hey everyone! first and foremost, thanks to the reviewers and the readers. Cimmy and I are so glad you like our story. we definitely appreciate it. we really do.

here's chapter 5. we're actually done with chapters 6, 7, 8, and Cimmy is writing chapter 9 as I type this. it's going up kind of slowly though. I have to do all the formatting and stuff, to get the spacing right, which takes a while. But I like the spacing, ya know, in between the lines to be close to perfect. I'm a bit of a perfectionist like that…or, quite possibly, a freak too, depending on how you look at it. *grins* anyway, chapter 6 will definitely be up later today, so check back if you're interested. read and review chapter 5 for us for now, though, ok? *cheers*

Peace and Peaches,
            Kristine and Cimmy

disclaimer: the Ducks belong to Disney. Fred and Cecilia belong to Cimmy. Lex, Jeff, and their band belong to NYgoldfish54.

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Chapter 5: Paranoia to the Max
By Cimmy

Fred's POV

"Woohoo, a king-sized bed!" Cecilia cheers and takes a leap onto the cover. I stand in the door and take a deep breath of relief that she's not always like this.

"Yeah, woohoo, look," I say with an uninterested tone. I should be thrilled by the fact that we share room, because we're never allowed to do that when we're on a tournament or something. We have shared a bed before; we have just never slept together. That sounds wrong too.

"Guess what?" Cecilia says somewhere close to my ear. I twitch and wave her off like a fly. I didn't realize she was so close. "We have a view over the pools. This is so awesome! I've never lived like this before!"

I put down the bags I was carrying. Then I go over to the TV and turn it on. Woohoo my ass, this is just plain luxury. I'm up to my ass in this crap every day of my life. But I guess I should be happy for those less fortunate. They don't live like this every ding-dong day of their life.

Cecilia rushes over to the window and climbs out on the balcony. I guess she didn't see the door. I have to get up and watch so she doesn't fall over the edge. She's dangerously close when she leans over to see if she can look at the balcony below us. I grab her shirt. "Stop that," I order.

"Yes, sir," she answers and disappears inside again. I hate when she calls me 'sir'. I know she's kidding, but it's still uncomfortable.

"Cecilia?" I call when she's been quiet for a while. "Where are you? What are you doing?"

"Look! They're showing 'First Kid' on pay-per-view!" she shouts back. Oh my God, she's found the remote-control. Soon she'll be ordering things to our room, I just know it. And how old is that movie anyway?!

My girlfriend is lost in her own little world, so I decide to go out on the balcony for a while. It's much calmer out there, and not so hot.

There's something bugging me, but I can't figure out exactly what it is. Maybe it's because I know that Guy's pissed at me for some reason. Or that I'm annoyed with Cecilia. It could be because of Lex, she annoys me as well, but in another sort of way. Let's just say that it's because of Charlie, then I don't have to worry anymore.

The problem is that I know that Charlie's not the problem.

Suddenly I hear the door open, and I turn around. "I'm done with the movie," my girlfriend announces. "What's up?"

"Not much," I say and look out over the pools. Or maybe they're just small lakes? "Come here for a while."

She leans against the balcony again, this time without trying to climb over it. I decide that I should say something. "You like it here, don't you?"

"Well, I've only been here a couple of hours, but sure, I like it. What's not to like? Everything is so..." her voice trails off. I wait for her to continue, but she's just standing there, looking out over the same view I stared at.

"What?" I ask.

"It's just so... beautiful," she says with a low voice. Uh-oh, what's wrong now? She's never this serious, and she never uses the word beautiful.

"What's wrong?" I must ask. She looks at me and smiles. Don't say she's noticed how weird I am because of all this! I don't want her to find out.

"Don't you like it?" she wants to know. It's official; it's my crappy mood that's bringing her down. "We could go someplace else."

"Nah, I like it," I grin. "Wanna order something from room-service?"

She looks excited, but shakes her head anyway. "Can't we just stay here for a while?"

I put my arms around her and pull her into my embrace. "Sure, why not?" I reply and keep wondering if she's sad. She puts her head against my shoulder and sighs. What was that about?

Before I have the chance to ask, she puts her arms around my neck and kisses me. I can't bring up my problems now. She's got me. "I'm still cold," she mumbles a few minutes later. I realize that she's still cold from being pushed into the fountain.

"You better go put on something less wet," I suggest and release my arms around her waist. She nods and pads off to the door.

Am I really avoiding her, or am I being paranoid? Or am I being both?

I look in through the glass-doors and see her rummaging through the bag I dropped on the floor. I am being ridiculous, that's what it is. Nothing else. I watch her pull her shirt off, and I realize what I'm doing. I quickly turn around and feel how I'm blushing. I've seen her in less clothing then that, and I'm still behaving like... Like when I was younger.

"Fred? Are you coming inside?"

"Yeah, coming," I answer and leave the view and my weird thoughts behind.

Cecilia is back to her old self again. Without that hyper-behavior turned on. I sit down on the bed and snap my fingers. "Fetch the remote, please," I smile.

"Get it yourself," she suggests and jumps on to the bed. She almost falls on my legs and I quickly roll down on the floor.

"Fine, I'll get it," I exclaim and point at Cecilia, who's know lying on her back with her legs straight up towards the ceiling. "You get it next time."

There's nothing to watch, and we both get tired of terrorizing the room-service people after a while. We both agreed that they should divide the M&M's by color and size before sending them up here. Then we ordered some pizza with everything on, but in a certain pattern. Then we scared each other with stories about what they'd done with the pizza as punishment for us being so demanding. So we ate M&M's instead.

"Did you close the door?" Cecilia mumbles tiredly. "I'm still freezing."

Portman probably gave her a cold. Well, the up-side with that is that she'll be calm for the rest of the week…but ill.

Cecilia rolls over on her stomach and throws a peanut at the VCR. "Tell them to bring us some movies," she suggests.

I wonder what the others are doing? Not this, I bet. Cecilia grows tired of throwing food at the technical equipment, and I yawn again. She begins to crawl to the end of the bed, and I grab her leg before she disappears onto the floor. "Get back here," I instruct.

We end up making out. I still can't concentrate. I can't keep my thoughts together. Not even when I'm kissing my girlfriend. Maybe I'm the one with an illness? I jerk my head up all of a sudden. "Can we talk?"

She looks surprised, but nods. "Sure, when?"

"Now," I say and slip my hand through her hair. She shrugs and tries to move.

"Well, could you please get off me, then?" she asks. Oh, right. I almost forgot about that part. "What's on your mind?"

I don't move, because I have to think. I can't do think and move at the same time. It's my handicap in life. "Do you think Guy's mad at me?"

Cecilia moans loudly and grabs my shirt. "Of course not! Stop obsessing. Kiss me again."

I decide to obey her wish. "What about Lex?" I continue after I've kissed her a few times. "Or Charlie?"

She sits up and pushes me off her. "You suck," she growls.

"Okay, that might be true, but you said we could talk!"

"That's usually your way of saying 'let's make out', stupid!" she exclaims and goes over to the mini-bar. "They forgot to take our stuff."

"What? Well, could you listen to me?" I ask and lay down on the bed again. Wow, the ceiling is blue. I didn't see that until now. "Maybe it's because I drive people crazy."

"Might be," she answers from across the room. I hear her drop ice into a glass. "Or it might be because it's ALL IN YOUR HEAD!"

I continue to go on about this. On and on. Actually, I haven't said this much since Connie asked me what I thought about cats. Okay, I was drunk at the time, but I still said a lot. And Cecilia is listening. She always listens to me. Sometimes.

"I think I should watch what I'm doing, so I don't offend anyone, don't you think?"

"Sure, why not," Cecilia says and swipes another drink.

I look at her for a second, then I turn my head towards the window. "I just needed to say that. Are you listening?"

"Sure," she says again.

"Really?"

"Sure, why not." No, she's not listening. She just answers automatically. Great, now I've bored her to death too. Although, for being dead, she's awfully quiet...

"What are you doing?" I mutter and leave the bed. I see her down yet another drink, and I realize what I've done. I've bored her so much that she's gotten drunk just to ease the pain I caused her.

"Give me one of those," I growl and yank the bottle off the table. It's not fair. She's getting drunk without me, and I still can't figure out why I'm so miserable.

***

After a while it doesn't matter that she's drunk. I'm drunk too. And it doesn't matter that our TV won't show any good programs. We're not in our room anymore.

Actually, Cecilia decided that I was boring, so she went to find Fulton. Just to drive Portman crazy, I guess. I followed her in case she'd get into any trouble. Although I was the first one to trip down those damn steps to the next floor.

I'm not sure where Cecilia went off to; I just know that I ended up on the same floor all over again. Plus, I forgot to bring my card key. I decide to knock on the door across the hall. It's room 115, but neither of the Bash Brothers open the door.

Charlie and Adam aren't in their room either, so I stumble back to my room and kick the door a few times until my foot begins to hurt. I can't remember which room Jeff stays in. He can probably help me. Lex would probably overreact.

Was it 120, or 121? Or maybe it was 220? Or 221? Am I at least on the right floor?

A girl with dark brown hair comes out of 120. My sight is sort of blurry, so I mistake her for Cecilia. But she looks nothing like her, and I leave her alone. Instead I sneak up to the door she came out from. That can't be Jeff's room. So it's got to be... 121!

I give up a startled yell when the door opens again. This time it's not a girl with dark brown hair. It's a girl with light brown hair. It's Lex. Damn! "Uh, you're not Anna," she concludes. "I thought you were sleeping. I mean, you and Cecilia. The others went to the club downstairs... Are you okay?"

"Sure, why not?" I answer slowly. She gives me suspicious look. Then she rolls her eyes and grabs my arm.

"Have you been drinking?"

"Sort of," I admit. "But only legally."

"I knew I forgot to empty one of the refrigerators!" she moans loudly and slaps my arm. "Look what you did! Go to your room."

She sounds like my mother. No, not really. My mother never said 'go to your room'. "I'd love to, but I can't!" I exclaim.

"Oh yeah? Did Cecilia throw you out?" Lex mutters.

"No! I forgot the key inside."

"So knock on the door, stupid."

"No one's there," I explain and give her a victorious smile.

Lex just sighs. "Congrats. Sleep in the hallway. Where's Cecilia?"

"Umm..."

"Don't tell me she's drunk too!" Lex shouts and slaps my arm again. "Fred, what did you do?"

I put my hand against the wall and try to keep my balance. I suddenly don't feel so well. Lex sighs again. "You're not going to die on me, are you? Well, just come in then. Anna and Sammie aren't here. I'll help you get the card."

I mumble 'thanks' and push past her to get inside.

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hyperpunchbunny: yeah, there's a bit of tension between Charlie and Adam huh? we're not sure about Adam and Charlie yet, so we're steering clear from their romantic feelings for a little while. they may get together later on, though, so who knows? *winks*

percussion: glad you like Kenny. do you think that Bash Slash thing could be a chant? "Bash slash! Bash slash! Bash slash! BASH SLASH! YEAH!!!!"