Gordo hung up the phone and said aloud to no one "That's just great eight more weeks of summer vacation and Lizzie's grounded for the whole time. Miranda won't be back from Mexico City for another six weeks and I'm stuck here home alone the whole time with nothing to do" What really frustrated him so much was that there was no one for him to talk to about the kiss Lizzie gave him on their last night in Rome. The fact that when Lizzie kissed him and all he did was say thanks wasn't the problem. What bothered him was the kiss felt the same as when he kissed a girl last summer at Camp Edison, which was a performing arts summer camp, when he had the lead role in a romance play. Just like then there was no fireworks, no energy, no cosmic connection, none of those things that Gordo felt sure he would feel when he finally kissed Lizzie.

As the day wore on he became more and more anxious to talk with somebody about it. It wasn't even lunch time and yet he felt as if he was going to explode. He had considered calling Lizzie again but this was not something he wanted to talk about with her, especially not on the phone. So he went over his options. Lizzie was definitely out, Miranda was unavailable, his parents would be just as unhelpful as ever so that left Ethan Craft as the only other person he could talk with. Gordo had finally realized that when it came to sports, shop and people Ethan was pretty smart. In fact when it came to those things Ethan was a lot smarter than he was. Gordo had just dismissed Ethan as dumb for two reasons the first was because Ethan wasn't smart about the same things he was and mostly because Lizzie, Miranda and just about every other girl in school had a thing for him. When they had shared a room on the trip to Rome Gordo had, due to his prejudice, pretty much dismissed just about everything Ethan said to him before he even said it. Now looking back on what Ethan had told him Gordo saw that Ethan had been correct about most of what was going on. So Gordo picked up the phone and dialed Ethan's number.

"Hello." Ethan answered the phone.

"Hi Ethan this is Gordo."

"Gordo my man, what's up bro?"

Gordo got right to the point and said "I've got something I want to ask you but not over the phone. So how about we meet at the Digital Bean in a half hour?"

Ethan paused before answering "Make it the malt shop and I'll buy ok."

Forty five minutes later they were seated in a booth at the malt shop with a chocolate malt for Gordo and a strawberry shake and a banana split for Ethan.

"So what did you want to ask me" Ethan said between mouthfuls of his banana split.

Gordo took a big drink from his malt before saying "First I have to tell you what happened on mine and Lizzie's last night in Rome."

"Dude, I was wondering about that because you two had to leave a few days before the rest of us did. By the way did you know that me and Kate almost got kicked off the trip also. But Lizzie's mom and dad talked to Ms. Ungermeyer and she changed her mind about it. I wonder what they said to her?"

Gordo was surprised to hear that. "Sorry I didn't know that. Well any how on our last night me and Lizzie managed to sneak away from everything to get a few minutes along on the roof top. While we were up there Lizzie kissed me."

"WAY TO GO Gordo!" Ethan exclaimed exuberantly while putting out his hand to high five him.

Gordo was a little embarrassed by the outburst yet he also felt good about being treated like one of the guys, which surprised him since he had never been concerned about that before. He returned the High five the went on "The problem is that when Lizzie kissed me I didn't feel anything. I always imagined that I would at least feel something the first time we kissed but I didn't feel a thing. What's up with that? Do you think that some thing's wrong with me? Or maybe that I might be ..." Gordo's voice trailed off not wanting to finish what he was saying.

Ethan thought for a second then said "Did you return the kiss?"

"What do you mean by that?" Gordo said in a puzzled tone.

"When Lizzie kissed you did you kiss her back while she was kissing you? Ethan replied emphasizing the last part.

"No." Gordo answered as he shook his head slightly.

"That's why you didn't feel anything. You don't get anything out of a kiss if you don't put anything into it. Dude the next time you see Lizzie kiss her and I bet you'll feel something. In fact I bet that she'll return the kiss and both of you will feel a lot more than something."

On the first day of High School Gordo asked his dad to give him a ride to school so he could get there early. He was waiting and watching as Lizzie and Miranda stepped off the bus. He met up with them before they got 20 feet from the bus. Gordo didn't say anything he just took Lizzie in his arms and kissed her. Less than a heartbeat later Lizzie returned the kiss and Gordo definitely felt something. What he felt was far better than his wildest dreams and he never wanted it to end.