Family Tradition

A/N: Okay, so my first spot of news is this, two of my friends/reviewbies have started their own stories involving their characters in my story! Emo_Koala, or Cat, has posted hers in the Panic! at the Disco section, entitled "The Wonders of Fate" that tells the background story of Cat and her relationship with Ryan. Also, Rogue_Vampyre, or Ivy, has posted hers under the Fall Out Boy section entitled "Friends Are For Life" that gives Ivy's take on this story. Check them out and find out more about your much beloved characters from here.

So now that I've done my spot of shameless promotion, on to the newest of my chapters! *hugs*

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Rebecca walked into the suite that the girls had been allowed to use to get ready for the night’s events. She carried the new dress along with her bag of makeup and such to get ready for the night. She smiled as she saw that Cat and Beth were already there. She could tell that they were still deep in the argument over the dress issue.

“Ah, Becca, could you please explain to Beth that she not only needs to wear a dress, but that a little dolling up won’t hurt her either?”

“So she finally agreed about the dress?”

“No, I was just forced to buy the dress, so I’m not going to waste the money. But I don’t see why I have to do the entire girly thing. The dress is enough, believe me.”

Rebecca laughed as she staked out a vanity of her own, draping her dress over the back of the chair. She pulled the makeup out of her bag and sat it down on the vanity only to hit herself lightly on the forehead seeing an arrangement of flowers sitting on the table.

“Blast! Be right back! Cursed memory going out on me.”

Becca rushed out of the suite still muttering curses under her breath. As she rushed out of the door, she almost knocked Ivy over. She laughed and stopped a little way from the door and pulled out her cell, quickly dialing Patrick’s number.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Patrick, sorry I forgot to call after shopping.”

“It’s okay, Reby. Did you have fun? Find a nice dress?”

Rebecca giggled a little, the grin on her face growing even wider as she chatted with him. She leaned against the wall, one hand twisting in the edge of the t-shirt she wore.

“Yes. Although I doubted that we would ever get Bethy to actually get a dress. But we did. And I found a great one too. I hope you’re not upset that I forgot to tell you what it looked like for the flowers you were wanting to get.”

“Don’t worry about it. Besides, I’m sure that you’ll look gorgeous no matter what your dress is like. But I should probably get back to the soundcheck. Pete has already been heckling me today. And he tried to threaten me with a ‘man chat’ whatever that means.”

Rebecca laughed and nodded, oh yes, she knew what Pete’s “man chat” meant. That was his way of playing macho big brother and trying to scare off any guy who came within ten feet of her. Although she was a little curious as to why he would have the chat with Patrick after pushing for so long for the two to go out.

“Right. I won’t keep you from your work any longer. And don’t worry about Petey, he’s just trying to scare you. So I guess I’ll see you tonight.”

“Yeah. Okay, bye then.”

“Bye.”

Rebecca closed her cell and grinned, walking back to the girls’ suite. She smiled seeing the curious look on Ivy’s face. She could count on her best friend to question her about what she had been doing. And why she had almost trampled her in the hallway.

“So, why did I almost loose a limb in your mad dash to get out of here? I thought there would at least be a fire or something. I come in to only find Cat and Beth arguing over makeup.”

“I had to make a phone call that I forgot that I was supposed to do while we were shopping.”

“And what did Stumpy want to know this time, Becs?”

Rebecca blushed a little, knowing that it wouldn’t do any good to lie, because Ivy would know that’s who she had called. That and she wouldn’t put it past her best friend to grab her cell just to double check.

“Just the color of my dress, for the flowers. Damn it all to hell! I still didn’t tell him. Oh well, they’re in soundcheck so nothing anyone can do now.”

Rebecca frowned at Ivy’s laughter and threw the shirt that she had just pulled off at her best friend. She turned as Beth walked up, frowning, already have changed into the dress that they had finally convinced her to buy earlier, Cat following close on her heels.

“Becca if you don’t call off Cat, I swear I’m going to kill her. Now I have to do my hair fancy and makeup? That was not a part of the bargain. A dress, I guess I can deal with for one night. But all that? I don’t think so.”

“Beth, it’s just a little eye makeup and a simple bun, for christ’s sake. It’s not like I’m asking you to do the full deal. I even caved about the eyeliner. I will drug you and have these two hold you down while I do the whole deal on you if you want to be difficult.”

“Did you hear that? Now she’s threatening me! I can’t believe this! What kind of crazy friends do you have, Becca? Wait, don’t answer that. Crazy Brit.”

“Oy, I heard that.”

“Enough you two. Now who is in need of hair and makeup?”

Rebecca laughed at April’s entrance. She had heard about April’s mom, even going into her shop a few times, much to her friend’s surprise. And it seemed that April had inherited her mom’s talents with hair and makeup. She walked over to April and gave her a quick hug.

“Well, if you can convince Beth to let you do something to her, have at it. That’s the worst case. I just have to get something done to this.”

Rebecca laughed and pointed to her hair, which was still pulled up in a tight ponytail from the day’s shopping spree. She walked back over to her dress and stepped out of her jeans, only to turn as the door opened again, this time with Pete’s head popping around the corner.

“Get out of here, Petey!”

“Right, I was just making sure this was your suite.”

Just as abruptly as he had popped in, he popped back out of the room, shutting the door back behind him. Although not before Rebecca caught sight of the smirk on his face. She turned to Ivy and Cat who were both getting ready themselves with a groan.

“That smirk means trouble for us. What are the ways the boys could pull a prank on us? Making the largest list would be the most helpful. I should have known something like this would happen. Blasted boys can’t keep to themselves.”

“Not again. So, who can tell where the vents are? We can put something over them to keep peeping tom’s out, but still letting our air in. The door needs to be watched, I wouldn’t put it past your brother to try to sneak something through it either.”

Rebecca laughed as Ivy instantly started naming off various ways that the boys might try to pull any number of pranks on them. She knew that out of anyone, Ivy would probably know most of the tricks in the book by now, having two brothers of her own.

“First we might want to make sure we’re all dressed at least. It wouldn’t do for us to rush about blocking ways for them to peek at us, with us half dressed.”

April stumbled out of the other room where she had pulled Beth off to and flopped down in one of the chairs near the door.

“That was one tough cookie. But I think I fixed her up nicely. Don’t listen to anything she says though. I think she’s got something a bit tilted up here, if you know what I’m saying.”

Rebecca laughed at April’s comments, a little scared to see what Beth might do to them for forcing her to get dolled up. She walked over to the dress and delicately pulled it on, letting it fall over her head. She turned to Cat, who was the nearest to her.

“Could you tie this, please?”

“Wow, Becca. You said it was a great dress, but that puts the icing on the cake. What are you doing with your hair?”

Rebecca laughed as April hinted that she already had an idea for her hair to go with the dress. She smiled and smoothed the dress down as Cat finished tying an intricate knot at the back of the dress.

“You have the look April, so what did you have in mind?”

April clapped and hopped up, walking over quickly and pulling the ponytail from Rebecca’s hair lightly, already going into precisely the idea that she had for her friend’s hair. Most of it Rebecca couldn’t understand because April was talking so fast, but what she understood sounded lovely.

“Go for it, April. I know you would force me to let you anyways.”

“First how about we handle the camera we have at the laundry chute? Pete found a remote control car and attached a camera. I know it had to be your brother because he’s the only one that I know who drives as bad as the car is going.”

Rebecca grinned and hopped up, holding the dress up far enough off the floor to keep from trampling it. She rummaged through her makeup bag and muttered a curse. She turned to Cat with a grin, as Cat held up a bottle of black nail polish.

“Perfect rebuttal. The polish comes off with a spot of acetone on a q-tip. No harm to the camera. But it will give the boys a run for their money.”

Rebecca laughed and held out her arm to let Cat go capture the camera as their own prisoner of war. She giggled at Cat’s smirk as she went off to take care of the intruder.

“Now sit. I’m going to get this done before any more boy pranks make me lose my idea.”

Rebecca laughed at April’s insistence and sat down before the mirror, handing April her brush.