A/N: Hey, you guys! First of all, thank you all so much for your kind feedback on the last chapter, I am very glad to know people are still enjoying it. And secondly, sorry again for my updates taking so long, I just got back home and have been busy catching up on household work. Hopefully now that I'm back with unlimited amounts of internet access I'll be able to get to my regular updates, and do a better job at reading/reviewing the amazing stories all the lovely writers got out there now. Anyways, let me know what you think, and enjoy!

It brought Monica a lot of happiness knowing that Chandler turned her down strictly because he thought it would be against the guy code to go out with her. His little side step on the wording he used wasn't fooling her any, she was sure that he had wanted to go out with her as much as she did with him. And it was comforting to know that there wasn't anything wrong with her that made her unlikable to him, because that was the first thing her mind went to when he didn't show any interest back.

Now that she knew the truth she wondered if he would finally ask her out. She chose not to get her hopes up too high this time, just in case things didn't go as planned again. Who knows, maybe he just liked her but would never work up the nerve to ask her out. She saw by the way he acted when she called him out for suggesting them going out if he hadn't thought Ross liked her, and his nervousness alone would make her think he might shy away from asking.

That was another big thing, Ross. If Chandler had been so opposed to going out with her simply because he thought Ross might have had a crush on her, which she had to shudder at the mere thought of, then would he feel the same way now that he knew she was his little sister? And another question, even if it didn't bother him, should she really be trying to go after her brother's new best friend?

All of these things had been running through her mind since the night they spoke in her room, and she got the feeling it wasn't going to stop doing that for awhile. But for now she was going to do her best to ignore it, and keep the story to Rachel as it had already been. She didn't need her friends egging her on again to go out with him when she didn't even know if that was something they were going to do.

"How can you not believe in gravity?" Ross asked, looking across the cafeteria table toward Phoebe. "It's been well known since the seventeenth century. Y'know, the whole apple falling out of the tree thing."

"Well, it's not so much that I don't believe in it." Phoebe said, setting down the orange juice she had just been sipping from. "I don't know, I just, I get the feeling that I'm not so much being pulled down, as I am being pushed." She said, mimicking being pushed down.

"Was breakfast ever this entertaining when we ate alone?" Monica whispered to Rachel, the both of them grinning at Ross who was frozen in disbelief.

"No, I don't think it ever was." Rachel agreed, shaking her head.

"I, I just." Ross paused, putting a hand to his forehead. "Y'know what, it's too early for this." He said, standing up and grabbing his backpack off the floor.

"Ross, you don't have to leave." Monica said, laughing as she set her hands on his arm. "She's just messing with you."

"No, that's not why I'm leaving. I gotta go find Chandler and give him his notebook back before class, he forgot it in my room the other day." Ross said, putting his backpack on. "I'll see ya later." He said, before walking off.

"Wait." Rachel said, thinking a second. "Did he say Chandler?" She asked, both girls looking over at Monica.

"Yeah." Monica said with a nervous nod. "Turns out Chandler is Ross' new friend, the one he met this summer at the record store. They hung out this weekend, and he came over for that dinner my mom made us stay home for."

"Wow, that must have been weird for you."

"Wait, why would it be weird?" Phoebe asked, still not caught up on everything.

Rachel looked over to Phoebe to share. "Chandler turned her down on Friday when she tried to get him to ask her out."

"What?" Phoebe said in shock. "What a jerk!"

"It wasn't a big deal." Monica said, lying. "And he wasn't being a jerk, he had his reasons." She said, hoping they wouldn't ask what the reasons were.

"Who is this guy? I have a couple guys from the trailer park that can handle him. Afterward he will never turn you down again."

Monica glanced over at her, slightly disturbed. "Pheebs, really, it doesn't matter. He was really nice about it, and we are still good friends."

"Well if anything changes, you let me know."

"I will, thank you." Monica said, watching her friend smile as she went back to eating her breakfast.

"Definitely more entertaining." Rachel said, smirking over at Monica.

The school day passed by slowly, finally getting around to the last class of the day. Monica walked up to the classroom door, looking inside to see if Chandler was there yet. Her eyes landed on him almost instantly, seeing him standing next to the teacher as she picked up their baby doll and handed it off to him. She smiled when he pretended to drop it, purposely messing with Missus Bennett. With an eye roll she walked away from him, and he turned around.

Chandler glanced up from the baby doll in his arms, his eyes meeting Monica's. His lips curved into a smile, the both of them walking toward each other and stopping once they were right in front of one another. "I hope you don't mind, I got here early so I picked up Danny from daycare." He said, bouncing the doll in his arms.

"After the weekend I had with him, I'm alright with any amount of break." Monica said, holding her arms out to take it from him.

"He wake you up a lot?" Chandler said, stepping closer to her and carefully setting the baby doll in her arms.

"Ah, yeah." Monica said, looking between them at their proximity.

Chandler looked up at her once he had the doll set firmly in her arms, noticing how close they were standing and taking a quick step back. "Well, I, ah, warned you he was a handful."

"I was kinda hoping you were kidding about that." Monica said, smirking over at him.

"Uhm, we should probably take our seats." Chandler said, turning away from her and gesturing toward them.

Monica nodded, following him over to the desks and sitting down in their chairs. She sat up the doll between both their desks then sat back, glancing over at him. "So, this weekend. That was pretty unexpected."

"Ah, yeah." Chandler said, nervously looking over in front of him when he couldn't think of anything else to say.

"It was strange, after you left my room I could have sworn I heard you knock at my door." Monica said, getting him to look back at her.

"Really?" He asked, pretending he knew nothing about it.

"Yeah, two knocks." She said, using her fist to pound on her desk a couple times. "Just like that, clear as day."

"That is strange." Chandler said, tilting his head to the side. "I wouldn't know though, I went straight back to Ross' room."

"Ah ha." Monica said, skeptically. "I had kinda figured you had done it, especially when I heard the floorboards creak in the hallway like someone was running back towards my brother's bedroom."

"Wow, no." He said, shaking his head. "Y'know what that sounds like it could be, you must have a ghost."

"A ghost, really?" Monica asked, trying to hold back a laugh.

"Yeah. And you don't wanna mess around with those things, you leave one hang around and suddenly every poltergeist in a ten block radius wants to come live in your house."

"Well, I don't mind really. It's always nice to have company, as long as they aren't those spirits that throw things around the room, I wouldn't want that mess." Monica said, making him smile. "So, with you being Ross' friend and all, should I be expecting you to show up at my house a lot now?"

"Uhm, I'm not sure." Chandler said, shrugging. "Probably not a whole lot. We mostly hang out in the lab after school, or go out to movies and stuff."

"That's too bad, it was nice seeing you outside of school."

"It was?" Chandler asked, sounding both nervous and flattered.

"Yes." Monica said, laughing lightly at his skepticism. "You're always fun to be around." She added, silently wondering what his reaction would be to her compliment. Anytime she said anything nice about him he would always go one of two ways. Bashful, or cocky.

"Really?" Chandler said, smirking as he set his arm behind her on her chair. "Fun in what ways?"

Monica rolled her eyes at him, pretending she didn't actually like the cocky character he would put on. "I don't know. You're just easy to talk to, and I get to laugh a lot when I'm around you. It's not like that with any other guys I know, I'm comfortable with you."

"Oh." Chandler said, not being able to think of anything else to say as his nerves washed away again.

Just then the teacher spoke, welcoming everyone back for the week before starting class. While she went through attendance Chandler found himself glancing over at Monica the whole time, his mind replaying what she had told him. It was everything that he had been feeling about her since the second they met, yet was too chicken to ever say. She was clearly a lot more forward, and a lot tougher than him for being able to get that out, and that scared him a little. If she ever did make a real move on him he was certain he would give in, which though was something he really wanted, was also something that he knew shouldn't happen.

"What is one of the most exciting things you get to do as an adult, that is also a big decision you should learn about first before jumping into it?" Missus Bennett asked, then looked around the room till her eyes landed on Chandler who seemed to only be paying attention to Monica beside him. "Mister Bing, what do you think I might be talking about?" She said, his head snapping forwards to look at her.

"Uhm, well." Chandler said, pausing when he couldn't think of a fake answer to make it look like he was listening. "Could you rephrase the question?"

Missus Bennett smiled, rolling her eyes. "What is something you will do in your adult life that is very exciting, but also should be taught about first before doing?"

"I know what I think is the most exciting thing adults get to do is, but that's more likely learned in health class, not here." Chandler joked, getting a few chuckles from the class.

"Calling on you always manages to leave me with regret." Missus Bennett said, looking over next to him. "Monica, do you have any ideas?"

"Getting a job?" Monica asked.

"That is exciting, but not what I'm referring to. Think after getting a good job, and getting married, maybe there is a kid on the way and your apartment is looking a little bit too small for the addition to your family."

"Oh, I know!" Monica said excitedly as she raised her hand, her teacher pointing to her to answer. "Buying a house."

"Yes, buying a house. And that's what we are going to be doing today." Missus Bennett said, turning around to grab a stack of packets off her desk.

Chandler leaned over toward Monica, whispering. "I hope she's not making us pay for it. All I have in my wallet is twenty-six dollars, and that's counting the Monopoly money too."

Missus Bennett held up one of the packets, showing it off to the class. "In this booklet are ten different houses. All in the same town, but different in prices, sizes, and features. Today you and your partner will be given a career with a set salary, then you will go through this and decide which home is right for you both, and for your little one." She said, walking around the room and handing them out to each group. "Also inside your booklets will be a worksheet where you will fill out which home you have chosen, and prove how it is both practical for your family, and financially."

Chandler grabbed the packet she set down on his desk, flipping through it. "We gotta pick a house with space for a game room, I don't care how much it costs." He said, glancing down at the first page.

"Oh, and a guest room." Monica said, leaning in to peek through it with him.

"I wouldn't start picking your house yet." Missus Bennett said, having overheard them as she grabbed a bowl off her desk. "I haven't even handed out careers yet. Would you look for a house if you didn't have a job?"

"If my bank job goes over well enough, I might." Chandler joked.

Missus Bennett shook her head as she walked over to them, holding the bowl out to Monica first. "Pick a career."

"Okay." Monica said, reaching into the bowl and pulling out a piece of paper. She unfolded it then read the writing inside. "Water slide tester?" She asked, looking up at her teacher questionably. "Is that even a real job?"

"Yes, someone has to make sure they are both safe, and fun."

"Oh, can we trade?" Chandler asked, looking over at her paper.

"You don't even have a job yet." Monica pointed out.

"Whatever it is it can't be better than that." Chandler said, then the teacher held out the bowl to him and he grabbed one out. "Advertising copywriter." He read.

"Congratulations, you are now a working family." Missus Bennett said, walking off to the next group.

Chandler glanced down at the paper in his hands longer, thinking to himself about it. "This is actually a really good career for me."

"Does that mean you don't want to trade anymore." Monica said, holding her piece of paper between her fingers.

"No, I think I'll keep this one." Chandler said, smiling as he set down the paper on his desk. He reached over and picked the packet back up, pulling out the worksheet from inside. "Okay, first question. What does your house need to have?" He said, picking up his pencil and getting ready to write. "A roof."

Monica laughed, grabbing his hand before the pencil tip hit the paper. "I don't think the question is meant to be that technical."

"If you're wrong you are gonna be upset later when we buy the house and it doesn't come with one, everytime it rains our stuff is going to get soaked."

"Well I think we can take the chance." Monica said, smiling over at him. "We'll need at least two bedrooms."

"Two?" Chandler said, pointing to the baby doll. "Are you forgetting about little Danny, he's gonna need a room."

"I did not forget about my son. He's the one getting the second room, and we're getting the first one."

"You mean, we're going to share a bedroom?" Chandler asked, looking over at her nervously.

"First of all, we're married with a child, couples like that always share bedrooms. And second of all, this isn't real, so you don't have to look so scared about sharing a room with a girl."

"I wasn't scared." Chandler said, unconvincingly. "I was just worried about you taking my side of the bed."

"What's your side?"

"The left."

"Well, mine is the right, so there's nothing to worry about." Monica said, tapping a finger on the worksheet in front of him. "And the bathroom needs to have a big tub. If I'm gonna be riding in water slides all day I'm gonna need to come home and soak in a nice warm bubble bath to get the chlorine stench off of me."

Chandler's hand shakingly wrote it down, his mind trying its best not to picture what she had described. "All right. Two bedrooms, a bathroom with a large tub. Anything else?"

"That's probably all the needs, assuming kitchens and living rooms come standard in every house."

"Okay, and our wants." Chandler said, moving down to the second question.

"Hmm, this could take awhile." Monica joked.

"Well, we know we want two extra rooms." He said, writing it down.

"And a big yard that we can put a swing set on for Daniel."

"And a nice neighborhood where it's safe for him to ride his bike down the street." Chandler added.

"Maybe wainscoting, and crown moldings. Oh, and an attic with dormer windows!" Monica said, getting excited at the idea of it.

"Yeah, and wiggle wharms, and zip zorps." Chandler said, getting a confused look from her. "What were the things you said?"

Monica smiled, shaking her head at him. "What's the next question?"

"Ah." Chandler paused, looking at the worksheet. "It's asking which house we are choosing, so I guess it's time to pick one out." He said, opening the packet to the first page.

Over the next twenty-five minutes they went through all the homes, looking over the pictures and reading the descriptions of each one. They first eliminated the ones that didn't fit their needs, then got rid of the ones that had none of their wants. It left them with two homes, both of which they really liked.

"I think it's obvious we go with the four bedrooms over the three, since we both want an extra room." Monica said, flipping to the house in the booklet.

"But the price is higher on that one." Chandler said, looking at the listing price.

"Not by a whole lot more."

"Yeah, but look at those taxes." He said, pointing to them. "We'd have to figure out if we can even afford this one with our income."

"How do we do that?" Monica asked, looking over as Chandler grabbed his notebook out and went to a blank page.

"If we got your salary at thirty-four thousand, and mine at forty-eight thousand then our total income annually is gonna be eighty-two thousand. And you don't want to go over a forty-three percent debt-to-income ratio, which puts what we should be spending a year on payment at that, and divide it by twelve." Chandler explained, scribbling quickly on his paper as he spoke. "Which means our monthly payments should be just shy of three thousand."

"And how much would that house be?"

"I'll have to calculate the principal payment, along with interest and taxes." Chandler said, writing down a bunch of numbers onto his paper. "So, this house would have a debt-to-income ratio of fifty-two percent, putting it a little over thirty-five hundred a month."

"Five hundred more a month?"

"Yeah, give or take."

Monica glanced down at the house again, admiring it. "Couldn't we just spend less a month? Buy cheaper food, and clothes."

"That might be fine to do at first, but what about when there are more kids to take care of?"

"More kids?" Monica asked, confused. "Are you planning on stealing a couple from the neighbors?"

"No, I just thought we'd have more kids than Danny."

"How many?"

"I don't know, maybe three more." Chandler said, smiling at the thought. "Twin girls, and another boy."

"Four kids?" Monica said, her voice sounding shaky.

Chandler glanced over at her and noticed to fear in her expression. "You already reminded me this isn't real, do I have to do the same to you?" He asked, chuckling.

"Ah, no." Monica said, shaking her head. "I'm good."

"Okay, so, what do you think on the house? Buy it and get our four rooms, but live on a tight budget? Or settle for the other one, and have more money for the future?"

"Let's go for the future." Monica said, smiling over at him.

"All right, lemme just check and make sure that one is in our price range." Chandler said, flipping to the other house and adding everything up. "It's at thirty-nine percent, so about twenty-six hundred a month."

"Wow, four hundred extra?"

"Yeah." Chandler said, setting down his pencil.

Monica glanced over at all the scribbled numbers on his sheet of paper, smiling lightly. "Y'know, even though Ross said you were really smart, I was still a little skeptical."

"Do I just give off the vibe of being inadequate?"

"No, you don't, seems the opposite actually." Monica said, wondering if she should continue. Then she thought, what harm could it do now? She already admitted to liking being around him. "As a general rule guys can be sweet, smart, funny, or cute, but they can't be all four. And now, after seeing you do all that fast math, I realized you are all four."

"Well, thank you." Chandler said, smiling over at her. "And I don't know the rule for girls, because honestly I've met a few that were none of those things, but you're all four too."

Monica smiled back at him. "Thank you." She said, staring at him for what felt like a moment too long before looking away quickly. "So, only three bedrooms? Guess we're gonna have to fight over whether it's a guest room, or a game room."

"I think we can figure out something to do with the room that we'd both like." Chandler pointed out, both of them thinking about it a minute. "Well, we don't really have to come up with something, it's not like we are actually getting the house."

"Oh, good."

Chandler picked his pencil back up and finished filling in the worksheet with the information from the house they picked. "All right, all done." He said, tossing down the pencil onto the complete assignment.

"Now we're home owners." Monica said, looking at the photos of the place they picked again. "It is a beautiful house, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is." Chandler said, looking at it as well.

"I just hope it isn't haunted like my house apparently is." She said, smirking as she kept looking at it. In the corner of her eye she saw Chandler put a hand to his forehead, rubbing his eyes as he realized she was never going to buy that it wasn't him at her door.

"Okay, everyone." Missus Bennett said, getting the classes attention. "Class is just about over, so go ahead and start bringing your booklets and your worksheets back up here before you leave." She said, the class listening and bringing them all to the front before gathering their things up to leave.

Chandler picked up his things from his desk, watching Monica the whole time as she picked up their baby doll and got it set up in the carrying strap. When she was done they walked beside each other, the both of them stepping out of the classroom door. "Hey, listen." He said, setting a hand on Monica's forearm and gently pulling her away from the students that were entering the hallway. "I've been thinking a lot since I saw you this weekend. And I know we don't know each other all that well yet, but I really like our friendship, and I really like the one I have with your brother. And then I thought about me, and my tendency to screw up good things, and I, I just-" He paused, looking at her deeply. "I don't want to do anything to mess up either of those friendships."

Monica nodded, sucking at her bottom lip as she stared back at him. "I understand what you're saying, and I agree. I don't want anything to mess things up either."

"So, we're gonna be okay?" Chandler asked, sounding genuinely worried.

"Yes, of course." Monica reassured, smiling at him. "We're friends."

"Yeah, friends." Chandler said, the both of them looking at each other and knowing that wasn't the only thing either one of them wanted. But they were going to have to accept it, no matter how much it hurt them. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow." Monica said, giving him one last smile before walking off.

Chandler stood in place as he watched her walk away, wondering if he just made a terrible mistake saying that to her. His thought didn't last long, a voice from beside him getting his attention.

"Chandler, guess what?" Joey said, running up beside him with a big grin on his face.

"If this is another story about you hooking up with some girl in the guys locker room I don't wanna hear it. I'm still worried every time I grab a towel from that bin." Chandler said, grimacing a little at the thought.

"No, it's not that." Joey said, shaking his head. "I made quarterback!"

"You did?" Chandler asked, finally sounding as excited as he had.

"Yeah, baby! The coach posted the list on the bulletin board and I just checked it, I'm gonna be head quarterback!" Joey said, the both of them immediately going in for a hug. They patted each other on back a couple times before freezing, remembering that they were standing in the middle of the hallway, and likely getting some odd looks from their classmates.

Chandler pulled away, glancing around as he straightened the wrinkles on his sleeves. "Ah, congrats." He added, sounding more manly than he had before.

"Ah, yeah, thanks." Joey said, matching his deeper tone. "And hey, I ran into Ross and he was saying he was gonna head home already on the bus, he mentioned something about a bad migraine from arguing with some girl in his monkey class." He said, referring to his anthropology class.

"Did he actually call it his monkey class?"

"Well, no." Joey said with a shrug. "But I can't remember how to pronounce the real name."

"Okay, so I guess we can just study without him today." Chandler said, the both of them starting to walk down the hall.

"I was thinking since I don't have to drop Ross off over this way first that we could just go study at your house, if you wanted to."

"That's fine, but isn't your dad supposed to pick us up today?"

"He ended up getting a chunk of money from his work from getting hurt, so he got a new car and he's gonna let me keep using his old one."

"Nice." Chandler said, high fiving him as they reached their lockers and Joey started gathering his stuff. "But didn't your dad say he got hurt 'picking up kitty litter'?" He asked, using air quotes.

"His boss heard he was hurt and assumed it happened on the job, so he offered him paid leave and a bonus so he wouldn't sue." Joey said, throwing his backpack over his shoulder and closing his locker. "The only downside is my dad said he's not going to keep filling the gas tank, or doing any repairs on the car, so I have to start looking for a job if I want to use it everyday." He explained as they started walking toward the front doors.

"Well how about till you do I cover the cost of gas, since you'll be driving me home anyways." Chandler said, pushing open the doors for them to go through and outside.

"You don't mind?"

"No, I don't mind. It's not like I'm gonna be paying for your stuff forever, it's just temporary."

"Okay, thanks man." Joey said, unlocking the car doors for both of them before they got in and started heading to Chandler's house.