Chapter 3

After school...

"So what is it," Gar asked, taking a long sip of his shake, "oh, that's a good shake - What is it about Jen that has you so retarded for her?"

"Dude, I've told you not to use 'retarded' like that."

"Sorry. Why are you so head over heels for this girl?"

Steve looked around. The table they were at was secluded enough so that none of the carhops would overhear the story. His chili-cheese fries sat, mostly eaten, in front of him.

"Do you really want to hear the whole story?"

"Yes. The whole story, and nothing but the story. I asked, didn't I?"

"Fine. But I've never told anyone the entire story before. You've heard most of it. And don't interrupt me, because if I stop, I may not be able to start again. Okay?"

"..."

"Okay?!"

"You told me not to interrupt!"

Steve sighed. "Okay. Here is what happened. 7th grade, Liz Bogner's party. You may remember it as the party that Bob got us kicked out of for the 'I'm a Unicorn' bit. But I'll always remember it as the day I knew that Jennipher was the girl for me.

"A bunch of us were out back near the woods behind Liz's house. Someone mentioned the old bomb shelter back there. Talked about how it was haunted, about how some kids had gone back there to drink and had never come back. All the guys started daring each other to go back there and somehow, the girls got involved. Jen said she would go, and then the guys fell all over each other to go. Because even then, she was gorgeous.

"So one paper-rock-scissors tournament later, I was walking through the woods, which were pretty creepy at this point, with Jen Semmes. I don't even remember what we talked about on the way there - scratch that, I do remember saying that the other kids would sneak behind us and try to scare us. She smiled her little half-smile and said we'd deal with that when it happened.

"We got to the bomb shelter and to be honest, it wasn't that impressive. Some graffiti, some garbage, a few empty beer cans. We laughed about it for a little while, and then things got weird - this is the part you haven't heard before."