Once again, thanks for all the reviews!

Sorry I haven't been able to update in a while. It is not exactly the best time to try and write stuff in the middle of exam week, haha. Well, only one last exam left tomorrow, then it's one more semester till I graduate! Woo hoo!

haha, ok I think you guys don't want to hear anymore about me and my lame high school life. Well, on with the story!

Chapter 7

Over the next three weeks, Vaughn had been coming over to the Bristow residence at least four times a week. Whether it was to spend time with Chris practicing for the competition or to spend time with Sydney, he was having a great time. The competition was less than a week away a Vaughn and Chris were in the backyard practicing.

"Faster Michael, faster," giggled Chris.

They were both trying to practice the three legged race and had gotten quite good at it. Sydney was standing at the edge of the lawn with a camera in her hands, capturing these happy moments on film forever. She had the camera up to her face, getting ready to take another picture when she saw that Vaughn had picked Chris up and they were charging for her.

"Chris! Vaughn!" she exclaimed in an exasperated laugh.

They both helped Sydney up to her feet while crying out, "It was his idea!" at the same time while pointing their fingers at one another.

"Ok, ok, my little monsters," she mocked, "How about we go inside and you guys can help me prepare dinner?"

"Fine by me," said Vaughn.

Chris piped in, "I want to help too!"

Outside of the House

A dark blue sedan was parked on the opposite curb of Sydney's house. The person inside the car put the binoculars up to their face and peered into the house.

The three of them had been working diligently over the past half hour cooking up some spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.

Over to the side, Chris was helping Vaughn prepare the salad. All three of them looked like the perfect family. They were happy and carefree, without any concerns whatsoever.

The person inside the car tapped the dashboard with their fingernails. "Such a sweet looking family," the person said sinisterly. "This happy family will soon change," the person maniacally laughed.

Briarwoods Elementary

Saturday

"Michael, can you please hurry up and park. Look, look, it's Bobby. Mommy, look at the field. Michael, look at all the ribbons and trophies at the table," exclaimed Chris excitedly as Vaughn passed through the parking lot.

"Chris, honey, calm down," chuckled Sydney. "There's going to be plenty of time for you to play with Bobby and there are also plenty of ribbons for you and Vaughn to win."

"Mommy, why do you call Michael, Vaughn?"

Vaughn had just finished parking the car underneath a tree and was about to answer him, when Chris' giddiness took over and he opened the car door quickly and jumped out.

"Jeez Syd, what did you feed that boy this morning?" teased Vaughn. He got out of the car and helped Sydney carry the picnic basket to where Will and Francie were already seated.

"Hey guys!" greeted Francie and Will. "Vaughn, are you and Chris ready to take Bobby and I on in the competition?" joked Vaughn.

"Only if you guys are," he teased back. "Speaking of Chris and Bobby, do you where those two ran off to? Chris just ran out of the car as soon as I parked and I think he said that he was going to play with Bobby."

Francie looked up from feeding Devin and nodded her head to the right. "They went to the soccer field to go play with Bobby's new ball," she replied.

"Thanks guys," Sydney answered as she and Vaughn sat down beside Francie and Will on the blanket.

Over at the playground, Bobby kicked the ball towards Chris, but missed and the ball rolled over to a car instead. The owner of the car stepped out, wearing sun glasses and a hat, looking very suspicious.

"Hey mister! Can you throw the ball back here?" shouted Chris from the other side of the field.

"Sure thing, kid. By the way boys, shouldn't the two of you be playing where your parents can see you?"

"Umm… my mommy and daddy told me not to talk to strangers," Bobby blurted out quickly. The two of them ran off, back to their parents, not seeing the creepy smile on the man that was watching them run off.

"Mommy, I'm hungry," whined Chris.

"Me too, mommy," added Bobby.

It was about lunchtime and a lot of the kids at the picnic were getting very hungry. The father/son competition was to start a little bit after one o'clock.

Francie opened up her picnic basket and started to pass out the sandwiches to everyone. "Here you guys go," she said.

Will came up from behind her a put his arm around her waist, then leaned in to give her a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks hon," he told her.

"Eeew!" squealed Bobby and Chris. Bobby said to his parents, "Mommy and Daddy, that's just icky."

"Aww, come on you guys, when you both are older, you'll like girls just as much as me and Will do," teased Vaughn. Just like Will did, Vaughn put his arms around Sydney's waist.

"Michael! Mommy!" Bobby sighed exasperatedly. "That is just gross. When I grow up, I will never want to kiss any other girl, besides mommy," he stated firmly.

Sydney said laughing, "You guys are really funny. While you two were playing at the soccer field earlier, one of your classmates came up here looking for you two."

Bobby and Chris just looked at each, slapped their foreheads, rolled their eyes, and said to each other, "Oh no!"

"It wasn't smelly Kelly, was it mommy?" asked Chris.

"Boys, don't be mean to her. I thought that was absolutely sweet of her to come look for you two."

Bobby rolled his eyes once more, "But she is the smelliest girl in class! And besides, it's just icky for a girl to like me. I'm only in kindergarten! Why can't she like any other guys besides me and Chris!"

"Whatever you boys say…" said Vaughn.

After everyone had finished their lunch, everyone got up to go walk over to the competition field. Even though this father/son thing was for all of the little boys at the school, from kindergarten to fifth grade, it looked like Vaughn and Chris and Will and Bobby were pretty much set to win. Compared to all the other fathers there, Vaughn and Will were the most physically in shape because of their CIA training and conditioning.

The four guys sat down in the grass with all of the other people that were going to compete while Devin, whom Francie was carrying, and Sydney headed over to the trees to sit under the shade.

"Friends and family, I would like to welcome you all to the forty-seventh annual father and son competition and picnic," said the principal from her podium. "Let the games begin!"

ooh... interesting. hmm...