Sean

The next day sucked. It sucked a lot. The sucking was off the charts.

After spending nearly forty-five minutes in the shower, I wrapped a towel around my waist and headed back to my room. I experienced marginal gratification when I discovered many people were upset that I had made them wait so long for the bathroom and that I had used up all the hot water.

The feeling of gratification quickly died when everyone I crossed paths with in my short walk across the hall screamed upon seeing me in a towel.

I put on a pair of shorts and a white T-shirt and flopped on my bed.

"Hey, Sean," Jimmy said, standing over me.

"You are blocking the sun, Jimmy."

"Okay, I know you're in the Great Depression mode because of that girl, but I was just wondering if you know what we're doing for our Canadian research assignment."

"Crap."

"Okay, just wondering. We'll figure something out."

"How about 'Canada puts Sean in a very bad mood?'"

"Uh, sure, little buddy," Jimmy said. "Anyway, when I'm in a bad mood because I ate some bad cheese or I missed The Reading Rainbow or whatever, I talk to my bear. His name is Floomakumuraswamy."

I peered up at him, not sure if I was curious or just amazed by his weirdness again.

"Uhh, and for short, I call him Floom-Floom." He smiled, holding up a grungy looking bear for me to see. "I thought you might like to talk to him."

"Thanks, Jimmy, but I don't think Floom-Floom will help."

"Well, I'll just put him on your pillow anyway. I'll talk to you later, buddy."

Zoey

I drifted through school on Tuesday. By lunch, I made up my mind about whether or not I would stick around for my afternoon classes.

"I didn't see you all weekend," my best friend Brennan said, sneaking up behind me as I pulled homework out of my locker.

"Yeah, sorry."

"What are you doing?" he asked and gestured to the backpack I was cramming books into.

"Ditching."

"Good Lord! Did aliens abduct you and put mashed potatoes in your head so they could dissect your brain? Since when do you skip school? You've always been perfect and innocent, and that typically annoys me, but now I'm just frightened."

"I just need to think for awhile, Brennan," I sighed. "I can't do that effectively when I'm sitting in a desk and staring at a chalkboard."

"Where are you gonna go?"

"To the beach," I said without thinking.

"Do you want some company?"

"Brennan--"

"I'm coming with you. There's no way I'm sitting through math without you. Plus I'm going to make you tell me why your brains are like mashed potatoes. With gravy."

Sean

For awhile, I just had a staring contest with Floom-Floom.

"I'm not talking to you, so you can just forget it," I snapped.

Floom-Floom looked sad.

"Don't look at me like that. I refuse to talk to a bear stuffed with cotton." I rolled over onto my other side. I felt Floom-Floom watching me and I rolled over again to face him. "I told you not to look at me like that."

To get away from his stare, I stuck my head under my pillow, knocking him off the bed in the process. I looked down at the floor where he was lying upside down.

Floom-Floom was not happy.

"Hey, you're not the one who can't have the stupid girl of his stupid fantasies, so don't give me that tone of look!"

Floom-Floom seemed to scowl.

"Yes I can speak properly, but I've been in Canada for two days and so I've been talking weirdly. If you'll please excuse me, I am going to think about Zoey now." I gave in, picked him up and curled him under my arm. "You wanna hear about Zoey, eh?" I growled. "She's got me saying EH. That's just great."

Zoey

"I can't believe you're mad at Sean," Brennan told me.

"He led me on and let me get all gooshy over him and then he wouldn't let me near him!" I protested.

We were walking barefoot along the beach, letting the cold surf rush over our feet. The air was heavy and cool from yesterday's rainstorms, but it was a beautiful day.

I had just gotten through telling Brennan, my best friend since third grade, about my weekend with Sean. For a guy, Brennan was surprisingly good at girl talks.

"Zoey," he said, putting his arm around my shoulders. "The guy OBVIOUSLY has a thing for you. Can you really blame him for wanting to make it easier on himself--not to mention easier on you too--for when he has to go and leave you behind? If he doesn't let you get too close, then saying goodbye won't be so bad, you know what I mean?"

"One kiss," I grumbled. "One MEASLY kiss. That's all I wanted."

"I'm sure he did too. But maybe he thought that that one kiss would make it harder to let you go."

"I don't want him to leave like this!" I picked up some driftwood and used it as a walking stick. "I don't want him to leave thinking I hate him or that I don't understand."

"Then don't let him," Brennan said.

Sean

"So, it took me five hours to figure out that she was PERFECT and that I was completely SCREWED because from the second I started crushing on her, I also started missing her. It's like Romeo and Juliet except I don't wear tights and I'm not going to poison myself. DID YOU KNOW Romeo and Juliet got more time together than me and Zo? They got five days. We only got two. This is crap. I'm mad. I hate the opposite sex. They're just bringers of doom and sorrow. But they smell good. Zoey smelled like coconuts."

Floom-Floom appeared contemplative.

"So now I've got two girls that I'm mentally nuts about and I've blown my chance with both of them. Tamira is still my friend but Zoey…she won't even be a pen-pal."

Floom-Floom stared.

I shrugged and laughed humourlessly. "I just wish I could keep her, you know?"

I looked down at the teddy-bear. "Thanks for listening. You don't say much, do you?"

There was a brief knock at the door and I threw Floom-Floom across the room (Note to self: I made a rhyme!).

Jimmy walked in. "Forgot my sun screen. I was vaporizing." He looked at Floom-Floom, who had landed next to the dirty laundry pile. "How did he get over here?"

I shrugged carelessly. "That bear is creepy, Jimmy."