PART ELEVEN
Chapter One: "Returning The Favour"
Chapter Two: "Strange Kind Of Friendship"
Chapter Three: "Live And Let Go"
Chapter Four: "Lie To Me"

Previously on 'The Caliente Affairs',
In 'Part 6', Mary-Sue Pleasant hosted the town's annual community gathering on Halloween. Lilith broke up with Dirk Dreamer after he cheated on her and she and Angela became closer sisters. Daniel was unhappy with his relationship with Mary-Sue because she was devoting too much of her free time to working. In 'Part 10' Brandi Broke asked her fiance Shaun Wilson to move in on the day of her son Calvin's Birthday. Meanwhile, Meadow confronted Alex Goth about his attempt to kiss Dirk on Thanksgiving. He admitted he was gay and Meadow left, signalling the end of their relationship.

Chapter One: "Returning The Favour"

Angela Pleasant slowly blinked her eyes as she yawned and surveyed the room around her. She remembered what had happened the night before; Dustin Broke, her boyfriend, came over to complete an assignment they'd been given to do over the Christmas Vacation. She half-heartedly laughed as she realised there was no way she would finish it for when the new school term started, especially after she and Dustin had spent most of the night talking about why Swiss cheese had holes in it! Some time around eleven her father had come upstairs to tell Dustin it was time to go. He left and Dustin mentioned he was dreading returning home as the place resembled a building site. He was having to share his bedroom with both of his siblings whilst major work went on to extend the house. After a few minutes, Angela checked to see if her parents were asleep and invited Dustin to stay over.

As Dustin blinked his eyes, Angela smiled and greeted him a good morning.
"Huh? What time is it?" He asked.
"It's seven-fifty AM."
"What? Oh man, I gotta be at work for nine." Dustin panicked before stopping to calmly take in where it was he had woken up.

"Did I stay the night?"
"Yep, all night long." Angela said, cautiously smiling.
"But we didn't... Did we?" Dustin asked, events of the proceeding night unclear in his head.
"No." Angela said as her smile was replaced by a look of worry.

"I mean, I asked if you wanted to and you said we should wait."
"That's good right, isn't that what you want?" Dustin asked.
"I want what you want, I don't want to be the ringleader in this relationship. Decisions like that should be made by the both of us."
"I don't understand what the problem is." Dustin said, confused at why Angela had become defensive.
"Did I do something wrong? Are things... I mean, I thought you would have wanted to sleep with me."

"I do, of course I do. I want it the most but I don't want it to be done on some whim of a moment. I mean I only stayed over so I could finally get a peacefully nights sleep without Beau snoring and Calvin talking in his sleep." Dustin said, referring to his brothers.
"That's the only reason?" Angela asked.
"Of course it's not the only reason, but maybe we could talk some more about those reasons when I'm not having to go to work in an hour." Dustin said as he got up to leave.
"Wait! I have to check to see if no-one.."

"Is up!" Angela said as Dustin walked out into the hallway of the Pleasant's house, and right in front of Lilith's path.
"Hey Dustin! You're here pretty early, don't you have to be at work in like an hour?" Lilith asked, unaware her sister's boyfriend had stayed the night.

"Dustin, do you want to just wait in here whilst I talk to my sister." Angela said, ordering Dustin back into her room.
"Hey, why aren't you dressed?" Lilith asked.
"Because I just woke up."
"Didn't you know Dustin was coming over?" She asked.
"I knew... At least I knew last night." Angela confessed as Lilith's mouth began to form a wide 'O' shape.

"You mean he stayed the night! With you, in there? Oh my god! Do Mum and Dad know?" Lilith asked.
"Oh sure! I said Dustin could sleep on the couch but Daddy suggested he should stay with me." Angela said sarcastically.

Lilith looked at her twin with a smile, but she was not amused. As the full scale of what she just saw finally became clear in her head she hesitated before asking her sister another question. "Wait. You and he didn't..."

"No, of course not! But there's no way they're going to believe me, and even if they do they're still going to be fuming with anger." Angela removed her annoyed look as she prepared to ask her sister to do something nice for her. "That's why I need you to distract them both whilst I sneak Dustin out."
"You want to sneak a boy outta the house? There are so many things wrong with this picture!" Lilith joked.
"It's not funny! I offered Dustin a place to stay because he was sick of sharing a room." Angela said.
"Oh sure, that's the only reason!" Lilith smiled and rolled her eyes.
"Nothing happened!"

"Then answer me this sweet sis; if he was sick of sharing a room then why did he sleep with you?" Lilith pondered.
"We just fell to sleep!" Angela said, becoming more annoyed now than before.
"Okay! I know you wouldn't do anything anyway." Lilith said as Angela defended herself.
"Yes I would!"
"Wait, do you want me to think you two didn't have woohoo or what?" Lilith asked becoming confused.

"We didn't, I just meant that I could do it. And who's to say that we haven't already?" Angela suggested.
"Have you?" Lilith asked. Angela turned around to see if Dustin had closed her bedroom door.
"I asked him, but he said we should wait." Angela was still unsure about this but Lilith was suddenly overcome with a look of admiration.

"He is such a gentleman. Everything you could want in a boyfriend."
"I know it's annoying." Angela remarked.
"What?!" Lilith asked as she looked at her sister in a whole new light.
"I mean, if he wasn't so nice then I wouldn't feel so bad about..." Angela trailed off but Lilith knew what she meant.
"He still doesn't know, does he? And that's why you wanted to... Ah yes, it's all becoming clear now. You're really screwed up!" Lilith joked.

"Yes! So will you help me?" Angela pleaded. Lilith rolled her eyes and succumbed to her sister's request.
"Alright! I'll take off my clothes and run naked around the backyard, that ought to distract them don't you think!" Lilith joked.
"Yeah! So where are they?" Angela asked.

"Mum's right at the bottom of the stairs. You go get Dustin and wait here until I get her to leave." Lilith said as the twins began to formulate a plan.
"How?"
"I'll just tell her that dad forgot to move the trash can from in front of the house, you know how much she hates that and won't do another thing until it's hidden in the backyard."
"But what about Dad?"
"Alright, well he's probably in the living room so I need to distract him from the front door."
"Is this the part where you get naked?" Dustin asked, who had joined in on the plan.
"Hey! You can count this as that favour I owe you." Lilith winked at Dustin as Angela looked on confused.
"What favour?"
"Wait, she's on the move. Now's your chance Lilith." Dustin said as Lilith made her way downstairs.
"Why does she owe you a favour?" Angela asked before Dustin shushed his girlfriend.

"Good morning Lilith. How are you today?" Daniel asked.
"Not so good, I think I'm getting a pimple. Can you see it?" Lilith said as she pushed her face directly in front of her father's.
"No! I can't see anything, move back a little." He asked.
"Back where?" Lilith said, further distracting her dad.
"Just step back."
"Oh okay, I'll step back." Lilith continued to block her father's view of the front door so Angela could sneak Dustin out.
"I meant now, Lilith." Daniel said as he forcibly moved his daughter.

"Oh, sorry dad." Lilith said as she stood up straight. Angela softly kissed her boyfriend goodbye and sneaked off back upstairs. She had been feeling guilty about lying to Dustin, but now it seemed he was keeping secrets from her too. Why did he owe her sister a favour? Had the two been meeting each other privately, she asked herself. They already worked together and now they were meeting outside of work too. Angela had already voiced her worries to Dustin about her sister becoming attracted to him, she just hoped she wasn't right.

Chapter Two: "Strange Kind Of Friendship"

Her good deed for the day now over, Lilith was ready for some serious chilling. She was going to head down to the Swimming Pool and just hang out with some friends but on her way out she bumped into a familiar face. "Oh! What are you doing here?" She asked.

Alexander Goth stood awkwardly as he greeted Lilith, "I'm sorry about turning up like this but I didn't have your number so I couldn't call." Lilith had known Alex for a while, he had started hanging out with her and some of her friends when he tried to be a goth. She always wondered why Alex wanted to be a goth but before she ever really got to have a conversation with him he stopped hanging out with her and her friends and started following Meadow around. Since then her opinion of Alex had dropped but then she broke up with Dirk and it seemed as if her own friends no longer wanted to know Lilith.
"It's alright, was there something you wanted to ask me?"
"I was wondering if we could have a private talk. I've got some stuff to tell you that I think you should find out from me before anyone else beats me to it." Alex sighed. Lilith looked at his young face and worried about what was troubling him.

Alex was three years younger than Lilith but he was a genius and had skipped a grade at the age of eleven. He went into the same class as Dirk and that's when Lilith met him.
"I like your room, and your hair." Alex complimented Lilith.
"Thanks. I dyed it for Halloween but decided to keep it like this, the red bit is just make-up."
"They do make-up for hair!" Said Alex, surprised at this new information.
"They do make-up for just about everything now."
"Wow, I have so much to learn." Alex trailed off.
"What?"
"Nothing! I won't put it off any longer, I came over here to tell you something about Dirk." Alex told Lilith.

"More specifically, something about me and Dirk. And it effects me and you and I didn't want anyone else to tell you because they don't know what really happened and even I really can't remember it all too well but.." Lilith put up a hand to stop Alex.

"Okay, you're going to need to slow down a bit. You've been hanging out with Meadow for too long." Lilith joked but Alex's face drooped.
"Not anymore, we broke up." He revealed.
"What! But she was crazy about you, at least that's the impression I got."
"She did like me, but I went and broke her heart." Alex explained.

"Oh, don't tell me you cheated on her." Lilith asked Alex but he just looked away. "God, you men are all the same. Why can't you keep your lips to yourselves?"
"I didn't kiss anyone.. But I tried to."
"Why would you do that, isn't one girlfriend enough?" Lilith asked, annoyed at Alex for doing what Dirk had done to her.
"She was, but I thought... I thought I wanted a boyfriend." Alex finally told the truth as Lilith's eyes widened.
"A Boyfriend.. You mean you're.." Lilith trailed off as she dealt with Alex's news.

"It gets worse. They guy I tried to kiss... It was Dirk." Lilith's face remained in a look of shock as she contemplated what this meant. "I didn't mean to, but I thought he felt the same and I just ruined everything and I didn't even think that I could be hurting you by kissing your ex-boyfriend but then Meadow found out and she made me come to terms with my sexuality but then she broke up with me and I was left feeling empty and then it hit me that if Meadow knew she might tell you and you might do to me what you did to that girl that kissed Dirk that one time..." Alex breathed in as he realised he'd been rambling again.
"That's a lot of information to deal with." Lilith simply said.
"I just wanted to apologise and tell you that Dirk didn't kiss me and I didn't kiss him. Whatever I felt it's gone now so you don't have to worry about... Just, you don't have to worry." Alex cut his sentence off short this time.

"Okay. Let me try to think about this," Lilith started. "You're gay. That's fine, I don't have a problem with that. But you tried to kiss Dirk. That's less fine, but whatever you heard about that incident involving me and Dirk's other grilfriend, forget it. It's just a load of bull created by the gossip's at school. I never hit anyone and if I did the only person I'd be hitting would be Dirk. I'm glad you came to me and told me, it shows you're a good friend, one I didn't know I had." Lilith smiled as Alex breathed a sigh of relief.
"So you don't want to hit me?" Alex asked.
"Well seeing as though you didn't actually get to kiss Dirk I'll let it slide this time." Lilith joked.

"I'm so glad. You don't know how much this means to me. I just had this picture of coming into school next year and everyone would be talking about me behind my back. I don't know if you knew but Meadow kind of has a big mouth."
"Yeah well if she even so much as suggests to someone you're gay then she'll have to deal with me." Lilith said.
"But I am gay." Alex corrected.
"Oh yeah, so you're okay with people knowing?" Lilith asked.
"No! Oh god no, please don't tell anyone. I'm just not ready to deal with it yet, I'm still trying to get my own head around it and I couldn't bare having to deal with everybody else asking me questions."
"Your secret's safe with me." Lilith promised.

Lilith was interupted by her mother calling her downstairs for dinner. Not wanting to cut off their conversation so early Lilith persuaded Alex to stay.
"I'll be right back, you can amuse yourself with the TV or whatever." Lilith started to leave but stopped as a look of pleasure crept across her face.
"What's wrong?" Alex asked.
"Oh nothing, I'm just trying to picture Dirk's face when you went to kiss him. I bet he was mortified!" Lilith smiled.
"Hey!" Alex cried.
"Oh, not because of you but because another guy tried to kiss him. He was an idiot to turn you down! But boy I would have paid good money to see him be humiliated like that." Lilith slyly smiled but Alex sighed.
"I think the only one being humiliated was me." Lilith put a hand on Alex's shoulder.
"Don't be so hard on yourself, what you did takes a lot of guts. In my eyes you're twice the man Dirk is." Alex smiled at his new friend and Lilith smiled back. It was a strange kind of friendship, but Lilith felt it was one that would last.

Chapter Three: "Live And Let Go"

Still a little shaken from Alex's news, Lilith hurriedly ate her food and excused herself from the table as Alex was waiting upstairs in her room. Angela knew that now would be the perfect opportunity to tell her mother and father what she had been debating in her mind for weeks now.

"Mother?" Angela politely asked.
"Yes dear." Mary-Sue replied.
"I need to tell you and father something, but I don't know how you're going to react." With this sudden revelation, Mary and Daniel went quiet and looked at their daughter with eager eyes.
"You know you can tell us anything." Daniel reassured his daughter.
"Alright." Angela said as she took a deep breath, "I don't want to go to University." Looks of shock now replaced the looks of eagerness on Mary and Daniel's faces as they tried to fathom why their straight A daughter wanted to turn down the opportunity of further education.
"Why on earth not?" Mary-Sue asked.
"It's because of him isn't it, you don't want to be away from that boy." Daniel was quick to judge.
"No daddy, Dustin is going to college." Angela replied as she sighed and thought about how he was going to take the news.
"Then I don't understand, just what on earth do you plan to do?" Mary-Sue queried.

"I want to travel for a year, outside of Pleasantview."
"Travel!" Mary-Sue exclaimed.
"Certainly not." Daniel immediately responded.
"Daddy, you don't understand what kind of an experience it is to see the world with your own two eyes. I'm sick of reading about the world in books, I want to see it for myself. I've talked with my Geography teacher and she's told me all kinds of wonderful places that are just on the edge of Pleasantview already."
"You're telling me a teacher has been encouraging you to flutter away your education for a sight-seeing trip?" Daniel demanded.
"No! She wanted me to go to college too but I explained how I feel as if I've learnt everything there is to learn. I've been getting A's since the fourth Grade, I know everything about the real world except how to live in it." Daniel huffed and puffed as he ate his spaghetti but Mary-Sue had a look of understanding in her eyes.

"She does have a point Daniel. Learning can only teach you so much before you crave to get out into the world and try it for yourself."
"No! I will not allow my daughter to waste the best three years of her education so she can go travelling around to collect out-of-town trinkets. And that's not even mentioning the dangers of travelling alone, you're only sixteen."
"But I'll be seventeen next year." Angela debated.
"That's still too young, even if you are a year ahead of everyone else your age." Daniel replied.
"But you're only thinking about the negatives. I'm not dumb, I'm not going to accept a ride from a stranger, I've got my destinations planned and I've been e-mailing an online friend who says I can stay with them. Everything is rock solid and you're ruining my dreams." Angela began to sob.

"Don't turn on the waterworks Angela, I'm not going to change my mind. If you really don't want to go to University then maybe when you're eighteen and have been earning an income for a year you can come to me and ask again." Daniel finalised. Angela left the table without excusing herself and stormed upstairs to her bedroom.
"Well I hope you're proud of yourself." Mary-Sue remarked.
"You cannot tell me that you actually want her to leave Pleasantview and go travelling in a foreign city?" Daniel asked astonished.
"Yes. I think it will be a fantastic experience and I know we've raised our daughter well enough that I trust her to be sensible."

"I bet you wouldn't say the same about Lilith." Daniel sneered.
"Daniel I will not have another of our conversations turned into a debate about favouritism. I have always tried to treat the girls the exact same and whilst I wouldn't be as confident as I am with Angela I wouldn't just turn a request like that from Lilith down point blank. What you're doing is exactly the reason why Lilith turned into a rebel in the first place. Do you want to see Angela do the same?" Daniel sighed and surrendered to his wife.
"Alright. I'll listen to what she has to say, but I doubt it will change my mind."

The evening turned dark and Mary-Sue coaxed Angela out of her room. "I can't face him again. I've said everything I could, what's the point of making him even more angry?" Angela asked.
"You know that your father always says the first thing that comes into his head. Now he's had time to think it over and I've had a talk with him he just might surprise you."
"And you're okay with it? I mean, me not wanting to go to University."

Mary-Sue hugged her daughter and reassured her that she valued her daughter's independent decision.
"Thank you. I just hope dad feels the same." Angela sighed as walked to the living room.

Daniel was watching sports, as usual on a Sunday. Not sure if she should disturb him whilst he was enjoying himself or take advantage of his upbeat mood, Angela hovered around the doorframe.

She wanted so much to be able to fulfil her dreams of seeing the beautiful sights that the world had to offer. She was resenting the fact her father couldn't see that and how he was only focusing on the negative side. She did understand his worries, but was quick to point out that if you go around thinking like that then what's the point of even stepping outside your front door? Feeling a little more confident, and seeing there was a commercial on, Angela cleared her throat and asked if she could come in.

"Of course, unless you think the door will get lonely!" Daniel joked. Well, Angela thought, at least he's in a good mood.

"I kind of wanted to talk some more about what I asked you earlier, but I didn't want to be yelled at again."
"Oh Angel," Daniel replied using Angela's nickname, "Come sit down, right next to me." Angela came over as instructed and smiled.

"I'm sorry I stormed off in a tantrum. It wasn't very smart of me, I've been trying to prove how mature I can be lately but I just seem to keep contradicting myself." Angela replied, thinking back to this morning.

"You are smart. Your a helluva lot smarter then I was at your age. And you're so mature." Daniel complimented his daughter.
"Maybe not, I know I'm asking a lot from you but even if you just say I'll think about it then I'll be happy."
"I was wrong to say no so quickly before, I am going to think about it." Daniel said.

Angela froze, kind of not believing what she had just heard. "Are you serious. You're not just saying that so I'll shut up and you can get back to watching the game, are you?" Daniel laughed and reassured his daughter that he would not stop thinking about her travelling request.

"Oh!" Angela said as she clenched her fists. Daniel looked on confused, had he said something wrong?

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Angela kept on repeating as she threw her arms up and around her father. Being squeezed into the corner of the couch was not very comfortable so Daniel moved his daughter so they could stand up and embrace.

"Thank you so much daddy." Angela purred into her father's ear. She knew he could still say no but short of Daniel finding out what happened last night there was nothing Angela could of think of that would persuade her father to change his mind.

Chapter Four: "Lie To Me"

Mary-Sue stuttered and nervously shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she neared the end of her phone call. "Thank you. I'll be seeing you soon again then?" She asked the person on the other end. As she did Daniel had finished his shower and silently walked into the dining room to listen in on the last bit of the conversation. "Very well. Until then." Mary-Sue said coldly as she hung the receiver.

She stared at the wall for a few seconds before turning her teary eyed gaze over to Daniel.
"Mary?" He asked as Mary-Sue's bottom lip trembled.

Mary-Sue and Daniel had been arguing for a while now and ever since she accused him of having an affair their relationship had suffered a hard knock. As if erasing everything she had gone though over the past year Mary-Sue broke down and fell into her husbands arms. She told Daniel that she had just received a call from her doctor. Following her sickness Daniel had persuaded Mary-Sue to get a check-up. The results of her blood test had come back and she explained that the doctor had told her her haemoglobin was low. She had demanded to be diagnosed over the phone, despite the requests of her doctor to make a repeat appointment for further tests. He explained to Mary-Sue that it's likely she has Anaemia but he needed to take more tests to be certain.

Feeling as though she had brought unwelcome news into the house, Mary-Sue tried to play her diagnosis down but was hit with a headache. Daniel quickly guided her to the bedroom and told her to undress. "I'm fine, honestly."
"Mary-Sue, you just told me you might have Anaemia. How do you define that as being fine?" Daniel asked.

"Well I certainly don't need you to dress me!" Mary-Sue laughed as Daniel got his wife's pyjama's out of the drawer.
"I just want to make you as comfortable as possible. You're getting an early night so you can go to the doctor's first thing in the morning." Daniel told his wife.

"I can't go tomorrow, I have to be at work. And besides the doctor said I'd be sent an appointment in the mail." Mary-Sue took her husband hands and held them tight. "I hate not knowing just as much you do, but there's no need in causing anyone else to worry."
"You're asking me not to tell anyone." Daniel assumed.
"I don't want my parents finding out and I especially don't want to worry the girls. Especially Angela, she has important test coming up next year."
"So what do you propose, we just sit on this until.." Daniel trailed off but Mary Sue pulled Daniel closer to reassure him everything was okay.

"We can't be certain of anything. I propose we treat the holiday's exactly as we always do until I get my appointment to see the doctor again. It'll probably be next year though now that Christmas is so near." Mary-Sue remembered.

"Alright, but I don't want you going overboard." Daniel embraced Mary-Sue tightly.
"I have to act normal otherwise people will tell something isn't right. Especially my mother, remember the time I cooked three kinds of meat for Thanksgiving and she saw the table and congratulated me on my pregnancy?" Mary-Sue laughed as she remembered her father's face.
"Do I remember! You hadn't even told me yet. That was the only time I missed the Superbowl and it was because I had fainted." Daniel joined in laughing.

"I remember that. You refused to even look at a newspaper until you saw the match for yourself!" Mary-Sue exclaimed. As she looked into her husbands eyes Mary-Sue stopped smiling and sighed. "Tell me everything will be alright." She asked Daniel. He looked into his wife's aging eyes and a sombre look spread across his face.
"I can't. You always taught me to be truthful." Mary-Sue began to move closer to her husband. They hadn't been this close for a long time, but Mary-Sue just wanted everything to go back to way it used to be.
"Then lie to me." She requested.
"I could never..." Daniel started.
"Please." Mary-Sue whispered as her voice quivered and she shed a single tear.

"Everything is going to be alright." Daniel said as he passionately kissed Mary-Sue. Deep down he worried that everything wouldn't turn out alright, but how much could it hurt to lie to his wife? After all, he had done it before.

END OF PART ELEVEN