"AMBER?!"

"Gooood afternoon to you, too!"

"No. Wait- how did-? You're in -"

"Nope! I just came back from Korea yesterday, babe. A two month vacation before I'm sent back to record my first single. Guess what my stage name is? Sweet Alice!"

"So, wait, you're done training?" I can't sit still any longer; I get up and pace around the living room. "Yep!" Amber chirps into my ear. "I make my debut September forth!" I'm blown away.

It's been four years since my long time best friend - longer than Courtney even - Amber Steele, auditioned for Pledis Entertainment. They came to America looking for something new. Amber found out about it and made her parents take her. None of us ever imagined that she'd end up as one of the ten chosen. When I saw her off at the airport a week later, it was the last I saw or heard from her for a very long time. She couldn't keep in touch with me at all. The Steele family was obviously in a worse state than I was with the knowledge of no contact with their middle daughter. But a singer is what Amber really wanted to be, and though she would be a K-pop star singing in completely different languages, she saw it as a big opportunity. Everyone supported her to the end.

Throughout the four years she was a trainee - not yet singing on the big stages, but she was practicing and in the meantime was trained as a backup dancer and occassionally in a group of backup singers. She even got into music videos and was even featured in them sometimes. All the while she got nice and cozy with the big Asian stars.

And now she was unexpectedly on the cell with me. This realization shakes me from my stupor.

"Amber, get your scrawny little be-hind over here!" I yell at her. She cackles. "I ain't scrawny no more, babe! Mm-mm, them boys can't keep their wagging tongues from lappin' after me!" I can picture her rolling on her bed shaking with laughter.

"Agh! Amber, that is so vulgar."

"Did you expect anything less?" she asks. I squeal in delight. Every freaking piece of my best friend was back! "Just get you over here pronto! I'm calling up Courtney." Amber tells me she's already half-way out the door before I hang up. I text Courtney immediately after the line goes dead. She'll continue the grapevine for me. I grin in happiness.

* * *

Within the hour the house is filled with Avril Lavigne's 'Girlfriend' and girls are running around shrieking in shorts and spray-on tans. This is how popular Amber was back in middle school before she went abroad. Half the girls leaping into my pool right now I haven't spoken to since eight grade graduation. High school is too big to stick with old friends, I guess.

Jamie nearly crashes into me as I turn the corner to the living room. "Oh!" she yells, surprised. "Hey, Starr! Great party on such a short notice. Are guys coming?" I remember Jamie because she always hosted the boy-girl parties I was invited to. We were more aquaintinces than friends. I shake my head. "Nope, no boys. This is totally dedicated to the ist Amber. No guys are going to ruin this with their and carelessness." Jamie doesn't look like she agrees with my stereotype but she complies and directs me to where she last saw Amber when I ask.

I hear Amber in the TV den before I see her.

"Oh, gosh, I was so terrified!" (Not likely). "What if they didn't like me?" (Was that even possible?) "What if I said or did something wrong? And the boys!" (Oh, here we go . . . ) "Were they cute? Was I going to be up to their standards?"

A voice I hardly know says, "You weren't sure with those mountains on you?!"

"You still got plenty of junk in the trunk too, girl," someone else says.

I walk in to see Amber pushing up her s. Totally in contrast to the action, she replies wayyy too modestly, "Oh, these fatty things? Well, they only came in about a year and half ago. As for this -" she turns around and slaps her "- I've always had. It keeps them boys howlin'," she concludes. Amber winks and strikes her personal pose - a stance that burned its place into my retinas since I made my journey through my mom's birth canal.

Amber's mom and Mother were best friends in the fourth grade. They got married a year after each other and had their first daughters a year and a day apart. I was Amber's playtoy the moment she laid eyes on me. I don't remember how, but by the time we were four we decided that we were equal. She was a year and a day older than me but we started pre-school together because Amber refused to be potty-trained on time.

We were both attractive in middle school . . . but I think it was established with everyone else that I was the prettier one. Amber made up for what she lacked with humor, personality, and a loud, demanding voice. We both had a lot of friends, but in the end she had more and reached a higher status in popularity among our friends that I could. I think it was then that we were really equal.

Looking at Amber Steele now it is PERFECTLY CLEAR that the scale has tipped drastically again. And I'm the one in dangling midair.

Amber looks like a modern day Marylin Monroe. Whereas I'm the tall model, she's really the one swagging down the catwalk. Her curves are sharper and even more defined than mine. It's true that her booty had been present since the dawn of time - but where the hell did those 'mountains' come from?? Before she left Amber was barely in the B-cup range; now, though, she's farther out than I am. Her face is still round and doll-like but the cat-woman eye make-up brings a person from thinking child-like thoughts about this girl to a screeching halt. Amber's hair barely brushes her collarbone and her bangs make her look y, something that no one I know can pull off but her. I'd be mistaken for twelve years old.

Amber sees me reminicing in my memories and observations.

"STARR!" She launches herself at me. "AMBER!!" I scream right back as I clutch her to me. I don't need to though; she squeezes me so hard my internal organ's bleeding starts to bleed. Amber has these freakishly strong arms that literally crush you into her hugs. They rob you of breath and they last longer than normal human hugs should. Amber once shifted/bent my ribs. They bounced back into place when she let go. That was five years ago; I still haven't forgotten the terrifying feeling of 'Holy , she's going to send me to the hospital'.

Someone familiar screams behind me like they're dying. Amber releases me from her death grip to glomp Courtney next.

Courtney entered our lives when we were in kindergarten. She had grabbed a fistfull of Amber's hair and declared that it was the prettiest dark blonde hair she's ever seen. Actually, what she said was, "This is the bestest yellow hair in forever!" Then she told me my hair was "softester than bunnies". Yes, my hair is apparently softester than bunnies. Courtney always had a thing for hair - she still does. She had the wackiest hairdos. Courtney experiments with every hair product imaginable. As of right now her hair is in several fishtails and is a striking dark purple.

The three of us chatter our heads off as we make our way out back, arms linked with Amber in the middle. She had always been in the middle; now was no different. The pool is half-way full and the speakers are blasting Ludacris.

Courtney, Amber, and I strip away our clothing until we're in our bathing suits and simutaneously jump in.

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A/N: Hello, my readers! Let's just leap into my point today: AMBER IS NOT A REAL PERSON! I am aware that I said that she was modeled after Mrs. Choi/Alice - THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT THEY ARE IN ANYWAY IDENTICAL! If there's anything identical it might be the hair. The only thing that Amber reflects off of Alice is events that has happened - AND NOT ALL OF THEM ARE REAL!!! If you didn't understand that let me explain: NOT ALL OF AMBER'S LIFE EVENTS ARE ALICE'S LIFE EVENTS. Amber's personality is nothing like Alice's either. I just wanted to clarify that!

AND STARR IS NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT ME!!!!!! It's nearly the same issue as Amber/Alice; some things (some, some, some!) that happened between the best friends have happend to Alice and me. That's all I'm saying. I most likely will not specify in future notes, depending.

Anyway, I'm going to update another chapter tonight, too! Stay tuned: NU'EST comes back! ^_~ (I couldn't find a picture for this chapter; looking for a picture of an all-girl pool party was - believe it or not - inappropriate and scarring. I DON'T want/need to see girls in bikinis that cover virtualy nothing . . . )