“Thanks, Jen,” she muttered under her breath. Now she couldn’t think of him as the foreign exchange student because Jen had so eloquently named him the “hottie.”

Jacque would have to watch herself and make sure not to introduce herself by saying, “Hi, it’s nice to meet you, hottie.” Yeah, that wouldn’t be embarrassing at all.

She gathered up some clean clothes, and as she stared in her closet she realized it was taking quite a long time to pick an outfit to wear to meet the hottie – grrr...the exchange student. Jac, she thought, say it to yourself. Ex-ch-an-ge student.

Finally she chose a pair of jeans that had holes in various places along the legs. Of course, they weren’t there through any fault of hers; they were $125 jeans made to be ripped up…go figure. She picked a baby doll tee that said “I’m not stubborn, my way is just better.” Better to let him know up front that I'm sarcastic, Jacque thought.

She headed to the bathroom to take a hot shower, hoping it would help settle her nerves. She didn’t really understand why she was so nervous about meeting the exchange student – way to go, Jac, you didn’t call him the hottie – but she was very nervous. It could be, she thought, because he might have spoken to me in my head.

“I’m mean, what the heck,” she muttered.

Jacque took her time in the shower, finally getting out when the water started to get cold. She dried off with a towel and got dressed, then took her time fixing her hair. She couldn’t decide if she should wear it up or down. “Good grief,” she told herself, “you never have this much trouble getting ready.” She just couldn’t shake the feeling that something major had happened last night when she'd locked eyes with that handsome stranger.

Settling on wearing her hair up – it was summer in south Texas, after all, which basically meant frying eggs-on-the-side-walk hot – she headed back to her room to see if Sally and Jen had decided to join the living.

Sure enough, they were both sitting in the floor. Each had bed-head and looked a little dazed.

“You’re up bright and early…and dressed,” said Jen, sounding surprised.

“Well, I woke up with just a few things on my mind and knew it would be impossible to go back to sleep. Also, I need to go talk to my mom about us going over with her to greet the hot...I mean exchange student. Thanks to you, Jen, I will probably introduce myself to him by calling him hottie.”

“Well if you do, I will be sure to do you the honor of laughing my ass off.” Jen said graciously.

“Oh, thanks sooo much,” Jacque retorted.

“Okay, kids. Let's play nice. We have plans to make, so let’s not waste time competing over who can be the snottiest sista,” Sally said in her best motherly voice.

“Okay, okay. Why don’t ya’ll take turns getting a shower. I will go talk to my mom about when she plans to head over to the Henrys'.”

“Sounds good,” Sally answered.

“Go team,” Jen said with fake enthusiasm.

Jen could often be just as sarcastic as Jacque, which at times caused them to be the best of friends and the worst.

Jacque headed downstairs to find her mom already in the kitchen, cooking up a storm. Lilly Pierce was not your average woman. She had a sketchy background growing up in a foster home, not knowing who her real parents were. She often had these “feelings” about things that were going to happen, and the scary thing was she was usually right. Jacque and her mom never really talked about it, though Jacque was beginning to show signs of a similar nature. Only Jacque didn’t know things, she could feel things – like others' emotions. It was very subtle at times. She might be in a room with her mom and, without Lilly ever saying anything, Jacque would know without a doubt her mother was sad or worried or confused. She didn’t know how she knew it, she just did. It wasn’t reliable, though, because she could go days without feeling another’s emotions. Jacque didn’t want to know things, or feel things; she just wanted to be normal.

As Jacque looked around the kitchen, she saw there was a pan of fried chicken on the stove and corn in a pot of boiling water. Her mom was steadily mixing a bowl of mashed potatoes, adding milk and butter as she saw fit.

“Hey, mom. How goes the southern meal making?” Jacque asked.

“I’m almost done, I just need to put some rolls in the oven. Would you mind getting them and putting them on a pan? They aren’t homemade, just those Hawaiian rolls, but they’re really good.”

“Yeah, I can do that.” Jacque bent down to grab a pan. “So, Sally, Jen and I were wondering if you needed help carrying all this over to the Henrys',” she said, trying to sound casual. Her mom looked at her questioningly and Jacque figured she hadn’t even come close to casual.

“Are you really wanting to help or is this just a perfect opportunity to meet the new exchange student? It is a guy, right?” Lily asked.

“Yes, he is a guy, and maybe we would like to see who he is. But we do also really want to help you. I don’t think you can carry all this over on your own,” Jacque answered.

“Well, I was going to ask you to help me anyway. And I thought you girls would be interested in meeting the new young man, especially since you and Trent split up.”

“Do not go there, Mom! This has nothing to do with him. It’s only natural to want to meet someone new, and especially since he’s not from our country,” Jacque stated firmly.