Twister heard giggling and hushing in the hallway outside his room. It was nearly 10; his parents would be asleep. Curiosity got the better of him. He got up and slowly cracked open the door, unprepared for what he was about to see. He immediately recognized the girl standing in the hallway and kissing his brother. It was Sherry. He tried to shut the door but it creaked as he did and they stopped and looked over at him.

"Um, hey guys," he tried to say casually.

"Twister!" Sherry gasped. "This isn't what it looks like!"

Lars nodded towards the stairs. "Go ahead, I'll meet you outside," he told sherry before turning to twister and holding him in a headlock once sherry had disappeared. "You didn't see anything," he grunted threateningly. "And if this gets out, you're dead meat."

"Got it," Twister choked.

O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O

Twister hated keeping other people's secrets. It was like a huge burden that had just been put on him where he had to watch everything he said. It was even worse that it was one of Reggie's best friends because it made him feel like he was betraying her somehow by knowing. He was staying quiet as they all walked to school together but he didn't realize he had been zoned out until Otto shoved him.

"Dude, are you in or what?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure."

Reggie looked against this answer. "You can't be serious."

"Seems like a bad idea," Sam agreed.

"You're actually doing okay in history," Reggie pointed out. "You shouldn't skip your quiz just for a ride."

"Not just any ride, Reg," Otto said in awe. "Fire Fury."

Twister was starting to piece together what they were talking about. Otto had been wanting to ride the new ride at the pier on opening day. He had talked about skipping class to get there before the lines got crazy. He guessed Otto had been trying to convince him to go with him.

"You actually studied for this one," Sam reminded him.

"Seriously," Reggie agreed. "We can just go tonight. I don't see what the big deal is."

"Yeah," Twister started. "Maybe we should just go tonight."

"What! Dude! I thought we were bros!"

"Otto, it'll be more fun if we all go anyway," Reggie said.

"Twist and I can go again with you guys tonight!" Otto pleaded.

"Sorry, man. I'm with them on this one," Twister said.

O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O

Twister was between classes when a hand grabbed a hold of his and pulled him off into a corner. Sherry was a very touchy person and he never really knew how to react to it. She looked around to make sure the coast was clear before leaning in to talk to him without being overheard by the other students passing by.

"Hey, so I'm really sorry about all of this," she started. "But I just kind of wanted to make sure you haven't told anyone about me and Lars?"

"No, Lars made it pretty clear he didn't want it getting out."

"That's sweet," Sherry commented and Twister didn't let her know that it definitely hadn't been sweet. "It's me actually. I'm the one making us keep it a secret. From Reggie, mostly. I just don't want it to get out. I love Reggie, but I know she is going to be so mad when she finds out I'm dating Lars."

Twister saw Reggie passing in the hallway a distance from them and thought it would be best to wrap up the conversation. "I won't say anything."

"Thank you, Twister," she said, throwing her arms around him and giving him a hug. "I really appreciate it!"

"No problem."

Reggie approached Twister right after Sherry walked away. "What was that about?"

"Oh, um, nothing," he said a little too quickly. She looked like she was about to say something but he didn't want to have to try to cover up the conversation. "I better get to class."

O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O

Twister knew Reggie was going to ask again. He could tell she was suspicious. He managed to avoid any one-on-one time with her until that night. Otto and Sam got in their own conversation as they all stood in line at the pier and Twister could feel the silence between him and Reggie about to be broken.

"So what did Sherry wanna talk to you about earlier?"

"Just a school project," he lied. He hated lying to Reggie.

"A school project," she repeated. "And then she hugged you?"

Twister watched as the ride lowered down and people started getting out of their seats. They would be in the next group of people to go. He longed for the gate to hurry up and open so he wouldn't have to keep coming up with stuff to tell Reggie.

"She was, um, just happy because I had helped her."

"You helped her on a school project?" Reggie asked very skeptically.

Twister was not good at thinking quickly. "It was... a video project."

Finally, the gate opened. "How many?" the worker asked.

"Four," Sam answered.

They all proceeded around the ride, Twister quickly trying to find an empty seat. He found one but he hadn't seen Reggie following close behind him and she sat next to him. They buckled in and pulled the bar down over their chests.

Reggie poked her head around the bar to try to look at Twister again. "I'm in most of Sherry's classes and we haven't had any video projects. What class was this for?"

"Uh, I don't know. I guess one you're not in." He tried hard to think of one but didn't know Sherry's schedule. Then he remembered her talking about the spring play. "Drama, I think."

Reggie didn't argue this time but part of that was probably because of the ride starting.

"All clear," he heard one worker tell the other before shouting. "One, two, three, fire!"

The circle they were seated in raised up and then started spinning, tilting from one side to the other.

"Still want that corn dog, squid?" Otto laughed when they had gotten off.

Sam looked like he was about to puke. "I'm okay with not doing that ride again."

"Corn dog sounds good to me!" Twister chimed in.

As they walked to the stand, Twister spotted Lars and Sherry. How stupid could they be? Man, and people thought he was dumb! They talk on and on about wanting to keep things a secret and then they walk hand-in-hand at the pier on a Friday night, also the opening night of Fire Fury. He didn't think the gang had seen them yet and he almost wanted to just let them find out this way but he felt obligated to try to keep their secret.

"Look!" He shouted, pointing in the opposite direction. He watched as Lars and Sherry still failed to see them.

"What are we looking at?" Sam asked.

"The, uh, Ferris wheel?" Twister couldn't think of anything else.

Otto looked at him like he was an idiot. "Like we haven't seen that a zillion times before."

Reggie gave him a suspicious look but didn't say anything.

Right before the others turned around, Twister watched his brother see them as Sherry quickly hid behind a trash can.

Lars was a few feet away from them and kept walking towards them as if he was there by himself and nothing had happened.

"Great," Otto said sarcastically. "What are you doing here?"

"Mom wanted me to come check on Twister," Lars said in such a way that almost made Twister believe him.

"She did?" He asked confused, "but..."

He was cut off by Lars elbowing him in the ribs.

"We don't need a babysitter," Otto said with disdain.

"Aww the little munchkins are all grown up," Lars mocked. "She's also been bugging me and Twister about doing more stuff together."

"She has?" Twister asked, followed immediately by another elbow from Lars. "Oof, oh right. She has."

"So now we're stuck with you?" Sam asked then received a nasty look from Lars that made him change his tone. "Oh, I mean... that's great."

Twister looked over at Reggie who didn't seem to be paying much attention to Lars but staring over to her left.

His eyes followed hers, prompting her to ask, "is that Sherry?"

"Crap," Twister said without thinking, leading Reggie to look at him for an explanation.

When he didn't answer, she proceeded to the trash can. "Sherry?"

She stood up. "Oh, hey Reggie! I was just looking for an earring I had dropped." She pretended to be adjusting the earring that was already clearly in her ear.

"What's going on?" Reggie asked, looking from the group (Twister in particular) to Sherry.

"Oh, I was just here with Trish but she had to leave and I saw you guys and thought I might tag along but that's when I dropped my earring so here we are."

Sherry was babbling, which Twister would've thought was a giveaway. Reggie didn't look like she believed the story in the slightest but she didn't say anything. She did look sort of ticked off though.

"Well we're stuck with Lars too, so you might want to rethink that choice," Otto said, not picking up on anything that was going on.

"The more the merrier!" Sherry said cheerfully and Twister noticed her give a quick wink, which he thought was a total giveaway. He was also pretty sure Reggie had seen it because she was glaring at Sherry, who didn't seem to notice.

The night had been very stressful for Twister. He wondered how the in the past twenty-four hours, he had somehow become the one responsible for making sure his brother's love life stayed a secret. It made it a lot harder when they were being so obvious. He wondered if Reggie figured it out. It seemed like she had been giving both he and Sherry the cold shoulder all night. He couldn't tell with Lars because it's not like Reggie really ever talked to him much anyway. Although, he was really annoyed when Lars offered to take Sherry home and made Twister ride with them to avoid suspicion. So while Sam and Otto rode with Reggie, Twister was stuck in the back seat of Lars' car, driving aimlessly around town so it looked like they had taken Sherry home. When enough time had passed, they went to the Rodriguez house, checking to make sure no one was outside before Sherry quickly ran to the door. He didn't dare leave his bedroom that night. He didn't want to run into them anymore. He knew she was still there though because he could hear her laugh once in awhile. He wished his parents had heard so they could yell at him for having a girl in his room and she would have to leave. Was this going to be how it was now? Him constantly having to cover up for them and lie to his friends? It was exhausting.