It's the weekend and like any normal teenager I'm spending my time at the car wash cause that's just what small town teens do now a days. Can you hear the sarcasm? Yes? Okay good, I thought I lost you there for a minute. Anyway it wasn't really my plan to spend my day hosing down and scrubbing filthy cars. Originally Willard and I were supposed to spend the day together and hang out. Maybe go bowling, go eat ice cream or go see a movie, heck even fishing would have been fun. But instead of those things Willard showed up at grandma Maggie's house stuffed me into his pickup truck then rushed on over to Ren's house so we could go with him to wash his car. Like I said it's not my idea of fun, but on the plus side I get to check out Ren while he flexes his muscles as he scrubs his car looking like a tall glass of water. Why was I complaining again?

"I don't believe this town. We bring Ariel home past her curfew, and Reverend Moore is all up in my uncle's grill, making threats." Ren ranted as he angrily scrubbed at the roof of his car.

"The hell? Does he know it was Derek that took her home last night?" I ask furrowing my brow looking to Willard for confirmation, which he gave with a nod of his head, as he spat out sunflower seeds.

"Honestly, he only cares that I was in the same space as her. I swear that man thinks I'm the antichrist where his daughter is concern." Ren grunted and shook his head.

"Yeah. Well, you know what it is? You got an attitude problem." Willard said as he munched on his sunflower seeds. With a slight smirk on my face from Willard taunt I watched as Ren stopped what he was doing and looked at Willard over the top of his car, momentarily dropping the bristle brush.

"I got an attitude problem?" Ren asked him pointing to himself incredulously.

"Yeah, you got an attitude problem." Willard told him.

"Willard's got a point, Ren. I mean you've been here two months and already you have a reputation that takes us our whole live to build here." I said watching as Ren shot me a glare then went back to scrubbing his car.

"Not to mention every chance you get, you're bad mouthing this town. I know we're small-time, but we got satellites and cell phones like everyone else, alright? We are making progress." Willard added in smugly.

"Don't talk to me about progress. I've been here two months," Ren paused to point at me for confirmation before continuing, "And I haven't seen one wet t-shirt contest." Ren said briefly flicking his gaze to me and grinning when he caught my eyes.

"Really, we're back to that? You two need to be... I don't even know... like, put down, or something, for the good of humanity." I said with a raised brow and kick my leg up behind me to kick him in the butt as he walks by me to get to the other side of the car. "Guys are such pervs." I mutter getting a cheeky grin from him.

"Oh, I know. I don't know what's up with that. That's not me." Willard said agree with him. Queue eye roll here.

"Probably some stupid law against it." Ren said snidely.

Willard shot his hands up and flailing them in the air excitedly. "I tell you what you get a petition for that, I'd sign it. Because if we can't have braless, wet women here in Bomont, the terrorist win."

"What do the terrorists have anything to do with this?" I asked him all the while cursing my blood relation to him and wondering if he had been dropped on his head as a child. Honestly I can't believe they are even talking about this. Hormonal teenage boys.

"You don't understand because you're a girl, right Ren? Tell her." Willard pointed at me, telling Ren to back him up. Ren didn't say anything though and just shook his head at Willard before turning back to his car.

"Tell her, Ren." I mimicked him then popped him upside the head. "Stupid."

"You gotta stop hitting me!" Willard whined as he tried to defend against any more hits.

"Or what?" I taunted as I slapped his arm.

"I'll tell, Grandma Maggie." He threatened as he caught my hand as I aimed for his stomach.

"She'll hit you too for being so disgusting, you big turd. Do you hear yourself? Please stop talking, you lower the IQ of all of Bomont when you open your mouth." I half yell at him as I ripped my hand out of his grip and hit him again.

"That's not a bad idea." Ren suddenly cut in causing me and Willard to stop our slap fight.

"Huh?" Willard asked looking at Ren like the Bostonian just spouted another head.

"Oh my god," I say him staring at him in disbelief, "Ren, you can't be serious. You're really gonna start a petition for wet t-shirt contests?" I asked.

"No, not that. We could start our own petition. Challenge that law against public dancing." Ren said, hanging the bristle brush back on its wall holder and looked over at Willard and me on the other side of the bug.

"What?"

"No."

"Why not? Then we can just organize our own dance. I'm not talking about some drunken kegger or a free-for-all orgy." Ren said looking between us trying to convince us to help him.

"That right there? That's an idea!" Willard agreed happily to the kegger orgy part.

"Shut up, you moron." I said smacking him on the back of his head, knocking his hat over and into his eyes. He shot me a dirty look as he soothed his abused skull.

"I'm talking about a formal, respectable dance. One that's not held by the church, with everyone's eyes on you." Ren said ignoring Willard comment.

"Well you can have it in the Bomont lock up. Cause what you're talking about is against the law." Willard told him matter-a-fact. But Ren was having none of his pessimism.

"Let me tell you something about the law. It's meant to be challenged. Nothing's set in stone." Ren said pushing off the car where he had been leaning with both hands on the roof. He looked between us with a cocky smirk confident he had won the argument and successfully shut us up.

"Ten Commandments were." I said challengingly watching the smirk fall off his lips and staring defiantly into his eyes when he looked at me.

"Exactly!" Willard crowed and held his hand out to me for a high five, which I gave him. "What's your smart-aleck reply to that?" Willard taunted him.

"My smart-aleck reply?" Ren asked before aiming the water hose at us and spraying us. We both screamed as we ducked and scrabbled away from the water.

"Hey! C'mon, man! Hey, stop! You want that wet t-shirt contest, come and get it!" Willard yelled as Ren held up the hose. There was a brief pause then Ren squeeze the handle and another burst of water at Willard. For his part Willard defended himself against the water for a second before rushing Ren and grappled for the water hose.

"Whoo! Whoo!" Willard cheered as he finally got the hose and started spraying Ren.

"Get him!" I yelled at Willard through my laughter. Ren had somehow grabbed a hold of the hose again and was trying to wrestle it away from Willard. Deciding to help I scooped up some soap bubbles off the car and ran over to the struggling boys and dumped the soap all over Ren's head. Surprised he let go of the hose and turned on me, I squealed and turned to tried to get away but he caught me around the waist and lifted me off my feet as Willard sprayed the both of us with water.

I could just imagine the sight the three of us made for passing cars as we laughed and chased each other like a bunch of idiots.

Line break

I was in the middle of a dream. And I know it was a dream because Joseph Gordon-Levitt was in it and he was getting ready to propose to me. He was dressed to the nines in a grey suit and matching waist coat with black shiny shoes and matching tie. He had just dropped to his knee opening the little velvet bow in his hand to showcase a beautiful pear cut diamond engagement ring. The whole scene was perfect and just as he opened his mouth to pour out his soul Rick Ross came out of nowhere, kicked Joseph in the head knocking him unconscious and started singing about his life as a hustler. Needless to say that scared me out of my sleep. It scared me so bad I jumped awake in a tangle of limbs and bedsheets rolling around and trying to get free while Rick Ross wailed away and finally with a turn and a harsh tug I went crashing to the ground with a solid thud.

"Ow." I mumbled as I took a moment to lay there staring up at my ceiling fan as it spun around. Glancing at me nightstand I found my phone buzzing and ringing away at shot it a glare so hateful that if looks could kill the little piece of technology would have melted on the spot. I let the phone ring hoping that whoever was on the end would get the clue, give up and let me sleep. The moment the phone stopped I sighed and closed my eyes in bliss ready to fall asleep right there on the floor. I did just that and got as comfortable as I could on the floor only to snap my eyes open when my phone started ringing again.

"For the love of god, let me sleep!" I yelled at my phone as I reached for it from my position. Before I answered it I looked at the time and saw that it was five o'clock in the morning. Glancing at the unknown number calling me I contemplated declining it but remembering the persistence of the person from earlier I answered it. Holding it up to my ear I answered it with the driest tone I could manage.

"Hello?"

"Sammy, I need your help."

"Ren?" I asked thoroughly confused and wondering why the hell Ren of all people was calling me so early in the morning and how he managed to get my number.

"Yeah it's me."

"It's five o clock in the morning on a Saturday. Why are you calling me at this ungodly hour? Wait, how did you even get my number?"

"I asked Rusty and she gave it to me."

"Of course she did. Ren, not so sound rude or anything, but what do you want?" I asked tiredly, laying my head on my arm as I listened to Ren's smooth Boston accented voice.

"Alright, I'll get to the point so you can go back to your beauty sleep." Ren said with a hint of teasing in his voice that had me rolling my eyes at him.

"Oh how very considerate of you, sir." I drawled sarcastically.

"You're welcome." Ren chuckled. "Anyway you know how the at the car wash I was telling you and Willard about how I wanted to go up against the 'No-Dance Law' and start a petition?" Ren asked.

"Yeah, I remember. What about it?" I asked as I looked around my bedroom floor. I really need to start sweeping under my bed, that dust bunny looks like a Pomeranian. I was brought out of my thoughts when Ren started talking again.

"I'm doing it. I'm starting a petition against public dancing. The other night Woody, Derek, Willard and I sat in on a council meeting at city hall so we could see how everything works. " Ren said with a tone of determination in his voice. That snapped me to my senses and hauled myself off the floor and sat up. Leaning against my bed I brought my knees up to me chest and draped my arms around them as I spoke into the phone.

"Ren, do you have a death wish? The council will rip you apart, they'll never vote to lift the dancing ban. And let's not forget Reverend Moore is a member of the council. The man already has a hard-on for you for your blossoming reputation of the town delinquent. Not to mention her hates you for influencing his precious, can-never-do-no-wrong, Ariel." I ranted breathing panting by the end of it. Now it's not that I didn't believe Ren could do it, because I did believe in him, I was just concerned about all the heavy hitters he was up against.

"Look I know that I probably fighting a losing battle here but Sammy someone has to try. I want to do something and make a change. Sammy, I want to do something that goes beyond me and my petty resentment for this town and the ones who are in control of it. I just want a shot, you know? That's all I want." Ren said. There was a moment of silence that followed his heartfelt confession that I took the chance to consider his words. I never notice that after knowing him for three months now, how selfless he is. I mean here he is, a guy who has no ties to this town and who owes us no favors, trying to make a difference in this town that has done nothing but hate him and judge him since the day he rolled in. He was trying to bring happiness back for the youth of Bomont and banish the thick cloud of grief that has hung over our heads since the accident three years ago. Is this boy superman or what?

"Sammy? You still there?" Ren's asked tentatively through the speaker. I nodded my head at his question, even though I knew he couldn't see it.

"Yeah, I'm here." I whispered lightly.

"So… now that you know what I plan to do… I was wondering if you would maybe want to help. No pressure, I'll still be your friend if you don't want to. I understand the heat that's going to fall on me when I do this and it's okay if you don't want any part of it. I just want you to know that I would really like it if you were there with me. You know, like my lieutenant, like my second in command?" Ren said hopefully. I know he was being serious but I couldn't help but give a laugh at the last line he said.

"Ren, did you just quote Kenickie from Grease?" I asked with a mile stretching across my lips.

"I did. I was hoping you wouldn't notice."

"You nerd!" I said laughing out right at him. I could hear him laughing over the phone.

"Hey, you were the one that knew it was from Grease, so you're the bigger nerd here."

"Whatever." I huffed with a roll of my eyes.

"So, what do you say? Want to be my lieutenant?" Ren asked.

"Sure, city boy, I'll be your lieutenant." I answered with a smile.

"Great. So, what are you doing later on this morning?"

"Well seeing as it's the weekend I was planning to spend the rest of my day in bed sleeping, why?" I asked him as I finally got up off the floor and sat on the bed.

"I was wondering if you weren't busy maybe you'd want to come over to my house? The guys and I are going to try and teach Willard how to dance. It was part of our deal for me doing the petition. You want to help? Sarah and Amy will be there and we got juice pouches." Ren said.

"How could I say no to juice pouches?" I asked jokingly with a laugh. "Sure, I'll swing by later on."

"I'll see you later, Sammy."

"See you later, Ren." I said then hung up. Throwing my phone somewhere on my bed I flop back on my back with a sigh.

"What am I going to wear?"

Line Break

"Okay girls, remember we are doing this to help Willard learn how to dance so let's take this seriously." I told Sarah, Amy and their little friends who were gathered at the Warnicker backyard. Looking at each of them through my aviators, I tried not to laugh as I saw the serious looks on their little faces as they nodded. The girls were set up on the back porch of their home as a make shift stage. Sarah and Amy had brought out their Barbie stereo with the two mics plugged while the beginning of "Let's Hear It for the Boy" by Deniece Williams blasted from the pink speakers. The rest of the little girls were spread around the porch counting off steps they made up for the song.

"Alright girls, show them what you got." I told then made my way off the porch and over to the picnic table where the guys were sitting. Seeing as all the seats were taken I walked over to the little girl sitting with the boys and picked her up out of her seat and replaced her on my lap when I sat down. Ren was standing with Willard, who was standing awkwardly behind the girls, giving my cousin a pep talk.

"Alright, you're not gonna tell anyone about this?" Willard asked looking at Ren suspiciously.

"No, I'm not gonna tell." Ren promised exasperated.

"I'm serious."

"I promise! Now, just follow the girls. They now what they're doing and you don't." Ren said as he walked away from him. As Ren came over to sit at the picnic table I took my sunglasses off and instead placed them on the little girl sitting on my lap causing her to laugh.

"Woody, Derek, anyone on the football team?" Willard called to the two laughing guys with raised brows.

"Nobody will know, buddy!" Derek laughed from his seat on the kid lawn chair Woody, who was sitting beside me on the bench, turned to Ren and me and held up his hands in front of him in mock innocence.

"Everyone will know." He said then high fived Derek when he reached his arm back before they laughed.

As the music started and the girls started to sing, they started to dance with simple moves. Willard didn't follow along with them but just stood there with his hands on his hip looking at us with a look that just screamed 'Really?' on his face.

My baby he don't talk sweet
He ain't got much to say

"Come on man, you got to commit." Ren yelled at Willard when he continued to just stand there. With a sign of resignation Willard dropped his hands to his sides and began to dance awkwardly beside the girls. Willard was trying to follow them but her had no rhythm and was off time but three steps then everybody else. He moved his shoulders and back and forth and I tried not to laugh when he stumbled over the next dance move. Derek, Woody and Ren were enjoying the show.

"Don't mess around. Focus!" Ren told Willard and I laughed loudly and Willard's expression. The girls kept singing.

But he loves me, loves me, loves me
I know that he loves me anyway

"Shake it, Willard." I commanded. He rolled his eyes and started to shake with the girls. "There you go! There you go. Feel it."

"Show me what you got." Ren said and cringed when Willard stopped shaking his hips and just started pelvic thrusting.

And maybe he don't dress fine
but I don't really mind

"Less hips." Both Woody and Ren told Willard, who was shaking his hips in an awkward way. "Less-less hips."

As the music started to pick up in tempo the girls started to jump in place and Willard was struggling to follow along.

"And we're jumping?" He asked loudly. "And we're jumping!" he yelled then started hopping around like an overgrown rabbit.

'Cause every time he pulls me near
I just wanna cheer
Lets hear it for the boy
Oh, let's give the boy a hand

Willard fumbled over his steps and almost fell face first when he stepped on his own shoelace.

Let's hear it for my baby
You know you gotta understand
Oh, maybe he's no romeo
But he's my lovin' one-man show
Oh, whoa, let's hear it for the boy

And that's how we spent the rest of the day laughing at Willard's dance skills, or lack thereof.

Line break

For the next three weeks we were all busy putting Willard through dance boot camp. Every day of the after school Willard was with one of us learning some moves. I helped out with Willard's dance lessons too when I had the time and when I wasn't helping Willard I was helping Ren research everything he needed to know about starting a petition.

"Why are we here?" Ren asked as I dragged him by the hand through the school hallways.

"Um, because you said you wanted to do research on petition and their rules." I answered him with a very obvious 'duh' tone.

"I know that but why do he have to do that here?" Ren whined as we rounded the corner and saw the library doors at the end of the hall.

"Because this library is closer than the town library. Now wold you stop being a baby? The faster we get in there the faster we work, and the fatser we finish." I told him effectivly ending the argument. Or so I thought because when we were about a foot away from the door Ren pulled back on my hand and spun me around to face him.

"I really don't want to go in there, Sammy." Ren admitted so quietly that if I wasn't standing in front of him I probably would have missed it.

"Why not?"

"Because of what happened the last time in here. The last thing I need is that old man circling around me like a vulture and watching my every move." Ren said lookig truly stressed and exhusted just thinking about it. I was quiet for a miinute just watching the emotions wash across his face before I spoke.

"Ren, I'm going to give you some advice about small towns that I don't think anyone has given you yet. Now, it's no lie that in small towns pivacy and secretly is don't exist, and if you do something it's a garentee that everyone will know about it in the next 5 minutes. There's two things you can do when that happens: you can run and hide and show everyone just how much they're getting to you," here I paused to grab Ren's face in both hands and lifted his face to look at me, "Or you can accept your mistakes, own it, wear them with pride and move on." We stayed like that for what felt like hours but was really just seconds, Ren piecrsing me with his intense green eyes and me caress in his face, running my thumbs on the soft skin under his eyes. After a while Ren seemed to come to a decision and spoke.

"Alright. Let's go." He said and gently grabbed my wirsts to pull them away from his face. This time he was the one to grab my hand and walk me behind him and he led us into the library. Once we were inside he didn't waist anytime and walked right up to the check out desk where the librarian was working.

"Excuse me." I said when the man didn't notice us right away.

"Can I help you with something?" the librarian ask instantly reconizing Ren and shooting him an accusatory look.

"You guys got city records down here? Like local ordinances? Anything like that?" Ren asked adjusting his backpack and squeezing my hand slighlty I returned the gesture trying to give him support.

"What do you want with those?"

"I want to read them." Ren answerd bluntly like it was the most odvious thing in the world, which it was because what else are you going to do with a book, then looked around us to make sure no one would overhear he leaned in to whisper to the man, "Isn't that what you do in libraries other then get stoned?"

The librariand straightened up and glared at Ren, sneering a little, as clamped my hand over my mouth to cover hide my laughs but still ended up snorting. Ren though didn't seem to notice or care as he matched the librarian's glare with a cocky on of his own.

"Well?" Ren prompted motioning with his free hand for the librarian to get to work and find the books he asked for. With one last glare the man turned on his heel and went to the back room where city documents were kept. The man came back a short while later with a thick tome in his hand that he practilcy threw at Ren forcing the Boston boy to release my hand and fumble with the books' unexpected weight.

"Here you go." The man said in a false happy tone before abrumply turning his back to us and ignoring our exsistance.

"Come on." I giggled as I grabbed Ren's arm and steered him away and over to a table. Dumpping our backpacks we sat down and opened placing the book down in front of us we each gave it a warily look at all the pages.

"Lets get to work." Ren tried to say encouragingly but really in dread. The title of the first page read 'Code of ordinances city of Bomont, Georgia' and just looing at all the numbers of pages listed I was already tired.

"You so owe me for this." I goan pulling out a note book and pen to take notes.

"I know."

Line break

I was enjoying my free period out on the football field bleachers doing some last minute homework when a voice interupted me, "Sammy?" I looked up from my notebook. Ariel and Derek were standing in front of me, hand-in-hand and looking at eachother like they were the center of the universe. I smiled a bit realizing Derek finally got his girl.

"So, when's the wedding?" I joked as I cliped my pen onto my notebook and gave them my full attention.

"I told you she was gonna say that." Derek joked playfully bumping his shoulder with Ariels causing the blonde to smile prettyly and roll her eyes.

"Congratulations guys, but what about Chuck? I don't wanna be a Debbie Downer but Ariel you still have a boyfriend." I said decising to get to point out the elephant in the room.

"I know and don't worry he won't be my boyfriend for long. I'm going to the racetrack this weekend to break up with him." Ariel said with no hesitation in her voice so I knew she was serious.

"Really? Do you want some back up?" I asked slighly concerned about her going alone to face Chuck about a break up, he wasn't the most stable guyand more often than not was prone to flying off the handle.

"No, I'll be fine. I can handle Chuck."

"Okay girl, well good luck and again congrats." I said just as the dismissal bell rang signaling the end of free period. Gathering up my things the three of us made our way across the field and inside. Once inside we parted ways, Derek going with Ariel so he could walk her to class and spent a little more time with her, and me heading to my locker to grab my book for my next class. Pushing my way through the crowds I kept hearing snippets of some kind of ban and a flyer. I didn't give the gossip much thought when I finally reached my locker snd reached up to enter my combination when I notice something sticking out of the side of my locker. Curoius I pulled it free and flipped it between my fingers as I looke it over. It was a small 2 by 2 yellow card and in bright red letters it read 'Oppose the Dance Ban'. It was then that the conversations I heard from ealier clicked and I understood. Spining on my heal I looked around a saw everyone else were also reading the same cards and fliers. Even the floor was covered in fliers.

I was so ditracted by what was going on around me that I almost had a heart attack when I sudently went airborne.

"Oh my god! Put me down!" I demanded but was answered with a smug laugh and a familiar Boston accent.

"OPPOSE THE DANCE BAN, SAMMY!"