Click

Mr. Sadusky had us working in the theatre today instead of the drama room across the hall. He said that we were going to start having class here from now on because we were working on our big end of the year play. Like promised, we were stuck doing Romeo and Juliet but when he announced it to everyone else, the auditorium was filled with groans of disappointment. Mr. Sadusky stood on the stage with his arms crossed while we were in the first two rows of seats, looking up at him.

“What’s the big deal?” he asked. “What would you rather do, Rapunzel? It’s that or Romeo and Juliet. We only had two choices. Well, we could have created our own but it’s too late for that.”

“Rapunzel!” someone cried.

“There are only like . . . eight characters,” Mr. Sadusky said, frowning. “Maybe.”

“Can we at least do a test run for each play?” Shane asked, slouching forward. “Then we should just vote on what one we like better.”

Mr. Sadusky sighed and nodded. “All right, everybody on stage.”

We all got up and walked up the stairs to join him on the set where a small castle-like structure was set up on the side, benches and tables were pushed to the side and small platforms were set up for different levels at the back. Mr. Sadusky handed everyone a small eight page script, not at all in comparison to what Romeo and Juliet would be like. If we presented this to people, it would be over in like, five minutes.

“If you guys like this play, we’ll have to add characters,” Mr. Sadusky explained. “And a lot of scenes too. It would be way too short to actually perform. Anyway, this version is sort of modernized so it doesn’t sound too old, or Shakespearean.”

“Isn’t it written by the Brothers Grimm?” Kayti asked, flipping through the pages.
He shrugged. “Either way. Now Blade, you can be the prince. Shane, you can be the narrator. Andrew, you’ll be the husband.”

Andrew frowned and looked down at his script.

“Chris, can you be Rapunzel?” Mr. Sadusky asked. I nodded. “Who wants to be the wife?” Marcy raised her hand, and he nodded his head in approval. “Okay, what about the witch?”

The door to the theatre opened and a teacher walked in with Amanda behind her. We all looked over as they stalked up the aisle toward the theatre.

“You have got to be kidding me,” I mumbled, rubbing my forehead.

Marcy nudged me and frowned. “What’s she doing here?”

“I have no idea,” I replied, scowling.

“Cory, this is Amanda Dubois. She’s been switched into this class,” the teacher said to Mr. Sadusky. She handed him a form and he looked down at it.

“Uhm, okay,” he said, scratching the back of his head. “Well, we’re glad to have you here Amanda.” She smiled at him and nodded her head.

“Thanks,” she said. Mr. Sadusky handed her a script and explained to her what we were doing. I looked over at Blade, who was talking quietly with Shane. He didn’t look all too happy from what I could tell. Amanda walked past me and glared hard, before taking her spot beside Blade and leaning into him.

“What are you doing here?” I heard him whisper to her.

“I changed classes,” she replied. “Now we can be with each other more.”

Kayti scoffed and rolled her eyes. “God, how desperate can she get?” she murmured.

“All right, Amanda if you want to, you can read the part of the witch,” Mr. Sadusky said, crossing his arms over his chest but holding onto the script.

“How fitting,” Marcy mumbled.

“Everyone go to the third page and we’ll start from there. Readers step forward please.”

We did as we were told.

Blade cleared his throat. “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your long hair. I wish to climb up to you and offer you my hand,” he said.

“Yes, but to whom do I owe this favour? I don’t believe I’ve gazed upon those eyes before,” I read.

“It is I, Charles—Charles? My name is Charles?” Blade asked, smirking. Mr. Sadusky nodded. A group of people snickered. “I shall rescue you from your prison and take you as my wife.”

“I thought you said this was modernized,” I said, looking up at Mr. Sadusky.
“Sort of modernized,” he repeated. “I’m not a big fan of this play. That’s why I chose Romeo and Juliet. Rapunzel is kind of silly for high school.”

I nodded and looked back at the script. “'I will willingly go away with you, but I do not know how to get down. Bring with you a skein of silk every time that you come, and I will weave a ladder with it, and when that is ready I will descend, and you will take me on your horse.”

“They agreed that until that time, he would come to her every evening. The witch came by day to visit her,” Shane said. “She did not utter a word of this, until once Rapunzel said to her . . .”

“Tell me, enchantress, how it happens that you are so much heavier for me to draw up into the tower than the young king's son—he is by my side within seconds,” I said.

“You wicked child!” Amanda exclaimed. “What is this I hear? I have tried to shun you from the rest of the world and yet, you deceive me?”

“Whoa, damn,” Shane said, widening his eyes as he stared at his lines. “The witch is a bitch.”

“No shit,” Blade muttered. Amanda shot him a glare and he looked away quickly, scratching behind his head. I tried really hard not to laugh but Amanda heard me chuckling and sent me a glare as well.

“Just read it please, Shane,” Mr. Sadusky said, rubbing his forehead and sighing.

“In one swift move and out of pure anger, the witch grabbed Rapunzel’s long, beautiful hair, wrapped it around her wrist and cut it off with a pair of scissors from the nightstand,” he said. “Then, she took out her wand and cast a spell on Rapunzel, banishing her from the castle and deserting her in a forest all by herself. I thought it was a desert instead of a forest.”

“Does it really matter? Let’s just get this done.”

Shane rolled his eyes and continued reading. “On the same day that the witch abandoned Rapunzel, she tied the long braid of hair to the hook of the window and when the prince came by again, she let it down. He climbed up the tower but when he set his eyes on the witch, he shrieked in horror.”

Blade paused and looked at Amanda like he didn’t know what he was supposed to do. Then he let out a shriek, and we all burst out laughing.

“You would fetch your dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the nest; the cat has got it, and will scratch out your eyes as well. Rapunzel is lost to you; you will never see her again,” Amanda said. She looked back at me for a second and narrowed her eyes, before turning to Blade again, grabbing him by the shirt collar and slamming her lips against his. Blade looked startled, like he was about to lose his balance. His eyes were wide. A series of whoops and howls circulated around the room, but there were some people that weren’t impressed at all—me, Shane, Mr. Sadusky, Andrew, Marcy and Kayti. Blade didn’t look all that pleased either.

Mr. Sadusky clapped his hands together. “All right, that’s enough,” he said. Amanda pulled away from Blade and smirked in triumph, crossing her arms over her chest. Blade looked over at me but I looked away, rolling my eyes. “Amanda, that wasn’t in the script.”

She shrugged. “I know.”

He scratched his head and tossed the script onto one of the tables on the side. “Okay everybody, uh . . . pair up and practice this for a little bit. If it doesn’t go over well, we’ll try out Romeo and Juliet.” He waved his hand in the air and turned around, walking down the steps. People grouped off together and I looked back at Marcy and Kayti.

“God, I hate her,” Marcy mumbled, shaking her head and glaring at Amanda’s back. “What the hell did she think she was doing? Who was she trying to impress?”

“I think she was trying to piss me off,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest and looking over at Blade. Amanda grabbed his arm and said something to him that made him hesitate. Shane approached him when a couple of Amanda’s friends surrounded her and offered her into their group. She walked off and Blade turned to Shane, sighing heavily. I walked over.

“What’s wrong with her?” I said.

“I don’t know. Can’t she take a hint?” Shane asked, socking Blade in the shoulder.

“Are you kidding? She’s irresistible. She told me so herself,” he said, rubbing his forehead. “This is getting insane. It’s like she never wants me to have time without her. She got angry because I told her I might be hanging out with you guys after school tomorrow and I didn’t invite her.”

Shane rolled his eyes. “Just tell her you need your space. She’s taken ‘crazy, obsessive, over-protective girlfriend’ to a whole other level by transferring into your class just to be with you more.”

Blade shook his head. “I don’t think that’s what it’s about,” he said, looking over at me. I knew what he was getting at. He was saying that Amanda joined the class to make sure Blade and I didn’t talk as much. She wanted to keep him as far away from me as possible.

Shane nudged me, and I looked away from Blade. “Huh?”

“We should get to work,” he said, holding up the script. “Want to be in a group?”

“Sure,” I said, nodding. Marcy, Kayti and Andrew joined as well and we all walked down into the seats to practice the play. Every time I looked up though, I could feel Amanda’s eyes on me, and it made me want to drop out of the class as soon as I could.



“Don’t let her get to you,” Marcy said the next morning at my locker. “She wants your attention. She’s looking to make you miserable. If you make it obvious that she’s bothering you, it’ll just edge her on.”

I sighed and tipped my head back. “What did I even do to her?” I mumbled. “She’s not obsessive over Blade with any other girl. Like big deal if we’re friends. Why should it threaten her in any way?”

Marcy shrugged. “Maybe she knows you have feelings for him,” she put in. “I think she’s making it to be a bigger deal than it really is. You’re not acting on it so she’s trying to piss you off for no reason. She’s just . . . she’s stupid, that’s what she is.”

I nodded. The halls were really quiet in the morning because by the time that Marcy and I got to school, there were only about five other buses out of the estimated fourty. Everyone was so spread out around here that buses went all over the place. We were the closest to the school so we got there early. Blade walked to school so he came at various times but this morning, he was right down the hall talking with Shane.

Marcy nodded to them. “I wonder what they’re saying.”

I looked over my shoulder at them. Blade moved bangs out of his eyes and nodded his head to whatever Shane said.

“Doesn’t matter,” I said, closing my locker and clipping the lock back on again. “Let’s get going.” We walked down the hall right past them and gave them a wave that they returned. When we rounded the corner, Marcy grabbed my arm and stopped me from moving.

“What are you doing?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. She tapped her ear and pointed around the corner to Blade and Shane.

“So what’s the matter?” I heard Shane asked. “Like, what’s really the matter?”

“What do you mean?” Blade asked. “You already know. Amanda’s getting on my nerves too much lately. What else could there be?”

“Dude,” Shane said simply.

Blade sighed. “It’s nothing serious, I just . . . I can’t stop thinking about what Chris said.”

Marcy frowned and looked at me. “What did you say?”

I shrugged. “I have no idea.”

“What did she say?” Shane asked.

“Remember when she was acting kind of weird awhile back and I was just joking around with her about how maybe Iwas the reason? Like I was making her all hot and bothered?” Blade asked. I slapped my forehead. Shane chuckled.

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Well you know how she said that she knew I thought my charms worked on everyone but she didn’t?” he said. “I felt like an ass after that.”

“Dude, that was like a month ago. You’re still thinking about it?” Shane asked.

“I can’t get her out of my head,” he said.

“Well no wonder. She’s the first girl that’s ever rejected you since you were five years old,” Shane said, laughing. “What do you expect?”

Marcy grinned and nudged me repeatedly. “He likes you!” she whisper-yelled. I shook my head.

“He didn’t say that. He was talking about something else.”

“Well sometimes I feel like an ass,” Blade said, sighing. “Am I an ass? Like, am I a complete asshole? I don’t even have feelings for my girlfriend. That’s not good.”

“Blade, you’re dating Amanda,” Shane said, smirking. “I think it’s okay that you don’t like her that way. She’s got a lot of enemies.”

“I know, but still,” Blade said.

“Well, you’re not an ass,” Shane replied. “If you were, Chris probably wouldn’t be friends with you. You’re one of the nicest guys in school. She was probably just really touchy that day. It’s nothing to think too much about.”

“I guess,” Blade mumbled.

I looked at Marcy and raised my eyebrows. “Is that all? Can we go now?”

Marcy frowned. “I was so hoping for something better than that. That was nothing.”

I rolled my eyes and walked away.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Ten minutes to the bell, oh my God.

I smiled when I received a text message from Nathaniel in fourth period. His school had the same time slot schedule as mine did, so when he was getting let out of fourth period, so was I.

Excited to get to fifth?

Yes! Fourth period is a snooze-fest. My teacher even thinks so. He’s asleep on his desk right now. And I think he’s drooling.

Ew! Throw something at him; see if he makes that weird snoring noise that some people do when they get hit by an object.

People do that?

My brother does. He was sleeping on the couch a couple nights ago and he left the TV on so I threw the remote at him. He didn’t wake up but he did let out this HUGE snore. It sounded like a car backfired.

Lmao, well in that case, maybe I will throw something at him. Oh my gosh. Six minutes. This is killing me.

Looking forward to something in last period?

Sort of. Listen, I’m going out on a whim here, because there’s something I wanted to share for a while so can I ask you something?

Sure, go for it.

What would you do if I told you that I like you?

My eyes widened. It really surprised me to hear that and even though Nathaniel probable lived miles and miles away, it made me really happy. At least I knew some of my feelings were reciprocated. David tapped me on the shoulder and I looked over at him.

“You okay?” he asked. “You’re grinning like a maniac.”

I nodded. I mean, I couldn’t help but grin. Hearing that Nathaniel liked me was really nice.

You do? I replied to him.

Yeah, but we all know guys aren’t the best with expressing their feelings so that’s kind of the only way I know how to say it without feeling a load of self-pity, lol.

Lol, no need to feel self-pity. I like you too.

Really? What about that Blade guy? Don’t you like him?

Yeah but I really don’t see that going anywhere. He’s got a girlfriend.

Ohh, right lol. Well does that mean you see this going somewhere?

I don’t know actually, lol. I still have a lot to learn about you.

Same here. Let’s not make things awkward, and we’ll just go back to normal.

Sounds good, lol.

The bell rang suddenly and I stepped out of the classroom as a mass rush of people flooded the hallway. When I got to my locker and switched binders, Blade came up to me and put his elbow against the locker beside mine.

“What’s up, Rapunzel?” he asked. I smiled and looked over at him. “You signed up for that bake sale on Thursday right?”

I nodded. “Yeah, did you?”

“No, but I have to go to the meeting after school today,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “Amanda’s dragging me to it.”

“Oh, lovely,” I mumbled. “That means I’ll be volunteering with her.” Blade shook his head.

“I wouldn’t count on it,” he replied. “Last year, she made me sign up with her and then backed out on the day of. I was stuck all alone with her friends while they called each other sluts. I had the time of my life. She probably won’t go this year either.”

“Then how come she goes to the meetings?”

“Well they assign everyone with certain things to bake. Amanda’s job is to give all the responsibility to someone else for her own shits and giggles. Apparently it’s funny,” he said, putting his hands in his pockets and shrugging. “Anyway, she’s making me come with her because she wants to hang out after school. Go figure.”

I laughed. “Why do you date her?” I asked, closing my locker. “She obviously ticks you off. Why don’t you just end it if you aren’t happy with her?”

“I don’t even know,” he said. “I guess I just don’t want to hurt her.”

“Blade, I’m going to let you in on a little secret,” I said. “You’re too nice.” I patted him on the shoulder and walked around him toward the theatre. He caught up quickly. “Sometimes, you just have to be honest, even if it’s mean.”

“You’re one to talk,” he said, smirking. “Have you ever told her off?”

“Not really, no,” I said. “That’s different, though. You’re her boyfriend. Do you really want to date her just so that she won’t get hurt? You’re headed for that zone.”

“What zone?” Blade asked, using air quotes and mocking my voice.

“When you end up stuck dating someone forever because you’re too much of a wimp to break it off,” I said, poking him. He frowned.

“I’m not a wimp,” he mumbled.

“Then break up with her,” I said, shrugging. “Unless you want to force yourself to fall in love with her, you’re just wasting your time.”



“Look what I found!” Mr. Sadusky said, laughing. He held up a big blond wig with a huge braid trailing behind it. “Chris, I would like you to play Rapunzel again today so you’re going to have to wear this.” He handed it to me and I looked at it with raised eyebrows. Blade smirked.

“Well, that’s bound to weigh you down,” he said, crossing his arms and laughing. I dropped my arms and glared at him.

“This thing is frickin’ heavy,” I said, holding it out to him. “Put it on. You’ll agree with me.”

He took it from my hands and put it over his head. It amazed me that he still looked so good, even with those girly fake tresses draped over him. He took the long braid hanging down the back, picked it up and wrapped it around his neck a couple of times, struck a pose. Shane walked in then and looked curiously at Blade.

“Manly,” he said sarcastically. Blade laughed and unwrapped himself. He took the wig off and handed it up to me.

“It probably would have been better if it came with some kind of strap that secured it onto your head,” he said. “It’s probably going to fall off.”

I nodded. “Most likely but oh well. It’s one of the risks you run when you take drama.” Amanda walked into the theatre and waved at Blade. She strutted up to him and put her arm through his. Blade’s smile disappeared and I looked at him with raised eyebrows.

“Chris, you’re coming to the meeting after school, right?” she asked. I nodded.

“Yeah, I’ll be there,” I replied.

She smiled at me but it was a forced one, Shane and I could tell automatically. She gave Blade a kiss on the cheek and told him she was going to talk with her friends before leaving again. Shane nudged me and made a face. I laughed.

“What does that have to do with anything?” I asked. “You look like a troll when you do that.”

“I look like Amanda,” he replied, whipping around and walking away. He added a little butt shake and threw an arm up in the air. “That’s just for you, Chris!” he called. I smiled.

“All right everybody, on stage please,” Mr. Sadusky said. I stepped up onto the platform and met with Marcy and Kayti, who were discussing the script that had apparently been re-edited.

“So I was talking to Mr. Sadusky and apparently he added characters to the play so I get to be a girl that’s in love with the prince,” Kayti said, pointing to Blade. He smirked.

“Yeah, baby,” he purred, winking. Kayti’s face went bright red, and her eyes widened instantly. Marcy and I burst out laughing.

“Chris, can you go up there please?” Mr. Sadusky said, pointing to the tower structure from yesterday. I eyed it up suspiciously. In all honesty, it didn’t look stable at all and I wasn’t sure that it should have even been in the theatre in the first place.

“Are you sure that’s safe?” I asked, making my way around and up the stairs. It shook when I reached the top and stepped out onto the balcony. I gripped the side quickly and widened my eyes. “Uhh, Mr. Sadusky, this is really unsettling.”

“You’ll be fine,” he said. “We’ve had it for years. It’s never been any danger to anyone. And we’ll make sure it’s stabilized before we perform.” I frowned and shoved the wig on, lifting the braid and throwing it over the side of the tower. It reached the floor and created a small pile because it was so long. Marcy looked up at me and smirked. “You’re like . . . five feet off the ground and yet you’re scared?” she asked. “It’s not even high. I could probably touch your arm from here.” She reached up but lost her balance a little and shoved the entire structure. It shook again and I yelped.

“That’s not funny!” I yelled when she started laughing. “It’s scarier than you think!”

“You’re overreacting,” she said, shaking her head. “Just relax. Do you want me to put a mat out just in case you fall over?”

I stared at her, wide eyed again. “I’m not going to fall over! But yes please.”

She smiled and dragged a blue mat over, flipping it opened and laying it beneath me. Mr. Sadusky called Marcy over to him to give her a role in the play. Kayti joined me up on the ledge and kept me company since I was completely alone. Everyone was on the other side of the stage. I looked down and saw Amanda talking with Blade nearly right under where I was. I tried not to eavesdrop but I couldn’t help it. She was asking him what they were going to do together after school, and if he wanted to come over to her house. Blade was just shrugging his shoulders—he looked bored, and didn’t appear to care either.

“We’ll talk about it after the meeting,” he said, turning and walking off. Amanda sighed and ran a hand through her hair. She looked up at me for a quick second and narrowed her eyes. She walked slowly around the same general area and bit her bottom lip, like she was up to something. I wouldn’t be surprised; she was always up to something. Then she grabbed the wig by the braid and yanked it. I had found some kind of ear slits that secured the wig on my head so when she pulled on the hair, she was pulling on me too. I shrieked and Kayti lunged to catch me but she wasn’t fast enough because I flipped right over the edge. Blade whirled around as soon as he heard me scream. He dove over like he was some kind of eagle and caught me before I hit the ground.

“Shit!” Kayti cried. “Are you okay?!”

Everyone stared at us. Amanda and a couple of her friends chuckled but most people were pretty shocked that I had fallen over the ledge. No one knew that Amanda pulled the wig that caused me to fall—they probably just thought I wasn’t good on my feet.

“Jeez,” Blade said. “How did you manage that one?”

“I don’t know. It’s almost as if someone pulled my wig,” I said obviously, glaring at Amanda. She put up her hands innocently.

“Oh, was that what it was? So sorry,” she said, smirking and walking off.

“Uhm, Blade?”

“Yeah?”

“You can . . . put me down now,” I said, blushing. He nodded and put me back on my feet again. I tore off the wig and fixed my hair. “Mr. Sadusky, I don’t like this play.”

He sighed. “Everyone grab a Romeo and Juliet book. I can’t put on a play when kids are falling off ledges and pulling each other’s hair. You’re supposed to be acting like adults!”



“Kind of freaky how fast Blade caught you,” Marcy said, hoisting her bag onto her shoulder and pulling her hair out of the ponytail. “It’s like he was just waiting for you to fall.”

“I’m more amazed at the fact that Amanda actually managed to pull you right over the ledge,” Kayti said, taking a seat in the student council’s office. They were holding the bake sale meeting in here and it wasn’t a bad-sized room but it was still a little crowded. About fifteen more people followed us into the room and grabbed a chair. “Is she really that strong?”

“Sort of,” I replied. “But that thing was unsafe, the wig was practically attached to my head and she did pull pretty hard.”

“I can’t believe Mr. Sadusky didn’t get her in trouble,” Marcy said, shaking her head. “I wanted to kill her.”

“But you always want to kill her,” Kayti pointed out.

“Well I wanted to kill her more after that,” she replied. She looked past me to the door and scowled. “Ugh, speak of the satanic bitch . . .”

I looked over my shoulder as Amanda walked into the room with Blade. When she saw me, she turned to him and started fussing with his shirt. He frowned and took hold of her wrists, removing them from him. He said something that appeared to be “there’s nothing wrong with my shirt. Can you just leave it please?” She kissed him quickly and walked to the front of the room to join her friends. Blade leaned against the wall and took out his phone, checking for messages. Then he put it back in his pocket and crossed his arms over his chest. He looked down at me and saw me staring so he nodded me over and I got out of my seat to join him against the wall.

“How’s it going?” he asked. I shrugged.

“Decent,” I replied. “Do you think your girlfriend’s going to stick a job on me that’s really difficult to get done in two days?”

Blade nodded. “I’d say so,” he responded. He looked over at me and smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ve got your back.” I wondered what he meant by that—if that meant he was going to tell Amanda off or just help me out with getting the job done. I didn’t know but I didn’t really care what way he meant. I was just glad he was on my team here.

“Okay, hi everyone! I’m Kelsey and I’m your bake sale coordinator. If you have any questions within the next few days, just let me know and I’ll be glad to help you,” a bubbly blond girl said, grinning. “I’ll pass you on to Amanda.”

She stepped forward and smiled. “Hey everybody. So I’m in charge of organizing who bakes what things because we prefer to have food that’s freshly baked instead of store-bought. It’s just better quality that way,” she explained. “Now, we’ve got a list of possible ideas but if anybody else has some suggestions, just let us know and we’ll write it down beside your name. Also, we’d like to have at least fifty of each food item made because there’s supposed to be a pretty good turnout this year and anything that isn’t bought is being boxed or bagged, and sent to a charity. So, does anyone want to go first?”

A number of girls supplied making cinnamon buns, croissants, cupcakes and the normal stuff but when it was down to me and a few other people who hadn’t signed up for anything yet, Amanda looked up from her clipboard and smiled at me in a really evil way.

“Christabelle, isn’t it?” she asked, even though she already knew my name. “Are you okay with making chocolate chip cookies?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I can handle that,” I replied, crossing my arms.

“Okay. And I’m also going to put you down for making the brownies and blueberry muffins,” she said, writing it down on her piece of paper.

My eyes widened. “What—”

“She can’t handle all of that, Amanda,” Kayti said. “She’s just one person. We’ve got enough people to split up that responsibility.”

“Sorry but we don’t have as many people helping out as last year,” she said. She looked over at me and smiled bitterly. “Apologies and everything, but you’re just going to have to do that if you want to volunteer. It’s for a good cause, and you want to participate, don’t you Christabelle?”

“Uhm, Amanda, I don’t think that’s a very good idea,” Kelsey said.

“It’s fine,” Blade said. Everyone looked at him. “I’ll help her out.”

Amanda’s smile dropped right off her face. “You will?”

Blade smiled at her and nodded. “Yeah. ‘It’s for a good cause’. Christabelle could use the help. In fact,” he said, looking at me. “Are you free after school today? I don’t believe I’m doing anything.”

“What? Blade—” Amanda began, but he cut her off.

“We can reschedule,” Blade said to her. “That’s okay with you, right?”

She stuttered her response at first and then just nodded, admitting defeat. Blade nudged me once she had moved onto the other people and what they were going to make. I looked over at him and he smirked.

“Yeah, baby.”