"It's... never mind." Lizzie said, feeling embarrassed and stupid. I had the chance! I should have said something! She felt like running out of the Gordon's house and never coming back.

Gordo bit his lip. Lizzie ate a potato chip nervously. She took a big gulp of soda, and it went down the wrong way. She started coughing.

"Are you okay?" Gordo asked, looking at her worriedly.

Lizzie nodded, but wasn't sure. She kept on coughing. Gordo patted her back, and Lizzie gasped for a breath. She continued to cough, and Gordo didn't know what to do.

By that time, Miranda had come back into the room. "Here!" She told her, handing her the soda for her to drink and try to stop the cough.

Lizzie took the cup, and started drinking. Finally after a few moments, she stopped. "I'm sorry." She said, breathing heavily.

"It's not your fault." Gordo replied, glad that she was fine. Now Lizzie felt even more embarrassed.

Toon Lizzie: Is that the most perfect way to ruin a sleepover, or what? (Sits down and rests her hand on her chin)

There was an awkward silence, and Lizzie took out a little purse that was in her backpack. It had gel pens in it to decorate the scrapbook, and she hoped to brake up the awkwardness.

But when she unzipped the purse, a batter-powered rubber snake popped out of it, and made a loud, hissing sound. "Aaaah!" Lizzie screamed, and threw the purse away from her.

It hit Gordo's head and fell to the floor. Miranda was laughing hysterically, and tried to stop when Lizzie glared. "Matt..." Lizzie said under her breath.

Toon Lizzie: Just wait until I get home...

Gordo was also laughing, and Lizzie took the purse back. "It's not that funny!"

Finally it became night, and Gordo, Lizzie, and Miranda all started watching the movie. It did turn out to be a romance. Gordo caught himself several times staring at Lizzie during it.

He couldn't pay attention to the movie, because he was thinking so much about her. Not that he wanted to pay attention to it, though. He'd only gotten a romance because he knew that Miranda and Lizzie would like it.

And they did, so much so they forgot all about talking to Gordo about his problem.

Once the movie was over, it was around 11:30. They decided to hit the sack. Lizzie claimed the couch, Miranda slept on a reclining chair, and Gordo got out a sleeping bag and slept on the floor.

He lay asleep for a long time, staring at Lizzie in the dim light of the living room. Her hair... her eyes... the way she smiles... He thought, grinning. But his grin faded. But she never wants to be more than just friends. She said so herself. He kept staring at her, until he fell fast asleep.

A few hours later Miranda was fidgeting on the recliner, only half- awake. She opened her eyes, blinked, and sniffed. What's that smell? She thought sleepily. Suddenly she heard loud beeping sounds that rang on and on.

She sat up, now fully awake. I know what that smell is. It's smoke! She thought fearfully. She looked around, and just in the next room, she saw a huge, orange-yellow flame. "Wake up!" She screamed to Lizzie and Gordo.

"Wha..." Lizzie started to say, rubbing her eyes. Gordo opened his eyes, and him and Lizzie were now aware of the smell, too. They could hardly believe what was happening.

"Fire! Get up, now!" Miranda screamed, louder this time. She inhaled a big breath of smoke, and started coughing. She grabbed a blanket, and held it over her mouth to block out the smoke. She tossed one to Lizzie and Gordo. "Here!" She said in a muffled voice.

They put the blankets over their mouths, and all three of them started crawling to try and stay out of the smoke.

Toon Lizzie: Run... er...crawl for your lives!!

Gordo spotted a figure in the darkness. "Kids! Where are you?" It yelled. It was Mr. Gordon. Lizzie and Miranda soon saw him, too, and also saw Mrs. Gordon behind him.

"We're over here!" Shouted Lizzie. Mr. And Mrs. Gordon rushed over to them, and started crawling along with them.

"We've got to get out of here!" Mrs. Gordon said, coughing hard. Lizzie suddenly remembered the scrapbook. She knew it wasn't that important, but she really wanted it.

Flames coming closer and closer, she crawled back as fast as she could. She grabbed the scrapbook, and joined the others.

"We need to stick together!" Gordo told her over the sound of the roaring flames, worried that she'd get separated from them. Lizzie nodded, they all joined hands, and soon they were out of the living room, and outside.

Toon Lizzie: Now I'm really glad that I didn't bring Mr. Snuggles. He would have been burned up!

Once they were out, Lizzie cold see that Mrs. Gordon was crying. All she could think of to say was, "I'm so sorry."

Fire trucks soon arrived. Fortunately, the ambulance that came wasn't needed, because no one had inhaled enough smoke to do much damage.

The firemen succeeded in getting out the fire, but there was only ashes left. "Do you have any evidence of how the fire got started?" Mr. Gordon asked the firefighters, thinking of how much this was going to cost him.

"Not yet, Sir. We will try our best to find out." One of them told him.

Gordo was staring at the ashes with a blank expression on his face. He couldn't believe this was all really happening. Everything he owned was now ash. Lizzie gave him a hug, and so did Miranda.

"I'm glad we all got out of there in time." Gordo told them, but he was looking right at Lizzie.

"Me too." Miranda replied. She looked at what Lizzie was holding. "You got the scrapbook!" Lizzie nodded. "But now all your stuff is gone. All the videos you made and everything." Lizzie told Gordo with a sigh. She knew how much those meant to him.

"Yeah... well, I still have the most important thing of all. The two best friends in the whole world." Gordo assured them.

"That's so sweet." Miranda said, and they all formed a group hug. At that moment, Lizzie and Miranda forgot all about Gordo's problem.

It seemed like everything was back to normal: three best friends all together instead of splitting apart, and going separate ways. That is of course, until Taylor came along.