"Check the fridge," Joey said.
Brian opened the refrigerator. "Hey!" he exclaimed. "Where's the food?"
"MTV left us foodless," Joey said bluntly.
"That I can tell." Brian thought for a minute." Hey, you got a pen and some paper?"
"There's a notebook and a pen on the counter. What're you going to do?"
"Make a grocery list. Anything in particular you want?"
"Me? No. Justin will probably want Apple Jacks."
"Okay." Brian wrote down "Apple Jacks", then he headed upstairs to see what else anoyone wanted. By the time he was done, he had a long list. "There's no way I can get all this stuff by myself. Hey! Does anyone want to go grocery shopping with me?" he yelled.
Shiara ran out of her room. "I will!"
"You sure?" Brian asked. "It's a long list, and we've got a lot of stuff to buy."
"That's okay," Shiara said. "It'll be fun."
"Alright. Let's go." They headed downstairs, and Brian went into the kitchen for a minute. Shiara waited for him by the door to the computer room. She looked in the room and saw Christy. "Hey!" Christy said to her. "Where are you and Brian headed?"
"We're going to go grocery shopping," Shiara replied.
"Grocery shopping? I thought that we had food."
"But we don't, so that explains why we're going," Brian said. He looked at Shiara. "Ready?"
"Yeah. Let's go."
Christy watched them as they walked out the door together. Speaking of food.... she thought, I'm hungry. She headed into the kitchen, where JC and Lance were sitting at the table. "Hey Christy," Lance asked, "what do you girls want to eat?"
"McDonald's!" AJ shouted from the living room.
"Since when are you a girl?" Christy yelled at him. Not only is that boy a human toothpick, but he has the IQ of an eggplant, she thought. "Wait, you've always been one. My bad."
"I'd like Chinese food," Candice said. She had come downstairs after Christy had responed to AJ's request for McDonald's.
Christy moaned. "Candice, you know I don't eat Chinese food. I'd prefer to stick to American cusine, thank-you-very-much."
"Come on Christy, you've got to expand your horizons."
"I'll expand my horizons, just not my food horizons."
"How about hot dogs?" JC suggested.
"Hot dogs?" Candice looked confused.
"Well, yeah. There's hot dogs in the refrigerator. How does that sound?"
"Sounds okay to me," Candice said. "So, who's gonna cook them?"
"We will," Christy volunteered. Damn! Why'd I do that?
"Okay," JC said. "Knock yourselves out." He and Lance left the two girls in the kitchen. Candice stared at Christy. "Thank you SO much. You know I can't cook!"
"Well now you can learn!" Christy said to her.
*********
"Okay, we've got a pot with water, the hot dogs, buns, ketchup, mustard...." Candice paused. "Hey, do we have any hamburger meat?"
"Candice, we're making hot dogs, remember?"
"But you need hamburger to make chili."
"The last time I checked, we didn't have any," Christy said.
"Dang. This is sad. You can't have hot dogs without chili."
"Well, we're going to have to today."
AJ walked in, and leaned over Candice and Christy's shoulders. "Nice aprons, girls," he said in a low voice.
Candice looked down at her apron. Just as a joke, she and Christy had put them on. Hers had Cartman yelling "Beefcake!!" on it, and Christy's had a smiley face with a chef's hat on. "Thank you, AJ," she said dryly.
"Need any help?" This time AJ wasn't talking to both girls, his attention was soley focused on Christy. He had his face so close to her that she could feel his breath on her neck. It reminded her of what Jake used to do to her. Too much.
"No thanks, AJ. I get frustrated easily when I cook, and you sure don't want to see me mad after what Jake did to me. So I think we'll be fine, no help needed," Christy said, moving away from AJ.
AJ was now intrigued. "Who's Jake?" he asked, walking over to where Christy was standing. Since she was in the corner of the kitchen, he placed his arms on both sides of her, blocking her in. "Answer me, Christy," he said.
Christy couldn't avoid eye contact with him. AJ's intense brown eyes locked with hers. Damn those eyes. "Oh, let's just say that you remind me of him, and I hate bad memories." She ducked under his arms and walked back to the stove.
"How do I remind you of him?"
"Don't ask," Christy sighed. "I'll go on for days." For one thing, it's your eyes. Then it's your sense of humor, the way you flirt with me, the way you can almost read my mind....
"Try me." AJ stood with his arms crossed over his chest.
Candice grabbed him by the back of his shirt. "AJ, it's a girl thing," she explained, pulling him into the hallway. "You don't really wanna know."
"Stay out!" Christy yelled at him.
"You alright?" Candice asked when she returned.
"He better back off me," Christy said, clearly p.o.ed. "I sure as hell don't want another guy for a damn long time."
"I'll keep him away from you," Candice said. "I got your back. Hey, the hot dogs are done."
"Alright, let's get these guys served." Christy drew in a deep breath, then yelled, "COME AND GET IT!"
"FOOD!" one of the guys yelled. The next thing the girls heard was a loud crash coming from the stairs.
"What was that?" Candice wondered aloud.
"I dunno." Christy walked out into the hallway to see half of the guys lying at the foot of the stairs. "Well?" she asked them.
"I fell," Chris said sheepishly.
"Then we fell," Kevin added.
Christy rolled her eyes. "Next time I won't say 'come and get it'," she said. "It just leads to the domino effect."