There was only a single voice speaking in the library. All of the chattering created by the nearly 400 students had died down several minutes before. Everyone was entranced by the story of the older woman standing before them, Justin included. She was a Holocaust survivor who had lost her entire family, and was now showing the numbers tattooed into her arm.

It wasn't that Judy didn't care about this woman's story. She cared about the Holocaust, and thought it was important that people knew what had happened, so it would never happen again. It was just that, she'd heard this story before. It was Days of Diversity week at Central Valley High and every year one her teachers signed up for the Holocaust lecture, and every year it was the same woman. She could probably recite her story verbatim with just as much pain and emotion as the woman who lived it. Besides, they had been up late the night before working on some Journalism article and if she didn't have something incredibly stimulating to do, she was going to fall asleep.

Justin wasn't any help. Usually if she was bored she could turn to him, snap her fingers once or twice to get his attention away from whatever chick he was staring at, and then they could be bored together. But for the first time he wasn't bored, and he wasn't complaining. He was staring wide eyed with his mouth hanging open. She could swear she'd seen a fly go and out and he didn't so much as blink at any point.

With everyone around her mesmerized she was left with only one option. Contact someone not in the library. Judy reached down into her purse and pulled out her cell phone, smiling as she saw she already had a text message waiting for her. It was Vicki, saying she was in the Chinese lecture for the second time that day, and claimed to be literally dying. Judy told her about she was in the Holocaust lecture, trying not to let herself get comfortable, not that it was easy to get comfy in a metal folding chair, and that they was nothing to do but watch Justin drool on himself.

Justin was trying to concentrate on the woman standing a few rows ahead of him. He couldn't quite place his finger on the reason he was so interested in her story. He'd learned all about the Holocaust while he was in school, but they'd never had a survivor come and speak to them before. Maybe he just wasn't used to seeing the story play across someone's face like that. There was a difference between reading a story and hearing a story. Regardless, he was incredibly interested, and his attention was being taken away just at the height of the story, but this constant clicking. It was low and annoying and it was coming from the person next to him. Judy was clicking away on her phone, completely lost in whatever conversation she was having.

He tried to ignore it, and turn a deaf ear, but that only seemed to make it louder. And it didn't help when she started giggling to herself. Then he couldn't take it. Reaching over, Justin snatched Judy's phone from her fingers and shoved it into his backpack. When she went to protest, he put a finger to his lips and then pointed to the speaker. Suddenly, he was the mature one.

"Are you sure cutting class is a good idea?"

"We're not cutting, it's a field trip."

"Whatever, point is we won't be there. And I don't think you're doing well enough in your Math class to be doing that. You didn't look up at the board once yesterday."

"Oh my God, this coming from the person who hasn't turned in one assignment in Government? I don't know how you manage that, we do the homework together."

"It's not my fault my backpack is the black hole. Besides, Government sucks. When am I ever going to need to know that crap. So George Washington wrote the Declaration of Independence. Who cares?"

"Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. George Washington was a general in the Revolutionary War and tacked his name on the Constitution."

Justin gave Judy a look of annoyance. She was always correcting him, he hated that.

"And when the hell am I going to need that information?"

"You're right, you'll never have to prove to someone that you have a higher mental capacity than a carrot. All you have to do is smile and look pretty and you're set for the rest of your life."

"No, I also have to shake my groove thang thank-you-very-much."

"Oh I bet all the girls are a sucker for that."

"Oh yeah, that's what brings in the big bucks baby."

Judy rolled her eyes, turning away from him and completely shutting him out. She'd trained herself to be able to do that, any person in their right mind would after spending number of weeks with him like she had. He had the confidence level of a high school quarter back and the maturity level of her dog. Besides, he was only trying to distract her and she knew it.

They were on BART (the Bay Area's version on the New York Subway) on their way to the UC Berkeley campus for an American Civil Liberties Union conference. It was something that the school's chapter of Amnesty International had invited them too and Judy had insisted that they go. The ACLU wasn't an organization she was officially apart of, but she was still interested and eager to see what they were all about.

Problem was, since the UC Berkeley campus was somewhat far and no one wanted to pay for parking, that the group had decided to take BART and walk there from the station. In deciding this, they had completely forgotten about Justin. Famous Justin. Justin who people were now staring and pointing at. MTV had gotten an order keeping the press several feet away, but they hadn't said anything about innocent people who just happened to be in the right place at the right time. There was chatter and flashes of cameras and smiles and waves. Justin didn't really seem to be affected by it at all, atleast not that she could see, but she hadn't mastered his body language yet. Judy however, was definitely uncomfortable. Someone with a camera that you could pretend was just an oddly shaped tumor was on thing. Feeling like you were a monkey in a cage on display while people talked about you like you weren't there was a whole nother category.

The train pulled up to their stop and everyone slowly filed out. The advisor, Ms. Parrish, took down everyone's names and phone numbers incase of an emergency, and then pointed them in the direction of the college. The walk was only a few blocks, but the sun was beating down on their backs constantly the entire time. Everyone let out a sigh of relief when they finally entered the Bears' Lair, also known as, the Student Center. The conference was to take place upstairs.

"What's the point of all this again?" Justin took off his baseball cap, ran a hand over his head, and pulled it back on.

"Well, it depends on what room you go into. Their all different topics, like, Youth and the Media, and Is the Constitution suppressing minority Religions, and Discrimination among Student Unions."

"And why does all this spell out B-O-R-I-N-G to me."

"We went over this, because you have the mental capacity of a carrot."

His eyes narrowed on her before he looked around the room, scoping out the people around him. There in the entry hall and there were various chalk boards placed around the room for people to sign that had questions like, "Who's the most important person in history?", "Who's the most influential person you know?" and odd things like, "Which came first: the chicken, or the egg?", and silly things like, "Got Milk?" What really caught his attention was the pretty blonde by the, "Who should be the next President?" board.

"Hey, how old do you think that girl is?" Justin moved infront of Judy and nodded his head back.

Judy glanced over his shoulder, "Twelve."

His blue eyes rolled again.

"I dunno, she's probably like, 19, 20. Why?"

"I'm gonna go talk to her," Justin shoved his unwanted jacket into Judy's arms and darted off in the girls' direction.

It took a second for Judy to register everything that had happened. After all, he was talking a mile a minute before he shoved his stuff at her and took off. But then she just turned to Steve and rolled her eyes.

"He's such a moron."

Someone touched her arm and she looked up to see Ben's face. She smiled instantaneously and reached up to hug him. They had spoken on the phone once but hadn't seen eachother since the movie date.

"I thought that was you."

"It's me, the one and only. How are you?"

"Great. You?"

"Awesome," now, "what are you doing here?"

"Well, I'm a member. I got the email about it, figured I'd check it out. You?"

"Just tagging along with another organization."

"Well, I'm glad you did," he put an arm around her shoulder and slowly began to lead her towards the doors of the main room, "I was afraid I was going to be all alone. I don't know anyone here, and I don't think there will be may like me here."

"Like you?" She looked up at him.

She loved how he was taller than she was, something surprisingly hard to find in her neighborhood. She also adored the scruff on his jaw.

"Conservative," he answered.

"Ah, I see. You're right, the ACLU is a liberal organization."

"It's not a liberal organization, it's just liberals are the majority, so people assume it's a liberal organization. I never understood why conservatives didn't join, they just gave it this evil stigma. But I don't see how the ACLU's bad, or liberal. It's goal is to protect the Bill of Rights. You'd think that'd be the one thing we could all agree on, that the Constitution needs protecting. I mean, the ACLU has defended both the Black Panthers and the KKK, not to say that all liberals are like the Black Panthers and all conservatives are like the KKK mind you, just that they've been to both ends of the spectrum."

Judy could only stare and nod. God he was so smart, he almost made her feel dumb. Almost. When they reached the doors, she turned to look for Justin, minding the rules that he wasn't allowed to be in a room without her. She spotted him with the blonde, she was laughing and flipping her hair and he was eating it up like the great big dork he was. The girl was called off for one reason or another and Justin watched her leave before beginning to look around. Judy knew he was looking for her and raised a hand into the air. He spotted her, she nodded her head to Ben, and something in Justin's face changed. She couldn't quite put her finger on what the expression was, but it changed. And then was covered as quickly as it had come.

Justin fought back the urge to groan when he saw Ben, smiling back at him, his arm around Judy. He looked like a dog pissing on his territory. She wasn't even his territory yet! They weren't officially going out, she just spent two days talking about him.

Oh Ben's eyes... Ben's smile... Ben's hair... Ben's voice... Ben's body.... But that didn't mean they were going out, dating, official, whatever you wanna call it. But the guy was a weasel, he could tell. Men can smell other men like, well, dogs. Dogs can smell dogs and this one smelled like a, well, dog.

"Justin, it's good to see you again," Ben offered his hand.

Yeah whatever, "You too man."

An uncomfortable silence fell over them.

"Well, that must be my cue to head into the main room," Judy said.

"Yeah, and since we have to sit with our group, we'll have to say good-bye. Such a shame," Justin flashed pearly white teeth at them both.

Judy suppressed the urge to smack him across the back of his head. She knew he wasn't the least bit upset by the idea of having to say good-bye to Ben, and he wasn't the least bit happy about seeing him in the first place.

"Actually Ben's here by himself, so he can sit anywhere he wants to right?"

"Right."

"I'm sure no one would mind if you sat with us, then you wouldn't be alone."

Ben smiled down at her and squeezed her shoulder before his hand slipped down to grasp her own. Judy was beaming up at him, revealing in the feeling of hand in hers. It was soft and gentle, but firm and rough around the edges from the years he had worked on the loading docks and the martial arts fighting. Justin was trying to kill them both by shooting daggers with his eyes.

He followed the oh-so-wonderful Ben, and the gliding-on-air Judy to seats a couple rows from the back, his eyes glued to their connected hands. He sat down on the other side of Judy and tried to focus his attention on what was happening on the stage. Ignoring how whenever someone paused to speak Judy and Ben would lean in close and comment and analyze what they had just said. A woman spoke about being a female in the correctional system, then they did some kinda of metaphorical dance before handing out fliers advertising a show they were doing in San Francisco. Justin couldn't help but wonder why, if there women were supposed to be surveying time in a state prison, how they were out performing shows every other day?

Then two men spoke about how they we suspended from the military for refusing to go fight the war in Iraq. One of them sat down on the runway infront of the plane and refused to get on, then he spoke about the racism and homophobia that had been expressed by his fellow soldiers during their weeks of basic training. Justin was bored. It wasn't that what was going on wasn't interesting, it was just that he knew all of this. How could you live with Judy and not have heard the argument against Bush Jr.'s now infamous war on Terrorism? And it wasn't like they needed to convince him of anything, everyone already knew he was democrat. He was hosting a party after the Democratic Convention.

"I just don't feel it was justified --pardon the pun Justin-- it's not a war on Terrorism, it's a war over oil, and boosting the economy, and trying to become reelected for a second term, and it's about 'You were mean to my Daddy so I'm gonna be mean to you.' It has nothing to do with Terrorism and trying to make America safe."

Justin was trailing behind Judy and Ben as they headed off to join some conversation about the controversy over white student unions. Judy's argument was that student unions were meant for minorities. They were a place for people to learn about communities and cultures that aren't very present in mass media and communications. If you wanted a taste of white society, turn on MTV. Ben's argument was that although the Anglo-Saxons were the majority nation wide, that didn't mean that they were the majority on every school campus and in those situations, when they were the minority and white culture wasn't represented everywhere in their town, that white student unions were necessary.

"That's not true. Removing Saddam Hussein from power is important because he's been torturing the Iraqi people for decades. Those people are living in fear of him everyday, just crying out for someone to come and liberate them. And we know he had weapons of mass destruction pointed right at us. What should we do, just sit back and wait for him come after us? After September 11th a lot more people understood the rule of: kill or be killed. It's our Presidents job to ensure our safety and survival. It has nothing to do with oil, it's not helping the economy, and I don't see how to going to help him get reelected. If it's such a bad idea, how come other countries are going along with it?"

"Because people are going to say, "Well, it's his war, who's going to know how to handle it better than him? And it does have to do with oil. If we gain control of Iraqi oil, which we have, we control... what is it Justin, 25 or 50 percent of all oil revenues in the world?"

"I don't remember," he muttered.

"Well, which every one it was, it's a lot, and that's a lot of money. It's a lot of money when would mean a lot to country with a large deficit and a drowning economy and high rate of unemployment. And kill or be killed isn't a rule, it's a mentality, one that's only gotten us into trouble. And these weapons of mass destruction? Where are they? Have you seen one? Can't we can't find them, we never saw them. We saw pictures, from the 80's, which the UN has testified to have already destroyed. And even if he did have WMD's, we don't know that'd he'd be a danger to us. He has never threatened the United States in the past."

"So we should just watch the biggest threat to our lives get bigger and stronger and do nothing? And when something happens again, and more people get killed, we can say, 'Well, we weren't sure if he was coming after us. Sorry.' I don't know about you, but I don't feel like that's an exceptable response to give someone when they ask why their loved one is dead."

"Well, let me ask you this then. If Iraq was the greatest threat facing the United States, then why did we take over the entire country in two weeks? You couldn't take over the city of Baltimore in two weeks and we took an entire country? Doesn't seem like such a big threat to me. And all those people that were crying out to be liberated. If that's what they wanted, they why are our troops still dying? Not to say that they like Saddam's dictatorship, but it's the only thing most of those people have ever known. It's all they have, they're gonna protect. If you ripe their world away from them, they'll have nothing left, they'll be alone and uncomfortable and they'll want it back."

"She's so smart. Isn't she smart?" Ben stopped in the doorway and turned to Justin know nodded in agreement.

Judy blushed.

"I'm just saying that I've got several friends, and a cousin in Iraq. And maybe soon you'll be there, and I don't think I'd be okay with it if any one of you came back hurt. This war doesn't mean anything. the Revolutionary War meant something, the Civil War meant something. The War on Terrorism is... well for lack of a better term at the moment, stupid, and it's not thought-out and.... I would not be happy if one of you didn't come back to me."

She felt uncomfortable under Ben's stare, trying to understand why she had just said she wanted him to come back to her, as if he was even hers to have in the first place. She was getting way too caught up in this 'relationship' way too fast. One smile from him in her direction and she was ready to pee on him and mark her territory, and was actually tearing up at the idea of him going to war. She was a goober. Ben didn't say anything about it though, and leaned forward to kiss the side of her head before entering the room. When Judy opened her eyes again Justin was standing infront of her, and she could tell he was just itching to ask her a million questions at once.

"What was that?" he asked.

Judy let out a sigh, "Don't ask. I don't even know."

The day was relatively interesting, even to Justin. The lecture on the controversy over white student unions was pointless. Everyone had such strong opinions that eventually it just erupted into a shouting match about how it was just the Ku Klux Klan in a different dress. They then attended a meeting about Media and Teens, where everyone claimed that the television had nothing to do with how they dressed, ate, talked, or anything else. That is, until Judy pointed out that everything the did, they did because the TV told them too. They wore what they wore because some designer on your favorite TV show told you it was cute by putting it on your favorite character. You did your hair the way you did because your favorite magazine said it was the new IT do. You talked the way you talked because someone on the radio said, 'You should sound like me.' Even people who were claiming to 'not care what others thought' and were doing their own thing, were doing it because Seventeen said 'Be unique and do your own thing.' Big business and the media told us how to be ourselves, it had nothing to do with what we thought.

Justin could understand the logic behind that. He couldn't remember how many times he had worn a shirt or a hat or said something, only to see it become part of Pop Culture. Take the word 'crunk' for example. The question, "What does Crunk mean?" had probably been asked close to a million times, especially back in 1998. Everywhere he went people wanted to know, to the point where he finally just answering. If people wanted to know what it meant so bad, wouldn't they try to find out if he had previously explained it at some point?

Now turn on the radio. Crunk is everywhere. Mary J. had said it. Lil' Jon and the East Side Boys, and the Ying-Yang Twins. Everyone wanted to get 'Crunk in here' and 'Crunked Upon' etc. And did he get any credit for it? Ofcourse not. No one wanted to believe that they little white pop boy from Tennessee came up with Hip-Hop's favorite word of the new millennium.

After all the lectures, and the lunch where he had to suffer through the two of them debating over more world issues that he didn't really care about, it was time for them to head back to BART and Ben to head to his car. Judy insisted on walking him, Justin trotted along behind Steve.

"It was nice seeing you again," Ben said as he used his remote to unlock the door.

"You too. Imagine, running into you here."

"I'd like to get together with you again some time soon," he picked up her hand again and swung it back and forth between them as he leaned against his car.

"Well, you do have my number," she said.

Ben nodded with a blush.

"And I do always have my phone."

He nodded again, "Okay I get the point. I'll call you, soon."

"Good. You better. For I am woman, and you will hear me roar."

He reached for her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders in a hug. She loved how he was so much taller than she was. She'd spent many dances having to lean over to put her head on the guys shoulder, resulting in a backache mid dance. She hated it. When she stood in front of Ben, the top of her head just barely touched under his chin. She could wear heels! Her hand pressed into his back and she could feel the hard muscles of his back flexing as he hugged her. He smelled like soap and some sporty cologne. He smelled good. Her eyes slid closed and she was sure her balance faltered for a moment.

"Well, after all the people you attacked today, I'm positive that I don't want to hear you roar," he said, "I'll talk to you later."

He leaned in and kissed her cheek, much closer to her mouth this time. He lingered for a second and part of her wanted to pull away, get his intoxicating smell away from her. The other part of her that hadn't been kissed in along time, wanted him to just go ahead and do it. Sure, it was against the rules of dating: No kissing before the 3rd date. But they were both adults, nearly, they could handle it.

Unfortunately, he did the latter of the two and stepped back, giving her a wink before getting into his car. Judy stepped back over to where Justin stood and waved as he pulled out of the space and headed towards the exit. Justin sighed with relief, the dog was gone, and headed back towards the Bear's Lair to meet up with the others. He looked away a few feet later and realized Steve was the only one with him. Judy was still standing by Ben's empty space with a sappy look on her face.

"Come on," he said walking over to her and grabbing her wrist, jerking her in his direction, "You need help girl."

"I know but I can't help it, he's just so cute."

Yeah whatever, "Okay."

It was a couple minutes before Play That Funky Music White Boy started sounding from her purse. She dug down into it and pulled out her phone, squealing and skipping for a second before answering. Obviously it was Ben, probably trying to be romantic by calling her now instead of tomorrow. Justin looked to Ms. Parrish who was watching Judy curiously, and shrugged before putting a finger to the side of his head and moving it in a circle to symbolize that Judy was just crazy and there was no reason to be alarmed.

"I didn't expect to be hearing from you so soon.... Oh no it's fine.... Friday huh? Well, I'll have to check my schedule first.... Oh, since you put it that way, sure. What time?.... Uh-huh, that's fine.... Okay doll, I'll see you then.... Bye."

She hung up and turned to Justin with the most excited expression, he almost felt bad about disliking the guy with a passion.

"That was Ben." He figured, "He wants to go to dinner Friday night," he heard, "I said okay."

"Just tell me one thing, do I have to sit and watch you two make googlie-eyes at eachother? Cause I'd really rather not thanks."

Judy pouted at him for a second and he hand reached up to rub the back of his head. Finally, some Justin attention. She'd been ignoring him all afternoon. He jetted out his bottom lip, allowing himself to look more pitiful. But it was too late. Judy attention had already turned.

"Do you really think he makes googlie-eyes at me?"

"Are you going to be ready any time this century?"

There was no response.

"This isn't right you know. It's not even my date and I'm the one who's ready early."

Judy's door opened and she headed towards him, "That's because you're excited about seeing your date," she teased.

Judy had managed to persuade her friend Krystal to double date with Justin so he wouldn't be alone this time. She figured since it was Krystal's fault (or good senses) that they got together, she should be the one to help them out. Justin was more and more obvious with his dislike of Ben, and Judy wanted something to distract him so he wouldn't open his mouth and embarrass them both. Krystal's butt the perfect thing for the job. She knew Justin held a thing for the girl, ever since he revealed that he thought of her as Chocolate Thunder.

Justin shrugged her off, "Please girl, I'm a P-I-M-P. This ain't nothing but a thang."

"Right," he eyed him up as she stepped into the living room, and headed straight for the mirror over the fireplace. He looked very nice, in black slacks and a maroon button down shirt. He was a dork, but he cleaned up nice.

Once she was out of the dark hallway and under the bright lights of the chandelier, Justin took in her dark jeans and low V neck black shirt. There was a large amount of cleavage and the fact that it hugged her body didn't help either. While he wanted to stare, the part of him that had grown close to her over the past number of weeks jumped up before the rest of him could stop it.

"You're not wearing that are you?"

"No, I was just hanging out in it, I'm gonna go change into my real outfit now."

"Don't patronize me. You can't wear that out."

"What's wrong with it?"

"Well, first let's start with it's only half a shirt."

"Oh shut up! Look at the kinds of thin girlfriends have worn."

"You really wanna compare yourself to them? There's a reason they're all past girlfriends you know."

"I'll bet you didn't tell them not to wear those skimpy little outfits outside."

"Besides the point. Go put some clothes on."

"Justin, stop it, you're not my father," she finished applying her gloss and smacked her lips before heading towards the door.

"You know, the longer I'm around you, the more of your attitude I see."

"And you love every minute of it. Come on slow poke."

Dinner was boring. He didn't know why, but the tight skirt Krystal wore only managed to hold his attention for.... 10 -maybe 15- minutes. It wasn't that she was boring, because she wasn't, but, the more he talked to her, the more he realized she wasn't exactly his type. Which sucked because he as banging, she definitely was his type in that aspect. But the only people who seemed to be having a good time were Ben and Judy.

"That's interesting because, a friend of mine, when he broke up with his girlfriend, he and her friend started hanging out, and he ended up dating her. When she found out she got all pissed off, but they didn't care, they didn't even talk to her. Her friend stopped speaking to her," they were discussing... something.

"That's... I dunno," Judy said. "That sounds kinda messed up to me."

"Well, he gave her a chance to not be crazy and, she didn't wanna not be crazy so, good bye."

"To not be crazy?" she giggled, "But still, that's messed up. Not so much of him because their relationship is done and over with and he has no loyalty to her, but it's messed up of her friend cause every girl knows you don't date your friends man, ex-man, or wished-he-was-her-man."

"Wished-he-was-her-man?"

"Her crush. You never date someone your friend was crushing on, because, you will never live it down," she leaned forward to rest her cheek in her hand, her elbow on the table.

Her cleavage was practically in the man's face, and Justin was waiting for the second where he let himself slip and glance down. Justin had several times, the waiter had once or twice. What made Ben so special that he didn't notice the two large twins that were practically hitting her in the chin? Something was odd about this guy.

"Hello?" someone snapped their fingers in Justin's face and focused in on Krystal, "Were you even listening?"

"Uh...." Too what?

"Umm-hmm. You know, hella interested in what they're talking about," she said, her head swiveling around on her neck. Justin resisted the urge to snap his fingers in a Z-like formation. He didn't think she'd get the joke.

"Well.... I uh--."

"Umm-hmm." Was all she said. She crossed her arms and sat back in her chair.

"I'm sorry, you're right. Go ahead, tell me what you were saying before," he turned his chair towards her.

She looked at him skeptically before leaning towards him, continuing her story about some hot tub parlor. Justin's eyes, ever so slightly looked to right, and he could see Ben out of the corner of his eye. Any second now he was going to slip. Any minute... any minute... it'd been nearly an hour, how much restraint could one man have? Any minute... any minute.... Aha! He looked! He looked! The pervert.

"I think my type of guy would be the dominant one," Judy was saying.

Justin's ears slowly tuned out Krystal.

"I'm always the one in charge, at home cause my Mom is so absent and at school I'm always in charge, or I'm the one doing the talking. The last thing I need is to be in charge of the relationship too. I wanna be able go to my boyfriend and not have to make a decision, that'd be my relaxation time," she giggled. "Plus I'm an old-fashioned girl. I think men should open doors and they should call the girl, and they should propose and... everything else."

Ben nodded, "I agree. I think the man should be the dominant one. He's the man, he should be the leader. I don't know that I could date a girl who didn't let me have more control than she did."