Epstein lay there, grinning softly as he watched Cutie Pie sleep next to him. He gently brushed her cheek, moving a few strands of hair out of the way. Leaning in, he gave her a soft kiss on the forehead, careful not to wake her. Then, as carefully and slowly as he could, he slid out of the bed.

As he got dressed and gathered his things, he tried to be as quiet as possible. He glanced over at the bed. Smiling to himself, he watched her sleep some more. He then quietly made his way over to the window and opened it.

That was when Cutie Pie shifted in the bed. She reached to wrap her arm around Epstein, only to feel an empty space. She turned over and opened her eyes to see him standing by the window.

"Juan? What's going on? What time is it?"

"Hey." He whispered, walking back over to the bed. "Didn't mean to wake you. Listen, it's one in the morning. I really should be headin' home." He leaned down and gave her a kiss. "I'll see you at school."

She grinned a little. "You mean you're too scared to spend an entire night with me? Especially after what we did?"

"Honey," he smiled, "I ain't afraid. I just feel it's best that I get home before anyone notices I ain't been home all night." He kissed her again. "See you in a few hours, honey."

"Alright. See you soon, Juan." She watched him go back over to the window. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, honey." He smiled and then climbed out the window.

…

Later in school, Epstein walked Cutie Pie to her first class. Before she entered the classroom, he pulled her in for a nice big kiss. He didn't care at all that other students were around to see it.

"Ooh… Getting in a little PDA before class, eh Epstein?" Judy Borden teased, interrupting the kiss.

"What?" Epstein asked, shrugging with a cocky smile. "I ain't supposed to kiss my girlfriend?"

"Is that what you were doing? Looked more like you were trying to climb inside her, starting with your tongue."

"Hey Judy." Cutie Pie said. "It's a windy day out there. Why don't you go blow somewhere else?"

Judy's mouth hung open and she huffed. She tried to make a comeback remark but was too astonished to say anything. Cutie Pie and Epstein laughed as they watched Judy walk away, defeated. Once alone again, Epstein turned to Cutie Pie, impressed.

"What a rank, Susie! You've been learning from us Sweathogs."

She shrugged. "Learned from the best, I guess." The bell rang, and she gave him another kiss. "See you after class, Juan."

"Yeah, see you honey."

He strolled away, unable to remove the smile from his face. Headed to Gabe's classroom, he approached his friends in the hall with a cool strut. Vinnie was the first to greet him, smiling and laughing a little.

"Hey Epstein! Where's Cutie Pie? Thought she'd be with you."

"Walked her to class."

Vinnie looked at him, He stepped back, waved a finger at him and smirked. "Epstein, I know that look."

"What?" Epstein asked while smiling. "What look?"

"Come on, don't play dumb with me. I can always tell when you've got some." He leaned in closer and lowered his voice. "So, did you and Cutie Pie…"

"Yeah." He laughed a little. "Yeah we did. Just last night actually."

"Hey alright Epstein!" Vinnie wrapped an arm around Epstein's shoulders, and then got the attention of their classmates. "Hey everybody! Got an announcement. Turns out that our very own Epstein and Cutie Pie finally did the deed!"

The other guys, and some girls, gave out hoots, hollers and whistles. Freddie came over and gave Epstein low fives.

"Hey alright Epstein! Finally got some action!"

"Good job Little Juan!" Horshack added. "Maybe one day you can teach me how." He finished with a small laugh.

Freddie laughed. "Hey why don't you tell us how it was? Give us the details."

"Nah. No I ain't givin' no details." Epstein started to walk to the classroom. "Not this time." He smirked. "Wasn't like the other times." He stepped in the doorway. "Wasn't just sex." He smiled and then entered the classroom, leaving his friends baffled.

They followed him to talk about his time with Cutie Pie. But at that point, Gabe entered the room and made them all take their seats.

Gabe started class by announcing a test. To this, most of the students moaned and groaned, while Epstein remained smiling. This completely stunned Gabe, leaving him dumbfounded in his spot.

"What's this?" He asked, with a bit of a comical tone. "I announced a test coming up. And not only did Juan Epstein not complain or try to protest with some sort of excuse to get out of it, but he sat there smiling like it was the greatest news he ever heard." He moved over to Epstein's desk, suddenly suspicious. "Ok Epstein. Spill it."

"Spill what?"

"Don't play dumb. That's Vinnie's job. What did you do? There has to be some sort of colossal prank in the works, and you're clearly the mastermind behind it. I want to know what you're planning, Epstein."

"What?" He asked with an innocent laugh. "I ain't planin' nothin' Mr. Kotter. Can't a guy just be happy?"

"Not you. Not when I just announced a test coming up. So what gives?"

Vinnie smiled "Hey Epstein, why don't you tell him your news?"

"Vinnie, I ain't saying a word about it. Besides, you already know everything you need to know about it."

"Know about what?" Gabe asked, confused. "What is going on?"

"Mr. Kah-tare." Freddie said. "Our man Juan Epstein finally achieved something real big."

Gabe laughed and pointed a finger at Epstein. "You took a bath with nobody else in the bathroom!"

"Nah. Now come on! I already said I ain't talkin' about it."

"Talking about what?" Gabe asked, starting to get irritated.

Vinnie laughed. "Epstein and Cutie Pie got it on last night."

All at the same time, the other students went in an uproar of hoots and hollers, Epstein glared at Vinnie and Gabe appeared shocked over Vinnie's statement. It was clear by Gabe's expression that he had instantly regretted asking about Epstein's happy mood. He quickly quieted the class down and got their attention.

"Alright! Enough, enough. Clearly, I made the mistake of butting in again. I really did not need to know about the love lives of my students. Now let's settle down and act like a real class."

Epstein, still focused an "I'm going to kill you" glare at Vinnie. "That's one reason why I said no details. That was not your news to spread, especially to Mr. Kotter. Look, you've brought it all out into the open now. Let's just leave it at that." He looked at the other students. "Same goes for all of you!"

"Ok Juan, settle down now." Gabe said. "He's right, though. Let's get past this and start class. Everyone get out your text books."

Even though some students were still talking about Epstein's night with Cutie Pie, the class did manage to settle down and act like a civilized classroom of students. Epstein was glad that most of the talk about what happened had died down, even though he was proud of his news.

At the end of class, Epstein was last to leave, following his friends to the door. Gabe stopped him while the others went on ahead.

"I know this whole thing between you and your girlfriend is none of my business. I don't want it to be." Gabe said. "But I'm just curious. Normally with something like this, you're bragging about it. And I have to hear about it whether I want to or not. This time, you're wanting to keep it to yourself."

Epstein grinned. "Honest?" He shrugged a little. "This time is different. Susie, well she's a real special girl. So… I guess you can say this time really meant something to me."

"It meant something to you." Gabe grinned slightly. "You really care about her, don't you?"

Epstein nodded. "Yeah. She… she means everything to me. Let's just leave it at that." He smiled and headed out the door. "Mañana!"

"Mañana." Gabe chuckled. He realized that, for once, one of his students was maturing. And he couldn't have been prouder.

Epstein grunted as he pushed himself through sit-ups. Cutie Pie held his legs as she coached him to keep going. Normally, sit-ups wouldn't have been such a struggle for him, but he had already been doing other exercises before this. He was exhausted, coming near the end of his daily workout with Cutie Pie. Just like any day at this time, he was exhausted and beginning to whine about stopping. And just like every day at this point, Cutie Pie encouraged him to finish his workout.

"You've got this, Juan. Only one more exercise after this and then a cool down."

Epstein panted a little and pushed himself through the rest of the sit-ups. For several months now, he had been working hard to lose fifty pounds. Cutie Pie acted as his personal coach during his workouts, and kept him on track with his diet. He had lost almost twenty-five pounds so far but he still had some ways to go before he was back at his normal weight. Many times over the past several months, he wanted to give up, nearly giving into his temptations to go back to his emotional eating habits. But every time he almost slipped up, he thought about Cutie Pie and how disappointed she would be in him if he quit.

"Great job." She said. "One more."

He took a breath and pushed himself to sit up. As he sat up all the way, he moved in closer to steal a kiss. He laughed, seeing her brief look of surprise.

"You always fall for that, Susie. How do you not see it coming by now?"

"Maybe I do." She blushed.

"Right."

He laughed a little as he stood up. He grabbed his water glass and took a drink before walking across the room to his closet. Inside the closet he had installed a bar going across the top for pull-up exercises. He rubbed his hands together and then grabbed the bar, pulling himself up.

"Juan, tomorrow we should do something different."

"Yeah?" He grunted as he pulled himself up, placing his chin over the bar. "How so?"

"We should do your favorite."

"Sex?" He smirked.

She laughed. "No! We should go for a run."

He cringed. "Aw come on! You know I hate that!"

"Well I also know you'd hate it even more if you were still twenty-five pounds heavier."

Epstein lowered himself with a small sigh. "Yeah, yeah. Fine. We'll go for a run. But on one condition." He pulled himself up. "Sex later on after the run. If I ain't dead that is."

She giggled "Juan!" He smirked at her. "Alright fine. You win."

"Hey. It is good exercise, y'know." He laughed and continued with his pull-ups.