The kitchen staff were quickly alerted about this fiasco, and once they found out that the two guys were from Coach Smith's class, they woke the instructor up at 7:30 am.

The coach was irritable at the sound of the telephone constantly ringing, and once he got up, he was furious with what Owen and Robin did; actually a better way to describe it was 'enraged with fire'. He ordered them to eventually shake hands to declare that their argument was officially over, and to clean up every mess they made.

Coach Smith also apologized to everyone downstairs in the lobby and to the food servers; since he was terribly ashamed of what his two students did. Then, he cornered them and had a serious talk with the two on what the altercation was about.

However, since none of the guys wanted to admit it was about Marlene, the Coach figured that the only way he could punish them at the moment was for the two roommates to be swapped.

The class had two more nights to enjoy sunny San Francisco and the Coach was not going to have the two spoil it. Therefore, he asked Robin to pack up all his belongings and exchange rooms with their other baseball teammate.

Therefore, Owen's new roommate was now Luke, and Robinaire was now bunked with Luke's former roomie, Christian.

Later the guys would get a bigger punishment from their instructor once they arrived back to Texas.

Both feared that they were going to be kicked out of the baseball team, but that was not what their instructor had in mind.

Instead, suspension for a week from school would eventually be their ultimate penalty.

***************

Owen's P.O.V.

Can't believe Robin got me in this mess! Okay, maybe it's partly my fault as well, since I am too protective over the woman I love.

The games I play with her don't seem to work out ... I just want to make her happy. Maybe Dad was wrong, women want the gentleman type, not the player at hand. From my observation, all women are different and that includes Marlene and Moira. No wonder I had so many step - moms.

And it only took me this long to figure that out, what's wrong with me? Now, once my aunt finds out about this incident; I'll definitely be locked out of my wealthy Dad's will. He never wanted me in the first place. I was just a mistake born into this world!

Note to self: Calm down! If Robin wants to make a move on Marlene, so be it. She obviously told me she was no longer interested in me anymore, since I mentioned Moira's name again ... oh why did I do that?

My darling Moira ... I never really meant to hurt her. Greedy Gretel pulled me back to kiss me on the lips and I was locked into that moment. Guess Mae had to rat on me for doing that.

Coach is definitely infuriated with us ... I don't want to be cut out of the baseball team! Would he actually do that? After all the**batting averages I've made and catching fly balls in the field for the SJU Cougars?

Robin's right, I can't have both sisters. But who should I choose? I don't know ... My life is in pure shambles!

Shape up now Owen, or ship out.

I've had it with my playboy ways. If I can stop looking at other girls. My aunt is going to kill me when I get back home!

From now on, I'm going to focus on my grades and show Marlene and Robin a new side of me!

Marlene's P.O.V

As we got off the bus, we met the same rope course instructor we met for the past three days. Turns out that there was a new name badge attached to his shirt that I never noticed before. I read the imprinted letters, which stated that he was to be called Mr. Alex Anderson.
Maybe it was brand new and this Mr. Anderson just wanted to show it off.

Might I also mention he had to be rather absentminded, since he could only introduce himself to us now? We were actually here since Sunday, so there was no excuse for being unprepared, unless he had an ulterior motive.

Mr. Anderson apologized for asking us to finish our activities yesterday as soon as possible, for he was under pressure.

Turns out that other classes were scheduled to attempt other obstacle courses after us and was rather anxious on how he was going to tackle the problem.

The coordinator also guaranteed us that in today's exercise he was now quite capable of handling several teams from different schools, and that might explain why the new name tag was clipped on, and it explained why there were more people here than usual.

I guess this was the part that Coach Smith forgot to mention to us about.

No wonder he did not join us today on the bus. Perhaps he was too reluctant to tell us about it, after the morning disaster.

But then I remembered the fact that he purchased the option for our class to work with other students, when he told us he was going to pick the last option on the rope course list.

Thus, Mr. Anderson introduced us to the other two classes that came to join us. And in turn, these two groups of students turned around to face us.

Team Alaska wore dark blue shirts ... one of their flag's colors; and the second group known as Team California wore red, probably to honor the color of the famous Golden Gate Bridge. Since the new students were all wearing different t-shirt colors, it caused me to wonder why we weren't informed to do the same.

Do you know understand now how I felt?

Our group was not wearing a distinctive color to represent Texas! And that bothered me. I mean I had a t-shirt on that said something about our state, but others didn't. We did not have a proper uniform.

I was wearing a black and white t-shirt that had the words "Remember the Alamo" printed on it. I got from a museum's gift shop in Texas. I thought it would be cool to wear it on this day, but never imagined that this would happen.

And once I looked at my other classmates in our PE class; they were all wearing different shades of blue, orange, and purple attire. Thus, my hypothesis was correct, the instructor was indeed forgetful for not telling us about this event ahead of time.

Thank you Mr. Anderson, you were such a big help. Yeah Right! The following was a sarcastic remark that I just like to throw at him.

We were told that the all the teams would work with other students in order to attempt today's activities which involved a variety of 'high level" obstacles.

Thankfully, each class also had 20 students, so it wasn't that hard for Mr. Anderson to divide us into teams.

Unfortunately, it was by boy and girl selection. And somehow he randomly selected Owen to become my partner. Well, I guess it's only fair ... after all Robinaire worked with me yesterday, so the next guy had to have his chance.

But I didn't understand why the jerk suddenly stopped teasing me when he came by, and instead acted like a proper gentleman. He usually says something crazy once he sees me, but he just stood there with a friendly grin.

Wonder if this sudden change in his attitude has anything to do with this morning's fiasco with Robinaire.

***************

"Hi Owen, guess you'd be one of my teammates today. Ready for some action?"

"Hi Marlene Brennan, yes I guess I am."

Wait! You just called me by my full name. And no stupid remarks today? What happened to my silly nicknames, Owen? And no cunning reaction?

"Are you okay Owen?"

His face was clean as a whistle. I couldn't read any body language from his pale complexion. Something definitely happened. This is not the Owen I know.

"Yes, I'm fine Marlene. Thanks for asking."

Thanks for asking? Um ... where did that come from? He never said that before to me.

But just as I was about to open my mouth, Mr. Anderson finished picking out the other group members who were going to work with us.

"Marlene and Owen, you will work with Andrea and Elijah from Team California, and Emmy and Adrian from Team Alaska."

I wasn't really focused on what Mr. Anderson said after that because my mind was somewhere else.

Somewhere between this morning's incident and my partner's new behavior. But regardless of that, I had to do the unthinkable.

As our new group members greeted each other, we were ready to set off for one of our last activities here.

Our tasks today were to climb a large tree that had a ladder. Then, we would have to jump off it in order to reach a swing on a line that was connected to the next obstacle course where we had to hang from monkey bars and walk upon a bridge. The fun part would be sliding down a tunnel that led us back to the ground.

I screamed and held his hand many times when we were attempting the exercise, but he kept telling me not to worry and to keep on moving. There were many times when I wanted to give up, but he always told me, "Marlene, do it for Team Texas! Believe in yourself. Don't let us down now!" And that is just what I did. I was so proud of myself once we made it down.

Each team was timed, and once everyone was finished, the coordinators tallied up the total scores for each state. Eventually, in the end our state won, and all of us were congratulating each other.

And in short I believe this was the best activity we ever did ... of course I needed Owen to come with me, since I was shaky in balance. By the time, both of us finished the course ... I was actually surprised how he took my ongoing complaints so well.

My anger toward my nemesis began to dissipate and decided that I just had to accept him for who he was.

***************

Thursday rolled around and we were told that the coach decided for us to spend the last day anyway we wanted.

Owen knocked on my door that morning and as usual Jennifer was nowhere to be found.

I don't understand her! When we first arrived to California, she was hyper as a hyena and wanted to take me to certain places and now she was totally ignoring me. I wonder what she was up to.

Therefore, I was the one who opened the door for Owen. To my amazement, he asked me if he could come in.

That's weird! Last time he did this, he just came right in without asking.

"May, I come in Marlene?"

"Um... Hi Owen, sure ... is something wrong?

I knew he probably hid some dark secret from me, but he was too stubborn as a mule to let me know what it was.

He sat on my bed and faced me.

"Marlene, I want you to hear me out, before you say anything."

I did not know what to say, but since I was no longer mad at him, I motioned him to continue on and shut the door.

"Marlene, I'm sorry for yesterday morning's incident at breakfast and all of the other mishaps I have done to you. I know I've been known to be quite a "player" and am willing to admit that this is who I am. I'm trying to change for the better, but it is not going to be an easy task."

He paused in the middle of his statement and let out a sigh of relief before continuing.

"My dark past has come back to haunt me this morning, and if you hate me now you have every right too. I just want to let you know that Robin likes you and that was why he has acted strangely since the airplane flight. I do not want to stand in your way, so I'll just go. I'm not going on the bus today, so you can spend the whole day with Robin or whomever else you want to be with."

Owen has a troubled past he never told me about? I wonder what it might be. I already had my hunch on Robin, that he was going 'off line' and not just becoming a decent friend. I was just teasing him, but didn't know it would cause someone's heart to be broken.

"No, wait Owen, please stay!"

He stood up from my bed and said a few words.

"I have too Marlene, I messed up big time! Just know that I might still act as a cool, suave guy, but deep down inside I hurt."

Now I felt sympathetic towards him.

"Maybe I can help you? I mean that's what friends are for Owen."

In reply, he mumbled something quietly to himself.

"You still consider me as a friend?"

"Of course, I do ... Mister," I giggled and nudged him on the shoulder. "I might appear mad at you Owen for the many idiotic things you have done, but..."

I stopped giggling when I remembered that he was still Moira's enemy.

"But what Marlene?"

"You hurt my sister's feelings and because she left, my parents died, and my brother doesn't like what you did ; I just feel so lost and alone sometimes!"

Tears started to flow down my face and Owen beckoned me to come forward. He hugged and patted me on the back and motioned me to calm down.

"It's okay to cry Marlene, everyone hurts sometimes."

We stood there in the room just like that for five more minutes until we heard the doorknob sound click.

As soon as Jennifer came in, he let go of my embrace and walked towards the door.

I think Owen whispered some words before my roommate faced me, but I couldn't figure out what it was.

He might have voiced out these words - "I love you Marlene. I always have!"

Back to the present 'Daredevil' Jump from the Balcony:

Miraculously, Owen and I landed into a pile of leaves.

The crisp, yet hard-edged points of the leaves broke our fall as if the trees around us knew about our unexpected catastrophe.

My eyes were clasped tightly during the jump and kept clinging to Owen for protection. As I opened them, I saw that my arms were around his stiff neck. His eyes were closed and I called out to him.

In the end, I hope I did not strangle him, once we fell.

"OWEN, OWEN, PLEASE WAKE UP!

I kept nudging my hand against his warm abdomen, but couldn't get a response.

"OWEN, PLEASE DON'T GIVE UP ON ME NOW! OWEN, OWEN, OPEN YOUR EYES!

"OWE, DON'T DIE ON ME NOW! I NEED YOU NOW!

I tried to open one of his eyelids, but it easily fell back down.

I cried anxiously for someone or something to help me!

And was also worried that the threesome of culprits would hurt us if they knew where we were!