~~ Chapter Two: Peanut Butter and Peanut Butter ~~
(This was actually inspired by a quote from Boy Meets World…)
Greg stared at the piece of paper in front of him. He wasn't even reading it; really, he was kind of distracted (as though that was a new thing). Cecilia had taken over his radio, and now the room was filled with that poppy crap that he hated so much. Christina Aguilera, he assumed. He couldn't even concentrate with it going on. "Cecy, no offense, but can I change this?"
"Why?" Cecilia asked, stepping toward the radio. "I don't even get a full day's worth of my music?" she defended herself.
"Come on, at least make it something I can tolerate…" he begged, giving Cecilia 'the look.' When Greg got a certain pleading look in his eyes, he could convince her to do practically anything. "Like Hoobastank or something…I know you like them, because you were singing along with my CD the other day…"
Cecilia rolled her eyes. "Just a second," she shook her head. "Let me finish this song…" she sighed, turning the volume up a little. "And if I have to listen to what YOU want to listen to, this song is going to be cranked up to high volume…" she hummed to herself, then started to sing softly.
"Oh, come on! She sounds like she's giving birth, for God's sake!" Greg knew that Christina Aguilera was Cecilia's idol, and insulting Christina was like insulting Cecilia. He loved getting into their little battles, because he'd always thought Cecilia looked really hot when she was mad. "I mean, sure, she's hot…but she needs a couple singing lessons…" (Author's Note: It pains me to insult Christina Aguilera. She really is my idol, LOL. I think she has the most beautiful voice in the world, just to clear that up.)
Cecilia's eyes narrowed, but she saw Greg's agenda. "Greg…you are such a pain…" she glared at him. "I'm not going to fight with you, ok? I don't know why you so enjoy having screaming matches with me, but no."
Greg looked utterly defeated. "Damn…" he grinned. "Why not?" he decided then, that he would just pester Cecilia until she fought with him. "You're the most interesting one around here to fight with!"
Cecilia shook her head. "Greg…" she tilted her head in frustration. "Seriously…why do you always do this?"
Greg grinned. "To make you ask why…" he winked. There it was…that look. The drool-worthy, Cecilia McReady look, that only she could get. He saw his plan working, and, like he always did, took up the last opportunity to slip out of the room unharmed. "I'm gonna go visit with Lizzie and Archie…see ya later, Cecy…"
Cecilia practically fumed at the nose, but shook her head, and watched Greg leave. He was such a pain in the butt. What was it about him that always made him a constant annoyance to Cecilia? He's such a…URGH! A guy! He's such a guy! Greg had this incomparable charm about him, though. Greg Sanders…charm…in the same thought, with no 'has no' between them? What is wrong with you, McReady? She shook her head, then ran after Greg, out into the hall. "Wait a sec!" she grabbed his shoulder.
He turned around and cleared his throat, pretending to be scared. "What's up?" he asked.
"Why do you always do that?" she asked, following him into the break room, and sitting down across from him. "I mean, you know, try to get a rise out of me…" she grinned across the table at him. "I know you're just an annoying being and all, but no one can be THAT annoying without an agenda…"
Greg scoffed. "I'm not THAT bad!" he pouted. "If I was that bad, you wouldn't even associate with me, right?" he folded his arms on the table, and grinned that normal Greg grin that melted Cecilia into a puddle.
"Yeah, but still, why do you always do that, Greg?" she noticed that he was dancing around the topic, which he always did when he got nervous. "Come on, this is Cecilia you're talking to. You can tell me anything!"
He shook his head. "Not this. I can't tell you this, Cecy…no offense to you, or anything, because I trust you more than I trust anyone else here, but this is just something I wanna keep to myself for a while," he sighed, knowing this would more than likely hurt her feelings. If there was one thing Cecilia always valued herself on, it was her ability to talk to people.
Cecilia was surprised. "But, I think I have a right to know, considering it involves me…" she tried not to show the slightest bit of hurt, even though she was, in actuality hurt. "You know you can tell me anything, Greg…"
"Can't you just accept no for an answer, for once in your life?" Greg asked, getting ready to leave the room.
"Don't bother leaving, I'm way ahead of you…" she scoffed, and stood up. "I'm oh, so very sorry for caring!" she stormed out of the room, and about twenty seconds later, Greg heard Christina Aguilera, practically resounding, out of the lab.
He sighed. "Stupid, stupid, STUPID!" he hit himself in the head three times softly. "Why do you always have to be so stupid, Sanders?"
"Because you're a male…it's in the job description…" Lizzie, who was joined by Emma Leeland (her close friend, and a detective at the lab), chimed into the room. Emma and Lizzie always picked on Greg. When they were alone, it was easy to handle, but when they were together, it was about ten times worse. "And when it's you? It IS the job description…but that's beside the point. What'd you do now? And why was Cecilia storming out of the room in a huff?"
"My guess, genius…" Emma glanced sideways at Lizzie. "Is that they have something to do with each other."
"Merci beaucoup for that analysis of the situation, Dr. Leeland…" Lizzie glared at Emma. "It's obvious Griss wasn't sleeping when he hired you…" she rolled her eyes, and glanced back at Greg. "Anyway, back to the problem at hand…what'd you say to Cecy?"
"Nothing…" he shrugged.
Emma caught on, but Lizzie had one of her typical blonde moments, and glared angrily at Greg. "You must have done something to her, to make her react like that…" she told him, clearing her throat.
Emma reached over, grabbed a rather large patch of highlighted blonde hair from Lizzie's shoulder and held it into the air. "Obvious…" she laughed. "Or, should I say…oblivious," she made fun of her friend, only to be smacked in the head, and have her own hair grabbed and held in the air.
"I only have highlights of blonde in my hair…so if I'm an idiot, what would that make you?" Lizzie grinned, then looked back at Greg, letting Emma's hair fall back into place. "What did I say to make her hold my hair up like that, anyway? You had to have said something to her…"
"No…ignoramus," Emma glanced at Lizzie out of the corner of her eye. "Cecy prides her self on people's ability to talk to her…and Greg said nothing to her…get it now?" she tapped her friend in the head, knowing there was almost nothing she hated more.
"Thank you, Dr. Leeland," Lizzie batted at Emma's hand, and looked back to Greg. "So, what's so big that you couldn't tell Cecy? Maybe we could tell her for you…" she sat down where Cecilia had been sitting.
"Lizzie, if he couldn't tell Cecy, what the hell makes you think he's gonna tell us?" Emma asked, sitting down in another chair.
Cecilia peered into the room, to see Lizzie and Emma talking to Greg, seemingly getting deep into a conversation, and her eyes narrowed. "So, he can't talk to me, but he can talk to them? Nice…" she mumbled, opening the door. "Hey, Lizzie, hey Emma…hey Greg. Sorry about storming out, I was just a little upset."
Greg shifted uncomfortably in his seat, looked up at Cecilia, and nodded in reply to her apology. "Don't worry about it, C…I understand," he smiled uneasily, and looked back down at the table.
Emma sensed Greg's discomfort, the second Cecilia had walked into the room, and grinned. She suddenly caught on to what Greg couldn't tell her, and leaned over to whisper something to Lizzie. "Hey, Lizzie…Greg likes…"
Lizzie nodded. "I know, I know…I see it too!" she interrupted, grinning. "And, they both have the high-school outlook on love, so they don't know what to do!" she looked from Emma to Greg and Cecilia, who were both staring curiously at them. "Uh, sorry you guys…" she chuckled a little.
"Uh, Greg, Ecklie wanted you in the lab, as in, like, five minutes ago…" Cecilia told Greg, as she took the only remaining empty seat. "He seemed like he was in a regular Ecklie frame of mind …so, I'd beware your life…"
Greg sighed. "Oh boy…keep me in your prayers…" he breathed a deep sigh, and brushed quickly out of the room.
"Good luck, Greggo…" Lizzie and Emma laughed in unison, watching the poor guy leave the room as though he were taking his last breaths of fresh air. "Ecklie was harassing Archie and I earlier…it was pretty funny. Archie had to hold me back from killing the guy…" Lizzie told Cecilia and Emma. "Not that I wouldn't have killed Archie, too. He was watching one of those STUPID 'Death by Donald' tapes…I just wanted to rip it out of the VCR, and throw it across the room!"
"Oh man, you mean those ones where the dude keeps killing these girls, and they never die?" Emma asked, noticing the shocked looks on her friends' faces.
"You're meaning to tell me that you actually sat through one of those?" Cecilia asked, knowing the tapes from a visit to the A/V lab with Lizzie and Archie.
"I thought you were way cooler than that, man!" Lizzie shook her head. "How? And when?"
Emma cleared her throat. "At Nick's house…he borrowed one from Archie. It was amusing!" she stuck her tongue out at Lizzie, who was laughing hysterically. "Plus, Nick wouldn't let me shut the damn thing off, no matter how hard I tried to convince him to! I even begged!"
Lizzie calmed down a little, but was still laughing. "So, Cecy…" she gasped out, and took a deep breath. "What was Greg's problem, anyway?" she wondered if Cecilia had caught onto Greg's crush yet.
Cecilia shrugged. "Greg is just Greg…who knows what goes on in that head of his…" she laughed a little. "That boy drives me insane at times…but he's so adorable…" she sighed, acting like a middle schooler.
Cecilia may not have caught on to Greg's crush on her yet; but she'd sure enough developed one on him. Lizzie cleared her throat, and nudged Emma in the side with her elbow. Emma nodded; knowing what Lizzie was nudging her for, and tapped Cecilia on the shoulder.
Cecilia returned from her dreamy, half-attentive state, back to being fully attentive. "What's up?" she asked, seeing the grins on both Emma and Lizzie's faces. "And what am I missing?"
"You may as well just tell us how you feel about Greg, and get it over with…" Lizzie exclaimed, just as Archie entered the room. A grin slowly crawled across Lizzie's face, as Archie took the seat beside her, and started to interrogate Cecilia as well.
"What are we talking about?" Archie asked Emma, not looking at Lizzie once, since he entered the room. Archie always threw himself into the middle of Lizzie's conversations, regardless of who they were with. "And who are we talking about?"
Lizzie pushed the grin away, and tried to act like she was flushing with anger. "You think you can just butt into other people's conversations, and expect to be included fully?" she asked, her eyes narrowing. "Get outta here, Archie…"
He shook his head. "No, I insist upon being included…" he grinned like a triumphant sixth grader, who had just accomplished the greatest girl-bash in his life.
Lizzie scoffed in disbelief. She just shook her head, not wanting to argue, and turned to Cecilia, continuing to talk to her. But then, realizing that Cecilia's secret may be revealed to Greg, she snapped back around, and stated, "If one word of this conversation gets back to Greg, I will personally hurt you!"
Archie threw his hands into the air, knowing that she wasn't lying. "I won't say a word to Greggo…" he cleared his throat, and looked attentively at Cecilia.
"Ok, if you two will grow up a little, Cecy will get to her story…what's the deal, Cecy?" Emma asked, shaking her head at the idiocy of her friends.
"You guys probably already know…" Cecilia blushed bright red, and grinned a little, looking from one of her friends to another. "But, I really like Greg. Sure, we have nothing in common, but who likes a peanut butter and peanut butter sandwich? You need a little bit of difference, you know?"
Emma gasped, and looked from Cecilia to Lizzie, then to Archie. "She quoted Boy Meets World…this is serious!" she grinned, referring to Cecilia's long remaining obsession with the TV show Boy Meets World. "Maybe we need to bring in the heavy artillery! Call Cupid!"
Lizzie laughed, and joined Emma. "On Comet, on Cupid, on Donner, on Blitzen!" she joked, and laughed a little with Emma.
"Shut it, Lizzie, and you too, Emma…" Cecilia glared at Emma, knowing beforehand that she was going to make fun of that comment. "I seriously do like him. At first, I thought he was really weird…really, REALLY weird…but then, you know, like he does with everyone, he grows on you. And, I started to like him…a lot."
Archie grinned at Lizzie, who was smiling at Cecilia's confession. She has the most adorable smile in the world. He told himself, but then refocused on Cecilia's problem. "Maybe we should try to hook them up…play Cupid…" he suggested.
"Why is it that Cupid gets all the attention?" Emma scoffed. "I wanna be Blitzen!"
"Ooh, can I be Vixen?" Lizzie got a sexy tone in her voice. "Why don't ya come and see me sometime?"
"Ok, one part of this attempted hookup is sitting right here, you know?" Cecilia asked, shaking her head. "I wanna do this on my own. I think I'm gonna ask him over to my house for dinner tonight. Maybe tomorrow night…" she stalled as long as she could. But sooner or later, it was going to happen.
~~
"No one likes a peanut butter and peanut butter sandwich! They need a little variety! That's where the jelly comes in! No peanut butter and peanut butter, no jelly and jelly…peanut butter and jelly!" – Eric Matthews – Boy Meets World