Chapter Three: Today Sucks

"Ashley, for heaven’s sake, do you plan on waking up at all this summer?" Kerry demanded from her vantage point on the threshold to Ashley’s room. The brunette had once again taken up residence in the hammock, as though she enjoyed waking up with a cramp in her neck and a sore back. "Hello? Did you hear me?"

Ashley’s answer to this was a muffled snort, and she turned over, making the hammock sway. "Wake me up in an hour. It’s too early."

"It’s three o’clock in the afternoon, and you’ve been asleep for two days," Kerry felt the need to point out.

"So?" was the only reply she got.

Giving up, Kerry took the backstairs down through her own bedroom in the manor. Having arrived there a week ahead, Kerry had decided to stay in the master bedroom on the first floor. It was a pretty sort of room, oddly suited to Kerry’s personality. The walls were painted a soft pink, trimmed with a grayish blue that was dotted with white lilies. A white bedspread matched the decor perfectly, and the furniture was old and quaint. Sitting on top of the bureau was a television (currently off, for Kerry had just gotten in from the beach and hadn’t checked up on her soap operas).

Kerry kicked her feet out of the flip-flops she’d worn in from the beach and sat down on the edge of the huge bed. It could easily fit all four of the girls (if they could ever wake Ashley up, or drag Emily into the house) and a few friends without so much as straining its hinges. Kerry, who was a bit of a heavy sleeper and who couldn’t imagine sleeping in a hammock, thoroughly enjoyed the benefit of having a lot of space. She turned on the TV and hummed to herself, intent to forget that her friends were all but ignoring the wonderful call of the ocean.

Just as Kerry was starting to become involve in the sordid choices involved with that day’s episode of The Young and The Restless, there was a knock at the door and Sarah poked her head in. "You just missed it," she told Kerry, dropping her towel on the floor beside the door. "I wandered over the public beach—more guys there—and saw Emily. She was playing sand volleyball with some people I didn’t recognize."

"So she hasn’t been kidnapped?" Kerry asked, somewhat dryly. "Oh, good. The Cheneys will be glad that we’re going to be successful in returning their daughter in one piece."

Sarah grinned and gestured at the TV, where a blonde woman went from crying to screaming in rage. "Has she slept with that guy yet?" she asked, tilting her head to the side. The fellow she was pointing at had dark hair that fell into enchanting gray eyes, and Kerry quite fancied him. He was broad-shouldered and tall, the way Kerry’s ideal man would be.

"Er, no."

"Oh." Sarah’s head tilted to the other side, and she scrutinized the blond heroine. "She will. I’ll even bet you five bucks it’s within the next ten minutes." Kerry rolled her eyes, but accepted the bet anyway. She won often enough to provide her with a small amount of shares in Ashley’s future restaurant, and a pocketful of Sarah’s money. Both of them liked to bet how long it would be before a male and female character onscreen would sleep together. Bets were called off if the characters turned out to be secretly related, unless they actually did sleep together, in which case the bets were doubled.

It was a sick, twisted sort of system, but they all seemed to take odd pleasure from it.

"Is Ash still asleep?" Sarah asked, looking at the clock above the TV. Kerry just nodded, her eyes glued to the screen. "Geez, she wasn’t kidding about sleeping for the first week, was she?"

"Yeah," Kerry agreed. "For once, Ashley wasn’t joking about something. The world may inert itself—water will burn."

"And I think Ash’s starting to rub off on you," Sarah remarked. She grinned when Kerry turned on her, wide-eyed in disbelief. "That’s exactly something she would say. C’mon, admit it."

"No, she would more likely talk about how if the world crashed into itself, soap operas would have morals," Kerry pointed out, looking away from the TV for the first time. "She’s always going on about how trashy these shows are—and as a matter of fact, so are you." Sarah did not deny it, but her grin did become a bit mischievous. "Oh, what are you smiling about now?"

"You owe me five bucks."

Kerry’s head whipped back to the TV, where the couple was now heavily lip-locked and slowly losing clothing. Well, actually, they were losing clothing rather quickly, in that heavily romanced way only a soap opera could pull off. Kerry could not deny it; at nine minutes and twenty three seconds after Sarah had placed her bet, the woman’s back struck the couch with the bare-chested man atop her (Oh, he looked hot without a shirt), and the screen faded to a commercial.

"They’ll ruin that perfectly good couch!" Kerry protested as tap-dancing coke bottles stole across the screen, complete with their own cheesy anthem.

"I’m sure the couch is already in storage in the back of some soap opera studio, and perfectly fine," Sarah reassured her friend, and stole the remote from Kerry. She clicked the power button and dragged Kerry to her feet. "Let’s go wake Ashley up. She’s only been on the beach once—and if we’re going to visit you tonight, she has to be awake."

"Can’t you do it?" Kerry wanted to whine, but held her tongue. It took the pair of them and a good ten minutes to realize that Ashley’s stubbornness was indeed limitless. "I give up," Kerry grumbled in defeat.

"Wait! I’ve got an idea!" Sarah whispered, and pulled Kerry out to the hallway. She shut the door rather loudly and then ran down the hallway, stomping a bit to make her footsteps pronounced. Kerry was forced to follow her down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs, Sarah let out a loud, "I can’t believe it!" Before Kerry could demand to know what was going on, she continued, "Oliver Wood, Legolas, and Anakin Skywalker are all downstairs—!"

A resounding crash from inside the room told them that Ashley was awake.

Thump. Thump. Thump. THUMP!

Kerry and Sarah exchanged wide-eyed looks from the living room as they heard the loud thudding of what could be nothing but a body on the staircase.

Instants later, Ashley appeared, sleep-rumpled but very, very wide awake. Her eyes narrowed when she saw that Sarah and Kerry were about to have a coronary from laughing so hard—and that they were alone. The sour expression did not lift when Sarah fell to the floor and nearly knocked the couch over, unable to support herself in her fit of mirth. "That’s not funny," Ashley said stuffily, and started to head back to her hammock. Sarah and Kerry had other ideas, however, and grabbed her by the arms.

Soon, they were all downstairs in the dining room, chatting idly while Ashley worked her way through yet another bowl of cereal. Kerry, who had an hour before she had to get ready for work, suggested that they all go for a walk to find Emily and see if she wanted to accompany them.

Ashley blinked a lot into the summer sunshine, but Sarah and Kerry had used two days to get accustomed to it. She was also paler than either of them, but she neither noticed, nor really cared. As Sarah and Kerry chattered on about a great number of topics (most of them bickering over soap operas), she followed in that half-dazed zone only one who has just woken up can accomplish well. The sand felt warm on her feet, the sun felt hot on her head, and the ocean was making her hungry. Cereal wasn’t much, after all.

"I still don’t see why you won’t go into the ocean," Kerry complained to Sarah as they headed towards where Sandalwood Beach ended and the public beaches began. They passed a rocky cove, which Ashley eyed with some interest.

"I’ve told you before—it’s too cold," Sarah replied forcefully. "I’ll sit out here and get a nice tan while the lot of you get stung by jellyfish, okay?"

"Jellyfish?" Ashley asked, coming back into the conversation. "There are jellyfish out there?"

Kerry blinked at her. "Well, it is the ocean," she pointed out helpfully. "There’s sharks, too, if you’re worried about jellyfish."

"And dolphins," Sarah hurried to add when Ashley turned a very distinctive shade of greenish-white. "And getting stung by a jellyfish is rare enough. You don’t really need to worry."

Emily was nowhere to be seen on the public beaches, even though they trailed through three of them. Sarah and Ashley were having fun rating the guys on the beach—"Oh, he’s a definite eight, don’t you think?" "Nah, too scrawny."—while Kerry’s blue-green eyes searched for their friend. Just as Sarah rated a nearby college student with a very resounding 9.2, Kerry yapped, "Oh, there she is!"

Dragging Emily away from the waves, where she could be found splashing happily, proved no easy task, and Kerry wasn’t the only one ready to swear by the time all four girls had their feet solidly planted in the sand. "What’s up?" Emily asked, looking at the other three with lidded eyes, obviously trying to figure out why they were pulling her from her fun.

"Karaoke night, of course!" Kerry replied, prepared to pull Emily in the direction of Sandalwood. "I’m working, but the three of you are coming to see my new workplace!"

Ashley was just as startled about the news as Emily was. "We are?" she demanded, sunglassed eyes swinging accusingly in Kerry’s direction. "K-karaoke?" The word came out in an actual stammer. "As in…mics…singing…in front of people?"

Emily gave her a skeptical look. "Somebody eat your backbone, chicken?"

"I hate singing in public! You know that!"

Kerry stepped in before a fight could break out, which might or might not have been a wise move on her part. Being the tallest in the group, her height was convenient for throwing her weight around and handling any sort of disputes that might rise up between the rest of the group. The only fallback was that Kerry, being a volatile person, was at the center of most debates. Usually, it was Ashley that ended up cowering off in the corner, while Emily laughed and Sarah and Kerry bickered.

Dragging Emily towards Sandalwood Chateau at all proved more difficult than Kerry bargained for, and nobody had very much time to change before scurrying into cars and taking off towards the Red Line. "At least you’re not wearing soccer shorts," Kerry remarked as Ashley climbed into the passenger seat of the Jeep Liberty. "I didn’t even know you owned a tank top."

"I own three, and once I go shopping, I’ll own more."

Kerry leaned out the window to yell instructions to Sarah. "Follow me, but if you get lost, it’s on Main Street! Hard to miss!"

She was right, they soon found out. The Red Line was a gray, boxy sort of building crisscrossed with startlingly bright red lines and a very sophisticated air—standing out in the middle of a field. Of course, there was a parking lot and quite an extravagant walkway, complete with refrigerator-sized bouncer and everything. "Hey, Timmy!" Kerry greeted as she led the group up the walkway. "These are my friends—they’ll probably be here a lot, so you might as well get to know them."

Emily and Sarah passed clearance easily, but Timmy stopped Ashley suspiciously. "You don’t look twenty-one. Identification?"

Ashley stared, possibly because Timmy didn’t look as though he could use such a large word as identification. "Um…" She looked helplessly at Sarah and Emily, who were obviously much amused by the fact that Ashley had gotten stopped once again. Much to Ashley’s chagrin, this happened often. "I’m twenty-one. Really." Digging in her pocket, she produced her driver’s license, military I. D. (she was, after all, an Air Force brat), and motorcycle license. "I’d get my school I. D. out, too, but I think I left it at home."

Timmy blinked warily at the short girl, but grudgingly allowed her to pass. "Go on in, Kerry, Jack’s looking for you."

Sarah wheeled about, nearly hitting Emily with her hair. "Jack, is it?" she demanded suspiciously, trying not to grin as Kerry looked very flustered for a long moment. "And Sarah figures out the name of Kerry’s mystery guy! Score one for Towers!"

"There’s a reason I didn’t tell you his name," Kerry muttered under her breath.

Sarah’s victory dance was cut off by the ringing of her own cell phone, which was attached to the waistline of her pants by a clip. "Honestly, who would be calling me…" she muttered to nobody, and looked at the viewscreen. "Um, Ash, when did your mom get my cell phone number?"

She didn’t get an answer; Ashley was staring at the cell phone as though it were a bomb on the verge of exploding. "Oh, no!" she whispered, paling.

"What?" Kerry demanded, actually thinking something was wrong.

Ashley’s look was that of one about to face certain death. "I didn’t call!"

Over the years, each of her friends had become acquainted with Ashley’s mother, who just so happened to be generally congenial—until her daughter did something stupid. As Ashley was well-known for some of the unthinkingly dumb stunts she had pulled in earlier days, most of them had viewed Ashley’s mother’s anger from the outside. They had also witnessed Ashley’s fear of her mother’s reaction or disappointment. When Ashley started shaking now, none of them was surprised. She reached one quaking hand for the phone. "Hi, Mom," she said, trying to sound cheerful. "What’s going on?"

"WHY DIDN’T YOU CALL?"

Immediately, Ashley yanked the phone away from her ear, whimpering as the volume threatened to murder her eardrum. "Run!" she mouthed to Sarah, Kerry, and Emily, and the three hastened to escape into the Red Line, leaving Ashley, Timmy, and one irate mother on Sarah’s cell phone.

The interior of the Red Line was about what Sarah expected it to be: artfully darkened, with lights of hundreds of different colors splaying everywhere almost recklessly, a raised stage set against one wall, a long, polished bar top against the opposite, a few small tables clustered around the bar top, and a large wooden dance floor. Most of the dance floor was covered with tables for that evening, for it was Karaoke Night. A trio of young men was onstage now, singing some song Sarah didn’t recognize. She jumped out of the way as Kerry bustled towards the bar top. "Gotta clock on, then the fun begins!" she shouted after her, leaving Emily and Sarah alone. They snagged seats along the bar to wait for Ashley and the evening to begin.

"Who’s the driver?" Emily asked before either could order drinks. "You? It’s your car."

Sarah snorted. "Hardly." Brightening, she said, "Ashley can do it."

Emily’s jaw nearly dropped as she did a double-take. "You’re willing to let her drive your car?" In all the years she had known Sarah, she had known two very definite things about her: picking on Sarah’s height could be painful, and nobody but Sarah would ever touch the steering wheel to the Toyota. It was like the ten commandments of Sarah, only instead of ten, there were only two.

"Seeing as my car’s the only way we’re going to have to get to bars, and I want to drink, I’m sure Ashley can handle it from here to the chateau."

When Ashley joined them nearly half an hour later, positively quivering, she scowled at the announcement and eyed her friends’ drinks bitterly. "Right, then. I’ll just have a Mountain Dew and wallow in my misery sober, then." She deposited the cell phone in front of Sarah and wandered off to order her drink from Kerry.

"They’re letting you drive?" Kerry asked as she bussed tables, eyebrows rising. "You?"

"Shocking, isn’t it?" Ashley remarked drolly. She leaned against a chair of the table Kerry was bussing. "Yeah, I’m driving home. In Sarah’s car. I hate driving. My arm hurts from where I hit it on the staircase, falling today. I’m staying at a bar all night, and not drinking. Is that everything? Oh, yeah, my mom called. I’m in trouble. Now I’ve got to find a job for the summer to prove how ‘responsible’ I am." She scowled once again, but managed a grateful smile when Kerry retrieved a bottle of Mountain Dew for her. "First I have to wake up, then I have my mom mad at me, and now I’m drinking Mountain Dew all night. You know what? Today sucks."

Kerry smiled good-naturedly. "Oh, go be grumpy somewhere else," she said without any sympathy at all. "Your day will get better."

*

"Hey, didn’t Kerry say that her new boyfriend’s a bartender here?" Emily asked, nudging Sarah after Ashley had left to find another Mountain Dew. They were drinking slowly tonight, more interested in guy-watching than getting sloshed at the moment.

Sarah looked up from the inside of her glass. "I think so…why?" she asked, looking around. "His name’s Jack—I heard Kerry say it earlier. And he’s got to be working. Timmy—the bouncer, remember?—said that Jack wanted to talk to Kerry." She leaned forward on her elbows, for it was slightly cold inside the Red Line, and she was wearing a tank top. It wasn’t the best combination for something who wasn’t interested in dancing yet.

The answer she got was a nod in the direction of the bartender. Sarah glanced over and whistled under her breath. "Definitely a nine out of ten. Kerry’s type, for sure."

"As if the blue volunteer firefighter shirt isn’t enough," Emily remarked sarcastically, rolling her eyes. They all knew of Kerry’s penchant for liking men who were either destined to become firefighters, or volunteer firefighters. She stood up. "He’s definitely built, though. And I’ll admit it—he’s hot."

"Eh. Give me a fencer any day." Sarah turned away from scoping out Kerry’s boyfriend. "More graceful than firemen."

Hiding a snort, Emily said, "Hey, I’m going to the bathroom. Watch my drink, will you?"

"I’ll even drug it for you!" Sarah called after her. She received a finger for her comment, and grinned. Up on stage, the song changed as four college guys eagerly took the floor. Sarah hid a snort as they began to shout a very strange version of Blink 182’s "First Date."

Her grin promptly disappeared when she glanced over at Jack, the bartender, and saw him hugging a very attractive blonde in a denim jacket. Kerry was nowhere in sight. She was off in the back getting a soda for Ashley. Steely blue eyes narrowed as Jack laid a hand on the girl’s shoulder, giving her a playful shake.

Pity that she could hear what they were saying. Jack was definitely interested in this girl, and it obviously went beyond a mere hug. As Sarah watched, the girl waved to a friend and said something to Jack. Sarah’s jaw dropped as the girl kissed Jack on the cheek and then hurried off, just before Kerry reentered the main area with a sweating bottle of Mountain Dew. "I did not just see that," Sarah muttered, glaring in Jack’s direction. Was he cheating on her best friend? If he thought he was going to get away with it, he had another think coming.

He had obviously not realized that with Kerry came her friends, and with her friends came the promise that if he hurt Kerry, he wasn’t going to like he repercussions very much.

By the time that Emily returned from the bathroom, Sarah had managed to school her expression into one resembling interest in the dancers all around her. Were people supposed to dance at a karaoke bar? Granted, Sarah had never been to a karaoke bar before, but the people in movies never danced to them. The Red Line seemed to be a conglomeration of karaoke, live, paid acts, and techno nights. Kerry had been singing backup for a punk band the day before, but Sarah knew that an orchestra of sorts had entertained one night. "What a confusing place," she muttered to herself.

"What?" Emily asked, unable to hear her over the raucous caterwauling of the four college guys. When Sarah indicated that she had been talking to herself, Emily snorted and said, "We should go over there and sing New Found Glory songs just to confuse everyone."

"I don’t think Kerry knows any," Sarah replied, looking for their friends in the crowd. Ashley had disappeared entirely, it seemed, until Sarah spotted her against the wall, watching the college guys with very little interest. Kerry was still bussing tables. "Hey, I’ve got an idea…"

*

"You are not dragging me on that stage." Ashley looked ready to take on a pack of a fierce, fire-breathing dragons—or her friends—as she avoided a dancing couple and an encounter with the wall. She probably had a better chance of facing down a pack of dragons, but that did not mean she was going to back down without a fight. "I do not. Sing. In. Public."

Although she felt like arguing herself, Sarah laughed at her friend and hit her on the shoulder. "Coward."

Despite the fact that she winced (Sarah had hit her bad shoulder), Ashley did not look at Sarah; she was glaring accusingly at Kerry. "Darn straight I am!"

"Starting today, you do sing in public!" Kerry collected up Ashley’s arm, making Ashley yelp and pull away, nursing the injured arm. "Stop whining and move your happy little butt to that stage! And smile! I’m not taking my break early for nothing!" Kerry’s look brooked no room for opposition; sighing, Ashley stuffed her hands into the pockets of her khaki shorts and followed the taller girl to the stage. Sarah and Emily led the way, Emily quite happily drunk (despite the fact that it was not quite eight o’clock yet).

The DJ handed over a set of microphones and requested their song preference. "‘I Will Survive,’" Emily told him, positively grinning.

"How come you’re not fighting this?" Ashley asked Sarah in a low voice, still shooting pointed little glares in Kerry’s general direction.

Sarah just looked at her. "Revenge is sweet, just remember that. Besides," she paused philosophically, "I think I’m drunk." She waved the microphone at Ashley, nearly cackling.

"You think you’re drunk?" Once again, Ashley found herself wishing that she had not been assigned the designated driver for the evening. Being drunk would have made this experience go by a lot faster; being sober would make it hell. She felt the cold weight of the microphone of her hand and started shaking, despite herself. "Why can’t I be drunk instead?"

The music started then, a run of piano notes that got most of the audience shouting. After all, everybody recognized "I Will Survive" for the opening alone. As Emily jumped into a lusty opening with "At first I was afraid…I was petrified…" Ashley rolled her eyes and felt quite sick to her stomach.

Today sucks, she decided again, and opened her mouth to join her three friends.

*

"Today sucks," Emily decided for the group as she entered the kitchen. She glanced blearily at the clock, which indicated that the morning was mostly gone. She looked at the breakfast that Ashley, being the only one who had not woken up with a pounding head, had prepared, and groaned. "I’m not touching that." A plate was sitting out for her, food in the middle, a couple of Advil on the edge.

"Eat it," Sarah ordered grumpily, hunching over her own portion of the instant muffins Ashley had managed not to burn. "It’ll make your stomach feel better."

"Nothing short of a new stomach would make my stomach feel better," Emily retorted, but sat down and reached for a glass of water anyway. She downed half of that with the Advil, and gurgled the rest in the back of her throat. It felt dry.

Kerry made an agreeing noise, not really interested in talking. She wasn’t hung-over, but she was definitely tired. The waitresses hadn’t managed to get out of the Red Line until three that morning, so she had been rather late getting home. Of course, she had come in to find a happily drunk Emily and Sarah waiting for her with a pack of beers and a slew of stories about the guys they had seen at the bar. Ashley had fallen asleep on the couch only an hour earlier.

"Where’s Ash?" Emily asked now, not seeing their brunette counterpart on any of the stools.

"Out. That’s all her note said." Sarah took a bite and chewed while she looked around the kitchen. "She left the muffins out for us. I imagine she just made some for herself and left the rest for us when she went. The moped we found out in the garage is gone."

Emily looked up. "We have a moped?" she asked, eyes widening. She looked positively embarrassed, for some reason that neither Sarah nor Kerry could fathom. "That explains a lot." But when her friends asked about it, she said no more, just "It’s nothing, don’t worry about it."

"Anyway," Sarah said, shooting Emily an odd look, "what are the plans for today?"

"Soccer on the beach!" Emily said just as Kerry said, "I have to work tonight. They want me to sing because the girl who was scheduled to caught laryngitis." She shrugged. "I feel kind of bad for her—first time singing onstage, but there’s supposed to be some scouts checking out the Red Line soon…"

The muffin must have been having a positive effect on Emily, for she said, "Our friend Kerry, a rock star…no, wait, pop star…" She shrugged. "Worse could happen."

"Hey!" Kerry protested, leaning over to swat at Emily’s shoulder.

Sarah let out a moan. "No loud noises," she ordered, clapping her hands over her ears. "That doesn’t feel pretty."

"Doesn’t feel pretty?" Kerry echoed, sniggering. "That’s a very strange—"

"Shut up."

And so began the normal Sunday morning in Sandalwood Chateau.