A/N: Hello again. There's not a whole lot of action going on here; just leading up to the thick of the plot (Yes, there actually is one!). Worry not, the story does get more exciting from here. I'd also like to send out a personal thanks to Christina for all your wonderful reviews. Thank you very much! Glad to hear that someone's enjoying this! Without further delay, here's Chapter 18.

18.

The next day, in sunny Southern California, the guys were having quite a good time. "Mine was farther!"

"No way, dude!" Twitty cried.

"Look at that! My straw wrapper's all the way over there! How can you say that?! Where's our judge? Tom!" Louis shouted.

Tom walked over and examined the straw wrappers that Louis and Twitty had blown off their straws. "I rule in favor of Louis. Tough luck, Alan."

Louis threw his arms in the air in victory. Twitty grabbed a few more straws and exclaimed, "Rematch!"

Then they blew their wrappers again, this time into the stomache of the restaurant manager standing nearby who was not entirely pleased with Louis and Twitty's little competition. He cleared his throat, "Ahem. Good morning, boys. Are we having fun?"

Louis looked around because he knew it was a loaded question. "Um, no?"

"If you boys don't stop that I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Sorry about that, sir. Won't happen again," Twitty said. The manager walked away and the guys pretty much figured that they may as well move on to something or somewhere else. They piled into the car and went on their way. After all, it had only been the breakfast hour. "Dude, that was kinda fun," Twitty said, reminiscing already.

"Excellent job again, Louis," Tom interjected.

Louis tried to put on his modest face, "Yeah, well . . . I try."

"Hey, guys, lets see if we can rent one of those boats and go into the bay a little bit," Twitty suggested.

"Yeah, that could be something. Hey, Tom, you know about boating stuff, right?" Louis asked.

Tom sat up straight in the car and tried to talk like a sailor, "I sure do, Matey. Me's put a whale of miles behinds me at the helm of de USS Doris." He saluted.

"Easy, Tom, we'll just need you to keep us from sinking or going off into the Pacific or getting attacked, OK?" Louis said.

"That I can do," Tom responded.

"To the docks!" Louis and Twitty said as they pointed forward in anticipation.

Tom, not wanting to break the mood, but needed to in order to correct them, "Actually, gents, the docks are that way."

Later that day . . .

"Louis! Slow down! You're gonna hit that boat!" Tom screamed.

The guys rented a little motorboat and were zipping across the bay. It was Louis' turn to steer the boat. Tom and Twitty were beginning to think that maybe this wasn't such a good idea. They should have known the statistics were bad. There's already too many boating-related deaths per year. And that's even without Louis. "Oh wow! I didn't even think boats could go this fast!" Louis cried.

"Hey, dude, I think maybe it's time to ease up a little. I mean, there might be kids out here," Twitty warned. Unfortunately, Louis didn't really seem to hear. He just kept going. Luckily, after awhile he burned all the gas out and they were stuck in the bay. "Good job, Louis," Twitty said.

He pointed his finger, "Hey! This was not my fault!"

"Who was steering?" Tom questioned.

Louis shifted his eyes, "Well, well, I uh, I, Hey! You're the boating expert, Tom! You should have known!"

Louis and Tom were eyeing each other and it wasn't looking pretty. So, Twitty stepped inbetween them to make sure nobody got hurt. "Guys, guys, this isn't going to help any. If we just keep a sharp eye out, maybe we'll see some other boat and maybe they'll be able to help us." Twitty started looking out on the beautiful blue horizon and behold, there was another boat in the not-too-far distance. Twitty and Tom stood up and waved their arms and screamed. Louis, on the other hand, jumped up and down, rocking the boat, and he eventually fell out and into the water. Twitty and Tom were cackling. This got the attention of the other boat and they came towards them and bailed them out of their mess. They attached their out-of-gas boat to the one that worked, and they were saved. They returned to shore shortly thereafter and they made Louis buy them dinner.