Chapter 2: Bethany

"Hello?" I answered my brand new IPhone 4 that my dad just gave me three days ago.

. "Hey! Its Spencer!" I recognized my friend Spencer's voice immediately, because we always talk and have known each other since second grade, when we met by the water fountain, when she came running up to me with wide brown eyes after my ear surgery, asking if I was okay.

"Hey Spencer! What's up?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing. I was just wondering if you wanted to come to the pool with everyone, and then spend the night afterwards." She was running words together like she always does when she's excited.

"Sure! Just let me ask my parents." I yelled into the emptiness of the mansion for my dad, but I only heard an echo. Seconds later I heard my mom yell down the spiral staircase from the fourth floor,

"Yes, honey?" I padded along the carpet in my mismatched socks and passed our butler, Theodore.

"Hello Miss Bethany" he said to me.

"Hey Theodore," I said casually. I gave him a fist bump, sock slide, hip bop handshake, and he walked away. As I got to the bottom of the landing, I looked up and saw my mother leaning over the bannister.

"What do you need?" she hollered down to me, holding my baby sister Brenna. Brenna is nine months old and is always crying.

"Can I sleep over at Spencer's tonight?"

"Well, your father and I are going to the state dinner tonight…" My dad is the mayor of our town and he's almost never home. "I guess we can always hire a sitter for Brenna. Sure, why not? You can go." I walked back over to where my phone was sitting.

"Hey, she said yes." I told her.

"Great! Come over at two."

"Alright, bye!" I looked at my watch. I had to leave in fifteen minutes. I dashed upstairs and picked out my clothes and my new swimsuit. I grabbed my Louis Vuitton suitcase out of my closet and threw in my clothes, swimsuit, toothbrush, curling iron, pajamas, and Bugsy (my stuffed ladybug/guilty pleasure.) I raced downstairs and ran out the door. I threw my suitcase in my jeep and tried to start my car. CRUD! I had forgotten my keys. I hopped out of the jeep and flung the door open. I grabbed the keys off the hook in the kitchen and yelled at my mom,

"I'M LEAVING MOM!" No reply, figures. I finally got the car started and drove to Spencer's house. Spencer has such a pretty house. It's designed like an old Victorian brick home, but, it was made to order. A one million dollar house has to be big and beautiful. Spencer lives in the guest house that they have on the side of their four story house. Her "loft" as she likes to call it is two stories and is amazingly decorated. She calls it a loft so she can practice for, in two years, when she is in college at Julliard she'll have a real loft in uptown New York. As I pulled up their long driveway and entered the code to get in through their gate, so did Aria. I told the gate guy, Joe, to hold it open for her. After everyone arrived, and stopped squealing, Spencer's dad came in and asked if we were still going to the pool. We ran up the stairs to change and the gossip began. Then I yelled "PILLOW FIGHT!" and we all started whacking each other with pillows until we were breathless. Spencer reminded us that we were going to the pool. We started walking while Taylor and I chatted up a storm. We got quiet and I looked at my friends. Aria had blonde hair and big hazel eyes. She was a fashionista and always stood out at school. Phoebe had dark brown hair and sparkling brown eyes. She is the all-time chef in our group. Taylor had dark brown hair and brown eyes. Taylor was OBSESSED with reading. She was held back in the 6th grade, and we were the only people she could find friends in. Spencer has light brown hair and soft brown eyes. She's just like Aria and that's how they became friends. We walked into the pool area and immediately saw Danny look our way. Danny went to school with us and both Phoebe and Taylor had a massive crush on him. He was clearly waving to Phoebe, but Taylor took it as an opportunity to show off and attempted to do a swan dive, but ended up doing more of a belly flop into the water. We walked over to Danny's lifeguard stand. "Hey guys. Watch out for those kids over there, they're knuckle heads." He said to us, motioning to a group of kids across the pool. That's when I heard Phoebe scream. I whipped my head around to see Taylor in the water on top of Phoebe. I jumped into the pool as Aria and Spencer kicked off their flip flops ready dive in, they are trained lifeguards, but Danny beat us to it. "Taylor OMG!" Taylor was still laughing mercilessly.

"WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU?"

"I thought it was funny." She said in a way so snobby I wanted to shove her under the water. I watched get out of the pool, twirling her hair for Danny to see. Danny set Phoebe down on the lawn chair and motioned for her to come over to the slides with him. He said a couple of things and she stormed off, crying. We all decided to follow her because that's what best friends do , right? WRONG.