Abby stood behind the door, her face streaked with fresh tears. "What do you want?" she croaked, her voice horse from the sobs.

"I...I wanted to talk to you about Vesteva again. I'm ...sorry about before." JC said mumbling through his words. Abby nodded and stepped away from the door. JC had a feeling of deja vo as he walked through the empty house. Abby grabbed a Kleenex off the table and wiped her eyes. "Uh...we could do this another time."

"No." Abby snapped. "Don't let my problems interfere here."

"Do you want to talk about it?" JC asked concerned. Abby shook her head. "Um ok...then...first off I don't know why I freaked when you told me Vesteva was 18. But, I want her to trust me. I need your help to let me in. Every time I go over there, she pushes me away."

Abby took a minute to think everything over and then a smile crept on her face. "Let me explain something. Vessie isn't exactly what you would call 'popular.' She doesn't know what it's like to have someone care about her. I don't know exactly what goes on at school, since I'm not there anymore, but last year it was bad. They never let up." Abby stopped before continuing. She wanted JC to talk, but he stayed silent taking it all in.

"If you want a chance to make her really happy, take her to Homecoming. It's next week and it's her senior year. She's never been to a school dance in her life." Abby suggested. JC suddenly stood up.

"Oh no. I can't do that Abby. No way!"

"Why not? Oh JC don't you see? You don't know how happy it would make her!" Abby begged. JC still shook his head.

"Don't you know what a crowd that would bring? I could spoil the entire dance!" JC protested.

"You said yourself you wanted to get to know her."

"If I do this, you have to do something for me." Abby narrowed her eyes.

"Who ever said anything about you doing this for me?" JC just turned around and gave her a speech about how it was her idea and he didn't want to be responsible for ruining homecoming. "Alright...but if it involves Justin you can just forget it. I never want to talk to him again."

JC just smiled. "I'm sorry Abby, but he's been nothing but miserable since you told him off. Please?"

"I can't believe I'm doing this. He made me lose my job! What do you want?" Abby sighed while JC smirked. After about 10 minutes of planning it was all set. JC and Justin would arrive at Abby's house the night of the dance. Abby would somehow convince Vesteva to come over with her dress and then they could leave. Then Abby was forced to be nice to Justin the entire night until they returned. It seemed simple enough, but why was Abby so nervous?

In the afternoon the next day, Tuesday, Abby slowly ran her finger down the phone book, until she reached the name of her bank. Her heart pounding, she slowly dialed the numbers to figure out her current balance. The car payments were going to have to come out of her hard earned savings for college. Abby heard a cheerful voice pick up and her heart just raced even faster.

"Yes. I would like to find out the balance for Abigail Imeron." Abby quivered into the phone. She did not want to know this number. If it was any less than 2500 dollars she was officially screwed. Abby recited her bank account number into the phone and waited patiently.

"One moment please." the clerk told her as Abby nodded knowing that she couldn't see her. Abby stuck her thumb in her mouth, slowly biting it to relieve her nervousness. She didn't have time to go to the store and buy another pack of cigarettes, not that she had the money anyway. The withdraw was almost killing her. Finally, the clerk came back to the phone.

"Ok Miss Imeron. You're total balance is $2510.50. Thank you for calling First Star Bank." As the phone clicked, Abby could feel her heart twisting in her body. After today, she would officially have $10.50 to her name. Abby picked up the phone again ready to make her second call.

She easily dialed the familiar numbers as her heart rate went down a little.

"Hey Abby." She heard Ves say into the phone before Abby said a word. She smiled to herself. It always helped to have a friend at these times.

"I need a favor. Can you come pick me up and drive me to Car-X after you get home from school? D-Day has come." Abby sighed into the phone. Ves stifled a laugh and gave her a positive answer, saying that she would be there at around 2:45. Vesteva's mother was luckily off at that time of the day and was able to use the car. While Ves was at school, and since Abby doesn't have a car or job, she mainly sat around the house the rest of the day, surfing the Internet for job opportunities. When it was around 2:40 Abby grabbed her Jean jacket and her check book and went to sit outside.

Vesteva pulled up in her mother's Acura shortly after Abby stepped outside. As soon as Abby got in the car, she heard the familiar song playing. The one she had heard the time in Ves's room.

"Hey Vessie? What song is this?" Abby asked as curiosity swept through her.

"You know what? I really don't know. I think it's called " Your Love is like a River" or something. My dad has someone burn me a c.d., and this is like the only good one on here, so you know." Ves replied. Abby shook it off, but the voice sounded so familiar as the second verse rang through the car.

About 10 minutes later they arrived at the car place. Abby took a deep breath and reached for the door handle.

"Abs? Not to get you mad, but how are you going to pay for this?" Vesteva suddenly asked. Abby just frowned back at her.

"I don't know. I really don't know. But that's why you need to come in with me. I need moral support to write this check." Abby laughed trying to make herself feel a little better. Ves cracked a grin and got out of the car.

Abby rang the bell on the front office desk to get someone's attention. A short, chubby man came forward holding a doughnut in his hand.

"How can I help these two beautiful ladies?" he asked. Vesteva looked at the ground while Abby's face flushed a little.

"I'm here to pick up my car. My name is Imeron, Abigail Imeron. It's a dark blue Geo." Abby told the short man. He nodded smiling while Abby began to take her check book out.

"Ah yes. Miss Imeron. Please place your check book away. Mr. Timberlake has already taken care of it."

"He what?" Abby shouted slamming her pen on the desk. "I can't believe he did that." Abby thought to herself while exchanged a glance with Vesteva.

Abby stood in front of her Geo waiting for Ves to pull around to meet her. Vesteva jumped out of the car as soon as she pulled up.

"Ves? You wanna do something? Like go to the mall?" Abby urged trying to get her come.

She needed to make Ves buy a dress for Friday night, or the whole night would be ruined. Vesteva nodded and got back in her car. Abby followed closely behind her, feeling relieved to have her car back. Abby pulled out her Creed tape and went to slip it in the old stereo system. As she clicked the fast forward button, hoping to get to "With Arms Wide Open" she noticed a small envelope attached right below it. Keeping her eyes on the road, Abby slowly clicked play before snatching the note. The middle of "What If" blared through the speakers making Abby groan. She just let the second song play while her fingers tore the envelope open. She held the note up so she could drive and read at the same time.

"Abby – I'm sorry for everything that happened. I know you probably won't believe me, but I really didn't mean to insult you. Everything I seemed to say, just made you mad. Since you obviously don't want to talk to me, I thought this was the only way I could make up for the way I treated you. Justin."

Abby just set the note down on the passenger's seat and focused on following Vesteva's car. This was the last thing she needed right now. Right now she had to focus on getting Ves to Homecoming, not forgiving Justin. She would cross that bridge on Friday night. Finally, they pulled up in front of the Marshall Field's entrance to Wood Town Mall. Abby pulled the keys out of the ignition and went to meet Ves who was just getting out.

"Hey Vessie, isn't Homecoming soon?" Abby hinted to her friend. Vesteva frowned.

" Yeah, it's on Friday night. I'm not going though, who wants to go to something as stupid as a dance where people just end up standing around anyway listening to stupid music?" Vesteva announced, keeping the pace with Abby's faster walking. " Plus," Ves whispered as she slowed down a bit, " I don't even have a date." It was all Abby could do from cracking a smile. If only she knew who her date was.

"Well wouldn't it be fun to get a dress anyway?" Abby chirped as she opened the door to the mall. Ves just shook her head. "Oh come on! Someone could ask you! You never know."

"Well I guess it would be fun to try them on. But I'm not buying one!" Ves emphasized. Abby smirked. "We'll see about that." she thought.

When Justin returned back to the house with his car, and JC came home from Abby's house with their arrangement, the boys suggested on going out to eat before Justin had to go to the hospital for his hours. Asking Lance, he refused and Chris already had plans to head to Chicago to do some sight seeing. He would have enjoyed it if the others would have joined him but no one was in the mood. Justin parked his newly fixed Mercedes in the garage where it would be safe, taking the Jeep out for another spin.

Justin decided to drive this time, having Joey sit in the passengers seat and JC sat in the back, moving up against the edge so that his head stuck between the seats. Wanting to bring up Friday with Abby, he couldn't bring himself to say it up front. Not knowing how it was going to effect Justin, if he would be angry, hurt, or happy that she still knew that he existed.

In the middle of both of JC and Justin's love crisis, Joey sat there not knowing anything. The guys don't openly talk about their love lives to one another as people may think. He never even met Abby, let along Vesteva though she didn't even know he was a friend of JC's. In his mind, he is wondering why these guys are becoming so attached to girls that they hardly know about. He had girls that came into his life and left, all by his choice, he has other things on his mind that were more important though.

The window drawn down with the wind blowing through Joey's barely seen red highlights, in his own daze, he didn't hear a thing of conversation that was being said. " Snap out of your fantasy, Pigboy." JC called in an energetic voice, snapping his fingers by Joey's face.

Joey gave a little tick of his body from surprise, sitting himself up straight to stare out the windshield. Pretending that he was involved in the talk about football, he doze back off into his own dreams until they reached Borders.

The sun was bright, covering the parking lot with a shield of rays that broke into your skin. It pounded on you like a lightening bolt, blowing ecstatic heat on you with no wind in sight. Being careful, Justin parked in the farthest spot from the doors, making sure that an accident wouldn't happen again. The guys wearing layers of clothes with hats of different kinds and sunglasses walked together like a 'V' of geese to the store.

Getting inside, they didn't remove any disguises while walking over to the cafe that was past the book section of the store. Joey sat down at a small circular table with three chairs settled at it while JC and Justin went up to the counter to get their orders. Justin turned around from his last spot in line to spot Joey in the corner holding the table. Clearing his throat, trying to not speak with his recognizable Tennessee accent he shouted, " Joe, getting anything?".

Sprinting his chocolate brown eyes in the guys direction, he motioned with his mouth in a quiet whisper 'no' while throwing his right hand back and forth in front of his neck. Turning back around in his spot with no returning response, people began lining in back of him and JC was up to order.

Arriving back to table with their meals, JC brought Joey back a black coffee anyway. The three sat there together like they were all strangers, not knowing who was behind the masks. They felt completely isolated from everyone else in the large store, everyone else wearing just a simple autumn jacket with nothing else on their face unless what was needed. Joey added the milk and two pinks to his coffee, stirring it around with a straw and just stared at it. The other two took a dive into their sandwiches, hungry from the busy morning.

Clearing his mouth off with a napkin and setting it on the counter, JC looked up at the two of them with his sky blue eyes. " Justin, don't make any plans on Friday night." Taking a sip from his black plain coffee. Joey peered up from his stirring and looked at JC. He looked back at him then his eyes traveled back to Justin's confused ones.

" Why?"

" Just trust me, don't make plans."

Eyeing JC weirdly, he gave a nod while rolling his eyes, taking another bite out of his sandwich. Joey sat there, solitude and quiet. He didn't show himself off to be angry at them, which he was, but gave a smile to JC as if he knew what he was talking about. " Fine girl, three o'clock. I'll see you boys later," Joey announced, walking off into the music section in the back of the store. Smiling, he pushed his chair in and lead his direction to where a girl was standing, approaching her and giving a friendly hello. Not taking a sip from his coffee, Justin grabbed it and began to drink it himself since it was going to no use.

" Dude, you know, that stunts your growth...," JC declared, pushing his chair back to the back two legs so he could lean back.

Justin lifted his head and just stared at the cup in a daze. Answering back, " You should talk," snickering at himself.

"Ves!" Abby shrieked holding up a light purple spaghetti strap dress. "This is perfect! Try it on! Please?"

"I don't know. Isn't it a little...uh...revealing?" Vesteva protested. Abby shook her head and shoved the dress in her arms.

"Go now!" she ordered. Vesteva groaned and headed towards the dressing room. Abby waited patiently outside until she heard Ves call her name.

"Can you zip me?" she laughed opening the door. Abby giggled as she stepped inside and slowly zipped up the dress. Vesteva looked at herself in the mirror for a long time taking in the curved neckline and the way the dress puffed out at the bottom. She had to admit, she liked it, a lot. Abby smiled to herself as she saw Ves run her hands down the satin fabric. It had been a long time since she had seen Vessie truly happy.

"Vessie...it looks great. You have to buy it!" Abby gushed.

"I don't know...it's a lot of money." Ves replied looking at the tag. Abby gave her a pleading look and she finally gave in. "I can't believe I'm buying a dress for something I'm not even going to. Abby this is all your fault!" she grinned. Abby just smirked, her plan was working perfectly. For once she had forgotten all about Justin, and Ves had forgotten about being different.