Spongebob stepped out onto the ramp. He looked around. There was a classroom, a student walking towards the hall doors holding a toilet seat with the letters FOLLER stuck on with sticky letters, and Makenzie.

Spongebob cleared his voice loudly. Makenzie turned around

"Oh, hi!" Makenzie replied. "You're Spongebob, right?"

"Yep-" Spongebob said squeakily, "I mean, yeah. You're Makenzie, aren't you?" he said in a smooth voice.

"Yeah!" Makenzie exclaimed. "How did you know?"

"How did I not?" Spongebob replied. He was going for the mysterious thing.

Makenzie giggled. "You're funny, Spongebob!"

"I am?" Spongebob's voice got high and squeaky again.

"Yeah," Makenzie smiled. "That was the funniest voice I've ever heard!"

"It was?" he squeaked.

"Yeah."

Spongebob's insides went all warm and bubbly. She thought he was funny. The girl of his dreams actually thought he was funny! What a compliment! But wait, Spongebob thought. What if she was expecting him to compliment her? What could he say? Wait, he'd seen Bob Toughenburg say this in a movie before. 'You're eyes are like sapphires, sparkling in the moonlight.'

Spongebob looked at Makenzie. Her eyes were green. And there was no moonlight. He looked up at the sky and saw clouds, clouds, clouds. Green eyes and clouds, eh? He'd just have to improvise.

"So, Spongebob," Makenzie asked, " You know what I did to get sent out here. What'd you do?"

"You're eyes are like grass when there're clouds in the sky," he blurted.

"What?" Makenzie was taken aback by this comment.

"Um, I mean." Spongebob didn't know what to say. What did Toughenburg say? You're hair is as soft as the moonlight and golden like the rays of the sun. If only Makenzie was a blonde! "You're hair is soft. Like a butt." Spongebob mentally kicked himself. Baby's butt!

Makenzie stared at him awkwardly.

"And um. It's brown like dirt. Cause grass needs dirt to grow in. And your eyes are. grassy." Spongebob trailed off. So much for smooth talking mysterious cowboy. He was making a total fool of himself!

"Um. thanks," Makenzie replied.

"I'm sorry Makenzie," Spongebob sighed. "I didn't mean to say it like that. It's just that in the movie Bob Toughenburg told Miss Cassidy that her eyes were like sapphires that sparkled in the moonlight."

Makenzie smiled.

"And your eyes aren't blue so I couldn't say that! And the moon isn't out either. I would've made a complete fool of myself!"

Makenzie giggled.

"Well, it looks like I did pretty good job of that without saying sapphires. And he also told her that her hair was as soft as the moonlight and as golden as the rays of the sun."

Makenzie nodded. She could see where he was going with this.

"And of course, the rays of the sun thing is what you say to blondes. And obviously your not a blonde. But I was going to say the moonlight thing only it occurred to me that Bob Toughenburg might've copyrighted his movie lines! And I didn't want to be in trouble with the law," he explained.

"I for one am glad you made up your own lines, Spongebob," Makenzie stated. "They were much more er-"

"Original?" Spongebob suggested.

"Yeah," agreed Makenzie. "Original."

"Thanks," said Spongebob. "What I meant is."

"Yeah?" she encouraged.

"Ithinkyou'rereallypretty," Spongebob said really fast.

Makenzie looked at him, her grassy eyes soft. She wore a curious smile and her face.

Spongebob, embarrassed, pretended to find something extremely interesting about his hands and kept his eyes down on them.

"Spongebob?" Makenzie said softly.

Spongebob became even more interested in his hands, but managed a strangled little "yeah?"

"Spongebob, I," Makenzie said slowly, trying to find the right words, "I think you're cute."

Spongebob's head snapped back up to look at her. "Really cute," she added hastily.

Spongebob's heart was fluttering around in his chest. Not only did she think he was funny, she thought he was cute. Really cute.

Their eyes met.

Ah, this was paradise.

Spongebob felt her hand creep slowly to his.

No, not paradise. Bliss.

Makenzie turned so her whole body was facing him.

Angels had surely blessed him.

They both leaned forward.

He'd died and gone to heaven.

Both of them closed their eyes and leaned even closer. Spongebob could feel his heart pounding in his chest. Makenzie leaned even closer, her lips ready to kiss. Spongebob did the same. They were just inches away. Centimeters away. Half a centimeter away. Their lips were just about to touch.

The door opened. Makenzie quickly pulled away from their almost-kiss and dropped both of her hand casually in her lap. T.J poked his head out the door.

"Uh, hey you two," T.J. greeted, "lovebirds." He winked at Spongebob. T.J. had witnessed their almost-kiss.

Makenzie blushed furiously.

"What're you doing out here?" he teased. "Smooching?"

Makenzie blushed even more.

"Ah Kenzi babe, I'm just playing with you," T.J. said, rumpling her hair. He put his fist out and turned to Spongebob. "Yo, what up my hommie?"

"T.J.!" Mrs. Storks voice snapped from inside the room. "I told you to let them in, not start a conversation.

"Oh yeah, my bad!" T.J. called into the classroom. "You guys can come in now."

Makenzie went into the room first, her cheeks still red as a fire engine. T.J. winked at Spongebob as he made his way into the room. He was smiling the biggest smile you ever saw.

He went and took his seat next to Keenan who saw his grin and gave him thumbs up and then pointed to the back of the room where Makenzie was sitting with her friends again.

Spongebob turned to look at her. She was whispering something to her friends, but her eyes were on him. She noticed him looking at her and flashed him a smile.

He smiled back at her. What a dazzling smile he thought. Why couldn't he have said something about her smile instead of all that rubbish about grassy eyes and clouds and dirt and butts?

Mrs. Stork went on about whatever it was she was talking about. Spongebob didn't know. He didn't care. Why did he need to know about circles and pi and whatnot? All he needed to know was that Makenzie thought he was funny. She thought he was cute. Really cute. On second thought, he needed to know that stuff about Makenzie and he needed to know about pi. He liked pie. So he wanted to know all about it. Apple pie, chocolate crème pie, pizza pie, shepherds pie, pumpkin pie, blackberry pie, lemon meringue pie, butterscotch crème pie, butternut brownie pie, black bottom pie-

"How'd it go?" Keenan's voice interrupted his thoughts about pie.

"The pie?" Spongebob asked.

"No with Makenzie," Keenan explained, though he seemed to understand why Spongebob would be asking about pie.

"Oh," Spongebob said, getting all bubbly again. "I think it went very well."

"Speaking of well," Keenan said, "I got a note here that Makenzie passed up."

"Really?" Spongebob's insides froze. "What'd she say about me? Anything good? Bad? She thinks I'm a dumb starfish!"

"I heard that," said Patrick's voice from an unknown location in the room.

Spongebob ignored Patrick. "Oh I knew it! She thinks I'm some lunatic who tries to get girls with lines from movies! Oh misery! Oh misery and woe!"

Keenan shock Spongebob hard. "Pull yourself together man!"

Spongebob nodded.

"The note isn't for me," Keenan explained. "It's for you!"

"For me?" squeaked Spongebob.

Keenan nodded and handed a pink piece of folded paper to Spongebob. Spongebob had a hard time opening it because it was folded so fancy-like. But he finally got it open and saw neat blue writing on it.

Dear Spongebob,

I meant what I said outside. I think you're really cute and funny. I really like you and would like to get to know you better. And about what we almost did out there. I wish T.J. didn't walk out at that time. But I'm still willing to finish what we started. Also, I was wondering if maybe you would like to go out with me? I know, it's kind of soon, but I really like you. You may not love me but I love you!

Love,

Makenzie

Spongebob read the note over at least ten times. Then he clutched it to his chest and sighed. She loved him. She really loved him! This time he was certain. He'd died and gone to heaven. He went back to thinking about Makenzie and pies.

Banana crème pies, cappuccino pies, chocolate crunch pie, chocolate kiss peanut butter pie, chocolate mocha pie, chocolate pecan delight pie, coconut crème pie, caramel pecan pie, chocolate chip cookie pie, peaches and cream pie, confetti pie, fluffy pineapple pie.

The loudspeaker turned on. "May I have your attention please? May I have your attention please. The winners of the random drawing are now in."