June, 1985

"Gentlemen, start your engines," Michael said to himself as he watched a tall blonde walking down the boardwalk, wearing heels and a tight denim skirt. Lindsay had a skirt like that…

"Shit," he said as his twin sister turned around. She smiled and waved at him and made her way towards the banana stand, where he was working. He waved back, feeling very uncomfortable. It didn't mean anything, he hadn't realized it was her. He tried not to think about the dream he'd had about her a few nights ago, which was disconcerting enough on its own but made much worse by the fact that it was not the first dream he'd had about her.

"Hi," Lindsay said brightly when she reached the banana stand.

"Hi," he said awkwardly, not meeting her eyes.

"What's up with you?"

"What? Nothing," he said quickly.

She raised her eyebrows. "Okay," she said. "Um, can I have a Giddy Girly Banana?"

"Sure," he said. "What are you doing here?" he asked as he took a frozen banana out of the freezer and dipped it in chocolate sauce.

"I'm meeting Andrew in about ten minutes," she said.

"Oh," Michael said, feeling a twinge of annoyance. Andrew was Lindsay's new boyfriend. Michael didn't particularly like him, partly because Lindsay wouldn't stop talking about him and partly because he thought it was weird that someone who was about to start college was dating someone who was going into her sophomore year of high school. True, if Lindsay hadn't repeated ninth grade she would be going into her junior year, but it was still a two-year age difference.

He finished rolling the banana in candy hearts and handed it to her. "Okay, that's ninety-nine cents," he said.

"You're joking, right?"

"What?"

"I don't need to pay for this."

"Uh, yeah, you do."

"It's a Bluth Frozen Banana! I'm a Bluth!"

"Sorry, Dad checks at the end of each week and the number of bananas has to match the amount of money in here."

"Dad would be okay with it," she said. Michael laughed.

"No, he would not. Trust me, I've asked him, I'm not allowed to have any without paying."

"I'm calling him."

"Seriously?"

She stalked over to a nearby payphone. "It's ninety-nine cents!" he called after her. "You're paying almost that much for the phone call!" he added as she dialed the number.

"Hey, Dad, it's Linds," she said. "Yeah, I'm at the banana stand right now and Michael says I have to pay for a frozen banana, but it's free for me, right? Thanks, I'll tell him. Bye, love you!" she hung up and turned to Michael. "He says you have to give it to me."

"What?" he said angrily.

"You heard me!" she said as she returned to the stand.

"Fine, here," he snapped, handing her the banana.

"Thank you," she said gloatingly and took the banana and flounced away.