When her alarm clock blared, Cherish jumped up, scrambled from her bed and immediately found herself lying on the living room floor. Something was definitely wrong with this morning. Perhaps, she decided, it had to do with the fact that she had a very Seven shaped person lying on top of her.

He was just as surprised to say the least, dazedly uttering, "What are you doing here?"

"I live here, genius."

As if suddenly remembering, Seven tugged his arm and examined the silver chain and bracelets that were holding them together. "Oh. Right. I had hoped it was a dream..."

Cherish pushed him off her and peeled herself from the floor, "And do you often dream of me?"

He sneered at her smirk, "Only when it involves brutally murdering you."

"So I take it you were planning on smothering me with your bare chest?"

He was clearly even less of a morning person than she was, befuddled and cranky as he was. With the decision that she could be a morning person for one day, Cherish skipped towards the kitchen. Ari was already there, giggling when she saw disheveled Seven trudging in after Cherish. "Morning guys- breakfast?"

With a grunt, Seven pulled her bowl of cereal away from her and slurped the contents out of it. Ari looked mildly disturbed by his actions, but quickly pulled more bowls from the cupboard. "You guys should get ready quickly, school's in half an hour."

They both glared at her; half an hour? To do what exactly? Struggle their way up the stairs?

"Um... how s'actly are we 'posed to do that?" Seven mumbled sleepily.

Ari looked at him blankly, "The same way you do every day?"

He fixed her with a look, a look that screamed, 'Are you daft woman?'.  When she still didn't catch on he snapped, "And how do you suppose I get your sister through my sleeve?"

Ah. So he was awake. Ari tittered nervously, "Oh. Oops, I never thought of that... Well, no one will notice if you wear the same thing again."

Cherish rolled her eyes, "But they will notice if we reek."

Ari shook her head; a clear signal that she had no solution to the problem at hand. "Uh... Ian bought by some of your clothes, Seven," she said quickly and skittered from the kitchen.

-.-

No shower. No comfortable clean clothes. She had barely been able to brush her teeth, wash her face and fix her hair. Yes, she did have fresh pants on, as did Seven, but that did little to assuage their crankiness. The two of them had argued for nearly half an hour over who would drive.

"Where are you going?" Cherish asked, suddenly realising they were not headed for the school.

Seven shrugged, "I told you we're getting this cut."

"Yeah, you don't believe Ari do you?"

"No."

Cherish nodded and sat back; she wasn't going to argue if it would get her away from him. When he pulled into the parking lot, Cherish slid out of the car and followed as he sauntered into Ian's stepfather's auto shop.

"Hey, is Manny around?" Seven asked. A bunch of the workers looked at him in annoyance and shook their heads.

Someone pushed their way out from under a car, "Is that Seven I hear? And he bought a pretty young thing!"

Cherish scowled at the man who was leering at her; he looked about 39 years old.

Seven sighed, "You don't want this one, Mike, trust me."

"We'll see," Mike winked at her. "To what do we owe the pleasure of this visit, Sweetie?"

Rolling his eyes at the fact that Mike was addressing Cherish, Seven shoved their arms into Mike's face. "We stopped by to see if you could cut these for us."

Mike regarded Cherish with a look that made her stomach turn; you kinky little minx, you. "Really? You want to let this pretty young thing go?"

"Yes. Trust me, Mike, she's the devil."

Cherish gave Mike the best evil look she could manage, happy to agree with Seven. Scoffing, Mike eyed her bandaged hand, "She can't be that bad, Sev. She looks pretty harmless to me."

Seven leaned back on the counter, tucking his free hand into a pocket, "Whatever, Mike, just remember my little man's down for the count thanks to this one."

"And it'll be forever if you don't stop talking about me like I'm not standing right here."

Mike scoffed again and pulled out a pair of wire cutters. After some time of struggling to cut the chain he paused, "These are old cutters, I've got something better. Hold on!" When he emerged from the room he had gone into, he held a chainsaw. He's kidding. He has to be kidding! He's not kidding... He revved the chainsaw and brandished it at them. With a yelp, Cherish ran for her car.

There was no way she was letting some perverted creep try to cut the cuffs with a chainsaw. With her luck the idiot would accidentally sever her arm off. Seven laughed as she started the car and began driving away while he was still outside. She had jumped in through the window again, like she truly had an axe murderer after her and stopping to open the door would cost her her life. "Slow down will you? Or I'll take your arm with me!"

She reached out and, grabbing his arm, pulled him into the car without actually stopping it, though she had slowed. Once he was in the driver's seat, he pulled the car to a stop at the side of the street. "Wow, you'd have one hell of a career as a stunt man!"

Cherish glowered at him, but after he restarted the car, she chuckled, "He was kidding right?"

"I think so."

She was quiet after that, abnormally so, all the way to the school. Seven snickered; Mike must really have scared her.

"We missed First," she said as she glanced at the clock.

"Fine with me."

As they got out of the car, Seven stopped abruptly, his face tinged with the heat of a blush. "This morning... you said... I wasn't trying to smother... I fell," he finished lamely.

The amused look on Cherish's face made him re-evaluate what he had said. In fact, their whole situation was rather funny. Well, it would be if they didn't insist on beating the pulp from each other. They both burst out laughing at the same time.

"Hey," he protested, "I wasn't the idiot who ran from the auto shop screaming!"

"I had a good reason!"

"Sure! Like he would have cut us into a million little pieces and fed us to the rottweiler out back."

She flushed as he repeated the words she had apparently screamed aloud; she swore she had been thinking that. "Yeah, whatever."

-.-

She had never noticed before how good he was with a guitar. But, it didn't take her long to figure out he hated the fact that she screwed up his playing by being cuffed to him. While he sat in the recording booth, between the two music rooms, she decided to make use of the opportunity to annoy him. At first, whenever he set something up, she would accidentally undo it. That got old really fast, so she settled for moving her arm in the opposite direction as his when he played, which resulted in a really odd sounding, jerky playing.

When that too got boring, she flicked the switch that would broadcast him to the music rooms on either side of them. Of course, once he noticed, he decided to play it up. Cherish resorted to the most annoying and embarrassing thing she could think of, though it was highly childish. She began making inappropriate noises into one of the microphones that lay forgotten behind him. When the windows of the recording booth were blacked out by a bunch of faces peering in, Seven looked around confused.

"What the...?" He set down his guitar and stood, wondering why both classes were looking in at him, their faces excited. Both doors were yanked open and both music teachers barged in.

"Seven, I really don't mind you treating us all to your superior guitar skills, but please keep your private matters to yourself." Mr. Brown sighed heavily and switched the main speakers off.

Mrs. Lengo, however, was not so lenient. She ranted about the inability of the students to keep their hands to themselves and insisted on reducing the number of students allowed in the booth at once. Seven looked utterly perplexed and Cherish had to clap a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing in Mrs. Lengo's face.

"What are you talking about?" Seven asked plainly. Mrs. Lengo fumed.

"Agnes, it's fine. They're both very good students of mine, I doubt it will ever happen again." Mr. Brown winked at Cherish as he led the still angry Mrs. Lengo from the room, reasoning with her. He had been one of the first at the window and had seen her with the microphone.

Cherish turned to Seven and laughed, "You should have seen your face! That was priceless!"

-.-

There was a rush of stamping feet and squeaking sneakers before both Ian and Juss came tearing around the corner.

"Why did we just hear that you two were having 'relations' in the recording room?" Ian asked as he collapsed in front of them.

"And if you did, that's fucking awesome, Sev!"

"God, you're such a pig, Juss!" Cherish scowled at him.

Seven smirked, and deliberately ignored Ian's question, determined that she should answer. After they all pointedly stared at her for some time, she finally grinned, "I was bored, so I plugged in a mic, switched the channels and made some noises."

"What kind of noises?" Juss asked a little too excitedly. She was about to call him out on being a disgusting little horn dog when Ari popped around the corner, a little more confident than she had been the day before.

"Oh good! You're here!"

"Now what?"

"We're doing a three-legged obstacle course, we need you there."

Seven stood and began to follow Ari, but Cherish pulled him back, "What?? You're agreeing to this?"

He smirked, "It could be fun... Man! I'm full of surprises today! First, I screw you in the recording room and now this..."

Ari smiled when Cherish, who had no choice, followed them, "Good. Wait, you what???"

Cherish sighed, "Long story, Ari, don't worry about it."

Ari regarded them both skeptically, "You're explaining later. We have to go now."

-.-

They had to bake a cake. Only Camille and Devon were joining them today; Brooklyn and Michael would be at the second lunch period. Other teams had joined for the fun of it. At one end of the gymnasium was a long table laden with all sorts of cake ingredients, in bulk, because it was a three legged race and stuff was bound to fall. At the opposite end, another table at which stood several student council kids with chef hats and mixing bowls.

Cherish groaned; this would be fun! Not. The chef would announce the ingredient and the tripods had to retrieve them from across the room. Sounds easy enough. Not if you're attached to Seven Severin or Cherish McKinley.

First was eggs. Some of the couples were having issues with their sync, but surprisingly, Cherish found that she and Seven worked well together. They were almost at the chef's table when Seven stopped and Cherish, who had no warning, pitched forward. He must not have thought through the fact that they were now attached by both wrists and ankles. He grunted in pain as he picked himself up, going as far as to offer her a supportive hand on her elbow.

"Now we've got to get more eggs, Cherish! She said make a cake, not wear a cake."

"Funny," Cherish ground out at Seven's mock tone of exasperation. The second batch of eggs reached the chef safely. Next, Fana, their chef, asked for both milk and flour. Cherish giggled as she tripped Seven so he fell into the milk he spilled while she "accidentally" dropped the bowl of flour all over him. "Oops!"

"Okay, so we're even," Seven said with a subdued grin as they picked themselves up again. Again, their second try was much more successful. Third was sugar, and as Seven measured it out, the bag slipped from his hands. He hadn't meant to do it and tried quite ineffectively to stop the bag from exploding on the floor.

"I thought we were even," Cherish deadpanned as the sugary cloud settled. They were both covered. Cherish grabbed the bag of sugar from the group beside them and finished filling the bowl. As she turned to walk across the room, Seven grabbed her around the waist. He was not chancing any more mishaps, intended or accidental. She laughed as he carried her back to Fana. "Cautious much, Seven? If I do recall it was you who dropped the milk and the sugar."

"The milk was your fault," he grumbled as Fana sent them to gather either the chocolate syrup they were using in place of melted chocolate or some nuts. Cherish grinned; chocolate syrup, goodie! She grabbed the bottle as they reached the station. There was a label reading "1/2 cup of syrup" on it. Pulling the last cup off the table, she tried to pour the syrup into it. She tried several times, but no syrup came from the bottle. In frustration, she handed the bottle to Seven inquiring if he could make it work.

"Course I can," Seven snickered.

Cherish bit her tongue and tried to look genuinely puzzled as he peered through the hole and saw that seal was still on. She waited patiently as he poked a hole into the seal, and then squeezed the bottle so syrup sprayed up into his face.

"Gotcha!" Grabbing the bag of walnuts from the table, she ripped it open over his head. "Where's a cherry when you need one?" she muttered. Her face lit up and she grabbed the measuring cup and bottle of syrup and jumped into Seven's side. "And a Cherry on top!" she cackled as Seven was forced to catch her or fall again. Rolling his eyes, Seven trudged back to Fana while Cherish measured out the half cup.

"Finally!" Fana exclaimed and shot her arm up into the air. "DONE!" Her voice echoed out over top of the cheers the other teams were receiving from friends.

"Don't stop people, remember there are second and third place prizes!" Ari squealed as she ran over to them.

There was a loud whoop as Juss entered the gymnasium with Harper and Delia in tow. Ian, who'd been watching for some time, laughed. Delia took one look at Cherish, still in Seven's arms and smiled, "So it's true then? You two in the music room? Because, that would be cool. I mean you two would make such a cute-"

Cherish laughed, cutting Delia off as Seven momentarily tensed, "No it's not true, Deals! He just thinks I can't walk anymore."

"Yeah, well by the amount of cake you two are wearing, I'd say he's got the right idea." Harper chuckled.

"What does not being able to walk have to do with what happened in the music room?"

Seven grinned as he softly nudged Delia's cheek, "Nothing happened earlier. I'm carrying her because she kept tripping me."

"You were tripping me too!"

"I did not!"

"Yeah, you did. Don't you remember the eggs? That was your fault."

"I did not trip you- you tripped yourself, Cherish."

"What a load of crap, Seven, you stopped walking because you knew I'd fall if you did. That counts as tripping!"

"Whatever, you..." he paused and glanced at the others, who were all looking at them in amusement.

"You know," Delia mused as she swiped some chocolate syrup from the side of Seven's face, "you two sound like an old married couple."

As both of them vehemently protested Delia's comment, Ari dragged them to the makeshift podium at the front of the gymnasium. "I thought you two wanted to drop out of this? You're definitely not trying to lose votes, though. Seriously, I think subconsciously you two want to do this together."

Cherish snarled at her sister, "I was trying to lose, Ari."

"I wasn't," Seven was nonchalant. "I was just trying to get you all dirty."

"What are you a sadist or something? You're the one who's gonna be stuck to me all day while I reek of eggs."

"Nope, not a sadist."

"Then why the he- oh my... ARGH! You did this so I'd have to shower, and you could sneak a peek! You are such a sick little boy!"

"Ew! Honestly, who'd want to see you in the shower? Besides, I've seen better bodies clothed!"

She did not get the chance to retort because Ari cut her off. She was thankful for the interruption because, in reality, she was much too hurt by his words to think of anything good enough to throw back.

"Well, it's a good thing you guys are dirty. Now you have to wear the PJ's I bought for you guys!"

"What?"

"I figured you wouldn't wear them on your own, so I bought them with me." The both stared at her rather stupidly. "You can change after we hand out the prizes."

-.-

It was hard enough trying to change in a tiny changing room stall. It was harder still trying to do it with another person squeezed in beside and a sheet draped over each of them as they tried to change. Cherish claimed the bag of clothes first. When she opened it however, she took a deep breath, "Ari. Is this some kind of joke?"

Ari only giggled; inside the bag was one pair of men's dark blue flannel pajamas and one pair of... Really, it wasn't a pair of anything. It was boxers, ones that she had stolen from Cash, and a small white tank top. While she did actually wear that to sleep, Ari knew full well that she would never show that amount of skin at school. Yes, at some point in her past, she had been known to show great amounts of skin, whether at school or not. But, come on!

She sighed, deciding it wasn't Ari's fault; she didn't know about the giant tattoo that Cherish planned to reveal on her own time. Nor did she know that pretty much no one here had ever seen any of her ink. She pulled on the boxers, all the while keeping an eye on Seven's hand. She even pulled the tank top on, to satisfy Ari.

"Come on out, Cherish!" Ari called, echoed closely by Delia and Harper. So, they too, were in on it.

Sighing, she called out, "Hold on, Seven hasn't changed yet, and I'm not squeezing in here twice!" Stuffing her hand through the curtain, she pressed the bag to Seven's stomach, "Here."

After a few seconds of rustling, and a few more of uncomfortable moving, Seven's voice pierced the silence of the small booth. "Is this all?"

"What?"

"Was this all she put in the bag?"

Cherish bit her lip, "Yeah."

"Okay," his outline shrugged under the sheet, his tone resigned. She heard him pushing the door open and she was dragged out into the bright light of the girl's change room.

"Rish! What are you wearing?"

Seven turned around to see what Ari meant, and saw that the top half of his PJs was covering Cherish's body, falling to her knees.

"Ari. Seriously, did you think I'd actually wear that here?" Cherish huffed in obvious annoyance.

"It was worth a try," Delia giggled.

"Wait! So, you're not wearing anything under that?" She shook her head at Harper's question and then saw Ian and Juss looking at her with the same expression. Oh God! Boys!

"What did they want you to wear?" Juss asked, as if he expected her to show them all a sexy teddy. Juss crinkled his nose at the boring answer, looking at Ari as if she were crazy, "Whatever, you look way hotter in Seven's shirt."

For some reason, Cherish not wearing pants, was more noteworthy than Seven's lack of shirt because no one noticed until then. Delia examined his tattoos with interest and Ari looked away with a faint blush on her face. Seven on the other hand, was intently examining Cherish in his shirt, an expression she couldn't read on his face.

"Seven. You can't not wear a shirt, you know," Ari said. "It's against the rules."

He shrugged, his shoulders rising and falling gracefully, "Well, it's either I go half naked, or your sister goes half naked."

* Title song by Reverend Horton Heat