Defeated by one of the largest libraries in existence, the two friends made their way to the parking lot yet again.

"You would really think that the library, which hosts books, videos, tapes, and online sources from almost every country in the world, would have one little book! This is ridiculous, we looked everywhere and still nothing! I mean, was it checked out all this time?! If it was Im going to scream. In fact, I'm thinking about going ahead and screaming now. It's probably one of those books that is sitting on a flea market shelf somewhere, collecting dust. That is where all the really cool books hide, I think libraries need to wake up and smell the print and realize that. But then again, I may be just letting off steam."

Dominic started to get in the passengers seat, but before he could open the door Lina stopped him and handed him the keys.

"I'm tired, can you drive?"

Silence.

"Don't TELL me you don't know how to drive?" Lina exclaimed and basically shoved him in the drivers side of the car. "Looks like we are taking the long way then. You, my friend, are learning how to drive."

Yay. Dominic looked nervously at all the gears, buttons, and dials.

"I've only been driving a year, so I have not totally forgotten the newbie experience." Lina got in on the passengers side and reached over to the back of the car and began to search for something among all the junk piled up on the back seat.

"Where is it? I know its around here somewhere…" She grabbed a book from off of the floor and brought it back up for him to see. "Here it is."

He took the book from her and read the title: "Baby, you can drive my car: A Beginners Guide to Driving and the Rules of the Road."

"That's the book I learned from." Lina took the book back and opened it up to page three. "Okay, boring..boring..here we go, how to start the car. Take the key, what you are holding, obviously, and stick it in the ignition," she pointed to it, " that thingamabobber right there."

He shrugged and with slight difficulty (he was holding the key wrong) got it in to the ignition.

"Good. Easy so far. Now, check all your mirrors. The mirror straight ahead of you, and the one to the side outside of the car. You may also want to look behind you at the back window. This is to make sure no stupid cars are whizzing by when you begin."

Why I am doing this I've yet to know. I've got more important things to do, but arguing with her would just slow me down even more. "There are no other cars coming."

"Good. Put your seatbelt on."

He fastened his seatbelt and put his hands on the wheel just like he had saw Lina do earlier.

"Look down and you will see the gears. Right now the little level is on P, for parking. This means the car doesn't move. Hold in the little button on the lever like this," she put her hands there to show him how to grip it, and then released it, "and pull the lever to the letter D for drive." She watched as Dominic did that, and the car began to ease ahead slowly. "Now. With your right foot, press the pedal on the right to go."

"Allright.." He pressed it, but a little too hard. The car jolted forward at an amazing speed, and was heading straight for the wall of the nearby discount superstore.

"HIT THE BRAKE! HIT THE DAMN BRAKE!"

"WHAT'S THAT?!?"

"THE OTHER ONE! THE OTHER ONE!"

"BE MORE SPECIFIC!"

"THE OTHER PEDAL!" She grabbed the steering wheel and turned the car sharply to avoid collision. Dominic slammed his foot down on the brake pedal and they came skidding to a stop. Eventually.

Lina held her chest and gasped for air. Dominic stared at the wheel in a daze. As soon as Lina caught her breath, she spoke.

"My..fault…please..press it…very gently…You can't go that fast in a parking lot…or even on the highway…" She rested her head against the dashboard and let her arms hang.

"If that was so important you should've pointed it out! I don't have time for a stupid driving lesson, Something bad is going to happen if I don't get that book and you keep distracting me from what I need to do!"

Lina sat up slowly and looked at Dominic. She got out of the car, and the opened his door. Gently,she unbuckled his seat and helped him out of the car. She got in the driver's seat and he in the passengers. With a quick check of the mirrors, she drove home in silence.

Upon arrival, she opened the door for him and he sat down on the couch.

"I'm going to call around about that book before we set out again, okay?" Lina said in a voice barely above a whisper. She walked out of the sitting room, leaving Dominic to his thoughts.

And by exploding I slowed things down yet again. He stood up and stuck his hands in his pockets. I'm usually good about these things, but I just cannot control my temper when it comes to Jacob. He betrayed our family, and continues to betray us by getting under our skin. I don't care what Gregory says about him, I'll never forgive Jacob for putting him in that kind of danger.

It wasn't long before Dominic found himself walking around Lina's home. He stopped and looked at pictures of her that were sitting on shelves. Most of the pictures were of her when she was little, to the best of his understanding, while she was playing with her friends.

These made him smile, but there was one picture towards the back of the collection that really caught his eye.

"Luna. That's Luna.." He grabbed the picture of what looked like a five year old Luna. He ran his finger across the glass thoughtfully. "No, this is Lina, but how? There is something connecting the two of them, I can feel it, but for right now I can't guess anymore than that they looked alike when they were younger."

Thirsty, he stopped by the kitchen and grabbed a soda for himself. He saw the chili recipe pinned to the refrigerator.

I wonder…yeah, that will work. All I have to remember is where Lina keeps everything. He proceeded to find all of the ingredients for the famous chili recipe Lina taught him, and to the best of his ability, attempted to make it by himself. He even included the special touches he had added to his competiton chili, the ones not even she knew about. Once completed, he brought it to her room and knocked on the door.

Silence.

"Please open the door, I have something for you…" He spoke in a soft voice.

Lina pulled herself up off the bed and wiped her eyes. She opened the door, and Dominic came in with a bowl of chili and bread on a platter.

"Sorry about earlier.." Both of them said at the same time.

"I shouldn't have kept forcing things on you. I just wanted to make you feel like you really belonged. I myself am sick of being the stupid outsider, and I just imagined better for you."

"I know your intentions were good," Dominic sat on the bed and broke off a piece of the bread for himself, "I've been under a lot of stress lately, and shouldn't have yelled. If I would've behaved that way around my mother, she would've sent me to bed without supper."

"My friend had a mom like that. No matter old she got, Mom would always be the boss. You can eat that bowl of chili, I'll go fix myself some."

"Can you grab some more of those bread rolls while you are at it?" Dominic asked.

Lina laughed and headed out the door. On her way to the kitchen, she noticed a pile of mail stacked up on the table. Shuffling through it, she found something special and called out to her friend.

"Dominic! Hey, you won't believe what we have free passes to!"

All dressed up with somewhere to go for once, Lina dragged her friend into the bustling night club that had just opened downtown. The music was loud, really loud, lights were flashing about, most of the people in the city it seemed were on the dancefloor, and a weird mix of alcohol and floor cleaner drifted in the air. Dominic held his nose as he was pulled in and flopped on a seat at the bar.

"Isn't this great?" Lina hopped up beside him on the barstool, dangling her legs. She had really gone out of her way to dress for the even, with a short black dress, short boots, her hair in two braids and light lipstick. In comparison to the other people around her, she was dressed simply, but it could not help but catch the eyes of a few gentlemen. A few ladies noticed Dominic as well.

One gent, a tall man obssessed with leather, basically stood in front of the seer to approach Lina. He tried a little too hard to pose in a charming manner, but when that failed, he spoke.

"Glad to see you came out tonight. I'm the owner, and I only speak to the most beautiful that grace my bar." He ran his fingers through Lina's hair and tucked a lock behind her ear.

By this time it did not take a Jacob sighing to tick Dominic off. In his eyes, these were the type of guys that graced his old home of Lynn's Brook, macho, classless, airheads. Also, he was getting tired of sniffing whatever cologne the guy had bathed in before he left. Just as he was about to stand up, Lina did as well, and spoke to the guy.

"First off, according to the article in the newspaper, this club was opened by a woman, not a man. Second, you are not attractive. Third, that line wasn't very original. Fourth, that cologne is making neighborhood dogs pass out, and fifth, I'm going to be sitting over there now." She swung around him, grabbed Dominic's hand, and led him to the other side of the bar.

"You want to get out on the dance floor?"

Dominic shot a glance to the wild party people and shook his head, "It's not really my thing, at least not that type of dancing."

"Sure you don't want to try?"

"Pretty sure.." Pretty sure I can't even hear myself think.

"Okay!" Lina's voice was a lot louder since she had to be heard above all the music. "Lets sit down over on that couch over there!" She worked her way through the crowds and sat down on a pink leather couch, plopping her feet up on the small table next to it.

"Is this what you usually do in your spare time," he asked as he sat back down in their new location,"go to parties and .."

"Wait, I think I know where this is going. Come on." She helped him up and took him outside of the bar, and sat down on the sidewalk looking up at the night sky. "No, I'm not a big party person. I'll admit, I've been doing a lot lately to impress you, but it keeps backfiring on me. Its not often than I have someone to hang out with me this much, and I just wanted to seal the deal on our friendship, by showing you things you may not have experienced before."

"You have helped me, and I thank you. When I go back home, I'm going to bring a lot from the time I had here with you. It's just...people that I care for may be in harms way, and I have no way of contacting them just yet. With that guy I told you about wandering freely, I can't help but be on edge..." he paused as Lina wrapped her arm around him and rested his head on his shoulder.

"There is a lot you are not telling me, I don't have to be a psychic to know that." She said as she rubbed his back gently.

Speaking of psychics... "Thanks."

Lina sat there with him in silence for a while, and then broke it with a sweeter, more gentle voice than she normally used. "Promise me when you leave, we will still be friends."

I hadn't thought about that before. Once I go back home I may never see her again. Maybe I should make the time I have with her count. He wrapped his arms around her, his breath playing lightly against her neck.

"Promise."

Lina stood up and headed to her car, "Its not like Im out any money, they were free tickets anyway. Lets just get home and pig out on junk food."

"You know, I didn't get a chance to watch television where I'm from, though Im guessing you already figured that out." Dominic stated as he smiled at her. He was curled up on the couch with a huge blanket over him, dipping into a mega-tub of movie-style popcorn, "and we didn't have this popcorn stuff either. I wish I could take all the food here and bring it home, but..."

Lina looked over at him, "But what?"

"Nothing beat's potato and mushroom stew."

"It sounds too healthy for me, but cook some up and I'll give it a try. If its good I'll snag the recipe, since you never really know when the next major culinary competiton. If its a tag team, you better be at my side. "

"I'd like to show you where I live. You might be in for a culture shock yourself. We don't have all this stuff at our fingertips, yet life still remains pretty interesting. Sometimes its a little too exciting, even for me.."

"Is that because a lot of major things go down, or you are just an old cranky man in a young man's body?"

"Both."

They smirked at each other.

"Hey, give me some of that blanket, will you?" She yanked it off of him and snuggled with it.

He tugged it back.

And so did she.

Tug..Tug..Tug...back and forth it went until the popcorn got spilled all over the floor. "Well this is just great.."Lina tried to act incredibly serious as she bent down to pick up the pieces. Dominic got a trash bag from the kitchen, and came back to help her.

"I was long overdue for a decent vacation" he said as he got the last of the spilled popcorn. "If nothing else, thats what staying here has been like. However, trying to watch a movie without your glasses bites, when are we going to pick up my new ones?"

"Soon enough, small town, soon enough."