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swimsuit fit in here?” Leah asked incredulously, waving her clutch in the air.   “I mean, as small as my bikinis are, the answer is no.   Not that it matters.”   Without a thought, she pulled down the neckline of her beaded mini-dress to flash Gemma the top of her intricate red lace bra.
    “ Leah! ”
    “Oh relax, silly! There’s no point in a bra like this if you can’t show it off, right?”
    Within minutes, Leah and Jillian had stolen the show at the club by hopping into the hot tub in their sexy lingerie.
    Madison, Kate and Gemma watched as other club goers followed suit by joining Leah and Jillian in the tub.   Madison laughed with a glance towards Gemma.   “You and I are classier than that.”
    “And what about me?” Kate inquired.
    “You know you want to, Kate,” Madison said as Lucas returned from the bar.   He wrapped an arm around her tiny waist.   “You’re just not wearing cute enough underwear.”
    “You’re flattering me.   It’s actually because I have the world’s grossest stomach.   Total flab.”
    “ Is not ,” Madison and Gemma said in unison.
    “Is too,” Kate insisted, sighing.
    It wasn’t long before Gemma was compelled to excuse herself elsewhere.   For over five minutes, Kate had done nothing but watch the hot tub forlornly while Madison’s hands began wandering about Lucas’s body again.   Gemma pretended not to notice as he peered apologetically at her, trying to gently remove Madisons’s hands.
    “I’m gonna go to the bathroom,” Gemma eventually announced, quickly excusing herself.   She busied herself while in there, hoping that by the time she exited, Madison’s PDA-fest would have ended.
    It did, because upon stepping out of the bathroom, Gemma walked straight into Lucas.
    “Hey,” he smiled.
    Gemma tucked her hair behind her ear.   “Hi.”
    “No hot tub for you?”
    “Nope.   And none for you?” she countered.
    “I guess it’s not my type of thing,” Lucas shrugged.   “Not yours either, huh?”
    Gemma felt his arm clearing the path for her as they wove through the throng of people.   “Not tonight.   It looks a little intimidating.”
    Lucas nodded seriously.   “Wouldn’t want you to drown or anything.”
    Gemma’s eyes widened and she stared at him.   It was the first time they had acknowledged the lake incident since it happened.   Strangely, it made her smile.   He cracked a laugh and put his hand on her back, nodding towards the booth where Madison and Kate sat.   “Come on, let’s go.”
    It was almost three thirty in the morning when the six of them left the club.   Upon stepping out, they immediately heard the piercing sound of glass shattering.   The girls shrieked and ducked for cover.   Gemma’s own instinct was to close her eyes, but she opened them quickly to find herself in Lucas’s arms.   They blinked at one another, both aware that he had protectively grabbed her over his own girlfriend.   He let go of her as quickly as he had held her.   They both turned to Madison, who didn’t notice.   No one had.
    Like the lake incident, the glass incident went unspoken of between them.   They returned to polite small talk whenever he and his friends joined the girls for dinner or a night out.   Gemma began to wonder if in her drunken state, she had imagined him shielding her.   One thing she knew, however, was that she wasn’t imagining the way he stole glances at her every time she walked away from the group to make a call or buy a drink.   She reasoned that he was probably curious about how someone so quiet could be related to Gavin and Mira.   But of course, in her deepest subconscious, she hoped it was something more.
    Because of Madison and the girls, her first month of school went by quickly and smoothly.   Other than the lack of quality boys to develop her first real crush on, she couldn’t have asked for a better way to start her true high school career.   Unlike Jillian and Leah, she