CHAPTER 4.
Benny was at the deck with his hot Russian girlfriend Natalya, she had moved to America when she was thirteen but the two had only met when they were fourteen, he was a good DJ; he knew what the crowd loved. He was enjoying himself, Austin and Ashley knew how to throw a good party but his night was spoilt by the Ice queen herself Kelly Amelia Smith; he didn’t hate her, he loathed her. Every fiber of him hated her very existence, he didn’t know how Austin could stand her, sure she was sexy but she was a b**** and a half. He hated her and he only put up with her because Nat liked her. Kim was the only Smith sister he liked, she wasn’t as mean and she was funny, sweet and caring and because Austin had the huge crush on her .Kelly on the other hand disgusted him, especially tonight. He knew something was going to go down between Austin and Kim but Kelly had spoilt it all. She had demanded to know where Austin was, even after lying to her she wouldn’t give up so he finally told her; she stomped upstairs and when Kim had come down he knew nothing had happened. Austin would be pretty bummed out in the morning if he still remembered anything. He felt for the guy; imagine knowing that you could have any girl except for the girl you wanted the most. He couldn’t imagine life without Nat, but then again Austin did get what he deserved. The guy was a womanizer and he could not seriously expect a girl like Kim to fall for him, she was way too good for him and everyone knew it. Austin even knew it but he tried to deny it, Benny saw what Kim did to his dear friend of seventeen years; Benny tried to push the image of Kelly and Austin in bed together out of his head. He wanted to shoot Austin for sleeping with Kelly, really he did. It was a bad idea being with Kelly. To Benny she was the devil in human form.

The party had ended at round about two in the morning; Benny was wasted and extremely tired. Though the party had ended at two he had come home at four, his parents were fast asleep when he had come tumbling in with Natalya in tow.  She was half asleep and not in the mood for any more fun, “Benny I’m going to bed,” she groaned and she trudged up the flight of stairs. Benny wanted to sleep as well but he had so much alcohol and drugs in his system he didn’t think it was possible.  That’s why he didn’t like drinking or doing drugs, his body would feel tired but his mind felt alive and awake. He threw himself onto the couch and switched on the flat screen, nothing interesting was playing at half past four in the morning.  After nearly an hour of flicking through the different channels; the manor awakened. The maid Gloria Estevez, silently tip toed into the T.V room. She was a Latina woman of twenty four and she had been working for the Giovanni family for nearly two years now, Benny liked Gloria. Unlike the previous helper, Gloria was sweet and she liked her job because she was good at it. Not everyone can tend to Mrs. Giovanni’s every whim. Benny respected her and he enjoyed her company because unlike his parents Gloria actually listened to what Benny had to say; “Morning Gloria,” Benny’s voice was groggy. Gloria did a double turn in her doc martins, “Oh Mr. Giovanni you nearly scared me to death,” her voice was soft and she had a thick Spanish accent. He hated being called Mr. Giovanni, it made him sound like his father and he utterly despised his father. Benny shrugged his shoulders and went back to watching T.V, Gloria went into the kitchen and began to make breakfast, she hummed to herself a Spanish children’s song. He couldn’t make out the words properly, Benny took Spanish but he wasn’t that good. The only language he excelled at was Italian because that was his mother tongue, every other language such as English, Spanish, German and French he was ok at, something his father loved to point out, ‘If you want to be able to run this company you need to pass high school well.’ He didn’t want to run his father’s accounting firm, he didn’t want to wear business suits and come home late with a pile of work in his hands every day. He didn’t want to live that life, he wanted to become a DJ and he wanted to have fun, fun in the sun. He was tired of school and learning, he wanted out, wanted out in everything. The only person he wanted was Nat. His father even wanted to deny him that, in his opinion Natalya was a tramp. He said she didn’t carry herself with enough respect that a woman should but Benny knew the real reason: It was because her family was not rich or respected. His father wanted him to date a girl of his social standing and Benny on the other hand didn’t care that Natalya wasn’t rich or that she only went to East Wood because she had obtained a scholarship, he thought that was cool of her and he loved that about her. She was smart, funny and utterly sexy in his eyes. His father would be awake at this time and getting ready for work and his mother would be getting ready for her summer time breakfast with Mrs. Lynch and Mrs. Smith. The kids had parties while the adults had breakfasts to mark the beginning of summer. He would lounge around the house with Nat and then when she went home he would call up Austin and the two would go out, the usual before they would meet up with Kelly and Kim and Austin would go all lovey dovey eyes around Kim. He chuckled to himself; today was going to be a hell of a long day.
The sun was shining through the lace Armani handmade curtains. It was a bright morning, the air was crisp and the birds were out singing. All in all it looked like a good day, well it looked like a good day for everyone but Kim, she had a massive hangover and her head felt like it was going to explode. Never in her life had she felt this bad, she felt like s***. Utter and absolute s***.  All she wanted to do was hide underneath a rock and hide for the rest of eternity but she had to wake up and get ready. Get ready for a breakfast she didn’t even want to attend. The Lynch’s plane landed nearly two hours ago since it was eleven o’clock. They should be sleeping; they should be suffering from jet lag and not gallivanting to the Giovanni Manor. Why her mom made her go was beyond her, they didn’t even eat at these breakfasts and lunches, and all they did was drink wine and talk about other people. Their friends as they called them. The only people who ate the food was Austin, Kim, Benny, Ashley and Kelly and most of the time it was just the boys who ate the food. Kim, after some difficulty got out of bed, her night clothes were crumpled floor and her hair looked like she had climbed out of a birds nest, the brown mane of hair was a complete mess. Today she would go to Mason’s and do her hair before the breakfast. She went to her chest of draws and searched for the invitation. The draw was full of her make-up, Coco Channel perfumes, make-up kit and her overflowing jewelry box. She found the paper wedged in between a draw and her box of treasures, the card was gold and black with a lace trimming. The hand writing was in cursive and quite beautiful. The card was fancy and it held an air of importance to it, Kim played with it for a while, twisting and turning it to the side. There was silent knock on the door, Kim stopped playing with the paper, “Come in,” her voice was hoarse and she wondered if the person had heard her .The door opened slowly and her dad carefully walked in, Alex Smith never went into his two daughters large, upscale rooms. It was almost an unspoken rule that they stayed out of his space and he never went into theirs. The air between the two was awkward for a moment, Kim didn’t know what to say or do, she didn’t always see eye to eye with her dad, Kelly was the ‘Golden’ girl and Kim was the trouble maker in a sense. She got the good grades but Kelly was daddy’s little girl and it didn’t bother Kim because she did not want her mother’s approval or her father’s praise. It did not bother her at all, but this was bothering her. Her father and her in one room was unnatural, very unnatural; “Morning Alex,” she called her father Alex, it wasn’t in disrespect but in a jovial way. That was their relationship; she didn’t view him as her elder but more or less her equal. Kim had the brain capacity far greater than most of the adults in Santa Marcia, so she liked to think she was her father’s equal. And she also worked for him as a small time manager, getting paid a hefty $500 an hour on top of her monthly $50,000 allowance. Alex smiled gently at her, he loved his daughter but not in the way he loved Kelly; “Hello Kim, I see you are up and early already.” Alex nodded his head and inhaled deeply. He shouldn’t have felt like he was with a total and complete stranger but he did, his daughter was strange. She was just so different in so many ways he couldn’t understand. But he loved her all the same, “So what do you want?”Kim’s voice was brisk and to the point, in many ways she was just like Alex. He coughed nervously, “Well I know that you have one more year and you will be a senior,” Kim nodded her head wondering where this was leading to, “Well I think it’s time to start looking for a college to attend,” and just as she thought today was going to be nice he had to go and spoil it, “I know you said you want to attend college when you are eighteen but think about it. You are a very bright girl, so maybe if you use the brains in your head you could attend places like Yale. Harvard contacted me and they really liked your report,” Alex was now gushing about how Harvard loved Kim’s report and how they would be delighted to have her. Kim was peeved off, no. Not just peeved off, she was pissed, so pissed she didn’t have any words to say. How dare he submit her report without her knowledge, how could he! Why would he do that? Even after she had strictly told him not to. The anger inside her was a boiling, bubbling up and choking her. She wanted to shout at him, hurl insults at him but she knew it was pointless, when her dad went into one of his daydreams about college she knew there was no getting through to him. Breathing in deeply,” Dad I’m not going to COLLEGE and that is that.” Her voice was laced with venom; Alex stopped babbling and stared at his youngest daughter. She looked exactly like her mother, the same chocolate brown skin, the emerald eyes and the full pouty red lips. Just like her mother, “Now if you will excuse me I’m going to go get ready for today’s breakfast.” And with that Kim chucked the invitation onto her bed and swaggered off to her en suite bathroom. Alex Smith stood there, stunned. His daughter had told him off, the Alex Smith had been told off by a sixteen year old girl. He was flabbergasted and just utterly shocked; he should punish her but then her mother would have a fit. Alex left the room just as quietly as he came in, his pride hurt.

Kelly was getting ready for today when her sister barged into her room, now Kelly loved her sister very much but she also loved her privacy and respect. People had to knock to enter her room and Kim not knocking was almost an insult to Kelly, “Um hello, there is something called knocking by the way.”Kelly shook her head at Kim, Kim shrugged her slim shoulders, “Yeah whatever, guess what dad sent my report to Harvard and they liked it.” Kelly nodded her head and continued applying mascara to her eyelashes, “Yeah so what?” Kim flung her arms in the air. Kelly was supposed to be more attentive but it seems she couldn’t even do that, “So, I might be going there and I don’t want to.”Kim began to fake sob, which made Kelly smile just a little as not to mess up her foundation; “Oh get real! He won’t make you go if you don’t want to,” “And if he does?”Kim asked musing up her hair as she did; “Then I’ll throw a b**** tantrum and he won’t make you go.” Kim felt much better, her sister always knew what to say. “Kim blew a kiss at her older sister, “And BTW, your hair looks so ratchet.” And there the b**** in Kelly came out again in full force, Kim pulled the middle finger. With that Kim left Kelly’s room, she slammed the door and in retaliation Kelly flung her oversized hair brush at her, “F***ing b****!”She shouted, Camilla opened the door, her hands slightly shaking; “Not you Cam, I’m talking to my dumbass of a sister.” Camilla nodded her head. Today was going to be really long day.

Ashley was tired; last night had taken a lot out of her. The party was epic but then again all her parties were epic. She didn’t want to wake up but she had to, today was ‘the breakfast’ everyone had to attend and by everyone her, her mom, brother, the Giovanni family and the Smith family. Her father was excused because he was suffering from jet lag. Her mother on the other hand was up and about even though she had just landed a couple of hours ago, the energy supplements she shoved down her throat every morning did their job. Ashley jumped out of bed, scaring the warm body next to her. Chad Bryce was an exceptionally good looking young man, with midnight black hair and vibrant blue eyes he was quite the looker, Ashley had been scouring for Chad for some time and now she had him; smiling like a Cheshire cat she soothed him gently, “It’s ok, it’s just me.” Her voice was soft and almost angelic, Chad visibly relaxed. Unlike most people Ashley looked good in the morning, her long tresses of blond hair sparkled in the sunlight, she had deep golden brown eyes like her brother. The two were similar but at the same time so different, the two both had nearly tanned skin and they were both tall in statue. Ashley had a slim athletic body like Austin and they both enjoyed sports a lot. Ashley was the captain of the cheerleading squad with Kelly and she was also captain of the swim team, the gymnastics team and the volleyball team. Austin was the hockey, football, swimming and the Peter James music choir captain. Of course the twins shared the spots with other people but all in all they were the crème of them all.  The two were the schools royalty, everything went past them, and they were the top dogs if you’d like to call them. It is known fact that every high school has cliques. You have the Goths, the nerds, the loners, the wannabes, the musically gifted, the book worms, the stuck ups, the teachers pets, the artistic ones that didn’t shower and then you had the popular crew. The kids that had it all, the cars, the money, the clothes and the cool gadgets, they were the ones who had awesome parties, they were the ones who could bunk school and not even get a smack on the wrist. They were the ones who rubbed shoulders with celebrities, the guys got the girls, and the girls could get boob jobs whenever they wanted. They had it all, they were privileged. Austin and Ashley had it all, they got whatever they wanted whenever they wanted, just last month Austin got a new car. The one he had been pinning for, for months now. The new Mustang GT, the car was customized with a white trim and the car also had a customized V8 engine. Ashley also got something, the latest Prada classique handbag.  The bag was a gift from her mother, it had cost nearly $500, 00 and on top of that she got another Tchaikovsky bracelet. To say the twins were spoilt was an understatement, but then again they did always work for their gifts. Right?

CHAPTER 5.

Chad had been driven home by Lance, the chauffeur; the poor boy had been bundled into the back of the black limousine by a very grumpy Austin. Carlisle and Courtney did not even get a glimpse of the half naked boy the way he had been bustled out so quickly. Courtney was downstairs prepping the breakfast and by prepping making sure that all the helpers and Simone, the Canadian intern from Amazing Designs and Decors got the design right. Every summer the plan of the breakfast was the same, the seating was the same. The food was the same but this year it was different, this year it wasn’t just the Giovanni family and the Smith; this year the Wes family and the Henderson family had been invited. Courtney wanted to see new faces at her very excusive meetings and who better to invite than the Wes family consisting of Maria Wes and her daughter Sally. All of the kids went to school together so it wouldn’t be awkward, and to the best of her knowledge Kim and Shawn were dating so there wouldn’t be a problem there. Everything was perfect; five most powerful families in California would be together. Perfection is the only word to use, just splendid.

Ashley and Austin were already downstairs; they were dressed to kill as always. Ashley in a white, short and strapless summer dress and Austin in skinny jeans and a red cotton shirt. He looked good but he did not feel good, he had a temper that morning. He did not like to get up in the mornings especially when it involved Ashley begging him to help her get Chad out of the house, not that he did not like Chad; on the contrary he liked Chad. Chad was one of his close friends, out of the many ‘friends,’ Austin had.  What Austin did not like was that Chad had slept with his sister, believe it or not he wanted his sister a virgin; he wanted her to stay celibate. Though Ashley would never agree to that, he tried. He tried convincing her to stop having sex. He tried the old ‘If you have sex, you will get a STD.’ or the more effective one, ‘Have sex and you will get pregnant,’ Ashley would roll her eyes at him and flash him the middle finger. But the one that worked the most, the one he would use time and time again was: ‘Have sex and you will get pregnant and lose your hot body.’ Ashley nearly had a heart attack when she heard that one, she had vowed never to have sex again but two weeks later she hooked up with Aston Wallace. The guy was twenty and Ashley was only sixteen. The age gap was a big hit for Ashley. She loved older guys; they were a turn on for her. Personally Austin didn’t see the big attraction, as a guy he did not like his women older. It wasn’t just the females in his school that liked the more advanced sex. It was the males to, Benny particularly liked cougars. Nat was nearly six months older than him. Guys went gaga for other dudes moms, it was crazy! Austin on the other hand liked them young, young and naïve. There was something about the girl being a year or two years younger than him that got him hot and bothered under the collar.  All his ex- girlfriends were younger than him and Kim was a year younger than him, Kelly was nine months younger than him. Austin just didn’t find older women hot, he thought they were pretty but not hot. It would be like making out with your own mother. He was not interested in older women but that didn’t mean they were not interested in him.

Poise, style and class. Those three words had been drilled into them by their mother at a tender age; Kelly was all of them, she felt like all three words. She smoothed out her black and white Vera Wang dress. She had paired the outfit with black peep toe heels (incidentally Ashley chose the same ones); Ashley carried a black clutch bag in tow. Her face, a mask of expensive and well applied make up; Kim also was dressed to the nines. Unlike Kelly who’s look was serious and over the top for a breakfast, Kim opted for a more relaxed approach. She had on a pair of light three quarter denim jeans and a white crop top with red custom made Tommy Hilfiger sneakers. Vanessa Smith (the alpha female of the house) did not think Kim’s attire was appropriate for today’s events but Kim didn’t give a flying toss about what her mother thought about what she did or what she wore. This breakfast was overrated anyway and the only thing that would make it even more sucky than it already was, would be if she saw someone from school. Which was highly unlikely because most of her friends from school were holidaying out of the country. She was leaving for her trip to France in three weeks time; it was just her, Kelly, Ashley, Benny, Natalya and Austin. Kim could not wait to go back to France and visit the French Riviera. The group was staying at the Lynch’s luxurious villa on the coast of France and to top it all off they were travelling to Sicily, Italy to visit Benny’s family and their last two stops would be Barbados and then Cuba. They were visiting Mrs. Smith’s parents who were divorced, Grandpa Smith lived in Cuba and Grandma Smith moved back to her home country of Barbados. The old cronies decided after their divorce to pack up and leave the States and head back to their old countries; Kim loved Barbados, the tropical paradise was Kim’s second home. Kelly didn’t really enjoy Barbados because it didn’t have a lot of designer stores in it but to Kim Barbados was just magical, with the warm ocean water and amazing weather; it was every true California girl’s dream place. Kim loved the bright lights of the place, the food, the people and the midnight parties. She loved the way the people were so easy going and the Caribbean accent everyone had. Her grandmother had an accent and so did her mother but it wasn’t as strong as her grandma’s. Kim had the twang but no accent, her English sounded American in Barbados but in America it had a bit of a twang. Alex on the other hand was an African- American through and through, Kim loved her roots. She loved that she was part Caribbean and African, it made her unique and special.