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the morning sun stretched long shadows across the backyard as ryan and seth walked up from the pool house, mid-argument.
"so you're saying you won't help me?" seth asked, borderline desperate.
"i've got a physics quiz. i'm kinda busy."
"ryan!" he whined.
"what?"
"please, man, this is a crisis. okay, zach and summer? they're full-on dating now. and that means i need a new girlfriend. pronto."
ryan didn't even bother looking at him. "so you're gonna start dating someone just to show up summer?"
"those are not the reasons," seth muttered as they slid through the back door into the kitchen. "i can't think of them right now, listen, hold on a second let's break bread, let's discuss broads." he threw a bagel toward him.
ryan caught the bagel. "oh—my graphing calculator. left it in your room."
savannah was already there, sitting on the counter, legs swinging. she was slicing a green apple with a pocketknife she definitely wasn't supposed to be using in the house.
"you know what else is in my room?" seth asked, already backing toward the door.
"please don't say lotion," savannah deadpanned.
"my yearbook," he said, unfazed. "a goldmine of fresh-faced, pre-approved dating material. i say we whittle the list down to twenty by homeroom."
"that's a terrible idea."
"and you can keep my leftovers."
"no, no thanks. i'm not dating this year," ryan called back. "that's the game plan."
"yes you are!" seth shouted, chasing after him. "you absolutely are. i'm not entering this new era alone!"
a moment later, sandy and kirsten walked in from the hall mid-conversation.
"it is a new era," sandy was saying. "gettin' the axe is the best thing that could've happened to me. now the only person i answer to—" he pointed at himself—"is me."
"and my father," kirsten said, spotting savannah at the counter and pausing half a second too long. "he's your only client, isn't he?"
"yeah, and you work for his wife," sandy muttered. "what was your father thinking?"
"you can ask him. you'll be hanging with him all day."
