Michael had finished feeding and visiting with the animals. He had paused to wipe the sweat from his forehead before returning to the house... to Callie. On his way back, he spotted her walking slowly with a distant angry look on her face. He picked up his pace to meet her. 

   As soon as she saw him she wanted to turn and run but he was already quickly making his way towards her. Michael seemed to glide across the distance to meet her. He held a look of concern on his face. She had just wanted to go for a walk to cool off. She had been hoping she wouldn't run into him. But now she had. Callie lowered her head and avoided eye contact as he approached. She tried to pretend that she hadn't just been crying. 

   "Are you okay?" He asked as he reached her. She kept her eyes down but nodded yes. 

   "What's wrong?" This time she shook her head no. 

   Michael was quiet for a moment. He could tell that Callie was not ready to talk about whatever was bothering her. But he could see the streaks on her face where tears had fallen and he didn't want to leave her. "Will you walk with me?" He requested and Callie nodded. Michael held out his arm to her. Callie hooked her arm in his but kept her head down and stayed quiet as they followed the path through the amusement park, where Michael had just come from, and past the animals. 

   They had made it past the train station and the house and to Lake Neverland in silence when Callie stopped. She released Michael's arm and sat down in the grass. She removed her shoes and dipped her feet into the water. She focused on the fountain in front of her and tried to fight off the tears she felt threatening her eyes once again. Michael sat down beside her, keeping his knees bent and his arms resting on them. He propped his chin on his arm, studied Callie for a moment, then wrapped his arms around his legs and stared at the fountain with her. By this time Michael was dying to find out what had made Callie so upset so he could start working on making her smile again, but he waited patiently. 

   "Wanna know why I'm named Callie instead of some biblical name like Mary or Sarah?" She asked after a few more moments of silence. Michael had been surprised to hear her finally speak. He turned and looked at her curiously, letting her know she had his attention, and wondered what this had to do with her being upset. 

   Callie leaned back and reached into the pocket of the tight cut off jean shorts she was wearing and pulled out a wrinkled old paper folded in half. She handed it to Michael, avoiding his eyes still. She was afraid that looking into his kind doe eyes could make her fall to pieces. 

   Michael took the paper and noticed it was thick, more like a photograph. He opened it to reveal a young man and woman, standing on a beach. The woman looked like Callie but with lighter hair. She was wearing a yellow bikini with green and white flowers. Standing next to her, and much taller, was a man with dark brown hair wearing red swim shorts, holding the woman in one arm with a cigarette between his fingers and a fifth of whiskey in the other hand. Michael guessed that the picture was of Callie's parents but he couldn't see where she was going with it. He let his eyes wander from the picture and back to Callie who was still focused on the fountain. 

   "'Callie means beauty' my mother always said." She scoffed. "I never questioned it when I was younger. Then I found this photograph a few weeks ago."

   Michael looked back down at the picture in his hands. 
   "They always made out like they were perfect Christians. Always had been, always would be." She continued. "Like it was the only life they had ever wanted... like it was the only life I should ever want. To them it meant I had to stay there, get married, have babies... It meant I was never meant to see the world for myself. They just wanted me to do everything they wanted, unquestioningly."  She finally looked at Michael. "They told me the world was full of dangerous people and that I couldn't trust anyone." She gave a little smile as tears filled her eyes. "They were lying to me the whole time."

   Michael slid closer to her, eliminating any space between them, and took her into his arms. She allowed him to wrap his arms around her and leaned into his chest, trying to calm herself. "There are still bad people in the world, Callie. I'm sure they were just trying to protect you." Michael whispered softly. 

   Callie shook her head but remained leaned into his chest. "No, Michael, I don't think so. I think that they were living it up in California when my mom got pregnant, they had to move back home, get married and have me. Maybe they wanted me to pay for ruining their good time. Like I could help it." She scoffed. 

   Michael let out a giggle. "I think they may have made some bad choices but they're your parents. I'm sure they love you. There's gotta be more to it than that."

   Callie wondered how her boring small town country life had suddenly become a conspiracy theory and then she gave an embarrassed laugh. "Well it made sense in my head." She snapped jokingly and poked Michael in the side. "Well anyway, they know I'm here now."

   "Did you tell them?" Michael asked in shock.

   "I didn't get a chance to. As soon as I called them they screamed at me." She looked up at Michael who looked puzzled. "Apparently I didn't do a good enough job breaking that paparazzi scum's camera and we're front page news today." She pulled away from him, picked up a pebble from the ground and skipped it into the lake and waited nervously for angry Michael to make another appearance.

   But he didn't. "Huh." Was all that he said as he took a turn picking up a pebble and skipping it into the still water. "What's the story this time?"Callie was surprised by his amused indifference. This was not the man she had first met who had accused her of wanting to make up terrible stories about him. "Well, the nice ones report that we're dating, but they think you're robbing the cradle a bit... But all rock stars do that, don't they?" 

   Michael let out a laugh. "Yea, I guess a lot of them do. And the mean ones?" 

   Callie sighed. "They speculated that maybe I'm a low end hooker and possibly a transvestite. That one hurt a little bit." She admitted. Michael laughed. "That pap's probably just still mad about his camera... or his face. Don't worry, I've dealt with this all my life, no one really takes these people seriously. People are just addicted to the drama and they'll write anything to sell a story." He pulled her into him again. "Don't worry, there's no way you look anything like a transvestite." He assured her and she giggled. 

   She pulled away again. She focused on splashing her feet in the water and playing with the grass on either side of her legs. She tried to sound nonchalant as she said, "My parents are really angry with me."Michael turned to her with his eyebrows raised. "I'm sure they aren't too thrilled that you're with me or that you lied about it."

   "Okay, okay... I shouldn't have lied, you were right." She surrendered and Michael laughed.

   "You never lie to your mom because she will always find out, that's all I'm saying." Michael said with a huge grin. Then he turned serious. "So, what did they say?" 

   "Nothing worth repeating." She stole a look at him. "I know none of it is true." 

   Michael looked at her in disbelief. "You've known me for 2 days."

   "And at first, I might have believed it all. But I've spent more time with you than they ever have. Why should I believe any of it if I've never seen it for myself?"

   Michael gave her a little smile and then stared at the blade of grass he had picked and was absentmindedly twirling in his fingers. He couldn't remember a time when someone had been so reluctant to judge him. He felt an overwhelming urge to grab her, press her lips to his own, kiss her hard, lay her down in the grass and make love to her endlessly. But Michael was a gentleman and he was shy. That paired with his uncertainty of her feelings for him kept him sitting there, staring at the blade of grass, lost in his own thoughts.

   "So, anyway, they said they're coming out here to get me." She added. 

   Michael raised his eyebrows. "Well..." Was all he could make out and they sat in silence, staring again at the fountain in the middle of the lake. 

****

   "Come on." Michael had jumped up so quickly that he had startled Callie. "We're not just gonna sit around and wait for your parents to get here. Let's go have some fun." She looked at him suspiciously but then took the hand he held out for her. He helped her stand and then turned and ran towards the house. She quickly followed. 

   Michael ran around the house and towards the pool beyond it. He stopped only when he got to the pool house and went inside. Callie had stopped and waited for him to come out. She looked around, admiring the pool area and eyed the crystal clear water of the pool longingly. She wondered if Michael would mind going for a swim later, when the sun wasn't so intense. 

   She turned when she heard him open the door to the pool house and immediately got a face full of freezing cold water. "Oh, sorry." He giggled. She wiped the water from her eyes and found Michael standing by the pool house door holding a super soaker trying to look innocent. She laughed and ran to grab the one he had brought out for her then chased after him to get her revenge. 

   They spent the afternoon bobbing and weaving through the trees, using them to take cover, and shooting mercilessly at each other with their super soakers, stopping only to refill their guns in the pool. Apart from the sounds of nature around them, the only sounds that could be heard were of their laughter and innocent threats of destruction.Michael was fast but being raised in the country, Callie had good aim and took pride in the fact that she was winning. 

   When she ran out of water, she snuck away to the pool for a refill. Michael snuck up behind her, grabbed her and threw her in. 

   Callie gasped at the shock of the cold water. "You cheater!" She accused as Michael cackled. As he took pleasure in his victory, Callie noted that he was standing dangerously close to the pool. While he was busy celebrating, she jumped up, grabbed his hand and pulled him into the pool with her. 
    Michael's laughter sang in her ears when he surfaced. "I'm gonna get you for that!" He threatened through his laughter. Callie had started to swim away when he grabbed her and held her above his head. "Beg for mercy!" He ordered with a sneaky smile on his face. 

   "Never!" She vowed with laughter and Michael threw her into the water. 

   He was headed for the stairs to exit the pool when Callie pulled herself onto his back. "Not so fast! I'm not done with you yet!" She exclaimed. Michael let out a laugh and threw himself back into the water, taking her down with him. 

    When they surfaced again, he was facing her. "Had enough?" He teased her. She glared at him before lunging at him. She tried pushing him over but he was a dancer. He was more graceful, not to mention much stronger, than Callie. So he stood laughing at her trying to pull him down. But Callie had not even caused him to lose his balance. At that point Callie became aware of Michael's strong hands holding onto her thighs that were wrapped around his waist. She had climbed up him in her attempt to knock him over and was currently above his eye level. 

   She looked down into his eyes that were bright with laughter. He was smiling wider than she thought physically possible and it was contagious. She couldn't help but smile back. His dark hair was wet and stuck in clumps to his face, dripping water down his face, across his full lips. Callie became very aware of the swelling feeling in her chest as her breaths grew deeper and faster. The skin below his fingers seemed to tingle as she felt an awakening coming from between her legs that traveled up into her stomach, setting off the fluttering of butterflies. It traveled up her spine giving her tingling chills and to her face warming it with a blush. She wondered what he would think if he could read her mind at that very moment. What would he do if he could see all of the things she wanted to do to him?

   They had held that position for only a few seconds, staring deeply at each other, neither of them breaking contact. As often happened, Michael felt himself starting to get nervous. True to his nature he broke eye contact and bit his lip, sending Callie over the edge and making her stomach do flips. She leaned in to close the distance between them and caught his lips with hers. She pressed into him, kissing him feverishly. At first Michael had pulled back slightly in  caution. But when Callie had wrapped her arms around him and allowed herself to run her fingers through his hair he could tell that she wanted it as much as he did. So he allowed himself to lean back into her kiss and kissed her passionately. 

   Michael lowered Callie slightly so he could have better access to her lips. He caressed them with his tongue and she parted them to let him in. He moved his hands to her hips and squeezed. He could feel himself becoming aroused and let out a moan. Callie found Michael's lower lip and nibbled it. She sucked on it and nibbled it as she pulled back. She released his lower lip and pulled back to look at him. 

   Then Callie felt reality slap her in the face. 'What in the hell are you doing?' She shouted in her mind. Callie felt herself start to panic as a thousand thoughts raced through her mind. She barely knew him. And he was ridiculously famous and wealthy. What would he want with a simple farm girl from West Virginia? Was she fooling herself in thinking this could be anything more than physical?

   Michael opened his eyes and met Callie's. They were wide in fright. "Wha-"

   "Oh God, I'm sorry." She stumbled through the words as she pulled herself down from him.

   "Wait. What?" Michael tried to figure out what had just happened. But she didn't stop. She just kept saying, "I'm so sorry" as she got out of the pool and frantically made her way to the house.