~Part Six~

A few stray sunrays were peeking over the east hills of New Rawley as Bella rummaged through the top drawer of her desk.  "Come on, come on.  Where are you?"  A light tap came to the door just as she'd pulled out a set of keys in triumph.  Glancing over the bed that Jake was still curled up in she hurried over to the door, not wanting to wake her friend up.  After all, she had just fallen asleep perhaps an hour before.

Pulling open the door, Bella came face to face with a tall blond girl, holding two suitcases in her arms.  "Can I help you?" she asked quietly, poking her head out.

"Room 214?" the girl asked, knowingly.

"Until further notice," she replied back, smiling.

Finally allowing her suitcases to drop, the girl from the hall held out a hand to Bella.  "Sheryl Price.  I'm your new roommate."

Turning abruptly to look at the sleeping form in the spare bed, Bella shuffled quietly into the hall, closing the door behind her.  "New roommate?" she asked, folding her arms in front of her.  "I thought I wasn't getting a roommate this semester."

"Well, here I am," Sheryl replied, looking slightly amused that they were both standing in the hall talking, instead of in their dorm room.

Leaning back against the wall next to the door, Bella smiled.  "Sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude.  I wasn't expecting a roommate.  I'm Bella Banks."

Sheryl let her own smile touch her face, "I know.  Hamilton has some pictures he took of some of his friends that you're in."

Standing up straighter, Bella dropped her arms to her side.  What could she possibly have to do with him?  "How do you know Hamilton?"

"Well," Sheryl said, "he came with me last year to go to school at Bakersfield."

Realization suddenly hit Bella, making her seem a bit more flustered than she had been just moments ago.  "You're that Sheryl?"

Grimacing slightly at the phrase, the girl nodded her head lightly.  "That's not the general consensus around campus, is it?" she asked, looking somewhat hopeful.

"Umm...I didn't mean that..."

"No, it's okay," Sheryl said, picking her bags up and moving towards the room.  "I figured things were going to be difficult when we got here."

Bella blocked the doorway, putting both hands up against the frames.  "I know that this sounds crazy," she said, doing her best not to blame the girl in front of her for what had happened the night before, "but you can't go in there."

Sheryl raised her eyebrows, wondering if rooming with Jake's friend had been such a good idea.  "If there's a problem with me rooming with you..."

"No," Bella cut her off.  "It's just that there's someone in there right now that I'm sure you'd rather not meet at the moment...and I don't think she'd want to be meeting you right now either - under the circumstances."

"Okaaay...care to elaborate?" Sherly asked, setting her bags back down.

"Uhh," Bella wasn't sure how exactly to explain the risk this girl would be taking should chose the inevitable 'door number three'.  "Want to take a walk into town?"

Shrugging her shoulders Sheryl just laughed.  "Sure, I've got somewhere I have to stop at anyway.  But I don't think that my bags can hold up here in the hall."

"Right."  Looking down at the suitcases, Bella opened the door quietly and picked them up, setting them both down on the floor and sliding them carefully under the bed Jake was sleeping on, hoping they wouldn't be noticed.  Walking back out into the hallway and shutting the door again, she headed down the hall next to Sheryl.  How did she end up in these messes?

.  .  .

Bella was lost in thought as she pulled her truck into the garage of the gas station her father owned.  According to Sheryl, Hamilton was back for senior year.  Even more importantly, he was back because of Jake.

She wasn't quite sure how she felt about that.  Spending the last year loathing him on Jake's behalf made her weary of him.  But if it was coming directly from Sheryl, who seemed to really care a lot about him...

She just wasn't sure.

Opening the driver's side door and stepping out, she spotted Will heading over from the dinner, decked out in his blue Friendly's uniform shirt and a pair of tan khakis.  Will never seemed to take sides on the issue one way or the other.  He was good friends with Jake, but she knew he had been good friends with Hamilton as well.

"Hey Will."

"Hey," he acknowledged her with a nod of his head.  "Working today?" he asked, sticking his hands in his pockets and dropping lazily onto the bench just outside of the front door to the gas station.

"Yeah, you?" she asked, sitting down next to him and slouching in a similar manner to the way he'd just done.

"Yep.  I've got about fifteen minutes until my shift starts so I thought I'd come over and bug you for a minute."  He tilted his head back against the window, closing his eyes and letting himself enjoy the serenity of the quiet Sunday morning.

Bella looked over at him, wondering if she should talk to him about what had happened in the last few hours.  It wasn't like he wouldn't find out soon enough anyway...

"Will?"

"Hmm?" he asked, keeping his head tilted back.

"I need your advice on something," she stated, turning towards him and resting her left arm on the back of the bench seat.

Will opened his eyes, giving her his full attention as his head tilted towards her.  "Okay, shoot."

"Well," she began, running a hand slowly through her hair, "I ran into Hamilton's girlfriend this morning."

"What?" Will asked, sitting up straighter on the bench.

Bella sighed, resting her head onto the palm of her left hand.  "That's pretty much what I thought this morning too when she told me just outside of our dorm room."

"Wait a second, our dorm room?  As in the two of you are now sharing a room?"

"Yeah," she answered, nodding her head.  "My first year at Rawley and end up sharing a room with my best friend's worst enemy, and the hardest part about it is that I actually like her."

Will smirked at that, "Guess you didn't expect her to actually be a decent person."

"It's not really that," she replied, sighing.  "It's just that she's always been the reason that Jake went through what she did last summer, regardless of whether or not it was intentional.  It kind of fell under the category of best friend loyalty, I guess."

Nodding his head, Will sat back again.  "So, does this mean Hamilton is back too?" he asked, curiously.

Bella groaned, dropping her head onto her shoulder.  "Yeah, he's back...and it's not just because he wanted to go to Rawley for his senior year."

"What other reason could there be?"

Closing her eyes, Bella laughed without humor.  "He's back for Jake."

Will took all of this in silently for a moment. "So your question would then be…?" he finally prompted.

Running a hand through her blonde hair, Bella sighed. "Well, Sheryl wants my help in getting them back together."

"Wow, she actually had the guts to ask you that? I'm impressed," he replied, smiling.

"Yeah, well I'm betting she plans on asking all of us. So I'd expect a visit from her soon, if I were you. I just don't know what I should do."

Glancing down at his watch, Will stood back up. "I've gotta get back, my shift is up."

"Okay, I'll talk to you later then," Bella replied, standing as well and heading towards the door to the gas station entrance.

"Oh, one other thing," Will said, turning around.

"Yeah?"

"Why is Sheryl okay with all of this?" he asked, confused.

Bella paused at the door, opening her mouth and then closing it once more. She had no idea…

.  .  .

Sheryl strode quickly up the walkway to the Fleming home, anxiously ringing the doorbell a few times.  This could not be happening right now.  It wasn't as though she expected Hamilton and Jacqueline's first meeting to be wonderful, but she'd certainly expected it to go better than it obviously had.  Almost immediately the door swung open, Hamilton standing in the doorway, extremely tired and beyond flustered.

"Rough night?" she asked, knowing precisely the answer to her question without him having to tell her. 

Hamilton glared at her for a moment before turning around and walking back into the living room, plopping down on the messy make-shift bed he'd been attempting to sleep on.

"Why is it that when you get crazy ideas into your head, you always drag me along for the ride?"

"Hey!" Sheryl replied, indignantly.  "I do not get crazy ideas into my head...that often.  Besides, I don't think this 'crazy idea' would even be in my head if you hadn't run away last year to go to school with me," she pointed out.

Throwing an arm over his eyes, Hamilton sighed.  "You're right.  If it weren't for me we wouldn't even be in this mess...which is why I have to fix it."

Sheryl smiled, sitting down in the chair across from him.  "Good to know you see it my way."

"I might see it your way a little bit better if my walls weren't a lovely shade of cotton candy," he stated with a tinge of sarcasm.

A small smile pulled at the corners of her mouth.  "You're kidding."

"Nope, straight out of a man's worst nightmare."

Laughing at the humor of it all, Sheryl sunk down further into the cushions.  "I'm sure this won't be as bad as you think."

Hamilton raised his eyebrows at her.  "Yeah, well you haven't seen what she's done to my room..."