"Wake up, Flannery," he said. "Courtney's on the phone." He handed Erin the receiver, which Erin stuck by her ear while figuring out a total and half-listening to the song blasting out of the jukebox.

"Hey Court, what's up?" asked Erin.

"Erin, is Chris there? I keep calling his room, but he's not answering," came Courtney's voice out of the receiver. Erin glanced around the cafe, but saw no sign of Chris anywhere.

"Sorry, he isn't here." Erin looked up as a group of guys came through the door. "Wait. I was wrong. He just walked in." She smiled as she handed a customer her change. "You wanna talk to him?"

"Nah," said Courtney. "I'm on shift in 15 minutes. I'll see him when I get there. Later." Courtney hung up, so Erin put down her receiver and smiled at the guys who'd taken seats at the counter next to her, namely Chris, Erin's brother Trey, his friend Aaron, and his other friend Rob.

"Hey guys, what can I do for ya?" she said.

"We're just hanging out till it's our shift," said Aaron.

"You working overtime tonight?" asked Trey. Erin nodded.

"Yep, I get to hang around while you're working," she said, grinning.

Trey groaned. "Oh goody. Who else is working tonight?"

"You mean 'is Alyson working tonight?" laughed Rob. Trey hit him in the shoulder and gave him a look.

Erin tried to keep a straight face but couldn't. "Well, Alyson is on shift. So's Courtney, Ali, and Colleen. And I think Dave's hanging around too." She smiled at Dave as he walked by with a tray of burgers, headed for table #6. Then another customer was ready to pay his bill, so she moved back over to the cash register. Handing the guy his change, she turned back to her friends.

"Is she really on shift?" asked Trey.

Erin smiled. "Yeah, Alyson is working tonight."

Trey rolled his eyes. "Great. She's just what I need to deal with."

"Oh shut up. You know you like her," replied Erin.

"Oh yeah," said Trey. "I love screaming at the top of my lungs about stupid things like exactly how many pickles are supposed to go on a burger."

"So you guys fight sometimes," said Aaron.

"Sometimes?!?" said Erin. "Aaron, those two never stop fighting!" Then she turned to Chris.

"Courtney called here for you, Chris," she said.

"What did she want?" asked Chris, fingering his lifeguard's whistle.

"Didn't say. She said she'd talk to you when she gets down here for her shift." Erin looked up as the bell on the door rang. "Speak of the devil, there she is."

Courtney came in the cafe, lugging a stuffed gym bag, her hair in a ponytail. She grinned at the group and set the bag down on the counter.

"Hi guys!" she said, trying to grin. She was really out of breath.

"What's the matter with you?" asked Rob.

"I just got out of dance class. Madame Bouvier wanted me to practice a sequence, right after I got off the phone with you," said Courtney to Erin. "I gotta go get changed." She gave Chris a quick kiss on the cheek and then headed to the employees bathroom to get changed into her uniform: black jeans, white t-shirt, red apron.

Chris looked down at his watch. "Whoa! I gotta get back to the country club. Erin, tell Court I'll talk to her when I get off tonight, okay?"

Erin nodded and said goodbye to Chris as he walked through the door. He almost crashed into Colleen, who was coming through the other way.

"Hi Chris! Bye Chris!" she said, smiling and coming down the steps toward the bar/counter-thingy. "Good evening all! Hi Rob," said Colleen, smiling at everyone and kissing Rob. She continued on her way towards the employees bathrooms till Erin yelled at her to stop.

"Courtney's already in there," she explained.

Colleen sighed. "You'd think that with the business we do here, Mike would be able to put in more bathrooms." She plopped herself down on the barstool next to Rob to wait for Courtney to finish changing. "So, what's going on?"

"Nothing," answered Aaron. "We should probably get changed too, but I don't feel like it."

"Everybody's running late tonight," observed Erin. "I wonder where Ali and Alyson are."

"That sounded cute," smirked Trey. Erin smirked right back at him.

Courtney came out of the bathroom and Colleen sprinted for it, leaving Rob laughing behind her. "Where'd Chris go?" asked Courtney.

"He had to go back to the club," replied Rob. "He'll talk to you later."

Courtney sighed. "Everytime I want to talk to him..."

"What do you need to talk to him about?" asked Trey.

"Nothing in particular," answered Courtney. "I just want to talk to him! It's a pain sneaking around. Just because our parents don't like each other, we're not allowed to see each other. It's ridiculous!"

"Well, don't have a fit about it," said Ali, coming up behind Courtney.

"Where'd you come from?" asked Aaron, kissing her.

"Well, Aaron," started Ali, "when a man and a woman love each other...."

"Very funny," interrupted Aaron. "I didn't see you come in."

"I have my ways," said Ali, smiling. "I'm gonna get changed."

"You can't," said Erin, Trey, Courtney, Rob, and Aaron in unison.

Ali raised her eyebrows. "And why can't I?"

"Colleen's already in there," replied Erin.

"Erin, get me a Coke," said Dave, coming over to the counter with a tray. He leaned over the counter and grabbed some straws as Erin filled a glass with ice and Coke. Then he noticed everyone just sitting there.

"You guys gonna work tonight, or are you just gonna let me do all the table-waiting?" asked Dave.

"We were gonna let you do it, but....I guess we can help too," said Rob, heading off toward the guy's bathroom to change. Colleen came out of the girl's room and Ali charged in.

"Why are you all just sitting here?" asked Mike, the cafe's owner, coming over to the group.

"Bathrooms are full," replied Trey.

"You could've gotten changed at home, Trey," said Mike.

"Yeah, but what fun would that be?" answered Trey. "There's nothing like trying to get undressed and then dressed again in a two foot cubicle of space, ya know?"

Mike smirked, told everyone to get to work, and headed back to his office. In a few minutes, Rob and Ali came out of their bathrooms and Trey headed into the guy's room to change. Aaron followed him and soon everyone was in uniform, ready to hand out burgers and sodas.

Aaron checked the roster to figure out what he was doing that night and noticed something. "Hey Erin?"

Erin turned around to look at Aaron. "Yeah, what?"

"Where's Alyson? She's supposed to be working the bar with you tonight."

Erin picked up the phone. "Lemme call her house. Maybe she forgot."

Aaron looked at her. "Alyson wouldn't forget. You know as well as I do that she wouldn't pass up a chance to do some verbal sparring with Trey."

Erin grinned at him and dialed Alyson's number. She got her answering machine.

"Well, she's not there," said Erin, replacing the receiver. "I guess she's on her way." Just then, the door opened and Alyson ran in.

"Hey people! Sorry I'm late!" called Alyson. She seemed a tad pissed off.

"I am really good tonight," said Erin to Aaron. "Alyson, what's wrong?"

"Some idiot almost plowed into me out there!" said Alyson. "He just came right out in front of me! Almost killed me!"

"Too bad he didn't succeed," said Trey, behind Alyson. She spun around to stare at him.

"I don't want to deal with you right now, okay?"

Trey nodded and went off to help a table full of girls in bikinis, his favorite kind.

"You all right?" asked Erin.

Alyson nodded. "I'm fine. I just saw my life flash before my eyes. It was rather boring, if you want to know the truth."

Erin laughed and filled up glasses of soda for the bikini girls. Trey was leaning against the counter giving them a million-dollar smile. They giggled and Alyson almost gagged.

"The blond's cute, don't ya think?" said Trey.

"If you like the airhead, I-don't-have-a-clue kind," replied Alyson.

"That's the best kind," retorted Trey. "They don't argue over the number of pickles on a burger."

"Oh, would you give that up?" asked Alyson. She sighed and headed toward the bathroom to change before Mike saw her and knew she was late. Trey stared after her and turned to pick up the tray of drinks.

"Why don't you just ask her out?" asked Erin, putting the last glass on the tray.

"Because we'd kill each other by the end of the first week of dating," answered Trey, heading off toward the bikini girls. Erin laughed and jumped when she felt Dave behind her.

"Whoa, why're you so jumpy?" asked Dave. He'd decided he deserved a break and was leaning on the inside of the counter.

"You scared me!" said Erin. "Don't come up behind me like that!"

Dave smiled. "Sorry." Then he saw Trey and the girls. "Who are they?"

Erin rolled her eyes. "You guys would die without hormones, wouldn't you?"

"I was only asking!" said Dave. "Trey likes them."

"Trey likes anything with breasts," said Alyson, coming behind the counter and tying her apron.

"And Alyson is not happy about Trey hanging around them," commented Dave.

"Why should Alyson care?" said Alyson.

"Because Alyson has the hots for Trey," said Erin, grinning.

"Can you please speak to me directly?" asked Alyson. "And I do not have the hots for Trey!"

"Yeah you do," said Courtney coming over to the counter. "Don't deny it."

"I'll deny anything I want to, especially if it's not true. And it's not!" said Alyson.

"Yes it is true," said Erin. "Anyone who can hold a twenty minute argument with my brother about how to wash lettuce is perfect for him. Besides, he likes you."

"Oh great," said Alyson. "All the nice, normal guys ignore me and the hyper lunatic likes me. Just my luck."

"He's nice!" said Courtney, defending Trey. "And he's pretty normal too. Just not when you're around."

"Yeah, you do kinda have a strange effect on my brother.......," commented Erin.

"Who has a strange effect on what?" asked Colleen, coming to the bar with an order.

"Alyson on Trey," said Erin.

"Alyson did what to Trey?" asked Aaron, putting his order pad down on the counter.

"Don't you people have jobs to do?" asked Alyson, getting annoyed with the whole discussion.

"Yeah, but we like aggravating you," said Courtney, picking up a tray of drinks and heading toward a table in the back.

"What did you do to Trey?" asked Aaron, glancing over at Trey who was deep in conversation with the blond. He kept glancing over at Alyson to see her reaction.

"She didn't do anything to Trey," said Erin. "She just likes him."

"No, I don't," said Alyson, walking toward the end of the counter to help a customer.

"Yeah, she does," whispered Erin to Aaron and Colleen, who both smiled, got their orders and went off to deliver them.

On the other side of the cafe, Ali was trying to take the orders from a group of six that kept changing their minds.

"I think I'll have the ham & cheese melt," said the one girl. "No wait. I'll have a cheeseburger. No, wait."

Ali tried not to roll her eyes. Each person at the table must've changed their mind 3 times already, and her order pad looked like a piece of modern art. She flipped the page and started over as the girl finally made up her mind.

"Okay, I'll have a hamburger with pickles," said the girl. Ali wrote that down and took the orders from the rest of the table. She collected their menus with a forced smile and headed toward the counter to place the order. When Alyson saw Ali's face, she laughed.

"Tough crowd?" asked Alyson.

"Stupid is more like it. That one girl asked me what was on the cheeseburger! I was dying to say something mean."

"You shoulda gotten Alyson to do it. She's good at that," said Trey, putting the bikini girls' order in.

Alyson just glared at him.

"How's Blondie?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Her name's Tami," said Trey. "And she's fine. She wanted to know if I liked her hair up or down."

"Oh, she needed some positive reinforcement?"

"Positive what?"

Alyson smiled. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did I use a big word? I forgot your vocabulary is limited."

"Tami doesn't criticize my vocabulary," retorted Trey.

"I guess she can't since her vocabulary's restricted to oohs, ahhs and 'like, oh my God!"

"She'll be more expressive later when I take her out alone," said Trey.

Alyson handed Ali her order. "I don't even want to hear about it."

"Tami loves to listen to me," said Trey. "Then again, so does everyone."

"You're conceited, you know that?" asked Alyson.

"You tell me every day," said Trey.

"Which proves what I've known all along, since you haven't changed."

"Enlighten me with what it proves, oh wonderful one."

"You're a slow learner," said Alyson.

"Actually, I'm a very fast learner," said Trey, putting his face two inches from Alyson's. He grabbed some ice from behind the counter and put it down the back of her shirt.

"Ack! You freak! Get it out!" said Alyson, shivering.

"As you wish," said Trey, jumping easily over the counter, and putting his hand down the back of Alyson's shirt.

"Get your hand out of there!" said Alyson, still wriggling from the coldness.

Trey laughed. "Hey, you told me to get it out. I was only doing what I was told."

"That's a first," said Rob, coming over to the two. "What are you two doing?"

"It's called foreplay," said Erin, bringing a new package of straws down to that end of the counter. Both Alyson and Trey gave her a look and went back to work.

"Rob, there's gotta be a way to get them together," said Erin.

"There's gotta be a way to get who together?" asked Dave, coming back over to the counter.

"Alyson and Trey," replied Erin. "If we get them to admit they like one another, then our lives might actually be peaceful. We could all hang out together and they wouldn't be jumping down each other's throats."

"Sounds good to me," said Rob. "But how do we do it? We all know they like each other. It's completely obvious to everyone but them."

"So they're slow," said Erin. "We gotta get them to at least speak to each other civilly."

"It'll never happen," said Dave. "Besides, it'd be boring around here without the constant yelling--"

"What are you doing?!?" came Alyson's screaming voice from the kitchen. Most of the customers thought it was just part of the song on the radio, so they ignored it. Erin and Dave, on the other hand, ran into the kitchen to find Alyson and Trey drenched.

"What happened?" asked Erin, trying not to smile.

Alyson turned to her. "Your idiot brother just tried to carry a tray full of glasses of water behind me. It didn't work."

Dave burst out laughing. "You guys are pathetic! I thought you were working the counter anyway."

"I was," said Alyson. "Now I wish I'd stayed up there!" She narrowed her eyes at Trey and left the kitchen.

"Did it on purpose, didn't you?" said Erin to Trey.

Trey smiled. "I'm that predictable, huh? It would've worked too, if she hadn't spun around so fast and gotten the water on me too." He shook his head, spraying water on Dave.

"Hey, I already took a shower today!" said Dave.

"What's the occasion?" asked Courtney, coming into the kitchen. "Did I hear somebody yell? And why is Alyson wet?"

"She was the one that yelled," said Erin. "Trey kinda gave her a shower."

"Oh. Okay." Courtney just accepted this and left the kitchen, Dave, Erin, and Trey following her.

Aaron came over to them. "Guess what guys? Mike said he wants to close up early tonight!"

"Why?" asked Ali, coming up behind him. The crazy table had eaten and left, so she was feeling a little less hectic.

"He's got a meeting tonight, so he said we're only gonna be open another hour," replied Aaron.

"Oh, sure!" said Erin. "The one night I decide to work overtime to make more money, and he leaves!"

"Well, I thought, since we were all planning on being here late, we could go to some club together," said Aaron.

"Sounds good to me," said Trey. "I'll bring Tami."

"Who's Tami?" asked Ali.

Trey pointed at the bikini girls's table, only to find they'd left. "She was sitting right there! Where'd she go?"

"Who? Blondie?" asked Alyson, coming out of the bathroom where'd she been drying her hair under the handdrier. "She left."

"Well, where did she go?" asked Trey.

"I don't know. She left with some really hot guy," replied Alyson. "Looks like you've been stood up Trey."

Trey couldn't come up with an automatic retort for that, so he ignored Alyson and turned back to Aaron.

"What club?" he asked.

Aaron shrugged. "Zazu's?" (Yeah, I know that's the bird from The Lion King. I just like that name!)

"Cool," agreed Trey.

"What about Zazu's?" asked Colleen with Rob behind her. In case you're wondering, there weren't any customers in the restaurant except for a few that had already been served.

"We're goin' there in an hour," said Aaron. "Mike's closing up early."

"I wonder...." trailed off Courtney.

"You wonder what?" asked Ali.

"I wonder if Chris could come too," said Courtney. "That few seconds earlier was the first time I've seen him in three days."

"So call the country club and ask for him," said Erin.

Courtney smiled. "Okay!" She ran off toward the phone and dialed the club. The rest of the group watched her.

"Kinda like Romeo and Juliet, don't ya think?" commented Rob.

"Don't say that!" cried Erin. "They wound up dying!"

"Well, I was just talking about the situation!" said Rob. "I didn't mean they're gonna die!" He went off to see if everything was all right at one of his tables.

"Okay, great!" said Courtney into the receiver. "I'll pick you up then! Bye!"

She came back over to the herd of workers. =) "Chris can come! But he has to shower and change, so I told him I'd pick him up at 8:30. Is that okay?"

"That's actually great," said Colleen. "We can all go home, get changed, and then meet at Zazu's around 9:00."

"All right!" said Alyson. "We are able to plan! I think we all deserve pats on the back, don't you?"

"You can stop the sarcasm any time now," said Trey.

"Oh, but it's so much fun annoying you," smiled Alyson. She walked away to give a customer his change, leaving Trey staring at her.

An hour later, everyone had changed and headed home. Courtney had changed into a black dress and put her hair up. When she came downstairs, her mother raised her eyebrows.

"And where are you going all dressed up?" asked her mom.

Courtney smiled. "Just out with my friends. We're going to Zazu's."

"Oh. Well, be back by 11:00," said her mom.

"Mom!" complained Courtney. "We're getting there at 9! That's no time at all! Zazu's is open till 2. 'Sides, it's a Friday."

"Well, you're not staying out that late." Courtney's mom sighed. "Be home by 1:00."

Courtney gave her mother her sweetest smile. "Thanks mom!"

"Mmm hmm. Drive carefully." called her mom as Courtney shut the front door behind her. She got into her convertible and pulled out of the drive, headed North towards Maplewood, where Chris lived. She pulled onto his street and drove slowly past his house. He was out waiting by the curb in front of the gate (he lives in a mansion), for fear his parents would see Courtney. She stopped a few feet away from him and he climbed into the car.

"Hey, you look great. How ya doin?" asked Chris, kissing Courtney shortly on the lips, as she pulled away from the curb.

"Fine, although I'd be better if I could see you more often," replied Courtney. "When are we gonna tell them?"

Chris sighed and leaned back in his seat. "After elections. Once we find out if it's your mom or my mom that's gonna be mayor, we can tell them. Okay?"

Courtney frowned. "I guess. I just hate all this hiding and sneaking around. I feel like I'm breaking the law or something."

"We're breaking their laws, stupid as they may be," said Chris. "I can't believe our parents won't let us associate. They weren't gonna let me out of the house tonight cause they thought you'd be at Zazu's too."

"Ha! My mom and dad don't even like me hanging around my friends cause you're friends with them!"

"We're stuck in a rotten situation, you know that?" asked Chris.

"Yeah," replied Courtney, "but we have the whole night together. Let's just forget about them and concentrate on us." With that, she turned onto South Street and into Zazu's parking lot.

Zazu's was an old factory warehouse that had been converted into a nightclub for the under 21 crowd. The outside was painted with glow-in-the-dark paint, in shapes of swirls and stars. Inside, it was a two level establishment, complete with neon signs, a bar, and a dance floor.

Courtney could hear music blasting already while she got out of the car. Chris took her hand and they went up to the entrance where they saw Erin, Dave, Trey, Ali, and Aaron already standing.

"Hey guys!" said Ali in greetings. "How ya doin' Chris?"

"Pretty good," replied Chris. "My hair's turning light blond from sitting out in the sun all day, but other than that, I'm okay."

"But you're getting a really great tan," said Erin. "Hey Alyson! Over here!"

Alyson came over to the group. "Hi people. Hey Courtney! I love your dress!"

"I like yours too," replied Courtney.

"Yeah, red," commented Trey. "Isn't that the traditional color for prostitutes?"

"I don't have to hang around him all night, do I?" asked Alyson of the group.

Erin smiled. "Not unless you want to. Which you do."

"Oh, I do?" said Alyson, giving Erin a withering look.

Erin kept smiling. "Yep. You do."

Trey looked at his sister and her friend like they were nuts. "Whatever. Can we go in?"

"No!" said Ali. "Colleen and Rob aren't here yet."

"Yeah, we are," said Rob, coming up to the group, his arm around Colleen's waist.

"Oh, well then I stand corrected," smirked Ali. "Let's go!"

Aaron looped his arm through Ali's and they lead the group through the door and into the bright lights and pulsating sounds of Zazu's.