"You might have to take the--"

"Don't SAY IT!" Chris cried, horrified.

"But if you want to go home--"

"Lalalalalala!" He clamped his hands over his ears.

"--Unless of course you want to sleep in the bathroom--"

"I can't hear you because I'm not listening!"

"But I think the janitor might kick you out."

"Oh, Anya please no," he begged.

"There's nothing wrong with taking the school bus, Chris."

"You mean the CHEESE WAGON?! I REFUSE!"

Anya knew she shouldn't find Chris' alarm funny, so she tried to conceal her laughter with coughing. "I have to go home with Mary to work on our Physics, so I cannot drive you home. I'm sorry that your method of transportation is in the shop. You're sure Gordie can't drive you?"

"Yes. Gordie's insane and really annoying. He was like 'I am going to walk home in the newly fallen snow with BROOKE so we can DO IT along the way, sorry PAL.'" Chris glowered.

Anya patted him on the shoulder, giggling. "Come on, Grumplestilskin. I'll walk you to your bus."

Lorelei caught up to Teddy, but she had to run to do so. He'd been quiet and standoffish all day, but she had been offended when he started walking home without her. "Hey, got a light?" she called, out of breath.

Teddy turned around, tears in his eyes.

Lorelei melted. "God, Teddy," she murmured.

Cassie smiled as Vern tried to walk slightly ahead of her through the shin-deep snow that had fallen the night before, while still holding her hand. He claimed to be trying to make it easier for her to get through the snow by stepping in his footsteps. It wasn't really working, but he didn't have the heart to tell him that.

With her free hand, she dug through her purse. "Want one, Vern?" she asked.

He looked back at her, squinting at the glaring snow and low bright afternoon sun. "Oh my GOD," he exclaimed. He stopped all motion.

She grinned, but was somewhat startled by his outburst.

"Don't tell me that's cherry-flavoured."

"There's other flavours?"

"If that is cherry-flavoured Pez, I will love you forever!"

Cassie laughed and popped several candies into his hand. "Well, that's certainly something to look forward to."

Reese was excited about the drive home from school. With Brooke and Reese not present and constantly griping, he now had complete control of the radio.

As he went out the back door of the school, pulling out his car keys, he saw a girl sitting on the steps. Since there was a snowfall last night, she was sitting on her purse to keep her butt snow-free. When he got closer, he saw that she was evidently crying, but all he could see was the back of her so he didn't know who it was. He figured he would get to make fun of the girl, and tried to come up with a good one-liner.

Then he saw that it was Ginny Fallon, the new girl from Portland, the girl who tried to set fire to his hair every day in Math class.

He sat down beside her. "Hey, Ginny."

She jumped. Mascara streaked her face and her bottom lip quivered. "Oh, hey…"

"What are you doing crying out here all by yourself?" he asked. "Did you poke yourself in the eye with eyeliner?"

"I was going to walk home…my boyfriend decided to dump me today, you see." She smiled and wiped her nose with her jacket sleeve. "I didn't make it too far."

"Your boyfriend dumped you? Did he realize he wasn't good enough for you or something?"

Laughing sadly, she shook her head.

Reese jingled his keys. "Well, let me give you a lift home."

"Really?" Ginny looked genuinely surprised at his offer. "What about your sister and your little boyfriend?"

"Um, he's HER boyfriend, not MINE. And they're walking."

The doors behind them opened and animated voices followed.

Brooke's voice said, "Well, hello."

Reese turned to see his sister and Gordie. They were eyeing them carefully.

"Hey, THAT'S why you're so WEIRD lately!" Gordie exclaimed.

"Shut up before I remove your testicles," Reese warned. "Run along. It's a long walk."

"We plan on taking the long route," Brooke said indignantly.

"GoodBYE," Gordie grumbled, never one to much care for having his testicles threatened.

When the two of them continued on their way and disappeared from sight, Reese looked back at Ginny, who was no longer crying. "The offer is still valid."

Smirking, she asked, "Can I drive?"

"No."

"Can I control the radio?"

"Of course."

Brooke and Gordie got side-tracked on their way home from school. They realized that the snow was perfect snowball snow, and therefore began making a snowman. His name was Hector.

Patting some extra snow onto Hector's middle, Brooke asked, "So why exactly was Reese being weird? I was confused, because you seem to have figured his problem out. I've lived with him for sixteen and a half years and you've lived with him for like…not long, and so I feel stupid and unobservant."

"Reese wants in Ginny's pants."

"I'm appalled," she muttered.

Gordie shrugged. "She's kinda hot."

Brooke glared.

"I mean if you don't look at her face," he sputtered, trying to recover.

"Try again," she sighed.

"I mean if you like girls that Reese likes."

"That's not what you meant at all, but I'll just ignore you." Brooke stared skeptically at the creation and put her hands on her hips. "Hector's nose should be longer."

Gordie shook his head. "Don't tamper with perfection, Brooke."

She appeared indecisive. "No, his nose is definitely too stubby."

"Yeah, well, maybe he's sensitive about his stubbiness."

"Yeah, and I bet you can relate," she shot back.

"Oooh." Gordie grinned evilly. "Now you die." He hopped around their snowman and clobbered her into the snow. She screamed, her high pitched laughter surprised and gleeful.

Gordie balled up some snow and held it above her head while he pinned her down with his other arm.

"NOOooo!" She squealed. "Nonononononuh--" Her protests were cut off when he dumped the snow on her face in what would result in the most vicious face-wash she had had thus far in her life.

"Do you take it back?" he yelled above her shrieks.

"Take WHAT back?" she cried.

"That I'm stubby!"

"I can't do anything about your stubbiness!"

"I'm not stubby!"

"In comparison to WHO?"

"EVERYONE! Now take it back!"

"Nope!"

"Please? You've discredited me as the long-schlonged man that I really am!"

Laughing, she sputtered, "Fine! Get off me!"

"Thank you," he giggled, sitting up.

Brooke spat out some snow, breathing hard. She looked up at him as he looked off to the side with an enigmatic smile on his pink face. Snowflakes settled on his hair and his shoulders and his eyelashes. She sat up and kissed him on an impulse, bumping noses and accidentally knocking him backward in the snow.

Giggling, she rolled over into the snow, lying next to him and not caring about the snow that was probably finding its way into her pants. "But I won't take that back."

"I would never ask you too," he laughed.

"Don't make me," Chris whined, standing in front of the bus with Anya.

"It's like a twelve-minute ride," Anya laughed, patting his arm. "Have faith. You'll live."

"You owe me huge," he muttered, and then climbed the 'watch-your-step' stairs of the bus. He gazed around, having to duck his head a little because of the low roof. Moving past the freshmen and sophomores, he slid into an empty seat three from the back.

"Hey, Chris," the guy sitting in front of him with a girl said. His name was Dixon Hennessy, and Chris had known him since grade school. "What the hell are you doing on the loser-cruiser?"

"I have no friends," he replied.

"Dixon has no license," Molly Hennessy, Dixon's younger sister, piped up.

"I got my license suspended," Dixon sighed. "I was doing donuts on the mayor's lawn. He's got a mighty big lawn, you know."

Molly grinned impishly. "I would advise you not to question his motives."

"Shut up, pipsqueak," Dixon said kindly. "Oh, uh, this is my sister Bertha, if you care."

"I'm not a Bertha!"

Chris laughed at her wounded expression. "I empathize, Molly. I got a brother too."

"Dixon steals from orphans," Molly said brightly. "And from grandmas. And me."

"My brother has been in JAIL."

"You win," she said.

"MOLLY, you're your pennies EVERYWHERE!" Dixon announced, holding up a penny. "You should really learn to invest your nightly earnings in a BANK, you penny-whore."

"Dixon," she sighed, blushing. "You have embarrassed me so suddenly in front of my new friend that I am unable to come up with a witty insult."

"Pennies!" Dixon cried, flinging pennies merrily at the roof. "One cent! Two cents! Three cents! Four--"

"DIXON!" the bus driver, a big-haired lady named Janet shouted. "You're gonna put someone's eye out! Get up here and sit at the front with me!"

"NO, Janet, I'll stop!" he yelled.

"Get up here!"

"I'll give you a penny!"

"Dixon! You have until the count of five! Five, four, three--"

"Okay, okay, I'm coming!" he barked, grabbing his bag, pushing his sister out of the seat and sauntering to the front of the bus. "Heya, Janet, how's the hubby treatin' ya?"

Molly climbed wearily back into her seat.

Chris smiled. "He's always been a different duck, hasn't he?"

"Since birth," she sighed. "He's beginning to get intimate with the bus driver."

"Seriously?" he gasped.

"Ew, no." She looked contemplative. "Well, I hope not. Well, you never know. Possibly. Anything's possible with Dixon. Probably. Yes."

"So how did you get normal?"

"I was adopted."

"Really?"

"In my dreams, I am."

Chris laughed. "What grade are you in? Ten, right?"

"Yep. I'm lowly." She bit her nails and then asked, "So, Chris, what did you do today?"

"Read a thesaurus and hated Anya Berkowitz."

"Why and why?"

"Because it was fun and because she's mean." He smiled shyly. "I could tell you all sorts of words meaning 'sexually immoral man.' I've truly enhanced my vocabulary."

She grinned. "Explain."

"I was bored off my rocket in Study Hall, and my friend Gordie--do you know Gordie Lachance?" She nodded. "Well, he was actually doing homework, and he said, 'what's another word for said?' So I said, 'I will read this thesaurus and tell you' and then I got so engrossed with how dirty the book was that I never got back to him."

"I see," Molly laughed. "That's a good story. Tell it at parties."

After about ten minutes of easy conversation, the bus came to stop, and Molly moved to get up. Then she got pelted by a penny, via Dixon. She sat back down. "I am not going home with him," she decided.

"MOLLY are you coming?" Dixon yelled.

"Yep! Be right there!" She stood up, and when he got off the bus, she sat back down, and Janet closed the bus doors. Molly waved at her brother through the window.

"I'd like to trade you in for my brother," Chris laughed. "Actually, I think I'd like to trade you in for my mother. Can I take you home with me?"

"You don't throw pennies, do you?"