Just off the Key of Reason

"I think it's a girl."

"Shut up."

"Well, it's true! It's probably a girl."

"I said, shut up."

"Jeez, I only wanted to suggest a playdate and this is how you treat me?" Kenzie pouted, collapsing on my mattress as I chucked my backpack across the room, William hesitantly following me in.

I was blushing furiously. William. Freaking. Beckett. The woman-man who was prettier than I was was in my room, seemingly surveying my messy room - clothes thrown all over the place, iPod dock blasting Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton, desk splayed with booklets of private schools that my mom had dropped off a few days ago, unmade bed, and computer turned off. He had to duck to get into my room, thanks to the door frame.

Who's in a bad mood? Who's in a taxi?

"You have a nice room." William said, looking around and smiling a little. "Your mom was pretty nice, too."

Ugh. My mom was totally getting weirded out by the constant hordes of boys entering my room, I could tell.

Turning the clock back, avoiding a fight with this man.

Kenzie grinned at me, and I scowled back at her. I mouthed, You are an evil, evil friend. She only grinned even wider.

"So, we have to find living quarters and set a budget, right?" William asked, opening up the newspaper he'd picked up on the porch. Our family never read them.

"Right." I mumbled back, turning around to pick up the plastic baby from the inside of my tote bag. It was on sleep mode right now, so I put it down on my bed.

He is meeting, stands in the lobby, counting his questions in the neon light.

Rustling through the advertisements, William pointed out one. "What about this? One bedroom, one bathroom. Comes with washer and dryer."

"Whatever." I replied, shrugging. "I couldn't care less about this assignment."

Sinking under the river, sewer line touches the edge of the suburbs.

"Or we could get a duplex. Your choice." He said, looking at me over the top of the paper.

"Do you know how much a duplex is?" I asked him, raising my eyebrow.

"Good point."

Back to the beach where a family is waiting.

Kenzie snorted. "If you two are gonna be like this all day, I'm inviting the rest of the guys over." She told me, clutching my old Hello Kitty stuffed doll.

I rolled my eyes. "Go ahead." I told her, and William grinned widely as the baby started whining. Sighing, I picked up the plastic baby and rocked it side to side as Kenzie ran outside to grab the phone and call up everybody else.

On rumors of summer, lay out a blanket, bring something to feed the birds.

The door slammed. My mom was gone for now, I guessed, and I heard Kenzie pressing a billion buttons frantically as she started whispering and giggling, talking to the phone too quietly for me to hear. There was a click, and finally, Kenzie came back to the room just as the baby started sleeping again. "They're gonna be here in a few." She announced, as I sprawled onto the hardwood floor, staring up at the ceiling and then closing my eyes, groaning in frustration before flipping over onto my stomach, finding myself staring at William's toes.

"Don't let me catch you alone. Your toes look delicious." I grinned, suddenly in a hyper mood as I moved to take off his socks. Squirming, he laughed and attempted kicking his feet away, but Kenzie joined in with the sock-off-ing and helped me pull off his gray socks. Shrieking, we raced out of the room, out the door and leaped into the overgrown front yard, William chasing after us, barefoot as Pete's car rolled into our driveway. Shrieking, I leaped out of William's reach and landed on my feet on top of the moving vehicle's hood. Pete screeched to a stop in alarm, and I from the motion, I reeled back and landed on my butt on the warm concrete. Laughing, William followed up to me and grabbed the sock out of my hand, and I finally collapsed onto the cement, laughing my ass off as Kenzie ran up to me in alarm.

Pete was the first out of the car. "You okay?!" He asked, looking shocked.

"I'm fine." I giggled, checking my palms. Totally unharmed, except for a chip in my nail polish. Damn.

Kenzie started giggling too. "Jeez, Maya. If you wanna be James Bond, go get your own movie."

I rolled my eyes. "Shut up Kenzie, you're just jealous that you can't land on both your feet on a moving car and land perfectly." I stuck out my tongue at her, and she stuck her tongue out back at me, and we both giggled as the boys rolled their eyes.

"Can we have a non-James-Bond-moment for five seconds?" Andy begged, looking like he'd had a triple-bypass just now. "Please?!"

I stuck out my tongue at him. "Go be in Finding Nemo then... But wait, there's a bunch of hard-core action bits in that one. How about Winnie the Pooh?"

He rolled his eyes at me and I grinned back.

We'd had our action-adventure movie of the day.

"Can we please work on our project? It's due in two days." William whined, frowning. I rolled my eyes.

"Fine." I replied, as Pete helped me up. Suddenly, a flash of some kind of... rivalry? passed on both William and Pete's faces.

Gulp.