#eli williams

"You remember our first week at school after a summer of travelin'?" Jon asked Shawn as Audrey and Julia joined them in the living room.

"Oh, yeah," he chuckled at the memory. "That was not fun."

"Humph," he replied, feigning grumpiness. "You sure seemed to be havin' fun treatin' me like your personal school assistant."

A grin lit up Shawn's face as he thought about all the times he tried to use living with a teacher to his advantage.

And all the times he failed.

"You weren't a very good one," he said cheekily. "You wouldn't keep track of homework for me in any class, not even yours. Your excused absences and late notes stunk, you didn't respect personal holidays, and you withheld snacks." On this last remark Shawn gave Jon a look of teenage skepticism.

Jon shook his head and laughed. "You know each one of your siblin's gave me that very same look when I told them no snacks for the first time."

"Snacks are not as big a deal as you seem to think they are," Shawn grinned. "I can understand you threatenin' to take them away from me- you had no clue what you were doing. But after Julia? Dad, come on!"

"I thought one of you could be swayed!" Jon put his hand up defensively while laughing.

Shawn rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "You're lucky you got Mom, or you would have no control over the household."

Jon laughed out loud. "Don't I know it!" He paused a moment then said with a playful gleam in his eyes. "You remember right before Mom got assigned to me what you used to do with your bad grades and pink slips?"

Shawn hung his head in faux embarrassment. When he looked up, he was struggling not to laugh. "Yeah, no matter what trash can I hid them in somehow you found them."

"You weren't nearly as clever as you thought you were," Jon said, shaking a finger at him. "For one thing, you forgot I was a teacher and could talk to your other teachers whenever I wanted to so tellin' me they weren't givin' you your work back was just dumb. Two: you told me I wasn't givin' you your work back. And three, as soon as I saw you dump the work I did give you back in the trash can right outside of my room I knew I only had to check the cans outside all of your classes to find all that missin' work."

He and Shawn were both struggling to breathe from laughing so hard. Audrey laughed along with them while Julia looked on in fascination.

"Hey! I did get around you for a while," Shawn shot back defensively. "Once I figured out how you were gettin' those papers back."

"Yeah, you did," Jon admitted shaking his head. "You hit 'em under the floorboards."

"You did what?" Julia asked, sitting up suddenly. Growing up as she had, loose floorboard that could be used to store things under were the things of television and movies.

They never had anything that cool in their house.

"Hid 'em under the floorboards," Shawn confirmed, pointing to the kitchen. "There was a loose floorboard by the end of the counter. Dad used to hide extra cash under them, and I hid my bad grades there."

"Yeah, it was a good plan and it worked," Jon said with admiration. He chuckled. "Until I need cash and gotta bunch of F's instead."

"Ooo! Is there anything still in there?" Julia jumped up before she finished the question and ran to the kitchen....

ABOUT:

A good friend of Jonathan Turner, Eli Williams quit the local news station and taught media relations classes at John Adams High. His mark is of truth, his ability to dig out what is actually going on in the media.

Cory & Topanga in 3x07

+Bonus

“What?”