~~~~~~~~Megan~~~~~~~~

"Gale is mine. I am his. Anything else is unthinkable." The Hunger Games

It's kind of weird. I used to hate Sophie Fairfax with a burning passion last year. The timing was inconvenient with my birthday and everything, she was too much of a flirt, and she was a Gigi and kitten hog. But, we didn't really give her a chance and now that Gigi and Edouard are married we got a lot closer.

Becca is still my best friend, but Sophie and I are like sisters even though last year I swore we would never be close like that. Sophie is also friends with the book club now and is dating Zach Norton. Any other year Becca would have been jealous of Sophie on who her boyfriend was but this year she isn't. She's dating this guy named Theo whom she met last spring while with her Grandma visiting Betsy-Tacy sites. I've never met him but he seems fine from what I hear from Becca. I hope to meet him soon. It would have to take a lot to outrank Zach since she had a crush on him since kindergarten all the way through sophomore year.

Speaking of dating, I'm still with Simon Berkley. Even if we have a 5 hour time difference and live thousands of miles away we make it work with texting, skyping, e-mail, and good old fashion calling. It's nice to hear each others voices through the phone. We've also had some bumpy spots in our relationship but I think we're through our rough patches.

I hear a knock on my bedroom door.

"Megan, can I come in?" It's Sophie.

"Sure," I reply. Sophie comes into my room and plops down on my bed.

"What's up?" I ask.

"Oh, nothing really. Just a bit excited about the kickoff book club meeting and Mrs. Sloane-Kinkaid's treats." she replies.

"Well she has her own TV show, I would think she's know how to cook and bake." I say jokingly.

"Yeah but, oh my, she has talent!" Sophie giggles.

"It must be weird to have the kickoff book club meeting after Spring Break." says Sophie.

"Yeah, but we'll have it over the summer and then start again in October. It's only the beginning of May. We'll have 5 months or so." I say.

We decided to put book club on hold for a bit to let Gigi and Edouard get settled after their honeymoon to Greece. They had their house here in Concord to decorate and make homey. Then they had to go to France and do the same in their little house there. By that time It was August, and we could have started but with Darcy and Stewart going to college and getting them settled in their dorms, it was too hectic to meet. Between the Holidays and such we decided to skip a lot of the year and meet after Spring Break, which we are doing today.

"GIRLS! Time for book club! We have to pick up Gigi." my mom says through the intercom.

"COMING!" Sophie says back. We both race down to the garage and get into the car and we're off to Gigi and Cassidy's house.

When we get to Cassidy's house we are greeted by Stanley and a happy Chloe. We are about 10 minutes or so early so we go straight up to Cassidy's room where her mom said she would be.

"Hey Cass! We saw you win the tournament!" I say when we get to her room.

"You were awesome!" Sophie adds while sitting on Cassidy's bed.

"Yeah, thanks. We are very awesome." replies Cassidy not sounding focused.

"What's the matter?" asks Sophie. Cassidy sighs.

"Can I talk to you guys about something?" she asks.

"Anytime," I say. Sophie nods.

"OK, thanks. I don't want to call Courtney right now. So, you know how last year I broke up with Zach?" she asks. We nod, though I notice Sophie's a little red faced. She always blushes when his name is mentioned.

"Well, I did it because I like Tristan. You already know that. Well last summer when he came for the wedding we decided to stay as friends and wait for his gap year to be over to talk about relationships. Well, we were messaging like a half hour ago and I was going to tell him that the Lady Shawmuts won the tournament. I told him to guess what I had to say and he replied that I wanted to be his girlfriend. I'm so confused! Why did he say that? We were going to wait! I don't know what I think of him!" she says. Woah, that girl's confused.

"Well do you like him?" Sophie asks.

"Yes. But I don't know if I'm ready for a relationship yet." says Cassidy.

"Why not?" Sophie asks.

"Well, we will be thousands of miles away from each other and I don't want to ruin a friendship like with Zach." Cassidy is sad at the last part and Sophie blushes again.

"I thought you were still friends." Sophie says.

"We are but not like we were. We used to be really close. He resigned from being the Lady Shawmuts' equipment manager and things can be a little awkward sometimes. But don't worry, he doesn't have feelings towards me anymore now that he's with you." Cassidy assures Sophie.

"OK, but back to Tristan, Cass." I say. I think I saw a blush forming on her cheeks from mentioning his name. She likes him, a lot. Cassidy Sloane wouldn't blush for just anybody.

"What about him?" Cassidy asks.

"List why you like him," I say. "to see if you are ready for this step into your relationship." Cassidy takes a deep breath.

"Well, he's easy to talk to. I tell him about everything that's happening in my life and he really listens, not just acts like it. He also 'gets' me when I'm mad about losing a hockey game with him being competitive and all with his ice dancing. He's-"

"Incredibly good looking." Becca interupts while walking into the room. "Don't you deny it Cassidy!"

"Well, yes, he is. Extremely." says Cassidy blushing.

"Hey Becca!" Sophie says. "We were helping Cassidy with her feelings about Tristan."

"Hmm, so I see." Becca says. We quickly fill her in.

"From what you've told us I think you really do like him and wouldn't mind or oppose at all about being his girlfriend." says Becca.

"I agree." I say.

"Me too." Sophie says. "But it's up to you. Do you think you're ready?"

"Yes, I think I am, it's just I'm a bit scared of a long distance relationship. How do you and Simon do it Megan?" Cassidy asks.

"Well, we communicate a lot through many social things, Skype especially. It's nice to see him through video conferencing and we also message on it. I see you and Tristan already do that." I say. "It won't be that much different from how you and Tristan are now with your friendship."

"OK... I'll see if he brings it up again and I'll tell him I'm ready for the next step of our relationship if he is." Cassidy says.

"Which he most definitely is ready," says Becca with a smile. Cassidy smiles back.

"Thanks for this talk guys, it helps me to talk about this stuff with people. Especially you guys. Emma and Jess have had it pretty easy in the boyfriend department and wouldn't really know what I'm talking about." Cassidy says.

She's right. Stewart and Darcy are pretty easy-going great boyfriends for Emma and Jess and they haven't had many rough patches or confused feelings. Well, Emma and Stewart have, but not Jess and Darcy. Everyone's convinced 'Jarcy' will get married and live 'happily ever after.' They're perfect together.

"Emma and Jess are here! Come on down for our meeting!" Mrs. Sloane-Kinkaid yells up the stairs.

"OK Mom! We'll be right down!" Cassidy calls back. "Don't tell my mom about this yet, OK?" Cassidy asks. "I don't want to tell her yet. I'll do that later when we're alone. This stays between us for right now. Megan you can ask Simon if he knows anything about what Tristan thinks about me, and Sophie you can ask Tristan if you want being family but all of you, keep your mouths shut to other people please." We all agree to keep the talk between ourselves and head downstairs for the first Mother-Daughter Book Club meeting of the year.

So I realized that the USA National Hockey Championship took place after spring break but I wanted to have their kickoff MDBC meeting in this story, which is usually in September. CONTRADICTION! I had to make up those excuses which I thought were pretty good until the lame Holiday stuff. So that was the explanation for that. I was very surprised by how many of you had already seen and read my first chapter. I really appreciate the feedback. I'm really surprised on how fast I'm updating too. I wouldn't get so used to this. Cassidy straightened out her thinking about Tristan! Yay! Now I've never had a boyfriend (I'm a single pringle who really isn't that ready to mingle, at least I don't think so.) so it might be a bit weird and awkward in that department in this story. Haha:) tata for now.

Stay gorgeous! -Tori