That Saturday, February 14 came too soon. My stomach was feeling worse than if I'd eaten a pair of black bananas and three-day-old eggs. Don't tell me how I know. I don't care to discuss it.

Anyway, Larry and I were in my room, practicing along with Roger, Rudy, and another guy from school were practicing our instruments. We didn't sing, 'cause of course, it kinda makes us squeamish. Little did I know that that very evening I would discover that…well, you'll see.

After about two hours of practice, and went they all went home, Larry listened to music and was reading a World Atlas, swiveling in his chair, while I sat beside my bed, throwing darts at a target. I looked at the watch: 5:29 pm.

If I hated slumber parties so much, and if was so much against it, why was I thinking of showering? Why was I thinking of getting all cleaned up and styling my hair and washing my face and dressing neat and brushing my teeth and all that? Why, I even had butterflies in my stomach.

Well, I was so busy in thought that I didn't realize that I had turned around and I accidentally shoot a dart at Larry's back. "Ye-HOW!"

"Oops. Sorry, Larry. I didn't mean to…"

He stuck the dart out of his back. "It's all right. You're nervous, right?"

I laughed. "What makes you think that?"

He looked at me with a sly smile. "Come on, Spiny. I know you a little too well. You are nervous about the idea of having a bunch of beautiful girls under your roof sleeping in the room next to yours. You want to make an impression, right?"

I gave him a lopsided frown/smile. "What do you know about that?"

"I don't. I just assumed."

I put my hands on my hips and stared at him. "Oh, yeah. Well it just so happens that you don't know me as well as I know me because I'm with me almost constantly!" HUH? What stupidity did I just say? Well, I guess when you're all excited like that you don't really use your head when you speak.

Larry looked at me with a silly smile. "What?"

I groaned. "Ah, never mind." I grabbed a pair of beige dress pants and a green-button down dress shirt from my drawer and clean underwear. "I'm going to shower, okay?"

"Why? You aren't going anywhere?" he said teasingly.

I ignored him, muttering something in Amarkian under my breath. Anyways, after I'd showered and dressed I went down to get a snack. I grabbed a banana and chocolate milk. Then Robert came in. "Hey, Spiny?"

"Yeah? What's up?"

He came over and sat at the table across from me. "Can I tell you something?"

"Sure. What is it?"

"Well, it's about the girls having this sleepover party."

"What about it?"

"Well…I don't know why, but for some reason, I'm not really upset like last time."

I raised my eyebrow and looked at him slyly. "Oh?"

He breathed deep. "Every time Meagan smiles I get butterflies in my stomach and my knees get jittery and my palms get sweaty. Does that mean I'm in love?"

I couldn't help smile. Rob. He had his first crush. Hard to believe that he was almost twelve. Guess he was growing up. "Well, either that or you've got a real bad case of the measles."

We both chuckled. I could see his cheeks got pink. "Is it all right if a boy likes an older girl?"

I exhaled and stood up to take my glass cup to the sink. "Well, when I was in the lower fifth grade, I was trying to court a girl in the upper fifth grade. She was five months older than me. And I do have to admit there was some talk because of the age. But it doesn't really matter."

Robert nodded. "Well. I think I'll go…clean up."

I smiled at him. "Sure."

Just before he left, he said, "Hey, Spiny, is it all right if you don't send me over to someone's house when the girls come?"

"Well, sure. We'll send just Greeny this time. Okay?"

He smiled. "Okay." Then he ran up to his room.

Afterwards, I went up to my room and combed my hair into my style: wavy especially at the front, with a parting at the left. I use a special gel/mouse mix that's made just for me. It's made from all-natural materials which leaves my hair soft, strong, and not too plastered but with a firm hold.

At about 6:15, I was in my room, playing some chords on the guitar, with my room's door open, when I heard the doorbell ring. I was about to leave to go get it and you know, welcome the, uh, guests, but Patty said, "I'll get it!"

I returned to my guitar when I heard to door open and greetings and hellos and all that. After a while, I heard them coming up on the elevator. I, uh, quickly checked in the mirror to see if I was, you know, presentable. That's perfectly normal, right?

So there I was picking away at the guitar, when Patty and the girls passed by my room. "Spiny?" I heard Patty say.

I looked up. "Yeah? Oh, hey girls! How's it going?" I smiled as politely and friendly as I could.

They all smiled and said "hi" back. "Hey, Patty? Does Spiny always look so neat and tidy and well-dressed?" said Amanda.

I looked down at my guitar and pretended that I didn't hear. But out of the corner of my eye, I could see Patty smiling. "Oh, yes. He's always like that. Kinda impresses me."

Well anyways, they passed on to the girls' room while I sat on my bed, playing with the guitar. I tried to sort of lie low, you know. Try to be unnoticed. And not that I was nosy or anything but the walls are sort of, thin, you might say. Everything comes in loud and clear, even whispers.

And if I wasn't mistaken, I'm sure that I heard my name mentioned about 85% of the time. I'm not exaggerating or making it up. I'm almost sure. Anyways, a few minutes later, I put away my guitar while Larry was drawing sketches. He does things like that in his free time.

I walked out of my room and knocked on the girls' door. "Who is it?" said Kathy.

"It's me," I said.

I heard some quiet giggling. "Who's Me?"

I rolled my eyes. "ME. That's an acronym for MEan and Angry Brother."

More giggling. "Katherine!"

She opened the door. "Just teasing." She opened the door the full way. The girls had spread out their sleeping bags, and their pillows. They were looking through Kathy's box of movies to see what to watch, and their backpacks were stacked up against the wall. "I was just wondering if you girls wanted me to order something. I could order pizza, subs, Chinese food…"

Kathy turned to the other girls. "You all want pizza?" They all nodded.

"All right. I'll call up and order pizza for dinner then," I said. Then I called on my cell-phone and called the local pizza place and ordered ten pizzas. Five were for Larry and the rest for the girls and me. I personally like Alfredo cheese. And I also got Italian sausage, pepperoni, double-cheese, anchovy, and pineapple.

About ten minutes later the doorbell rang. I opened it and it was the pizza boy. He was a Velociraptor in a pizza delivery outfit. "Ten pizzas for Royal Residence."

I took the pizzas and paid him the money. "Thanks."

After I'd put the receipt away, I was about to close the door, when was just staring at me, holding his hand out. "What?" I said.

He cleared his throat.

Oh, yeah! "Oh, the tip. Fifteen percent?"

He nodded and smiled. I gave him the tip then he left. How could I have forgotten the tip? Only an idiot would forget that. Sure Larry would but not me.

Well, that wasn't important anyways. I had the food for the, uh, event.

I still had butterflies in my stomach and I was still kind of shaky all around.

I carried the pizza boxes upstairs. "Larry! Here are your pizzas." He appeared out of nowhere, literally, out of nowhere, came up and sniffed the pizza boxes with a huge smile. "Mmm! Thanks."

He grabbed five of the boxes and he disappeared into one of the elevators going down to the Spy Lab. Said he was going to do some seismic research and was going to work on some new powers and spy gadgets.

Then I went over to the girls' room. I knocked on the door. Nothing. Knocked again. Nothing. Huh. Didn't seem like a prank. Hmm. I opened the door. There was no one. I pressed the intercom that's beside the door. "Where are you?"

"Down in the Karaoke Room?"

"OK. Be right down."

I stepped down the stairs until I got to the room. As I approached it, I could hear music and singing. When I knocked on the door, the music was turned off and the door opened. It was Lilia. WOW! She was SO cute. I mean, her face was less than six inches from mine. I looked away because I got the sudden urge to kiss her on the lips. I could even feel my face flushing.

"Uh…uh…here are the pizzas. I can get some soft drinks, if you girls want too." Lilia was clearly amused by my nervousness. She giggled. "No, thanks. It's all right."

I handed her the boxes and was about to leave when she said, "Hey, why don't you stay with us a little while?" She opened the door the whole way. The girls were slouched down on the comforter in front of the TV, the Karaoke Machine and hundreds of CDs. Amanda was holding the microphone. She'd been singing "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction.

I got really nervous. I mean, really? "Uh, I don't, I mean, maybe you girls want some quality time together without my interfering, and uh…"

Amanda said into the microphone, "Come on, Spiny! You're a really fun guy."

"Yeah, just a little while, huh?" said Samantha. Wow, I said to myself, girls like me that much?

"Well…I…" Kathy gave me a look that said Just do it.

I rolled my eyes and sighed. I smiled and relaxed my shoulders. "Well…all right. Okay. Just a little while." The girls all whooped and cheered. Wow! Was I that likeable? Maybe Larry was right. Maybe I did have a natural way of making girls like me.

Well, I stayed a little while. The girls sang some more songs. Ballads, dance songs, pop, rock, Latin, etc. Amanda sang another song from One Direction, Meagan sang "A Dream Worth Keeping" by Sheena Easton, Samantha sang "Beautiful" by Mariah Carey, Kathy did "Time after Time" by Cindy Lauper, and Lilia sang "Into A Fantasy" by Alexander Rybak. Oh, sure they all sing real well, but Lilia…I was astonished. The way she could carry tunes and the notes and just move smoothly through the song with her voice…it was just wow.

After a while, when the pizza was almost finished and we were talking and laughing and all that, Kathy said, "Hey, Spiny. Why don't you sing?"

HUH? Me sing? I, uh…..My face froze. It just froze. My whole body went into shock. I didn't know what to say. I felt my face get pale and my heart was throbbing.

"Yeah, that's a good idea!" said Meagan. By now all the other girls were all smiley and excited and cheery.

I put my hand on the back of my neck and looked down, "Well, I don't know. I don't have much of a voice."

"Oh, come on. Don't we want him to sing?" said Meagan to the other girls. They all cheered and stared chanting "Sing! Sing! Sing! Sing!"

Well, what could I do? This wasn't a talent show or anything. Just a little karaoke party. Well. I stood up to the front, picked my song and grabbed the microphone.

Well. Here goes nothing.