Jade pulled her hair back into a ponytail at the nape of her neck and finished tying the laces of her chunky healed boots. She wore a pair of black pants and a dark red, v-neck t-shirt. She sighed as she looked in the mirror. Sometimes she wished she could just go back home where she belonged, but her mom wouldn't hear of it. And there was nobody to talk to about it anyway.
"Are those my shoes?" Nique was standing in the doorway of Jade's bedroom, watching her closely.
"No."
"They look like my shoes." Nique sighed. "Not that I'd mind if they were. But I'd appreciate it if you'd at least ask me before taking my stuff."
"They're not your damn shoes." Jade turned around and glared at her cousin.
"Whatever. Are you gonna invite Zac over again today and get me in trouble?"
"I didn't know you'd get in trouble for it. You never told me your brothers were against you dating."
"Not dating in general. Just not dating one of the Hansons."
"Why? What's wrong with them? They all seemed pretty nice to me."
Nique sighed. "Not that it's any of your business. But my brother's think they pass girls around and take turns with them."
Jade laughed. "They do kinda."
"How the hell would you know?"
"Well, let's see. I talked to Melissa. She said that she's dated Taylor and Isaac. Carter's dated Taylor, Zac, and she's kissed Isaac before. And then there's you."
Nique looked surprised. "What about me?!"
"Well, I was on the phone with Carter yesterday. She said they know all about you and Taylor. And if I'm not mistaken, don't you walk around pretending you have a thing for Zac?"
Nique rolled her eyes. "Why are you getting all dressed up?"
"Because, Carter invited me to their New Years Eve party."
Nique's expression fell. "You're going there too?"
"Yeah. Hey can I borrow that little black sweater of yours? I think it'd look good with this shirt."
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because I was going to wear it."
Jade muttered something and reached for her dresser. She pulled out a black, chocker type necklace with dark red beads and a dark red, round stone hanging from the center.
"Where'd you get that?"
"My mom. Why?"
"Because it's nice." Nique shrugged and went back to her room.
They didn't go to the party with eachother. In fact, Jade didn't arrive until an hour after Nique was already there. Carter opened the front door of the Hanson's house and pulled Jade inside. "Nique is pissing me off. It's like she went sarcastic psycho bitch monster all of a sudden."
Jade laughed at what Carter was wearing. "You don't match at all."
Carter looked down at her outfit. Long, bright blue, shiny skirt, with a hot pink tanktop. She wore layers of beaded bracelets and necklaces.
"Did I miss Mardi Gras?" Jade laughed, jokingly.
Carter shrugged. "This is my new style for the millenium."
"It's cute. So where is everybody?"
"In the pool."
Jade made a funny face. "It's new years eve."
"Yeah."
"It's December 31st. As in.. brr. cold?"
Carter laughed. "Oh. It's tradition. Usually we only last about 5 minutes in the pool. But it's surprisingly warm. Zac's not allowed to go in because of his immune system, and I decided to stay out with him. And Nique is being a skank, so she won't go in."
Jade laughed as Carter pulled her outback.
The usual people were there, Melissa, Gabi, Abby, Todd(Who was not invited), Taylor, Nique, Isaac, Trey, Tristan, and Zac. Apparently they'd gotten cold. They were all sitting on the patio laughing about something.
Carter and Jade sat down on the ground and observed, not really knowing what was going on. Melissa had a magazine and she was holding it as if sacred to her. Carter saw the cover and laughed. "Oh no. Not them again."
Melissa opened the magazine to the middle. "They do NOT all look alike, Taylor! Look! They all have different hair!"
"Yeah, brown." Taylor rolled his eyes. "What's with that one? The front of his hair is all bleached. He looks dumb."
"That's Scott. And he is NOT dumb. He's highly sophisticated for his age."
Taylor pointed to the other three boys. "So why do they all look alike?"
"Because they're triplets." Melissa stated in a matter-of-fact way.
"Well. It's still wrong."
"What's wrong?"
Taylor grabbed the magazine. "For three teenage boys to walk around looking like eachother. The only thing that separates them is that Scott one with the blonde thingie. Oh wait, that dude has it too. What's his name?"
"Dave."
"I thought that one was Dave." Taylor pointed to the other one with short hair.
"That's Clint."
"So who's he?"
"I already told you, that's Scott."
Taylor sighed. "Dammit! Then who's that?!"
"That's Bob."
"So which one is your favorite."
Melissa turned to page to a huge picture of Scott, wearing purple shades, and a tiedyed shirt. "He is. He's my Scottie wottie doodle."
Carter rolled her eyes. "I thought you were over him."
"I decided to not let things written in magazines ruin my love life."
Taylor gave them a confused look.
"She's talking about something she read about Scott liking older women. Unfortunately, she's 2 months younger than him."
Taylor nodded. "Gotcha." He pulled the magazine back from Melissa. "So who else is in here? Backstreet Boys? 94 Degrees? UFO? Or was it.. LSD?"
"It's LFO! And don't make fun of 98 Degrees either!"
Taylor laughed as Melissa tried to grab the magazine from him. All eyes widened as it flew out of their hands and landed in the pool with the picture of Scott, face up.
"NOO!!!!!!!!!!!" Melissa stared at her magazine and frowned. Then she turned to Taylor.
"Uh oh." Taylor took a step back. "I'll buy you a new one!"
"I GOT that at a MOFFATTS CONCERT you ASSHOLE! It's IRREPLACABLE! It was AUTOGRAPHED by SCOTT and BOB!"
"What about John and George?" Taylor joked, trying not to be mean.
Melissa lunged forward and grabbed Taylor by his neck. "I WAS GONNA GET THEIR AUTOGRAPHS LATER!!!! BUT NOW I CAN'T BECAUSE YOU ARE A FUCK! AND NOW YOU'RE GONNA DIE!"
Taylor screamed and started to flail is arms around.
Carter, finding this all completely hilarious, wanted nothing more that to sit back and watch. But, considering her sister's serious obsession with Scott Moffatt, she had to step in and save Taylor's life.
She jumped up and shoved Taylor away from Melissa, causing him to fall into the pool. Then she grabbed her sister and whacked her on the head. "DAMMIT MEL! CHILL OUT!"
Melissa glared. "Yeah. Sure. I'll do that. Then I'll get him to throw your white teddy bear into the pool and we'll see how you react to THAT!"
"First of all... there's a difference, I sleep with Teddy.. second of all... ew wait a minute. You sleep with that magazine?"
"Yes. But now I can't."
Carter sighed and went back to sit on the ground next to Jade. Taylor pulled himself out of the pool and sat next to them. "This is gonna be a fun New Years Eve party." He sighed.
Carter patted his head and laughed. "I'm sure it will be."