From: Frank Curtin After twenty minutes of thinking about it, I decided to post a fic. Now, before you head for the hills know that this has nothing to do with Past, Present, and Future save that it stars the Quest clan. Disclaimer: I don't any of the characters from the show and I'm not making any money off of this. I mean, if I were making money, why would i be on a mailing list? Catagories: A little Humor, Vinigrett (or however you spell it) you know, the V, and Family Date:5/15/99 Archive: If you want it Suze, you're more than welcome to have it Boys and Girl By Bryne “Oops,” Jonny said as he tripped, bumping into the kitchen table and knocking the pitcher of orange juice onto the floor. The pitcher went flying, sending the juice soaring through the air, drenching the kitchen and Jonny. From behind him, Jonny heard Hadji sigh. “You know, my friend, I believe you need to be a bit more careful,” he said, looking at his rather soggy friend and damp kitchen. “You don’t say, Hadj,” Jonny sarcastically replied, juice trickling down his face and onto his clothes. Placing his hand on the floor he went to stand up. As he transferred his weight to his feet though, he slipped on some juice, sending him back to the ground. He lay on his back for a second, staring at the ceiling where he had landed. “Uh, Hadji? I’d really like to get off of the floor right about now. Would you mind getting something I can use to wipe up this mess with?” Hadji hid a smirk as he took off to find some paper towels. ********************************************** “Hm,” Hadji said out loud as he rummaged through the downstairs bathroom. Since Jessie was the only female in the group, it made sense that she have her own bathroom, so one had been informally given to her. Hadji hoped that she didn’t mind his looking through for something to clean up the spill with. The cabinets held normal items; shampoo, condition, toothpaste and the like. Moving to the closet he found several good towels. Not wanting to use them and later receive a lecture from Mrs. Evans on the proper use for towels, he disregarded these and kept looking. Toward the far back of the closet was a small, unlabeled bag. Pulling it out, Hadji encountered several small, individually packaged items. They looked like weird, folded sponges, though the texture was much different. Twirling one in his hand, Hadji placed it back in the bag. Not thinking Jessie would mind, Hadji grabbed the bag and ran back to the kitchen to help Jonny. *********************************************** “Thanks, Hadj. You’re a lifesaver,” Jonny said appreciatively as the two finished mopping the kitchen with the weird sponges from Jessie’s bathroom. “It was no problem, my friend,” he replied as he stood. Picking up the saturated sponges that littered the floor, he tossed the used ones in the garbage. In their attempt to clean the kitchen, they had used all but two. Hadji extracted a clean one and finished wiping the counter. “We will have to ask Jessie where she gets these strange sponges, they work quite well.” “Tell me about it. Though I don’t quite understand the little flaps on the sides.” Jonny shrugged, happy to be done with the cleaning. Just then, Jessie walked in, her bookbag slung over her right shoulder. “Hey, guys. What’s going on?” she asked curiously. “Well,” Hadji began, glancing over at Jonny. “Jonny sort of had an ‘encounter’ with a pitcher of orange juice. We just finished cleaning it up.” “Nice going, bleach-head. You can be such a klutz,” Jessie said as she rolled her eyes heavenward. Looking around she surveyed the kitchen to make sure they hadn’t missed any spots. Surprisingly, they had done a good job cleaning up. Impressed, she complemented them on the cleanup. Jonny and Hadji grinned at her, enjoying the praise for their hard work. “Well,” Hadji said, “I suppose we have you to thank for it.” “Yeah, Jess. I mean, we did use your sponges,” Jonny chimed in. “Huh?” Jessie said, befuddlement clouding her face. “What sponges?” “You know,” Jonny said impatiently. “The sponges.” Jessie gave him a blank look. “The ones in the back of your bathroom closet. From the unmarked bag.” “The unmarked bag? My closet? You don’t mean…?” She looked at them kind of funny. Hadji held up the bag and Jessie took a look inside. “Oh my god!” Jessie yelled, her face turning bright red. “You two are SUCH idiots!” “Huh?” the two asked in unison, not understanding her sudden change in attitude. One minute they were being praised, they next they were being screamed at. “How sheltered are you?” she shrieked. Jonny couldn’t remember a time when he had seen her so mad before. Her whole face was the same shade of red as her hair and her hands were at her sides in tight fists. The rage lasted only a moment, going from anger to humiliation. Tears welled up in her eyes as her cheeks turned even redder. It was obvious she was embarrassed, but why the boys couldn’t figure out. Jonny reached over to touch her, but she pulled back. Turning quickly, she ran back out the way she had come in, clutching the almost empty bag of sponges to her body. “What? What did we do?” Jonny looked over at Hadji, totally confused. *************************************************** Race looked worriedly out the living room window. From the couch to his right, Benton looked over at the clock, as concerned for Jessie as her father was. It was dark already and his daughter still wasn’t home. She was almost four hours late and Race was getting ready to go looking for her. He had just made up his mind to leave when Jonny and Hadji made an appearance. “Jonny, Hadji, have either of you seen Jessie this afternoon? She should have been home a while ago and I’m starting to get a little anxious,” Race asked the boys, hoping one of them would know what had happened to his daughter. “Yeah, we saw her around ten this morning. It was the strangest thing. I spilled the orange juice and Hadji went and got something to clean up the mess with. He grabbed some weird sponges from the back of the closet in the downstairs bathroom and we used ‘em to clean up. Jessie found out and she totally flipped. Right, Hadj?” Hadji nodded in agreement. “I have never seen her that way before, Dr. Quest. It was if she were possessed,” Hadji added. “She took what was left of the bag and ran out as fast as she could. We have not seen her since.” Race looked over at Benton, both trying to piece together the boys’ story. It just didn’t make any sense that Jessie would get so bent out of shape over some sponges. Race scratched his head thoughtfully. Benton stroked his beard as he thought. Suddenly, he sat up, an idea hitting him. “Boys,” he asked quickly, “what did these sponges look like?” Jonny gave his father a strange look but answered his question, describing the sponges as best he could. As he went he noticed Race’s face get real pale, even as Benton’s got real red. The fathers exchanged looks before turning away from each other. “What?” Jonny asked indignantly. He couldn’t understand what he had said to get this reaction. “What?” he demanded again, looking right at Race. Race looked at the floor and rubbed his shoe against the carpet, pretending to be scrubbing at a spot. He looked over at his own father, who avoided his gaze. Just then the front door chimed and opened. Jessie walked in, her shoulders slumped forward and her head down. Staring at the floor, she walked straight to the stairs and went directly to her room. When she had gone, Race and Benton got up. Each taking hold of a boy the brought them into the kitchen for a talk. *********************************************** “But how were we supposed to know?” Jonny asked his father, his face bright red from embarrassment. Benton shrugged and sighed. “That’s one of the things about women. Most men don’t learn about these kind of things until they’re married. Just let her be for a while. Okay?” The two nodded and slunk out of the room. Benton glanced over at Race. “Race?” “I knew it was going to happen one day. I mean, it’s a part of her growing up, right? All females go through it. It’s just…I wasn’t expecting it so soon…,” he trailed off, not knowing what else to say. “So soon? She’s seventeen.” “I guess you’re right. It just feels like I’m losing my little girl.” He closed his eyes and gave a bittersweet smile. “I guess I should be thankful she’s so self reliant. Can you imagine me going to Wal-Mart and buying her a box of maxis?” ************************************************ “Good morning all,” Jessie called to the group in the living room as she came in. The four men looked up from what they were doing to look at her. She was standing there, dressed, with two shopping bags in her hands. “After the little mix up yesterday,” she began, “I decided to go shopping.” Jonny and Hadji looked at the floor. “I know that what happened was embarrassing for us all, me especially, so I got some things to help us out.” Reaching in to one of the bags she pulled out a box of labels. “I’ll put these on the things I don’t want you to touch.” Next, she grabbed a large pack of paper towels. “These will go in the kitchen.” Going to the next bag, she reached in and pulled out two small packages. “And these,” she said as she tossed one to each of the boys, “are so you don’t have to borrow mine.” Jonny and Hadji easily caught the packs and turned them over to stare down at the printed Maxi label. ************************************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Got an opinion? http://www.onelist.com Make it count! Sign up for the ONElist Weekly Survey now.