Eddie walked into Anubis House, which was deserted. Except for a certain redhead who was sitting on the couch with a laptop. "Hey," he said to her.
She looked up. "Slimeball," she said, by way of greeting.
Eddie said nothing, and sat down beside her. "Have you ever called me by my real name?"
Patricia looked surprised. "Of course I have, fr—Eddie."
Eddie smirked at her. "Say it again. My name. I like the way it sounds when you say it."
She raised an eyebrow at him. "Eddie. This is ridiculous."
"Hey, I have an idea. How does a bet sound to you?"
She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Eddie supposed that bets were still a touchy subject after the whole dance thing. "What sort of bet?"
"I bet that you can't go a whole day without calling me anything other than Eddie." He waited for her response.
She considered it. "What do I get if I win?"
"Umm…what do you want?"
"I want you to do whatever I say for a day," she said without hesitation.
"Fine," he said, not even batting an eye. "And if I win, then you have to pretend to be my girlfriend."
Patricia's jaw dropped. "What?"
"You heard me."
"Yes, but—but why?" she spluttered.
Eddie gave a long-suffering sigh. "The principal's daughter."
"The one who's 'cute'?" Her face wrinkled up at the very word.
"Yep," he said. "She found out I said that right before I left, and she's been all over me ever since. Turns out she's more annoying than cute. I can hardly go on the internet without her trying to chat or Skype me. So, I'm thinking if she finds out that I'm going out with you, even though I'm really not, she'll leave me alone. Get it?"
"Yeah." Patricia hesitated, and then said, "You've got yourself a deal."
They shook hands. "Excellent," said Eddie. "It starts first thing tomorrow. Prepare to lose."
"I hope you're ready to be my personal homework-doer."
The breakfast table was full when Patricia finally came downstairs. "Good morning, Patricia," Eddie said, pouring himself some cereal.
"Good morning, Eddie," she said, smirking slightly. The other residents of the house looked a bit surprised, but said nothing.
"You'll be late for school! Hurry up!" Vera chided. Nina, Fabian, Amber, and Alfie left together, with Joy trailing behind Fabian like a lost puppy, and they were followed by Mara and Jerome, who were discussing something and looking serious.
Eddie sauntered over to the door. "Coming?" he called back to Patricia.
She appeared a few seconds later with a piece of toast in her hand. "I needed to grab some breakfast first. I miss Trudy. She never rushed us out of the house. But you didn't get to meet her, did you, Eddie?"
"Nope," he said. "But I guess she was amazing, from how much you guys rave about her."
The rest of the way to school was spent by Patricia reminiscing about Trudy while Eddie listened. To his dismay, she didn't slip up once.
Morning classes weren't too eventful. At lunch, Eddie made his way to the student lounge. He smiled as he remembered when Patricia had kindly reminded him what the purpose of the room was.
Just then he heard voices. "So, do you like him, then?" He realized that it was Joy, who was walking in front of him with Patricia. "I know you hate American accents, but personally, I think they're cute."
Eddie's heart jolted as he realized that they were talking about him. "I don't know," Patricia was saying. "I think, maybe, I could, but—"
"What's up?" It had occurred to Eddie that if he greeted Patricia while she was in the middle of telling her friend about whether she liked him or not, she might get flustered enough to forget the bet.
Patricia gave a slight gasp as she whipped around. "What are you doing, creep?" She immediately clapped her hands over her mouth.
Eddie laughed in triumph. "I knew it! I knew you couldn't do it! I win!"
"That's not fair!" Patricia protested while Joy looked on curiously. "You snuck up on me!"
"Sorry, that won't work on me," Eddie said gleefully. "Walk back to the house with me after school so we can make a plan of attack."
Chuckling to himself, he plopped down on the couch, Patricia's complaints ringing in his ears.
Eddie checked his watch. 9:00 pm. She should be out of school by now. He opened his laptop and logged on to Skype. Sure enough, he had a video call request almost immediately.
He accepted it and a girl with curly blonde hair came up on the screen. "Eddie!" she squealed.
He forced a smile. "Hey, Monica." He had to endure ten minutes of her interrogating him about his life, and Patricia still wasn't there. Where are you? he wondered anxiously.
Then, to his joy, the door opened. "Hi, Eddie," Patricia said flirtatiously, just as they'd practiced. Eddie turned around. Patricia looked to his computer screen and pretended to be surprised. "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. I'll just—"
She made to leave, but Eddie quickly said, "No, it's okay, you can stay." He beckoned her over. "Patricia, this is Monica, a friend of mine from America. Monica, this is Patricia, my girlfriend."
"Hi, nice to meet you," said Patricia sweetly, reaching out to put her hand on top of Eddie's, which was lying on the desk.
Monica's face had gone all funny as she glanced at them holding hands. "Hi," she said, sounding like she had a head cold. "I have to go, sorry." And the screen went black.
Eddie high-fived Patricia. "You were awesome! Although at first I was afraid you weren't coming."
"I just decided to torture you a bit," Patricia said, grinning.
Eddie laughed. Then he hesitated a bit before saying cautiously, "I heard you talking to Joy this afternoon. You know, right before I won the bet."
The smile slid from Patricia's face. "Oh," she said, frowning and blushing at the same time. "Well, I know it sounded like we were talking about you, but we weren't, and I don't like the person we were talking about, anyway, and—"
But before she could defend herself further, Eddie's lips were on hers. Eddie sincerely hoped she was lying when she'd said she hadn't been talking about him, because if she wasn't then he was going to get in so much trouble for this. But she didn't attempt to fight him off, only deepening the kiss.
Suddenly they heard the door creak open. They broke apart and looked over to see Fabian standing there, bright red.
"Sorry," he squeaked. "I'll just…go." And he dashed out.
"Wow," Patricia commented. "That's the fastest I've ever seen him run."
Eddie smiled. "So, Yakker, if I asked you to go out with me for real, what would you say?"
"I suppose I'd have to say yes," she said thoughtfully, "seeing as the principal's daughter might need more evidence before she totally lays off you, and since me and Joy actually were talking about you. Slimeball."
A/N: I just decided to explore the principal's daughter plotline a little bit :) Reviews are appreciated!