2.
    Brittany was tapping her shoe impatiently against the side of her desk. The buckle on her shoe clanked softly against the metal supports.  The bell was going to ring in exactly one minute and she was going to be the first one out. Asia Turner sat besides her. Asia and Brittany were friends. The one thing that bonded them was their love of basketball. And Asia was one of the prettiest girls at the school, Brittany thought. Tall, shoulder length black hair, hazel eyes and long eyelashes. Not to mention the prettiest brown skin Brittany had ever begrudged.
    "You're going to homecoming right?" Asia asked just as the bell rang.
    Brittany scooped up her bag, balancing a huge textbook plus her binder in her arms as they headed out the door, behind a group of giggling, gossiping blonde cheerleaders,
    "Homecoming?"
    Asia looked at her with an eyebrow raised, "You know, homecoming that party-kinda-dance when you get all dressed up and--"
    "I know what it is."
    "Yeah, you should. You've been nominated for HQ."
    HQ... it took a while to sink in. Homecoming queen?! Brittany's pouted, "Why me?" she was suddenly wide awake.
    Asia laughed and thumbed toward a bulletin board right beside the door and there was her name in the long list of nominees. "Did you nominate me?"
    “Nah. But I know who did.”
    "Who?!" Brittany demanded as they stopped in front of her locker.
    "Logan Miller."
    Brittany shook her head, brow crinkled as she was opening her locker door. She shoved her book inside, not intending to do any of her assignments that night. She did not know anyone named Logan Miller.

    "I don’t know him."
    “Well... he apparently knows you, likes you, and hasn’t stopped talking about you
    since the first day of school. Maybe you two should hook up."
    "You know him?" they pressed through the double doors and the sunlight hit their faces. Brittany followed close behind Asia, through the courtyard and to the student's parking lot.
    She nodded in response. "Yeah, we've only been friends since fourth grade!" Asia paused. "Shawna Taylor is lookin to get at you."
    Once again confused, "Shawna Taylor? You mean Shawna with the hair." Shawna was known for her long, very healthy, Tresemeé-ooh-la-la-commercial hair. Asia rolled her eyes and nodded, lips pursed. "Yeah, that’s her. Her and Logan used to go together, like back in the 6th grade. They broke up and she tries to fight any girl who even attempts to go near him." her nose was turned up but shed laughed about it. "She tried that with me last year."
    "What happened?"
    "I said she tried. Shawna knows better than to fuck with me." Asia stated nonchalantly and unlocked the doors of her black Lexus when by pressing a button on her key chain. "If she tries to start anything with you, let me know..."
    "I'm not really worried about it. I’m sure I can handle her." Brittany responded indifferently. What a day. Somebody liked her, somebody was jealous of her and she was in the running for a competition she probably wouldn’t win. Two out of three was never bad at all.


    "Bye, girl!" Asia called out to Brittany as she was tramping up the front steps of her house.
    "Bye," Brittany said back but doubted Asia heard her. She stuck her key in the door, twisted the knob and pushed the front door open and tossed her bag down carelessly. She needed a moment to get her heard on straight. Logan Miller, Brittany thought. Logan was the name of Mary-Annes boyfriend in the Baby-sitters Club series. It sounded like some snobby, stuck-up, rich, preppy white boy. And, once upon a time, Brittany would have loved to date a snobby, stuck-up, rich, preppy white boy... especially if he was truly into her. That, of course, was back when her mother was brainwashing her to believe that was all she could ever get, all she ever needed and all that would ever wanted her. But maybe she had been right... there was no way AJ liked her and he was quite the contrast of a stuck-up, preppy white boy.
    Just as Brittany sat down at the piano the phone rang. After the third ring she
snatched it up. "Hello?" she answered.
    "Hey."
    She recognized the voice, and smiled.  “AJ?"
    "Yeah, is this Brittany?"
    Brittany laughed lightly, needless to say a little shocked. "Why are you calling me?" She knew it was a rude thing to say, but the words just seemed to roll right off her tongue. AJ was calling for her?! It was all too surreal. "I mean... hey," she redeemed herself.
    "I just wanted to say hey. See what you were up to."
    "Me too.. I mean, that’s nice." Strike two, Britt, she thought with a hand over her eyes.
    "So what’s new?" he asked, seeming genuinely interested.
    Brittany sighed and sank ever deeper into her chair. "Well.... if you're really dying to know: I'm nominated for Homecoming Queen," she began. The whole idea made her face scrunch up-- it still did not seem quite right.
    "That's great, congratulations!" said AJ.
    "Not if I wont win," she stated languidly.
    "The prettiest girl always gets the crown, trust me."
    She squinted and felt a blush rise in her cheeks. "What makes you think I'm the prettiest girl at my school?"
    "I don’t think," he said simply, “Just know.”
    "Shut up," her voice had barely come out. She wanted to throw the phone down, and scream to the top of her lungs, but she found that it had somehow become glued to her ear. Suddenly, she had so much to say to him.


    "Britt, don’t you have homework to do?" Leighanne asked as she passed Brittany's room for the fourth time in a row.
    "No!" Brittany called and started chatting away again.
    "Well, homework or not, get off that phone in fifteen minutes, young lady. You’ve been on since you got home from school." At that moment Brian appeared beside his wife.
    "Who are you talking to anyway?"
    "AJ," she said simply, "anyway-- Asia told me that this Shawna-girl... she, like, wants to fight me.... ha, I know!"
    Leighanne shut the door and stared at Brian with this very doubtful, moreover uncomfortable look in her big blue eyes. "Brittany's been talking to AJ for the past three hours?" her voice was low and rather surprised.
    "That's what she said," Brian sang his reply, matching her tone.
    Leighanne smiled at him herself as she went into her room. If Brian could shrug it off, then so could she....

    Brian trudged down the stairs. Tyk and Leigh, his and Leighanne’s two doggies, swamped his feet until ultimately one of them (Tyk) was picked up. Brian stroked Tyk's little head and went into the kitchen with a puzzled look on his face. For the funniest reason he, all of a sudden, did not like it that Brittany was talking to AJ on the phone. Just suddenly. Maybe it was the whole dad-vibe he'd obtained since Brittany had first come to stay with them. He did not want to be overprotective. AJ was very trustworthy, his friend. He'd never disrespect him like that.
    And Brittany was a very good girl. She knew better than to be messing around with him... didn’t she? Why in God's name am I thinkin like this?! Brian sighed, set Tyk down and he scurried off--presumably to go pester Leighanne. He rubbed his face. It was perfectly natural to feel this way, he gathered. Perfectly OK. Brittany was practically his own now and it was okay to get a little irked when members of the opposite sex were involved.
    He went back upstairs with plans to lay a big wet one on Leighanne. Brian stepped through the door just as Leighanne was coming out of their bathroom. As soon as their eyes met, they both smiled. He crossed the room, wrapped his arms around her waist and touched her lips delicately with his.
    "Ahem," a small giggle was heard behind them. The couple looked to find their niece standing in the doorway. Brian looked her over once quickly. She wore a little white tank top with red hearts all over and the tiniest pair of shorts he’d ever laid eyes on. It was official. He was gettin' a shotgun.

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