Kissing Karen Brewer became a regular occurrence when ever we played one of her games of pretend. It became less about "Let's All Come In" and more about "Weddings", one of her newer crazes. The first time we ever "got married", was before Mom and Watson's wedding. It had been Kristy's Idea, as a way of helping us all to understand what was happening between Mom and my new Step-father. Karen was the bride and I was the groom.

But at nine and ten, we were older than that by the time the kissing started. We would play the game, pretending to be the bride and groom and we would go off on our "Honeymoon" in Karen's room. Her bed was fit for a princess, fitted with pink and white lace covers.

She would push me down onto the bed and lay beside me, kissing my lips. I decided to try what I had seen Sam do to his girlfriend, Stacey. I put my hand on her waiste and moved it around touching her stomach. Karen was putting her fingers through my hair. Then like Sam did to Stacey I moved my hands up to her chest. Where were the bump? Stacey had bumps. Even Kristy had bumps, but Karen didn't seem to have them. I decided to pull the strap of her "Wedding Dress" down her shoulder so the front of it would hopefully reveal the missing bumps, but before I could look to see if they were there, I felt my face jolt. My cheek burned from where Karen had slapped me.

"What did I do?" I asked in shock. Karen was now sitting on the end of the bed, fixing her dress. "Where are your bumps, Karen?"

"GET OUT!" She screamed. She was pointing at the door, yelling "GET OUT! GET OUT! GET! OUT!"

"But –," I began. I was confused. "Karen, please don't be mad!"

My pleas fell on deaf ears. "OUT! I'm divorcing you!"

"But we're not really married," I protested.

"FINE!" I was barely on my feet and Karen was pushing me towards the door. When I was across the threshold, Karen slammed the door, yelling, "Game over!"

Embarrassed, I scurried off to my room, closing the door behind me. I flopped on the bed and sulked there for the rest of the day.

The next day, Karen would go back to the "little house" and I wouldn't see her for two weeks. I hoped she wouldn't be still mad and two weeks time. The day Karen and Andrew were dropped off by their mother, Karen looked at me sheepishly. Her blue eyes were large and round behind her pink framed glasses. She in fact looked a little scared.

"Karen, come with me," I pleaded. She followed me up the stairs to my bedroom, which was quite as pretty as hers. "Karen, I'm so sorry I mad you mad. I don't know what I did wrong. I was copying Sam and Stacey."

"It's okay David Michael. I'm sorry I yelled at you." She replied. Then she hugged me tight. I was shocked, but relieved that she wasn't mad anymore. I wrapped my arms around her in a hug.

Then she kissed me. This time I was careful not to touch her. I knew it made her mad for a reason I didn't know.

"Karen, please don't be mad, but where are your bumps?" Karen looked at me like she was going to slap me again but her expression changed.

"I don't have any yet, silly!" She giggled nervously and I joined in. Soon we were in a fit of laughter.

"I can't believe you went looking for my bumps." She laughed even harder at this.

"I can't believe you slapped me and told me we were divorced."

"Well aren't we silly!" She exclaimed.