Ch 7

Cassie waited around impatiently on Jack's porch. She was meeting her mother there for dinner with Jack and Sam. Her mom had called minutes before to let her know she was running about fifteen minutes late. It was a school night, so Cassie hadn't had other plans, and besides, she had been interested to see how Jack and Sam were getting along since he had broken his ankle. She and her mom had spent a rather pleasant evening speculating on the potential goings-on.

As she finally gave up knocking, tried the handle, found it open, and let herself in, she stopped in surprise. Nothing they had come up with was quite as good as this, she thought as she tried to silently shut the door behind herself.

There was a very loud conversation coming from Jack's bedroom. Peering down the hallway, she could just make out that the door was open as Sam's voice loudly said, "They're going to be here ANY minute!"

"I don't care!"

"You've been wearing that shirt for the past three days!"

"So? It's not like I've been chasing Jaffa around in it, I've been sitting around the house!"

"That's not the point!"

"It's not smelly or anything!"

"It's got pizza sauce on it!"

"It blends in with the theme of the shirt!"

"Shirts should not have themes!"

"Hear that, Homer? I knew she was jealous of you!"

"Take. Off. The. Shirt."

"No!"

There was a scuffling sound, followed by, "Take it off or the Bart one gets it!"

"Sam! Put down the Sharpie. We can all walk away from this. No one has to get hurt..."

Cassie was clutching the wall in silent laughter.

There was several moments of silence, followed by Sam's voice again. "Thank you. Now, you are going to shave, right?"

At the loud growl that followed, Cassie jumped and knocked a picture off the wall. It clattered loudly to the floor and the noise from the bedroom stopped.

Not wanting to get shot, she called hastily, "It's me, don't shoot!" as she grabbed the picture, which was thankfully not broken. As she re-hung the picture, Sam hurried to greet her, slamming the bedroom door shut behind her and clutching a tee-shirt in her hand.

"Cassie! I didn't hear you come in!" she exclaimed in an overly-cheerful voice, clearly unaware that Cassie had heard the conversation.

"Hi, Sam," she said, unable to conceal her huge grin as she hugged the older woman. "Where's Jack?"

"Um, he's just getting ready. Come on, let's go order the Chinese food."

"Mom's running a little bit late."

"No problem."

"Um, Sam?"

"What?"

"What are you doing with that shirt?" she asked, watching in amusement as Sam stuffed it in the back of the freezer.

"Nothing. How did finals go?"

"Well..."

Cassie started to answer, but they both jumped as Jack bellowed, "SAM! I'M BLEEDING!"