While Teddy was at school the next day, this time, Chris wasn't. Anya and Lorelei sat, mixing their lumpy cookie batter in Home Ec, both of their thoughts preoccupied.

"What do I do?" Lorelei asked, grabbing a chunk of cookie dough and popping it in her mouth. "I mean, do I go up to him at lunch and be like, 'hey baby, let's get it on' or something? What do I do?"

"Well, I wouldn't use the 'let's get it on' line," Anya advised thoughtfully. "And it does not work if you keep eating the cookie dough."

"But I like the cookie dough," she whined, hesitantly putting the dough she was about to eat back in the mixing bowl.

"Ooh, that looks really good," Patricia Watkins, a shy redhead in most of Anya's classes, said. She looked for permission silently, and then took a fingerful, eating it as she walked away.

Staring angrily at Anya, Lorelei snapped, "How come you're not biting her head off? You like her better, don't you?"

"Of course I do," Anya replied. "She's not a raging psychotic."

"You have not seen me rage psychotically."

"Sure, I have."

"No, you haven't."

"You're always raging psychotically."

"You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

"You're right. I don't."

Lorelei grinned playfully and lunged for her. In the process, she knocked over the mixing bowl full of cookie dough. "Ah, dammit! Look what you made me do!"

"I hope you die a fiery death!"

"I hope you get mauled by mutant squirrels!"

"Lorelei," Anya cooed, a smirk finding its way to her face. Lorelei continued to frown. "I love you."

Lorelei glared at her but then burst out into giggles. "I'm really sad!"

"Back to the cookies! We have to make more cookie dough, thanks to you and your psychoness." While she busied herself dumping the fallen cookie dough into the trash can, she looked up at Lorelei and asked, "Why are you really sad?"

"Because--wait, what's wrong with the stuff on the floor?"

"That's gross, Lorelei."

"What is?"

Anya grinned. "Nothing. Anyway. Sadness. You. Why?"

"Oh right. Because of Teddy."

"For the love of Pete." Anya wiped her hands on her apron. "Lie, the dork is in love with you."

"I don't know if Teddy believes in love," Lorelei pointed out, wagging a finger at Anya like she was striking up a valid point.

"Well, maybe to Teddy, there's a love-substitute."

"Ooh, you mean like butter for fat people?"

"Yes, like butter for fat people." She shook her head. "Stop interrupting me. So, Teddy's in love…Teddy's in butter with you. Get out the chocolate chips. This is the stupidest conversation I've had in a long time with you. But anyway, you obviously return the feelings for him."

"Oh, but I believe in love," Lorelei said. "I don't use fake butter."

Anya stared at her. "Sure. Since we've established that you both like each other, I don't see what the problem is here. You should be having his children by now." She shook her head. "My God you're a weird one."

"But how do I go about telling him that I like him back?" she whined.

"Kiss him!" she cackled.

"No!" Her look of repulsion softened into a smile. "Well, there's always that." With a smirk, she elbowed Anya repeatedly. "You look sad, too, Miss Anya. What's on your mind?"

The light-hearted teasing look on Anya's face seemed to crumple. She pursed her lips, and sat down. "Well, Chris isn't here today. And, um, and I haven't talked to him since we took him home after school yesterday. I'm sure he's okay but…he's always okay. And maybe he should let himself not be okay for once, and just ask for help. I don't know."

Lorelei looked down at her hands. "He shouldn't have to not be okay in the first place. How can a dad be able to hurt their kid? How can he not think 'my God, I'm responsible for everything about him' every time he sees him? He should be wanting to protect him, not being the thing that he fears more than anything."

"Arg," Anya said, blinking rapidly. "I feel so much for him. Thinking about how much he goes through really hurts. And then every time I see him, he's always got a smile for me."

Lorelei smiled softly, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Do not cry in our cookies. He'll be okay. He always is, right?"

Nodding, she murmured, "When he needs to be."

Lorelei tapped her foot wildly. She found herself in French class, yet again. Madame Devreaux kept using the word armure and it was annoying her. Didn't that mean love or something?

It didn't matter. French class sucked and so did love.

She wondered what Teddy was doing.

She decided to go light some matches outside. The smell of them reminded her of him, and so she shot her hand up in the air and asked to go to the bathroom.

"What's on your mind?" Teddy asked Ginny. The two of them were sitting on the bike rack at the back of the school. They were supposed to be in shop class, but, they weren't.

Ginny shrugged. The smoke from her stub of a cigarette snaked in the air, curling around her face. She didn't seem to notice. "Never mind."

He smiled, nudging her. She glared, like she was appalled he would dare touch her. She was so different from Lorelei. Lorelei would just laugh and shove him back. But Ginny…

"Just tell me," he said. "I'm bored as hell."

Ginny looked at him. Her eyes were intense but shadowed by the heavy black makeup she always wore. She said nonchalantly, "Actually, to be honest, I was wondering if you were a virgin."

Teddy coughed; trying to pretend he'd just inhaled some smoke. "Jesus, Ginny. What the hell made you think about that?"

"Well, you're obviously thinking about someone. I don't know who and I don't care. But it just made me wonder about the extent of this relationship you have with whoever the girl is."

"Oh." He nodded. "How did you know I was thinking about a girl?"

"You obviously can't see the look on your face."

"Well, no, I can't. How do you know it wasn't my mom I was thinking about? That's kinda revolting thinking about whether or not I have a sexual relationship with my mother." He grinned. "How do you know it's not you that I'm thinking about?"

"Because guys don't look at me with that sort of expression."

"What expression?"

Tiring of his question, she barked, "Shut up, Teddy." With one hand, she seized the collar of his jacket and kissed him.

He broke away after a great length of time of making out with her and wishing she were someone else. She'd left him breathless. "Do I look like a virgin?"

A crafty smile tugged at her lips. "No. And you definitely don't kiss like one either."

"Good to know."

"So are you?"

He put his hands around her waist, stroking her stomach through the fabric of her shirt with his thumb. "That's up to you."

They heard a door open. Expecting it to be a teacher looking for skippers, they backed away from each other and grabbed their bags. They looked back to see who it was.

It wasn't Mr. Grodin or Mr. Pardue or any of the teachers Teddy had been expecting to see. It was Lorelei, frozen in her tracks. She had been in the process of pulling her light brown hair into a ponytail, a book of matches between her teeth. Her grey eyes took in their blushing, awkward situation slowly and silently. She let her hair fall to her shoulders and grabbed the matches in her hand. She stood, in all her 5'4" glory, tall and proud. "God--damn," she said.

"Lorelei," Teddy called, hopping off the bike rack to run to her. "Don't go, just wait a minute!"

Ginny grabbed him by the arm. "Don't you go, Teddy, please?"

"Oh, do go, Teddy," Lorelei said sarcastically. "Please." She rolled her eyes, turning to go back through the doors she'd just come out of.

"Ginny, meet the girl I was thinking about," Teddy said, trying to speak loudly enough to bring Lorelei back. "Meet the girl I'm always thinking about, actually."

Lorelei stopped walking, but she put her hand on the door and didn't turn around to face him.

Ginny let go of his arm. She tossed her cigarette on the ground. Glowing embers like sparks skidded across the asphalt. With a lasting look, she walked away from him. As she passed Lorelei, she raised her eyebrows and looked at her with a forced and phony amiability. "Nice to meet you." She reached for the door, causing Lorelei to wordlessly back away from it, and went inside.

Looking down at the ground, still not saying anything, Lorelei struck a match, bending her hand so as not to let the flame touch her. Then she let it fall to the ground, smothering it with the toe of her shoe. The smell of a campfire flooded her senses as the match was distinguished. Keeping her gaze on the ground, she walked over to him slowly.

"Lorelei--" he began to say.

"Shut up," she said softly. Finally, she turned her eyes up to look at him. "Did you kiss her?"

"Yeah, but it didn't mean--"

"You let me fall for you and then I have to walk in on something like that?" she demanded.

"I'm sorry! Jesus, what more do you want?"

"I want you to stop playing with my feelings!"

"Oh, I'm playing with your feelings?" he scoffed, laughing derisively. "You've been flirting with me since day one and putting up eight feet tall barriers between us at the same time!"

"I have not been flirting," she snapped. "I do not flirt." She used her fingers to put quotations around the word flirt.

"Like hell you don't flirt." He crossed his arms over his chest in a stance of defiance. "How else did you make me start to like you and lose sleep over you and start questioning myself because of you?"

"Because you're a moron, I don't know!" she cried.

"At least I don't change my mind about who I like every three days!"

"Well at least I'm not--short!"

"Yes you are! You're the same height as me!"

"Shut up!" she yelled, and then as an afterthought, added, "Asshole."

"Bitch."

"I hate you!"

"I hate you more!"

"Fuck you!"

"Fuck you more!"

Both of them stood there, trying to come up with something else insulting. Their cheeks were pink and they were glaring at each other. The silence between them was long and laboured.

"Um," Teddy stuttered. "You…suck."

Lorelei glared. "You…do too."

Teddy unfolded his arms from across his chest and took hold of her suddenly. He kissed her harshly but softly. From the way she kissed him back, it was as though she'd been waiting for it.