A/N: Well, I haven't completely forgot this story. So, here's the next chapter. Enjoy! Read and review please!

Disclaimer: I own the plot and the characters. I don't own McDonald's, Egg McMuffins, etc.

Chapter 2

Last Chapter....

"What's this about a boyfriend, Paige?"

"Papa!" Paige exclaimed, eyes wide, his father was home early. "I can explain!"

"I certainly hope so," Brian Chandler replied, looking down at his second child and youngest son with an unreadable expression on his face.

Paige gulped and nervously bit his lip. "He's not my boyfriend, papa," he said softly. "I just met him today."

"Who exactly is this boy?"

"Jeremy Walker, he just moved into town. He's in Trina's Art class, and she introduced him to everyone. I have his number because I invited him to come to Kayla's recital with everyone," Paige replied quickly.

"Paige, look at me," Mr. Chandler said. Paige looked up at his father nervously. "Paige, you know your mother and I don't care that your gay, you're our son and we love you. I just don't want to see you get hurt. Not everyone is as open-minded as your friends."

"I know papa, but you see, Jeremy lives with his older brother, Christian, and Christian's boyfriend, Drake. Jeremy knows that I'm gay. He told Brett Anders off today at lunch when he started teasing me. Jeremy doesn't care that I'm gay," Paige told his father earnestly. His parents were so overprotective of him, especially his father.

"Oh," Mr. Chandler said slowly, "I see." The man sighed and looked down at his son. "I'm sorry Paige, I should trust your judgment. I just worry about you."

"I know papa. It's all right," Paige smiled up at his father. "Can you make Mikayla give me Jeremy's number back so that I can write it down?"

Mr. Chandler grinned at his son, "I believe that can be arranged," he said before turning to look at his daughter who was trying to hide behind an end table and lamp. "Mikayla, first of all, you really need to find a better hiding place, and secondly, give Paige the phone number back."

Mikayla sighed. "Fine, but only because I'm in a giving mood and Paige remembered to ask everyone to come to my recital," she grumbled before grudgingly handing over the paper.

"Thank you, you are too kind," Paige said, sarcastically.

"Yeah, yeah-" Mikayla started but was interrupted by the phone ringing. "I got it!" she yelled before running into the kitchen and answering the phone.

"She needs therapy," Paige informed his father after Mikayla was out of earshot.

"I agree wholeheartedly."

"Oh, Paigey," Mikayla sang, "the phone's for you. It's Jeremy."

Paige blinked, "Jeremy?" he said, confused. He hadn't expected Jeremy to actually call him, especially not so soon. "Give me the phone Miks."

Mikayla hesitated, planning on teasing Paige, but then thought better of it and handed the phone to Paige before going back to the kitchen, followed by her father.

"Hello?" Paige said as he walked upstairs to his room.

"Hi, Paige? It's Jeremy," Jeremy said. "Sorry to bother you."

Paige slipped into his room and closed his door and curled up on his bed. "Oh, no it's fine. I wasn't doing anything. Did you need something?"

"Actually, yes. I really hate to bother you, but do you drive?"

"Yes," Paige answered slowly, a bit confused.

"You do? Can I ask a really big favor then? Would you be able to give me a ride to school tomorrow? Christian and Drake have to go and pick up the rest of our stuff from a friend's house and it's a pretty long drive, so they're leaving early tomorrow, and I don't have a car right now. If it's too much trouble I can always take the bus," Jeremy explained to Paige.

"No, it's fine. I can pick you up tomorrow morning. Is around quarter after seven okay?" Paige asked.

"That's fine," Jeremy replied. "Thanks. I really hate to bother you like this. I'm just not a big fan of buses, so I try to avoid taking them."

"It's all right. I don't mind," Paige assured Jeremy softly.

"Thanks again. So was that your sister who answered the phone?"

"Yeah, she didn't say anything...weird, did she?"

"Nope. Just said hello and asked who was calling. Why?"

"Oh, it's just that sometimes Mikayla can be a bit strange. It's a result of being around Trina and Allie too much."

Jeremy laughed. "I wouldn't tell them that though. They'd probably attack you or something."

Paige smiled. "Yeah, they probably would. Either that or threaten to tell people embarrassing things that I did when I was little."

"When you were little? How long have you known everyone?"

"Umm...let's see. I've known Chase and Trina since I was two. We met Allie, Libby, and River in preschool when we were four. And Mally, Fox, Courtney, and Delaney, we met them in third grade, so we were eight."

"So you've all known each other for ever."

"Pretty much. They may be not exactly normal, but they're my best friends. What about you? Did you have a lot of close friends where you used to live?"

"I had a few. There were three of us that had grown up together, and then a few others that we had met in junior high and high school."

"Oh. It must have been hard to move away and leave your friends."

"Eh. It wasn't too bad."

"I don't know what I what I would do if we moved and I had to leave everyone behind. You guys are my only friends and I'm not very good at making new ones."

In his room, Jeremy blinked, a bit shocked. Paige had counted him as a friend. For some reason that made him inexplicably happy. "I'm your friend?"

Paige blinked. "Yes," he answered slowly, "unless you don't want to be friends..."

"No! No," Jeremy said. "That's not what I meant. It's just that we just met and you guys have all been friends for so long. You're a close-knit group. I just didn't think that any of you would consider me a friend yet."

"Oh," Paige said. "Nope. We all like you. You're our friend. It's as simple as that."

Jeremy leaned back against his pillows and grinned. "Thanks. I wasn't sure if I would make friends, seeing as I moved during senior year."

"Well, you've got us, as long as we don't scare you."

"Nah. Some of my friends back home are a...uh...bit unique."

Paige laughed and was about to ask another question when he was suddenly pounced on. "Ack! Adrian! Off!"

"Paige? You okay?" Jeremy asked.

"Oh just peachy," Paige gasped sarcastically. "I've got a 6'3 160 pound 21 year old guy sitting on my poor little 5'5 115 pound body, but other than I'm fine. I mean really, who needs to breathe?"

"Adrian, stop crushing my brother. Get off him before he passes out," Vincent said from the doorway.

"But-"

"Adrian. Down. Now!" Vincent ordered.

"Fine," Adrian said sulkily before grinning evilly at his friend. "I'll just have to molest you instead," he said before jumping off of Paige and grabbing Vincent by the waist before the blond could react.

"No! Damn it Adrian! Put me down!" Vincent yelled as he was lifted up and put over Adrian's shoulder.

Adrian grinned. "See ya Paigey!" he said before leaving and heading down the hall to Vincent's room.

"Damn it Adrian! Get your hand off of my ass! Stop groping me you pervert!" Rang out through the hall until a door slammed, muffling Vincent's threats and protests.

"Uhh...what just happened?" Jeremy asked.

"Adrian," Paige replied.

"Is this an everyday thing?"

"Pretty much. They were early today though. Class must have let out early. We usually have a little more time to enjoy the peace and quiet. Oh, in case you were wondering, no Adrian won't really do anything Vincent. Not that Vin would mind."

"He likes Adrian?"

"Yup. Has for a while now. Although," Paige said, suddenly serious, "you can't say anything to Adri about it. He doesn't know, and Vince is afraid to tell him. Promise you won't say anything in front of Adri?"

"Yeah, don't worry. I won't say a thing."

"Thanks."

"No prob."

"So what were we talking about before I was attacked by Adrian?" Paige asked.

"Uh...my friends from before I moved."

"Oh...that's right. So what were they like?"

"Insane. Although not quite to the degree that you guys are. Well not you, Paige, you're not insane. It's the rest of them that are."

Paige laughed. "I can be just as bad as everyone else...provided I have lots of sugar and caffeine."

"Really? I just can't picture it. But I'll take your word for it. So...anyway....my friends from my old school...hmmm....where to begin? Well, there's Tessa and Elijah, they're twins. They're not just insane, they're scary. It is impossible to win an argument with them. They're both on the debate team and the minute you start to argue something with them; they turn it into a debate. Then there's Julian, Blair, and Bailey. Jules loves his guitar more than he should and loves to play tennis. Blair's quiet. He's not really very social and he's not the easiest person to get along with at first. And Bailey...well she's Bailey. She loves RPG's, Anime, Manga, and Yaoi. She loves Jrock, especially Gackt, Malice Mizer, and Dir en Grey. She's shy until she gets used to you, and once she does...well she doesn't shut up. And then there are Adaire and Gabriel. We've been friends since were two. Daire's short. He's only about five feet tall. He's constantly dying his hair random colors. When I moved it was blue. He's gets mistaken for a girl a lot, seeing as he has long hair and tends to wear girls clothing. He's also incredibly sarcastic at times, has a strange since of humor and a tendency to throw things at people when he's stressed. Gabe's relatively normal...if you look past the fact that he claims he's married to Adaire and they have three kids, he will go completely nuts if he sees a spider (he's terrified of them), and he actually likes math. Other than that he's pretty normal. And I think that about covers everyone."

"Wow. Your friends seem incredibly normal compared to us."

"Yeah, it's kinda scary. I didn't think that it was possible that there could be someone out there with friends that were stranger than mine."

"And then you met us," Paige said with a laugh.

"Yeah, and then I met you guys. Not that it's a bad thing."

"That's good. I'd have felt bad if you were scarred for life because of us."

Jeremy laughed. "Nah, that's something you don't have to worry about. My friends have already taken care of it."

"Kat will be disappointed. She takes great joy in traumatizing people. It's her hobby."

"Well, we don't have to tell her. I'll just let her think that I haven't been thoroughly traumatized yet."

"I don't know...she can sense these things. I think she has some kind of radar or sixth sense."

"Oh well. You don't think she'll be too upset when she finds do you?"

"Nah, she'll get over it."

"Good. I wouldn't want to earn her undying scorn just because I've already been traumatized."

Paige grinned and was about to reply when Mikayla stuck her head into his room. "Dinner's ready Paigey. You'd better hurry up and get downstairs before Adrian eats everything," she informed him.

"Sorry, I've gotta go. It's time for dinner," Paige told Jeremy.

"Okay. So tomorrow at quarter after seven then?"

"Yeah. Well, see you tomorrow then. Bye."

"Bye Paige."

Paige hung up the phone and headed downstairs, stopping to put the phone back in the kitchen before going into the dinning room and joining his family for dinner.

In his room, Jeremy hung up his cell phone and tossed it onto his bed before getting up and going downstairs to see if anyone had remembered dinner.

6:30am was entirely to early an hour to be even remotely coherent, Jeremy thought has he hit the snooze button on his alarm clock and considered going back to bed. Just as he decided that another ten minutes wouldn't hurt, Christian stuck his head into Jeremy's room. "What time is Paige picking you up?" he asked.

"7:15," Jeremy mumbled as he sat up. Christian would never let him go back to sleep.

"Well, it's almost twenty till now. You should get up. Drake and I are going to be leaving in about fifteen minutes."

"Mmmhmm. I'm up," Jeremy said as reluctantly crawled out of bed and to the bathroom. Fifteen minutes later, Jeremy emerged from the bathroom, fresh from the shower and mumbling about remembering to bring clothes with him next time. He was digging through one of the many unpacked boxes in his room, looking for some clean and relatively unwrinkled clothes, when Christian poked his head into Jeremy's room again. "We're leaving Jeremy," Christian said as he watched his brother search for clothes. "We probably won't be back til five or so. That means that you'll have to fend for yourself dinner wise, or me and Drake could just pick up something on the way home, but I'll call you and let you know. Anyway, have a good day. I don't care if you have friends over or whatever, just no wild parties or anything."

"I know, Chris, I'm 18, not 10. I'm a big boy," Jeremy grumbled, voice muffled due to the fact that he was tugging a black t-shirt over his head.

"I know. I just worry. I'm allowed, it's an older brother's prerogative," Christian replied. "Anyway, it's already seven, you need to hurry up. You don't want to make you and Paige late for school."

"Yeah yeah," Jeremy said, as he tugged on a pair of boxers under his towel. Dropping the towel he tugged on a pair of baggy, black jeans with lots of zippers and safety pins on them. Grabbing his messenger bag and socks and shoes he turned to face his brother. "I'm ready, well almost, so stop worrying and leave already! It takes like five hours to get to Jace's house."

"All right. I get the picture. You don't want me around when Paige gets here. Does my little Jeremy have a crush?" Christian teased.

"Christian!" Jeremy yelped, blushing and then proceeded to chase his brother out into the kitchen where the older of the two siblings hid behind his boyfriend. "You people have way too much energy in the morning," Drake informed them.

Christian grinned at his boyfriend. "Morning's my favorite time the day. It's the only time that you're not being loud and bouncing off the walls, well except for after sex."

"I so did not need to hear that," Jeremy grumbled as he put on his socks and the slipped his shoes on.

"That was mean Christy, mean. I'm hurt, really I am," Drake informed his lover dramatically. Christian rolled his eyes at the other man's antics. "We need to go. It's getting late."

"Late? It's only five after seven, that is not late," Drake protested, but let himself be pulled out the door by his lover all the same. "See you later Jeremy. Be careful," Christian told his brother as he opened the passenger side door to their car.

"I will. Have a safe trip. Say hi to Jace and Manda and everyone for me."

"Will do. See ya tonight."

"Okay. Bye guys."

"See ya."

Jeremy watched them pull out of the driveway and disappear down the street before going upstairs to brush his teeth.

At 7:15 exactly, Paige pulled into Jeremy's driveway. After a minute of debating with himself over whether he should just honk the horn or go knock on the door, Paige got out of his car and knocked on the door.

Jeremy was just coming downstairs when he heard the knock on the door. He grabbed his messenger bag off the couch and headed to the door, making sure he had his keys and wallet with him. Opening the door, Jeremy grinned at the blond standing on his doorstep. "Hey Paige," he said.

Paige smiled back. "Good morning," he replied. "Are you ready to go?" He asked as Jeremy locked the door and they headed to the car.

Jeremy shrugged, "As ready as I can ever be for school."

Paige laughed softly. "You sound like Kat. She is seriously not a morning person. You should see her in the morning, she's like a totally different person," he told Jeremy as he backed out of the driveway and started driving.

"Really? She seemed pretty awake in Art class yesterday. And isn't the school in the other direction?"

"Yeah. I'm going stop at McDonald's first, for breakfast, that's why I leave so early. And the only reason Kat's so awake is because she drinks like ten cups of coffee in the morning." Paige replied.

"Oh. Is she really that bad? Because she seems so hyper that I can't imagine a lot of coffee being good for her."

"She's like completely dead in the mornings. She's impossible to wake up and once she's up, she's not coherent in the least until she's had at least two cups of coffee," Paige said with a grin. "It's kind of funny to watch."

After a quick stop at McDonald's for some Egg McMuffins and coffee, and a near death experience with a cat that didn't seem to comprehend that the big thing hurtling at it could be hazardous t its health, the two boys arrived at school. Luckily, they were early enough that Paige managed to find a parking spot in one of the parking lots, saving them from having to drive around to find a parking spot and inevitably having to walk a block or two just to get to the school. The two climbed out of the car and walked up to the doors where students were filtering in. Once inside, Paige led Jeremy to the cafeteria and over to the table where their friends were gathered.

Jeremy looked around at everyone. No one seemed very coherent yet, not that he could blame them, it was only 7:40 after all. Katrina was drinking coffee and looking kind of out of it; Chase was just kind of staring into space while Liberty used him as a pillow; River was leaning on Fox's shoulder, half-asleep and Fox was absently stroking his hair; Allie was reading while munching on granola bar, Mallory was listening to a C.D., and Courtney and Delaney were frantically trying to finish homework. "Well, everyone seems cheerful this morning," he quipped with a grin. His remark was met with various glares and dirty looks.

Five minutes later the first bell rang and everyone dragged themselves off to their lockers and homeroom.