A/N: I still down own RENT... any offers?

X

Suddenly, the doorbell rang.Mark jumped over to the door and opened it, only to discover the mailperson looking at him strangely.

"Honey, you might want to take some Prozac…" The mailperson said, shoving the mail at Roger. Then the mailperson turned and walked off down the road.

"Well, that was embarrassing." Mark sighed.

"No" Mimi was laughing so hard she was on the floor, clutching the sofa for support "That was FUNNY!" Mrs. Cohen just smiled.

After everyone had resumed their original positions time seemed to drag by slower than before. Mimi and Roger didn't mind because they could snuggle, but Mark was almost jumping out of his skin in anticipation. Finally, the doorbell rang again. Mark opened it slowly, hoping for the best and expecting the worst.

"MARK!" April shouted, hugging him.

"APRIL!" he shouted back, hugging her tighter.

"Hiii!" she smiled.

"I've missed you." He said.

"Me too. So are you going to introduce me to everyone?"

"Of course" Mark said, leading her into the house.

"Ma, this is April. April, this is my mom." He said, gesturing to both women.

"Hi dear, nice to meet you. Where are your parents?" Mrs. Cohen asked.

"They're outside, in the car. Would you mind going and talking with them? They need you to prove that you guys aren't kidnapping me."

"Of course, dear." Mrs. Cohen walked outside, to where April's parents were waiting.

"And this is Roger, and his girlfriend Mimi." Mark continued with the introductions.

"HI CHICA!" Mimi shouted, friendly kissing April on the cheek.

"Hi Mimi" April smiled.

"Hullo" Roger said, jamming his hands into his pockets.

"Howdy." April nodded in his direction.

"Hey, guys?" Mark said.

"What Albino boy?" said Roger.

"For the umpteenth time, I AM NOT ALBINO! I just happen to be abnormally pale." Mark hissed. Roger snorted in reply.

"Anyway, why don't we call the others and see if they can go to the beach?"

"Sounds great!" April said "But when would we go?"

"Today, 'cause I want to go into the city tomorrow." Mark explained.

"Can we come?" Mimi asked excitedly.

"No. I want some alone time with April." Mark explained.

"But Marky-" Mimi whined until Roger cut her off, whispering something in her ear.

"We'll track them, with Mo, Jo, Angel, and Collins" he murmured. Mimi's eyes lit up and Mark gave them a look. They ignored him and decided kissing would be much better than conversing with Mark and April.

"Nice." April commented, turning to Mark "So, can we make out too?"

"If you want. We can call my friends later."

"Okay" and they began to kiss, almost giving Mrs. Cohen a heart attack when she walked into the room.

X

Collins and Angel were snuggling on Collins' bed, enjoying a small moment of silence before Maureen and Joanne were going to arrive and watch a movie with them.

"Oh, Angel, why did we agree to watch a scary movie with Mo and Jo?" Collins complained to his significant other.

"I didn't say anything, Honey, you did all the talking." Angel protested, while lightly tracing Collins' jaw line.

"Mmm." Moaned Collins "Still, you could have protested."

"True." She began to trace the collar of Collins' shirt, drawing another moan from him. Suddenly, the phone rang. Collins picked it up, sighing.

"Hello?"

"Hi Collins. It's Mark."

"Yo. What up?"

"The sky."

"What else?"

"The roof, hopefully."

"What else?"

"The gas prices."

"Ugh. Was there anything else you wanted to ask me, or did you just call to annoy me?"

"I was wondering if you and Angel want to come to the beach tomorrow, with Roger, Mimi, April, and I. And possibly Maureen and Joanne."

"Oh, tell April I say 'hi'. I'd love to go, but first I'll ask Angel" Collins said, looking at his friend "Would you like to go to the beach tomorrow with all us crazy people?"

"I'd love to." She smiled.

"Great" He smiled and held the phone to his ear "Marky? We're coming. Which beach are we going to?"

"The one where you and Maureen started stripping to protest the closing of the snack shop. Or something along those lines."

"Oh, yeah. Fun times, fun times." Collins smiled at the memory.

"Maybe for you. Roger and I had to sit through the entire performance, and listen to the lifeguards ramble on and on while you two were dirty dancing."

"My point entirely."

"Whatever. Goodnight."

"Night." Beeeeeeep.

"So Angel, what were we talking about?" Collins said, gently rubbing Angel's cheekbone with his thumb.

"I don't know. And we never will if you keep doing that…"

"Darn! You guessed my plan!" Collins snapped his fingers. Then the couple smiled at each other until the door rang.

X

Meanwhile, Maureen and Joanne were sitting at the table. They were talking while Maureen was drawing in her new coloring book.

"Pookie? Can you please pass the red?" Maureen pouted.

"Sure." So Joanne passed her the red marker, and Maureen responded by flashing Joanne a sparkly smile. A few minutes passed, and then the phone rang. Joanne picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Joanne?" Mark said.

"The one and only." Mark she mouthed at Maureen, who nodded and continued coloring.

"Hey. Um, I was wondering if you guys wanted to come to the beach with us tomorrow. We're all going…"

"Hang on, let me ask. Maureen?" Joanne said, tucking a loose piece of hair behind Maureen's ear.

"Yes?" Maureen said.

"Do you want to go to the beach with everyone tomorrow?"

"DUH!"

"Okay, then. Mark?" She spoke into the phone.

"Still here."

"Yeah. Well, we'd love to go. Are you picking us up, or…" she trailed off.

"My mom will give us a lift. Some people will have to double buckle, but we'll survive."

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow! Bye!"

"Bye Joanne!" Beeeeeeep.

"Can you pass the blue?" Maureen pouted.

"Here you go." Joanne handed her the marker "You know; we should be going to Collins' soon. We were supposed to have been there fifteen minutes ago."

"But I'm coloring!" Maureen complained.

"Well, I'm going down. Come down soon." Joanne quickly kissed Maureen and walked down stairs to Collins' room.

X

The next day, everyone had piled into Mrs. Cohen's van, and everyone was dragging chairs, beach blankets, and coolers to a nice, shady spot on the beach. They set up camp quickly, and then everyone, excluding Joanne and Roger, braved the icy salt water.

"COOOOOOOOLD!" Maureen shouted, jumping up and down.

"I know!!" April and Mimi chattered back simultaneously.

"SAVE ME!" Maureen squealed, jumping into Collins' arms. Collins just sighed and gently let her down.

"Race you guys to the sandbar!" Mimi said, swimming with long, graceful strokes. Everyone raced after her.

Meanwhile, back on the beach blanket, Roger was spitting watermelon seeds at Joanne.

"Stop." She complained.

Spit. "I hit you eye! Score!"

"Ow. Stop."

Spit.

"STOP!"

Spit.

Spit.

Spit.

"Roger, don't make me kill you."

"Can I help that I have such good aim?" Spit.

"Now you've done it!" Joanne leaped onto Roger, throwing his watermelon slice in the sand. Then she kneed his stomach, hard. Roger winced and glared back at her.

"POOKIE!" They heard Maureen shout. "I'm freezing!!" A moment later she appeared, visibly shivering.

"Come here." Joanne cooed, holding out a towel for the diva. Maureen raced up her, grabbed the towel, and snuggled into Joanne's embrace. Eventually, Maureen warmed up enough to go back into the water, and this time she dragged a protesting Joanne and Roger with her. And, as cheesy as this sounds, the friends had a fun day in the sun.

X

Mark woke April up at six the next morning.

"Come! I want to catch the early train, so we can spend at least eight hours in the city!" Mark stage-whispered.

"Okay!" April chirped, leaping out of bed and grabbing her clothes.

The couple rode a train into the city, and first on Mark's list was the Natural History Museum.

"EEK!" April squealed "It's a dinosaur!" she looked, up, up, up at the large fossilized dinosaur above her.

"Yes, it is." Mark snapped a picture of it.

"Can we keep it?"

There was no comment from Mark.

Meanwhile…

"So you're sure this is the train they took?" Maureen griped while everyone else was waiting for the train into the city.

"Yes." Roger sighed. He waved a copy of Mark's list at her.

"I'm bored."

"I second that!" Mimi agreed.

"Me too!" Collins said.

"Me two!" Angel said, from her perch on the metal railing above the benches.

Finally the train arrived. After the train ride the group trekked to the Natural History museum. They quickly spotted Mark and April, and they spent the rest of the day following the love-struck couple.

X

All too soon, April had to leave. The entire gang was there to say goodbye, and to support Mark. Everyone sang the goodbye song to April (which sounded a lot like Happy Birthday). Then her parents came to pick her up. Mark was almost crying as he watched April's car pull away, and not even the promise of cake could cheer him up. He almost immediately called April, and they talked well into the night.

X

Weeks passed in a blur, and soon the Sunday before school started was upon the friends. Maureen and Collins were going to take Joanne to the airport so she could fly to boarding school, Mrs. Collins was going to take Collins, Angel, and Maureen school supply shopping, and Mimi and Roger were going to go clothes shopping (more to Mimi's enjoyment then Roger's). But before all that the best friends decided to have a picnic in the park, and they spent the afternoon running around and being crazy.

"To us!" Mimi shouted; holding up her soda can. The rest of the group touched cans.

"To freedom!" Roger shouted. The group toasted to freedom.

"To LOVE!" Mark sniffled. Everyone toasted to love.

"To ferrets!" Maureen shouted. Everyone looked at her blankly.

"To randomness!" Maureen tried again. Everyone toasted her this time.

"To friends!" Joanne shouted, putting an arm around Maureen. She got several cheers at that one.

"To summer!" Collins boomed. He raised his can.

"To next year, right here, all summer!" Angel shouted. By then everyone had finished their soda, so they had a huge group hug instead.

X

A/N: Just because this is the final chapter, it doesn't mean you can't review!

Speaking of reviews and reviewers, I LOVE YOU GUYS!! !! I'm so glad you've taken the time to read and review my little story!! Have some hugs, and a all-you-can-eat dessert buffet!

Oh, and a big THANK YOU to Twilightwicked5678 who beta'd most of these chapters!!

BYE for now!! See you next time!!

-Crazy Homeschooler