CHAPTER SEVEN: Rita

Rita glanced worriedly at the clock. It read eight-thirty. She looked around; the pizza parlor was now pretty much stuffed with kids from Eastward. Still, there was no sign of Rick Hartford.

He was usually unpunctual, since Rick was one of those people who liked to show up fashionably late so all the attention could be showered on him as he made his grand entrance. But an hour and a half was bad, even for Rick Hartford.

Part of her was secretly glad and relieved that he hadn't shown. After all, she had pretty much given him the impression that it would've been a quiet meal, just the two of them hanging out, something they hadn't done in a while, actually, which was why Rita had been looking forward to it. But then, when she had been leaving Anthony's house, Margaret had asked her why she was going so early, and Rita felt it would've been rude to tell Margaret she was meeting someone for dinner, but not invite her. Unfortunately, Margaret had asked all this loudly, so Rita had felt obligated to invite everyone in the surrounding area, too.

"Have you seen Rick?" Rita asked Brenda quietly.

"No, I don't think so." Brenda shrugged.

Rita guessed it was true, since Brenda usually kept a hawk-eye out for Rick, though it seemed to Rita now that she was getting more and more into Scott; she hadn't left his side since going to the bathroom forty-five minutes ago.

Suddenly, her eyes lighted on Jeremy. He was at the bar, flirting with a waitress who was at least twenty-five. Rita knew that was as alone as Jeremy was ever going to get. She got up and went and sat down next to him at the bar. Jeremy's eyes flickered over her before he decided to ignore her and keep flirting with the waitress. Finally, Jeremy's waitress stopped talking long enough to smile at Rita.

"Can I get you anything, hon?"

"Um.a virgin strawberry daiquiri." Rita said, coming up with the drink that would take the most preparation time, so she could talk to Jeremy without the waitress coming back.

"Coming right up.hold on sweetie," she winked at Jeremy.

There was a moment of awkward silence. Rita Foster and Jeremy Maroney hadn't been alone since their break-up in June.

Finally, Jeremy spoke up. "She doesn't card, you know, you could've gotten a double-double if you wanted."

"I don't drink, remember?" Rita said in a small voice. Somehow, now that they weren't a couple, she found it harder to stand up against him.

"Of course." Jeremy smirked.

"What's up with Rick?" Rita asked quickly, so that Jeremy couldn't jump into making fun of her and make her distracted from why she'd sought him out in the first place.

The mention of one of his fellow Elite made him furrow his brow. "You know.I really don't know.I think it has something to do with the new kid though. He's probably mad about not being the hero of the game for once."

"Oh." Rita said, because she didn't know what else to say.

"If you ask me, he'll calm down in a bit. It's probably good for him that he isn't the star of everything." Jeremy went on. Rita laughed inwardly at the fact that Jeremy was saying these words; she'd seen him pounding away on inanimate objects before when he lost soccer games. "Why are you so worried?" Jeremy looked at her dubiously.

"He just looked upset afterwards," Rita shrugged. "Wouldn't you worry about your friend?"

"Well, he's been my friend for longer." Jeremy said, as if he was challenging her to who had more right to worry about Rick.

"Here's your daiquiri," the waitress had returned.

"Thanks, keep the change." Rita slapped a five dollar bill on the counter, and then pushed the daiquiri toward Jeremy so violently that some of the drink spilled over. "It's all yours. Thanks for your words of wisdom." She stormed away, knowing well that the waitress was staring at them both, confused.

Suddenly she felt a hand on her arm. "Whoa, what was up with that?" Margaret muttered. "Is this an ex-lovers' quarrel?"

Rita had to laugh, "No.just.stuff."

"All right, but everyone's watching, just so you know." Margaret said.

Indeed, Rita realized as she looked up, everyone was pretending to be absorbed in their own conversations, but most of them were still watching both her and Jeremy warily. It was nothing unusual, though.their relationship had always attracted attention, since anytime Jeremy took interest in a girl it was cause for gossip, and the fact that they'd been together so long only heightened people's curiosity.

Enough is enough, Rita decided, and went out to where her car was parked. She had come here with her sister Rose, but she knew that Rose could find a ride back if needed.

"Going already?" Scott had followed her out.

"Yeah.I have a headache," Rita lied.

"That's too bad, I was having a really good time with you."

"You were? We've hardly said two words to each other since getting here." Rita raised her eyebrows.

"Well, maybe a good time in general." Scott grinned.

"I'm glad to hear it." Rita said.

"But I'd like to have a good time with you.we should do something sometime."

"All right, yeah," Rita nodded, barely containing her impatience. She hated it when people said "something sometime," it was so imprecise, and Rita was one of those neat-picky people who thrived on details. "See you!" She hopped in her car and drove away, eager to get away from people.

Jeremy Maroney watched the whole scene from inside the pizza parlor. He laughed silently as Scott Parker, looking puzzled, returned to inside the restaurant. "Tough luck, man," Jeremy said.

"Shot down," Glenn Pullet snickered.

"Don't worry about it, she's a hard nut to crack, only Jeremy's done it." Carson Rollins said.

That's right. Jeremy thought silently to himself.