A/N: Hey, everyone! This chapter is extra-long… I think. The date day has finally arrived. Tristain is in this one. Barely. But, I thought I needed to add him so that he could see Serenity or something. I'm sure you were all wondering, "Why is Joey and Mai's date exactly when and where Duke and Serenity's is? Was that a mistake?" Well no, it wasn't and everything will become clearer in this chapter.

Enjoy, and please review!

~ ^ . ^ ~

Chapter four

TOMORROW...

It was sunny and warm. Everything was dry and pleasant. All the squirrels were jumping on the grass and the flowers were opening. The streets were full and busy.

Joey got up at eight AM. He didn't want to be late for his date. He slipped on his new pair of jeans and his casual light-blue t-shirt. He didn't want to look too professional. He brushed his hair and his teeth. For the first time, he wasn't hungry… Maybe it was because he was nervous. Joey had never been with Mai for a long time straight. Maybe it was all getting to him. Being alone with her... Talking to her... What was he going to say? Joey suddenly realised he hadn't prepared what he was going to say to Mai. He was such a bad conversation starter. Joey sat down to think.

Its fine he thought. I will just wing it. He made his way to the front door of the house. He would think of everything on the way to Town Square. Joey took the long-way down the road. He was still early after all, his date only started at ten.

~ ^ . ^ ~

Serenity woke up. It was half past eight. She got out of bed and made her way down the stairs. As she did so, so passed Joey's room. "I think I should go in and tell Joey that I will go on my date in an hour or so.'' she thought.

'' Joey? "she whispered.

No Answer.

"Joey?" she called one more time before entering his room. It was empty except for the desk that filled the gap between his bed and his cupboard, the bookshelf that was pressed up tightly against the wall and the little drawer beside it. Serenity peered in. Joey wasn't sleeping in his bed and it was strange because the bed was actually MADE! It wasn't like Joey to wake up before nine on a Saturday, needless to say make his bed.

Serenity went down to the kitchen. Her mom was busy mixing something in the bowl.

"Mom?" Serenity asked. "Do you know where Joey is?"

Her mom stopped mixing. "You mean he isn't in his room?" She asked curiously.

Serenity just shook her head. Her mom starred at her. "That's strange. It's a Saturday and it is only passed half past eight."

Serenity nodded. "He even made his bed. "She said softly. Her mother's expression changed from a curious look to a look with wide eyes and mouth open.

"Maybe he went somewhere... Special "she said. "I'm sure he will be back by twelve" she said certainly.

"Ok" Serenity said." I'm going to go and get ready for my date"

"Have fun" her mother called as Serenity made her way up the stairs to brush her teeth and put on her clothes. "I will" She called back. In a few minutes she was on her way. She took the short- cut and didn't want to be late for her first date with Duke. She ran past the stores and made her way to the big clock in the Town Square. She saw someone standing there... "Hi Mai!" she said.

Mai looked around. "Oh hey Serenity! "She called back to her.

Serenity made her way over to where Mai was standing.

"What brings you here?" Mai asked her.

"Oh..." Serenity began. "I am waiting for Duke."

"Duke?" Mai asked puzzled. "Why?"

"We're going on a date and he told me to wait here for him at ten AM."

Mai was astonished.

"Only, I wanted to be here early." she added shyly.

"That's strange." Mai said. "I'm waiting here for Joey. We are going on a date too."

Serenity's mouth dropped! "WHAT?!" she began. "Joey didn't tell me you guys were going on a date. I told him Duke and I were going on a date. That's strange..."

"Maybe he is too shy to tell you." Mai said.

"Maybe..." Serenity thought. "Ummmm... Mai?" She asked. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure thing sweetie..." Mai answered.

"Do you like Joey?" Serenity asked her.

Mai thought for a moment... "Well, he is pretty annoying sometimes but he can be charming if he wants to." Mai paused. "He's very sweet."

"YES!" Serenity cried happily.

"Hmmm?" Mai asked. "What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing." Serenity replied. " It's just that yesterday I asked Joey if he likes you and he said he does and that I'm not allowed to tell you... OOPPPSS!"

Mai giggled. "Don't worry. I won't let him know that you told me. "

"Thanks Mai." Serenity replied. " I can't believe that we are going to the same place at the same time and day!" Serenity said cheerfully. S

Suddenly, Duke and Joey appeared.

"Hey guys!" Serenity called.

"Hey..." Duke cried out.

"WHAT?! SERENITY?!" Joey sounded shocked. "DUKE?!" This was too much for him.

"Hi Joey!" Serenity called.

Joey almost fainted. What was Serenity doing here? And Duke?!

"Isn't this great Joey?" Serenity began. "Apparently, both of our dates were at the same place, time and day! I had no idea you and Mai were dating! How long have you two been going out for?"

"SERENITY!" Joey was still shocked.

Mai giggled.

Duke too was puzzled. "Well, let's go now Serenity." He finally said.

"Oh come on you guys!" Serenity said happily. "We could have a double date!

Duke, Joey and Mai all looked at each other.

"I don't think that's such a good idea Ser..." Mai began...

"But it's a brilliant idea..." Serenity said cheerfully. "Oh please guys!" She begged.

"FINE!" Joey gave in.

"WHAT?!" Duke asked him.

"Have a heart Duke." Joey told him. "Poor Serenity."

Duke looked at Serenity. Her eyes were welled up with tears and her eyes were SUPER big and SOFT.

"Fine... "Duke sighed.

"THANKS GUYS!" Serenity threw her hands up! "This is going to be great!"

"Wouldn't it be kind of weird to be crowded with everyone?"Mai looked at Serenity. "I'm sure you wanted to be alone with Duke Right?"

"Yes..." Serenity blushed a little.

"Exactly…" Mai said. "And I want to be alone with Joey..."

Mai's words made Joey's stomach turn... Being alone with Mai?! Joey went bright red.

Serenity giggled... "HA HA! He's embarrassed..." she said pointing to Joey. Everyone laughed.

"But I want to go with you guys because it will be fun. Just this one time." Serenity proposed. "Promise..." She said.

"Alright..." They all said with a sigh. "Let's go."

~ ^ . ^ ~

They made their way down the street opposite the Town Square. Neither of them said much. Serenity stood in between Joey and Duke. Mai stood next to Joey. When they walked over the road Serenity broke the silence.

"Who here has seen the new movie, 'Under the Fig Tree?" Serenity asked. (Sorry, I had to think of a random movie.)

"I love that movie!" Duke said. "It's so dramatic."

"Yeah..." Serenity agreed. "I heard Under the Fig tree two is coming out soon."

"Maybe we could go and watch it together sometime. "Duke said to Serenity.

Serenity blushed a litter. "Yeah... Maybe." She said.

"I'm starving!" Joey said with a loud groan. "Can't we eat?!"

"That's a really random outburst coming from you Joey..." Mai commented. "We've only been walking for twenty minutes. Didn't you have breakfast?"

"No..."Joey said embarrassed.

Serenity laughed. "He was probably too nervous to eat!"

Joey's face went bright red. "I was not!" he yelled!

Mai giggled. She thought it was funny when Joey freaked out.

"Let's go to this restaurant..." Duke said and pointed at a restaurant called Bonnie's Breakfast Bar.

"NO!" Serenity said. "Isn't a bar a place where you drink beer and alcohol?!"

"No Serenity!" Duke said. "It's a fancy thing..."

"Well I would never name my restraint after a liquor store..." Serenity muttered under her breath.

"Great." said Mai. "Let's go in."

They all walked in the restaurant. The walls were dusty and they were covered with old photographs. The wallpaper that was stuck on the walls were peeling off. Only the tiles on the floor were clean and presentable. Everyone just looked around.

"I don't like this place!" Serenity finally burst out.

"You can't be picky..." Joey said.

"Leave her" said Duke. "I don't like this place either."

Serenity moved closer to duke. She held his arm. "You'll keep me safe..." she said and looked at him.

Duke looked back at Serenity. Their eyes connected and Duke went bright red. Luckily, no-one noticed.

"You guys go and sit over there." Mai said pointing at a table. "I'll go and order the food over here." Mai walked towards the counter where you order the food.

Joey, Serenity and Duke went to go and sit at the table at the far end of the room. They sat near an open window. Joey sat at one side of the table. There were four seats at the table- two on the one side and two on the opposite side. Duke and Serenity sat opposite Joey.

A few moments later... Mai came and joined them. She sat next to Joey.

"The waiter will bring our food in five minutes." Mai said. "We'll just have to be a little patient."

They waited, and waited and waited. Then finally, the waiter came to deliver them their food. Mai reached out to help the waiter place all the plates on the table. "Thank you." she said. The waiter bowed to accept her thank-you and then walked off. Mai handed everyone their food. "We all get the same thing to eat..." she said.

Joey stared down at his plate. He looked at the slightly burned toast that lay there in his plate and the freshly scrambled eggs with bacon. He quickly picked up his knife and fork. "Thanks Mai..." he said and began to eat away. Serenity reached out for the plate in the middle of the table and removed the little cube of butter from it. She picked up her knife and began to spread the butter all over her toast.

~ ^ . ^ ~

About twenty minutes later, they had all finished their food. The waiter came over and gave Joey the bill. Joey was shocked.

"What!?" he said, surprised. "I don't have that kind of money!" he stared at the bill. "One hundred and thirty-five dollars!" Are they out of their minds?!" He thought as the waiter left the table to get a pen.

Serenity looked up and noticed the shocked expression on Joey's face. "What's wrong big brother?" she asked.

Joey was speechless. "Look at the bill." He said shoving the piece of paper into his little sister's face.

Serenity gasped as she scanned the page. "How are we going to pay this?" she whispered to Mai. Mai looked wide-eyed at the paper but she soon came up with a solution. What if we all put our money together?" she began. "Maybe then we can pay the bill."

Suddenly, Duke cried out, "I HAVE FOURTY DOLLARS!" he said and quickly dove his hand into the pockets of his jeans. He pulled out two crumpled twenty dollar notes and laid them on the table. Mai smiled gratefully at him.

"I have thirty-five dollars!" Serenity said. She dug into her bag and gathered up a twenty dollar note and a couple of loose coins.

"Great!" Mai said.

Together, they began putting their money together and they did quite a job of it.

"NO!" Joey sighed! "We're six dollars short!"

Duke, Serenity, Joey and Mai, all began to panic. What were they going to do!?

Mai saw their waiter approaching. "Sorry." she said to him. "We will be ready to pay in no time. Just wait a little bit...PLEASE." The waiter glared at the smiling lady who was sitting in her chair.

"No!" he answered. "You need to pay now!"

"PLEASE!" the four friends chanted at the same time.

The waiter stood there and stared at them.

"Oh please!?" Mai asked him. "Just do us this one favour." She got up from where she was sitting. "Do it for me..." she corrected herself. Mai leaned in a little closer to the waiter. He was blushing now.

"Please...?" Serenity added. "Have a heart..?"

The waiter blushed even more. "Sure." he said. "Anything..." He quickly scooted away.

Mai sat back down and smiled at Joey.

Joey blushed. Serenity giggled.

Mai sighed. "What are we going to do?"

Duke quickly shouted out..." Why don't you just bribe the waiter to let this one time slide so then we don't have to pay?" He laughed. "Like you did just now..."

"NO!" Joey shouted quickly. There was no way Joey wanted to let Mai FLIRT with another guy.

"OK!" Duke said. "I was just having some fun. Chill out!" He stared at Joey.

"Well, what are we going to do now?" Serenity asked, her arms crossed. She looked at Duke.

"Mm..." Mai began.

Joey looked down at the table. Then he stared down at his feet. "Oh! I just remembered." he said. Everyone looked at him. Joey smiled at them and then bent down under the table. Mai, Duke and Serenity all looked under the table as well.

"Joey, what are you doing?" Mai stared blankly at him.

Joey grabbed hold of his shoe and pulled it off.

"EEEWWW!" screamed the other three.

Serenity pinched her nose. "Joey that really STINKS!" she began. "Put your shoe back on." Mai and Duke laughed. Joey glared at his sister. "Stop being such a drama queen." he said.

"I just remembered that I kept a ten dollar note in my shoe." he said. He put his fingers in his shoe and tried to fish out the ten dollars. "Got it!" he said. "You're a lifesaver Joey!" Mai said, giving him a big hug. "Thank you."

Joey couldn't help but blush. He just loved being held by her. Being in her comfort zone. It made his heart pound. It felt good. Pity it only lasted a few seconds.

Mai sat down. Serenity giggled and pointed at Joey. "CUTE!" she said. "You made him blush, Mai!" Serenity thought it was adorable and worth getting all giggly for.

Joey looked angrily at her.

Duke nudged Serenity. "You're upsetting him..." he whispered. Serenity looked at Joey's angry face and quickly stopped having a laugh-attack! "Thanks Duke." she whispered to him.

Duke smiled. "No problem."

The waiter came back and Joey handed him the ten dollar note. "You can keep the change." he said. The four friends finally left the horrible restaurant and headed down the street. Neither of them knew where they were going to go and they didn't talk much, well except Serenity of course who giggled randomly every now and then.

"Where should we go now?" Serenity asked.

"I don't know." Mai replied. "Where do you want to go Joey?"

"Anywhere. I don't mind." Joey said with a sigh. "I'm just tired."

"JOEY?!" Mai laughed.

"Hey." Duke began. "There's a place we could go." he said, pointing at a small field which was covered in little markets.

"It's a flea market." he said.

"But we don't have any money!" Serenity said.

"I know." said Duke. "But we can still browse around. It will be fun."

Joey and Mai smiled. "OK." They both agreed. "Let's go."

They all began to walk up to the market.

"Where should we start?" Serenity asked. She looked nervously around.

"Over there." Duke pointed to the a little stand which was just a long piece of board as a table top and two boxes on either side holding it up. Behind the counter was an old man with an ugly, wrinkly face, one tooth and a long, white, tangled beard. He only wore a little hat on his half- bald head and ripped clothes. Without shoes.

"Ummmm..." Serenity shuddered. "His stall doesn't look too inviting..."

"No thanks." said Mai.

"Come on guys!" Joey said. "He's selling pizza!"

"I love pizza!" Serenity joined in.

"We don't have any money, remember?" Mai reminded them.

"But Mai!" Joey said, almost in tears. "They're covered in PEPERONI!"

Duke was surprised. "I LOVE PEPERRONI!"

Mai sighed. "Guys! No pizza! "Mai grabbed each Duke and Joey by the arms and began pulling them away."Come on Serenity." Mai said. "You should be lady- like enough not to be silly over pizza!" Serenity followed after Mai sadly.

They all then came across a good looking stall with a lovely looking lady. She was quite young. She was very happy. "Oh hello." the lady said cheerfully. "Would you care to purchase some jewellery?" she said pointing to her display of lovely necklaces and bracelets, earrings and pretty much everything else that you would find in a jewellery shop. "Or would you like to buy some ties and shoe polish?" she asked looking at Duke and Joey.

"Oh we don't have any money." Serenity replied. "We're just browsing."

A frown began to grow on the lady's face. "THEN GO! LEAVE! YOUR'E NOT WANTED HERE! I DON'T WANT YOUR MONEY! She shouted. The four friends quickly ran away.

"Wow." Mai gasped. "She sure has a short temper."

They stopped at a nearby stall and then they saw...

TRISTAIN!

They all cried out! He was standing in front of a fish stall, looking at all the tanks with goldfish. "Hey guys." he replied. "What are you doing here Serenity?" Tristan asked.

"Oh, I'm on my date with Duke." She replied looking in Duke's direction.

"Oh..." Tristan said with a dull tone in his voice. I guess it is because he was jealous. "So then what on Earth is Mai and Joey with you guys?"

"Well On Wednesday evening Duke called me to ask me on a date and I said yes and then on Thursday the next morning he apparently told you guys, according to Joey and then somewhere along the line Mai and Joey were going on a date AT THE SAME TIME, DAY AND PLACE as Duke and I so we all just decided to DOUBLE DATE!" Serenity said joyfully.

"Actually." Joey started "Serenity forced..." But he didn't get to finish.

"Oh... Then why are you guys here? Shouldn't you be somewhere more...? I don't know... SPECIAL like the carnival on the other side of the flea market?" Tristan questioned.

"There's a carnival?" Mai asked surprised.

"YEP!" Tristain nodded. "And a huge Ferris wheel too!"

"Oh, I don't do Ferris wheels..." Joey said. "So, no thanks."

"Why?" Serenity asked with a smirk. "Are you afraid of heights?!"

Joey held a fist at Serenity as a warning. She knew exactly what it meant. She stopped laughing and quickly walked towards Duke.

"Maybe we can all go to the carnival tomorrow." Mai suggested. "It would be fun."

"Yeah!" Serenity agreed. "We could double date again!"

"OK." Duke replied. "And we should each bring money tomorrow."

Joey groaned. He didn't want to go on ANOTHER double date. Not with SERENITY! But, everyone wanted to go on another double date so, he was out-matched.

"Yeah!" Tristain said delightfully. "Maybe I can come too!"

"Umm. Ha! NO!" Duke said with a chuckle.

"Aww." Tristain moaned. "Come on!"

"Maybe you can come with us some other time." Mai said.

"Yeah!" Everyone agreed. But they all knew perfectly well that it meant never!

"Alright." Tristain agreed.

The other four all smiled at each other. It was half past twelve now and Joey was hungry.

"Guys." he said to them. "I'm starving!"

Everyone looked at him.

"JOEY!" They all screamed. "YOUR'E ALWAYS HUNGRY!?"

"We don't have money to buy food anyway." Mai informed him.

Joey moaned.

Suddenly, Tristain smiled at him. "Here you go, Joey!" he said and handed him a mini pie. "I bought it earlier. You can have it if you want."

"THANK YOU BUDDY!" Joey cried. "You're the best!"

"I know!" He said and patted Joey on the shoulder. "What would you do without me?"

"How conceited..." Mai thought. "Anyway... We'd better get going now, it's almost lunch time and I'm sure our parents are waiting for us. BYE!"

"Bye! "Everyone called out to Tristain as they all walked off.

"Bye-bye! "Tristain waved at them.

~ ^ . ^ ~

The date was over. Everyone was home and they were all happy.

~ ^ . ^ ~

A/N: So, this is the end of chapter four! Chapter five will come up real soon, and I know they're rude to Tristain… But, anyway. And no, I've never been on a date before, so I don't know what it's really like. Anyway, please review!