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.

"Happy New Year, and welcome back to Hillridge High School." The school announcements began over the loudspeaker as Sam sat next to Howie Gordon in their first period class – an elective single-semester class in psychology that was not usually open to freshmen, but they had both convinced the school administration they were smart enough. For Sam it replaced a useless "study hall" he'd had in first period last semester; what was there to study before any of his classes started? Well, he'd seen enough other students using the period to frantically finish the homework due in the second period, but Sam wasn't that kind of person. He even sometimes finished his homework on Friday night… not like he had a date or anything. He was glad to have a class together with Howie this time; in the last semester none of his new-found friends had shared any classes with him, and he felt kind of lonely because of it. They were going to try to have more classes in common in the next school year… well, except for Daniella, who was graduating this year.

The announcements continued. "…and to celebrate our nation's bicentennial, there will be a special essay contest. Write about what America means to you, and you could win a trip to Washington, DC, to watch the capital city celebrate July 4th in person. Details are posted on the school bulletin board."

"There's a school bulletin board?" said Howie. "I don't remember seeing one."

"Yeah… it's by the guidance counselor's office," said Sam. "I've posted chess club and multimedia club announcements there a few times."

"So, are you gonna try entering that essay contest?", asked Howie.

"Maybe," said Sam. "I'll see if I can come up with something suitably patriotic."

The teacher called the class to order then, so Sam and Howie shut up.

Lunch period was the one other time in the school day when the group of friends sometimes got to be together. Actually, Jo, Daniella, and Howie were officially in a different lunch period than Sam and Larry, but at least Howie had a free period at the time of Sam and Larry's lunch, so he sometimes sat in on their table anyway, letting the guys all be together (and sometimes they felt glad to leave the girls behind… "guy talk" and all that).

After some chat about how their respective holidays were, Sam asked Howie: "So, is it really true that you get eight days of presents for Chanukah, instead of just one like we do on Christmas?"

"Well, kind of," said Howie, "but most of them are pretty small.. I think on the whole Jewish kids get about the same quantity and quality of presents as Christians; they're just spread out more. But it's mostly just the kids who get presents… unlike with Christmas, there just isn't as big a push for everybody to give stuff to one another, other than parents and other relatives giving things to the kids. It makes the holiday season less frantic and aggravating for everyone; I think it's a good thing."

"So that's why you didn't get us anything…", said Larry.

"Also, Chanukah was back in November this year; it's on the Jewish calendar, which moves around relative to the normal calendar. But I did have one question," said Howie. "If there's only one day of Christmas, just what's the deal of that song that goes on about the 'Twelve Days of Christmas'?"

"I'm not sure," said Sam, "but I'm kind of glad I didn't get a partridge in a pear tree, or any of those other birds and stuff… I don't know where I'd keep them."

"I wouldn't mind getting the five golden rings, though," said Larry; "I'd be able to sell them and buy some stuff for my computer."

"You're still doing stuff with that computer?", said Sam. "Didn't you say the one at school was so much better?"

"Yeah, but I still like owning one myself," said Larry. "If I put in more memory, and a display terminal, and a disk drive, then it will be pretty good, and I won't have to wait for other students to finish on it before I can use it. I think somebody's even working on a version of that Adventure game for it."

"OK… I'm just not enough of a geek to really get into all that computer stuff, even though everybody else seems to group me with the nerds anyway," said Sam. "And I actually like sports… I'm really happy to see that the Pittsburgh Steelers made it into the Super Bowl."

"Why are you rooting for Pittsburgh?", asked Howie. "You're not even from there."

"Well, my cousin was accepted at Carnegie Mellon, so he'll be going to college there this fall... but for some reason I've just been 'into' the Pittsburgh teams despite not having a personal connection. Well, I also like the Chicago Bears. Things don't always have to be so logical."

"That's not what Spock would say," said Larry.

"I assume you mean the one with pointy ears," said Howie, "not the doctor who writes about baby and child care."

"Anyway, I've decided I'm going to try to win that Washington, DC trip by writing a bicentennial essay," said Sam.

"Good for you," said Larry, "but there's only one winner per school, so we can't all go on that trip together… it'll separate us."

"We can live without one another for a week of the summer, can't we?", said Sam.

"Can you stand being away from your girlfriend?", asked Howie.

"If you mean Jo, she's not my girlfriend. She's just a friend… who happens to be a girl," said Sam.

"That's what you always say," said Howie. "But is it really true, deep down in your innermost psyche?"

"Hey, stop psychoanalyzing me," said Sam.

"You're right for a change… you don't have a girlfriend… none of you geeks will ever have a girlfriend!", said a new voice from outside their table. The boys looked up to see that their nemesis Steve Sanders was standing there listening to their conversation.

"Nobody invited you," said Sam.

"Nobody has to invite me anywhere, freshman… I own this school," said Steve. "And don't even think about winning that trip… I'm going to do it." With that, he walked away.

"He's entering the essay contest?", said Sam; "I didn't even know he knew how to write."

"He's probably going to cheat and get somebody else to write the essay for him," said Howie. "But I wonder why he's actually interested in winning something so nerdy as an essay contest? Could it be that he's jealous of you?"

"Could be… that's an interesting situation to be in," said Sam.

In their lunch period, the girls were also talking.

"I think I might try entering that bicentennial essay contest," said Jo.

"You know that the trip is to Washington, DC, not to the state of Washington where your relatives are," said Daniella.

"Of course I do," said Jo, "but that's what's so good about it; I've been to the other Washington lots of times, but never to the one on the east coast. Anyway, I think I can write pretty well… better than the nerdy boys that are likely to enter this thing, anyway."