Okay, another chapter. The story gets moving a little more. Sort of like traffic down here in South Florida, after Hurricane Wilma. Life is nearly back to normal---unless you are one of the favored few (like my neighbors across the street) who still don't have electricity. Being powerless was an interesting experience, but I wouldn't want it to go on for too long. Enjoy this next chapter!

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"Maybe you'll do my streaks again," Ethan suggested to Veruca as they trudged up the stairs to her bedroom.

"Do we have time for that?" Veruca asked. "Doesn't the concert start at seven?"

They reached Veruca's bedroom where her favorite Nine Inch Nails CD was playing on her stereo, every lava lamp in the room was lit, and she was burning Sandalwood incense.

Ethan threw himself down on the bed and stared at the glow- in- the- dark stars on the ceiling. "Been smoking?" he asked.

"No, but want to?"

"Not if you're going to do my hair," Ethan joked. "I wouldn't trust you to do my hair while you're high."

"Ethe, we don't have time for that tonight, honestly. Come on, let's smoke. You got some?"

"I got a little."

"Well, produce it, man! Let's go!"

"You won't let me rest, even for a moment?" Ethan whined.

Veruca came over and sat beside him on the bed. "Let me see that eyebrow," she said. She examined the piercing. "You been taking care of it? Putting the stuff on?"

"Every day, ma'am," Ethan said. "How about your belly button?"

Veruca lifted her black tee shirt and showed Ethan the piercing she had done with him last Sunday. "It's good," she said. "No sign of infection."

"It's cute," Ethan smiled, playing with the little ring.

"It would be a lot cuter if I had a tiny flat belly," Veruca lamented. "Like Cassandra."

"Rookey…" Ethan chided. They had had this conversation a hundred times before, and it always went the same way. Ethan assured her she was beautiful the way she was, but she remained unconvinced. Ethan told her well, if it bothers you that much, go on a diet. Veruca would say she tried, but every time she got the Munchies, it blew her diet to hell. And then they would both laugh.

Only this time, the conversation went a bit differently. "I wish I had a tiny flat belly like Cassandra," Veruca repeated. "…or like Lizzie…"

Ethan lifted his head. "McGuire?"

Veruca nodded. "She had a cute tiny little belly, doesn't she?"

"Well…sure…" Ethan said, feeling something stirring inside him, just thinking about Lizzie. "But it's not like Lizzie would ever get her belly button pierced."

"I know," Veruca agreed. "Can you imagine it?"

Ethan lay back on the bed, staring up at the stars again as the stirring inside him continued. "Yes," he said dreamily. "I can imagine it…"

Veruca smacked him, knowing where he was going with this. "Well, I can't," she said. "No more than I could imagine her perfect boyfriend David Gordon piercing his tongue."

"You mean like this?" Ethan said, sticking his tongue out at her.

They both laughed. "Yeah," Veruca said. "Like that's ever going to happen, right?"

"Hey, it could happen," Ethan allowed. "Look at you and me. Nobody would have believed it of us back when we were in middle school. Now even when we were in tenth grade, right? We were all proper and prim just like McGuire and Gordon. We were on the fast track to college. Well, you were on the fast track to college. I never was."

"But I still am!" Veruca reminded. "Make no mistake. I'm getting out of this one-horse town."

Ethan laughed. "Rookey, half the time I have no idea what you're talking about. And we're not even high yet. What the hell is a one-horse town?"

"It's something else my mom says all the time. It means a really small, backwards town. She says it about Hillridge. In fact, she wants to see me get out of Hillridge. She says it will be good for me."

"See," Ethan said. "That's what's so cool about your mom. She wants to get rid of you, but not because she can't stand to have you around. She wants you to move on so you can better yourself, have a better life. Man. I wish my parents felt that way about me."

"Ethe…" Veruca said quietly.

"No, no, don't try to sell me any bullshit. My parents don't give a damn about me, we all know that. They're so wrapped up in their own lives, and I'm just an inconvenience. Shit! Maybe I will take up your mom's offer and move in here."

"No way!" Veruca exclaimed. "If my mom were to see you walking around here in your little black boxers and your nipple rings she would be all over you, I know it."

Ethan laughed. "Cut it out!"

"No, seriously. I think she's got a thing for you, Ethe. You are not moving in here, mister. I may not be able to have you, but I'm certainly not going to let my mom have her fun with you."

"Rookey," Ethan said, suddenly serious, taking her hand.

"No really, Ethe, it's okay. I understand about us. That's not the problem." They were both quiet, remembering the one and only time they had kissed each other, and how weird it had felt. "Almost incestuous," Veruca had declared. The mojo was not there between them, and after some discussion, they decided they were both fine with that. Oddly, the experience had strengthened their friendship. There was no doubt now where they both stood.

But there was no doubt, either, on this other point, either, At least not as far as Veruca was concerned. She was not going to let her mom have a crack at her best guy friend. "Listen," she told Ethan. "You remember the plan. I'm looking at Ohio State. I'll get an apartment with my scholarship money, you're moving in with me. Rookey and roomie. We're both quitting this one horse town, okay?"

Ethan smiled at her. Of course he remembered it. He was counting on it. "Rookey," he said suddenly. "I love you."

"I love you too," she smiled. "Now do you have the stuff or don't you?"

They got up and went into the bathroom, where they smoked the joint, blowing the telltale signs out the bathroom window. As they smoked, they went back to discussing Lizzie and Gordo.

Slowly the effects of the pot began to kick in, and the conversation grew increasingly intense and unusual. They were standing in the bathroom, talking about David Gordon. Not Ethan's favorite topic of conversation, but Veruca could never get enough, especially when she was high.

It had been three months now since she had developed her hopeless crush on Lizzie McGuire's perfect boyfriend, and as far as Ethan could tell, her affliction was getting worse, not better with the passing of time. Every time they got high, all Veruca wanted to talk about was how smart Gordo was, how cute, how witty, how funny, how brilliant, and you wouldn't believe what he said yesterday in Mr. Stobb's Shakespeare class.

"We were discussing Hamlet," Veruca explained. "And Gordo brought up that Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, I think it's called…oh…what's it called…you know, the one where the kid jumps into the movie with Arnold?"

"Oh yeah!" Ethan remembered, now feeling quite stoned. "I know the movie. I don't remember the title, but I remember the movie. And Arnie, he has this really hot daughter, this blonde chick in short shorts that uses a machine gun and…oh, man…"

Veruca slapped him and it stung like a beating with a cat-o-nine-tails. "Ow!" he screamed, cowering. "What was that for?"

"Focus, Craft! You're getting off topic. Listen, it's about that movie. What's the name of that movie?"

"Oh man," Ethan breathed. "I don't know, but it's like…the greatest movie ever made…"

"Gordo seemed to like it," Veruca said dreamily. "He was talking about the scene where the kid is sitting in his English class, and he imagines Arnold as Hamlet.—"

Ethan giggled hysterically. "Arnold as Hamlet! Yeah, I remember."

"'There's something rotten in Denmark,'" Veruca quoted in a deep voice. "'And Hamlet is taking out the trash.'"

After this they were both laughing hysterically, doubled over with giggles in Veruca's small bathroom. God! This was what Ethan loved about Veruca. They always had so much fun, and they didn't even need to be having sex. She was the only girl he could have fun with without having sex.

"Rookey…" he began when the laughter had died down, meaning to say something mushy.

But Veruca was still thinking about David Gordon. "God…" she marveled. "He's so…so…he has a movie reference for everything, you know? He knows what he likes, and he knows his stuff. He's so freaking smart, you know, Ethan? He's so full of…of…."

"Bullshit?" Ethan supplied, earning another whack with the cat-o-nine-tails.

"No!" Veruca exclaimed. "He's so full of… intelligent romanticism."

"Crap," Ethan laughed, leaning against the bathroom wall, "You're confusing the shit out of me now. I'm not even going to ask."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Veruca said, taking him by the arm. "Come on. let's get out of the fucking bathroom."

"Yeah," Ethan agreed, bleary-eyed, as Veruca led him back into her bedroom.

"David Gordon," Ethan went on as Veruca deposited him back on the bed. "He's my man. Listen, Rookey. I cold hook you up."

Veruca gasped. "No, you couldn't!"

"I could. I could. Gor-don is still my pally," he said, once again gazing at the glow-in-the-dark stars, which weren't glowing.

"No he isn't, Ethan. Gordo thinks you're weird. He thinks I'm weird. He and Lizzie both think that you and I are weird. There may have been a time when you and Gordo were friends, but that was only very briefly. In ninth grade."

"No, in tenth."

"No, it was ninth."

For some undetermined amount of time they argued back and forth about whether it was ninth grade or tenth grade. When they were done, they had not reached a consensus, but they both suddenly knew they needed to eat chocolate cupcakes.