Joe had never seen anything so beautiful.

A profound statement by all means could still not have been any more simple as he watched the most precious of all entities stroll down the hallway with God-given grace. It was a perfect movie moment in which Joe found his eyes locked upon a face so stunning that he felt his retinas would burn from the pressure. It was one of those things people always spoke of where you saw "the one" and time itself seemed to stop. Joe hadn't believed in such things before but there was no denying this feeling. What was it? A crush? Infatuation? No. It had to be something else.

"Hey Joe"

Joe had heard something but it would be plenty more 'hey Joes' before any of it would register. He was now watching beauty incarnate turn a corner and it felt as if his heart would burst if he let perfection walk away.

"Ow!"

There was no ignoring the sudden pain in his scalp no matter how far gone he may have been. Snapping his neck to the side, Joe glared daggers at the source of his discomfort.

"WHAT?"

"And that's how we get your attention," Kevin piped cheerily.

Joe dealt his older brother a look that screamed 'we are not amused' before turning his attention to the youngest of their famous trio, the ever serious Nick who seemed just as befuddled by Kevin's actions as he was. Though with Nick, who could really tell.

"What do you want, guys?" Joe asked irritably, mentally reminding himself not to rub the ache away lest he wind up messing with his perfectly styled hair. Hey, looking good didn't come easy.

Kevin and Nick seemed to share a look though it was far too quick for Joe to catch.

"You forgot about our band rehearsal, didn't you?"

It only took Joe a moment before he'd open his mouth because really, he wasn't one to think before talking and nor did he lose himself in such situations. Improv was his forte.

"Pft. No, I didn't forget. I was just...on my way to find you guys," he replied with a practiced matter-of-factness.

Nick's brow quirked in the barest hint of emotional shift. "Riiight. Which is why we found you here, staring blindly off into space."

"YEAH. What is that your...I forgot we had band rehearsal so I'm gonna look extra goofy in hopes of distracting Nick and Kevin from the fact that I did forget about the band rehearsal after school face?"

Joe's face contorted into a look of utter confusion as he attempted to think up a clever reply of some sort. "No I... What?"

"Never mind," Nick interrupted, "what were you staring at, anyways?"

"Not what, Nicholas. Who," Joe replied with a smirk they had come to recognize as the 'I just saw a really hot girl' smirk.

Nick's brows furrowed further as he stared down the hallway in which his brother had been gawking at mere moments ago. "Uh, the only person we saw walking down there was Lex."

"And Phil the janitor," Kevin added knowingly.

Joe rubbed a hand over his shaved chin, masking an oncoming grin as his eyes once again began to glaze over in remembrance of the angel he had just seen. "Lex, huh? What's that short for? Alexandra? Alexis?"

If not for his current nirvana-like state of mind, Joe might have been a little put off by Kevin's sudden giggling fit or Nick's condescending stare followed by a know-it-all head shake.

"More like Alexander."

Joe frowned, not really in the mood to deal with his brothers right now. "Yeah right, just Lex then."

Kevin managed to stop laughing long enough to set him straight. "He's not kidding. That's the new foreign exchange student from Finland."

Joe swallowed, suddenly not feeling so well. "Alexander?"

"Alexander," Nick repeated.

Joe would have gone ahead and had himself a good frowning session followed by a sad song and even sadder gallon of chocolate marshmallow ice cream to drown his sorrows but he couldn't let anyone know he had fallen for a guy. Not even his brothers.

"I don't blame you for the whole Alexis dealio," Kevin replied amiably whilst clamping a hand on Joe's sagging shoulder, "You wouldn't be the first kid in school to mistake him for a girl."

"Or deaf and mute," Nick replied dealing Kevin an odd look.

"I thought his earphones were a hearing aid," Kevin shot defensively.

It was at that moment where Joe's every move seemed to take a lifetime and he could almost witness the decaying of nearby flowers that rested against a classroom window.

Crushing on a guy. Why did these things always happen to him?

A hard pat on the back brought him back to reality as his brothers signaled for him to hurry along. At least they were headed off to do something he loved. Making music could take his mind off of this recent setback. Right?