Webkinz Insider

:)Anna(: · 09-02-2009, 10:07 PM

*This story has been approved, and is on the list of approved stories.*

{What happens when you have to leave your new friends behind? Jaimee and Nikole Gates are about to find out in this story, Friends Forever}

~Friends Forever~

:.Preface.:

I threw my last suitcase to the back of my giant walk-in closet and fell dramatically backwards on my bed. Jaimee, my best friend, and adopted sister, was sitting in my fuzzy brown chair reading her newest book, Land of a Hundred Wonders.
We had gotten back from our summer cruise around the Caribbean, where I had met and become close friends with Zac Hodges, three weeks ago, and I had just finished unpacking. While on the cruise, Jaimee and I had gotten into a huge fight, because she had abandoned me for Sasha and Kylie Richie, Nichole Richie’s younger sisters, who, until recently, were unknown to all the world. There was a huge fight, resulting in several broken friendships and a prank war. In the end, though, we all became friends. We’ve stayed in touch over the past few weeks, the past fights seemingly forgotten.
“Finished!” I exclaimed, sitting up and grabbing my vibrating iPhone. It was a text, from Zac. I had also discovered on the cruise that a few years ago, when Zac was nine, and before Sasha and Kylie were famous, he had been close friends with the younger Richie sisters. So close, actually, that he had actually dated Sasha when he was eleven. After the cruise, they had reunited and become close again. At the moment, they were at Zac’s house, hanging out and watching some movie on TV.
“Finally,” Jaimee said, grinning at me over the top of her book. “It’s taken you three weeks to unpack five suitcases. I don’t even know they all fit on the ship and still left room for everyone else’s!”
I laughed and gently kicked her leg with my bare foot. “Be nice.” We stood and walked out the elegant arched doorway that led from my bedroom to the small sitting room in between my bedroom and the hall. Jaimee had one, too. Hers was decorated with pink, green, and purple. Mine was cerulean blue, sea green, and chocolate brown stripes and polka dots- it matched my bedroom and bathroom perfectly.
Downstairs, we sat between my dad, Bill Gates, and my mom, Mariah Gates, on the large white leather couch. “So, girls,” Dad said, sitting his glass of Coke down on the white coffee table. “Are you guys ready for tomorrow?”
I ran through my mental calendar, trying to figure out what was so important about tomorrow, August twenty-fourth. “Um, sure,” I said, still unsure of what we were supposed to be excited about.
“What is it, exactly, that we’re supposed to be excited for?” Jaimee asked. braver than I was. Unlike me, she couldn’t stand being confused about things.
Dad glanced at Mom in confusion. “Mariah, did you forget to tell them?” He asked, tilting the head to the side like he always did when he was playing a practical joke on someone.
“Dad, give it up. You’re doing that thing with your head again,” I said, playfully slapping his arm.
He sighed defeatedly. “School starts tomorrow.”

~Chapter 1: Summer’s Over~

“Sch-school?” I stuttered, completely caught off guard. In the back of my mind, I knew this dramatic summer break was going to have to end soon, I just never realized it was going to be this soon. “Tomorrow?”
“OH! I have nothing to wear!” Jaimee wailed, flinging her hand dramatically over her eyes and pretending to pass out across my lap. I rolled my eyes at her dramatic display. She sat up, suddenly somber. “No, seriously. I have nothing to wear.”
“Me, either!” I exclaimed, leaping to my feet and dumping her head, which was still resting in my lap, to the floor. “I’m in serious need of a shopping trip!” I looked at Daddy with big eyes and pouted- he can never resist me when I do that.
“Fine, girls,” he said, fishing his leather wallet out of the back pocket of his jeans. “Take my wallet. Just, please, don’t buy the whole state.”
“Thanks, Daddy!” I exclaimed, taking it from his hand and turning towards the stairs. “We won’t buy much!”
“Yeah, barely nothing!” Jaimee chimed, leaning over the balcony upstairs. She grinned down at us, her shiny brown hair falling over her shoulders.
“Of course you won’t,” he muttered under his breath, grinning at me.
I rolled my eyes at him and jogged the rest of the way up the stairs and into my bedroom.

Ten minutes later, Jaimee and I walked back down the stairs, completely transformed. I had gone from wearing a red tank top with black shorts, to wearing white jean short shorts and a pink and white striped tank top with my white flip flops. Jaimee was wearing her jean short shorts and a brown and white striped v-necked short sleeved shirt with a brown tank top underneath it with her brown flip flops. These were brand new outfits, just bought a few days ago on a shopping spree with Sasha and Kylie.
“Bye, Dad!” I called, pulling the heavy wooden front door closed behind me. Jaimee was already in the limo, waiting for me. I paused on the front steps, running through my mental shopping list. “Purse, credit cards, cash, check book, sizes,” I muttered quietly as I walked, making sure I didn’t forget anything.
“Which mall, ladies?” Our chauffeur asked in his adorable British accent. We had just hired him, when Daddy and Mom got tired of driving us everywhere all the time. Plus, all four of us agree that it looks better on camera showing up at a party in a sleek black stretch limo driven by a cute British dude no one can remember than it does showing up in a beat up, scratched red SUV driven by your dad.
“All of them!” I giggled, already excited, and we hadn’t even made it down our one mile, tree-lined drive-way. “Start with the closest one, and we’ll work our way down.”
“Gladly,” he sighed, turning up the radio. It was, unfortunately, tuned to the classical station, his favorite. I rolled my eyes at him and hooked up the iHome we had in our backseat as Jaimee fished my iTouch from my white hobo bag.
I giggled and opened the sun roof, belting the words to my new favorite song. Jaimee sang along with me, giddy from the excitement of a shopping trip.

After four hours of exhausting shopping, in all the malls located within the Atlanta city limits, Jaimee and I collapsed on top of each other in the back seat of the limo. “That was fun, and completely exhausting!” I squealed, kicking my feet into the air, bumping my white flip flops against the roof.
“That was amazing. We now have our entire wardrobe, until fall colors come out! Then we get to do this again!” Jaimee giggled, taking a sip of the SmartWater we had in the mini fridge. “So, what are you going to wear tomorrow?”
“Whoa. Tomorrow,” I said, dumbfounded. “I just realized that we start 8th grade tomorrow.”
“Yes, genius,” Jaimee said, her words dripping with sarcasm. “We begin the 8th grade tomorrow. That was the whole point of this shopping trip. You know, to find clothes to wear to the eight grade.”
“I didn’t mean it like that, goof ball,” I told her, beginning to sort through my clothes, organizing them into bags of tank tops, shirts, pants, outer wear, and accessories. “I knew, in the back of my mind, that we started tomorrow, I just had a light bulb moment there.”
Jaimee rolled her eyes and turned up the music.

Back at the mansion, Jaimee and I trudged up the stairs, laden down with our shopping bags. We went into our separate bedrooms, and I began to stock my closet, cleaning out the old stuff as I went.
In the end, I had as many bags going back down the stairs, stuff full of clothes, as I did when I went up, two hours ago. The clothes I brought back down were going to the Salvation Army. They were last year’s colors and styles, and I had no need, or room, for them.
“What’s all that?” Dad exclaimed as I dropped them to the ground, and audible thud echoing around the large kitchen. “Is that the stuff you just bought?” He picked up my purple silk button down shirt, something I had worn with dark skinny jeans and my purple Converse, and rubbing the material between his fingers.
“No, Daddy. This is last years clothes. They’re all either too small, the wrong colors, or the wrong style. I want to give it to Salvation Army,” I explained, folding the shirt and placing it back in the bag.
“Fine, sweetie, but we can’t do this every year. That’s atleast $5,000.”
I sighed. “I know. Just this once.”
He nodded, grunting as he struggled to lift a bag and help me carry them out to the limo, where James was waiting to take them. Just as we closed the trunk, Jaimee came flying out of the house. “Wait!” She exclaimed, gasping for breath. “I want you to take my old clothes too.”
Daddy opened his mouth, but I silenced him with a quick look. Sullenly, he followed us into the kitchen and carried the last of her bags out, tossing them carelessly into the trunk.
“See you soon, James!” I called over my shoulder as he closed the driver’s seat door, already pulling down the driveway.
Jaimee and I jogged through the kitchen and up the narrow back stairs. Jaimee and I had discovered the secret, narrow staircase just a few days earlier, while our parents were at a meeting. The house was empty, and we were searching for something interesting to do. I had opened the door, mistaking it for the game room door, and almost fallen down the stairs. We now used them as a short cut to our bedrooms, as they come out directly between my door and Jaimee’s.
I followed Jaimee into the computer room, the credit card of Daddy’s that we didn’t use securely clutched in my hand. There was still a little shopping left to do.

“Good night!” I exclaimed cheerfully, bouncing up the elegant staircase that spiraled from out living room up to the loft. Jaimee was in the loft, trying to finish her book. I had been downstairs with Mom and Dad, watching a movie and eating popcorn.
I heard a faint “Good night!” as I reached the top of the stairs.
“What time is it?” Jaimee asked me, stretching and standing. She had been curled up in her favorite position on the sofa, her book propped up on a pillow that was resting in her lap.
“Ten,” I yawned, exhausted after a day of unpacking and shopping. “We should probably go to bed.”
“We should.” She placed her book mark in her book and tossed it onto the couch behind her. “We need to be rested and looking amazing tomorrow!”
“The rested part could be hard. The amazing looking part, not so much,” I joked, grabbing her wrist and pulling her along behind me. “Good night!”
“Good night,” she giggled, closing her door behind her. In my bedroom, I turned my music on low and changed into my red, navy, and white pajamas, then brushed my teeth. My wavy blonde hair was already pulled back into a neat ponytail, a few stray strands falling down and framing my tanned face. I laid back on my bed, running through the list of things I needed to do in the morning in order to be ready by 7:20.
Slowly, lazily, my eyes drifted closed, until I was sleeping, enjoying the last few peaceful hours of summer.

~PM List~

ChiChi6 ; Lolo12 ; meerkat4evr ; WebkinzLover8 ; yingxi
Countryside321 ; dancingwriter96 ; Iluvwebkinzaton ; JJ08 ; Bears
Pierulz ; sweettee11 ; populargal2 ; coolcat528 ; puncuation
Dizzyfish101 ; catbuster ; Sunshine_girl ; hoops2614 ; taylorswift1
Snicklefritz096 ; Princess98474 ; katluvr23 ; tacobell222 ; kinzarli
Clarekathryn ; d0gg3ylover ; turtles ; sarahmiah ; purplehiliter(:
AllAmericanTeen ; IndyandLucky ; morgan!

*Please comment (honestly, but in a kind way) and give me constructive criticism!*
*Thanks for reading!*