A/N: Hihi! :) So I know I haven't been too active on FF for a LONG time... Oh, who am I kidding, for more than three months. -_- Just so you know, it was 'cause my Internet randomly blocked the website. I finally figured out a way to go on FF on a mobile device, but it's really hard to get on, so that's why I barely ever get on. I WILL try, from now, to update more often, though. :)

My all-time FAVORITE 39 Clues couple is Amian. AMIAN FOREVAHH *fangirl moment* :D 'Scuse me :D ...Ahem. So anyway, yes my favorite couple IS Amian, but I do like new stuff. So this is a one-shot about how a certain young Starling falls in love with a pretty, athletic young Holt. ;)

Again, this story is for Phantomhive Cahill's Jealous Much? contest. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own the 39 Clues... I don't think rabid fangirls are allowed to own the series... :( XD

Opposites Attract

I can't believe I'm doing this, I thought for the millionth time yesterday, as I sat on the sidewalk and watched her pass me for the seventh time. She still hadn't seen me, although I guess to one who was as focused as her on her training, I was probably just another object out of the main focus of her vision.

Even if this is just a diary, I must properly introduce myself before I go on with my story. I'm Ned Starling. (Just by the way, there is NOTHING Ned is short for. It is most certainly not short for Neodore.) I'm part of this crazy family known as the Cahills, in which I'm an Ekat- I'm super smart. Not to boast or anything, you know, but everyone knows the Ekats are the smartest and best-developed of the Cahills.

The girl I was watching run laps around the square was none other than one of my distant cousins, member of the Tomas branch, Madison Holt. She wasn't the reason I was there, really- I just needed information. Information as to where her sister was.

I sat a while longer, as she ran seven more laps without collapsing, or even slowing down too much. I think it was then that I truly began to appreciate the wonders of the human body and how much, when correctly engineered, it had the potential to endure...

But that's beside the point. She finally began to slow down, on her fifteenth lap, finished it, and stopped not a hundred yards from me, bending down with her hands on her knees, breathing hard. I decided to make use of the opportunity and got up, walking towards her. "Madison?"

She looked up at me suspiciously, no sign of recognition in her face. "Who are ya, nerd-boy?"

My lips pressed together. "Ned. I'm Ned Starling." I flashed the dragon pin clipped to my shirt at her.

Finally, it dawned on her. "Oh, you. What're you doing here?"

"I'm on a mission," I said. I didn't tell her exactly what type of mission. She'd probably have tackled me then and there if I'd told her. "I need to talk to Reagan."

"Reagan..." Madison scrunched up her nose, thinking. Her blue eyes dilated as they looked at me, past me, through me. I stepped back instinctively.

"Reagan's probably at home. C'mon, I'll show you." She grabbed my arm and started walking. I followed meekly, wondering how on Earth I was going to survive being in the Holt house.

We got there soon, although that was probably not too surprising, considering the rate she'd been walking at. It was a two-story, just your typical house, with a small, neat lawn bordered with pretty pink petunias outside. Looking at it, someone who wasn't a Cahill would never have thought that a family that ran on brute strength and could probably run from East Coast to West in a month lived inside.

Madison walked right up to the door, and barely pausing to shove it open, let go of my arm and ran inside. "Reagan! Reagan! REAGAN!"

I'd paused outside the door to take off my shoes. I ventured in after that girl and found her in the kitchen, opening a large pack of chips. She held the packet out to me. "Want some? Reagan'll be down in a minute. Whaddaya want, 7Up, Coke, or-"

"Just apple juice."

"Ew. I hate apple juice. Are you sure you wouldn't like orange or mango instead?"

"Nope. I like apple."

She poured me some obligingly. As we ate and drank, I asked her, "Where're your parents and Ham?"

"Ham's football match. Reag and I stayed home 'cause I've got a date, and she's got a ton of projects. Golly, I'm so glad I didn't get her teacher. Everyone says Ms. Blians is awful, she just gives you so much homework just as you can almost taste summer. Only three days of school left." Madison grinned, a little out of breath.

I processed this. "Cool. What subject does she teach?"

"Science." Madison got up and went to the stairs. "REAG! Hurry up! I have to go get ready for my date next!"

"Your what?!"

"My date..." She came back to the table and drew out another handful of chips.

"You're dating?! But aren't you like, fourteen?!"

"Yeah... so?" She shrugged. "I know him really well. We're like the awesomest friends, and then we just... started dating." She smiled. "You know him too."

"Who is he?" I tried to keep my voice nonchalant. I felt protective, like older-brother protective, I guess...

"I'll give you a hint. His initials are D.A.C." She winked at me.

It took me less than a second to figure out. "You're dating Dan?!"

"Yep. It's not like we're madly in love or anything. We're not your typical cheesy couple. We're just really good friends."

I nodded. Dan. Of all people... "When's he coming to pick you up?"

"Fifteen minutes."

"I don't know much about dates, but I'm guessing you better go get ready? I don't mind waiting for Reagan alone."

"Oh, okay." She looked relieved. "I'll see ya, then."

I sat at the table, slowly emptying the chip packet and wondering how Dan and Madison had gotten together. Dadison. For some reason, I couldn't take well to the idea, although she'd convinced me of the nature of their relationship. They just didn't fit. Sure, he was kinda cute, attractive to girls maybe, and she was really pretty-ish, blossoming out... But my scientific mind just couldn't accept the idea of them together.

Then I realized what it was. One of the first principles I'd been taught in physics. Opposites attract. Dan and Madison were too alike. They were both into video games and sports and ninjas and that type of thing. They both had blond hair (well, Dan's was practically brown in places, but still). They were like the two north poles on two magnets.

Blond didn't go well on blond. But I knew what it would look good on- a dark red like mine...

My daydream was cut short when Reagan came bounding down the stairs. She was pretty similar to her twin, only leaner... and I personally thought Madison was a heck of a lot prettier. Reagan had released her hair from those pigtails both twins used to wear earlier, but Madison still wore them. (They made Madison look adorably childish.) She walked to the kitchen, pulled out a chair, and stretched out her hand for some chips.

"Hi, Ned. What's up?"

I remembered what I was there for. An awkward topic... I wondered how I was going to start. "Well... Reagan, I'm here to talk to you about my brother."

"Ted?" She looked mildly surprised, but I thought I saw a tiny sparkle in her eyes which encouraged me. I went on, more confidently.

"I'd noticed lately that you guys've been hanging out a lot. His manner's completely changed, Reagan. I talked to him last night, and he admitted to me that he likes you."

There. I'd dropped the bombshell... not too suddenly, I hoped. I ran my fingers through my hair.

"He wants you to be his girlfriend. I know he's blind..." My voice caught a bit. "But if you somehow liked him back, and agreed to date him, it would mean the world to him. Will you date him, Reagan?"

I sat back. I'd done my job. What happened next was up to her.

"I..." Reagan stared down at the table. "Ned, I'd say yes if he asked me out this very second. But what I don't get is... why're you in this? I mean, why didn't he ask me out himself?!"

"I insisted," I said. "Sinead and Ted are leaving tomorrow for Las Vegas, on some Ekat business. He was really firm that you needed to know all this today, because he won't be back for a month. One of us was required to stay back at home, to help Sinead finish some work that she needs to take to Vegas, and since neither of us know your house, I wasn't going to let him try to find it by himself. I found Madison, who showed me to the house... what would he have done?"

Reagan nodded. "Tell- tell your brother- tell him I'm perfectly happy with being his girlfriend. I mean... tell him I said yes." She looked up at me and smiled radiantly.

I grinned and fist-pumped. I couldn't help it, I was so happy for him.

As if on cue, I heard Madison coming downstairs. She walked to the doorway of the kitchen and struck a pose. "Hey, people! How do I look?"

"Awesome, Madi!" Reagan squealed, hugging her.

I couldn't say anything for a second. I just watched her.

She was... gorgeous. I hadn't realized it before at all. I'd only thought she was pretty. She was attired in a dark violet mid-calf dress which perfectly set off her skin and hair. Her hair was not elaborately made, but just down with a couple of clips fastening strands to the middle. She wore tiny orange hoops at her ears, which swung whenever she moved her head.

I decided then and there that my feelings to her weren't brotherly. Not even close.

I didn't mind admitting it to myself, at first. Yes, the great Ned Starling had fallen for a girl such as Madison Holt. Then I remembered the reason she was all dressed up.

Dan.

I think I succeeded in hiding my feelings to him just then, when there was a Ding-dong! and Madison opened the door to let him in. He walked to the kitchen, and I saw how formally he was dressed, how attractive his jade-green eyes looked just then, how innocent they still seemed to me. I took in his tux and looked down at my basketball shorts (yes, I do occasionally wear basketball shorts); his hair and the way it fell over his forehead to mine, which stuck up straight and was messy from when I'd run my hands through it while talking to Reagan; his twinkling jade eyes to my plain, dark green ones, that too behind dorky glasses; his sturdy frame, just an inch or so taller than Madison, and my long, lanky body, maybe four inches taller than her. He was maybe a month or two older than her; me, three years.

I decided also, then and there, that I am jealous of Dan Cahill.

Yeah, I know it's all dramatic, totally not Ned Starling-like, but I can't help it, okay? You try comparing yourself with some guy your crush might like and see in how many ways you're inferior to them. Jealousy's the emotion that automatically pops up.

I'll write more in this diary when I have something to report. I want to leave this diary to be just for what happens between me and her.

I'm not really happy with this writing... Oh well. :/ I'll finish it up in the next chapter, so it'll just be two chapters... Is that okay, Phantomhive? :) Pleeeaaseee :D

Okay. Now I'm going to post this, sit back and wait for the reviews to flow in. You people had better not disappoint me.

Hahahah jkjk just revieeeww xD

Buh-bye :P

~Sri