I was so flustered, I’m sure I made a fool of myself ten times over. But he wound up asking me to go dancing with him. I went right out last night a...d bought a new wardrobe, and I took this afternoon off for a total makeover. I didn’t sleep very well last night. I just kept imagining myself in his arms. When my doorbell rang, my heart skipped a beat. I opened it, and there he was. My breath caught in my throat. He was even more handsome all dressed up! From behind his back, he took a single. Their young lips merged hesitantly in a tender way for a long moment. Actually, it was kinda nice.Lizzie had smiled hugely afterwards. "See, that wasn't so bad was it? Now you'll always be the first boy to kiss me. Cool huh?" She darted in and pecked his cheek in a more sisterly way. "Thanks, Scooter. You know, I think brothers should always come first."But that would change soon. She'd be someone's wife. It was all happening too fast.Richard pushed these thoughts away and focused on the now as. ‘You sure you don’t want to come to this costume party with me? Devon said you were more than welcome to attend.’ I nodded again, still not breaking eye-contact with Jason. This time he was in the middle of fighting this random black guy. ‘I’m ok sitting here and watching a few horror flicks.’ He sighed lightly. ‘Alexia, I really wish you come. I would love for you to be there.’ I could hear him shuffle from the foyer to the kitchen and back, sipping loudly on what I knew to be the last of his. This is not even marginally related to the shipworm of our world, but functionally it plays the shipworm's part in Meadow's oceans." If we overcame the shipworm on Earth, why wasn't this alternate overcome in a similar fashion?" I asked."Because this critter is like a shipworm on acid. They are really a kind of chondrophore, a colony organism made of single celled organisms called hydrozoa, like a Portuguese Man-of-War. It's taken an odd evolutionary path compared to what we're familiar with on.