“I’ve got the devil himself inside me,” said Danny. “Perhaps not the time to start a family.”

“But he’s not controlling you anymore. Maybe you’ve got him imprisoned forever.”

“Even if he really can’t get away, ‘forever’ means ‘until I die,’ and that’s definitely not forever. What if I died and turned him loose on you? Or on one of our children?”

“And what if a satellite falls out of the sky and lands right on top of you, killing you so quickly and completely that you don’t have time to jump anywhere and heal the flat, roasted, radioactive paste that your body would instantly be turned into?”

“You’re a poet at heart, my love,” whispered Danny, and he kissed her.

“Please,” said a passing guidance counselor. “Young love is beautiful to feel, but repulsive to look at.”

“Thank you,” said Pat. “For a moment there I actually felt attractive and lovable.” The guidance counselor was already many paces away. Pat called after him, “But you put a stop to that!”

“If they didn’t have rules like that, the halls at school would probably be one continuous orgy,” said Danny.

“But he was really titillated by it,” said Pat. “That’s why it made him so uncomfortable.”

“He doesn’t want to think of students in a sexualized context,” said Danny. “I think that’s part of his job description.”

“I’m glad it wasn’t part of yours,” said Pat.

“But it was,” said Danny. “I’m just bad at my job.”

The school was mostly cleared out, because this close to the end of the school year, few clubs or teams had any activities or practices. It was easy to get behind the building and then shift to the clearing on the hill. The others were already there.

“Oh, look, they took a breathing break,” said Xena.

“You can breathe while kissing,” said Laurette.

“You can also blow down the other person’s throat,” said Sin, “and it sounds like a backward burp.”

“Have we stumbled into Anthropology One?” asked Pat. “Or a horror movie where the teenagers all deserve to die?”

“If they were literate,” said Hal, “they would have called it snogging instead of kissing. That’s what J. K. Rowling taught Americans who could read.”

“Oh no,” said Wheeler. “We’re muggles.”

“You’re only just now realizing that?” asked Xena.

“What were you talking about before we got here?” asked Danny.

“The usual,” said Laurette. “School’s almost over and next year is senior year and I’m not going to be valedictorian.”

“We were patting her hand and saying ‘poor baby,’” said Xena.

“We were gloating,” said Hal.

“She never had a realistic chance of it,” said Sin, “and she’s finally entered the wonderful world of sanity.”

“Said the girl with thirty festering piercings,” said Wheeler.

“Eighteen,” corrected Sin.