Cory and Shawn's Miracle Soap: Monday

"I'm tellin' ya, Shawn," Cory said excitedly as he spread a white, rocket ship-printed sheet over a small card table, "This is goin' ta be big! We're going to be famous."

"I dunno." Shawn looked apprehensive as he let a large cardboard box drop onto the table that shook under the force. "I mean, are we really going to get customers with Eric promoting our stuff?"

At that moment, there was commotion in the hall that was filled with students making their way to the cafeteria. At the center of the ruckus was, none other than Cory's brother, Eric, swaggering proudly and wearing a pair Ray Ban rip-offs. He waved at everyone he passed and flashed them a cheesy, meg-watt grin.

Cory's jaw dropped when he saw Eric and Shawn simply shook his head.

"Speak of the devil," Shawn muttered under his breath and proceeded to unpack his box.

"Yeah, well, I don't think we have a choice now," Cory replied, dumbstruck by his brother's arrogance. He wondered if asking Eric to get involved was such a good idea after all.

Eric took his time reaching Cory and Shawn. He acknowledged them with a nod of his head.

"Knock it off, Eric," Cory said pulling the sunglasses off of his brother's face.

"Hey!" Eric cried in protest, drawing the attention of a few students. "Give me those!"

The brothers tussled briefly before Eric snatched the glasses from Cory. With an offended shrug of his shoulders, he returned the shades to their place on his face.

"Oh, fine," Cory huffed. "Be that way."

While Eric settled down nearby, Shawn stood back and admired his handiwork. He had stacked the small jars that contained their product into a tidy pyramid.

"Nice job," Cory nodded in admiration. Shawn smiled in satisfaction.

"That means there's just one thing left..." Cory pulled a large cardboard canvas from underneath the table and set it up in front of the display of jars.

On the board, in bold green block print, was written:

HAVE A BIG DATE?

IS YOUR FACE SCARIER THAN FREDDY KRUEGER'S?

CORY AND SHAWN'S MIRACLE SOAP

WILL TAKE CARE OF YOUR FACIAL WOES.

GUARANTEED TO WORK OR YOUR MONEY BACK

$5 A JAR

TRY IT TODAY

ENDORSED BY ERIC MATTHEWS- SENIOR

"Well," Shawn said, clapping his hand on his friend's shoulder. "Look's like we're open for business."

"Yep," Cory agreed as they admired what they had done. "There's only one thing that can stop us now."

The boys looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

"Feeny!"

______________________________________________________________________________

"I just can't believe this," Jonathan exclaimed as he and Audrey wove their way through the mass of students.

"What?" Audrey tossed a long lock of hair over her shoulder.

"That you can walk the streets of New York, alone, after dark, and yet be afraid to eat in the cafeteria."

"I am not afraid to eat in the cafeteria," Audrey scowled. "I'm just uncomfortable around a bunch of people I don't know."

Jonathan rolled his eyes. "You lie," he accused with underlying amusement. "If you grew up in the middle of cornfield in Iowa, then I might believe that."

Audrey gave him a funny look. "A cornfield in Iowa?"

"Don't change the subject," he returned.

"Look," she said pointedly, "I'm going with you to the cafeteria now, aren't I? Huh?"

Audrey wasn't as put out as she sounded and Jonathan knew it. He shook his head and chuckled.

The duo continued through the crowd and Audrey stopped abruptly.

"What are they doing?" She pointed to Cory and Shawn at a table apparently selling something.

Jonathan frowned, then took her arm. "Trust me- it's better not to know."

Audrey let herself be lead away. With so many students more interested in Cory and Shawn's curios than lunch, the cafeteria was sparsely populated and the teachers were taking full advantage of it. Jon pulled out a chair for her at a table that several other faculty members had claimed already.

"Hey, girl," Andrea Nguyen smiled brightly at the student teacher. The art teacher was only four years older that Audrey and they got along right away. Andrea was from a big city herself- Los Angeles- and took a position in the Art department with John Adams High when her husband decided he wanted to move back to his hometown. It was her first year at the high school and she fully empathized with Audrey's sense of being misplaced and her homesickness.

"Hey, yourself," Audrey returned, greatly relieved to have someone else she was comfortable with to socialize with; it meant she wouldn't have to use Jon as a crutch so much.

"Look at that. The redhead really can talk!" Eli joined the group, placing several large pizza boxes in the center of the table.

Audrey flashed him a grin, but paled as she caught the scent of the hot food. Jon slide another chair over to the table for Eli then took his place next to Audrey.

"Hey," Andrea whispered. "You okay?"

Audrey gave her a tight smile. "My stomach hasn't been feeling too well lately."

Andrea gave her a sympathetic look. "Look's like you picked the wrong day to join us," she winked.

Slowly the cafeteria began to fill with students. Audrey watched them as she picked at her salad. The greasy fumes of the pizza were making her feel sick. Thankfully, no one was paying much attention to her aside from the mandatory polite questions asked of her by the others and Jon's bragging on her progress in class. She tentatively speared a tomato with her fork and was contemplating eating it when a piece of conversation between Eli and Jon caught her attention.

"Katherine didn't come to lunch today?"

Jon stopped eating and looked at him. He looked around the table and shrugged. "Guess not."

"Uh-oh," Eli teased. "Is there trouble in paradise?" His glance slid over to Audrey.

"Why? She say something?"

"I was just wondering. Especially since you seem awfully caught up in your pet project and didn't notice that she wasn't here."

Jon shifted uncomfortably, but not sure if he wanted to acknowledge Eli's cryptic insinuation.

"Analyze someone's else love life will ya?"

Eli laughed. "All right, man. I can take a hint." He looked at Audrey and winked.

The room suddenly became too hot for Audrey. She bowed her head so that her hair swung forward providing her with a screen to hide behind. Before long she heard Eli call her name.

"That all you brought for lunch?" He motioned to her meager salad bowl.

Audrey regarded him with wide eyes. "Um...yes."

Eli shook his head good-naturedly. "No wonder you're so pale, girl. You need some meat on your bones." He slide one of the pizza boxes over to her. "Eat all you can."

Involuntarily Audrey moved back from the box. "N-no thank you."

Eli wasn't about to let her get off easily. "Come on, Audrey," he cajoled. "You can't tell me that you don't like pizza. Or that you're full. You've hardly touched that salad- not that I blame you for not wanting that rabbit food."

Audrey shook her head again. By now she was the focus of the table as some of the other teachers attempted to persuade her to eat.

"If she doesn't want to eat, she doesn't want to," Jon told Eli. "Leave her alone. It's just pizza."

Eli shrugged and went back to his own eating, but the others continued to pressure the girl.

Jon watched quietly as Audrey finally caved to their desire. She reached for the box hesitantly and Jon noted that she was careful to touch as little of it as possible. He saw her hand tremble as she lifted the pizza slice away from its container and her eyes close as she took a bite as though she were ingesting something terrible.

As soon as Audrey had put her hand on the box the focus shifted from her once more. Hidden behind the veil of her hair, she stared at the food that she had set down on a napkin. Beads of sweat formed on her temples and above her lip. She felt sick. She glanced up at the people around her, all engaged in their own conversations. If she was quite no one would notice her leaving.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Jon knew something was wrong from Audrey's initial reaction to the mention of food. He let her leave the cafeteria completely before excusing himself and going after her. Unfortunately, she was already out of the hall before he got there. He reasoned that she probably went to bathroom- not exactly a place where he could follow her. However, he had a feeling that she wouldn't go back to the cafeteria. Glancing at his watch, he saw that lunch was nearly over and decided to wait for her in the classroom- he wanted to talk to her before the next period.

Jon pulled out his keys to unlock the door of the classroom, but to his surprise it was already open.

"Audrey?"

The response he received was the sound of metal scraping over the tile floor and heavy breathing. Jon closed the door solidly behind him.

In the corner of the room with her back to him, Audrey was crouched down over the trashcan.

"Aw, Audrey!" he exclaimed, rushing over to her. She was shaking violently and whimpering in pain.

Not quite sure what to do, Jon knelt beside her and put his hand on her back. She continued to wretched over the trashcan, but only dry heaves were left. With one hand, he gently drew her hair back from her face to keep it out of the trash. Tears were streaming down her face and her hands tightly gripped the metal sides of the receptacle. She felt Jon beside her, asking if there was anything he could do for her. She felt his hand let go of her hair and slide over her shoulders. Too tired to resist, she let him hold her as she sobbed all the more.

_______________________________________________________________________________

"Remember, if it doesn't work tonight, you get your money back tomorrow," Cory told the last customer of the day, with a large grin and a wink. "Thank you and come again."

"Check this out, Cory," Shawn said eagerly, thumbing through a wad of bills. "We made a hundred and twenty-five bucks! We're millionaires!"

"Cool!" Cory took the wad of cash that Shawn handed him.

"I'll take that," Eric told them as he tried to snatch the money from his brother.

"Hey!" Cory exclaimed indignantly. "Whaddya think you're doing?"

"I'm taking my endorsement fees."

"You're taking half of our profits."

"My endorsement fees are fifty percent of the earnings, brother of mine." Eric explained coolly.

"That's not fair," Shawn chimed in. "You didn't even do anything. We came up with stuff."

"Yeah," Cory echoed. "You don't get half of the money because you didn't do half of the work."

"I did the most work," Eric argued. "I was celebrity endorser. If it weren't for me, no one would have looked twice at your little stand of goop."

"Oh, yeah?" Cory challenged as he climbed in the folding chair in order to look down on his brother. "Any senior could have done what you did and got us business. We don't need you." He crossed his arms over his chest and stared Eric down. "Tyler Brody would have promoted us for thirty percent profit." This last statement wasn't exactly true; Cory had never actually spoken to Tyler before, though Tyler had once told Cory to get out of his way.

Eric clearly didn't like the idea that he could be replaced. "You can't do that! I'm family. Forty percent and no less."

"Uh-huh, thirty."

"Forty."

"Thirty or you get the boot."

"No way. Twenty percent and that's final."

Cory stared at his brother for a moment, wondering if he had heard him right. Did he really say twenty percent?

Shawn grabbed a pen out of Cory's shirt pocket and hastily scribbled something down on a sheet of torn notebook paper.

"All right, Eric," Cory conceded, stepping down off his perch. "You win. Twenty percent it is."

"Ha," Eric replied. "Sucker."

"Yeah, I'm the sucker alright," Cory muttered.

"Now if you'll just sign here, Eric," Shawn said holding the sheet of paper out to him.

"What's this?"

"Just a contractual agreement about your profit from sales. You know, just so no one gets cheated." Shawn winked at Cory.

"Good idea, man," Eric took the pen from Shawn and signed his name. The two best friends just grinned at each other.

_______________________________________________________________________________

After Shawn parted ways with Cory at the end of the school day, he made his way back to his homeroom. Audrey was still there, erasing the chalkboard.

"Hey, Miss Andrews," he greeted her. "I didn't think you'd still be here."

"Yeah, I had a few things to finish. I'm just about ready to go."

"Jon said you weren't feeling too good at lunch." Shawn let his book bag slide onto an empty desk. "You okay?"

"Feeling very well," she corrected him gently. "I'm doing much better now, thank you."

"That's good." He swung his arms behind his back, not sure what to say next. "Need help with anything?"

"Nope, I think that's it." Audrey set the eraser on the chalk tray and clapped the dust off her hands. "Got a lot of homework tonight?"

"Are you kidding? All of it's from Feeny, too. I think he hates us and wants us to have no life."

"Somehow I doubt that," she laughed. "And besides, it's not all from him. I do know that you've got a book report due for Mr. Turner on Thursday."

Shawn grimaced as he picked up his book bag again and followed her out of the classroom. "Hey, Miss Andrews, considering our relationship and all, you think maybe you could get me an extension?"

Audrey put her arm around his shoulders. "Buddy, I think I can arrange it so that your report is due on Thursday at the beginning of class... Just like everyone else."

"Aw, come on."

"Sorry," she shrugged. Audrey pulled a set of keys out of her purse and flipped the lights of the room off. She shut the door and locked the classroom up.

"You know, Miss Andrews," Shawn said as he shifted his book bag to his other shoulder. "If you weren't feeling good..." he paused and corrected himself. " Feeling too well, maybe you shouldn't be home alone. I'm mean, something could happen. Maybe you should come home with us."

Audrey smiled lightly. "That's a sweet invitation, Shawn, but I don't think so."

"Why not?" asked a voice behind them. "I think it's a good idea."

They turned around to see Jon walking up to them.

"Jon, I really don't think that's be-"

"Come on, Miss Andrews," Shawn was awfully close to begging. "We always have a good time. Please?"

"Yeah, Audrey," Jon said. "Come with us. We can get those papers graded and done with tonight."

"And you can cook dinner, too, " Shawn added.

Jonathan looked at him disapprovingly. "She's not your personal chef."

"I know," Shawn returned undeterred. "She just cooks better than either of us."

"Look," Jon ignored his charge and turned back to Audrey. "I don't want you to cook. We'll get take out or something."

Audrey looked from Jon to Shawn and back again. Shawn gave her his best sad puppy-dog look. It was impossible to resist. She smiled and sighed.

"All right," she said. "I'll come on one condition... I get to cook."

______________________________________________________________________________

Shawn dried the dinner dishes as Jonathan washed them while Audrey cleaned up the rest of the kitchen. Even though he still had his book report to work on after the dishes were done, Shawn didn't mind it so much with Audrey around. While he did his homework, Jon and Audrey would be doing their own schoolwork and for some reason it created such a relaxed atmosphere that Shawn almost enjoyed the work. Almost. When Audrey was with him and Jon, it was like being a part of a family and it helped cushion the hurt of his mom leaving and his dad taking off to find her without hearing much from him.

"Ya know, Jon, I've thinking..."

"That can't be good," Jonathan teased him.

"You oughta adopt Audrey."

"Are you kidding me?"

"No, I'm serious. It'd be great. Every night could be like this."

Jon smiled. "You can't really adopt someone over the age of eighteen."

Shawn shrugged and buffed a glass to a gloss. He whistled as he finished the rest of the dishes.

Though adoption was ridiculous, Jonathan understood where the notion came from. Things were different with Audrey around, comfortable and pleasant. The change in Shawn was amazing; he was like another person. Not the sullen, angry boy he was when his parents left him. Still the incident at lunch bothered him. There was something wrong with Audrey...something...he just wasn't sure what it was. She didn't eat much at dinner- she was still a bit queasy from earlier, so she said. At any rate, he was happy she had come over. Perhaps, more so than he should have been. He wasn't doing anything wrong, but if George Feeny ever found out, he could be in some boiling hot water.