Amazingly, everyone made it through the rest of the week. Couples received their assignment annulments and hurried to The P*lace to complain about the project and compare grades.

Stacy observed the general attitude going around and watched as yet another couple stomped off to opposite corners. "Oh, good, they failed, too!" she said.

"Stace, that's not very nice." Riley scolded.

"She just doesn't want to get married next year." Richie teased.

"Yeah, and the worse they did, the better my chances!" added Stacy.

The entire band was anxious to find out how Renee and Ryan did with their faux marriage. If they failed, it would put a serious strain on the band and their friendships. They were delighted to instead find the two of them coming into The P*lace still on speaking terms (Well...most of them were delighted). But Ryan and Renee joined the group at the bar as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

“So?” asked Connie.

“So what?” replied Renee.

“Did you fail?” Stacy blurted out.

“OH, that Health project!” said Renee as she and Ryan pretended to slowly catch on. “Don’t worry about it.”

The other Kids practically fell off their barstools. “C’mon, we wanna know!” said Richie.

“What difference does it make?” said Ryan. “Anyway, sorry we were late, but we’re here now, so we’d better start rehearsing.” He and Renee began to head toward the stage.

Before she could get too far, Stacy tackled her sister. “You put us through all that misery for an entire week and you’re not even going to tell me if I’m doomed or not?” she wailed.

Unable to resist any longer, Renee cracked up laughing. Ryan soon joined her.

"I win." said Renee smugly.

"She didn't actually ask." said Ryan.

"Did so, and it took less than 5 minutes, so ha, ha, I win!" Renee held out her hand. Ryan grumbled as he reached for his wallet.

"I guess it's safe to assume that you did not fail." said Riley.

"Believe it or not," said Ryan, "we got an A!" The others applauded.

"We were the only couple to admit that we fought." Renee added.

"Yeah, turns out marriage is supposed to be a pain in the-ARM! Arm!" shouted Ryan as Renee pinched his forearm before he could finish his sentence. "I was gonna say arm!" he insisted.

"But seeing as how pretty much the entire class failed," said Renee, moving her arm just as Ryan was about to exact revenge, "the teachers voted not to bring the project back next year."

Stacy's face lit up. “YES! I won’t be Mrs. Gweeb!” she cheered.

“He’s very depressed, by the way.” Ryan said to her. "Burst into tears as soon as he heard." He looked up and saw that Jules was making his way over to the counter.

"Hi." Jules said quietly to Renee, his earlier bravado gone.

"Hi." she replied.

Ryan cleared his throat. "Let's go set up." he said to the rest of Kids Incorporated. Jules needed to see that he was bowing out gracefully from a competition he'd never intended to enter. He managed to throw Renee a look, and she returned it gratefully.

"So, um...I heard you got the only A." said Jules. "I'm not surprised."

"Ryan and I got an A." Renee corrected.

Jules winced. "Can we not talk about Ryan?" he said.

“Do you want to talk about Abby instead?”

"No. I never cared about Abby. I was mad at you, so I went along with her. Funny thing is, all she wanted to talk about was you. She didn't pay much attention to me at all." He looked sheepish as he added, "I guess I should have known she wasn't telling the truth. I'm a horrible boyfriend."

"You are not a horrible boyfriend!" said Renee. "You were willing to let Ryan pummel you into the ground in order to defend my honor."

"I could have taken him!" Jules insisted. "He didn't look that tough to me. I just didn't want you to witness violence, that's all. I might've had to rough him up a bit. It could have gotten messy..."

"It was really sweet." Renee interrupted him.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Jules did his usual fidgeting and it melted her reserve. “Does… that mean you’ll take me back?” he asked.

“Jules...” He really thought it was his fault! Aww…Well, I won’t correct him this time. “Ahem…yes, I suppose I will,” she said, trying to play it cool, “but just this once!”

"Thanks, Renee. I promise I'll do better this time."

"I will, too." replied Renee as the guilt began to set in.

Ryan really wished he didn't have to interrupt the repaired couple, but they'd actually been set up for the past 5 minutes. He walked over to where Renee was standing by the counter...and passed her.

"Jules, hey, how're you doing?" he said instead. "Would you mind if we borrowed your girlfriend for the afternoon?" He could actually feel Renee trying to stare a hole into the back of his head.

"All right," Jules replied, "but make sure you return her. Oh, and try not to lose her sweater this time."

"I'm standing right here." said Renee.

Ryan couldn't help but smirk as he pretended not to hear her. "Great! Thanks a lot, buddy." he said as he offered Jules his hand.

Jules shook it and said, "No problem.", but they both knew he was more than likely going to pay for it later.

"Ahem." said Renee, but Ryan was having a bit too much fun playing games with her under the guise of befriending Jules.

"You know she's a little slow on the turns? You might wanna have that looked at." he joked. Renee grabbed him by the arm and began dragging him over to the stage with her. "OWW! Of course, she's really tempermental - but I'm sure you knew that already!"

"Wait!" Jules called as they crossed the room. "Are we still going out?"

He received a sweater in the face.

The End