"Makin' Banana Pancakes."

CHAPTER 11

Greg picked me up in his car again the next day. I can't say that I was happy about it, but at least having him drive me to school every day gives me a little sort of niche to fall into, even if it is with him.

I put up with the secondhand staring again at the beginning of the day. It was starting to get easier to ignore it, though. I walked silently through the halls of my new school, the large halls, the large halls twice the size of my old school's. I glided by quietly next to Greg (for he found me between every class and made a point of taking me to the next one. It was incredibly annoying). I was still needing time to get adjusted to my new school. It was stressful just for me to get through the day. All my classes were easy, all my work was done by 3 o'clock, and every day was planned by the minute. My problem - I was so lonely.

It wasn't until Thursday in my ---Math---- class that I finally found some normal human contact worth indulging in. We were told to partner up to work on a new problem set the teacher had assigned. I, of course, was not on the top of anyone's list to partner up with. All the girls were matching up together, boy and girl sets were flirting, girl sets were gossiping and the focused kids went straight to doing the problems by themselves. I, for one, was planning on joining this last group, I had no problem being the quiet nerd doing her work by herself.

That was, until someone came up and occupied the seat in front of me. At first, I ignored the person, hoping they'd sat there to be near someone else, and not me.

"Hey," came a voice from in front of me. I hesitated before looking up, it wasn't that I was annoyed, I was just very unsure of how to handle the situation.

There was a small Asian girl sitting in front of me when I finally looked. Her hair was in pigtails and one had a blue streak through it.

I must not have been saying anything because she eventually repeated herself. "Hello?"

"Umm.. Hi," I muttered and looked down at my paper.

"Do you want to work with me?" She was still there. Why was she still there?

"What?" I looked back at her.

"I said, Do you want to work with me? I mean, unless you're busy or something," She laughed sarcastically.

"Oh, um, yeah, sure." I already had most of it done.

She picked up on that. "Well, it looks like you're almost done. Guess you don't need me."

I chucked nervously a little. "Um, yeah, sorry about that."

"No, don't apologize. I apologize for being of no use to you."

"Yeah, that's true. I forgive you." I smiled back. It was easy to be comfortable with this girl.

We worked through the problems quickly. I helped her with some of the problems that she didn't get and we were the first ones done. She had a cool style, I had decided, her laid back theme was something I definitely got along with.

"So, you're new here, right?" She asked while crossing her legs.

"Um, yes. I am,"

"Do you like it here?"

"Well, sure, it's okay."

"It's boring, right?" She laughed. Then suddenly she said, "You're friends with Greg."

This was a statement, not a question.

I hesitated, not exactly knowing what was protocol to say in this situation. "Yeah." My voice sounded unsure even to me.

"So, you're not friends?" She prodded, her almond shaped eyes peering at me.

"Um," I shrugged a little and looked down.

"I heard you drive to school together." Yes, I had figured that word was spreading around from day one. I think this girl was revealing less information than she knew.

"What else have you heard?" I had never had a chance to ask anyone this before.

"This slut named Sandra, Greg's ex, says that you're a tramp with an agenda," she laughed easily.

I could vaguely muster up a picture of a small blonde girl in my head from our lunch table. I think her name was Sandra…

"Oh, I see." I nodded and looked down at my desk, not confirming or denying said rumors.

"I disagree with her, for the record."

I looked up at her, "Okay." At the present time I was having too much trouble adjusting to in-school conversation and thinking about out of school life to care.

She paused and peered at me. "This really makes not difference to you?"

I shrugged. "No." Come to think of it though, it really didn't matter to me. I didn't have the stamina to deal with petty inner school drama.

The girl leaned back slightly. "I like you. I think you're going to be my new best friend."

It wasn't until later that I found out her name was Naomi.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

My mind was sort of stuck on the night with Ryan. After what happened with him we didn't really talk much – not that we really ever talked much anyway, but we talked some usually. I didn't really want to talk after I figured out about his mother, though. I felt too terrible to speak any more (probably) hurtful and unimportant words. I felt like I'd completely insulted him by continuously complaining about my mother when he didn't even have one. Oh, and I felt ridiculously stupid.

Basically, my entire week passed in a misty haze. I didn't see much of anybody, except for Greg, probably the one person I had no desire to see. He kept driving me to and from school. I'm not really sure why he did this, I kept telling him that I could drive myself, but he insisted that "it was his duty". The car rides got quite annoying. He talked about himself a lot of the time, asked me questions just to keep up conversation, and continuously looked at himself in his rear-view mirror. Other than that, I guess he was nice. At least he spared some attention for me, which is more than I could ask for.

My mother came and went with her husband at weird hours. We talked a couple times, apparently there were all these cool, crazy places that William wanted to take her to. She described this town as a "second honeymoon," which would explain why she was gone so much.

I tried incredibly hard to be nice to her the whole week. I continually reassured her that I liked it here, asked her where she was going, what she had done, and listened to all of her long-winded answers. For the most part, I didn't see Ryan too much, but every time I did, I felt horrible all over again. After every encounter with him, I would seek out my mother to have a shallow, albeit uninspiring, conversation with her just for the sake of having it. Not to say that my encounters with Ryan were a time of unforgiving torment from him about my selfishness. Not at all. He was quite the nice every time I saw him, which was never in the middle of the night; I didn't have the courage to wander down to the kitchen, afraid of what I'd say next.

His tone was always neutral, he body language was relaxed, but cordial, and everything about our encounters read of complete normalness (well, normal for OUR relationship). I spent the rest of the week on edge around him, and then feeling stupid afterwards for being the only one that felt uncomfortable. It obviously wasn't a big deal to him, he wasn't treating me any more weirdly. If anything, he was a bit nicer, probably faintly trying to make me more comfortable with my awkwardness... if that makes any sense. I didn't know how to handle it. I didn't know how to handle him, but what else is new, right?

Saturday morning I woke up too early to be considered normal. I was fully up by 6 o'clock; I guess school has set my internal clock already.

I decided that morning that I felt like having pancakes, don't ask me why, I guess pancakes just sounded like a good idea at the time. When I got downstairs is faded into not such a good idea when I discovered nobody in the kitchen to make me pancakes. Getting in touch with my daughter-of-a-single-mother days, I decided to make some myself.

I gathered all the ingredients I could remember that went into them (it had been awhile since I'd made pancakes, my mother didn't like them so much) and pulled out a flat pan to cook them up on. Somewhere in the middle of me pulling out the pan, it struck me that Steve was coming over that morning, and the muscles in my arm spazmed, sending the pan to the floor.

My mood turned to giddy instantly at the metal made a loud banging noise onto the tile; it missed my toes by mere inches. "Oops," I laughed once and waited for my hands to stop shaking with excitement before I bent over to pick it up. Steven was coming. I know, I know, you're probably sick and tired of hearing about how I go crazy whenever I know he's coming over, but that is how I feel every time. Every single time I get the same, consuming, overly electric feeling coursing through my veins. Sometimes it's annoying. Mostly it's invigorating.

The side door of the kitchen opened up and someone walked in as I was straightening back up with the pan securely in my hand. Three guesses who.

Ryan walked in with a slightly concerned look on his face. "Is everything okay?" He never seemed surprised to see me in here anymore, not that he ever really gave away much emotion, but I suppose he was getting used to the idea of me in there all the time.

"Yeah, sure, why?" I asked, a bit confused, with a – I'm sure – goofy smile still on my face.

He walked up to the counter rolling up the sleeves to his usual white button-down. "I heard something fall."

"Do you ever wear anything different?" I practically cut off his words, unconcerned with them, while I was elbow deep in my thoughts of Steven, and slightly distracted by his movements.

The shirt rolling continued, but he stopped walking towards me and cocked his head slightly to the side, amusement in his eyes. "What?"

"Your clothes," I gestured with my pan, "they're always the same."

He looked down at his shirt and then back up at me. "So?"

I shrugged easily. "I dunno. I guess I'm just waiting for you to spice up your wardrobe a bit." When I later thought about the conversation, I couldn't believe I was saying these things to him. But, at the time, I could barely hear myself talk because of my excitement, let alone censor what I was saying.

Ryan chuckled a bit, "Oh." He shook his head once. "Don't count on it."

I shrugged innocently, "I wasn't." Then I turned back to the stove so that I could place the pan on it, and started to mix together the ingredients for the pancakes.

"What are you doing?"

"Making pancakes."

"Would you like me to do that?"

"No. I wouldn't."

He looked at me with a concerned look, "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely, you cook for me enough," I waved a spoon at him. Then a thought struck me. "As a matter of fact, sit down, my good man. I am going to make you breakfast."
Ryan started at me and then said, "That's my job."

"Not today it's not," I turned fully to glare at him in a childlike manner. "Sit down. No back talk." I went back to the stove.

I faintly heard him sit down on the stool and slide it under the table. He sat here quietly, and I'm sure very poised, as I attempted to cook breakfast without burning anything. Flipping the pancakes seemed to be a tricky matter for me, seeing as how my hands were shaking from all the adrenaline pumping through my body due to Steve. I laughed out loud every time I mishandled a pancake and it became a round mess on the flat griddle.

"Are you okay?" Ryan asked tentatively after I'd plated two pancakes and slid them to him.

I gave him a crooked smile and dumped more batter on the griddle, "Yeah, why?"

"You seem different," He mumbled. He still hadn't touched his pancakes.

"How so?" I began whistling and bounced on the balls of my toes.

"You're happy."

I turned back to look at Ryan. His back was stiff as a board, his face looked even more attractive than usually, and his hair was still damp from a shower. His appearance only had the slightest affect on my nerves, seeing as how they were already on fire from Steve's arrival, but a I am a girl. He still looked amazing.

"Is that unusual?" I laughed, I already knew the answer.

"Very," His eyes were like ice. But i loved it.

"Oh," was all I said and shrugged.

He seemed to sit, contemplating for a few minutes. "Oh, I see."

I slid my pancakes off of the griddle, set it aside, and sat down next to Ryan before I answered. We were both sitting in our usual seats, it made things more comfortable. "What do you see exactly?" I shoved a large piece of pancake into my mouth and chewed unattractively.

"Your boyfriend is coming, right?" He still hadn't touched his food.

I almost choked on mine. "Steve is not my boyfriend!" I blushed. It was such a childish response, it was funny.

The side of Ryan's mouth cocked up and he smirked at me. "Right." He nodded once, unconvinced, and picked up his fork, finally to eat.

He stole a glance at me from the corner of his eye, to show me he didn't believe me. I swear, his eye sparkled.

"I'm telling you, he is not," I shoved another piece of pancake in my mouth to stop my lips from smiling so hard. Even the thought of us together made me smile like a maniac.

"Sure he's not," Ryan took much smaller bites than I did.

"He's not," My mouth was full. He bit back a laugh, I saw it.

"But you want him to be."

"He's no-! Oh, well.." I stuttered, not expecting that. "Um, noo." I averted my eyes from his and started at my fork.

"Yes." It still amazed me that he said 'yes' instead of 'yeah' constantly. He couldn't be normal.

"No."

"Honestly, why lie to me?" He took a small piece of pancake. His chewing was very hypnotizing.

I shrugged. "I'm not."

"Fine, don't say it."

"Fine." I pointedly looked at him as I finished my pancakes and stood up to clean my dish.

"When is prince charming arriving?" He stood up to and took the plate from my hands. Our hands brushed, his were warm.

"I'm not sure," I tired to take the plate back, he turned his shoulder to me to prevent me snagging it back. "I can wash my own dish."

"I get paid to wash your dish," He turned on the faucet.

I crossed my arms and humpfed. "Aren't you even going to eat what I made you?" He had barely eaten anything.

"Yes, just at a normal pace," He said airily.

"Are you saying I don't eat at a normal pace?"

"Yes." He thought then said, "Well, when you're nervous."

I'm was getting sick of him being so insightful to my behaviors. Well, getting sick of it and liking that he noticed it at the same time. Maybe our friendship was getting somewhere. But once I thought about it, I didn't ever really notice a change in his behavior. What were his nervous habits? I'd have to make a mental note to keep an eye out for them.

I sighed and shook my head. "Whatever, Ryan."

He chuckled lightly, turned off the water, and spun around to face me. "Whatever, Miss." He crossed his arms, as if issuing a challenge.

That Miss thing was getting ridiculous, but this time was just funny. "You are ridiculous, sir."

"Yes, Ma'am, I know." He smirked just the slightest bit. I really think we were getting somewhere.

Just as I was about to retort, the doorbell rang.

My cheeks heated up instantly and I got nervous and giddy at the same time. "He's here!"

Ryan rolled his eyes, then I ran out of the room.

I threw the door open and there was Steve standing there in all of his glory. I pounced on him.

"Jeeze, miss me much," He said happily into my ear.

"Yes."

He laughed openly.

I pulled back and looked at him, "How long are you staying for?"

"Until tomorrow evening, my dear. We have the whole weekend," He spun me around and I clung to him, pretending to be afraid of falling off.

Albert came in and offered to take Steve's bag upstairs, which Steve declined and opted to carry it himself. "Thanks, though, man. I appreciate it."

Albert nodded and then left, respecting our privacy.

Back up in my room, Steven threw his bag on my floor and curled up on my bed, telling me the ride had taken his energy.

"No! Don't say that, we need to go do something fun!" I laughed and jumped on the bed next to him, shaking his arm.

"Just let me take a small nap? I didn't get much sleep last night," He pleaded. He grabbed my arm and pulled me next to him. "Naaaaaaaaap."

I let out a sad sigh and conceded. "Why did you have trouble sleeping?"

He shrugged and ignored the question.

"Steve, are you okay?" I've never seen him not pounce to answer a question about himself.

"Nap," He answered, well, whimpered, and curled up tighter.

"That didn't answer my question," I nudged his shoulder.

"Nope," He shut his eyes and snuggled into the sheets.

Clearly he wasn't talking about it. But it didn't seem right. They way he shut his eyes with too much force, how he averted eye contact in a very clumsy manner, his self esteem came off as lower, and how we both new that this was unusual for him.

"Steve, are you having girl problems?"

He let out a long groan and whimpered, "Can we please talk about this later?"

A/N: HELLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! So, yeah, its been over A YEAR since my last update and that seems CRAAAZZYY TO ME! I'm really, really sorry. And I'm sorry for this chapter. haha. I've been trying to muster up something decent about it, but I can't. I'm sure it's riddled with mistakes that I've missed and I'm really sorry about that. :-(. It was sort of necessary to get it out though, to convince myself to keep going, and to trying and move this story into a better flow I guess. I have some of the next chapter written, we'll see how long THAT takes me to get out. Hopefully not as long as it did this one... I apologize again.

AND,.. THANKS!!!! To all of those people that reviewed! It means a lot to me, really!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And: Sorry to those of you that think that Kelsey isn't perfect, but, that's the point, isn't it? Who wants to read about a character that IS perfect. That sort of ruins the entire point of a story. The character needs to evolve or else there is no story.

NOW: Please review. It will make me focus on the next chapter. Which I clearly need to do this point in my life... focus. haha. And I'm not sure if I even like this story anymore.. so.. let me know what you think? But,.. take it easy on me!