Disclaimer: Monk belongs to the USA Network

Author's Note: This is my first stab at a romance, so feedback would be very much appreciated. I'll take all the advice and suggestions that I can get. Please read and enjoy.

Some minor changes: Changed the boys' names so that it wouldn't be so confusing, added a couple more minor details. Thanks for the reviews and suggestions.

Benjy was sitting at the lunch tables out in the schoolyard with his three friends, Steve, Matt, and Robby. The sun was shining and there was a light breeze hitting their smiling faces as they talked about the upcoming school dance while they ate their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

"Are you guys going to ask anybody to go with you?" asked the red-headed, freckle-faced Steve, who's voice had already deepened.

"I don't know. Are we supposed to?" asked the innocent Benjy.

"Of course we are, it's a dance!" Matt said, with a somewhat nasally, obnoxious-sounding voice. "We can't dance by ourselves can we? We'd look pretty dorky during the slow songs." The group of twelve-year-old boys started laughing hysterically at the thought of seeing themselves slow dancing all alone.

"Well then, who are you going to ask, Matt?" said Robby, who was the tallest of the boys, and who had the deepest voice.

"I don't know. Maybe I'll ask Suzie Rowman," Matt said with a faint smile. The boys cracked up laughing.

"Are you kidding me?" Steve gasped. "She's the tallest girl in our class."

"Yeah, so what!" said Matt defiantly.

"No offense, Matt, but you're the shortest kid our class," said Benjy. "It's kinda hard to dance with someone so much taller than you."

"No it's not! Ballet dancers do it all the time!" Matt said.

"What?" the other three boys asked in unison, trying to stifle their giggles.

"Everyone knows that men ballet dancers are shorter than the woman. It makes for better dancing."

"If you say so, Mr. Swan Lake," Steve said while laughing. Matt threw a french-fry at Steve's head and hit him in between the eyes. The boys were rolling with laughter.

"Who are you going to ask, Steve?" Benjy asked when the laughter had died down.

"I think I'll ask Sandra Derby. What about you Benjy?"

"Uh…um…I don't know," Benjy said, looking down at the table, trying to hide his red face.

"I know who I'm going to ask," Robby exclaimed. "I'm going to ask Devonna Jenkins."

"Hey! All right Robby! She's hot!" said Steve.

"I know," Robby said with a huge smile and a far away look in his eyes. "Hey, come on Benjy, we told you, now you gotta tell us."

"Okay…I'm…going to ask…" Just then the end of lunch bell rang and Benjy jumped up and said, "Well, I gotta go." He ran into the school and to his next class, and he was never so happy to actually be sitting in Math class instead of talking to his friends.

Adrian Monk and Sharona Fleming were sitting in the kitchen of Sharona's house. Sharona was reading her pile of mail while Adrian was looking around the kitchen, seeing every little spec of dirt that covered the floor. Sharona had begged him to just sit still for five minutes and not touch anything while she read her mail. It was taking every ounce of will power that Adrian had to not jump up and start mopping the floor. He couldn't hold out much longer.

"Um…Sharona?" Adrian asked.

Sharona looked up from the letter she was reading and said, "What?"

"How…" Adrian swallowed, trying to hide his nervousness, "How much longer are you going to be reading?"

"Well, I don't know. I have a lot of mail."

"Could you hurry it up then?" Monk saw the look on her face and decided to add, "Please?"

Sharona was sitting across the table from Monk with her mouth hanging open and her eyebrows furrowed in anger. "What is your problem?"

"The floor!" Monk squeaked. "The floor is my problem! Don't you ever clean it?"

"Adrian! I cleaned it last week!"

"Last week? Last week?!!! I…I need a mop. Where did you put the mop?"

Sharona sighed and said, "In the closet, right there."

Monk jumped up from the table and rushed over to the closet, pulling out the mop and floor cleaner. When he accidentally hit Sharona's feet while mopping, she got annoyed and took the mail with her to her room and slammed the door. Monk jumped at the sound, and knew that he was in trouble. He decided to keep mopping and to let her cool off before he tries to talk to her again. Every little thing that he did had been bothering her lately. Maybe she was just stressed out.

In Sharona's room, Sharona had opened a letter from Benjy's middle school:

Dear Ms. Fleming,

We are writing to inform you that your seventh grader has been invited to the seventh grade dance. The dance will be held on Friday, September the 10th, from 7:30pm to 10:00pm. We are looking for chaperones and would appreciate it if you would do the honor. You are welcome to bring a guest, and you would be chaperoning with three other parents/teachers and their guests. Please get back to us as soon as possible.

Thank you for your time,

Principal Alfred D. Goober

555-4123

"Hmm. Benjy didn't tell me about any dance. Maybe I should chaperone." Sharona called the school and told them that she'd be happy to chaperone. Then she hung up the phone, got off of her bed and walked out of her room to the kitchen, where Adrian was still mopping away. "Adrian, can I have next Friday night off?"

Monk froze in place. "Why?" he asked, hoping it wasn't a date.

"Benjy's going to his first dance and I was asked to be a chaperone," Sharona said, smiling.

Monk looked up at Sharona, still holding his breath, and said, "Oh. You're chaperoning alone?"

"No, there'll be other parents there."

"Oh." That wasn't what Monk was asking, but he didn't know how to make her elaborate on it without sounding too intrusive into her private life. "So, who's Benjy going with?"

"I don't know. He didn't even tell me about the dance. I just got this letter."

Monk nodded his head and continued mopping. "How do you know that he's going to go?"

"Because if my son is anything like me, then he wouldn't miss such a big chance to have fun."

Monk smiled.