DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters here that I didn't make up myself. I don't own Lizzie McGuire, but she's not actually born yet at the time of this story, anyway.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thanks to all who reviewed this story so far. It's mostly the same few people every chapter… is anybody else reading this? (grin)

Black Knight 03: Don't worry… I'm probably not throwing in any more parents of Lizzie characters… I realize that they wouldn't all be at Hillridge High at the same time, since some might be older or younger, or live in a different place at the time, and some of them may not meet their future spouses until college or later.

SunRise19: I'm not sure yet just how far I'll take it… maybe all the way to the birth of the "Lizzie" generation, which would give me the opportunity to introduce the remaining parents-to-be even if some of them weren't at Hillridge High. But there's quite a bit to get through before it reaches that point.

I've done my best to keep everything entirely consistent with the Lizzie timeline as revealed on the show; I did my homework first by charting the chronology, which you can see in my Web site at lizzie.dan.info.

"Have you heard about those midnight showings of that sci-fi parody film out in L.A… what's it called? Rocky something…?"

One of the local radio station's deejays was talking about the Rocky Horror phenomenon, coincidentally on the car radio as the group of six teens headed for the midnight showing themselves. Sam had left his house in the afternoon, heading for Larry's house – at least, that's what his parents thought. Actually, he walked to the shopping center a mile from his house, where Eddie picked him up. Howie, Jo, Larry, and Daniella were already in the car, having left their houses on similar pretexts.

"It's The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and it sounds like a lot of fun," said the other deejay.

"It sounds like a really stupid movie," said the first deejay, "and I hear the audiences act like barbarians, throwing stuff around and yelling back at the characters… some of the things they say I can't even repeat here. It's full of the seven words that George Carlin says you can't say on the air."

"And what words are those?", said the second deejay.

"You're not tricking me into saying them on the air and getting fired for it," said the first deejay. "But my point is, things like these midnight movie showings prove that today's culture has turned decadent and anarchic… not uplifting like it used to be."

"So maybe what you need is a time machine back to, like, 1955 or something," said the second deejay.

"Or forward to 1995, maybe," said the first deejay. "Surely, our culture will have come back to its senses by then."

"OK," said the second deejay, "What do you think, listeners? Is Rocky Horror a sign of the decline and fall of Western civilization, or just a fun experience? Let us know at 320-KHIL. We're taking your calls… but in the meantime, here are some more of Hillridge's hottest hits… beginning with Elton John."

As the radio started playing "Island Girl," Larry said, "Too bad you don't have a car phone; I'd like to call in about that movie we're going to."

Eddie, driving the car, said, "Only rich people have car phones… do I look like a millionaire to you?"

"In the future, more people will have them," said Larry. "I read in a science magazine that they're working on new technologies for mobile phones that will be more affordable, based on the phone communicating with 'cells' that each cover a small area."

"Oh, so that people in jail can talk on the phone?", said Sam.

"Not that kind of cells," said Larry. "They're local communications towers, which can 'hand off' calls to other towers when you move out of range…"

"Enough with that sci-fi technology stuff," said Howie. "With you, it's always 'in the future' this and 'in the future' that. Can't you live in the present like everybody else? Anyway, we shouldn't be calling into that radio station even if we did have one of those jail-cell phones or whatever you call them. What if one of our parents are listening? We don't want them to find out we're going to that movie showing!"

"Good point," said Sam. "And, to change the subject, does anybody have the slightest idea what the lyrics to this song on the radio actually say?"

Jo, who had been silent so far through all the boys' talking, gave it a try. "Island girl… what'cha wantin' with the white man's world… Island girl… something something in your island world… wanna take you, from your... wrecking ball? (That doesn't really make sense…) Want to save you, but the cost is… I'm not sure what it says then."

"I'm not sure what it says either," said Howie, "but it sounds like it might be something racist; it's probably a good thing that people can't make out the lyrics, or else they'd likely be offended by them."

"So maybe that deejay is right about our civilization degenerating," said Larry.

The long drive continued in Eddie's beat up 1963 Chevy, with Daniella in the front passenger seat, and the other four people crammed like sardines in the back. Sam was at the far right side of the seat, with Jo right next to him. Sam had had some previous experience with being crammed tightly in a car's back seat, from family trips, but in those cases the body he was pressed tightly against was his cousin Ree-Ree. Being in intimate proximity to a girl was an entirely different, and not entirely unpleasant, experience. Sam started to have some feelings that were unfamiliar to somebody coming from his sort of nerdy background. He kept reminding himself that Jo was only a friend, and he didn't want anything more complex to develop. His male hormones seemed to have other ideas, however.

Jo, who was pressed into Sam on one side and Larry on the other, was having complex feelings of her own. She still thought of both of them as "geeks," and the other girls at school continued to tease her about associating with such people, but she no longer cared so much what everyone else thought; after all, she, herself, liked some of the same things the "geeks" did, like fantasy and science fiction. (Though, she didn't obsess on that stuff the way the "geeks" did.) Still, there was some antisocialness to those nerdy types that turned her off a little, and made her hope that she wasn't like that herself. However, once you got to know these people, you could sometimes find that there's a great guy deep inside, just waiting to come out. Jo was starting to appreciate the company of all of the guys, who were good for interesting intellectual discussions if nothing else, but Sam was the one she really found herself attracted to. It was hard to define exactly what attracted her to him – objectively speaking, he seemed somewhat inferior to the others, often coming off as clumsy and clueless in contrast to the relative confidence the others in their group seemed to have in their opinions, actions, and plans – but perhaps that just made him more "human" to her. She decided she really didn't mind being pressed tightly against him… on the other hand, Larry, on the other side, was getting pretty annoying.

"Here we are… that's the theater now!", said Eddie.

MORE AUTHOR'S NOTES: Actually, in the song "Island Girl" (lyrics by Bernie Taupin, performance by Elton John, from the album Rock of the Westies – reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on November 1, 1975), the lyrics actually say:

Island girl
Black boy want you in his island world
He want to take you from the racket boss
He want to save you but the cause is lost