June 1992Chris sits in the dining room of the Prowmans with his parents. His dad has just gone over the age and hormones thing. Nothing like a good biology lesson to round out the day. Not to mention, hearing their story of how they were the same way when they were his age, yet again.His dad stops and looks at him. “Am I really that boring?”“You really want me to answer that?” He smirks.

  His dad ughs with his mother. “Look, Chris. We’re only doing what’s best. Neither of us wants to see either you nor Elle hurt by doing something reckless.”“So. How far did you two go st night?” Chris’ mom asks.“Mom!?” He can’t believe she said that. His face felt warm. It was probably several shades of red right now.

  “Come on, Chris. Your mother is just as concerned as I am. We all are.” His dad pauses, but Chris can’t seem to say anything.“S-Second base, or something like that.” He manages.“Okay, great. Now, do you think you would have gone further? You think you would have tried for the inside the park home run?” Larry asks.

  Chris gets a weird image of ‘sliding’ into…home. “I…don’t know.”Larry ughs. “Okay. We’ll let you go here in a few minutes.” He asks Ariel to get the present.Chris has only one guess what his present is. Larry pulls out a box of condoms. Bingo.“Take these.” He hands them over. “Now, I hope you won’t need these anytime soon. But if you do, be sure to use them. All right.”

  Chris takes them. His face has to be glowing red now. Why do parents enjoy embarrassing their children? “All right.”“Come on, Larry. I think we’ve embarrassed him enough.” Ariel tells him.“Yeah, he’s red enough. Just one st thing. Make sure that if you two decide to go all the way, at least try to make sure it’s something special. At least try to pn it. All right? Don’t just have sex to have sex. Not to sound cheesy, but try to make it…magical. Do you understand? ”

  He totally agreed with that. “Yes. I will.”His dad has his mother go check on Elle and her parents. “Okay. Simon and Melissa want to talk with you for a few minutes. Soon as Elle is done.”Great. Chris sulks more.

  Larry gets up and motions for him to get up as well. He puts an arm around his shoulders. “Don’t worry. We’ll be talking with Elle briefly ourselves. And it won’t be the big talk either.”That didn’t make him feel any better.A few moments ter, Elle comes down, her face as red as his felt. He sees her eyes widen. He follows her eyes. She’s looks at the box of condoms in his hand. He fumbles and nearly drops them.

  “Come on in, Chris.” Simon calls.He goes in and sits down in the chair across from them.“This won’t take too long. And I promise I’ll try not to embarrass you as much as your parents did.” Melissa tells him.“Can I ask something?”“Absolutely.” Simon says.

  “Why do parents always have to embarrass their kids?” Chris fiddles with the condom box.Elle’s parents snicker. “Cause we know you’ll take it out ter on your kids.” Simon tells him.Chris chuckles a bit.“All we want to say to you is that whatever you and Elle decide to do. You have our full support. We just hope you guys can hold out at least until after high school. Though we’ve watched you guys together. So, if you decide to go ahead with it, we understand and hope its something special. Do you understand?”

  “Yeah.” He smiles. “It’s hard sometimes with our Sparks and all. But I understand.”“Great.” Simon smiles. “We already consider you one of the family, Chris. And we know you’ll be responsible and we trust that you’ll use your head.”“Thanks.”They let him go and walk him out. As Chris heads downstairs, he hears Melissa call out to Jackson and Jerry.“And don’t worry, Jackson and Jerry will get the same talk.” Simon says, winking.Chris felt a little better. He watches them come out of their room with worried looks on their faces. Melissa gives them a frustrated look and moves her index finger in the universal gesture to ‘come here right now’.

  “What’d we do?” Jerry asks as he’s escorted into Simon and Melissa’s bedroom.As Simon closes the door, he gives Chris a thumbs up. Chris ughs. Jackson was most likely going to get it, since he asked Ivy out during Elle’s birthday party. Come to think of it, he should call Paul. Heh!

  He heads back downstairs. Elle sits with his dad chatting while Ariel talks on the phone, ordering pizza. Feeling embarrassed, he sits down on the sofa next to her. He fiddles with the condom box then quickly realizes and sets it next to him, out of sight of Elle. He gives Elle a weak smile, which she returns.“Be right back, guys.” Larry says and leaves for the kitchen.

  “Guess it could be worse. Huh?” Elle says.“Yeah. We could have gone further than we did and get caught.” Chris replies.“Yeah. But…I, uh.” Elle slowly takes his hand.“My dad told me that if we do, that it should be special. He even used the word magical.”

  “I agree. It should be magical. If we do, then we should make it a special occasion. Not just something to do.”Chris feels better talking with her about it. “You’re right. I know. Let’s practice our Spark thing. Cause I know we’ve both given in to it several times.”“I know.” Elle giggles. The sound making him smile inside and out. “But, yeah. Let’s do that. If we learn to control it entirely, it might help improve things. Other than our senses.”

  Chris’ jaw drops for a moment, then turns to a wicked smile. “You pervert.” He pokes her gently in the ribs.She responds, giggling. “Stop it. And I’m not being pervie.”He pokes her some more, making her squirm, until she gives up and lets him wrap his arms around her. Their lips press together. Chris was willing to work on anything for her.