LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY thedavies)

Who: Amelia Lake (AJ), Gemma, and Quincy
When: Tuesday afternoon/evening
Where: BCA and Burnham City
What: School shopping and silly teenagers
Bingo: Right out of a movie, (the outfit montage)



Summer was dwindling down and there was little time left for school shopping. Gemma had been flipping through flyers looking at sales. So many sales! She had called AJ and asked her to join her in these sales. She also wanted Quin to come with her.

"Come school shopping with me," she leaned in the doorway of his bedroom.

"Why?" Quin asked without looking up from his Gaiman novel.

"Because you always come shopping with me," she pouted.

"Do it yourself."

"No, I'm meeting my friend downstairs in ten minutes but I still want you to come."

"You have a friend?" he rose an eyebrow and looked over the book.

"Yes, she lives here. On the third floor. And she's going to make me a vegetarian dinner some night soon," she crossed her arms.

"Is she cute?"

"Yep. And blonde," she turned to leave.

"I'm coming with you!" he tossed his novel aside and ran to join Gemma in the living room. Things were finally coming together in the apartment with the décor and the furniture. It looked more and more like the flat their mother owned in London every day.

"We should definitely go to this one store here," she said tossing a flyer at him. I made a list and snapped out all of these coupons," she said delightedly. "This is going to be so great Quincy!"

He rolled his eyes and dumped himself onto the couch. "Since when did you become a coupon lady?"

"LOOK AT THESE SALES QUINCY JAMES!" she threw about a dozen flyers at her brother and they scattered all over the couch and floor.

"You're an insane person," he said evenly, collecting a few of the flyers. "Come on, let's go meet this hot friend of yours."

Gemma shook her head and smiled. "Come on, let's go, she shoved the coupons into her bag and they went to the lobby where Amelia Lake had just emerged from the staircase. She waved at Gemma who waved back.

"Hi Gemma," Amelia said as she approached.

"Hey AJ, you alright? This is my brother Quincy," Gemma made quick introductions. "Quincy, this is Amelia or as she prefers, AJ."

"And as I prefer, Quin," Quincy said taking Amelia's hand and giving it a little kiss.

Amelia blushed. "Pleasure to meet you," she said.

"Don't let him fool you," Gemma said brightly linking arms with Amelia and leading her toward the door. "I'm so lucky to have you," Gemma said cheerfully. "You gave me all of these great flyers and know where all the stores are!"

Amelia laughed. "Of course," she said brightly. It was nice to make a new friend who seemed so enthused for their outing. "P.S. I love that necklace of yours," she said commenting on the coin pendant.

"Thanks!" Gemma said as they flew through the front doors. "My dad gave it to me when I was really little. He was it was something from a Dutch friend of his, good luck or whatever," she shrugged. She had carried around the pendant every day since her father had given it to her, whether she wore it around her necklace chain or stowed it away in her pocket, it was something she was never caught without.

Amelia lead them through the streets of Burnham and to the first shop on Gemma's list.

Gemma went straight to a rack and started grabbing tops. Amelia and Quincy stood back at first. "Watch her," he grinned to Amelia. "She's going to grab as much off the rack as possible, tries it all on, and perhaps gets one or two things, on a good day maybe three."

Amelia laughed.

"Are you going to buy anything?" he asked.

"I might get a top," she shrugged. "I spent most of my money on my new puppy," she said excitedly. "My brother gave me some money but I'm thinking about getting more puppy things for Franklin," she grinned at the thought of her French Bulldog.

Quin laughed. "But you came anyways?"

"Yeah, she seemed so excited about it and I couldn't say no," Amelia smiled.

"Come on! To the fitting rooms! I need an audience for my runway," Gemma grabbed Amelia's hand and started dragging her to the back. Amelia grabbed Quin's hand, she wasn't going to be the only audience member.

Amelia and Quin sat down outside the fitting room and waited for Gemma to come out in her first outfit. "Look at me! I feel so American in jeans and a tee shirt," she said as she popped out of the dressing room.

"You'd fit right in, 'cept for the accent," Quin smiled.

"Those jeans look great!" Amelia said.

Gemma smiled and re-entered the dressing room. About twenty minutes and ten outfits later Gemma decided to buy two pairs of jeans, a tee shirt, and two cute blouses. "On to the next store!" she announced with her purchases.

They moved on to the next store and then the next. As they were browsing the racks Amelia pulled out one dress with a bold print. "You have to try that on!" Gemma announced. She pulled Amelia to a changing room and shut the door behind her. "Go on!" she called from the other side of the door.

When Amelia stepped out Quin's eye's widened and Gemma broke out in a big grin. "You look fabulous!"

"Wow," was all Quincy could manage.

"You have to get that AJ," Gemma said. "You've left Quin in stunned silence and that takes a lot," she laughed. "Oh do get it."

"Alright," Amelia blushed.

There was only one more shop on the list and the three friends made their way there, Gemma had three bags in tote, Amelia had one, and even Quin had broken down and bought a new pair of jeans. At the final shop Quin decided an ugly dress party was the best idea ever and they competed to find the ugliest outfit imaginable. The three of them did end up finding quite disturbingly ugly outfits. It was a close call but Gemma won with her golden leggings, sequined mini skirt, lace body suit, and metallic jacket. Although Amelia's mismatch outfit and Quin's blue bleach jeans were good contenders. At the end of the night they grabbed some food at one of Amelia's favorite diners called Blue Moon. It was a vegan diner that had a "hamburger joint" feel.

"What's a vegetarian philly?" Quin asked with an eyebrow raised.

"It's like soy protein strips with soy cheese and peppers," Amelia explained.

"Strange place," he said simply. They decided on salads, veggie burgers, and soy milkshakes.

"So how do you guys like Burnham so far?" Amelia asked as they sipped their shakes.

"It's alright," Quin shrugged.

"I like moving to new places, new things to explore," Gemma said excitedly. She then looked over at her brother from across the table. "This one's still holding a grudge against Burnham because he misses London," she said of her brother.

Amelia smiled at Quin. "I can't blame you, there's probably nothing quite like it."

He smiled. "New York City is a bit like it, but not entirely," he winked causing another blush to creep up Amelia's neck and cheeks.

"AJ!" a deep male voice carried over the restaurant to where Amelia, Quincy, and Gemma were enjoying their meals.

Amelia looked up to see Pete standing up at a table with some of their mutual friends from hip hop dance class. She waved at him and looked back at her plate. "Who's that?" Gemma asked. "Not too bad," she add as an after thought.

"Pete," she said simply, pushing some greens around. She didn’t want to admit that she had a boyfriend, not in front of Quincy, and she knew it was wrong and she felt bad for feeling that way. She was always awful when it came to these situations.

"Hey AJ, what are you doing? I thought you said you were taking care of Annie today?" Pete asked, he was suddenly at their table side.

Amelia's face got even redder. She looked up from her salad and sighed. "Nope, that's tomorrow, today I was bringing my friends shopping," she lied. Pete was not that bright and she knew she would be able to slip this past him.

"I don't remember you saying anything about shopping," he said, absent-mindedly scratching his head.

"Since when do you have to know my every move?" she quirked an eyebrow.

"Right," Gemma said with a nod. "It's her life and she'll do with it what she pleases." Gemma loved a good fight and was ready to back up her friend whenever needed.

Pete looked even more confused. "Yeah but…"

"I'll see at dance on Thursday night, ok?" Amelia interrupted him.

"Yeah, ok, I guess. Call me," he said before he left. He had contemplated bending down to kiss her but things had already been awkward enough as it was and he left without another word.

"That was odd," Gemma offered as they settled back into their meal.

Amelia shrugged. "Some people are just too curious you know?" she tried to play it off like Pete wasn't her boyfriend and that she had been seeing him for at least two months now. She stuffed her mouth full of salad and chewed slowly, trying to avoid answering any questions the Brits could throw at her, but none were thrown. Gemma and Quincy went on, talking about their friends back in London, bickering about how they were going to get to school once it started, debating about talking drivers lessons, and everything else that close siblings talk about over dinner.

"AJ, you in?" Gemma asked suddenly. Amelia found herself chewing thoughtfully, not paying attention to anything going on around her and suddenly wondering why she was acting like such a… fifteen year old.

"What was that?" she asked trying to get her head back into the current conversation.

"The movies, on Saturday. Do you want to come with us? We're going to see that awful looking one with the sorority girls and the murderer. It looks like its going to be dreadful but that's the whole point!" she grinned brightly.

Saturday… Saturday… nothing going on that she could remember. "I'm in," she said without much more consideration. The walk back to BCA was full of jokes, taunts, and plan making. Once they were inside Gemma told Quincy to go on up ahead of her, she had to get a fizzy drink from the machine. Once Quincy was out of hearing distance she turned to Amelia.

"You're not watching Annie tomorrow are you?" she asked with a knowing grin.

Amelia's eyes went wide and she nodded. "I don't know why I lied to him…" she shook her head and sighed. "I'm acting stupid."

Gemma grinned. "You like Quin don't you?"

Amelia shrugged. "I don't know, I think it's just the whole… foreign factor and the new guy, you know? Whereas Pete's just old hat," she shrugged again and felt awful. She liked Pete, she really did, so why was she lying to him.

"You're with Pete aren't you?"

"Yes," she admitted begrudgingly. "You must think I'm awful."

"Awful," she laughed. "Dear AJ, if you think liking another boy while you're in a relationship is awful then you would think I'm Satan incarnate."

Amelia felt better and she let Gemma know that. "It's just… I've never really had a boyfriend before Pete," she admitted.

"Really?" Gemma asked. Amelia nodded. "Well let me tell you know, Quin might look all cute and harmless but he's not exactly boyfriend material," she said truthfully. "You're a wonderful girl, you're my friend, and you're super cute, so I'm just warning you, a boy like Quin is interested in long term relationships."

Amelia nodded. "Well that's good to know," she felt a little more relieved and a little less attracted to Quincy. "He's just so cute," she giggled. "And the accent!"

Gemma hugged her and laughed. "Well you can still be friends with him and who knows? Maybe in a couple years he'll be good enough for you," she didn't want to quite give up hope on her brother but she knew it was unlikely.

"Until next time Gemma," Amelia headed for the stairs.

"Until next time my dear," Gemma left for the elevator.