"Those ungrateful little snobs! I was nice, oh, beyond nice, and stayed for their stupid frickin' party. I gave up cheer-meet for them! I paid for pizza, I bought soda, I watched Sugar-Plum-Whatever-Barbie-Face, I picked up after them when they flung their popcorn all over the room, I let them dress me up as Cinderella, and you know what? I didn't complain one bit! Then, when I get a call, a single call from Todd, what do they do? What do they do?! They tell mom that 'Ooooh, Morgan was on the phone alll night with twenty billion different boys. She didn't even listen when we told her we were hungry, we had to wait forever!' Ha! I should've made them wait forever." Morgan stopped to take a breath.

When she continued her monologue, Kelly walked in.

"What's she complaining about now?" Kelly asked, with Morgan's shriek a definitive undertone in the background.

"Eh, I think her little sister told on her for talking on the phone at her birthday party. Something to do with Todd, and twenty billion different boys." I smirked. The best part was that this was probably true; Morgan probably had been talking with twenty billion different boys, or at least twenty, and she had just happened to be talking with Todd in particular when her little sister had walked in.

"...no idea. No idea! And they can't even spare me one phone call?! Ohoho, I swear, the next time that..."

Kelly sighed and dropped her bag, settling into her chair and politely pretended to listen.

It had always been this way, us three. Kelly, Morgan and I had been practically sisters since the first day of kindergarten, when Morgan asked us to come sit on her jacket and color with her. We hadn't left each other's sides from then, until twelve years later, as we braced ourselves for our last year of innocence. Morgan had always been the outgoing, boisterous, and often pushy one who pretended to know everyone's business when she really didn't know anything. Kelly was the quiet one who would always listen, always agree, and never cause trouble. Because of this, she often got blamed for things that Morgan had done, but it didn't bother her much. She was too kind to ever complain.

I was in between, the balance between the two. I didn't talk quite as much as Morgan, but I wasn't quiet, either. I didn't qo out of my way to pull all the attention onto myself, but I didn't mind being near the spotlight. I was the gray of our trio, but still, I was the leader. If it had just been the other two, Kelly would have easily been left in the dust, most likely used as a kickboard, as Morgan shamelessly spirited away.

Instead, I managed to tone Morgan down a bit, while at the same time giving Kelly more confidence in herself.

Now, Todd was Kelly's ex-boyfriend. They had been going strong, even beginning to think about the future, when Morgan had suddenly decided to go after him. Kelly hadn't been firm enough in her telling Morgan to show some sense of respect and abstinence, and she had lost him. Todd and Morgan had dated briefly, but he deeply regretted leaving Kelly. At this point, he was trying desperately to win her back, while Morgan tried desperately to get him interested in her again. I, as usual, was the middle ground. Todd had more or less become my best friend, as I gave him my advice to just be friendly with Morgan, and think up a damn good apology for Kelly.

"..ridiculous. If my mother ever asks me again, you know what I'll say? HAH! I'll laugh in her face, see how she..."

It was hard to convince Kelly to tell Morgan off for being the high-and-mighty snob that she was, but we were planning to let her know how we felt. However, for the time being, Kelly was being pleasant as ever. I didn't doubt that it was hard for her to listen to Morgan complain about a phone call, that she probably made herself, to a boy who didn't even want to talk to her. And it was just downright boring for me to to listen to how it had been rudely interrupted by the 'stupid turd' of a sister, who probably had more brains then her senior sibling.

Morgan had called us both over to listen to her nag about how hard her life is, how the day and a half grounding her too-lenient parents had 'punished' her with would just completely and totally obliterate her life plans. So here we were, in her kitchen, listening to her complain about something neither of us cared about, save one factor.

"...and its not like they even know what a boy is, dumb eight year olds. Just wait until she's seventeen. Then she'll see..."

Kelly's phone rang, and she flipped it open to see who was calling.

"...hope they're happy..."

Panic flashed across her face, and she mouthed the word 'Todd' to me.

We hadn't been expecting him to call until later, and having to listen to Morgan talk about 'why was Todd calling you, his ex girlfriend, and the one he really cares about, of all people,' was not something we were quite ready for.

I looked at my feet and nonchalantly turned my head from side to side; a sign that we should just ignore the call.

Kelly flipped her phone back shut, and gingerly tucked it into her back pocket.

"...it's not like I was having phone sex or anything. I mean, come on..."

Without hesitation, Kelly's phone began to ring again. Todd wanted her back, I knew this, he had told me this, and now he might think that she was ignoring his calls. Refusing him.

I knew that Kelly wanted him back, but he needed to apologize to her before anything 'started back up' . However, first thing was first, Morgan's talking to.

"...it's totally, completely, utterly, unimaginably, un-Kelly, are you going to answer that?" Morgan snapped back to reality for a moment.

Kelly let out a shaky breath, "No, I'm not quite ready to talk to them yet. There's someone else I need to talk to first..."

I smiled. Good girl.

Without a second thought, Morgan reached back and snatched the phone out of Kelly's back pocket. Her mouth dropped and her eyes bugged. For a moment, I though she was going to drop the phone on the tile floor.

"Why..." she cleared her throat and fixed a glare on Kelly, "Why is Todd calling you?"

Before any more damage could be done, I stepped in, as was the norm.

"Morgan, Todd has every right to call Kelly. He's not with you anymore."

"Well, yeah, but-"

"If you expect an answer to that question, you should tell Kelly why you were trying to call him the other night first. It's the same thing, only Kelly deserves a bit," I strongly emphasized the word 'bit' and let my voice raise an octave, "more in this situation, considering you stole her boyfriend."

Morgan jumped to her own defense, "That's not event the slightest bit true. How can you possibly think it's my fault that..."

And so. the last great argument that would break Morgan from our friendship, seal the deal with Kelly's fiance five years from now and finish the story I would always tell my kids ten years from now when I warned them not to be like Morgan, began.