'I like you.' 'What?' 'I like you.' 'What?' 'I said I like you!' 'I know. I just like hearing you say it.'

"Come on, just admit it Princess! We all know it's true!" Turning red from anger, the tanned brunette turns around, her onyx eyes glaring into teal blue ones. Suddenly, she doesn't see the point of denying anymore.

"Fine. I like you." Blue eyes widen in shock.

"What?"

"I like you."

"What?"

"For god's sakes, Duncan! I said I like you!"

"I know. I just like hearing you say it." With that, Duncan turns and leaves, leaving behind a smiling and blushing Courtney.

'Lover. Friend. There's a fine, fine line.'

"I do not like her!" A thirteen year old punk exclaims to his best friend Geoff. "She's my friend." The blonde haired blue eyed boy just smirks, as the punk rolls his eyes.

"As my mom always says." Geoff starts. "There's a fine line between love and friendship."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know. I just thought it'd make me seem smart." There's a long silence. "You so totally like her."

'Don't make someone a priority if they only make you an option.'

Every time. Every stinking time! She thinks, tearing down all the pictures of her and Justin. She was good at falling for the wrong person. She always made them priorities, when it was obvious she was just an option. When she's done, she drops onto her bed, exhausted. A noise from her computer makes her sit up, and walk over. She scowls when she sees it's a message from Duncan. She smiles, however, after she reads the message.

'Hey, Princess. Heard about you and Justin. I'd say sorry, but I'm really not. Any time you want me to bash his pretty little face in though, just call me. I'll be waiting. Duncan"

'You know what makes letting go of a crush so hard? The fear that the moment you do, they'll catch on.'

"Forget about her! She isn't going to give in Duncan. You've been trying for years. She just sees you as a friend, and there are plenty of other girls out there just waiting for you to get over your crush on Courtney and fall for them." Geoff's logic makes sense, which is a rarity. But the blue eyed, black haired punk can't help but fear as he's staring at the gorgeous brunette on the other side of the class, that if he let's go of his crush on her, she'll figure it out, and he'll have lost the greatest thing to ever enter his life.

'Boyfriend? No thanks. Oh, why you ask? It's simple really. You see, the word boyfriend is really two words disguised as one that tricks you. It's actually friend attached to boy. Friend is a great thing. Boy on the other hand, well, you know the story.'

"Just ask him out, already, Courtney!" The brunette chews on her lip, staring at her best guy friend, then shakes her head. "Why not? You're in love with him, everyone but him can see it, just go already." Again, she shakes her head no. "Why not!"

"Because, that would make him my boyfriend, which, despite the correct way you spell it, is two words, not one. Friend, which is a great thing, and boy. And you already know how those stories go."

'You know you're in love when you're actually comparing the letters in your name.'

Two mothers, one with blonde hair and an energetic eight year old little boy, and one brunette, with an eight year old daughter who is the spitting image of her, watch as their children play. He's trying to make a crown for the girl he calls princess, refusing to let her see, while she writes their names together, comparing whether or not they are compatible the way her friend Bridgette taught her.

The mothers look at each other and smile, knowing that their children will be growing old together, and that it's no longer a question of if, it's a question of when.

'Love is stupid. But we don't love with our brains, do we?'

"Why not?"

"Because, love is stupid."

"Yes, but we don't love with our brains, now, do we smarty pants?" An eleven year old, blonde haired girl says, walking away, leaving her brunette friend on the swings to think about what she'd just said.

'I love you.'
...^hope something eats you.

An angry punk stood outside a huge white mansion, wooden bat in one hand, carton of eggs in the other. He knew he had promised Court he wouldn't do anything drastic, but he couldn't help himself. No one hurt Courtney. No one.

Quietly, he sneaks up the male model's driveway, and is about to smash his very expensive car, when something written on the driveway catches his eye. He turns to read it and smirks, all plans to destroy and egg gone. Because there on the driveway, in Courtney's beautiful writing, are the words I love you, with love crossed out, and an arrow pointing up to it, with the words I hope something eats. It was clear she didn't need him. He let the eggs drop, and was about to turn away, when he stopped himself. What was a couple of dents in the car anyway?

'You'll never know how beautiful you make me feel.'

A five year old little girl is sitting on the pavement, crying because she lost her doll. A boy of the same age who she's never talked to before, sees her, then runs away from his brothers to go see what's wrong. Before going over, he picks a dandelion. Then he walks the couple of feet over to the girl and holds out the flower for her.

"Here. This is for you." He says. She looks up and sniffs. Their eyes meet. "You're really pretty. You should smile." The little boy says, before giving her the flower, and running back to his two bug eyed brothers with their knowing grins.

"Who was that, Duncan." The oldest one asks. Duncan shrugs.

"I don't know." He looks back at the girl who is smiling at the flower, neither one of them knowing the chain reaction this one little even will create.

Nine years later, the little girl, who isn't so little anymore, is thinking back to that one day. She sneaks a look at the boy playing one of his stupid video games beside her and smiles. Because still to this day, he'll never know how beautiful he can make her feel.

'Love is like Marco-Polo. You hear it calling to you, but when you get close, it goes away.'

"Why? Why does love hate me so much? Why!" A frustrated brunette yells, pacing back and forth while her best friend lays on her the girls bed. "It's always right there, right in my reach, but as soon as I go to grab it, it's gone! Like, poof! It vanishes! It's like, it's like playing Marco-Polo!" As she screams out the last part, she collapses onto her bed. Her blonde friend sits up, grabs a picture, and wraps an arm around the fuming girl.

"Maybe love doesn't hate you. Maybe it's not avoiding you. Maybe it's trying to tell you that you're meant to love someone else. Maybe." Here she gives the picture over, of two twelve year old covered in dirt smiling hugely at the camera. "You aren't looking at the person who's right in front of you."

'The one guy that deserves you is the one that thinks he doesn't.'

"So you and Courtney, huh?" A tall boy by the name of DJ asks.

"No. Not me and Courtney. She doesn't like me that way. And I don't blame her. I mean, she's so smart, and beautiful, and funny, and independent. She knows what she wants, and is prepared to fight for it. I'm just the stupid idiot punk kid, who's going nowhere in life, and has just like in every cliché, fallen for his best friend, who will never love him back. She's amazing, and I don't deserve her as a friend, let alone anything more."

'Trees would like to kill me for all the paper I've wasted doodling hearts around your name.'

'Duncan + Courtney'. It's scribbled everywhere in my binder on pages that I should be using for important things like homework and notes. But I just can't stop myself from writing it on all the empty sheets of paper I have. I hear someone coming in my direction, and I quickly crumple up the piece of paper and begin working. After I'm finished, I realize I have spare time, and I idly begin the whole doodling process over again, on any sheet of paper I can find. I bet trees would really love to kill me right about now.

'And people wonder why I like going to school.'

"Seriously Duncan! You don't try in class, you don't pay attention, you don't work, and you're extremely rude to all your teachers!" The principal yells at him. He takes a deep breath. "There's one thing no one understands though. Why do you always make an effort, to get to class on time, every single day?" The teen just smirks, and the principal gives up, sending the junior delinquent back to class.

On his way back, the punk tries to figure out how the teachers and the principals haven't put two and two together yet. It's so obvious, it's staring them right in the face. The one thing all his classes have in common. They all have Courtney.

'My head is saying who cares. But my heart is saying you do stupid.'

Listened. That's what I should've done when DJ told me to ask her. Now I'm stuck at this stupid dance, watching the girl of my dreams dance with some little girly guy. I hold back anger when I see him lean down and kiss her, and I hold back tears when I see her kissing him back. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. I force myself to think who cares, as I go find some other girl to dance with. Who cares if she likes him. Who cares if that could've been me. Who cares if I was right in saying she doesn't like me. The song finishes, and I leave the dance, not able to take it anymore. As I'm leaving, I catch Courtney smiling up at Justin as if he's the best thing in the world. But who cares? The answer to that is simple.

I do.

'I'm not a jealous person. I'm just a girl who would love to punch every other girl that gives you a second look.'

I was not a jealous person. Not a bit. I didn't care if someone had something I had. It didn't bother me in the slightest. But ever since I'd told Duncan I'd liked him, something had changed. It bothered me when he flirted with other girls. I cared when girls gave him second looks. I hated it when they flirted with him, trying to him to be with them. I wasn't jealous though. I just wanted to punch every single one of them in the face, so that everyone would know he was mine.

'She tells herself to wait, because Cinderella didn't find her prince charming until The End.'

"I can't believe him!" A day. One stupid day. That's all it took. A fuming brunette glares at the happy couple parading down the hall. Only yesterday had he broken up with her. Only last night had she graffitied his driveway. Now here he was, a smile on his face, and a slut on his arm. She grinds her teeth. But she doesn't get revenge. She won't get revenge. He was never the one. It' s so obvious now. So she forces herself to wait. Because even Cinderella didn't find her prince charming until The End.

'You don't love someone because they're beautiful. They're beautiful because you love them.'

Grade five. That's when he first noticed how beautiful she was. With her tan skin, her onyx eyes, her long, shiny brown hair, her cute little freckles. Everything about her just screamed beautiful. Grade five is also when he fell in love with her. He tried his hardest not to though. It wasn't right to love someone just for their looks. It wasn't until grade six where he realized he didn't love her because she was beautiful. She was beautiful because he loved her.

'So there's this boy. And I would tell you everything about him, but then you just might fall in love with him too.'

"Oh, Courtney, you are so lucky! You're dating like, the hottest guy ever!" The girl heard Lindsay squeal. She put on a fake smile.

"Yeah. I'm so lucky." Lindsay smiled at her knowingly.

"Okay. Who is it?"

"Who is who?"

"The guy you're in love with. And don't say Justin, I know it's not him. So, is there a guy?" Courtney smiles.

"There is a guy." She says, and Lindsay's eyes light up at being trusted. "And I'd tell you everything about him, but I can't." Courtney holds back a laugh at Lindsay's expression. "If I told you anything, you might just fall in love with him too." Lindsay smiles.

"Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me. Now, what am I supposed to do with this two again?"

'I ran up the door, and closed the stairs. Said my pajamas, and put on my prayers. Turned off the bed, and hopped into the light. All because you kissed me good night.'

Dizzy, happy, ecstatic, butterflies, amazed. All these things they both feel after their date when he kissed her goodnight. She smiles up at him, looking at him like he's her world. He smiles back, knowing she's his. They stay like that for the longest of time, and the moment is only broken when he leans in and kisses her again.

'Love. When you walk all the way across the class to sharpen your pencil in order to see him, then realize it's a mechanical one.'

She stands up during the middle of class, after finally having a good enough excuse to walk over there. When she gets to the pencil sharpener, she catches his eye, as he's smirking and holding back laughter. It's then she realizes she has a mechanical pencil. He's never going to let her live this one down.

'I don't want him to be perfect. I want him to laugh at me, trip me, and then help me back up. Pick me up and throw me in the pool. Make me watch football hours. Take me to the arcade and beat me at air hockey. Love me for the person I am.'

He's not perfect, and they both know it. Even now that they're dating, after all the little mishaps and mistakes. The good times and the bad. Through the friendship that everyone knew would turn into something more, and that deep down, they knew was more too. He still trips her in the hallways, and laughs, leaving her to fend for herself. He'll pick her up and throw her in the pool, clothes and all. He drags her to all his practices and all his games, and makes sure she stays there and watches them. Their dates are usually spent in an arcade, him beating her at every game. But he loves her for who she is, and she knows that will never, ever change. And she's glad, because she loves him to. And she wouldn't have it any other way.

fin.

.'.'.
AN: So, yeah, I thought it would fit better if I put my AN at the bottom this time. Yes, I'm aware there's plenty of stories out there like this, but I wanted to give it a shot, and I have a whole bunch of icons with quotes, so, ta-da!
There is no particular order to them.
So this one is Duncan and Courtney. I've been missing the fluff. What I want to do, but it doesn't mean I will, is do one like these for the five other original couples who were more or less destroyed by TDA and TDWT. Thoughts on this?

And lastly, I want to know, which one was your favorite? Which one was your least favorite? Why or why not? I really do want to know.

R&R!

~bella :)