Milton just smirked at her. His owl screeched at her, as if he was laughing. "See? You have no idea to balance your life." Milton Shacklebolt here was doing excellent in classes AND he had a great social life. Minus the fact that a lot of people seemed to dislike him. But at least they knew who he was. Most people didn't even know that he had an anti-social step-sister. Which was fine by him, actu-

O__O

What? Who the hell was Will? Oh... Someone she talked to? And it was a guy? That was... surprising. But it was a while ago, so not really. "You need to get out more," he said. Milton's head turned toward the entrance as he heard some guy talking around the corner... to himself? Weird. Hogwarts was full of nutters.

Snort. She was stuttering. Milton raised an eyebrow when she said it was for a friend. Liar. "You don't have friends, Anna." Eh. Kind of rude. But it was true, wasn't it?

Just then, Milton noticed some guy poke around the corner, saying... yes? Yes what? Milton stared at him with a "who-the-heck-are-you" look. "What do you want?"

Anna winced slightly as Milton laughed and his owl screeched. Maybe she didn't like owls so much after all - that thing on her step-brother's shoulder seemed mean. Like it was laughing at her with Milton. She eyed it for a second before turning her attention back to the boy when he asked about Will.

"William. He's... well, he's..." What was he, exactly? Anna had no words to describe him. Because he definitely wasn't her friend, but she couldn't exactly point that out to Milton, could she? That would only prove his point. "Hey!" she protested, standing on her toes again. She did not need to get out more.

...And, seriously? Once again, Anna rolled back onto the balls of her feet, although this time it was in defeat, not triumph. She had no friends. It was true, but Milton was a jerk for pointing that out. "I do too! At Beauxbatons, there's Der-"

Anna stopped short when she heard another voice. Oh. Will. She turned sharply to the boy, her brain hardly registering how ridiculous he looked with the cat on his shoulder and potentially mean bird on his head. "Will!...iam." William. Not Will. Anna's eyes brightened as an idea occurred to her. "William! Please explain to my brother here that we're friends, 'kay? He doesn't think I have friends but I told him about you." To her surprise, a real, genuine smile spread across her lips. Surely the boy would play along, right? He had to. He had to or Anna would probably never talk to him again.

And that would not help her friendlessness issue.

Will had the urge to punch the kid in his sniveling little face. He was quite rude. Quite rude indeed. What right did he have to treat Tomato like that? ...not that he cared.

...psh he didn't care. ...Not one teensy weensy bit did he care.

...right?

Will looked from the kid that was apparently her brother to Ann-WAIT WHAT?! That thing was her brother?! Will's eyes bugged slightly as tried to comprehend how in Merlin's dangling earlobs this kid could be her brother. He seemed rude, rude...rude...and cocky. Eh kinda like Will except Will did not like this kid. Maybe it was time to change the ego...tomorrow...or next week...eh.

Will bowed all fancy like leading to the owl flying straight into Anna's "brother's" face in an irratated fashion and a smirk coming to his face. "William Andrew Darcy...the first at your service my lady, and...sir." He straightened up, walking over to Tomato. He turned to face "brother" a wide grin on Will's face as he put an arm around Tom-...Anna's shoulder. "And Anna dear has been my greatest friend since the start of school. Even before that. We ran into each other while getting school supplies and our relationship has blossomed since." He shrugged lightly, the grin still on his face. "Quite frankly she's a very exciting person to be around. In fact, there is never a dull moment with her. I'm so grateful we ran into each other."

...okay so maybe he was stretching the truth a bit...in some ways...maybe...but since he was doing this he might as well have fun with it...right? Heh...heh

"In fact, we still haven't had our little stroll yet or our date! You haven't forgotten that promise have you Anna?" He wiggled his eyebrows at her, turning to grin happily at the "brother". Oh yeah...this would be fun.

Milton stared at her while she tried to form a sentence... and failed. He snorted again. See? Friendless. When she stood up on her toes again, Milton put a hand on her shoulder and pushed her back down. "Still failing."

Something about Beauxbatons, but Milton's attention had already turned to the weirdo that just entered the owlery. He just stared at the kid while he rambled on about himself and he and Anna were supposedly "great friends" and how they had met and blah, blah, blah. Yeah, whatever, kid.

Milton didn't believe that kid for a second. Everything about him screamed... "weird". Milton glared at the boy's arm that was around his step-sister's shoulder. And he had an air of cockiness that he didn't like. So, no. Milton wasn't buying it.

Wait.... Date?

Milton raised his eyebrows at the both of them. When this William grinned at him, Milton's owl that was still on his arm screeched loudly at him. Milton glared at Will. "That's not happening." The date. Not in a million years.

Anna had to try very hard to keep a straight face as William introduced himself to Milton. Why was he so odd? She couldn't have found a normal person to be friends with, could she? No. It had to be Mr. I-Think-I'm-A-Gentleman-But-I-Really-Just-Use-Fancy-Words.

...

And as soon as William put that arm around her, Anna almost screamed. WHO exactly did he think he was?! What gave him the right to do that?! Anna looked up at the boy, her eyebrows furrowing as she studied the side of his face as he talked to Milton. And talked about them and their - WHAT?

If Anna would have been drinking something, she would have spit it out when he said "relationship." That meant, like, romantic, right? Because what other kind of relationships were there? As it was, Anna's eyes widened in something like horror. But then William continued with the talk about how she was interesting, so Anna couldn't get mad at him. So she turned her face back to Milton and gave him her best "I told you so" look.

But of course, William had to ruin everything. "Date?!" Anna tried to exclaim, but her voice came out as a squeak. DATE?! She felt her face heat up and she stumbled sideways away from the boy's arm. DATE?! She tried to squeak her disagreement, but before she could make a sound Milton spoke.

...It wasn't happening? Anna's glare came right back to her eyes as she looked at Milton. "Who says?" Thankfully, her voice seemed to be back to normal. "I can go on a date-" *squeak* "If I want!" He wasn't the boss of her. He didn't even like her. So he couldn't tell her what to do. "And I do want." So THERE.

Oh. And... "It's Annalee," she said calmly, glancing back at William pointedly.

....Okay maybe Will had taken this a bit...just a bit...to far.

Did he really want to go on a date with this...uh...girl-thing? Maybe not tha-

Any doubt of doing this "date" went poof, zip, goodabye when the "brother" spoke. What was with this kid? After having his arm thrown off of Tomatos shoulder Will folded his arms tightly, an eyebrow cocked in a "who's-gonna-stop-me?" sort of look. "Oh really now? Who says?" Will had the urge to yell JINX as Anna and him sputtered out "Who says" together. It was kinda cute.

...no...it was not cute. Ick. What was his problem today?!

Will grinned cheesily at the "brother" putting his arm back around Anna...lee. "Honestly I don't think you've got a chance kid. If she wants to go on a date, and I want to go on a date, then the last I checked there was no voodoo law stating we can't go on a date just because some punk in a shoes said we can't." He shrugged lightly, staring at the creepy owl on the "brothers" shoulder.

...Man, Rude kid + creeper owl + hungry = not very patient Will. Not that he was patient any other time but there was just something unpleasant about that kid, and not just his fashion sense.

Okay, what was with Anna's face? Because every now and then, it looked like she wanted to run away screaming. And then the rest of the time she looked embarrassed and flustered. Milton eyed William again. This kid had definitely done something to Anna, hadn't he? He seemed like a punk. He was probably a jerk. Sure, Milton wasn't the nicest to Anna either, but they were related. It was his duty.

And they said 'who says' at the same time. That was creepy.

See? She was doing it again! She ran away from his arm, but when Milton said something, she went right back to being stubborn, like she wanted to go on a date with that slimeball.

"I say. And I can see right through this little show you're putting on." Tommy screeched again and flapped his wings impatiently. "Oh, stop," Milton mumbled and pulled the letter for his dad out of his pocket. Tommy grabbed it with his beak and flew out the window. There.

Now. Back to the weird couple.

Milton took a step closer to William, towering over him. He was tall, dark and handsome, AND strong. He could easily take this kid down. "I'm not a kid. And sure, I may be a punk in shoes," whatever that meant, "but you deserve it." He could just tell. "Besides, Annalee doesn't want to go on a date with you. Look at her face." It was weird. Then again, it was weird a lot. But it was a different kind of weird this time.

Once again, Anna squeaked, but this time it was because William had put an arm around her and pulled her into him again. She tried very hard to keep a straight face again, looking down at the filthy floor to avoid looking at both Milton and William. Although she had to look when Milton started being all bossy.

"You aren't the boss of me!" she retorted, sounding horribly like a six year old. She glared at him, watching as he stepped closer to them and stood in front of William. Her lips turned down in a frown as she looked up at her brother. Look at her face. What did THAT mean?

Stepping forward casually out of William's arm again, Anna poked Milton's arm. "You can't make my decisions for me, Milly. You don't even care about me!" Honestly. Where was the sudden Mr. Responsible Little Brother coming from?

"Besides. I happen to like William, okay? And I'm very excited to go on a d-date with him!" Lies. All lies. But Anna was standing up for herself and making a point that Milton didn't get to suddenly choose when he wanted to be her brother.

To further prove her point, Anna turned to William, stood on her toes, and kissed his cheek down by his jaw because that was all she could reach.

She had to resist wiping her mouth afterward, but oh well. That should infuriate Milton, right?

That's it...he's going down...

Will clentched his fists cocking an eyebrow as the "brother" attempted to tower over him. What? He was probably an inch taller...if that. Psh. "What? You trying to scare me tough guy? I bet it's all padding and no glory under that shirt." he sneered, snorting. "Besides like the lady said she can take care of herself and she like-"

Cough cough. Cough, choke, cough.

She liked him?! Nah it was just a joke right? To throw of the "brother"....right? Oh please piggmypuff gods please don't be true.

He turned to look at Annaless just in time to see her make herself taller to kiss him on the cheek.

Eyetwitch.

Will looked from her to "brother" a odd look on his face as color seeped into his cheeks and neck. ...What was he supposed to do? Like...kiss her back? What if she screamed? She always seemed to be doing that...or squeeking...always the squeeking.

Bending slightly he kissed her on the top of her head. There. It wasn't skin...just a bunch of hair. She shouldnt scream...right? He turned to face "brother" a smirk on his face. "I'd call this pretty real...pretty boy."

All padding and no glory? Milton would show him what he was made of if he made another move. But William seemed to have stopped mid-sentence when Annalee said that she liked him.

... Right.

Milton raised his eyebrows a little, ignoring his step-sister when she said he didn't even care about her. No comment. She kept squeaking. And stuttering. This was turning out to be very interesting, actually.

Milton almost winced when he saw Anna kiss his cheek. And when Will kissed her head. Oh, Merlin, that was painful to watch. He could tell how forced it was, but he didn't let it show on his face. He knew what was going on. He was smart. A Ravenclaw, after all.

"Fine. You two love-birds have fun on your date then. I wish you two the best." GRIN.

For a second, Anna was afraid that the kiss was a bad idea, because William seemed to have frozen. She looked up at him wide-eyed for just long enough to see him move, then looked away since she knew she hadn't paralyzed him or something.

...Then she felt him in her hair. She stared down at the floor, willing herself not to make any sudden movements or noises. So she took a deep breath, trying to rationalize everything that was going on.

Then Milton spoke.

Love birds?! Anna's head snapped up to look at Milton, who was grinning. Why?! Why would he suddenly change his mind and accept that she was going on a - doing something with William? Sure, that was what she'd been hoping for... but he had done a total one-eighty and was now grinning at them.

"Right." She said with a nod. "Good. We will. And we're just friends. Not love birds." Shudder. Friends could like each other and go on dates, right? Right. So there was no harm in telling Milton that they were just friends without blowing their whole cover.

"So, if you'll excuse me..." She waved to both boys, hurrying out of the owlery. It wasn't til she got to the entrance that she realized that she hadn't ever sent her letter that had brought her up here in the first place.

Feeling herself blush again, she turned slowly, casually skirting around the walls of the owlery to find herself an owl because the first one had gotten bored and flown away.

She didn't look at Milton or William.

Jezzabelle ended up back at the owlery yet again. Her red hair was pulled back and she held tiny little scroll in her hand. A letter to her father. It wouldn't be much longer till she was home. Time just seemed to fly so fast when she was at Hogwarts. She looked around for an owl that wasn't too busy. Finally finding one she smiled. "482 Tatum Avenue," she said softly. She watched as the owl vanished from sight and turned around to leave.

Darwin wandered in the direction of the Owlery, dragging his feet up the steps as he clutched the rolled up letter in his hand. He'd written it a few days ago, and couldn't quite remember what it said, but he didn't care. It was just letting his dad know that he was thinking about him, and that he hoped he was okay.

He didn't even know if the man was at home yet, or still in the hospital. As much as he'd told his mum that he should go to St. Mungo's, she hadn't listened, and maybe that was for the best - it would have been weird for them there, being Muggles, even if they did have a Wizard in the family.

Sighing, he pulled some owl treats from his pocket and coaxed down one of the school Barns.

Brooke had loads of parchment in her hand, lots of them were empty, okay no. All of them were empty except for one, one of them had words on, words that formed the letter she'd wrote for her mother she wanted to say hi to everyone at home and a special hi to Georgie- who the letter was mainly written for but she had to address it to mummy because Georgie was too little baby to read yet, psht. Why were babies so small ?

So small and babyish. sheesh. It was so inconvinient.

Brooke scrunched up parchments as she discovered they were empty and shoved them into her pockets, hehe. Then she found the right one, the parchment with words on and she held it securely in her hand. So tightly it could've ripped if anyone had knocked either one of her arms, that wouldnt be good. eek. She'd worked so hard on this letter; she'd cry if anyone harmed it even though it was just a piece of paper really.

Brooke entered the owlery but before giving her letter to an owl she spotted her bestie-for-life-with-no-taksies-backsies-or-swapsies so she skipped over to him and hugged him- him being one of the only boys she would actually touch. "DARRRR!" yay! hehehehe.

Slowly attaching the letter to the large owls leg, Darwin fed it some treats from his other hand and considered what this would mean for his father. Surely he wouldn't be able to go back to work - no, they'd probably have to let him go; he was no use to the Air Force in a wheelchair, unless they put him at a base, and even then...

Thinking about it was less than useless. Darwin sighed to himself, admitting that he'd have to wait for a reply, and then led the owl out of the window. As he turned to leave the owlery, someone jumped on him and hugged him tightly.

And of course, he'd recognise that voice anywhere. That and the fact that only one person called him 'Dar'. "Brookie" he cried, hugging her back tightly.

Brookie didn't have cooties. And Brookie always cheered him up.

In the excitement of seeing Dar Brooke almost forgot the reason she'd come up to the owlery in the first place, but hopefully seeing the letter in her hand would remind her later on; right now she wanted to talk to her bestie and that was what she was going to do. She stood on her tippy toes as Dar hugged her back, squishing her nose against his and looking into his eyes. "Missed you." she spoke quietly because she didn't wanna breathe on him loads incase he didn't like that.

Plus she didn't wanna spit on him as she spoke, spitting was gross and for camals; or that was what daddy had told her anyway.

She smiled at Darwin, her nose still squished against his so she tried to hold back on her giggling. "What are you doing here then ?" probably here for the same reasons as she was, well not to owl a letter to HER mummy but probably to his own family, but maybe he wasn't. She wasn't really sure though, maybe he'd come to say hello to the owls, Brooke did that sometimes. hehe. Owls were awesome.

"Missed you more," Darwin whispered back, smile spreading into a grin. See, he'd been with the girl less than five minutes and he was already beaming. That just showed how good of a bestie-for-life-with-no-takesies-backsies-or-swapsies she was; obviously, the best.

Nose. Getting. Squished.

Which wasn't so bad, in all honesty, but Darwin could feel Brooke's breath on his face and her lips were kind of close to his and it was making him feel a bit weird. And awkward.

In kind of a nice way, though. He was pretty sure that Brooke could only make him feel in a bad way if she shouted at him or said that she didn't want to be friends anymore or something like that.

Indicating the window, Darwin shrugged. "Letter Oskar and Mum and Dad." he said. Obviously the letter wasn't addressed to Emiline; no matter how much his mum told him they should be, he didn't LIKE his sister and she HATED him so he wasn't going to write to her. "What're youuuuuu doing here?" Probably the same as him. Heh.

"Did not." Brooke pouted a little, she would've crossed her arms over her chest if it weren't for the fact that she was hugging Dar. She liked hugging him too so she wasn't going to stop. Hugs were nice, they made her smile and right now Brooke was happy so she wanted to smile to show off her happy feelings.

Plus, it felt like foreeeeever since she'd seen Dar so she wanted to be happy around him.

She hoped Dar didn't mind her squishing his nose, it wasn't something she did often; infact she wasn't sure if she'd ever done it before in her life, but yes not often it happened and she didn't know if he liked it or not but she didn't move her face. She was quite happy here and it was funny. Hehe.

His eyes looked all big and pretty.

Brooke nodded at Darwin's answer. It was kinda the answer she'd expected but mummy said sometimes you had to ask questions you thought you already knew the answer to incase you didn't know the answer. "Letter to Georgie, but she's too baby to read yet so i wrote it to mummy and daddy and Che and Brit too." she'd thought about putting CeCe's name on there but then had decided to write her a separate letter some other time and get someone in her year to give it her. SMART!BROOKIE?!

Brookie was... disagreeing with him? :O

Darwin pulled one arm out from around her to poke at her pouted lips and then chuckled. "Did so," he grinned. Because he'd so missed her the mostedest out of ANYONE EVER and she couldn't deny that. NOPE, because she wasn't inside his head and therefore didn't know how much he'd missed her. And he was grinning because he'd missed her but now he was seeing her so he was super happy.

YEY. Now the nose squishing thing was getting a little weird, though. It was different and nice and Darwin thought that Brookie looked super pretty, even her eyes up this close, but he pulled away slightly and rubbed his nose where it had been squished.

They were still close though, because she was his bestie and he didn't want to hurt her feelings.

"Brookie, haveyoueverkissedanyonebefore?"

He started a bit after he spoke, completely unaware of where it had come from. He hadn't been planning to say that. It had just come out, and he couldn't take it back now. No way.

Blush.

"That's cool. How are they all?" Because Darwin liked the Radleys, yeah they were super dooper cool and baby Georgie was cute even if all she probably did was poop and cry a lot.

And now she was being...POKED.

OMP. This was the worst thing ever!

Brooke took Darwin's finger from her lips which he'd just POKED! "Dontpokemeeee!" she whined quietly, but she forgave him in an instant because he was her bestie and she was a good bestie and forgiving and stuff was what besties did. "Did nottt!" she giggled trying to keep her giggling to a minimum, she had missed him more than he missed her- more than ANYONE missed him.

She didn't say anything as Darwin moved away, it was only slightly so she didn't mind, it gave her nose chance to form make into a nose-y shape. She didn't want it to be permanently squished; she didnt think that would look pretty. Or worse, her and Dar's noses could've gotten stuck together; that would've been horrible then they wouldnt be able to do things like go to the toilet and stuff, ewww. And walking through doors would be so hard.

But his next question caught her off guard.

Kissed anyone ? "Like, wiff my lips?" she upwrapped one of her own arms, bringing it up to touch her lowerlip. "Nope, why ?" Had he ?! Did he have a GIRLFRIEND?! she'd better not have cooties, or be prettier than Brooke, or nicer, or funnier, or anything more than Brooke was. No, Brooke didn't like this. She didn't like this at all.

"I fink they're okay, how am your family?" he hoped they were all happy and stuffs, it would be sad if they were sad. It was sad when everyone was sad. Sad people just weren't good.

"Don't pout at me then," Darwin whined, in a voice to mimic his best friends, sticking his tongue out at Brooke. It was lucky that he'd stepped away, because if he hadn't and their noses were still touching then he probably would have ended up licking her face.

And even though they were besties, LICKING Brooke's face seemed incredibly weird to the boy. Why he would LICK her face in any other situation was beyond him so he was glad that his tongue wasn't long enough to reach her now. Darwin shook his head, dispelling the weird ideas about licking peoples faces and the length of tongues.

But she was still arguing with him.

Over how much he'd missed her.

Oh dear.

"BUTTTT you don't know how much I missed you because you're not in my head. And I KNOW I missed you more." THERE. He'd told her and now she couldn't deny that he was right. YEY. But she was giggling, and so he chuckled, because giggling was good and it meant she was happy. And he liked happy!Brooke because that meant happy!Darwin. He was also glad that she hadn't seemed upset when he moved away from her because that would have been awful: he didn't want to upset her in anyway. Maybe she was glad, now that her nose, like his, wasn't being squished anymore.

Darwin didn't know what to say. He stood there, awkwardly, one of Brookes arms still around him and both of his now hanging at his side. "Yeah... l-like pr-properly." He stammered a little, avoiding her gaze now. "B-because... well, c-can I kiss you?"

That sounded so weird, and Darwin brought his gaze up to look her in the eye again. He hoped she wouldn't say he was being silly, or leave him here. It was a perfectly normal thing to ask. Or not, but the boy didn't know. All he knew was, if you couldn't kiss your best friend, then who could you kiss?

"Good. They're... uh, they're alright," it was obvious from his voice that that was a lie, though. His family were far from fine, no matter how much his mum tried to convince him otherwise.

"But I already DID!" Brooke shot back, she couldn't not pout at him when she'd already pouted at him. Okay, she could not pout at him again but those hadn't been his instructions. His instructions were for her not to pout, so it was toooooo late. She'd already pouted.

AND she felt quite rebellious for doing so.

She eyed her best friends tongue hoping it wouldn't touch her, there was quite a line between: being able to hold hands, hug and play tag with Dar and him licking her. Touching with hands and feet was TOTALLY different to touching with his tongue. But it was okay, he didn't lick her. His tongue went back into his mouth without making any contact with her face.

All was well, all was calm.

Brooke stopped dead in her tracks, she didn't know how to respond to that. She wasn't in Dar's head and it was impossible for her to get into Dar's head and eek. "BUT you dont know how much I missed you!" she shot back after a long time of thinking, it'd took her a while to think it up but now she had she was pretty proud of her argument back. "And I missed YOU more." she added after a few seconds because she didn't want to lose the argument, not that it was an argument as such because Besties-for-life-with-no-taksies-backsies-or-swapsies didn't have arguments, so Brooke and Dar couldn't of possibly been arguing.

When she noticed both of his arms had disappeared from around her, she let her other arm fall from around him and flop down to her side. Properly ? how could you kiss someone not properly ? Brooke opened her mouth to ask but then closed it again as Darwin's second question shocked her. Well, that answered her horrid thoughts. He clearly didn't haff a girlfriend or he wouldn't of wanted to kiss her, right? "Why?" she frowned. "Do you wanna kiss me so you can see if your good to kiss annuffa girl ?" because if that was the case then no. "If you just wanna kiss me cos you like me, then ....." was she really gonna say this ? Kissing was gross, YUCK. "i guess so, yep you can." eeeeeep. Kissing was g-r-o-s-s. ewwwie.

"Good." Brooke beamed, totally unaware of her friends lie, she should've been aware really but she was too distracted by the thoughts about them kissing. ewie.

Darwin had to admit that Brooke was right on that point - but he wasn't going to admit it out loud. No, instead he had to think of something else to say. "Well, uh - just don't do it again!" Okay, so it wasn't as cool or as clever as he would've liked (seriously, why WAS he in Ravenclaw?!) but it would do. For now, until he came up with something better to say.

Which would be in about three hundred and sixty five years, knowing himself.

"Well I do know that it couldn't have been more than I missed you because I missed you SO much that it's most-completely-probably IMpossible." No, he didn't need to know how much she'd missed him to know that it couldn't beat the amount that he'd missed her.

Although, if anyone was overhearing this conversation it would seem to them that he was a bit weird and crazy and having a pointless, silly, maybe even stupid argument, but he wasn't, and they weren't- he'd just missed his besties-for-life-with-no-taksies-backsies-or-swapsies a HUUUGE lot and she couldn't seem to see that.

BEAMZ.

Okay, so they weren't hugging anymore, not now Brookie's arms had dropped. Which was making this new stretch of conversation much less awkward than it would have been. Darwin had forgotten the letter he'd sent a moment earlier and that she was probably up here to send a letter - unless it was just to see her owl. He wasn't sure if she and CeCe brought it to school or if they left it at home with their parents but he wasn't thinking about that now.

He was thinking about what he'd just asked her.

When he'd said properly, he meant on the lips. Like lips to lips contact. Not a kiss on the forehead or a kiss on the cheek like his mum gave to him - ICK. That was what those kisses were - a proper kiss. "NO. I just wanna see what the fuss is about. And you're the only girl I know that DEFINITELY is cootie-free," he mentioned this part as almost a joke - although he still believed that kisses were germy, the cootie legend was begin to falter - Christmas conversations with his brother had started seeing to that.

The most childish part of him still believed in it, though.

"But I don't LIKE you. I mean, I uh do like you, obviously because you're my besties-for-life-with-no-taksies-backsies-or-swapsies, but not in the same way you like Tackler boy. Uh, I mean, Alec." He'd SEEN her with him, around school and on twitter and tumblr. And she LIKE liked him. And he still wasn't sure how he felt about that.

Cough. "I just think, if you can't kiss your besties-for-life-with-no-taksies-backsies-or-swapsies, then who can you kiss?"

Brooke felt quite proud of what she'd come up with to counter Dar telling her not to pout. She never came up with things like that so it was quite an achievement if she did say so herself. "I wont then!" She giggled, he obviously couldn't think of a better one than she had, but who would be able too ? Her's was so amazing.

"But I know how much I missed you and no one in the whole entire world not even your mummy and daddy or anyone if you were trapped in Hoggiewarts for ever and ever could ever miss you more than I missed you so I missed YOU more!" She spoke quickly to try and cram all her words in before she forgot what she was going to say but not too quickly so that Dar couldnt understand, she didn't want to have to repeat herself because she'd already forgotten what she'd said to him.

Brooke wrapped her arms around herself, feeling a little chill now they'd stopped hugging. She should warm up soon though so it was okay. She looked around the owlery, she wanted their family owl to swoop down and take her letter before she forgot about it but she couldn't even remember if they'd bought it here this term, ugh. There was so many things to remember in life, why couldnt everything be simple and rainbow-y ?

What fuss? Brooke had never heard a fuss over kissing, except from Ness. She always talked about kissing Angelo, she always talked about how she would kiss him all day long if she could. Brooke turned her nose up at that, it sounded gross and a waste of time. Why would you want to swap saliva with someone ? EW. Talk about grossness. Why couldnt people just keep their own spit in their own mouths and be simple about it ? "Oh okay then. If you say so." Brooke didn't bother asking where he'd heard this fuss because it was probably off twitter or something. "I AM cootie free!" she beamed quite proud of this fact.

She frowned now. He didnt like her ?! But then he saved himself and she sighed a sigh of a relief. "You'd better like me." she pouted; despite saying she wouldnt do that again. Besties for life with no taksies backsies or swapsies had to like each other didnt they ? Brooke hoped so. And now she frowned again. "I don't like Alec! Not like..not how your finking. we're FRIENDSIES!" she demanded. ugh. Dar could be soo ...ugh. Liking boys was grossss with a capital gr.

"I guess you're right." It was true, kissing other people would be silly, you wouldn't know if they had cooties or not. "So, are you going to kiss me or not?" she didn't know if he'd changed his mind or not.

Why was his response not as clever as hers? Darwin was sooo tempted to pout right then, but that would have been silly because he'd just told her not to pout and then she would point out that he was being incredibly hypocritical. And he didn't wan't that, not really. So he held in his pout, and smiled instead. "That's good. No more pouting for Brookie." Yey, she couldn't sulk at him now, so she had to be happy with him all of the time. YEY for no more pouting.

NO. She couldn't be saying this. The words he was hearing could not be true. Gaping a little, Darwin didn't even know what to say. "B-b-bu-but that's how much I missed YOU." he protested. He hadn't been able to word it, but he speedy little speech had done that for him. It was like she was reading his mind. Which wasn't possible.

Was it?

"BUT that means that you didn't miss me MORE than I missed you... and it means that I didn't miss you more than you missed me." Was that even possible? Darwin didn't have a clue. He was FAILING right now. FAILING and FLAILING because he was confused because they couldn't BOTH miss each other more.

Oh, his poor, tiny little brain.

Why wasn't this argument (well, not argument, because they were besties-for-life-with-no-takesies-backsies-or-swapsies so therefore they didn't argue) simple? Why was everything so complicated these days? His classwork and his friends and his family and his MIND were all so confused. He was going to blame growing up, and nearly being a teenager and not being in Primary School anymore. Blergh.

He sighed, and blew his hair out of his face. "I do say so. And I'M cootie-free, too," he said. Therefore, it only made sense. Well, to him at least. Although maybe this idea was an odd one - he didn't have a clue where it had come from, he just knew that if there was anyone he wanted his first kiss to be with, it was her. Because she was his best friend.

Oh, it didn't even make sense in his mind.

"Of course I like you. You're my bestie. Which is the point here." Or it kind of was, anyway. "Sureee you don't." Was he JEALOUS of Alec? NO. Well, maybe a little - but not in that way. He didn't LIKE Brooke, not in that way. He didn't like anyone in that way. But if she liked Tackler boy more than she liked him, Dar, then she'd probably replace him. And that would mean they weren't besties-for-life-with-no-takesies-backsies-or-swapsies. The whole point of being so was for life, so she couldn't replace him... could she? Either way, he didn't want to be replaced.

Now that she was asking, Darwin didn't really know what he'd gotten himself in for. "Uh, yeah I am. I guess," he managed, before leaning down and pressing his lips to hers.