The doorbell rang. Show walked with springy steps out to open. Outside were Ella, Hebe and Jolin.
“Hey Show! What was the surprise you were talking about?” Ella asked jolly. They took off their shoes.
Show hadn’t told them about the thing with Selina, so he just smiled secretly.
“It is waiting in the living room.”
“Here,” Jolin said, and handed him a bag. There were four strawberry cakes in it.
“One for you and three for me?” he asked happily.
“Exactly,” Hebe said.
“Wee! Then you have to part it in four,” he said, and only realized it afterwards.
“Four? I didn’t know your math skills were so bad…” Ella said, and turned her eyes.
“Uhm… Anyway, I’ll go get a knife!” he quickly said. “You can just go to the living room.”
He walked out to the kitchen. The three girls looked at each other, and then opened the door to the living room.
“Oh my… Selina, why are you here?!” Jolin asked baffled.
They all three quickly sat down next to Selina at the sofa. Selina smiled sadly.
“How great to see you!” Hebe said and hugged Selina, which made her a bit baffled too.
“Uhm… the same to you,” she answered nervously. She still didn’t like that much attention.
“No no no, it’s called: Missed you too! And hug,” Hebe said, and hugged her again. “Just for next time.”
“O… kay,” Selina said hesitating, and wondered if she would ever do such a thing.
“How come you’re here too?” Jolin asked again. Ella nodded on-cheering.
“Uhm… that’s a long story, but…”
“CAAAAKE!!!” Show shouted from the door opening; he was carrying a big tray with the four cakes, different things to drink and plates.
“Wha…?” Selina gaped. Of course she didn’t know anything about the cakes the girls had brought.
Show placed the tray on the coffee table between the TV and the sofas.
“Yay!” Ella exclaimed. “But hey – there’s missing a piece, on that one…”
A big piece was missing from the cake she pointed at. Show made an angel-face and started cutting out the cakes.
“I think someone still owes me an explanation,” Jolin grumbled.
“Oh yes...” Show started, but Selina cut him off.
“I can explain,” she said, and then told them the whole story. She left out a few details, but those she hadn’t told Show either.
“How can he call himself a father when he acts like that?!” Ella exclaimed, when they reached the part where Selina’s father told her to get out.
“He only does when it is useful for him,” Selina said, and continued telling. Show sat and had a fun time mixing drinks of all kinds of soda water. Probably to get different colors.
“Wow...” Jolin said when Selina had finished. “I’d never had thought that something like this could actually happen.”
“Me neither...” Hebe said. “We will definitely help you.”
“You really don’t have to, I don’t have enough money to pay you back,” Selina quickly said. She hated owing others.
“Who’s talking about money? In my eyes, a place to live would be better,” Ella said.
“She’s already staying here!” Show said, like he had been offended.
“Yes, but she can’t do that forever,” Jolin said.
“Why not?”
“Because if she does that, we will never be able to pull through a diet for her. It would be totally ruined by chocolate cake.”
“Okay, okay,” he said dissatisfied. He took one of the cakes and started eating it with a fork.
“You can’t just eat a whole cake like that!” Hebe shouted.
“Why not?” he asked, with cake stuffed in his mouth.
“Because... well-well, let’s make a plan for Selina at first. Why don’t we link it together with our transformation program?” Hebe said.
“How do you think?” Jolin asked.
“Well-well, there’s a bit less than four months to the Christmas dance. We’re in the middle of September – what about that Selina stays here a week more to get some more lessons from Show? I mean make-up and hair. And matching clothes. And then we can shift each month...?” Hebe looked asking at them.
“It sounds like a good idea,” Selina sighed. Now that she anyway couldn’t stay home, it was better to get something out of the situation.
“Great!” Ella cheered, and Jolin nodded. Show didn’t look quite as happy.
“What if her mother comes home in the meantime?” he asked. Even Selina hadn’t thought about that, and felt kind off surprised that he did.
“Then she’ll just go home, right? We can continue lessons after school. But of course it isn’t going to be all school-like all the time. It’s more... it’s easier to teach eating-manners if you eat with the person every day, right?” Hebe said. Oh. It was like that.
“Prepare for being nagged at all the time, girl,” Ella said joking.
“Which order is it going to be in? I think she should start with staying at Hebe’s, then at Ella’s house and then mine. Wouldn’t that make a nice order?” Jolin asked.
“As long as I can keep on ordering cake at the cafés, I’m okay,” Show said, and sat down the plate on the desk. It was empty.
“If we’re going to have some cake, it is maybe better to take it before Show eats it all,” Hebe said baffled.
She neatly cut one of the cakes out in eight pieces and placed four of them on four different plates, before she gave it to the girls and herself. Show took another whole cake.
“But... is it really okay for me to live at your houses?” Selina asked.
“Of course!” Ella said while munching. “That’s no problem, and my parents loooove to have guest...”
“Mine too,” Jolin said. “By the way, you are all sure that you can come to our summerhouse next weekend? Selina, if you could go with Show and then leave with Hebe, it would match in time.”
“Oh... yes, of course,” Selina said. She suddenly wondered what she would have done if she didn’t know Ella, Hebe, Jolin and Show, or if they didn’t want to help her. Then she would really be in a bad situation.
“Thank you really much. It means a lot,” she said, and looked around at them.
There she was at it again. Show noticed that she looked them in the eyes, for the first time during the whole conversation.
“No problem,” Ella said and smiled. The others did too.
“Uhm, Show...? Is it safe to drink these sodas, or do they have some dangerous chemical reaction after you mixed them so much?” Hebe asked, and looked suspicious at a cup with blue-brown-yellow liquid in.
“I’m at least positive that there’s no alcohol in it,” he said.
They continued chatting and laughing the rest of the afternoon. Selina was amazed by how at ease Show was with talking about all kinds of girl-stuff; not like any guy she had known before. But still, she hadn’t really known that many guys before.

Selina had no time alone with her thoughts that Sunday. Luckily. She didn’t want to think about neither her mother nor her father.
The other girls came over again, and together with Show they taught her how to put on make-up and different other things. Or actually, it was mostly Show – the girls accompanied them. Of course Glenn came up with some cakes a little time after lunch.
It actually ended up being more fun than Selina had expected. They also went to Show’s usual dance studio to watch his training (that was more important than anything else, and couldn’t be called off in any case). Selina couldn’t remember the last time she had felt that carefree. There was finally a place where she got accepted, even though she didn’t feel totally at ease yet. She always had the thought in the back of her head that it was all a new trick to bully her. But the more she talked and laughed, the more she couldn’t believe that it was that way.

When Selina woke up Monday, she took a deep breath before she got out of bed. When she had just gotten her clothes on, someone knocked the door.
“Who is it?” she asked.
“It’s Show.”
“Come in.”
“No need. I just wanted to tell that breakfast is ready,” he said.
“Is it chocolate cake again?” she asked. The last few days, she had learned that chocolate cake for breakfast gave her a headache.
“No, you can choose carrot cake if you like instead,” he laughed. Selina also laughed. She didn’t know why – his laughter just infected her.
Well, maybe carrot cake wouldn’t give her a headache.

No, not headache. Stomach-ache.
Selina sat in the classroom and waited for class to end. She had now concluded that she wasn’t able to eat cakes in the morning. She was sure that she couldn’t eat anything for lunch without puking.
Finally the bell rang. She walked out of the classroom as quick as she could, and nearly bumped into a person outside. Jiro.
“Hey Selina, I was waiting for you,” he said. “Let me follow you to the cafeteria.”
“No thanks, it’s okay – look, Hebe and Jolin is right there, I’m just going with them,” Selina said quick and nervously, and started walking. Jiro grabbed her arm.
“Take it easy! I had something else to ask you, too. Are you free Wednesday night?” Jiro asked. Selina nodded hesitating, and looked down at the ground.
“Then I’ll pick you up,” he smiled. “Where do you live?”
“Uhm... right now I live at Show’s place,” she said. She would feel more secure if one of the other girls was by her side to do the talking.
“At Show’s place? What do you mean with ‘right now’?” He suddenly seemed upset.
“It’s a long story, but I can just give you the address...” she started, but Jiro coldly cut her off.
“I know where it is.”
They stood a bit in silence, before Jiro abruptly smiled again.
“Okay, see you then,” he said, and waved goodbye. She waved back when he walked away.

***
My inspiration went on vacation and only came back for the last paragraph.
But here you have the chap :D My brain is totally burned out after this week.
Thanks so much for all your nice comments :) for those who haven’t seen it yet, I’ve answered the last comments on the Comments page. Please comment, it means really much :)
- Blitz