Veronica woke up the next morning at nine and got in the shower right away, not knowing how long it would take her to get ready. She spent a half an hour in the shower and then left the steamy room and went to the closet to pick out the perfect outfit.

'I have no idea what to wear.' Veronica whispered as she looked over her clothes.

She decided on a pastel green tank top with white showing around the top making it look like a double shirt and a dark blue pair of capri's and white flip flops. She did her make up so that it really brought out her green eyes and when she was happy with the finished product she walked out of her room and went in search of the kitchen.

"Can I help you Veronica?" Lance asked coming out of his room.

"Where's the kitchen?" Veronica questioned looking down the hall and back at him.

"This way, I'm going to get some breakfast too. You look really nice by the way." Lance smiled at her.

"Thank you." Veronica smiled back, feeling a moment of timidity. She followed Lance down the hall and when they made it to the kitchen she was in heaven.

"You can have anything thats in here." Lance told her.

"All right. This is a beautiul kitchen, Mari would just love it." Vee said absently looking around.

"Who's Mari?" Lance asked grabbing two bowls.

"She's my best friend back in LA. Marianne has always been there for me, heck if it wasn't for her I wouldn't be here. She paid for my plane ticket." Veronica explained adding milk to her bowl of cheerios.

Lance didn't really know what to say to that other than what had been said yesterday so he just nodded and grabbed the milk from her.

"So what's this barbeque thing all about?" Veronica asked.

"It's exactly what it sounds like. Every month we get together and have a family barbeque. This months is at Justin's house. Basically its a time for all of our families to get together for a good time and to catch up and of course just relax." Lance answered.

"So Justin will be there and who else?"

"Well Justin and his wife Amber and their three kids. They have eighteen year old twins Tristan and Jasmine, and they have a twelve year old daughter named Sylvia. Chris and his wife Vikki, their two kids. JC and his wife Stefani will be there, she's six months pregnant with their third child. Joey and his wife Tonya, and their four kids will also be there. Never would have thought that Joey would have children let alone four, but they're so in love with each other. They have three girls and one boy so Joey's been having fun fending off the guys."

"Wow, sounds like a zoo." Veronica chuckled.

"That about describes us in a nutshell." Lance laughed.

"How come you've never married before?" Veronica asked suddenly.

"I haven't had much luck with the opposite sex." Lance shrugged.

"Me either. I just dumped my ex a month ago after I found him making out with some bimbo." Veronica rolled her eyes.

"What's his name? I'll find him and chop his balls off." Lance threatened.

"Thanks, but I'm good. The bastard keeps calling me begging him back, I'm like bitch please I don't think so." Veronica shook her head.

"You should watch your language." Lance warned.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know it bothered you."

"I don't really care, but it's not proper for a young lady to be saying such vulgar language."

Veronica opened her mouth and a big belch came out and they both started laughing really hard.

"Oh that was perfect." Lance said catching his breath.

"I know. The look on your face was priceless." Veronica nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"What's so funny?" Cassandra asked walking in the room.

"Nothing baby, you would have had to been here to get it." Lance answered.

"Are we going to Justin's today?" she questioned sitting next to him.

"How'd you know about that?" Lance asked feeling dread in his stomach. He was supposed to spend the day with his daughter.

"I talked to Stefani last night after I left. When were you going to tell me about it?" Cassandra demanded.

"I wasn't." Lance shrugged being honest.

"Why not?" Cassandra stood up and glared at him.

"I don't have to spend every waking moment with you Cassy. I do like my space now and again." Lance stiffled a grin when he saw Veronica roll her eyes.

"We're getting married, we have to spend time together."

"But we're not married yet, so until then, what I do with my time is my own business." Lance reminded her.

"Ugh, whatever. You've been acting like this since she got here." Cassy said narrowing her eyes to slits.

"SHE is in the room so I suggest you watch what you say." Veronica glared at her.

"Let's just stop this argument, everyone sit and let's have an intelligent conversation." Lance said shaking his head.

"It's okay, you two can talk without me, I need to go call mum anyway." Veronica said getting up.

"All right, I'll let you know when we're ready to go." Lance nodded.

Veronica got up and went to call her mum. They talked on the phone until Lance came to let her know it was time to go.

"See you mum, I'll talk to you later." Veronica said as she saw Lance in her doorway. "Love you too."

"How is she?" Lance asked her.

"She's good." Veronica smiled. "A bit lonely at times, especially now that I'm not there, but she's happy."

"Did she ever -- ?" Lance questioned quietly.

Veronica shook her head. "She never got married. She hasn't had a boyfriend that I know of."

"Right, well, let's go shall we." Lance held the door open for her and let her walk past.

"I didn't cause any problems between you and Cassandra did I?" Veronica asked as they walked down the stairs.

"No, she got over it. And if she didn't she will. She's waiting in the car." Lance answered.

"Well, I'm glad I didn't cause any problems." Veronica smiled.

"Don't worry about her. She always makes a big fuss over nothin." Lance assured her it was fine.

They went to the car and got in, Lance behind the wheel and Veronica in the back seat.

"So what do you do Cassandra?" Veronica asked sweetly.

"I'm a physics teacher." Cassandra gritted out.

"That's fun." Veronica answered.

"Yeah, loads. I get to deal with a bunch of stupid high schoolers who would rather study anything but physics. It's a joy I tell ya." Cassandra said sarcastically.

"Well, sounds to me like you shouldn't bring work home with you."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're acting like one of your stupid teenagers." Veronica answered just as sweetly.

Cassandra screamed and huffed all the way until they were there. As soon as they stopped, she jumped out and went to join the others.

"Veronica, I know you've made it obvious that you don't like her, but if you could be a bit nicer that would be awesome." Lance said holding her back.

Veronica wanted to scream, but instead she smiled and nodded.

"Let's go." Lance said leading the way.

Veronica fell a few steps behind and took a few well needed breaths. She put a smile on her face and proceeded to go in the back yard. To say it was a zoo was an understatement. There were quite a few teenagers and a little younger in the pool and all the adults were lazin around talking. For a moment Veronica felt really left out.

She went over to a lounge chair and sat down, she wasn't sure what to do so she just sat there for about ten minutes and sat alone until Justin came over and sat down.

"How you doin' Veronica?" Justin asked seeing her alone.

"I'm good, you can call me Vee." Veronica answered.

"I'll keep that in mind. Have you met everyone?"

"Nope. You're the first person I've talked to." Veronica shook her head.

"Well what are you waiting for, just go mingle. Everyone here is friendly, except of course Cassandra, which I'm sure you've figured out by now. Did you bring a suit?" Justin asked pointing out the pool.

"No, I didn't know I was supposed to." Vee answered.

"Well, if you want to swim. See Jasmine there, she'll probably have a suit you can borrow. That's my daughter, she's the one on Tristan's shoulders. Tristan of course is my son, her twin." Justin explained.

"Oh okay." Veronica nodded looking at them.

Veronica made eye contact with Tristan and nearly forgot how to breathe. He was looking at her and tried to look away but she was held captivated for a moment until he dropped his sister.

"Tristan Randal Timberlake, where was your concentration? We would have had them." Jasmine said coming out of the water gasping.

"Sorry sis, I slipped." Tristan said taking one more quick glance at the girl who was talking to his dad.

"Yeah, okay." Jasmine mocked him.

"Well if you're gonna be all mean find a new partner." Tristan added getting out of the pool.

"Hey Tristan, come here." his dad called him.

"Yeah dad?" Tristan said drying off with his towel.

"I'd like you to meet Veronica, she's Lance's daughter." Justin introduced them.

"Hey, I'm Veronica, my friends call me Vee." Veronica smiled.

"Nice to meet you Veronica, I'm Tristan." he said shaking her hand.

"I leave her in your capable hands." Justin got up and left the two of them.

"So you're Lance's daughter?" Tristan asked.

"Yeah."

"I didn't know he had a daughter."

"And neither did he until yesterday." Veronica answered.

"Who are you talking to?" Jasmine asked pushing her brother.

"This is Veronica, Lance's daughter." Tristan answered.

"Hey Veronica, don't let my brother creep you out. I'm Jasmine and why don't you have a suit on? It's beautiful out here." Jasmine asked.

"I didn't bring one." Veronica shrugged feeling a little overwhelmed by this girl.

"Well, you look about my size. I have one you can borrow." Jasmine offered.

"If you don't mind." Veronica nodded.

"Sweet, come up to my humble abode." Jasmine said threading her arm through Veronica's elbow.

Veronica glanced at Tristan who was still watching her then proceeded to follow Jasmine up to the house.

"Don't mind my brother, he's a little strange at times." Jasmine laughed.

"He's fine." Veronica shrugged.

"So I didn't know Lance had any children, let alone someone so close to our age. I love all the other kids, but seriously the closest to our age is Chris's daughter Monica who just turned fifteen and she can really be an irritating little brat. She just wants my brother and even though he has made it perfectly clear that he only thinks of her as a friend, she still tries to flirt with him. It's quite disturbing actually." Jasmine explained. "How old are you exactly?"

"I'll be seventeen in two weeks."

"Awesome. Finally a girl that I can talk to on these little gatherings."

Veronica, not sure what to say, laughed and followed Jasmine into her room.

"I only have two peice suits, is that okay?" Jasmine asked rutting through her top drawer.

"It's fine by me." Veronica shrugged.

"Okay, well this one should work." Jasmine said handing her a bikkini top that was dark blue and yellow with white strings and a pair of bottoms that were more like little boy underwear without the front holes.

"This is cute." Veronica said holding it out.

"Thank you. I just got it last week. I haven't had a chance to wear it yet, so you'll be the first." Jasmine smiled. "We'll I'm gonna go back down now. When you get done just come back out. I'll leave this towel on the bed just grab it when you go."

"Okay, thanks Jasmine." Veronica smiled feeling welcome.

"You're welcome. We're practically family now with this bunch." Jasmine smiled then closed the door behind her.

"Wow." Veronica sighed taking off her clothes.

About five minutes later, Veronica emerged outside and felt everyones eyes on her. She wished she'd put her towel on, but it was a little too late for that. She made her way over to Jasmine who was talking to her brother and some other girl who Veronica assumed was Monica by the way she was acting.

"I see it fits." Jasmine said when Veronica stepped beside her.

"Yes thank you." Veronica said still trying to nonchalantly cover up.

"Give me that towel." Jasmine grabbed Vee's towel and threw it on a lounge chair a few feet away. "Now stop trying to cover up. You've got it so might as well flaunt it."

Veronica turned three shades of red and she crossed her arms trying again to hide.

"Sis, leave her alone, you're embarassing her." Tristan chuckled.

"How would you know." Jasmine glared at her brother.

"Its obvious that she looks uncomfortable." Tristan answered.

"You're very observant." Monica complimented Tristan.

"Thank you Monica." Tristan nodded trying not to roll his eyes.

"Veronica, this is Monica, she doesn't take no for an answer." Jasmine introduced.

"Nice to meet you." Veronica smiled politely.

All she received in return was a glare and what was to be taken as a warning to stay away from Tristan. Veronica just met her stare head on and dared Monica to follow through with her nonverbal challenge.

"Dude, you seriously need to lighten up." Jasmine told Monica.

"Whatever." Monica said before stomping off.

"Sorry about her, shes a little intense. She won't take no for an answer." Tristan apologized.

"It's fine, you didn't do anything." Veronica smiled suddenly feeling shy when she realized they were alone.

"So you wanna jump in?" Tristan asked referring to the pool.

"Sounds good." Veronica nodded then smiled up at him.

"Cannonball." Tristan yelled running for the pool bringing his feet up to his chest then dove in the water.

Veronica chose a more relaxed way, she sat down next to the water and let her legs get used to the water first. She felt unwanted butterflies in her stomach when Tristan came her way. His touch burned her skin when, without permission, he put his strong hands around her waist and brought her down into the water.

"Easy now." Tristan said as she fought to touch the bottom.

Veronica held onto his shoulders and finally got her balance when she realized that she was going to touch. "Thanks." she said breathlessly.

"You're welcome." Tristan smiled then let go.

Veronica thought she'd forever feel his touch on her waist, but it was short lived when she was dunked under the water. She came up sputtering and turned around to see Jasmine swimming off.

"That was mean, I wasn't even ready." Veronica said swimming after her.

"That's the point." Jasmine laughed cowering behind her brother. "Come and get me!"

"Why are you hiding? Are you scurred?" Veronica laughed feeling a little more bold.

"Shakin in my boots." Jasmine nodded.

"And that's why you're hiding behind your brother." Veronica clucked then shook her head.

Tristan reached around and grabbed Jasmine then tossed her in the water so she landed a few feet away.

"Well that was fun." Jasmine said as she came up for air.

"It looked very enjoyable." Veronica smiled holding onto the side of the pool.

"I'm sure he can toss you if you really wanna experience it." Jasmine smiled evilly.

"No, I'm good thanks." Veronica said looking nervous.

"Don't worry, I won't throw you in." Tristan assured her.

"Thanks." she smiled.

"No problem." he winked.

"Quit flirting with him." Monica glared coming up next to her.

"Excuse me?" Veronica asked her.

"You heard me." Monica threatened then swam away.

"Like I'm really scared of you." Veronica shook her head then headed for the ladder to get out.

"So are you having fun so far?" Lance asked her as she wrapped herself up in the towel.

"Yes, thank you. How are you? Did you and Cassy make up?" Veronica asked politely.

"Until our next fight." Lance nodded.

"Can I ask you something?"

"You just did." Lance smirked. "But yes go ahead."

"Why are you with her if you're always fighting?" Veronica asked.

Lance opened his mouth to answer when Veronica's cellphone rang interrupting them.

She pointed a finger at him telling him to wait a second and answered.

"Hello?"