm.

Since her mom and Richard were out and she was alone, Dawn reached for her cell and punched the speed dial button for Sunny's. She needed someone around to keep her from completely losing her cool and who better than her best friend.

Ever since her and Sunny's last conversation, Mary Anne had felt pretty bad about the way she treated her and dismissed her feelings. Of course she wasn't an adult and couldn't fix all problems - Sunny was bound to know that - but she also hadn't done a good job of being there, listening, and overall her friend. And that is all Mary Anne concluded Sunny had really needed. A friend.

She had put her own feelings before Sunny's and that was not okay. Sunny had confided in her and Mary Anne turned around a made it about her; like she often did, and it was a twisted habit she was hoping to resolve in the new year. A new year to bring about change in her. Mary Anne sighed, knowing she needed to apologize to Sunny. She picked up her phone and tentatively rolled it around in her hand a few times before sighing again and finding Sunny's number in her contact list. She tapped the send button and pressed the phone against her ear. This was going to be tough.

"Hey Sunny,"  Mary Anne quietly projected once she heard Sunny's voice on the other end, "would you like to come over? I can make us some coffee or tea..." she trailed off in an offer.

Katie was lying on Sunny's bed, her entire posture stating defeat. She had seeked solace at her friend's place, knowing that she couldn't stand one more second at the place she never so fondly called home. It was a Friday night, she knew there'd be drinks, so she'd dropped all of her siblings off at sleepovers before taking the car to Sunny's. The only reason she'd taken the car at all was because she didn't want her mom driving drunk. Instead, Katie drove on heavy medication. But she didn't think much of it; Krysia had cleared her to drive on her prescriptions. There was another thing bothering her tonight though. Something she couldn't say.

"I'm sorry I'm ruining your Friday night" she said apologetically.