Brian returned, red-faced and breathing heavily.
“I did it!” He proclaimed happily.
A weak cheer went throughout the room.
“Eric?” Joey asked so he would verify it.
“He did in fact run around the house naked.” He informed them, looking rather geeky as he pushed his glasses up his nose.
“Okay Brian, your turn.”
“Good.” He rubbed his hands together manically. “Who should I pick…?”
They watched him somewhat uneasily. He was defiantly enjoying this too much.
“Ray, truth or dare?”
“Dare. I’ll take it like a man!” She flexed her nonexistent muscles.
“Kiss Monroe.”
“Chicken.” She said suddenly.
“I’m using a chicken.” She told him. “It’s one of the rules; each person gets a chicken that they can use to pull out of a dare without consequences.”
“I don’t agree to that rule.” Brian smirked.
“Well I do and I’m going with it!”
“Why don’t we vote?” Eric suggested. “That way we can make a decision fairly. I’ll count the votes.”
They all waited for him to continue.
“All in favor of letting Ray use a chicken?”
Ray raised her hand. Only Ray raised her hand.
“All in favor of not allowing the chicken?”
Everyone raised their hands. Ray hid her head in pillow.
“I’m not doing it.”
“Ray, I’ll force you.” Joey told her.
“Please don’t make me!”
“Is the idea of kissing me that repulsive?” Monroe asked.
“YES!”
“Too bad.” He smirked and opened his arms. “I’m ready any time.”
“I won’t do it! I’ll do anything else!”
“Anything?” Brian asked.
“Yes, I swear to god.”
“Okay, go into that closet.”
“For how long?”
“Until I say you can come out!”
“Fine fine.” She got up and walked into the closet, closing the door behind her. It was small and filled with boxes. She sat on a pile of boxes and waited. Suddenly, the light went out.
“Why is the light off?” She called.
“Because I turned it off.” Came the reply from the other side of the door.
“Why?”
“Just be quiet and wait.”
She waited for a minute and the door opened. Someone was pushed inside and the door was closed behind them.
“Let me guess. Monroe?” She asked dryly.
“At your service.” Came his cocky reply.
“Why are you in here?”
“Because I have the key to the door and I’m supposed to let you out after you kiss me.”
“But you’re going to be a gentleman and let me out without that right?”
“Not likely.” She could hear the smirk in his voice.
“Please!?”
“No. Just kiss me and you can come out.”
“No.”
“Then we’re going to be in here for a while.”
“I’m patient.”
“So am I.”

“What do you think they’re doing?”
“Having wild animal sex?” Jacob suggested.
“Doubtful, Ray is probably sitting in there waiting for us to unlock the door.” Joey informed them. “There is no way she is going to kiss him now.”
“Why not?”
“Because she hates being forced to do anything. She will rebel just for the sake of rebellion.”
“Then she’s going to be in that closet for a long time.”
“What don’t we put on a movie while we wait?” Eric suggested.
They all settled down to watch “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”; occasionally gazing at the closet door, wondering what was going on.

Monroe heard soft, even breathing form the other side of the closet and sighed. Had she fallen asleep?
He remembered Joey telling him that she could sleep pretty much anywhere.
He looked at his watch. They had been in the closet for three hours. Who knew how long ago she had fallen asleep.
He grudgingly unlocked the door and carried her out of the closet into the now dark theater. Everyone had fallen asleep.
“The second night in a row I’ve had to carry you.” He mumbled to the sleeping Ray. She unconsciously shifted in his arms, pressing herself against his chest and whimpering. She gripped the fabric of his shirt and would not let go.
“Great, just great.” He mumbled. “I get locked in a closet with her and she won’t kiss me, but in her sleep she won’t let me go!”
He laid down on the couch where she had laid out her blankets and Ray slept peacefully on top of him, her hands still entangled in the fabric of his shirt.

In the morning Monroe woke up to the sound of laughter. He groggily opened his eyes, only to be blinded by a bright flash of light.
Someone was taking pictures of him.
He felt the weight of Ray on his chest and realized why they had chosen to photograph him.
He glared at them and sighed.
“Joey, please put the camera away.”
“No! I can’t miss out on a Kodak moment like this! She snapped another picture momentarily blinding him again. Brian and Jacob snickered while Eric observed, quiet as usual.
Ray woke up then, her eyes watering in the bright light.
“Huh?” She groaned. “What’s going on?”
“Ummm, you kind of fell asleep.” Monroe informed her. She looked down, noticing she was lying on top of him. Quick as a flash she leapt off the couch, landing on the floor with a thud.
“What did you do?” She asked him accusingly.
“Nothing!”
The others watched the exchange with interest but remained silent.
“You fell asleep and I carried you out of the closet. You wouldn’t let go of my shirt!”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I swear to god!”
She stared at him for a minute.
“None of this would have happened if you had just let me out of that closet.”
“It was a dare! You had to do it!”
“Did not. You just wanted me to.”
“Maybe I did.”
She stared at him again, scrutinizing his face.
“You don’t fight the right way!” She whined suddenly.
“What?”
“You don’t argue at all, you just say stuff like ‘well what if I did?’”
“So what?”
“It’s no fun if you don’t get upset!” She shook her head. “What’s the point, I’ll never get the concept through that thick skull of yours anyway. I’m going to take a shower.” She got up and left the room, leaving Monroe staring after her.
“She really is strange.” He sighed “She’s probably lost. I’m going to go show her back to her room. Bye guys.”
They all stared at him as he too left the room.
“They’re perfect for each other!” Joey squealed as the door closed.
“Why is that?” Jacob asked her.
“Because, they can’t stand each other!”

Joey walked down the hallway to her bedroom immersed in her own thoughts. It wasn’t until she bumped into something that she returned to reality.
“Sorry!” She burst out, looking up to meet Jacob’s gray eyes.
“Just can’t stay away from me can you?”
“Actually, I didn’t even notice you.”
“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.” He smirked down at her and couldn’t help but notice how cute she was with her blonde hair hanging in her face and her impish smile. She stared at the scuffed up toes of her green converse low tops as he looked at her, the color rising in her cheeks. Something about the way he looked at her made her uncomfortable.
“I was just on my way to my room.” She mumbled, still not meeting his eyes.
“What for?”
“I was going to practice my guitar.”
“Mind if I tag along?”
“No. I guess not.” She shook her head. “Come on.” She led the way, thinking about height differences and gray eyes.

As Joey plucked at the strings on her guitar, Jacob lounged on her bed looking at the shelf next to him. Little pieces of her life were everywhere. Pictures with her best friends at her sweet sixteen and an especially funny photo of her and Ray on a roller coaster making peace signs. There were books and trophies (mostly for musical achievements) as well as sculptures from elementary school and several statues of fairies with glass wings.
“It’s strange.” She began, still strumming. “I’ve only been here for about two days and yet, I feel like I’ve lived here all along, as corny as it sounds.”
“I don’t think it’s corny.” He told her. “There are some places, when you go there, you just feel like you belong, like you were always meant to be there.”
He smiled. “This is defiantly one of those places for me.”
“Of course it is, this is your home!”
“Not everyone feels at home in their home. I guess I’m just lucky.”
She played a sorrowful melody and then quickened the tempo, bringing it up an octave and making it sound joyful.
“Well, since we’re going to be corny.” She smirked. “I guess in a way life is like music.” She played the sad tune again. “Sometimes we are in situations that make us unhappy.” She sped it up slowly, every couple measures bringing it up a few notes until it was a full octave higher again. “But we can usually change those situations into something positive, like an important life less on or experience.”
“You sound too old for your age.”
“I’ve been told that a few times.” She played a song she had made up, closing her eyes and enjoying the feeling of her fingers on the strings and enjoying the warm notes.
Jacob watched her, somewhat awed. He face completely changed as she listened to music. Her lips were curved in a happy smile and her light eyelashes swept across her cheeks. He waited until her song was over to speak.
“That was amazing.”
“Thank you, I made it up a few months ago.”
“You made that up?”
“Yeah.”
“Amazing.” He sighed and closed his eyes. “Would you play it again?”
She giggled and nodded. “Sure.
He felt himself drifting off to sleep before the melody had even begun.

Dinner that night was a family affair. Apparently every Sunday night the family ate together, as opposed to the other nights of the week where everyone pretty much ate when they wanted.
“I’d like to make a toast.” Marc said raising his goblet of water. “To the lovely Quinn ladies, who have made wonderful additions to our family."
Joey and Ray hung their heads in embarrassment.
“Here here!” Jacob called out with his signature grin. The rest of the family happily seconded the toast, making the girls want to hide under the table.
The rest of the meal went rather uneventfully, though Bobby insisted on eating the meal from Ray’s lap.
“I tried.” He whispered to her.
“What?” She asked, smiling down at him.
“I tried to stay awake.”
“Bobby! You don’t have to stay awake! I like your curly hair.” She tousled his hair and grinned.
“But I don’t want the gnomes to come!”
“They will anyway, they’ll just wait until you’re too tired to notice them.”
“I would notice them. I don’t like gnomes.”
“They’re good gnomes, they won’t hurt you.”
That seemed to pacify him. He bounced happily on her knees for the rest of the meal.