(( o_O I edited.))

"I'm Veronica. Nice to meet you. You made this mess in attempt to cook?!" Veronica asked, surprised. It's not that hard to take stuff out to cook. "What were you trying to cook?" She wondered out loud. "And erm...not. I don't carry around a spare set of clothes with me to work." She smiled friendly-like. "But now...I kinda wish I did..." Veronica mumbled. She felt the sleeve of her shirt. Looks like that newspaper-umbrella was completely useless...I might as well just have walked around with nothing to cover my head, she thought.

((@Aoi- Lol, seriously? Um... thanks. I guess. ^-^))

Jake smiled. He loved it when she had that cute look on her face. He turned to Veronica and Forever to say hi to them, but they seemed to be having a little exchange with Nao and Kenta. The girls seemed to be completely soaked, especially Forever. The top of Veronica's head seemed dry, unlike the rest of her.

He turned back to Anna and laughed. "You picked them up because they were standing in the rain? What if they were, I dunno, stalkers or something?" He sighed. "But yeah. Nao and Kenta are staying for the night." He looked over at Nao, who still had a few globs of unidentifiable stuff in his hair that he seemed to have missed, and Kenta, who was peering into the kitchen. "I guess we could somehow fit you guys in the guest room... maybe someone could sleep on the couch..."

He looked at the ceiling, as he always did when he was trying to figure something out.

Anna frowned, and then immediately brightened. "What if all of us just take sleeping bags and sleep on the floor here in the living room?"

Jake raised his eyebrows at Anna. Was she serious?

Anna sighed, and said, "It'll be fun!"

Jake put his hands up and said, "Okay, okay. But us GUYS aren't going to whisper secrets until morning or whatever. We're going to SLEEP."

Anna laughed and hugged him, and ran to the room they shared to get her laptop.

Veronica happened to pick some parts up off Anna and Jake's conversation. She felt bad that because Anna wanted to sleep in sleeping bags in the living room that Jake did too. "Anna, do you really want to give up your bed to sleep on the floor with the rest of us?" She bit her nail. "I'm fine sleeping on the floor, but you guys live here so shouldn't you get the actual bed?" She remembered when Chloe was telling her about how she slept over one of her brothers' friends' houses for no reason. she guessed that her parents didn't want her home, but that wasn't the most likely reason. Chloe thought that her brother should've slept in the middle because they all (for some reason that is still not understandable) shared a bed...but her brother's friend was in...the middle. Weird. Veronica didn't know what brought on that memory. She guessed that it was the idea of an unarranged "sleepover".

((I was actually thinking of one of my friends that it actually happened to. Her name isn't Chloe though. Haha. It was kind of strange...her brother's friend is really strange.))

Anna came back from her and Jake's room upon hearing Veronica call her name, and let out a laugh. "It's really okay. I mean, how the hell am I going to get to know you crazy people if we don't sleep in the same room?"

Now looking at the ground instead of the ceiling, Jake pointed out to Veronica, "Anna DID pick you guys up from the rain. That deserves a getting-to-know-each-other-sleepover-on-the-floor, doesn't it?"

Anna sighed and turned to Jake. "Okay, how do you REALLY feel about the sleeping arrangement?"

Jake looked back up at the ceiling again and stood in thought for a few seconds. He HAD wanted to just hang out with Anna for the night (he had planned to lock Nao and Kenta in the guest room or something so they could have their own fun), but... hmm. This was a toughie. "Um... Mehhh?"

Anna let out a breath she'd been holding. "SEE?" She looked at Veronica. "That means he's okay with it!"

Jake stuck out his tongue.

Anna grinned. "Anna is totally defeating Jake with 7467 points over his pathetic seven points. He has a looong way to go."

"Nice to meet you Veronica~ And yea, I always make a mess when i cook and like Kenta here so nicely said...my food is still good!" He turned around and ran a hand through his hair, pulling a face at the globs that he discovered were still in his hair. He moved to the sink and dunked his head under the faucet, turning the water on, he had already pulled his goggles off, laying them to the side.

Kenta leaned against the doorway to the kitchen, listening in on Anna's and Jake's conversation while keeping an eye on his uhh...mess-challenged friend. "I swear Jake, she's got you wrapped around her little finger." He shook his hair, making green bangs fall into his view, he brushed them back and fixed his sliding glasses, a smirk on his lips as if he knew what Jake had been planning to do. 'Serves you right for trying to lock me in a room with that guy.' A sudden yelp from the kitchen made Kenta chuckle, "Idiot forgot he had contacts on again."

Veronica pretended to be offended by Anna's comment about her and Forever being "crazy people". "Oh, so now we're crazy people to you?" She couldn't help but smile. "The people you've known for a WHOLE car ride? We're now CRAZY PEOPLE?" She put her hand over her chest and fake-sobbed. She figured that it was now okay to joke around with Anna.

Veronica then turned her attention back to Nao. "That's nice to hear." She smiled. "So are you cooking for us tonight?" She joked even though she thought that he probably was. "What kind of food do you cook?"

((lol you'll have to wait for your reply dear Veronica, Nao was being an idiot and forgot he had contacts on XD I just need Jake to respond to Kenta first ^^))

((Haha. Veronica can wait. xD She DID wait a long time for some type of car to stop for her. Lol.))

((Thou crazy people shalt wait no longer! :3))

Jake looked over at Kenta, saw the smirk on his face that he knew so well, and pointed a finger at him. "I know what you're thinking, and I SWEAR to all the Korean barbecue in the WORLD that I wasn't going to lock you in the guest room with Nao."

The Korean barbecue thing was an inside joke. Back when they were immature 8th graders, they all had food names. Jake was Chocolate, Anna had been BBQ... he didn't remember what Kenta had been, but he definitely remembered that Nao had been totally undecided - he had switched his food name every couple of class periods until they made the unanimous decision that from then on, they would just call him, well, Nao.

Anna suppressed her extreme urge to laugh at Veronica. This crazy (yes, crazy) girl couldn't help but remind her of all the friends she had in middle school. She plunged her hand to her chest as well and fake-sobbed, "I'M SO SORRY! BUT I'M CRAZY TOO!!!" Anna pulled her into a big hug and immediately let go - she had forgotten Veronica was soaked.

Jake turned away from Kenta and looked over at Anna attempting to hug Veronica without getting herself wet, raised his eyebrows, and sighed. Girls, he thought.

Anna heard Jake sigh, and spun around. "I know what you're thinking. Now stop thinking it." He knew he was thinking about how girls were crazy and emotional and weird or something along those lines. It had been a long time since she had dragged him into a big group of girls, him the only boy, and had him listen to their crazy talk but she still remembered.

Jake laughed and didn't say anything else. He knew better than to correct Anna and probably lose another argument. They'd had these sorts of tiny arguments for a while now, and after realizing that Anna won them about 99.9% of the time, they started keeping score. He basically gave Anna some random high number in the thousands and gave himself zero. He now had seven points, which wasn't bad for him.

((Lol, sorry Jake and Anna have such a huge backstory. I'll try to tone it down a bit later.))

Veronica laughed. "Maybe we should check into a mental institution together." She couldn't say the name out loud without cracking up. "Random-Car-Rides-And-Crazy-People-Anonymous!" Veronica looked at Anna who just made the foolish mistake of trying to hug her when she was soaking wet. Veronica didn't even have to do anything.

When she was younger, she and her friends always did that to each other. One of them would be soaked when the sprinklers at the local park was on. One of them always was dry so they would try to get the dry one wet by hugging them. They would actually spend time chasing them down and Anna just fell right into the unintentionally laid trap.

((Nahh, it's okay. Veronica keeps having flashbacks...Lol.))

((nuuu she ignored the whole Nao being an idiot part T - T ah well ^^))

"Hm? I never said that out loud." He chuckled slightly before full out laughing at his friend. "Well, you have fun with the ladies, i'm gonna go help the fool out." While he, Jake, and Nao had been best buds for who-knows-how-long-now, Kenta was the one who always had to look out for the other two. Especially Nao, the big dunce. He disappeared into the kitchen and walked over to where Nao was trying clumsily to remove his contacts. "Hold still." Kenta breathed out when he got to his friends side. he grabbed the other boy's shoulder and forced him to stand still while examining his eyes. Nao had managed to remove one contact but his other one was proving a bit difficult. "Tch. Keep doing that and the contact will get stuck in your eye one day." he he hissed, reaching out slowly and plucking the contact from Nao's eye for him. The brown haired boy immediately heaved a sigh of relief, "Thanks Kenta." Nao reached into a side pocket and pulled out his black framed glasses and slid them onto his face, blinking quickly to adjust his vision, "That's another pair of contacts to replace." he sighed. Kenta shook his head and threw the contacts out. He glanced at the stove and Nao got the message, instantly at the stove with a ladle in one hand and a wooden spoon in the other. The numerous pots and pan on the stove stood no chance. Kenta took that time to step back into the living room and smiled at everybody innocently, "Crisis adverted, dinner should be ready soon. As for you girls..." he diverted his attention to the two girls still wearing their soaked clothes, "What are we gonna do wabout your clothes?"

Veronica looked hopeful at what she was thinking and was planning to say out loud. She definitely didn't want to stay in her same soggy, soaked clothes all night. Then she realized that she was wearing the Denim of Virtue jeans that she borrowed from Chloe--and they had MUD on them from the dirty street water. Chloe was going to be so upset. They were like two hundred dollars! Oh my gosh...Chloe is gonna freak out! She spent her extra savings on them. I'm so dead if I have to buy new ones for her. Veronica thought. Chloe has been waiting to get a pair for YEARS. "Do you guys have some stain remover thing? These jeans don't belong to me...and I should really try to clean them."

Forever had been looking around when she saw Veronica's expression. "Whats wrong?" she said, then follwoed her eyes to the jeans. "If you're worried about stains, I can help you there. I have a trick to them. Anna - do you have a washer and a dryer?" she asked up, begining to reach for Veronica's hand to lead her off so they could get into some dry clothes and get some stains out of some clothes.

Veronica was ecstatic. "Really?! There's a trick? That's great!" She hugged Forever. She didn't really care because both of them were soaking wet anyway. "Thank you SO much! You don't know how much these cost! They're not even mine. They're my roommates' and if I screwed them up, I'd have to get her a new pair and I can barely afford one for myself!" Veronica released Forever. She really did want some Denim of Virtue jeans...Maybe she'd do the same thing that Chloe did and save up specially for them.

Veronica was kind of...skiddish about public...taking clothes off--especially in front of a person who she just met less than an hour ago. But how else was she going to get the stain out? Eh...whatever. I HAVE to get this stain out, she thought. "You outfit was one hundred-eighty dollars? Well...I'm not much of a designer person--because I can't afford it, but I'd like some designer clothes." Veronica laughed. "These jeans were oh...only about TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY DOLLARS." She said sarcastically, but not in a mean way. "So how much did the accessories cost, then?" She wondered.

Veronica nodded. "Oh...I get a lot of stuff from Hot Topic and Urban Outfitters...A little from Billabong and a few other places here and there..." She paused. "So, what's this stain trick you're gonna do?"

{XD Someone was peeking lol}

Forever put a cigarette in her mouth, going to the washer and dryer. She gave some dry clothes to Veronica. "Its a detergent thing. Mom taught it to me." she said, lighting up her cigarette after she took her corset top off and put the shirt on. Forever did her trick, the detergent and small bleach mix, putting their clothes in the washer with Anna's once it was done.

Veronica smelled the thick smoke in the room and coughed a little. She didn't really mind, but at first breath...it took some time getting used to. She didn't smoke since she was eighteen. She smoked for six months then stopped when her grandfather died from lung cancer. It wasn't heridetary, but if he never smoked, he would still be alive. "Alright. It won't change the color right? You know...from the bleach?" Chloe cared a lot about her new Denim of Virtues so she would notice even the smallest of changes.

((tsk tsk Forever, smoking in somebody else's house...*shakes head* I've got nothing to type so...yea...))

((Yeah? Er...I guess you'll have to wait until Anna gives Forever and Veronica some new clothes or...they'll steal some. Shhhh xD But for now, FOREVER, we need you!))

{XD I'm wondering if two single girls come in and leave taken at the moment lol. *nudges Veronica and Forever*}
(and I know, right XD I'm kinda waiting for someone to go 'STOPPIT!' and just snatch it from her in all honestly lawl)

Forever made a face of confusion. "Oh - nooo. The slight bleach will eat away the dirt in the clothing, and wont lighten fabric at all, not with how much water is around to break the concentration of the liquid. See - it's not enough to kill germs, much less ruin the fabric with how much water it is to how much bleach there is." Forever said, unknowingly showing just a little bit of intelegance. She kept how smart she was under wraps.

By the way Forever was talking-which sounded almost scientific-Veronica believed her. "So...what clothes will we wear while these are in the wash?" Then Veronica thought that they could just ask Anna to bring them new ones, but then she realized that Anna was probably busy doing something. So she figured they could just take a towel, quickly run out, unseen, sneak into Anna's room and take some clothes. "We COULD take Anna's clothes..." Veronica spoke her thoughts then waited for a response from Forever.