Chapter 10

After spending the rest of the morning on snowmobile, the group had decided that Billy should give Margie the night off and they would fend for themselves. They spent an hour grocery shopping and after much discussion, had decided that between the five of them, they could fix a simple meal of pasta and salad. They got all the stuff they would need for dinner and headed back to the house.

Since it was too early to start dinner, Kimberly decided on a board game. She was just rounding up her friends when once again, they were missing Jason and Trini. "Okay, if those two went running again…"

Billy frowned, "I'm sure they are around somewhere."

"Come here," Zack said quietly as he stood looking out the window.

With the snowfall last night, there was no green left in sight. The front lawn was completely covered in a blanket of snow. And running around in that blanket of snow having a snowball fight were two young adults, both dressed simply in sweaters, jeans, and boots. Their jubilant laughter carried back toward the house and to the trio who were watching them indulgently.

"Well, at lest we have found our missing friends," smiled Billy. "They really do look happy, don't they?"

"Yeah," agreed Kim with a serene smile.

"That's how they were during that year in Switzerland. They were totally devoted to each other. There were plenty of people who tried to come between them, but they were so engrossed with each other, half the time, they didn't even notice." Zack said in a low voice, then with a thoughtful look on his face, "You know what? I think I'm going to go take a nap. All that sitting on my ass all morning had tired me out."

Kimberly frowned, and then she smiled, "me too. I'm going to go to my room and take a nap before dinner."

"Guys?"

Linking her arm with Billy's, Kim gave him a gentle tug, "I think you should go take a nap also."

"I don't understand—"

Zack came up to his other side, "they don't need us."

Outside Jason was still chasing Trini around the tall pine trees, pelting her with snowballs. Trini took refuge behind an ornamental rock and gathered her ammunitions, returning fire just as rapidly. Jason tried to take cover but was not quick enough. A gigantic snowball pounded him in the back, followed quickly by a succession of compact snowballs. Jason lost his footing and landed on the snow, out of breath, but laughing uproariously. Trini peeked out from behind her rock, "I told you I would get you back."

Jason sat up, not caring that he was all wet, "yes, you did, and Trini Kwan never breaks her promise."

Trini grinned and walked over to Jason, offering her hand to help him up, "maybe you should go in and dry off a little, and we should probably go see what the others are doing."

Jason reached over and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, "I really don't care what they are doing."

"Jason!"

Jason sighed, "okay," then quickly he leaned over and kissed her. He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her to his side, "Now I am good. Let's go see what those clowns are up to."

Trini smiled and the two walked inside just to find a house in complete silence, "where did they go?"

Jason shrugged, "I'll go check upstairs."

While Jason jogged up the stairs, Trini looked into the game room and kitchen just to make sure the others were not there. Jason came back down in less than a minute, "They are all sleeping."

"What?"

Jason ran his hand across the back of his neck, "Weird, huh? But that's what they are all doing. I guess maybe they are taking a nap since there isn't much to do? How about you? Are you tired? Do you want to take a nap also or we could watch TV."

"No, don't really want to do either." Trini looked outside, "I want to go back out and build a snowman, wanna come?"

"You are such a snow baby," Jason said affectionately, "Come on."

When Kim looked outside a couple of hours later, it was to find Trini in the process of placing a carrot on the face of the snowman that was as tall as she was. Jason had several branches in his hand and was trying to decide which ones to use for the arms. The snowman was already wearing a scarf and a red beanie was sitting proudly on top of it round head. It was a gorgeous snowman, standing proud and strong in the blistering cold. Jason and Trini had obviously did a great job packing the base to make the snowman, but what really made Kim smiled was watching the blissful smiles on their faces and hearing the joyous laughter drifting in from the outside.

**

Five grownup all crowded into the kitchen trying to make dinner may be a bit much, but they were having so much fun that no one cares if they kept getting into each others way. Jason was heating up the sauce, Trini was draining the pasta, Kim was cutting up tomato slices for the salad, and Zack was poking his head into the refrigerator trying to decide whether to use Ranch or French dressing. Billy was removing a tray of biscuits from the oven when Jason said something to Trini in Chinese.

"Hey, you guys better not be talking about us." Kim warned, waving the knife in her hand.

"Sorry, it's a word that only make sense in Chinese." Jason apologized.

Zack had finally decided to put both bottles of salad dressing on the table and started pulling out plates and utensils. Looking over at Jason with a mischievous smile, "oh, really? And you would know, right Jason? It's not like you have ever made a mistake. Hey, anyone heard from Chow and Li? Remember them, Jason? Those two foreign exchange students from China? I hope you haven't forgotten what poor Billy had gone through because of you and your translation skills?"

"Oh, my God!" Billy groaned, Jason looked embarrassed while Trini and Kimberly burst into a fit of uncontrollable giggles.

~flashback~

May, 1996

Angel Grove High

Jason was sitting in the cafeteria with Zack talking about the birthday party that they were planning for Billy when the two foreign exchange students Chow and Li stopped by and asked to share their table.

Jason invited them to sit down and then continued his conversation with Zack, "Anyway, Trini is making the banner and Kim is asking her mom to help bake the cake. You and I are in charge of the music and making sure Billy doesn't skip out on his own party."

Chow and Li stopped eating their sandwiches and asked excitedly, "Billy's is having a birthday?"

"That's right. It's actually next Monday, but we plan on having a party for him this Saturday night at Ernie's." Knowing that they were friends with Billy, Jason felt sure the yet-to-be birthday boy would like them to be there, "would you guys like to come?"

"Oh, you are inviting us?" Li asked eagerly.

"Of course, all friends of Billy's are welcome to come." Said Zack.

"Billy has been so helpful, helping us with our homework and lending us his notes. He is so smart. I think he knows more than our Science teacher." Chow said and then turned to Li, "Hey, we should get him a really good birthday present to repay him for always helping us." Then the two broke into their own language and started conversing in Chinese. Jason, after years of Saturday classes could understand most of what they were saying.

**Translation

"Let's get him something he never had before."

"Like what?"

"Hmmm…something no one else would get him."

"What, dude?"

An impish grin, "I was thinking like…chicken."

"I don't know, they are kind of expensive and you know, we could get into trouble."

End translation **

Jason frowned, their conversation was a bit weird, but those two always did give off that weird vibe. "Billy likes chicken."

"What?" Chow swung around.

"Oh, sorry, didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I speak a little Chinese and couldn't help myself." Jason apologized.

"Oh," Chow and Li looked back and forth at each other. Then, Chow asked, 'you think Billy would like to have a chicken for a birthday present? I mean we are not really sure, and we really don't want to offend him. But you and Zack are like his best friends, right? You guys know him well. Do you think it will make him happy if we send him a…chicken?"

"Sure, Billy and us are like brothers." Zack jumped in all hyped up about the party, "and I know Billy loves chicken. Oh be sure to get him white meat, he loves chicken breasts."

Chow and Li grinned like a couple of naughty kids, "Cool!"

Li then shook his head, "Man, I'm not sure if we have enough money though."

Jason's brow furrowed, "How much money do you need to get a chicken?"

"Well, we don't want any diseased chicken. We certainly don't want to just grab one off any street corner," said Chow, looking all serious and thoughtful.

"And we don't want an old chicken or an ugly chicken," chimed in Li.

"We want to get him a nice, clean chicken from…a nice, clean place, and that isn't cheap."

Zack looked at the foreign students like they were from Jupiter, "Yeah, definitely no ugly chicken."

Jason shrugged, these boys sure were weird, "maybe Zack and I can throw in a few dollars, how much do you need?"

Chow shrugged, "Not sure, it's not like we do this all the time you know. I suppose we can get a decent one for a hundred dollars. I can put up forty-five," turning to Li, "how much do you have?"

Li pulled out his wallet and counted out forty-two dollars. "Okay, that's eighty-seven dollars. Can you two put up thirteen dollars?"

Zack was stunned, "A hundred dollars? That's awfully expensive. It's not one of those exotic chickens from the Orient, is it?"

Chow shook his head, "No, of course not, you said he likes white meat, this is a domestic chicken."

Jason rubbed his face. He had a feeling that he was missing a vital piece of information, but he couldn't figure out what it was. Chow and Li were just a couple of harmless kids, so maybe they have weird and expensive taste in chicken, but that's not a crime. After all Billy only turns sixteen once, and he did offer to help put in the difference, " Zack and I can come up with the other thirteen dollars. I'm sure Billy will be very thankful of his…unusual present."

~End flashback~

By now, Trini and Kimberly were huddled together, laughing so hard that the counter they were leaning on was probably the only thing that was holding them up. "I can't believe Billy's first sexual experience was with a hooker because Jason messed up on the translation."

"And I can't believe Jason and Zack helped to pay for it," added Trini.

A red-faced Jason stammered, "How…how was I do know there were more than one meaning for the word? Remember, Trini? Ms. Yu only told us that 'gai' means chicken."

Kimberly continued to laugh almost hysterically, "at least they understood Zack well enough to get him 'white meat' with a great pair of breasts, double Ds, I believe."

Zack managed to control his laughter and pointed out, "Well, our boy genius there didn't return his gift, did he?"

Now it was Billy's turn to be all red-faced and lost for words, "I…I didn't know she was a…I…I tried to, but she wouldn't leave."

Kimberly continued to smirk, "So she was a take charge kind of chicken?"

"She…it would be rude and…oh God." Billy dropped the biscuits on the counter and quickly left the kitchen.

Jason turned the two girls who were still laughing loudly, "Oh, so now you two think it's funny. At the time, it was like we committed all seven of the seven sins." Jason shook his head. "Trini read me the riot act and even threatened to tell my mom, something about luring an innocent boy into debauchery."

"You hired a hooker!" replied Trini indignantly. "Prostitution is illegal is all fifty states."

"I didn't hire anybody! I thought we were buying a chicken! You know I wouldn't have let them do it had I known what they were really saying."

"You didn't think a hundred dollars for a chicken was kind of odd?" challenged Trini.

"Of course I did. But it was Chow and Li, they were the oddest of all oddballs."

"Hey, you guys never did tell us how you girls found out. I know Jason and I never dared to even breathe one word about it," interrupted Zack. Jason and Trini were still taking tentative baby steps, a little bickering was fine, but a knocked down, drag out fight at this point would be a huge set back.

Kimberly wrinkled her nose in distaste, "it was Billy. He was acting all moony eyed afterwards. You two were acting all secretive and guilty and shit, so I knew something must have been up."

"Billy just came out and confessed?"

"No, but then Chow and Li came bouncing around and they were having all these secret chats with Billy, and that boy looked as remorseful as hell. So, I started badgering him to tell me what happened. You know Billy, lying isn't exactly his strength. He kept repeating: I can't tell you, I can't tell you and Oh God, Oh God, I'm a reprobate, which I had to ask Trini for the explanation. But I didn't give up and I just followed him everywhere until he broke down and revealed his big, dirty secret." Kim said with a pleased smile. "Oh, and it was hilarious when Trini just marched right up to him and demanded that he goes to the clinic for the HIV test."

Jason grinned salaciously, "we were promised a disease free chicken."

Trini gave him a dirty look, and Jason caved. "Alright, I'm sorry. I really did feel bad about the whole thing for a long time, but that was years ago. And Billy wasn't traumatized or anything. I can't spend the rest of my life apologizing over something that was lost in translation. Yeah, we screwed up, but come on, Tri, you do know that Billy could have just said no."

"Billy didn't know she was a prostitute until afterwards. He was a sixteen year old boy with his hormones going all over the place, and a pretty girl just threw herself at him." Trini shook her head, "I know we were laughing just now, but I actually am still grossed out over the whole thing."

Jason smiled apologetically, "Sorry. Never again, I promise."

Zack nodded his head, "Right, never again. Now, girls, while you two are sitting on you high horses, I just want to remind you ladies that Jason and I helped to get him a gift which I'm certain Billy had fun opening and enjoyed playing with. What did you two get him, aside from a HIV test?"

**