10

The day after the four o clock desserts show, Elijah West came knocking on my door early in the morning with much more force than usual. He was standing at the door with a flustered look on his face. I was immediately alarmed for the safety of Dukey.

"What's wrong?" I asked, looked at his hair. "Is Duke okay?"

He nodded. I gave a slight sigh of relief. "There's another problem, although."

"What is it? Have you run out of chameleon food?"

"No, there's no sugar in my house!"

"You what?"

He started shaking his hands, and I noticed that he was holding a container which was labeled in italics 'sugar'. Once he noticed me staring, he prised open it and showed me that save for a sugar spoon, it was completely empty.

"What are you going to do?"

He folded his arms and gave me an exasperated look. I rubbed my eyes, not understanding what was going on fully. Especially since it was seven in the morning and I wasn't accustomed to being up that early out of school time.

"Diane Young, don't make me question your intellect." He replied when he saw I was no closer to understanding his motives. "I am your neighbour. I tell you I don't have any sugar at my house. You're my neighbour."

"... Do you want some sugar?" I asked. He started clapping with a sarcastic expression on his face and I gave him a wry look.

"Of course I'd like some sugar, thanks for asking!" Elijah barged in before I could even say any more. I didn't try to kick him out, however, because he'd just sit at the door until I let him in.

He made his way to the kitchen, looking through the cupboards as of he owned the place. I checked the clock - it was before seven, which meant my mom wouldn't even be out of the house yet.

"Stasia, are you awake?!" Think of the devil ..

Mom made her way to the kitchen and met me standing by the door watching Elijah ransacking our cupboard just for the sake of some sugar.

"What is going on?" She asked, eyeing me dangerously.

"Elijah West wanted sugar."

"Hello Miss Young! Your daughter is quite something." He called from inside the cupboard. He looked like he wanted to climb into it, but I didn't understand why; the sugar was right in the front on the top shelf to the left side.

"Why is he - you know what, Stasia, I don't have time for this, I have to get to work in an hour and a half!" She gave me a slight hug and a peck on the forehead (strange behaviour) before bustling out of the house.

"Bye Ma!" I hollered after her.

Elijah yelped with joy and finally found the bag of sugar. He started to pour a little bit into the container. Once he stopped, he gave me a bright smile, possibly the brightest smile I've ever seen in my life.

"Sugar! Thank you ever so much."

"Okay?"

"Goodbye, Diane Young. See you later!"

I walked him to the door, the bright smile still on his face as he marvelled at the sugar in his hands. He didn't even look up when he left for his apartment across the hall.

Odd boy.

Since I was pretty much awake after this event, I decided to go and shower and start my day. I ate cocoa puffs in front of the TV and waited for Elijah to come and pick me up for the day. It hit me as I was waiting that I had hardly spent my summer alone, and practically depended on his company as well as Duke's.

When it struck nine and I was tired of watching cartoons, I figured that he'd be over during the afternoon so we could go get into a movie for free via his people skills. Either that or we could go ask old ladies controversial questions and then go and get some cake for four o clock.

I spent some time practicing the violin, and then I got a call from my mother, asking me why Elijah had been in our house so early in the morning.

"He wanted sugar. Didn't you hear the really loud knocking in the morning?"

"I thought you were snoring!"

"Thanks for that."

At about ten thirty five, Elijah came with his loud knock and rapid speed. I opened the door with a very wide yawn.

"I saw your uvula." He commented. I noticed he wasn't wearing shoes.

"Why are you staring into my mouth? That's rude."

"Why are you staring at my socks? That's even ruder."

"Touché. Where are we going today?"

"We're going to my house."

"Your house?"

"Just across the pond."

"Oh."

We just stood there staring at each other. It wasn't awkward, God forbid anything this boy did being awkward, but it was most likely the strangest thing we had ever done. There was some sort of tension I couldn't quite place swimming through the air.

"Do you feel that, Diane Young?" He whispered.

"Feel what?"

"The sexual tension."

And just like that, the tension dismissed itself from my life. It probably left his too, because he looked around with a frown.

"You're a maniac."

"Correction, I'm an egoistical maniac. Now get off your shoes and let's swim across the pond."

I went to my room to take off my shoes and he must've ran back to his 'house across the pond' to get two snorkels because he had two snorkels in his hands. He was also huffing slightly as he gave me one of the snorkels, a horrid pink and yellow thing.

"How do I put this on?" I asked and he shoved it on my head.

"Come on, before the sharks get here!"

When I said that the pair of us staring at each other was the strangest thing we'd ever done, I was wrong. Because, as soon as I had locked the door, Elijah started to do the breaststroke over to his door.

"What are you doing?" I asked, incredulous.

He looked at me and rolled his eyes. "I'm swimming. How else will I get across the pond?"

"... By boat?"

"That is, until the government agents surround you."

"Again?"

He let out a laugh and continued to swim across the hall. I looked around to see if anyone was coming out of their apartments, but the floor was emptier than an undeveloped brain. So I said to myself, if I can't reel him in, I might as well jump in and swim.

And I started doing the front crawl behind Elijah. He looked back at me and started laughing even more.

"That's the spirit!" He called.

"You're going to swallow some water if you keep on speaking!" I said.

"Speak for yourself!"

Then, out of nowhere, Mr Winston from downstairs came up the stairs, his glasses shielding his big brown eyes.

"What are you kids doing?" He complained. "I can hear you from downstairs!"

"Crossing the pond!" Elijah replied with a singsong voice and he got to the door. I ran a bit to catch up with him and got there about ten seconds after him. Maybe more, maybe less.

He helped me take off the snorkel, slung it around my neck and then covered my eyes with his hands.

"What are you doing?"

"Surprising you." I heard him kick the door open gently and then he started to push me into the apartment. "MOTHER, THE PUN IS HERE." He screamed at the top of his lungs. I winced.

"Elijah West! Why the hell are you sho- who's this?"

"Elijah West, I swear to GOD if you -"

"Elijah almost Elisha - oh, hello there. Elijah West, get your hands off the poor girl's face!"

He removed his hands off my face and whispered a very quiet 'ta daa!'. There stood in front of me was his family.