"Yeah, just over that way a little."

They walk to one of said restaurants and he lets her do the ordering. He grins as he watches the normally lethargic male staff perk up for her order, smiling and acting overly friendly, then quickly reverting to their sluggish battery-saving mode as soon as she leaves. They sit down at a table.

"Sometimes, I really wish I were a girl."

"Oh yeah?" She takes a bite of her hamburger. "Why's that?"

"The way people act, just the way they behave around girls is completely different than boys."

"Well, be accurate, at least. You want to be an attractive girl. Otherwise you'd lose your penis for nothing."

"Yeah, that's what I meant. So what's it like? Is it neat to have people smile just by seeing you?"

"It sucks." She takes another bite, and washes it down with a drink. "I mean, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what's going on here. They aren't being nice to me 'cause they liked my last article in the Scientific Journal."

"I suppose not. They just want to get close to you." He smirks. "Maybe touch you a little..."

"Pff, you're not even close. They want to have full on sex, right here and right now, and then they want me to go away. I'm not kidding. I don't mean to over-generalize males here, but the guys working here at least..." she gestures toward the counter. "Jesus, look at that, a bunch of them were just staring at me! Trust me, it gets old real fast. Look at how they all scattered as soon as I looked over. You wouldn't like it."

"Maybe not. Still, it'd be interesting to try."

"Hey, don't drop hints that you'd like me to dress you up as a girl unless you're serious, 'cause I'll do it." He looks taken aback, and she smiles. "No, really, we could go to school together and pretend to be sisters, and you could come hang out in the girls change room and pretend you had a sore leg so you wouldn't have to change. There's definite adventure potential there."

He laughs. "Yeah, and then we could dress you up like a guy and you could come visit the boys locker room."

"Yeah, like I'd want to do that," she says, her gaze focused over his shoulder, toward the restaurant's counter. She winks playfully at someone.

"Good fishing today?"

"Oh yeah," she says, still looking behind him. "I've got this one guy hard. I bet he'll be thinking about me all day."

"I bet he'll be jerking off about you all night, too."

Her look sours. "Aw man, I bet you're right." She stands up. "C'mon, let's go."

He throws out their trash and they walk out of the restaurant, back into the sun. "I was going to go to school this afternoon," she says, "but I don't know. Do you feel like skipping?"

"I don't know, I'd be missing several hours of busy work and brain bludgeoning. Shit, I should write a text book called that: 'Busy Work and Brain Bludgeoning, Vol.1'."

"Yeah. You know, I've been thinking I'd save a lot of time if I just stayed home. I only come to school so I can find an excuse to leave."

"So drop out. Fuck it, it's not like it actually matters."

"Do you want to? I will, but only if you do it with me."

He raises his hands. "Sorry, can't do it. If I dropped out I'd get kicked outta the house and I'd have to get a job. Unless your mom wants to let me move in, I'll be staying at school. Often enough not to get me booted, anyway."

She shrugs. "I guess you're right – why stir up trouble when we're never there anyway? Besides, I think my guidance counsellor would miss me if I left." They both smile.