"Please, it’s not even six o’clock. How much trouble could we possibly get into?" Nicole asked innocently. Sam snorted.

"Oh, enough," she pointed out as the others giggled.

"So, Nic, how was Switzerland?" Brooke asked while she continued to try and get Sam to eat something. She finally understood what everyone else went through with her and her eating disorders. While Sam wasn’t that bad, Brooke was still beside herself with worry over how the other girl was doing and wanted to keep her healthy.

"Beautiful…but boring," Nicole said. "The country itself is breathtaking but it’s not where I wanted to be."

"Now you’re home," Lily sighed happily taking Nicole’s hand into her own and squeezing.

"Yes, I am. And happy to be so. It’s funny but I have to wonder about my mother’s rational for sending me there in the first place."

"How so?" Brooke wondered.

"Well, think about it: she sent her openly gay daughter away from her lover. OK, I can understand that. But she sent me to an ALL GIRL’S BOARDING SCHOOL. Uh, hello, Hon? NOT exactly the most logical move." They all giggled again at the obvious truth.

"Now, granted I only have eyes for Lily here, but HEL-LO! Mother of God, some of those girls! How does one concentrate on school with that sort of distraction? It was like English class, math…oh look shiny. I was suddenly Rainman at inopportune moments," she joked.

"Hmmm, a fox in the hen house, eh?" Sam cracked. Nicole arched an eyebrow at her.

"Are you calling me a ‘fox,’ Spam?" she teased. Sam crinkled her nose.

"As if. The only ‘fox’ I see here is Brooke," Sam responded, sneaking her hands under Brooke’s shirt and teasing the surprised cheerleader’s skin.

"Saaaaaam," Brooke chastised. Nicole rolled her eyes.

"God, nothing changed. Sex crazed weasels," she sighed. Lily leaned over and nibbled on the shorter blonde’s ear.

"Rainman, huh?" Lily whispered. Nicole shivered.

"Yeah, yeah definitely," she gasped.

"So," Brooke’s voice broke them all from their less than pure thoughts as she batted Sam’s hands away. Sam huffed at her annoyed. "Now that we’re all back on the same continent, what now?"

Silence hung over the four as they thought about their situation. Lily and Nicole would be on their own in a matter of weeks, free from their overbearing parents trying to run their lives. But Sam and Brooke weren’t so lucky. Brooke was still trapped by Mike and no where near her eighteenth birthday.

"I haven’t a clue, B," Nicole admitted. "I wish I knew how to help."

"Well, let’s get the two of you straightened out and then we’ll worry about Sam and me," Brooke suggested. "Maybe by then, an answer will present itself."

"Either that," Sam started, her voice dark and laced with bitterness. "Or things will get even worse."