Eve sat down at the counter of Jax's. She'd had a rough day that day. On top of Randall's death and Kim's disappearance, she hadn't talked to Brent in a while. While she put up a front for her friends that it didn't matter, she worried internally. She slipped her Dr. Pepper thoughtfully.

"Having problems, baby doll?" Jax made his way over to her side of the counter, wiping the surface off with a towel.

"Jax! How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?" Eve complained in exasperation.

"As many as you want, but it ain't gonna work!" Jax laughed. He propped his elbows up on the counter. "So are you going to tell me what's on your mind? It probably won't be anything I don't know, as much gossip that I hear in this joint."

"Well, you see, I haven't talked to Brent in a while. In fact, the last time I really had a chance to actually sit down and talk with him was at Madison's Ball. That's been what, almost four months?"

"You can't be serious."

"I am! Brent was so busy with his basketball, and now he's into baseball. It seems as if we don't have anymore time for each other, Jax," Eve propped her head on her palm.

"You're just blowing everything out of proportions, Eve," Jax's gentle voice soothed. "I'll tell you what, you can have another Dr. P on the house, is that cool?"

"Heck yeah! Bring it on!" A bright smile appeared on Eve's face.

"Alright then, I'll be back in a flash!" Jax disappeared through a thin, swinging brown door.

The smile on Eve's face wilted. "I can't let it fall apart now. We've been going out for too long. Way too long. But what can I do to get your attention?"

Chloe took a walk through the Kennedy Gardens. She'd left Christian and Becca over half-an-hour ago, for she needed time to think. She had so much to think about.

Chloe, checking first to see if a gardenkeeper was around, picked a single rose from a bush. The petals were so complex, each intertwined and locked with the other. For some reason unknown to her, Chloe frowned at it.

"A rose for a rose?" a voice called from behind her.

Chloe's breath caught in her throat. Her eyes widened as she turned around to face her greetor. Chloe's heart fluttered involuntarily when she recognized the voice and face as Brent's. The goofy grin on his face, however, crushed the hope out of her heart. The fluttering stopped. "You're just kidding around."

"Aww, come on, Chloe. Give yourself some credit. You have half the guys in our school turning their heads when you walk down the hallway."

"Yeah, too bad they have glasses thicker than their head, their nose runs so much they're Kleenex's biggest customer, have more zits than the population of China combined, and they actually know every name of every planet and star in the sky. Only the geeks like me, Brent."

"That's not nice, Chloe. They can't help the way they look," a serious tone came into Brent's voice.

"It may not be nice, but it's true! Why should I spare their feelings when no one spares mine!" Chloe spat out bitterly, she folded her arms and turned away from Brent.

Brent placed a sympathetic yet reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Things not going so well back at MP?"

"No! Three-fourths of the girls in tennis hate me, most guys make fun of me because I'm smarter than they are, and my teachers despise me because I question their methods!"

"I never knew," Brent responded after a silence. He knew it sounded clichè, but it was the only thing he could think to say.

"No, of course you didn't! But you see, Brent, I can't walk on eggshells to keep on hurting other people's feelings when mine are stomped on, thrown in a paper-shredder, and fed to the dogs. I can't keep on going like this!" Chloe plopped down on the stone bench in front of the rose bush.

The look of raw pain in Chloe's eyes tore Brent's heart up. For a minute, he wanted to reach out and hug her, but he quickly caught himself. A tense silent loomed between them. "I have to go meet Eve. I'm sorry," he shattered the silence abruptly.

"Fine," Chloe put her head in her hands.

A sharp needle of pain stabbed Brent's conscience, but he still walked slowly away from the rumpled creature on the stone bench. He didn't trust himself to stay.

Mel sat down silently at a rather isolated table at Jax's. He rubbed his forehead in thought as he pondered the events that had transpired earlier in the day. Even though the sun was on its final stretch towards the horizon, the fire that was burning inside of him refused to be diminished.

Mel spotted Eve talking to Jax at the counter. He was almost tempted to join them. Eve was a girl who always had a way of breaking everything down into its simplest terms. That's what he needed at that moment. Simplicity.

Mel's introspective mood was shattered when Gia burst into Jax's. With the determined look that was planted on her face, he could tell something was up. Though he'd only spoken with her once before, he decided to find out what was going on.

"Hi....Gia, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Gia mumbled, throwing her purse onto a table.

Her tone discouraged Mel. "I'm sorry. This must be a bad time."

Gia quickly realized how she had come across. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be so snappish. This just hasn't been the best of days."

"Amen to that. I'm waiting for my alarm to go off so that I can wake up from this nightmare." Mel looked into Gia's eyes. "What has you so upset?"

"It's a long story. Let's just say that my plans didn't turn out the way I expected them to."

"Is it something you need help with?"

"Boy, you could say that ag-" Gia's eyes widened as a thought popped into her head.

"What?"

Gia beamed. "Believe it or not, you just may be the answer to all of my problems right now."

"And how is that?"

"You'll see," Gia alluded. "Come with me."

Becca didn't realize she was being followed by Christian until she looked up when the path dead ended. "Please, Christian, you're not making this easy."

"I'm only trying to help you! I've noticed that you've been really uneasy since you started coming to school. What's going on?"

Becca clamped her mouth shut, closed her eyes, and vehemently shook her head. "I can't do that."

"Why, Becca? We're friends! It's not as if I'm going to do something to hurt you!"

Becca winced involuntarily. She drew herself up and faced Christian. "This is not the time or the place to discuss this. I have things I need to take care of."

Christian blocked Becca from walking past him. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Is that what you think I'm worried about?" Becca laughed harshly. "That is the least of my worries, Christian. I have much more important issues at hand, and I really need to pay some attention to them or they'll explode in my face."

"Fine, go!" Christian shouted. "Go and keep it all bottled up inside, but don't come running to me when you explode from all of the pressure. You can't keep secrets bottled up inside of you and expect to survive junior high, Becca. Life doesn't work that way."

"And just how does life work? Please tell me how y'all think things are s'posed to work down here!"

For a moment, Christian and Becca's eyes were deadlocked in confrontation. Finally, Christian looked away and began walking in the opposite direction. "I've gotta go."

Becca's anger faltered. "Chris, wait..."

"I'll see you around," Christian grumbled over his shoulder. The walk in the garden hadn't gone at all the way he expected it to. That didn't surprise him, though. Things never did.

As soon as Christian rounded a bend, he was met by his frantic mother. Christian halted and eyed her suspiciously. "What do you want?"

"I was trying to find you. I just spoke with my lawyer, and the court date has been moved up. Christian, the custody battle begins tomorrow."

Chloe knocked on Gemini's door. She heard music inside, so she assumed that Gemini was practicing her dance routines. Gemini could often be found doing that in any spare time she had. When Gemini did not answer, Chloe knocked again, louder.

Gemini quickly appeared at the doorway in a long, sweeping black-and-gold dashiki. Her black hair was concealed in a tall wrap. "Hi, Chloe!"

"Hi," Chloe pushed passed Gemini and collapsed onto Gemini's couch.

"Okay, something must be wrong and it has something to do with Brent, doesn't it?"

Chloe looked up and laughed. "Wow, you are good!"

"Just call me Cleo, you're local psychic reader. What happened this time?" Gemini sat down next to Chloe.

Chloe raised her hands in exasperation. "I don't even know. I ran into Brent at the Gardens of all places, and we had a pretty nice discussion."

"So the problem is..."

"I'm not sure exactly. Towards the end, he just got this funny look in his eye and said he had to go meet Eve. I swear, that girl gets in the way of everything!"

"Chloe! You know that none of this is Eve's fault!" Gemini scolded.

Chloe shrugged. "I suppose. But I just get this feeling that there's something else hidden under his expression."

"Does it look like he may be reciprocating your feelings?"

"No...not exactly, anyways. I just don't know. It's too complicated to think about. So how are things with you and Sloane?"

Gemini sat straight up with the abrupt change of subject. "What are you talking about?"

"I heard things haven't been too good between you two since Madison's Ball. Have you smoothed everything out?"

Gemini got up and walked over to her window. "He played me for a fool, Chloe. I won't forgive him for that."

"Are you sure he played you for a fool, or was he just trying so hard to get you to like him that he ended up not telling you something very important? Gem, it's happened before."

"But never in my case!" Gemini snapped. She spun around and folded her arms over her chest. "Never in my romantic history have I run across a guy who likes me so much that he just happens to forget to tell me that he's a thief and a burglar."

Chloe leaned back against the couch and propped her feet up on the coffee table. "I think you're just trying to find a reason to keep you from giving into your feelings and going out with Sloane."

"Excuse me?!"

"Oh come on, Gemini. It's no secret that the guy is a walking, talking hunk-on-a-stick. You'd be a fool to pass him up!"

"Well if you like him so much," Gemini pushed Chloe's feet off of the table, "then why don't you date him?"

Chloe looked at Gemini and smiled. "I have my own love problems to deal with on top of dating Sloane. Just give him a call or write him a note. That always seems to work."

"No, Chloe. I've already been through one painful relationship this year, so I'm not ready for another. Now if that's all..."

"Wait! Do you still have that Moby CD?"

"Oh yeah, you wanted to borrow that didn't you? I'll go get it," Gemini got up and left for the back room.

Chloe sighed and looked back at Gemini. "No matter what, Gem, one of us is going to be happy. Since it's obviously not going to be me, I'll do what I have to get you to find happiness with Sloane. I'll make sure of that."

Mel was nearly run over as Brent flew past him. "Hey, Brent! How's it go..." Mel didn't bother finishing his sentence seeing how Brent was already too far down the sidewalk to hear. "Maybe it's just not a good day for him."

Gia barely even glanced at Brent. "Yeah, but anyways, you have to hear about what's going on."

"Alright then, tell me already!"

"Okay," Gia beamed. Her smile lit up the violet-pink sky. "I stopped by First Hope earlier today."

"Isn't that the teen center downtown?"

"Yes!"

"What were you doing down there?"

"Well, I decided to volunteer because it's been something I've been wanting to do for a while now. So I got there and talked to the head lady, Mrs. Gloria Jackson. I thought I was good to go, but Mrs. Jackson told me that the center was already closed down and was going to be torn apart tomorrow."

"Oh no! They can't do that! First Hope has helped a countless number of teens!" Mel cried out, stamping his foot.

Gia's smile widened. "I know! I know! So anyways, I asked her if there's anything that I could do to help stop it. She said it'd basically take a miracle, but I'm sure I can get that. I have to round up some people to help keep First Hope open."

Mel's eyes widened as he nearly tripped over himself. "Oho, I hope you're not thinking what I think you're thinking..."

"I think I am thinking what you hope I'm not thinking. I need your help."

"Gia! We barely even know each other!"

"I know enough about you to know that you like to help people as much as I."

"I don't have enough time!" Mel protested.

"It won't require much. All it'll take is about an hour or so."

"What are you planning on doing?"

"Picketing of course!"

"WHAT?!" Mel shouted.

"Keep your voice down!"

"Have you lost it? You can't picket! You could get arrested!"

"No I couldn't. Remember what we just got through learning in history? I have the constitutional right to assemble my peers to keep the city from destroying something that's saving numerous lives. Besides, you yourself just got through saying that!"

"But...but...ooo, you're a sneaky one, Gia! But I guess I don't have much of a choice. Hand over the posterboard and magic markers," Mel sighed, throwing his hands up in defeat.

Gia clapped her hands together. "I knew I could break you down! Now all we need are a few more...but who?"

"Speaking of the devil, there's Brent now," Jax pointed past Eve to an entering Brent.

"Oh my gosh! Okay, pretend like we're talking about something else," Eve quickly brushed a few loose strands of hair out of her eyes.

"Why?"

"Just do it!" Eve cleared her throat. "So how's the NCAA tournament coming?"

"Oh just dandy. If everything works out just right, I'll have one hundred bucks in my pocket in no time."

"That's super!" Eve gushed. She "noticed" Brent for the first time by glancing over at him. "Brent! How nice of you to join us?"

"Yeah," Brent's voice was shaky and uncertain.

Eve's brow furrowed. She didn't like the look in Brent's eye. She had known him too long to be fooled by the weak smile on his face. "What's up?"

"Nothing."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

Brent's simple answers threw Eve off. "Okay then. Where have you been lately?"

"Busy. Track practice has run longer than usual most times."

"Too long to even stop by and say hello or call?"

"Look, Eve, I am not The Man With No Life. I have things to take care of after practice as well. We've had two science projects, an English report, and two major algebra tests over the past two weeks. I'm sorry if I haven't had time to call you, and besides, I'm not big on writing notes."

Eve looked as if she had been struck. "Is it too much of me to ask to have a little time to spend on our relationship?"

"I think I'll just leave now," Jax turned around to exit the scene.

"No, Jax! You stay right there so you can hear what excuse Brent comes up with this time for not being able to spend time on us. You remember what I told you about him putting me off!" Eve's eyes snapped and sparked fury at Brent.

"Oh, so you've been pulling other people into our private business?" Brent's temper began to rise.

"It's not private business anymore, Brent! Everyone's noticed how I've been going to party's alone now and how you're never there at dances! You are so blind to it all, but I'm the one that has to bear the brunt of it when I have to face the curious glances and rumors!"

"You know what, I don't have time for this! I'll be back later for my drink, Jax. While she's still here, see if you can talk some sense into her," Brent stormed off.

"Fine, run away! Just know that you're tearing everything that we are or ever have been apart! You're doing this to us, Brent!" Eve shrieked after him. Noticing the shocked faces in the establishment, she subsided into sulkiness.

"Things really are bad, eh?"

Eve looked up at Jax ominously. "More than you can imagine, Jax. More than you can imagine."

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