"Leper!" A voice called from behind me. I spun around and saw Brinker approaching me. "Gene had told me you were going hiking today and I was wondering if I could tag along." He asked me. Why he wanted to hang out with me at all was unknown to me but if he really wanted to, I'd let him. It wouldn't be too bad with company.

"Sure, you can come with Brinker." I told him, smiling. He returned the smile and thanked me.

We ventured into the deep thicket of the forest along a path that had been made before we even came to this school. Everything was beautiful. The vibrance of the color green in the leaves was enthralling and the bugs that inhabited everything were so interesting. I looked back to Brinker to see if he was okay and saw that he was admiring the sights as well. He struck me as someone who would never give a second glance at anything nature related and would rather be doing paperwork then walking around in a forest. Seeing him like this was weird but it made me smile regardless because I had someone to go with me. When Brinker caught my stare, I looked back at the trail ahead.

We got to the edge of a clearing when we spotted a deer. It was a young doe. I gazed at it in awe; it was so elegant. Quietly, I took out my sketchbook from my backpack and I sat down slowly, trying not to rouse the young deer. I grabbed a pencil as well and started my sketch. Since I have been sketching things with only a small time alotted, I had the basics of the doe in front of me down on the paper within 2 minutes. I had just started on the details when suddenly there was a snap of a twig from behind me, a gulp, and then the sound of the grass swishing in front of us. The deer was scared off. I looked behind and Brinker blushed. "S-sorry, I didn't mean to step on that. I tried to get a better look at your sketch." He said timidly. I sighed then smiled.

"It's okay, here, you can look at it now." I told him, handing him the sketchbook. He took it into his hands and stared at it in awe.

"It looks amazing!" He complimented. I got up from my spot and stood next to Brinker.

"Thanks but I didn't even get to the details. Personally, I think it looks horrible." I said, disappointed at my sketch. He looked at me disbelievingly.

"It doesn't look horrible Leper. You really should take pride in your work because it is absolutely astonishing! I love how you put so much detail into the sketch so far. You even made the ear have a cut in it like the deer had."

"But the cut looks like someone just bit into it and the actual one that the deer had was more triangular."

Brinker rolled his eyes at that. "Whatever, it's still really good," he handed the sketchbook back to me, "I think it's flawless."

"But if you were comparing it to the doe then there would be so many differences."

"It's not like you were taking a picture, Lep. But, of course, with that sketch, it kinda does."

"Don't patronize the artwork."

"It's not my fault it's so good, it's yours."

I rolled my eyes and began putting my sketchbook back in my backback. I had just zipped it up when Brinker patted my shoulder. I looked up and saw that he was pointing to the clearing. I turned my attention and almost gasped. There was a stag, staring straight at us, 16 points. Either we were in a bit of danger or the deer just wanted to be drawn. "Back up into the underbrush slowly brinker, no sudden movements." I whispered. He did as I had told him to and just as we were about to get out of sight, I looked behind and saw the stag just casually eating the grass.

"Hey, Lep, it seems like it feels no threat, why don't you draw it?" Brinker asked lowly. I looked to him then the deer then to my backpack. Despite what I would normally do in this situation, I unzipped my backpack and once again took out my sketchbook and pencil. I sat down facing the stag and began to sketch it.

The outcome was awesome. It was exactly as I wanted it. Nothing seemed out of place, most of the details, if not all, were there. I felt accomplished. Looking back up, I noticed that the deer had left in the thirty seconds it had taken me to admire my art. It was as though that deer was actually there just for me to draw it. I laughed silently then looked up to see Brinker gaping over my shoulder. "Wow." Was all he could manage to say. I giggled a bit at the reaction then handed the sketchbook to my friend. I started to stand up when all of a sudden there was a loud tear. Brinker looked down at me and I nervously looked to my side.

My shirt had caught onto a brach and was now ripped. The tear was rather large and came from halfway up the shirt to all the way to the bottom. I inspected it then sighed. I pulled the shirt up over my head then put it in my backpack. No use wearing a seriously torn shirt. Suddenly, the sketchbook was set on my backpack and I looked to Brinker. He was unzipping his jacket. He handed it to me and said, "here, I don't need you walking around half naked where the wildlife will eat you up. Who knows what kind of insects are living in this forest." I nodded and then put his jacket on. Brinker's jacket smelled like, well, Brinker. I hadn't noticed before that he kinda actually smelled like a grape lollipop. Weird thing for anyone to smell like, I know, but I actually liked it. I looked down to my backpack where I noticed that my sketchbook was gone and back into the posession of Brinker who still hadn't thought of a better thing to say about it other than 'wow.'

I decided to pull a bottle of water from my bag as Brinker was looking over the drawing. I unscrewed the cap then took a sip of it. It was still as cold as it was when I had put it in my backpack and that was good. Usually, it'd be all warm and wet from being in my backpack. Ah, good luck is nice, but I wonder why I'm having so much of it today. I looked to Brinker; maybe he was my good luck charm. I smiled then put the cap back on the bottle. I started slipping it back in my backpack when Brinker made me stop. "Leper, would it be alright if I take a sip of your water?" He asked, shyly.

"Of course not," I said with sarcasm as I pulled it out of the bag, "why would I let you take a sip." I handed the bottle to him and he smiled.

"Thanks." He said, taking it into his hands. He looked at his hands, one holding the water bottle and the other holding the sketchbook, and sighed. "Could you please open it, I'd hate to get any part of your sketchbook wet."

"Sure." I said, taking the bottle back. Once again, I took of the cap then gave it back to my friend. He took a sip, as he had asked, and handed back to me. I screwed on the cap then set it into my bag, zipping it up after. I slung the strap of the backpack over my shoulder and Brinker looked at me.

"Sorry, do you want your sketchbook back?"

"No, you can hold onto it right now, in case you see something else I can sketch." I said with a smile. Brinker beamed back at me. He closed the sketchbook and then held it close to his chest.

"I don't want to ruin it at all so it'll stay close to me." Brinker assured me. I nodded.

We trodded deeper into the forest. We encountered an olive-colored queen snake, in which Brinker almost fell back when he almost stepped on it, and a group of different colored poison dart frogs that almost made Brinker had a heart attack as well when one of them managed to jump on his shirt. It took alot of talking to get him to stay still and not make the frog feel threatened. Luckily, it was only his shirt that it landed on and it wasn't going to be as bad if it was spooked but still, I had to calm him down. I had cracked a joke when it was on him, asking if he would want me to draw the frog when it was on him but that only earned me a punch on the arm when the frog decided to just jump back onto the large leaf whence it came from.

We took a break near a brooke and decided to have lunch. Luckily, I had packed more food than I usually do today, for some odd reason, and Brinker was able to eat as well. We sat on logs opposite to each other and enjoyed our lunch, having a friendly chat together, something that I usually never have when I go out hiking.

"Does Gene or Phineas ever accompany you on your hikes?" Brinker asked after swallowing a chip. I shook my head.

"No, usually no one ever wants to go with." I admitted.

"Well, I like nature too but I always have work to do. If I didn't have any work, you'd have yourself a hiking buddy every day pal." Brinker said, grinning.

"It's nice having a person go with me . . . I always thought that if someone went with me, they'd slow me down and they'd complain the whole time but so far, you've just brought me good luck and have been amused with everything I have, not once complaining."

"If you want complaining, then I can because my feet hurt a bit."

I rolled my eyes. "A little complaining won't get me ticked off, I mean excessive whining like 'I'm tired' or 'When will this hike be over?'" I told him, saying the quotes in a nasally, annoying voice. Brinker started laughing.

"Well, if it was up to me, I'd never want this hike to be over," He stated, "It's nice to get away from it all, doing something that's fun and relaxing. Plus, I'm doing this with a friend so it's an added bonus." I felt a small blush go to my cheeks. I didn't know how much Brinker and I had in common. I felt happy knowing that someone had just as much interest with the world around us as me. I didn't feel alone. "You okay?" He asked. I came back from my thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said.

"Okay, you were looking a bit red there." he informed me. Was I blushing that much?

I almost gasped. Is it happening to me? Alot of the guys at Devon have came 'out of the closet' lately. Even Phineas and Gene did. That made me think: Am I gay? Do I like Brinker . . . like that? I closed my eyes and dispelled the thoughts. I don't need to be thinking about that, this outing is only between friends and this and other outings with Brinker will forever stay events between only friends.

I opened my eyes and Brinker wasn't staring at me weirdly this time. He was looking into the water besides us, admiring it.

I liked the way Brinker's eyes looked whenever he was admiring something. They were always soft and caring. Usually, his eyes would be very . . . attentive, like someone was going to ask him a question about a school subject or like someone was always making sure he was paying attention. It was so formal and personally, I didn't like that. I liked the way his eyes were now.

My eyes went down to his nose. It was perfectly rounded at the point. It wasn't too round, too stout, too small, or too big. It was perfect. His nostrils weren't large either and they went with the shape of his nose. I rolled my eyes. I'm admiring someone's nose. That's something not many people usually do.

I now looked to his lips. They were a lovely shade of pink and with the sides curled up ever so slightly, it looked kinda cute. I suddenly felt the need to feel those lips. Were they soft or were they hard? Were they as smooth as they looked? Would it feel good to have another pair of lips pressed against them? I stopped myself there and shook my head. I don't want to think like that. Brinker's my friend for heaven's sake! No person should ever think of their friend like that, ever!

I started thinking about Phineas and Gene. They were friends, weren't they? They got together, didn't they? I hesitated to ask myself this question but I did anyways. Why can't I? I stared down at the ground pondering the question.

A shriek stopped my thoughts and I looked up to see Brinker gone. I turned around and saw him cowering behind me. "What's wrong?"

"S-snake again!!" He said, shaking. I looked back to the log and almost got as scared as Brinker. It was a large cottonmouth snake that had half of it's body emerged in the water. It was licking it's lips luciously as it looked to its lunch; us. Suddenly its mouth was open wide and that was a sign to get our butts out of there.

"C'mon Brinker." I said, jumping over my log, the back pack on my back, and grabbed his wrist. I pulled him away from the stream and into the forrest. I didn't look back to see if the snake was following us, I just ran with Brinker's wrist firmly in my hand, tugging him along, forcing him to run at the same speed. We ran for a few minutes before stopping to catch out breath. I let go of Brinker's wrist and we both leaned against one of the trees, breathing heavily.

When we caught our breaths, Brinker said, "That was one huge snake."

"It was! I've never seen one as big as that! You seem like a snake magnet Brinker." I said. Brinker giggled.

"Thanks," he rolled his eyes, "Hey, Lep, I want a sketch of that snake, can you go get it for me?" Now it was my turn to punch him in the arm. Unfortunately, I was still a bit winded so my punch came out like a five year old girl had tried punching their best friend in the whole wide world. Brinker burst out into a fit of laughter. Feeling stupid, I laughed along with him. We looked at each other and smiled.

"You want to end out expidition now before you get eaten by a snake?" I asked him. Brinker looked up and thought.

"Sure, we can go tell Phineas and Gene about the snake." He replied. I nodded my head with interest then we both stopped leaning against the tree and started heading out of the forest.

We got back to the dorms and hour later. We went into Gene's and Phineas's room and told them all about our adventure. Well, Brinker told them everything and I just passed out on the bed, Gene's bed might I add. I hadn't realized how tired I was.

I awoke later and saw that Brinker was sleeping next to me. My head was resting against his back. I backed away from him on the bed a bit, my face flushed. I quietly sat up and saw that Phineas and Gene were on the bed next to us. They were cuddled up together and were taking a nap as well. Gene looked so comfortable in Finny's arms. I looked to Brinker and saw that he was sleeping peacefully. When Brinker slept, he looked kinda . . . cute. I shook my head vigorously. I have to stop thinking like this!

I laid back down, facing the wall instead of Brinker, deciding to just go back to sleep. There was a muttering of incoherent words from behind me followed by a rustling showing that Brinker was moving around. I didn't turn to look, just in case if he had turned on his other side. I shut my eyes again until an arm went around my waist. I was blushing like crazy. Brinker's arm was around me. Me. I wanted to push it off to releif some of the pressure that was building up inside of me but I knew if I did, it'd wake Brinker up and I didn't want to disturb his peace.

I shifted uneasily in the bed. I exhaled then let myself relax. I felt more comfortable when I did that. Unexpectedly, Brinker nuzzled his nose into my hair. Was he awake?! Was he still asleep yet fantasizing cuddling up with someone else?! If so, who?! Who has stolen his heart?! I wanted to shake my head. The thoughts were coming back. Just that movement ended up making me feel a bit jealous. I'm jumping to conclusions; conclusions that I shouldn't be jumping to.

His knee brushed up against the back of my leg and I almost jumped. I am very sensitive there!

Suddenly, his arm retreated and he turned on his other side. I sighed in relief.

After that, I fell asleep easily, not thinking if Brinker had been asleep or awake.

Everyone was awake at 4:30. We stayed in the room for a half an hour until we headed down to the cafeteria. Today's dinner was horrible. They made spagetti. Yuck. I never really managed to keep that food down. It was so gross, I hate it. I'd rather eat anything but spagetti. Despite the fact that it was horrid, I got it anyways, intending to just give it to someone else, keeping only the milk and roll that came with it.

I sat down at the table across from Brinker and next to Gene. A few minutes after sitting, Gene turned to me and asked, "Finny knows you don't like spagetti so he wanted to know if he could have yours." I nodded with a smile and then slid my tray down to Finny.

"Thanks Leper!" He thanked me.

"No problem."

I took a bite of my roll. "Is that all you're going to eat?" Brinker asked me. I looked up at him, my cheeks were definitly a bit pink.

"Yeah, this was the only thing up there to buy that I'd actually eat." I told him.

"Oh. I didn't know you didn't like spagetti."

I shook my head with a look of disgust. "Spagetti is gross!"

"Oh the contrary Leper, Spagetti is awesome!" Finny announced. He was eavesdropping on our conversation.

"Hey Finny, don't talk with food in your mouth, your voice was all muffled." Brinker pointed out.

"Aey-uh!" Finny called out. Gene began laughing, Brinker rolled his eyes and I smiled.

"Guys, I lost my trumpet!" Chet said worriedly.

"Chet, you didn't bring you trumpet." Brinker pointed out.

". . . oh yeah. Sorry to worry everyone! False alarm!"

Once again, Brinker rolled his eyes.

Ten minutes later, Brinker got up from the table and threw his tray away. He left the cafeteria after that. Brownie, the kid sitting diagonal from me stared at the door and then at the table, his face looking a bit more relaxed now that the so called 'evil dictator' was gone. Leper didnt' understand, Brinker was never mean to him. Ever. Was he just an exception?

I threw out my empty milk carton and went back to my seat. I folded my arms then rested my head on them. I inhaled the sent from the jacket and smiled. "Is that B-Brinker's Jacket?" Brownie asked. I picked up my head, blushing.

"Y-yeah."

"Really? He'd never lend any of his clothes to anyone, not even if you were the president!" Brownie informed me.

Yet another thing that is an exception for me. Unless it wasn't. In that case, Brinker's pissed and wants his jacket back. I stood up and said goodbye to Brinker's roommate.

When I got back into the building and was standing in front of Brinker's room, I hesitated. I was wondering whether or not to disturb him because he had just spent the whole day with me and he probably had alot of things to do. I turned when suddenly the door opened behind me. I pivoted back and came face to face with Brinker. "Oh, Leper. What do you want?" Brinker asked kindly.

"Your jacket . . . I wanted to give you back your jacket." I told him. Brinker smiled.

"You can borrow it longer if you want. I don't really wear that jacket often." Brinker informed me. I shook my head.

"No, you can have it back now." I told him, beginning to take the jacket off. He stopped me when I was half way done with pulling down the zipper. I look at him confusedly.

"Why don't you go put on a shirt first before you hand it to me."

"Why?"

"Because."

"That isn't a sufficient reason."

"I know," Brinker agreed, "but still, do it."

I think that he just didn't want to see me shirtless. Either he was repulsed by it or attracted to my body. I could feel my cheeks start to flush. Brinker saw too and blushed a bit.

What was going on?

I pursed my lips for a bit then sighed. To hell with it, I want to know.

"Brinker, why am I an exception to everyone here. Brownie told me you'd never lend your clothes to anyone, not even if the person was the president and yet you lend me your jacket and even tell me I can borrow it longer when I go to return it to you. You're an ass to everyone else and yet you're so kind to me. Plus, earlier--"

"I'm not very good at keeping it hidden, am I, Leper?" Brinker laughed, his eyes closed. They opened and looked straight at me. This stare was different than when he was admiring the water earlier. They had another emotion mixed up in them. Suddenly, everything clicked into place and everything made sense.

When everything made sense, my thoughts were confirmed when Brinker pulled me close and kissed me. My eyes were wide but my eyelids slowly dropped as I enjoyed the kiss.

I hadn't really finished describing Brinker's lips but now I realize that you couldn't explain them. They felt so good that you just couldn't describe them.

After our lips pulled away from each other, Brinker pulled me into his room and closed the door. I backed up against the door and his hands cupped my cheeks. He leaned down then began kissing me more intensly than before. I moved my lips against his and enjoyed every second of it.

I stared into his eyes and he stared into mine. "I'll take that jacket now." He said, moving one of his hands to the zipper of the jacket. I smirked.

"No you won't because now it's mine." I said, gently pushing his hand off of the zipper and zipping the jacket up a bit more. Brinker smiled then kissed me briefly.

"Well the other guys are getting back from lunch, so if you want you can go hang out with Phineas and Gene. Unless you'd rather stay with me."

"What will you be doing?"

"I have to read the section for my history class."

"Then I'll read for you."

Brinker smiled. "Of course you will."

And I did read with him. Brownie got back into the room and thought it was weird to see Brinker sitting down in one of the chairs and me in his lap with a book in my hands, reading it out loud. I didn't care how much it disturbed him.

After reading it, I had to ask. "Hey Brinker, when's the next time we can go hiking?" I asked, bending my neck back to look up at him. His hands went to the sides of my face, his thumbs rubbing my jaw.

"Tomorrow if you want." He said before kissing my forehead. I smiled warmly and then relaxed in his arms.