Aha, FINALLY! I HAVE ARRIVED WITH ANOTHER CHAPTER! XD I'm sorry it took a while, but you all better thank Lex – because I wouldn't have done this by today without her 'encouraging' me! *cough cough* Anyways!

As some of you would have noticed, I have ONCE AGAIN changed my avatar. It won't be like that for long, though… The thing is: I just thought this picture was HILARIOUS! It consists of my best friend and I, me in the background and her taking the picture. Basically, you can see me wearing this gold necklace around my neck – which I hated. I HATE JEWELLERY! Anyways, so my bestie FORCED me to wear it, and I reluctantly agreed – only for a minute though. My friend got so excited; she just HAD to catch the moment on her phone. And I had just realised she was taking a picture, and so I started freaking out like some crazy idiot. And so she took the picture. XD The chick in the back is me; the one with the brown eyes is my friend. XD

Anyways, here is the chapter I was most excited about! The collision between the protagonists' lives! How exciting will this be? AT SIZZLER! XD I hope you enjoy, and happy belated Halloween! I got some lollies for every reviewer! *holds u=out pillow case which consists of many lollies*

The scene starts off with May at her house.

"MAY! GET A MOVE ON, PLEASE! I DON'T WANT TO BE LATE!"

May rolled her eyes, even though her Dad couldn't see her. How can you be 'late' for Sizzler? It's Sizzler for fuck's sake! Who cares when anyone gets there? It's a buffet of mediocrity. I bit like May's life right now. May picked up her foundation and gave it a shake. She had an enormous red zit in the middle of her forehead. That's the thing with May – she finally got rid of one problem, and something else cropped up.

"MAY?"

"ALRIGHT!" May yelled back, and put the bottle back down. She had to go au natural to dinner, but it's only Sizzler. T-shirt, jeans and no make-up it will have to be. She gave herself a quick glance in the full-length mirror and then grabbed her handbag and yelled out, "I'M COMING!' as she headed for the car.

"I bags having the kibachi chicken," Max announced as the car zoomed through various roads.

May turned around and stared at her brother, "It's hibachi chicken, you mental patient. And you don't need to bags it. There's more than one serve. Trust me,"

May leaned back in the front seat and closed her eyes. She wondered where her mum was at that current moment.

"May, which is your favourite Wiggle?" Max piped up.

May groaned, "The Wiggles are like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. You can't have a favourite,"

Norman gave May a stern sideways glance and said, "My favourite is the Red Wiggle, Max!"

"Or 'Pestilence Wiggle' as he is also known," May chimed in.

"May!"

"No, seriously. Just this week in Religious Education, Pastor Simons was reading the Bible and it said, 'And I looked and beheld a pale horse and his name and sat on him was the Red Wiggle and Hell followed with him and-"

"You finished?" Norman asked.

And May said, "Pretty much!" She then heard her mobile beep. She reluctantly grabbed her phone, and read the message. The message which consisted of:

'Potato skin call

Cheese toast sings it's siren song

Liposuction needed.'

That was the third Sizzler haiku Leaf had sent May in twenty-four hours and they were becoming more and more food oriented. May texted her back and told her (a) enough with the haiku already, and (b) she has one too many syllables in the final line. The she got back to thinking about her mum.

"Now, guys, I, ah… I've got a bit of a confession to make. It's not just going to be us there at Sizzler. We're meeting one of my friends from the singles' group. We're meeting her there with her son,"

May stared at her dad, who was keeping his eyes firmly on the road.

"WHAT? I'm sorry, but does nobody know how this is supposed to work? It's a SINGLES' SUPPORT GROUP! Emphasis on the adjective 'support'," May said, doing inverted commas with her fingers, "What the fuck? So now we're going to Sizzler with some desperado you picked up on Monday night. You're taking me and Max on a date with you,"

"Now nobody said anything about anyone being desperate-"

"May I still have kibachi chicken?" Max interrupted the increasing tension.

May turned around, hoping that her brother was being sarcastic, but he had switched on his Game Boy and couldn't care less about the date thing. He was too young to understand, that's why. But May was sure that his therapist would spend hours and hours talking all this through with him in about ten years' time.

"Sure you may, buddy. And, May, you're jumping to conclusions. It's not like that. Gardiena is just a friend. Just a friend. Really. She was worried about me," He flicked the indicator to make a left turn into the car park, "She was worried that I wasn't coping with everything, and she reminded me that you guys are my priority – and we're a family and that I've got to focus on the future," he said as he reverse parked.

"And what does this have to do with us meeting her over some fake crab salad, exactly? How is that helping you focus on your future? And what about Mum? I thought you wanted to get back together with her! She's been gone for less than a week and suddenly you're putting out the vibe!"

"May, I promise you, we're just friends. Friends. Okay? There's no vibe,"

May shook her head, stared out the window and muttered, "Well, we're in and out. I'm not going to sit around all night with some strange woman and her son. I've got work to do. I've got that tandem-story to work on and I've got a Modern History assignment to start," may unclipped her seatbelt, exited the car and briefly contemplate doing a runner.

"In and out, guys. I promise. We'll break land-speed records getting to and from the salad bar," Norman said, striding ahead of them towards Sizzler.

May dragged her feet, walking as fast as a turtle with chronic fatigue syndrome. She watched as her dad held open the glass door for two female students and allowed them to go ahead in line.

One of the girls smiles, and said, "Thanks!"

"Just don't eat all the potato skins!" Norman replied.

May made a face at her dad. She thought she was going to be violently ill.

"Come on, May. It's not going to be that bad, I promise," Norman assured, ushering May through the door, "In fact, I think Gardiena's son might go to your school!"

And that was when May spotted a woman waving at them from further up in the queue. May heard her saying, "Norman! Join us up here!"

And when May's eyes moved to the person next to her to establish who 'us' actually is, she was staring and Drew Haydens, and he was staring back at her with a look of horror and shock on his face.

Even after May, Max and Norman were introduced and Gardiena was saying, "This is Drew, my son," May was still having trouble. Having trouble getting her head around the fact that her dad went to a single parents' support group and, out of all the desperate, needy, single women in this town, somehow managed to hook up with Drew Haydens' mum. Having trouble with the idea that her dad was on a date, at Sizzler, with Drew Haydens' mum. May was about to be forced to eat Sizzler bread with Drew Haydens. And his mum.

May couldn't believe she wasn't wearing make-up.

May felt someone shake her shoulder and she realised that they were at the front of the queue.

"Table for five?" asked Sizzler Shaun. And May heard her dad and Gardiena and Max talk about the menu items, salad-bar sides, red lemonade drinks and hibachi chicken.

Then Norman turned to May, "May?"

"I don't want anything…" May said, staring at the ground.

"Come on," Norman nudged May in a playful way, and May wanted to king-hit him, "That's not like you. You usually eat me out of house and home!

"DAD!" May exploded.

Norman gave May a wink as her face went red. She glared at her dad, and if only looks could kill…Then May remember the pimple on her forehead. She abruptly reached up and felt for it. It felt like it had tripled in size. May was going to have to keep her head down to cover it.

The Haydens-Maple Party of five moved to a booth around the corner from the salad bar, near the doors to the kitchen.

Max scooted into the corner position, followed by Norman in the middle. So May was at the end of the seat, facing Drew Haydens. Facing Drew Haydens at SIZZLER with a zit on her face the size and colour of a double-decker London bus. If this zit came with a number and a destination, people would be queuing to get on board.

May kept her head down. She couldn't afford for Drew to notice the zit. He's likely to write it into the next paragraph of their story. So May stared down at the laminate table top and rest her zitty forehead against her right hand – cupped it over the offending section of the forehead, in fact. May had never felt more gross in her life.

Sizzler Kylie, their waitress, arrives – asking whether they were aware of how Sizzler works. May glanced up to realise that hardly anyone was listening to Kylie, apart from Drew. Max was playing with his Gameboy and Norman and Gardiena were discussing vomitous Bircher muesli recipe. May kept her eyes lowered and zit covered.

"I'll be right back with your cheese toast," Kylie chirps.

"That'd be great, thanks, Kylie," Drew chirps.

"That'd be great, thanks, Kylie," May mimicked, but maybe making Drew sound a tad effeminate and with a lisp, "I know, why don't you keep ordering cheese toast until she gives you her phone number?"

Drew glared at May, but she didn't care. When Sizzler Kylie walked past delivering water to another table, May said, "Look, Drew! It's your girlfriend!"

Drew kicked her under the table.

"So, do you guys have any classes together?" Gardiena was speaking to May.

"Just Extension English," May mutters, attempting to smile.

"Ah," Norman said, "Well, Drew; I hope you have a better partner than May. Her partner's been a real nightmare, hasn't he, May? A real drop-kick, hey?" Norman looked at his daughter, with a nod and smile.

"Well, I didn't say drop-kick, exactly…" May smiled weakly at the wooden table-top.

"Actually, Norman, my partner is a bit of a nightmare. Very selfish. And you might say talentless, verging on remedial. Lazy, as well. So, I'm sort of carrying the story for the two of us. But, you know, if my partner needs to ride on my coat tails to get through – nay, pass – Extension English, what can I do?" Drew pipes up, giving a discreet, accusing glance towards May.

"Right, well," Gardiena adjusted her posture and glanced suspiciously at Drew and then May and then back to Drew. Then she said something about Presentation Night, but May was only half-listening because she was wondering if feigning a migraine would get her out of the meal.

"Presentation Night? What Presentation Night?" Norman, typically, started complaining that he knew nothing about Presentation Night.

"It's not a big deal," May tried to tell him, but it was too late – Gardiena and Norman were arranging to sit together. And then go for coffee afterwards. That wasn't sounding like a plan between friends; that was sounding like a date. And there was no way that a school event is an appropriate place for them to go for their second date. As if people at school – our friends, the teachers – won't notice that Drew's Mum and May's Dad were getting one. They don't even know that May's mum had left! This cannot happen.

May looked up at Drew, who was going on about catering issues. He seemed to be just as horrified as May at the suggestion of their parents being seen publically together.

Drew kicked May under the table for the second time that evening as he hints, "I think I'll go get some salad,"

"Me too," May said, edging out of the booth.

"There's that appetite again!" Norman mocked.

May closed her eyes and contemplated stabbing herself with a fork.

"You have to do something," May pleaded to Drew, shovelling crab salad onto her plate, not wanting their parents to guess that they're were plotting against them.

"Me? Hang on, I thought you mum is in hospital? Your dad is two-timing a sick woman!" Drew remarked.

"What?" For a split second, May had no idea what Drew was talking about. Then she remembered the conversation outside David Jones. The coma conversation, "No, he's… She's not in hospital. I just said that. My parents are just having a few problems right now. And my mum has moved out, but she's just confused. They're going to get back together. Believe me; they're going to get back together. So this – this cannot happen. Right?" May explained, waving the tongs in the direction of their parents.

"You really like Seafood extender, huh?" Drew smirked.

May looked at Drew and then back down at her plate. All the while she had been talking; she had been piling her plate high with fake crab. May put to the plate down and covered her face with her hands. Do not cry. Do not cry. Do not cry. Do not cry. Suck it up, May.

Suddenly, May felt Drew's hand on her shoulder and he was talking to her in soothing tones. May knew she should be listening, but all she could think about is the fact that Drew Haydens' hand was on her shoulder, and she had to force herself to focus on what Drew was saying.

"We'll get this sorted out. I don't think this is as bad as it seems, May. I don't think that is how my mum is thinking…"

Suddenly, May didn't feel like crying – she didn't know what to feel.

May looked up at Drew, but he wasn't looking at her anymore. He had taken his hand away and he was looking across the salad bar at Norman and Gardiena – who were filling their plates and laughing at something. May followed his gaze and watched in horror as Norman put a fake Sizzler flower between his teeth and pretended to kiss Gardiena's hand. May and Drew didn't say anything. They just stood there.

"What are you thinking?" Drew tried to catch May's eye.

"I don't know what to think," May said, as she tried to will his hand back onto her shoulder.

"Don't worry," Drew said, "We'll sort this out. We're a team. It's us against them," and the weird moment of intimacy between the two was over.

They walked back to the booth and there was Max, mouth full, a mountain of potato skins and cheese-toast crusts in front of him.

"How long does the kibachi chicken take?" he asks.

May slid into the booth beside him and Drew slid into the seat opposite. May started to answer her brother, "Well, it takes a while because it's very special. You see-" May looked past Drew towards the salad bar behind him, "HOLY SHIT!" she exclaimed.

Drew turned. May heard him gasp and mutter, "Fuck…"

Why? Why did May burst out away from Max's question along with curses? Why did Drew turn around and curse beneath his breath? Because Norman had his arm around Gardiena's waist and he was pulling her towards him. They look like they're hugging, except that they're swaying from side to side, and… And Norman had got something green – was it asparagus? – Between his teeth. Shit, he's dipping her. May's dad had just dipped Drew's mum in the middle of Sizzler.

May thumped the table and heard herself say, "But he doesn't even like asparagus!" And all she could think was that this was not how things were meant to go. Norman was not meant to be dancing or finding love in the arms of Drew Haydens' mum. He was supposed to be at home, drunk, singing along to depressing songs and sending numerous texts to Caroline – begging for her to come home. He wasn't meant to be flirting with some woman at Sizzler!

"If I could wish for one thing right now, it would be for Eislander's stun grenade," May muttered to Drew.

Then the Sizzler kitchen doors swung open and three staff poked their heads out, gawking in delight and horror at Norman and Gardiena. And how did May know they were gawking at the parents? Because Gardiena's voice comes echoing over some speaker system in the kitchen, saying, "Oh, Norman, you naughty, naughty boy…"

Somehow, Norman and Gardiena had been miked. Somehow, their dirty-dancing/dirty-talk has been broadcasted through the Sizzler kitchen for the staff's amusement. Now they're doing some kind of flirtatious move involving Gardiena feeding Norman carrot sticks. And the Sizzler kitchen staff pissed themselves laughing as Norman put a radish behind Gardiena's ear. May thought she was going to throw up. May felt the blood drain out of her face and her mind went blank. Drew turned around, and his eyes were flashing with anger. He said something about getting more salad and killing one of their parents while he's there. Then he's up, out of the seat and striding across to the salad bar.

This was definitely not how things were supposed to go.

"Has something happened? Why is Drew angry? Why was that lady feeding Dad carrots?" Max tugged on May's arm. His forehead was furrowed and he was glancing back and forth – from salad bar to May.

"It's nothing," May assured, ruffling his hair. She was grateful that Sizzler Kylie was suddenly there to present his hibachi chicken.

"YUM!" Max yells.

May, however, kept her eyes on Drew; Drew who was steering his mum away from the hovering salad bar attendant. He looked like he was having a go at her. Totally ripping strips off her. May could tell by Drew's facial expression, plus he was doing a lot of pointing. Pointing at one of the salad-bar attendants. Pointing at the kitchen. Pointing again at the salad-bar attendant who was readjusting her headset microphone and trying to look busy re-filling the potato skins. May watched as Drew's mum went to scoop some salad onto her plate, but Drew intercepted and took away the plate. Meanwhile, Norman was chatting to a waitress, perhaps about bacon bits.

Suddenly, Drew, Norman and Gardiena were all heading back to the table. May grabbed Max's plate and started cutting up his chicken.

Gardiena slid into the booth while Drew firmly said, "You want anything else to eat tonight – then you ask me. I'll get it for you. D'accord?"

Gardiena laughed nervously, but May kept her eyes down and focused on cutting chicken.

"Hey, hey, hey," Norman sang, and May looked up to see him striding back to the table, a plate piled high with pasta in one hand, a spear of asparagus held like a cigar in the other.

May glanced back at Gardiena, who was shaking her head at Norman, and, as he slid into the booth, May leaned across and hissed, "We're. Going. Home."

In the car, May was feeling pretty traumatised. Her dad had just spent the entire journey going on and on about how Gardiena was just a friend and how was he to know that they were being miked by some sneaky Sizzler waitresses?

"I don't want to hear it," May snapped at him when he told her for the 'umpteenth' time that they were simply reciting lines from a Gilbert and Sullivan musical.

May felt like her world had officially come apart. And the worst thing was: she caused it. .This was her fault. May tried to get her parents together, and somehow, Norman ends up dirty-dancing in a restaurant with Drew Haydens' mum.

For once, May was actually grateful to have to sit at her computer and write the next paragraph of their tandem-story. At least it would take her mind off her dysfunctional family. May re-read Drew's paragraph.

When May read it in the morning, she was incensed. She still couldn't believe that he turned Elizabeth into a man. But May supposed it was kind of funny. And she did kill off his character and cut off his tongue…

Drew,

Let's talk tomorrow, re: a plan. We can't have them turning up to the tandem-story presentation night together. Surely a love of cheese bread isn't enough to build a relationship on?

May

Elizabeth adjusts her wig and smooths out the wrinkles from her Laura Ashley dress as she watches the grenade roll towards her feet. She bends down and prepares to peg the grenade back in the direction of Eislander, "CUT!" The director appears out of nowhere, chewing on a pen, a troubled expression on his face, "Guys, may we try that again? I know we said we'd try it this way, but it's not working. David?" He looked over at David Spade, who is steel peeling latex off his face, "David, I think we need to stick to the original script. This is a modern day love story, after all. Pride and Prejudice meets XXX. I'm not sure the audience will go for it if we kill off Elizabeth within the first 20 minutes."

Aha! World War has finally been resolved! I hope you enjoyed that chapter, and don't mind the sudden change in avatar! XD The story is up above. *points above* Just in case you skipped it!

I'll be honest; I actually DID rush this chapter, although it took AGES! I'm not really used to adult romance and flirting – so I typed up what I could! XD I hope you enjoyed!