Part Three

It took the better part of a week to get into a routine, working around classes, practices, and mealtimes. It took a day and a half to establish common mealtimes that Julie and her roommates, joined most often by at least Connie and Mara, if not additional Ducks. It took Mara two weeks to realize that living with Connie meant an alarm going off at 6:30 so she wouldn't be late to hockey practice. Despite how easy everyone had fallen into a routine, it took three weeks before Connie snapped.

"I can't STAND that girl!" she said with a huff, stomping into Ashe 304 in the early afternoon. Dominique and Lee were both in class, and Julie was at her desk, reading for her psychology class the next day. She frowned, and closed her book.

"Which one, exactly?" she asked, capping her yellow highlighter and setting it down next to the book. Reaching for her Nalgene bottle and gesturing backward to a beanbag, she added, "In case you forgot, you live with three other girls… and campus is full of 'em." She finally looked at Connie, and raised her eyebrows.

Connie was standing, dripping wet, in only her towel and shower sandals, holding a blue shower caddy.

"I ask her to not lock the door because I wanted to shower, and what does she do?" Connie grumbled. "This is the third time she's locked one of us out this week!"

"Lemme guess. Daniella?" Julie said.

Connie nodded. "She's awful! I left my keys on my dresser, and I know she heard me, because she said, 'Sure,' when I asked her to leave the door unlocked. Last night, poor Mara had to wait two hours for Georgiana to show up from wherever she was to let her in, because I was over at Guy's."

"Sounds to me like that's a job for… Super-Andrea!" Parker cried with a flourish of her high school softball team's North Face jacket as she entered the room. Connie couldn't help but smile at that; the girls on the West Side had given Andrea the nickname 'Super-Andrea' because, despite her eagerness, Andrea had turned out to be a really sweet girl who had become an RA because she genuinely cared about people. She had turned up a couple of days after the floor meeting with candy and asked about everyone's first day, not because she had to, but because she was actually interested. Since then, the girls of 304 and Connie and Mara had made brunch plans with Andrea and a couple of the RAs on different floors in the hall.

"Hey Parker," Connie said. "How was stats this time?"

Parker had realized early on that statistics was one class that she was not going to do well in. Numbers didn't come easily to her, and the professor seemed to be pretty tough. He was an older man, with dark hair, mischievous brown eyes, and a goatee. Parker had immediately left her first class to go to the Robinson Center for Academics and signed up for Supplementary Instruction with a student who'd aced the class the year before. Four SI meetings later, and Parker was still lost.

"Nightmare," Parker groaned, tossing her books and binder on her desk. "I'm useless at math. You'd think as an athlete, I'd know how to use what we're doing, but no dice."

Connie made a sympathetic face. "Sorry."

"Meh," Parker shrugged. "It could be worse."

"Oh yeah?" Julie asked.

"Yeah," Parker said with a grin, "I could be in a towel and still be miserable about stats." Dodging a kick from Connie, she danced out of the room, calling, "I'll be back with Super-Andrea in a second!"

It took Parker the greater part of twenty minutes to find an available RA to come and unlock Connie's door. When she went down to Andrea's door, her whiteboard said that she was at lunch. She continued over to the South Side to Lane's door, but she was gone. Rather than doubling back to see if Isobel was around, Parker went down a floor to Jared's door.

Thankfully, as she approached the door she could tell that he was in there from the mingled scents of coffee and Ralph Lauren cologne. He was sitting at his desk, and from the look of it, attempting to write a paper of some sort, if the stack of open books surrounding his laptop were any indication.

She knocked on the doorframe, and said, "Knock knock!"

He looked up, and said, "Hey, what's up? C'mon in," he gestured to the chair that held his backpack.

"Hi," Parker said, hoping she didn't sound like a freshman. Jared was a junior who played basketball, and was easily one of the most attractive on the team. His floppy brown hair, wide grin, and warm brown eyes made girls weak in the knees, and his height made him a goofy kind of adorable- 6'5 was apparently harder to make seem graceful than it seemed. He kind of reminded Parker of a taller Tony DiNozzo from NCIS."I dunno if we've met, but I'm Parker Harris. I live upstairs, and one of my friends got locked out of her room…"

"Ah, yes… lemme guess. She was in the shower, so you got elected to find an RA?" Jared asked. When Parker nodded, he smiled. "Happens all the time. Happened to me last week, actually. Had to go get Neil. No one to blame but myself." He grabbed his keys, which were lying on the desk. "C'mon, let's head down to the office."

On the way to the RA office, Jared asked Parker how she liked it at Moloney, what sport she played, and if she was enjoying classes. Once they got to the office, he keyed in and left her standing in the doorway while he flipped through the lockbox for the master key. She looked around the office at an assortment of decorations and a giant inflatable palm tree and asked, "Um, is someone planning a luau?"

"You bet!" Jared emerged, master key dangling from his fingers. "All of the RAs decided it would be cool to throw a luau bash in honor of the first month of classes. It's supposed to be Saturday, which unfortunately is the first swim meet and the golf away game in Kentucky." He frowned. "You gunna come?"

"Maybe," Parker said, shrugging. "What do you do at a luau, exactly?"

Jared shut the office again, and they took off for the West Side. "Well, we're planning on having a costume contest, Brent's idea, and Isobel and Emily are in charge of the tiki bar… we're going to weave in some educational aspects too, 'cos we're supposed to educate everyone on Moloney's alcohol policy… did your coach go over that with you?"

"Yeah, it was in the first week or so. We had one girl get thrown off the softball team for drinking," Parker said. Granted, it was their designated hitter, but still. One girl down was difficult, especially since Daniella had been removed that first day. They were supposed to be holding tryouts within the next week. Each student-athlete was able to play up to two sports, as long as their on-seasons were at different points in the year. Most people that Parker had talked to played a fall and a spring, or a summer and a winter sport to help space the intensity of the practices out. She hoped that at least a couple girls were interested.

"Yeah, it's a big deal." Jared said, holding the door to the stairwell open for her. "Anyway, so, a little education, some fruit smoothies, what's not to love? Throw in some music, dee-jayed by Neil, he's a mix-master, and a limbo contest and I think Em's gunna teach people how to hula. She's from Hawaii, did you know that?"

"No! That's sweet!"

"I know, right? So, promise you'll come?" Jared shot her the puppy-dog face. "Pleeeeeeeeeeease?"

"I'm sure we could stop by," Parker teased. She walked into her room. "Super-Andrea's at lunch, but I found Jared!"

"Knight in shining armor, at your service," he said with a small bow, jingling the keys.

Connie picked up her caddy, told Parker and Julie she'd be back in a few, and led Jared toward her door. As they walked down the hall, Parker could hear Jared telling Connie that he'd been a little ambitious a second ago, and described himself more as a knight in shining tinfoil. Parker grinned as she heard his low chuckle. She had just sat down at her desk when he walked by again, and paused in their doorway.

"I mean it, Parker," he said, mock-sternly. "Saturday. 7:30. No exceptions." With a final wave, he walked away.

"What was that about?" Julie asked. She'd gone back to her psychology book, and was in the process of making flash cards for herself.

"Apparently," Parker said, pulling her anthropology book off of her bookshelf, "There's going to be a luau on Saturday. The RAs are putting it on… it sounds like it could be fun." She sprawled out on the floor with her notebook.

Connie returned a moment later, her brown hair thrown into a ponytail, wearing jeans and a pink polo shirt. She hadn't bothered to put shoes on, since she lived four doors down, so she slid into the room on her socks. "What's this about a luau?" she asked, settling herself into one of the beanbags with her Brit Lit homework.

"The RAs are throwing one," Julie replied. She cut a stack of index cards in half with a pair of scissors from her desk. "Wanna go? Parker promised Jared she'd stop by." The blonde's lips quirked into a smile.

"Oooooh!" teased Connie. "Hubba, hubba!"

"I know, I know, I know, I'm that awesome," a familiar voice sounded from the hallway. Connie and Parker looked up to see Russ playing with his collar.

"Hey, Russ," Julie said, not even looking up from her notecards. "Dom's already left for class, if that's why you're here."

"Can't a brother come by to see his favor- wait, Dom's not here? She left without me?" Russ sputtered. Parker had to hand it to him. He was persistent. He'd finally gotten Dominique to sit with him in their First Year Seminar class, a topic class mandatory for each freshman. He and Dominique were in 'Islam and the West,' and he had yet to remember that on Wednesdays, Dominique was in Spanish I beforehand. On Fridays, they walked to class together.

"Wednesday, bud," Parker reminded him.

He clapped a hand to his forehead. "I'll get it eventually," he said glumly. "Catch ya later!"

After she heard the door to the stairwell close, Parker looked up and surveyed her friends. "Can't lie, the kid's got style."

Parker was pleased to see that Russ and Dominique showed up to dinner together after their class ended at 5:15. She, Julie, Charlie, and Adam were already at dinner- Connie had elected to wait for Guy's class to let out at 5:20, but said she'd join them. With the four of them, plus Russ and Dominique, that left six other chairs around them. She asked the others for their keys or jackets to mark the spots as taken, as such was common practice at Moloney. Thankfully, it was a practice that was respected by all.

After tossing her own keys to the empty spot on her left, she jumped back into the present conversation, which seemed to revolve around something that had happened when the Ducks were in high school.

"We couldn't have told you, Banksie," Charlie was saying as he stirred his chicken pot pie. "We didn't know if you'd gone over to the enemy or not!"

"Still," Adam said grumpily, "You could've spared my clothes when you iced them."

"Okay, that was a little far," Charlie admitted. "But it was kind of fun to take out one of the army of sweater-vests you command!"

Parker snorted. "You iced his clothes?"

Russ slid into the seat opposite Parker, and tossed Adam his keys. "You're not still crabby about that, are you, Cake-eater? That was freshman year of high school!"

Adam frowned. "It was a big deal! That was my favor-"

Parker cut him off. "Blondie, if you say that was your favorite sweater vest, I'll never be able to take you seriously again."

Adam glared at her. "But it was! It had hockey sticks stitched around the hem and everything."

Parker laughed, clapping her hands. "Now I've heard everything." Beside her, Charlie was laughing so hard he choked a little on his Coke. Parker pounded him on the back until he spluttered and held his arms up, still laughing.

Adam, on the other hand, was not amused. Parker didn't mean to get him worked up, but she could see how he had become the butt of some of the Ducks' jokes. He was serious about hockey and school, and had a penchant for dressing on the preppier side. Not that it was a bad look, but he tended to dress more formally than his teammates. "Fine," he huffed, stabbing a piece of broccoli on his plate and crunching into it.

Parker had turned her attention to her own chicken pot pie and string beans, and was just about to take a bite when someone slid into the seat on her left. Figuring it was Connie or Guy, she took her bite anyway. Not bad, she thought. A little chewy, but not bad.

"Yo, Wu, what's up?" Russ greeted the newcomer.

"Not too much, just got out of class," Kenny answered. He nudged Parker. "This seat open?"

Parker tried to hurry the mouthful she'd just taken, but settled for gesturing a 'sure, it's yours' for Kenny. He laughed, thankfully, and set his backpack in the seat while he went looking for dinner. Connie and Guy turned up then, and took two of the remaining five seats.

They returned a few minutes later, just as the cafeteria started really getting busy. Charlie and Russ had continued with stories from high school for Parker's sake, since she was the only one present who had not attended Eden Hall. When they got to the part where they sent Dwayne Robertson to rope a Varsity player, Parker was in hysterics; she couldn't believe some of the antics they had gotten away with.

"Where did you go to high school, Parker?" Kenny asked from her left.

"Oh, I went to high school in a town near mine in Rhode Island. Portsmouth High School. Little Compton, that's the town I live in, only has a school for up to eighth grade."

"What was your mascot?" Charlie asked.

"We were the Patriots. Kind of boring, but fits in with the area's history," Parker replied, shrugging noncommittally. "I'm assuming you guys are sticking with the Ducks for your mascot?" She was referring, of course, to Moloney's tradition of allowing each team to choose their own mascot.

"The majority of them have been Ducks all their life. That semester of being a Warrior almost killed Charlie," Russ said. He glanced at Adam. "Oh, wait, sorry Cake-eater, you were a Hawk for a while, too."

"Only a year," Adam said quickly. Parker sensed that Adam's history of being on opposing teams was a bit of a sore spot with him, and understood why. Julie and Connie had explained the whole situation to her and Mara, who had turned out to be almost as goofy as Averman, one night while they were watching CSI.

"We took a team vote!" Charlie said, taking a drink of milk. "I didn't think it was only my decision."

Connie nodded with a smile. "It was very thoughtful of you, Charlie."

"So," Julie said as she took a bite of the brownie Connie had gotten for her when she went to refill her glass of milk, "Any idea what the softball team is going to go with?"

"No idea," Parker said, sighing. "It's getting to be a little bit of a pain in the butt, actually."

"Why's that?" Kenny asked curiously.

"Because everyone wants something different. A couple girls want to go with an animal, another wants to go elemental, it's ridiculous. At this rate, we're going to be the Red Ram Stormwatchers."

Everyone laughed sympathetically.

"How cute," a new voice piped up scathingly. "Should match the mishmash of girls on that team, then." Everyone's heads swiveled down towards the end of the table that had, until apparently incredibly recently, had been unoccupied.

Daniella Meadows, the roommate of Connie's who had been kicked off of Parker's team, sat with one of her friends at the end of the table. Both were sneering in their direction.

"What's it to you, hedgehog?" Russ shot back.

"Cute," the brown-haired girl with Daniella said sarcastically. "Did you learn that in the ghetto?"

Russ started to get up, but Dominique pulled on his arm, murmuring quietly that it wasn't worth it. Russ pushed his plate aside, and glared at Daniella. Since the majority of the group had finished anyway, Julie and Connie stood, which encouraged everyone else to get up to leave. Parker pushed the rest of her chicken pot pie away, and grabbed her jacket off the back of the chair. Suddenly she wasn't hungry anymore.

"Parker, its fine, don't worry about it," Charlie started to say as they brought their dishes over to the window. Parker could feel Daniella and her friend's eyes on them from across the cafeteria. She zipped her jacket up and turned toward the door.

Kenny, who had been behind the majority of the group, put his plate and cup up, and ran to catch up to her near the front of the group. Connie and Guy were deep in conversation about something involving their weekend plans, and Julie, Adam, and Charlie were trying to figure out what mascot the swim team would pick that wouldn't sound too lame. Dominique had gone in the opposite direction, towards the library. Daniella and her friend had been forgotten.

"You okay?" he asked, his brown eyes crinkling in concern.

Parker shrugged. "I feel like it's my fault Daniella's stupid friend said something to Russ," she said finally.

Russ came barreling up behind them just then, having said goodbye to Dominique, and caught Parker and Kenny in a giant bear hug. His arm caught Parker right across the shoulders, and his other got Kenny. He pulled them together, and since Parker was so short, she tucked right into his and Kenny's shoulders perfectly. She grinned up at them, and then frowned.

"Sorry about that-" she started to say, but Russ cut her off.

"Psssh. I've heard… and said… worse," he said offhandedly. "Whaddya say you come with me and Kenny to get Averman, and you can meet Dwayne, and we'll head down to Scoops?"

She laughed. "Uh… did we or did we not just come from dinner?"

Kenny grinned down at her. He liked the fact that he was finally taller than someone. Granted, he'd shot up over the summer, pulling even with Russ and Goldberg in height at 5'11ish, but compared to Charlie and Adam, who were easily 6'2, 6'3, he was still the short one. "With Russ," he said, "There's always time for ice cream."

Parker wrangled herself out of their arms, and trotted over to Julie and Connie. "Hey," she said, "I'm gunna head over to Kenny and Russ'. I'll be back eventually."

"Don't forget that we told Mara we'd watch the Sound of Music with her tonight," Julie reminded her. She made a face. "Don't get me wrong, I love that movie, but I have so much psych homework to do."

"Me too," Connie piped up. "But anything to get me and Mara out of our room is greatly appreciated."

"No big, we shouldn't be that long," Parker said happily. "Text me before you start?"

They assured her they would, and they headed towards Ashe. Parker skipped back to the boys, her blonde ponytail swinging, making her look a lot less like a college student and a lot more like an excited little kid, and linked arms with both of them. "Lead the way!"

"Cowboy! I haven't seen you in ages!" Averman said as he walked through the door to his suite. He had just finished his grueling organic chemistry class, which was both difficult and irritating because it was scheduled during dinner hours three times a week. He had given up in the snack bar due to the long line of people (most of them from his lecture section), and come back to the dormitories.

"Well, now, aren't you a sight for sore eyes!" Dwayne, who was a rather sweet, slightly traditionally polite guy from Texas, stood up from his desk, where he had been working on his ecology homework. "I thought maybe you or Russ or Kenny would come back here before dinner, so I wanted to wait and make sure y'all had someone to eat with. Problem is, I think they went straight from class, and I ain't eaten yet!"

Averman looked at his friend incredulously. Dwayne hadn't had dinner, because he was waiting for his roommates in case they didn't have anyone to eat with? Say what you want about the Cowboy's backwards ways. The kid was thoughtful and polite.

"Wanna go downtown and grab a slice of pizza or something?"

Dwayne sighed, and put his trademark cowboy hat on his head. It had been resting on the side of his desk, next to his laptop. "I guess. I had my heart set on meatloaf. Pizza sure would hit the spot, though!"

Averman threw his backpack on his desk chair, which was underneath a mountain of dirty laundry that had spilled over from his laundry basket. "Then let's go!"

Dwayne stood, and smoothed his flannel shirt, making sure it was tucked in neatly. He took a couple of bills out of the cow piggybank that stood on his dresser, and folded them into his wallet. "Let's rustle up some grub."

Kenny and Russ led Parker towards their room, pointing out the important places- Russ was adamant that Parker see the chair in the lobby that he'd seen two guys making out in when he came out to use the vending machine one night. Kenny stopped abruptly in front of their room, causing Parker and Russ to run into him; Parker almost fell over, but managed to steady herself by grabbing at Kenny.

"Uh, it looks like they're not here," Kenny said glumly. He pointed to the whiteboard on the door. It was definitely Averman's chicken scratch- he could make out the word 'pizza,' but nothing else. "Maybe they went downtown?"

"Huh. Wondered why the rodeo clown wasn't at dinner," Russ peered at the whiteboard. "I think that says downtown." He paused, then turned to Parker. "Maybe they went downtown?" He shrugged.

"You don't say." Her eyes twinkled. Gesturing to the door, she raised an eyebrow at Kenny. "You guys need anything before we hunt down that ice cream?"

"Yeah, I need a jacket." Russ pushed past Kenny and keyed into the room.

Parker wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but she found herself slightly surprised at the state of their room. Set up almost exactly like her own suite, one half of the room had the more 'lived-in' look that she associated with boys. One desk chair had laundry all over it, and had a model of the solar system sharing the desk with a MacBook Pro. The bed was unmade, and the wall above the desk had a diagram of a dwarf star on it. Next to it, the desk had a large stereo and a stack of cds on the top, and draped over the back of the chair was a well-worn hoodie. This bed had a red and black plaid comforter and black sheets, and the dresser top was littered with hats.

Parker guessed that part of the other half, then, belonged to Dwayne, if the cow piggybank on the far dresser was any indication. His comforter seemed to be a patchwork prairie quilt, and his desk had a sturdy-looking laptop and a bunch of books. Among them, Parker noted with some amusement, was the Farmer's Almanac.

She turned to the last set, which was to her left closest to the door. She was surprised to see a plain-looking red comforter and a worn teddy bear on the bed, as well as a framed picture a little boy and an older gentleman hanging on the wall. She stepped closer and stood on tiptoe in order to get a better look.

It was a much younger Kenny, a pair of black figure skates slung over his shoulder as he grinned at the camera. She assumed that the older gentleman was his grandfather- his lined face and fading dark hair were displaced with his wide smile.

"That was right before the first competition I ever skated in," Kenny murmured from behind her. "That poster-" –he pointed to a series of promotional posters hanging over his desk, "Those were from the Junior Goodwill Games, when I first joined the Ducks. And these," he picked up two framed photographs; one was the Ducks, only they were much younger. Parker recognized the majority of them, and spotted Kenny kneeling in the front. He was so much smaller than everyone else, even shorter than Connie, who was kneeling opposite him. The other photograph was his whole family- grandfather in the center, mother and father standing behind him, and Kenny and a young girl beside him. Again, this photo looked to be an older one- Kenny now stood at least 6'0. "These were from high school."

"Cool. Is this your family?" She pointed at the second photograph.

"Yeah. My grandfather came over from Korea when I started skating. Early on, my sister wasn't a skater, but she started shortly after I did so she'd have something to do while I was at practice. Before that, though, they spent a lot of time together."

"How much younger is she?"

"She's a senior in high school this year." There was a hint of pride in his voice. "Allison's class president."

"Nice!"

Kenny put the photos back on the dresser, then gestured to the room. "So, here it is. Eventually you'll be able to get here blindfolded." His eyes crinkled as he grinned.

"Of course." Parker laughed. "Ready, Russ?"

"I've been ready," was the reply we got from the larger boy, who had put on his hoodie in the meantime. "Waiting on you two."

"Sorry!" Parker flashed Kenny an 'oh, crap' look. Turning to Russ and smiling sweetly, "Downtown? Ice cream?"

Russ grinned, and plunked a hat on his head. "On the way, you guys can explain when your relationship started including blindfolds."

The air in the pizzeria was thick with the scent of the most delicious pizza their small Pennsylvania college town had to offer. Called Paulo's, it embodied the pizzerias of yesteryear, with a smart-looking black and white checked tile floor, red vinyl booths, and a real honest-to-goodness jukebox in the corner. Paulo Napolitano and his family ran the restaurant; Paulo was a plump Italian man with twinkly brown eyes and a heavy Italian-turned-Pennsylvanian accent. Maria, Paulo's wife, was plump as well, with dark hair streaked with gray. Her nose curved much like a bird's, and she was the mastermind behind the glorious array of Italian pastries in the glass cabinets.

Dwayne and Averman pushed through the door and inhaled slowly, savoring the mouth-watering scent of hot pizza. As soon as they had closed the door, Maria Napolitano was in front of them, gesturing and speaking in a mixture of English and Italian to choose a booth while she got them menus.

The place wasn't completely deserted; tucked in a small corner booth was a girl about their age, surrounded by books. What Averman assumed was her gym bag was in a heap at her feet, which, upon closer inspection, held her soccer gear.

Dwayne chose a booth nearby, closer to the door. Maria appeared almost instantaneously with menus, bread, and ice water. The older woman whisked around, pouring their water and doling out china, and then disappeared as quickly as she had appeared.

"Some service," Averman said, impressed.

Dwayne took a long draught from his ice water and opened his menu. "Pizza?"

Angela Napolitano rolled her eyes as she read a sentence for the seventh time. The two boys sitting nearby were obviously not accustomed to ordering pizza for just themselves, and had engaged in a very long-winded discussion of what kind to order. If it weren't for the fact that she had an outline on the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire due at the end of the week, she would have found the situation funny.

Now she was just irritated.

"You know, you could always order a pie with half pepperoni, half veggie," she finally ground out, glaring at the two boys.

The one that had taken off a cowboy hat to reveal the biggest cowlick she'd ever seen turned around and nodded politely. "My apologies, miss," he said, Southern drawl evident. "I didn't realize we were disturbing you."

"Dinner rush came and went, so I figured I'd be safe to study here," she replied, turning back around.

"We didn't mean to-" Averman stammered, his glasses wobbling on his face.

"It's fine. I hope that helped your dilemma." She smiled, and turned back to her books.

Maria Napolitano appeared a moment later, ready with a notepad and pen to take their order. Dwayne couldn't help but notice that she shot a warning glance at the girl with the books as she went by, and he wondered how they knew each other.

"Ice cream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!" Parker sang dreamily, staring up at the long list of flavors outside of Scoops. It was a cute little walk-up shop, with a red and white striped overhang and popsicle sticks lining the windows that told what flavors they had. The fact that they were at the back of the line was a blessing in disguise- Parker had spent the past ten minutes debating with herself over what to get.

There was also a slight problem, one that she wasn't sure how to communicate to the boys. Both had long since made up their minds and had started discussing a class they had together. Parker, being an even 5'4, couldn't see the majority of the flavors. After trying to jump, lean, squint, and a brief moment when she had the brilliant idea to go up and study the flavors (this earned her a glare or two from an elderly couple trying to order), Parker let out an irritated huff.

"Russ…" she said in a sing-song voice.

He looked down at her. "Yeah?"

She stuck her lower lip out and batted her eyelashes. "Can you read me the flavors? I can't see most of them."

He grinned. "Sure thing, midget."

Kenny smiled as Russ dutifully started reciting all one hundred and eighty-two flavors. Who knew that in only a few weeks' time he would be playing protector to a little bit of a girl, and that he'd have no complaints? When he noticed that Parker was barely paying attention, he leaned down and whispered, "How long ago did you decide what you're getting?"

She grinned, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Eighty-seven flavors ago. I always wind up getting the same thing."

Kenny stared at her. "Which is?"

"French vanilla, rainbow sprinkles, cone."

"I know you just didn't make me go through saying all those flavors just for fun!" Russ' voice sounded like an exasperated father's as he looked at Parker and Kenny. "You're kidding!"

Parker smiled sweetly. "We're next in line! You would've been complaining about waiting the entire time if you weren't reading…"

Russ shrugged. "I give."

A/N: Hi. Please don't hate me for updating this instead of Jingle Belle. I promise, I'm working on it. I completed my student teaching this past winter, so I was up to my eyeballs in work and couldn't get in the writing groove. I know, no excuses. Enjoy! Over and out, Flyinghawk