Chris waited outside while Gordie went in to devise a makeshift litter box for Cat.

Gordie closed the front door quietly, and then tried to slink stealthily down the hall to his room.

"Gordie?" his mother called. "Is that you, sweetie?"

"Yeah," he yelled back.

"What are you doing home?" she asked. She came into the hall from the kitchen, drying her hands on a dishtowel. "It's only noon…right? Isn't it?"

It made him sad to think that his mom could barely keep track of what time it was. He shrugged and explained vaguely, "Ahh…I just forgot to do a few things last night."

"Oh. All right, sweetheart." She turned to walk away but then said, "Oh, about that cat."

Gordie cringed.

"He used my house plants as a litter box."

"Oh." Gordie held back a grin. "Sorry."

"Your father wants him gone by the weekend."

Suddenly Gordie felt like that cat was his best friend in the world for some very strange reason--considering he hated the thing--and there was no way in hell his father could take her away from him like he tried to take away everything else. "Aw, come on, Ma."

"It's not up to me, Gordie."

"It's not up to him either," he said crossly. "She's mine. She followed me home. I'm keeping her."

"Gordie--"

"No, don't go and take his side!" He shrugged again, now like a little boy unable to defend himself. "My friend and I--we'll clean up any mess she made after school today, okay?"

"Which friend? You know your father doesn't always approve of your company…and he's already in a bad mood over the cat as it is."

"He'll forget about the cat," Gordie promised, knowing Cat would be the last thing on his father's mental list of things Gordie had disappointed him over when he saw who he had brought home from school.

Vern was desperately racking his brain for a way to initialize conversation with Cassie (whom he was still following, rather stalker-like).

He spotted a piece of paper littered on the floor. He snatched it up and ran to her. "Hey, look, I think you dropped this!"

Cassie turned, her eyes filled with curious expectance. She looked at him, dropped her jaw, and then inspected the paper. "Um, no…I don't think this is mine. It's a detailed diagram of the male reproductive system."

"Oh. Must be mine," he lied. "Oh, wait, no, I didn't mean my reproductive system, I meant it's my diagram."

She smiled; the first patient, amused, kind gesture he'd ever received from her. "Um, I have this fruit cup," she said, white as a sheet, holding up a little tin DeMott's fruit cup as evidence. "And I can't get it open."

"Ooh, I'm really good at that," he said excitedly, taking the fruit cup and peeling back the cover, then handing it back to her proudly.

"Thanks," Cassie said. "Are your hands shaking?"

Vern shoved his hands into his pockets. "No."

Cassie suddenly realized that the fact that his hands were shaking because of her was incredibly cute and almost sweet. So she panicked. "Well, nice talking to you, Vern, I have to go. Have a good day."

She couldn't get the look of surprised disappointment in his face as she turned and walked away. Brooke was right about her. No wonder she'd never had a boyfriend.

"Hey," a low voice from behind said.

Lorelei felt a hand slide around her waist and she looked back to see Reese. "Hi," she replied softly.

"What are you doing?" he asked, kissing her cheek.

"Eating. And I can't kiss and eat at the same time, so stop that."

"You're eating alone?"

"Mm-hmm."

Teddy had upset her. She'd spent her entire lunch break standing exactly where he'd left her. Who the hell did he think he was, confusing her when she was already all confused? She had all these feelings--none of which made any damn sense--and then he went and made strange comments that made her think that he liked her or something. Did he like her? Or had she just misunderstood him? Maybe he was just being a good friend and trying to protect her. She didn't know. So she'd been standing outside the girls' bathroom for the past fifteen minutes just thinking and eating strawberries while people walked around her on their lunch breaks.

"You're eating alone outside the bathroom?"

"Yes."

"What, was their a sale on strawberries in there or something?" he asked, pointing to her baggie of strawberries.

"Two-for-one."

"Do you want to skip fourth period and go for a drive with me?" Reese asked her. "You know, like, ice cream and stuff would be involved and stuff?"

"Uh…" She hesitated. She immediately thought, what about Teddy? But then she thought, what about Teddy? She became confused again. But she did really like ice cream. "I guess so. I have French class next, but I've already skipped like every French class this year so why start going now?"

"That's my girl," he laughed, taking her hand and leading her to the front exit.

Teddy wished Vern wasn't on a mission for a girlfriend. They could be hanging out right now, doing absolutely nothing. But at least when you were with someone else and doing absolutely nothing, it looked cool and indifferent. Whereas when you were completely alone and doing absolutely nothing, you just looked like you had no friends.

Lorelei must think he was the hugest dork in the world. Because he was a dork. He was more than a dork. He was a loser who would never grow up to be something good…he could barely blame her for not caring less about him--but he still did. When he was around her, he wanted to be good; he wanted to be something good. He tried. How could she not be able to tell how much he tried for her?

"Hey. Can you point me to the shop room?"

Teddy turned when he felt the presence of someone standing next to him. Looking up slowly, he was rather surprised to see a tall girl in a pleated skirt, white button-up blouse, and way too much makeup. Now this was the kind of girl Teddy Duchamp usually went for.

"Yeah," he replied. "I can take you there myself."

"You think I can't follow directions?" she asked with a playful smirk.

"Well, I don't know," he retorted. "Considering you're a girl asking about the shop room, I have my doubts."

She didn't appear to be offended, but her stance changed. She was probably close to four inches taller than Teddy (however, being taller than Teddy wasn't a hard feat to accomplish), and he felt a little intimidated standing next to her. There weren't too many girls that looked like her at Castle Rock High. Her hair was platinum blond with dark roots showing. His mother had always had a theory that only floozies dyed their hair. This girl certainly did look like a floozy. Teddy took an immediate liking to her.

Without any words being exchanged, they began to head off together in the direction of the workshop.

"I'm Teddy, by the way," he told her.

She raised an eyebrow. "We're making conversation now?"

"Look, sweetheart, I'm kindly going out of my way to take you where you need to go," he said calmly. He was highly enjoying her.

"Did you just call me sweetheart?"

"Yes, yes I did."

She grinned. "I'm Ginny."

"Hello," he laughed. "Where are you from? I mean, you're new, right?"

Rolling her eyes, she explained, "Originally, I was living in Portland with my mom. Then I got expelled from three different schools last year, and my mom was like, 'Grr you child' and so she sent me off to live with my dad here. I started at Washington High at the beginning of this year, but then I totally accidentally set fire to a desk and I got expelled. So now I'm here, and hello."

Teddy smiled. Ginny was definitely his type. He could tell already that she was the polar opposite of Lorelei. People watched him walk down the hall with this new, strange looking girl, wondering if there was something going on between them. And he desperately wished that they were watching him in curious wonder as he walked with Lorelei--not some other girl.