Chapter One

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Andie McPhee leaned against the side of the bus stop, soaked to the skin and cursing the fact that she had neglected to bring an umbrella. Why, oh why, couldn’t the rain have waited for later? She wondered.

The bus finally pulled up, and Andie stepped aboard, quickly dropping her change into the slot. Taking her seat, she watched the rain pour down the windows in sheets as she waited out the five minutes it would take to get to home. If I’d just remembered the damn umbrella, I wouldn’t have had to pay! she berated herself.

When her stop came up, she pulled the string to disembark and nodded a thank you in the driver’s direction. Leaving the shelter of the bus, she ran for her house, four blocks up the street, but after she was halfway up one block, she slowed to a walk, realizing she was already soaked, and couldn’t really get any wetter.

A car pulled up beside her; it’s headlights splashing white lights on the gray-tinged road up ahead of it. Andie instinctively took a step back, and waited for the driver to say something, her stance wary.

“Andie! Get in, you’re soaked!”

Andie immediately relaxed, pulled the car door open, and hopped in, having recognized the voice as that of Pacey Witter, ex-boyfriend and now one of her best friends. Shaking her hair out of her face, she accidentally sent a spray of cold rainwater into his face.

“McPhee! Watch it! I gotta drive here!”

Andie grinned. “Sorry, Pace.”

Pacey draped an arm over her shoulders, and pulled her close. He caught her eye with his for a split second, and Andie caught the mischievous look in his eyes. She readied herself for a welcome bantering match as Pacey crept the car down the long block towards her house.

“So, haven’t seen much of you lately, McPhee. Got a new boyfriend?”

Andie smiled. Pacey knew perfectly well she didn’t have a new boyfriend, but she decided to play along. “Maybe,” She replied teasingly.

“Ooh! When do I get to meet the lucky fellow?” Pacey’s tone was light, but Andie heard the tension underneath.

“Not any time soon, I’m afraid,” She admitted. “’Cause there isn’t a ‘lucky fellow’. I guess I’ll just have to make do with you, Dawson, and Jack in the male friends category.”

Pacey squeezed her shoulder, but belayed the sentiment behind the gesture by cracking another joke. “Does this mean I have exclusive Thanksgiving Dance rights?”

Andie looked at him oddly. “Is this a twisted invite to that ancient ritual that nearly always ends in heartbreak?” She asked.

Pacey shifted a little under her unbroken gaze. “Maybe. It is, if you’d say yes.”

“All right. I’ll say yes. Does that mean you’re dateless, though?”

Pacey laughed. “Dateless? The most buff and handsome, not to mention popular, guy at Capeside High, dateless?”

Andie shrugged. “It has been known to happen, Pacey.”

Pacey was definitely getting squirmy. “Well, as a matter of fact, I am dateless. Or, excuse my grammar, was. I have just secured a date with the lovely Andrea McPhee, so I am in that plight no longer.”

The car pulled up in front of Andie’s house, and Pacey brought it to a stop. Andie grabbed her backpack, and kissed Pacey on the cheek. “See you tomorrow, Pacey.”

Pacey nodded. “Later, McPhee.”

Andie sprinted up to her covered porch, and waited in the shadows, watching Pacey leave. But she didn’t miss the fact that he had lingered a little longer than necessary, and she was almost certain she’d seen him watching her.

Careful, McPhee! She scolded herself. This is your ex you’re thinking about. Been there, done that. And I will not go crawling back to him like a lost puppy-dog!

But somewhere, in the back of her mind, Andrea McPhee wondered if she was falling for her ex-boyfriend. And she already knew the answer.

* * *

Pacey’s day seemed to crawl by. All of his teachers were in bad moods, and the P.E. teacher was the worst of them, upset at the fact that the rain had dared to intrude on his gym class. “All right, kids! Today, we have to share the gym with Ms. Ransom’s class. I expect you to remain segregated, and there will be no chatting with girlfriends or boyfriends!”

Pacey dutifully jogged into the gym with the rest of his class, and Mr. Caruthers handed the basketball to Tim Kirns, the team’s jock. Pacey scanned the big, high-ceilinged room in search of someone he knew while he waited for the game to start. His eye caught on a blond head of hair in the corner of the room. Andie!

Pacey almost missed his cue as he watched her lean over the bench and tie her shoelaces. “Mr. Witter!” boomed his teacher. “Keep your eyes on the game, please!”

Pacey returned his attention to the game, but his heart wasn’t in it, and neither was his mind as he wondered why Andie had been leaving gym class in such a hurry.

Pacey searched the halls for Andie after class let out, but school was over, and she was nowhere to be found. Because Doug had plainly told him what kind of trouble he would be in if he took the truck again, he walked to the bus stop, and considered his destination.

Deciding to go home, Pacey was waiting patiently for the bus to show up when Dawson jogged up beside him. Pacey turned his back to his ex-best friend, trying not to let his anger get the best of him.

“Pace, it’s time we talked, don’t you think?”

Pacey did and about-face, and stood broadly in the sidewalk between the school and Dawson’s bus as it pulled up. “I don’t know. I don’t think there’s much to talk about. You got the girl, I didn’t. Kind of clear-cut, if you ask me.”

Dawson laid a hand on Pacey’s shoulder, but removed it quickly as he saw the death-glare Pacey sent in his direction. “Pace...”

Pacey’s bus pulled up in the spot that Dawson’s had just left, and Pacey broke away. “Later, pal,” he quipped sarcastically. “Nice chatting with you.”

Dawson looked after his ex-best friend, but made no move to follow him. It wasn’t his fault that Joey had come running back to him after a summer with Pacey, and he just didn’t understand. Pacey tried to be polite, but Dawson wanted friendship again, and Pacey wasn’t ready to give that. Maybe someday. But not now.

* * *

Pacey looked all around the school the next morning, even going so far as to make Jen break her lip-lock with Henry long enough to mumble out that she hadn’t seen Andie. By the time the bell rang, Pacey was forced to conclude that Andie wasn’t at school. At lunch break, he decided, he’d try to find Jack, and ask him what was up.

When Pacey finally cornered Jack, and asked him where Andie was, Jack looked surprised. “She’s not here? She said she was leaving, she’d just be a little late. I‘ve got to go look for her.” He started to get up, but Pacey pulled him back down.

“Relax, man. She’s probably just not feeling too good. She sat out gym class yesterday.” Pacey didn’t want to admit that he was worried, too.

Jack nodded slowly, and sat back down. “Yeah.”

Pacey glanced at his watch. “Well, I gotta get to biology. Will you have Andie call me tonight?”

Jack nodded distractedly. “Sure.” He stuffed the rest of his sandwich in his mouth, and took his trash to the garbage. When he turned around again, Pacey was gone.

When Jack got home that afternoon, he called up into the house, expecting Andie to return his hello.

“Andie?” There was no answer. Jack dropped his backpack on the table, and started up to her room. When he got there, he noticed a neon pink piece of paper stuck to her door, and stopped long enough to read it.

Jack-

Jack pulled the paper from the door, crumpled it up in his hand, and started back down the stairs, his concern having receded considerably.

Recalling his promise to have Andie call Pacey, he picked up the phone and dialed his friend’s number. “Pace?”

“Yeah? Is everything okay, Jack?” Pacey’s tone was nervous and concerned.

“Yeah. I’m just calling because Andie left a note saying she’s at Joey’s house, and won’t be home until late.”

Pacey calmed noticeably. “Oh. Thanks, Jack. Ask her to call me later, all right? Tell her that the Thanksgiving Dance is only a week and a half away, and I need to talk to her.”

Jack pulled up a chair, and grabbed his homework from his backpack. “Sure, Pace.”

“Thanks, Jackers. Later,” And Jack heard a click on his end of the line. Sighing, he put down the receiver, and delved headfirst into the trials of his history class homework.

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