Chapter 5 - Part 5

His phone vibrated, startling Jordan out of his thoughts.  Frantically he began searching for it.  Once the phone got through the vibration cycle four times it would start ringing, and Jordan could not risk waking up anyone.

His parents had taken away his cell phone about a month ago after he had gotten into a fight with them over politics.  So Jordan had just built himself a new phone and gave that number to his friends.  So far his phone, which bypassed wireless infrastructure security, was decently untraceable and had not attracted any government or police interest.  Or at least not yet.  As soon as he finished fine tuning the phone so it was not such a big, blocky, ugly piece of equipment, Jordan was definitely going to make some for his friends.

“Hello?” Jordan said quietly as he picked up the phone just in time.

“My mom pulled another brilliant ‘I’m a celebrity’ stunt,” came the answer.

“At two in the morning?” Jordan asked.  “Wow.  I think that’s a first, Shel.”

“Very funny,” Shelly said dryly.  “I only just found out because she wanted me to post her bail.”

“Are you?”

“Her lawyer.”

The tone of Shelly’s voice made it clear that she would have left her mom if she had the choice.  Amber, even though she was now an orphan, had had a great relationship with her parents.  Callie came from a large, loving family that everyone wished they had.  Howell never talked about family, except for his cousin’s, which meant that Dylan probably had normal parental relations.  That left Jordan and Shelly to sympathize with each other in the discontented feelings toward the contributors of their genetics.

Of course, Shelly never called just to complain.  A stunt pulled by a famous parent always had the potential for horribly back lashing on the children.  As soon as Shelly had first spoken, Jordan had pulled up the internet and began sifting through gossip websites.

“What’s the verdict?” he asked.

“She did not mother Gable and I need a nose job,” Shelly said flatly.

“Jordan burst into laughter and then quickly sobered himself as he glanced at his bedroom door.  His parents and threatened to take the door off its hinges if he was caught up late at night again.  It seemed quiet, so he turned his attention back to his computer.

“Well, she’s been saying that about Gabe for awhile,” Jordan analyzed.  “No one’s going to pay much attention to that.  But you and plastic surgery, well, that’s great tabloid news.”

“Oh, really?” Shelly scoffed.

“Of course, someone would have to be an incredible idiot to think you need a nose job.”

“Amber and Callie have trained you well,” Shelly laughed.

“It’s what I get for having a bunch of girl friends,” Jordan sighed.  “Especially ones who have no problem abusing me.”

“Callie doesn’t,” Shelly pointed out.

“No,” Jordan agreed.  “But you and Amber more than cover her quota.”

Fingers flew across the keyboard as Jordan adjusted discussion threads and added some new gossip to distract from the actual comment.  He hated tabloid news and gossip pages, and it was only for the sake of friendship that he ever slogged through the dregs of pettiness.  But for his small handful of friends, Jordan knew he would do anything.

“All right,” Jordan finally said into the lapse of silence.  “I think I’ve taken care of your nose job, but we won’t know for sure until the morning.  I’ll update you at school.”

“Thanks,” Shelly sighed.  “Sorry if I woke you.  I’ll make sure the chef puts together your favorite lunch.”

“I thought me doing this was how I paid for free lunch,” Jordan laughed.

“And free lunch is how I pay you to be illegal,” Shelly said.

“Hey,” Jordan protested.  “Most of it was legitimate.  Except for the hacking into the forums part.”