Oh! SO long overdue, seriously, it feels like it's been forever.

Chapter 11

"Guys, we could get into a lot of trouble!" Jenna insisted as she stood guard near the entry of the computer lab, watching Madden and Colette anxiously over her shoulder as they sat around a computer, Aiko hovering over the pair of them.

"So we let Giselle get away with this because of trouble we might get into?" Aiko asked. "C'mon, Jenna. You saw that website and what she said about Madden. She deserves everything she gets. Speaking of which, what exactly are we getting on her? I mean, everyone can see the stuff on her MySpace."

"But not her private blog," Colette replied.

"What about a password?" Madden asked.

Colette shook her head. "No problem. She's not smart enough to change her password and it's always the same," she explained, tapping a few keys and smirking when the pink, purple, and white page loaded. "Here we go. Let's see, what was Giselle up to this summer? I miss our chats."

Madden grinned fractionally as she leaned forward in interest. Her eyes skimmed the page and then she, Colette, and Aiko all abruptly recoiled. "Ooh, well, that certainly wasn't legal!" Madden cackled. She glanced over at Aiko and identical grins split their faces in two as they chanted in unison, "Print it!"

For a moment, as Madden watched the printer spit the pages out, one after the other, she felt a pang of guilt wash over her. A little voice was whispering beside her ear, scolding her. This wasn't Madden Lark. This wasn't who she was. This wasn't something she would have ever done three months ago.

Madden let out a shaky breath as she lifted her hands to cover her face.

"I'll even do one better," Colette murmured as she opened another browser.

"What are you doing?" Aiko asked.

The blond girl grinned viciously as she opened up an email box. "Sending this page to everyone on my list; what do you think the subject line should be?"

"How about 'Giselle's in the Wild'?" Madden suggested, violently shoving her remorse away as she forced herself to look at everything Giselle had done to her. That awful little monster deserved everything she got! In fact, it was a long time coming! "And why don't you attach a couple of those oh-so-very flattering pictures to boot? I'm sure the greater populace of Standish is dying to know what kind of undies the fashionable Miss. Gordon's wearing lately."

"As well as a few of the guys at Weston," Colette added before clicking the 'send to all' button.

Colette had made a counter site to the TheStandishSlut web page and Madden watched with a combination of emotions as the hits on the 'Giselle's in the Wild' homepage doubled and tripled with every hour that passed. In just one day it was getting close to surpassing its rival site.

It felt so good to get revenge. Or it should have. It always had before. But then she had always gotten revenge for one of her friends and by punching someone in the face. This was different—vastly so—and it didn't… it didn't feel right.

But then it did. Giselle was getting a taste of her own medicine. Giselle was getting was she deserved! Or so the little imp of revenge insisted.

Madden was pried of her thoughts when her cell rang and she reached for it, mindlessly opening it and lifting it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Come to your window."

"You forgot to say 'Hello Clarice'," Madden replied. "Lex, what are you doing? It's almost midnight."

"I'm trying to make up for whatever I did wrong that's made me the equivalent to the plague in your book. C'mon, just come to your balcony."

Madden sighed in defeat. "Give me a second."

She reached to turn her computer off before slipping through the shoji screen and then down the spiral staircase, across the hall, and finally into her bedroom. She took a detour right over top of her bed and opened the French doors, letting in the cool night air.

"There. Can you see me or something? How do you like my pajamas? Cute, right?"

"It'd help if I could see them!"

Madden's eyes widened fractionally and she lunged at the edge of the balcony and looked down. Below her, in the circle drive, was Lex standing in front of his M6. "Lex!" she hissed. "Are you insane? Do you have any idea what my grandpa will do to you if he finds you here?"

"Then you should probably get down here before I wake them up," he replied.

"I said what they'd do to you not me."

"Ah, c'mon. You know it'd tear you up if I got hanged and quartered because of you. C'mon!"

"Go home, Lex."

Lex looked thoughtful for a moment and then darted to the side and Madden followed him, her eyes widening when he jumped the front steps and stood in front of the door. "What are you doing?"

He grinned as he lifted a hand and held it poised over the buzzer. "I'll do it."

"You will not!"

"I will."

Madden bit her lip anxiously and glanced back over her shoulder into her bedroom. "Alright," she murmured. "I'll be right down."

"Oh, you're right, that is cute."

Madden rolled her eyes as she closed the front door as quietly as she could behind her. She was wearing her gray, hooded robe, which she wore untied over her lavender, empire-waist nightdress and short, brown boots. "Lex, we're not having a slumber party."

He let out a bark of laughter as he looked down at the loose, tonally striped pajama bottoms and a black tee-shirt he was wearing. "Damn. Well, since that's out of the picture would you like to go out with me tonight instead?"

"Are you insane?"

"Slightly. It comes from my mother's side."

"Lex!"

"Is that a yes?"

Madden's eyes narrowed. "What goes on in that mind of yours?" she demanded. "It's midnight. Even if I wanted to go, I couldn't. My grandparents would kill me if they knew I ran off in the middle of the night."

"So, if they weren't a problem, you still wouldn't want to go?"

"Yes! I mean… well… no, not necessarily, but—"

"So, you would go?"

The girl growled in frustration and stomped her foot. "I don't know! Maybe! I mean… this is horribly corny and would put every sappy movie to shame, but it's… it is sweet and you know, you're a jerk for making me say that!"

"That's a yes then?"

"Have you been listening to anything I've said?"

Lex shrugged. "You said you'd like to go, but your grandparents would kill you if they knew you came."

"You took a lot of liberties with paraphrasing, but yeah."

The boy smirked faintly and then promptly took a step closer and swept her up off of her feet. "There, problem taken care of," he replied, adding when she shot him a dirty look as she struggled to get a grip on his neck, "You said your grandparents would kill you if you went. How could they be mad if you're kidnapped instead?"

"Well, besides the fact that kidnapping is a felony," Madden replied. "C'mon, Lex, this is insane, we're going to get caught."

"What, scared?"

The girl's eyes narrowed. "Are you calling me out or something?"

"Of course not," he said dismissively. "I'm just saying you sound like you're afraid."

Madden glared for a long moment before pointing to the car. "Fine, let's go, Romeo."

Lex grinned and made his way to the passenger side. He bent slightly so that she could open the door for him and then sat her down in the front seat.

"The park… you know they'll find my body here immediately."

Lex chuckled. "Just get out."

Madden rolled her eyes but, as she had no other choice, pushed open her door and slid out, carefully adjusting the skirt of her nightdress. She would have pulled on some shoes if she had known what they were going to be doing. "I hope we're not hiking anywhere."

"Nope," he replied, popping the trunk and reaching inside and withdrawing a canvas tote bag, which he shouldered. "Hey, can you grab the blankets?"

She moved to do so, fixing him with a sly look. "We're not doing that tonight either."

"Look who has a dirty mind," Lex teased with a grin as he reached up to close the trunk, an electric lantern held in his left hand, glowing softly. "It didn't even cross my mind."

Madden felt almost hurt that he didn't even think about it and, upon realizing this, she was ready to step out in front of the first car that availed itself. "Why not?" she asked, forcing herself to sound as if she didn't care what he answered.

He smiled faintly and reached out to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Because I know you're not like that."

Madden stared at him for a moment and smiled helplessly. "You're one of those corny romantics, aren't you?"

"You've found me out!" Lex exclaimed, throwing his head back in a theatric display of despair. "But don't tell anybody, I have a reputation."

She laughed outright at this and her smile only widened when he held his hand out to her. "Your secret's safe with me," she said, slipping her hand into his.

Lex said nothing as he pulled her away from the car. He led her across the cool grass, down a gentle slope and then up another. All around them, Madden could hear the choir of frogs and crickets in the distance. She looked up at Lex as he led them and bit her lip when her heart fluttered in her chest. She felt giddy and girlish at the same time and she liked it.

Lex sat the lantern and then the canvas bag down as they reached the top of a particularly steep hill and came up to a short, rounded stone wall. Without a word he grabbed Madden around the waist and lifted her up to place her on top of the wall before handing her the lantern first and then the bag. He climbed up the wall beside her and helped her to her feet and Madden's face lit up when she saw that they were in a rose garden. Overhead was a wooden pergola that cast grated shadows over them as the moonlight shone down through the overhead beams. The garden itself was outlined by a circle of high, impenetrable hedges, closing in the roses and peonies, which were planted in concentric circles with walks cutting between the circles and through them. The wall they were standing on terraced the garden off from the rest of the park and from it they could see out over the entire park.

"Do you do this for all of the girls you want to impress?" Madden wondered aloud, sparing the boy beside her a skeptical look.

"No. I usually don't have to go this far to impress girls," Lex answered casually.

She hummed thoughtfully as he sat the bag and lantern down again, close to the edge of the garden and then reached for one of the blankets she held. They each took an end and unfolded it together and then threw it up into the air and let it settle over the grass. "Has it been worth it?" she asked, falling to her knees on the blanket, grateful for the chance to finally sit down after the long walk.

Lex held off answering by retrieving the other things. Then as he sat the lantern down beside her and fell to his knees in front of her so that they were once again face-to-face, he nodded. "Yes."

"Why?"

"Just full of questions tonight, aren't you?" he teased, sparing her a look out of the corner of his eye as he reached for the canvas bag.

She laughed. "I think I'm justified."

Lex shrugged. "You were different."

"Don't you mean I was difficult?"

He smirked as he held a spoon out to her. "Yeah, that too."

Madden smiled and accepted the utensil. "You know, I'm not really hungry."

"Good, because all I brought was dessert," he answered, removing a plastic deli container filled with a large slab of tuxedo cake and then a small pint of Ben and Jerry's. "This stuff's probably melted."

"Good," Madden said eagerly, reaching over to take the carton from him. "I love melted ice cream. So, is this all we're going to do?"

"Mm, nope," he replied, throwing himself back onto the blanket and pointing up. "We have a private light show brought to you by the Creator of Heaven and Earth."

She laughed and laid down next to him on her stomach, her head tipped back to admire the sky as she took a bite of the half-solid, half-melted soupy mess of vanilla and caramel swirl. "I'm an Aries."

"That's the goat, right?"

"No, it's the ram. The goat is Capricorn."

Lex nodded and rolled over onto his side to scoop some of the cake out of the container. "I'm a Leo I think. Lion, right?"

"Yep. Fitting of you I think."

"Dare I ask or am I going to be walking right into a trap?"

Madden smiled and shook her head. "Leos are confidant, willful, creative, and natural-born leaders."

Lex grinned. "Go on."

"They're also dogmatic, stubborn, and egotistic."

"And the love fest ends."

She laughed and reached out for a bite of cake as well.

"So what are Aries considered?"

"Stubborn, impatient, forceful… I only name the bad ones because they're the ones I fit best."

Lex frowned slightly at this. "I don't think there's anything wrong with being any of those things."

"Why not?"

"Being stubborn just means that you're not afraid to believe that you're right, which is better than always thinking you're wrong. Impatience just means you don't like to wait and you think that your time is worth something. And forcefulness… well, I like that in a girl."

Madden reached out to smack him and he caught her hand and pulled her over him, making her shriek in laughter. He tried to roll her over onto her back, but Madden braced her hands against his shoulders and forced him down.

"Pretty girls shouldn't be so strong," he grunted as he struggled to free himself of her grip.

Madden laughed and when he ceased fighting her, throwing his arms to the ground in defeat, she sprawled across his chest and reached for the ice cream and a victory spoonful of it. She smiled thoughtfully as she let the taste of the vanilla sink in, bringing back memories of summers passed. She thought of Brendan and for a moment wanted to pull away from Lex.

For some reason, it never felt right to think of Brendan when she was with Lex. In fact, some part of her felt as if she were betraying both of them.

Brendan.

What would he think of the backstabbing, gossip-spreading bitch she had become now?

"Hey, what's wrong?" Lex whispered as he steered her back onto the blanket. Now they were laying on their sides, facing one another, one of his arms cradling her head and his other resting on the curve of her waist. "Madden?"

"I was just thinking," she murmured quietly. "I… Lex, I don't think I know who I am anymore."

"Nobody knows who they are at our age," Lex answered softly, lifting his hand from her waist to brush her hair out of her face.

"I used to," Madden insisted. "I used to know exactly who I was… now I'm just… I'm lost. It's that stupid school and Giselle and… just everything. I'm afraid of what I'm turning into. I'm afraid that I'm not even going to know who I am by the end of this, Lex."

He wetted his lips thoughtfully as he watched the emotions play out across her face. Anyone else… any other girl and he would have found some way to change the subject, some way to walk away from this… but it was Madden and it mattered to him. "Maybe it's a good thing that this has happened. Maybe who you were… wasn't who you're supposed to be," he whispered and when she scoffed he shushed her. "No, no… listen to me. Maybe knowing who you were was holding you back. Maybe you're realizing who you can be."

"Maybe," she whispered. But I don't like who I see.

Was that fluff or cheese? That's a matter of opinion I think.

So, a little more internal conflict… which is completely unintentional. Guys, this newest development with Madden's inner struggles? Yeah, I'm going to burst all of your bubbles: I don't have clue one what I'm doing. This is just all off the top of my head and I hope y'all enjoy it.

And more of you better review this time! I mean, jeez.

Oh and BONUS CORNER time!!

Sound track:

I always like to compile a 'soundtrack' for my stories. It's just fun and I'm weird like that. So these are some songs that I think fit. Some fit because their lyrics seem to and some fit because I just like the sound, regardless of the lyrics. I really tried to make sure that the lyrics fit too though.

Aly and AJ – Chemicals React

Boys like Girls – Hero/Heroine

Saving Jane – Girl Next Door

Boys like Girls – Thunder

Secondhand Serenade – Fall For You

Aly an AJ – Flattery

Liz Phair – Extraordinary

Dashboard Confessional – Stolen

Jack's Mannequin – Dark Blue

Our Lady Peace – Somewhere Out There

Soo…

EVERYONE REVIEW PLEASE!!