"I'm selling encyclopedias. Are you a World Book or Britannica fan?"Oh," her handshake is firm, no nonsense. "So, you're Elena's Gavin?"Elena's Gavin?...Yes Ma'am." His tongue feels as though it's made of cotton.She's watching him knowingly, as though realizing how tongue-tied he is. Yes, definitely her mother--he recognizes that knowing and amused look from yesterday."Elena helped me after a bike accident I had yesterday," he says all in a rush, "and I just wanted to tell her thank you."She. "Well, I got tired of waiting for you to notice me, Amanda," he stated with a wink and a semi-leer. She laughed at him, but blushed fiercely. Jake followed his gaze with a quick mental pulse of pleasure that made her gasp in surprise. Abruptly she turned from him and started working feverishly on the meal.Jake didn't have to look at her to know she was blushing even more furiously than before. Grinning, Jake continued to tease her, knowing she could not escape his banter without acknowledging. Matt ran has hands through his short brown hair and rubbed his clear blue eyes again. Now that he could see clearly, Matt could in fact see a draped off area behind them a crew of some sort to his right and a woman to his left. She looked Asian, maybe Japanese, the red and gold kimono certainly suggested it. Sure enough, in front of them was an audience, a huge audience almost like a sporting event.“Oh, my head, what happened?” Matt’s mom asked from behind him.“I think we are on a TV show, I. He caught sight of a gas stationsign and realized with a shock that gas was up to fifty cents a gallon.He KNEW about that whole OPEC deal, but what the hell? Joe was glad hedidn't have a car,...anymore. It had been murder when gas was at fortycents a gallon. Joe was walking along clutching the strap of his bag andthinking about random thoughts when a man zoomed by on a bike and triedto grab Joe's bag. Joe was wearing it crosswise over his oppositeshoulder witch cause him to spin to the pavement.