I HAVE RETURNED!!!

Sorry I haven't updated in like forever, homework keeps a girl awfully busy.

Thanks for Reviews!!! Though I didn't get as many as last time. *looks away with puppy dog eyes* No it's okay, TAWNY wow that's the greatest thing you said!! Wow! I feel so loved. My friends are like "What the heck? JENNY! GIFTED?? We've never used those words in the same sentence before!" Thanks everybody you said some really nice stuff!

Answer to bonus

This is Adam Lamburg. He's not in high school. He's in collage. He's 18 years old!

Sort of weird isn't it?

Christy Carlson Ramono is the same age too, but she sorta looks it, he on the other hand doesn't...

She's at Columbia right now. Which is sort of disgusting when you think about it. Adams' from NYC too. What up with that? Actually she's from New Hampshire.

And Lalaine has a CD commin out, "You Wish" and someone has signed Christy for an album too.

BTW you guys can check out the Lizzie McGuire Movie Trailer at www.disneychannel.com It looks pretty good. I just hope that she and Gordo get together.

Anyway ON WITH THE SHOW!!! (this is sort of a bring everything together chapter, hope you like)

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Lizzie McGuire. I wish I did though, I'd be rich. Oh and by the way, I'm changing Mr. Gordon's name to Daniel! Joy...

Chapter 5: Keep it Secret

The rain had ceased, into simple splatters of droplets every so often. The streets were darker, and the lamps had come on, giving a dim lit path for the walk home. The air was heavy from the rain, smelling of soft spring flowers and everything was quiet. A beautiful, peaceful quiet.

He was holding her hand as they walked, as she clutched tightly to his own. She didn't say anything to him; she didn't know what to say.

He briefly glanced at her every so often, he was just as boggled by all of this as she was.

"Gordo..." she began, but stopped.

He didn't walk any further, "What?" he asked.

"We've been friends forever you know."

He nodded.

"And what happens if...if...I mean if we..."

"Break up and never speak to each other again." He replied dully, letting go of her hand.

The words were caught in the back of her throat. She wanted to say something to him. Anything, to make him understand that she was just as worried.

"Well...what do you propose that we do?" he asked.

Lizzie closed her eyes. "I don't know."

"Maybe we shouldn't tell anyone about this..." He began

"Well I wasn't planning on telling our parents."

"Why?"

"Gordo, you're Jewish, I'm Christian! It would never work."

"To hell with religion." He snapped. "I wouldn't care if you thought a chicken was God, who cares about that?"

"I don't care!" she answered, almost angrily. A little more kindly; "But our parents do."

Gordo turned away. "Lizzie, maybe the right idea is just to pretend that nothing's going on between us. Instead we should just keep it a secret."

"Actually..." she thought about this. "That isn't a bad idea."

"No one in school would have to know. Besides if people at school knew, then people at the Middle School would know, and your brother would know..."

"And my brother would blab to my parents." Lizzie finished.

"So then it's a deal?" he took both of her hands, "We just keep it a secret?"

"It's not going to be easy." She looked into his soft blue eyes. "I mean every other couple can run around the school PDAing, and we can't."

He nodded. "Well, maybe that will make us care more. You know, if I can't be with you now, I will be later, I have to wait."

She grinned, "Yeah, that actually makes sense." Gordo let go of her hands,

"Then I guess we can't hold hands now!" he began laughing.

Lizzie smiled, "It's dark, no one will see."

And they continued down the road, hand and hand.

--

They stood on her front porch, the moon almost rising in the deep blue sky.

"My mother is going to kill me!" she said darkly.

He leaned over and kissed her forehead. "I'll call you later."

"Okay..." he turned away and began walking down the steps, onto the street and out of sight. She stood for a minute, watching until she could no longer see his curly dark head, and let out a squeak of pure joy.

"Oh...wow...I..." she couldn't talk she was so happy.

And then she remembered; she was supposed to be home before dark.

"Oh...boy"

She opened the door into the McGuire's with uncertainty, she knew what was coming.

"LIZZIE MCGUIRE!"

Jo appeared in the foier, clutching a dish rag and a half dried plate.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?"

"I...I..." she tried to come up with a quick excuse, but her brain was so fried from her evening with Gordo that she couldn't talk.

"Oooo! BUSTED!" Matt appeared next to his mother, a devilish smirk playing on his lips.

"You can just can it Mister!" Jo snapped. "You're already in enough trouble."

"Ha-ha!" Lizzie jeered, but stopped instantly at the look of contempt on her Mother's face.

Sam McGuire came in then too, "Young Lady!"

Lizzie cringed. "Look, I'm sorry I'm so late, it's just I ran into Gordo, and we were trying to hide out from the rain..."

"Well you did a GREAT job of that? Didn't we?" her mother inquired.

Lizzie glanced down, her clothes were pretty wet. She thought miserably of sitting on the swing.

"Well it doesn't mean that we didn't get wet." She replied.

"You could have called!" Jo said irritably.

"I didn't have any change," Lizzie answered honestly, for the first time.

"WE WERE WORRIED SICK!" Jo's face was purple.

"I'm sorry! Okay?" Lizzie was starting to get angry.

"Do NOT! Use that tone of voice with me!"

Lizzie rolled her eyes.

"You know, I was GOING to just let you off with a warning but now I think a month grounded will do you some good."

"A MONTH?" Lizzie cried in disbelief. "Mom no! Look I'm sorry, but I just, I mean at least I was with Gordo right?"

Mrs. McGuire didn't say anything.

"I know I should have called it's just that I didn't have money, and I was glad to be talking to Gordo again..."

"So your fight is over?" Jo looked surprised. "That didn't last long."

"Well..." Lizzie knew how to play the game, "Your advice helped, quite a lot!"

"Oh, did it really?"

Please don't let her remember that she didn't give me any advice, Lizzie prayed silently.

"Well, Lizzie...maybe only for next weekend, that's your punishment. Now get upstairs." Jo ended finally.

"Jo...you didn't let me get a word in." Sam said, as he followed his wife in the kitchen.

"Be quiet Sam." She replied in her normal aggressive manner.

"That's crap!" Matt said, approaching his sister. "How is that I get a month of grounding, AND trash duty, and you just lose the weekend?"

"You're just not very good at the game, slick." Lizzie answered.

"Wait, I'm the one who's supposed to be the weasel. Don't be stealing my lime-light."

Lizzie smiled bitterly, "And why should I do anything to help you?"

"Well ever since I dumped a big bucket of chili on that evil Kate's head, you've owed me big." He replied.

"Ha! That was last year, this is now, be extra sweet to me, and maybe I'll teach you a couple of trick, huh?" She then placed a hand on his spiky head and mussed up his hair, before turning on her heel and marching up the stairs.

"Perfect ending to a perfect day." She said aloud as she closed the door to her room behind her. "Absolutely perfect."

--

The following morning Lizzie caught the bus with Gordo as usual, at their normal bus stop. As they took their places on the old brown pleather double seats, she retold the events of the night before.

"You know, you should really take the attitude with Kate that you take with Matt."

"But Kate's a lot meaner then Matt. And bigger and has a more effect on my social status."

"But Lizzie WHY does that matter? I'm the guy you're dating, so it's not like you have to be waiting for Ethan anymore, and everybody around school seems to like you, Kate's only popular because she treats people like crap. But it's not like she's Big Brother, she doesn't control you life."

"Little Brother." Lizzie corrected him.

"What?"

"Matt's my little brother."

Gordo looked at her like she was crazy.

"What? He's my little bother!"

"No, Lizzie BIG Brother."

"No, he's my Little brother!" She felt extremely confused.

"No, Lizzie..." He trailed off suddenly, and grabbed his book bag. He began digging, a moment later Gordo wrenched out a paper-back novel, he handed it to her.

"1984, by George Orwell." She read. "Wait, 1984, that's was a long time ago..."

"Almost 20 years," he said, "yeah, but it's a great book, and it talks about these people who stand up to the dictator of their country."

"Sorry Gordo, I'm a Romance novel girl."

"This has Romance, just read it."

"Fine." She rolled her eyes and shoved it her pack, sort of annoyed. That was Gordo, read until you burst.

--

A few weeks later:

Lizzie reached into her locker, "Oh, where is it!" she muttered. Her favorite Bic was buried under a pile of papers.

"You should probably clean that thing out." Gordo suggested. Just then a mass of papers flew out and a book came down smacking her on the head. "You okay?" Gordo cried.

"Yeah...just help me up, will ya?" He gave her his hand, lifting her from the tired, crumbly tile floor.

"Well hello, Lose-ie.

Lizzie scowled. "Good morning Kate." She said curtly.

"Have fun on the floor?" Kate asked.

Lizzie glared.

"It's true you know, that this school is being invaded by the dork population. Look ladies," she said to the other cheerleaders standing behind her, "Here's one of the freaks in its natural habitat. Mr. Gor- dork."

Well that was it for Lizzie. Make fun of her, fine, but don't pick on Gordo.

"You know what Kate? You're right, we are Freaks."

Kate smiled.

"But someday, we just may grow out of that. But you, YOU WILL NEVER STOP BEING A JERK! C'mon Gordo."

Lizzie grabbed her dropped book and papers, and with her free hand, took Gordo's and pulled him down the hall leaving 7 stunned cheerleaders behind.

"Lizzie!" Gordo cried. "That was amazing!"

She swelled with pride. "Thanks. I stole that line though, it's from The Princess Diaries."

"Oh yeah...Anne Hathaway..." a dreamy expression crossed his face.

Lizzie punched him in the stomach. "Cute Gordo, real cute."

"You've been reading that book though, haven't you?"

She nodded. "It's not half bad. Uh, Gordo, secrets still planned for tonight?"

"You bet." He smiled.

"Good, I'll see you after gym!" she rushed down the hallway, and disappeared into the girls locker room.

"You know, she's something." He murmured. "Something amazing."

--

"Hey, I'm home." Gordo plunked his books down on a chair. "Anybody home?"

Mrs. Gordon appeared in the kitchen a second later, her husband following her.

"How was your day guys? Any new, fun and exciting psychologist files to read today?"

"David we told you stay out of those." Hannah said briskly, putting a kettle on the stove for some hot tea.

"Yeah, I know, but hey, they're very insightful, I need that real, raw human emotion for my films."

"You should be using those case files on concentrating when you're a psychologist. Or you could go all the way, get your Doctorate and be physiatrist." Daniel said, taking a sip of his coffee.

"Nah, that's okay, I don't want to listen to people whine all day."

"You just want to listen to actors whine." Daniel shook his head.

Gordo rolled his eyes; his father would never understand his obsession with films and directing.

"Oh, David," Hannah turned to her son, "This Friday the Feldermans are coming over."

"Who are the Feldermans?" Gordo asked.

"Oh you know," Hannah began, "They go to the synagogue with us, their daughter Sarah is in your Torah study class."

"Oh." He began racking his brain for a picture of Sarah. "Wait is she sort of medium height with dark brown hair and large dark eyes?" he asked.

"Yes that would be her. I reckon that there are about a million Sarah's." Mr. Gordon began sifting through the newspaper.

"Yeah, actually that's true. Why are the coming over?"

"For dinner."

"Oh."

"They're very nice people David, I thought we should get to know them a little better."

"But I can't, I have..." Friday, he had a date with Lizzie! It was gonna be a real date too. With dinner and a candlelight, at a really nice restaurant. He had reservations! This wasn't going to be a walk around the mall, or getting an ice cream cone at the Meadows, this was a big deal.

"You have a what?"

"Just a thing."

"What kind of thing?"

"A thing with Lizzie, we wanted to go get something to eat."

"Well can't that wait?" Hannah asked.

"No, because I got reservations La Petit Café."

"Reservations?" asked Mrs. Gordon, knowingly.

"Yeah, she really wanted to go."

"Who's paying?" said Daniel.

"Uh...we're going dutch." That was a total lie of course, but he couldn't say he was paying.

"Well call and see if you can arrange if Saturday. Because we're not switching on the Feldermans."

Gordo sighed, and hurried up the stairs to his room. "I hoped to hell that they'll switch me."

--

"Wait why Saturday?" Lizzie asked over the phone, as she blew on her nails trying to get them to dry.

"Because my parents scheduled some dinner with their friends, and I have to go. I'm sorry Liz, I can't do a thing about it."

"It's okay," she replied thoughtfully, "Just as long as the reservations still held for Saturday, I'm game."

"Dress nice, huh?" he said with a chuckle, he knew she'd look good in a pair of sweat pants.

"I will, I got a new dress the other day."

"Okay, great, well I have to run, I need to help clean. More joy!"

She laughed. "All right. Bye Gordo."

"Bye Lizzie." He hung, thinking about how much he absolutely well, loved her. He wasn't sure if he could use that word, because love was serious. But they'd known each forever, he'd always loved her. Now she just loved him back.

--

Well coming up the DINNER!!! With Miss Sarah Felderman! And the DATE, yeah I know you're so excited right?

This was sort of a pull it all in chapter I guess. Review if you'd like, they always make me happy! Sides like all of my friends are coming over tonight, and I want to show them how amazing you people think I am. Haha...yay!

~J Fo