Chapter 2: Winning The Bet

Sharona trotted over to the tank, stripping down to a tank top. Monk's eyes bulged when she climbed up onto the seat.

Benjy was suddenly beside Monk, handing him a baseball. Monk looked at it blankly. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

Benjy rolled his eyes. "You throw it at the target and try to knock my mom into the tank."

"Why would I want to do that?" Monk asked, shocked. "She'll get…wet."

"Well, yeah, that's the point," Benjy insisted. "Come on. It'll be fun." He whipped the baseball at the target and missed.

"Aw, come on, Benjy," Sharona taunted him. "Can't ya do any better than that?"

"You try it, Mr. Monk," Benjy said.

"I…don't think…" Monk stuttered.

"Adrian, what are you – a chicken?" Sharona teased, a sly grin on her face. "Betcha can't – AAHH!" She screamed as she was suddenly falling into the water.

"You did it, Mr. Monk!" Benjy exclaimed. Monk was standing in a daze, his mouth open in shock. Sharona crawled out of the tank, sputtering.

"I think I've got the hang of this now," he announced, ordering Benjy, "Go get me another ball."

"Oh, no, Adrian," Sharona protested. "One time is e-AAHH!" She was cut off by the THWACK! of the baseball hitting the target dead-on, causing her to fall in once again. She swam to the top and poked her head out at Benjy and Monk. "I…am…going…to…KILL YOU!" she screamed at Adrian.

A few parents nearby looked stricken by that comment, and Monk laughed nervously, attempting an explanation. "She gets like that. Nothing to worry about." He turned back to the tank, to find that Sharona had disappeared. "Wh-where'd she go?"

"I'm right here, Adrian," he heard from behind him. He turned around to see Sharona looking like a drowned rat – a very angry drowned rat, that is.

"Look, Sharona, Benjy made me do it," he tried to explain.

"Since when do you take orders from children?" she yelled at him.

"I was just trying to be fatherly," he responded softly, hoping to ease her nerves some.

Sharona paused in her rebuttal to look over at Benjy, who was goofing around with some friends of his. "You're right. I should probably just chill."

Monk started chuckling at her choice of words, and she rolled her eyes at him. They started to walk towards the school, and soon Sharona started to shiver.

"What'd you do with that smock? Dammit, I'm cold!" she mumbled.

"I – I threw the smock away," Monk admitted.

"You threw it away?" Sharona asked incredulously.

"It had…paint all over it," he explained. Sharona shook her head and they continued walking. She started to shiver again and she suddenly felt something around her shoulders.

"Wha…" she started, and looked at herself to see that Monk had placed his blazer over her shoulders. "Thank you, Adrian. That was very considerate of you."

He shrugged. "You looked cold."

Sharona stopped walking and looked at Monk. "You really are a very sweet man, Adrian. Have I ever told you that before?"

"Uh…no," Monk stammered. What was she saying? Was she saying she was interested in him? Or was that just him being assuming again?

He broke out of his reverie to see Sharona leaning towards him. 'Oh my God, what is she doing? Is she going to kiss me? Maybe I just have some paint on my face. Oh, God…paint…on face. Get it off! Get…it…OFF!' Monk thought wildly, waving his hands at his face and scaring Sharona off.

"Adrian, don't take this the wrong way, but what the hell is wrong with you?" Sharona asked.

"Nothing," he responded quickly. "I – I just thought there was maybe – I got some paint on my face or something. That's all."

"Alright," Sharona drawled, not sounding sure at all. "They began walking again and Sharona decided to finish her previous statement. "You know…"

A pair of silky lips pressing against her own cut her off. Adrian. What would he think? 'What would he think? He's the one kissing me!' Sharona thought to herself. 'Wait a minute. Something's wrong with this picture. Adrian is kissing me.' And for some reason unknown to her, she couldn't stop kissing him. 'Why didn't I ever do this before? This man has a gift!'

She wrapped a slippery arm around him, and the feel of water soaking through the back of his shirt seemed to awaken Monk. 'What am I doing? Kissing someone? Kissing Sharona, of all people? I should hate this. I really should. But I don't. Is that a bad thing?' Monk thought.

"Is what a bad thing?" Sharona asked him. Apparently, he had said the last part out loud rather than thinking it to himself.

"Uh…is the fact that Benjy's over there collecting money a bad thing?" he answered. Luckily, he had caught sight of Benjy in a circle of kids, all of whom were handing him dollar bills.

"Wha – I am going to get to the bottom of this," Sharona muttered, stomping over to the group. Monk stood watching her, thinking about how ridiculous she looked – sopping wet, with his blazer draped over her shoulders like a high school letterman's jacket on the back of the quarterback's girlfriend.

Monk smiled to himself. "You're my prom queen, Sharona. The most beautiful girl in school."