"John, where are we going?" Jake asked excitedly, squeezing Dave's hand. Dave tried to keep his poker face, but Gog she was so cute.

"I thought we could catch a movie downtown," John replied. Rose and Dave groaned simultaneously. "What?" John asked.

"Nothing, Egbert, just don't pick one of your weird movies," Dave said, smirking. He really didn't mind what they did, so long as he could be near Harley. And the rest of his friends, too. John had organized this whole get-together, somehow keeping it a secret from the other kids until the day before. He still loved messing with them.

Rose stepped a little closer to John. "What other activities had you planned?" She asked, the wink evident in her voice. John blushed.

"Nothing really," he shrugged. "I just thought we could walk around and stuff."

"We should get Ice-Cream!" Jade pointed to the shop they were passing.

Dave full on laughed this time. Before Jade could turn her extra-cute pout on him, he said, "Sure, Harley, we'll go after the movie." Her smile was so bright that he was glad to be wearing his trademark shades.

Rose turned to John. "I wanted to check out the used bookstore here. I heard that they have a lot of interesting authors." The four kids all agreed they would split up after the movie and check out the downtown.

Dave was ok with how the movie had turned out and he was sure John was happy too. He could see Lalonde leaning on his shoulder throughout the whole movie. And Harley had been whispering questions about the action scenes in his ear.

They exited the theater and agreed to meet back up at the park in an hour. John pulled Dave aside and threatened to beat him up if he let anything happen to Jade. "Relax, Egbert, no one messes with a Strider," Dave said nonchalantly.

John seemed to relax and the kids broke apart. Jade would keep skipping ahead and then twirling back to where Dave was walking at the same pace. "Isn't it such a nice day today?" She asked, goddamn spinning right there in the street.

"Yeah. John sure knows how to schedule stuff," Dave allowed himself the smallest of smiles at her shenanigans.

"Whoops," Jade walked right past the store and had to walk backwards a couple of steps. She didn't even wait for him to catch up before disappearing through the glass door. Dave shook his head and smiled again. Good god, it was like an infectious disease.

He stoically pushed open the door to the shop just as Jade was handing over the money for her cone of mint chocolate chip ice cream. He silently strode across the floor and plucked the bill out of her fingers. She turned, her pretty green eyes wide. Then Jade pouted and tried to snatch the money back. Dave expertly held it up out of her reach and dug into his back pocket for his ironic Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff wallet. The sales lady smiled at them.

After Dave ordered his own cone of pistachio ice-cream and paid for Jade's, they left the shop and started walking toward the park. She was silent for a while then said, "Can I have my money back now?" Dave smiled and handed it to her. "You know I could have paid for that myself."

How could she still be cute when she was upset? It was amazing. "Of course I knew that," Dave answered, not giving anything away.

"Then why didn't you just let me pay?"

"Because," Dave took another lick of his cone, drawing out the suspense. "This is almost a date and that's the kind of stupid shit guys do for girls." He kicked a pebble down the sidewalk, silently very proud of his response.

Jade actually stopped walking she was so surprised. "Who said this was a date?" She asked, then quickly added, "Not that that's a bad thing... I just... wanted to..." She blushed and grew very interested in the pavement.

"I did," Dave answered quietly. He tipped Jade's chin up to look at him. He was surprised to see her smiling. "But John and Rose probably worked very hard to set it up." He tilted his head to the side, pondering. Then decided, what the hell, and gave Jade a little peck on the nose. He could feel her surprise. If he wasn't holding a drippy as fuck ice cream cone...

"Well, Dave," Jade finally said, suppressing the flutter in her stomach. "I accept your roundabout request to turn this into an official date." She smiled and threw away the remains of her ice cream. Dave followed suit and they started walking again, a little closer together this time. Dave was trying so hard to keep his cool, he felt like his chest would explode. Jade was playing no such games, however, and was smiling again. Dave swore that she didn't have another facial expression in her repertoire.