A/N: Stop right there… I know what you're thinkin… I'm in waaaaaay over my head, starting this story when I've already got 3 unfinished ones. But you'll just have to role with it, I've not all that much time to update lately, but this was a request from a friend who has been reading some Rugrats/All grown up fics recently and they ask me to write this because there apparently aren't enough Phil/Lil, brother/sister fics… clearly I've made an impression on people and earned my style as family fics :)

Anyway… enough of my excuses, let's get on with it, shall we? :)

Title is a lyric (once again) from the song 'Hero' by 'Skillet'…I love this song :)

If you can't guess, this is set in the 'All grown up' series.

Chapter 1

Phil DeVille trudged across the muddy soccer field, towards his school, trying not to get bogged down in the dirt he usually loved so much. Rain poured down his face and drenched his messed up hair and torn clothes. His normally bright red sneakers were covered in mud, the white laces coated from end to end in the sticky, brown sludge.

He paused momentarily to look up at his destination: the grey, east wall of the school building. He sighed, nobody was around because it was raining… oh, and he was an hour late. The clouds continued to pour everything they had on the muddy teenagers head. Looking up at the sky, Phil saw nothing but dark clouds and falling water, until a flash of lightning streaked across the sky, followed closely behind by the rumble of thunder.

"Great, just great." Phil grimaced.

He returned his gaze to his feet as he attempted to pull one of them out of the mud, barely being able to lift his leg. His foot came free with a plop as the mud continued to slosh around his ankles. But as he tried the same with the other foot, his shoe came off in the mud. He had to put his sock-clad foot down on the mud in order to bend over to reach his shoe. He carefully reached down and grabbed hold of his stray sneaker and gave it a sharp tug.

It wasn't stuck as much as he initially thought, but it was too late for that now. He went tumbling backwards into another mud puddle.

He sat there for a moment, sighing again, not having the energy to get back up again. He looked around himself at the entire mud-covered field and remembered the good old days where he and his friends would have rolled around in the mud for hours. Unfortunately, they had all but grown out of that in the many years since their baby days.

Other than that, none of them had really changed much. Tommy was still the leader, Chuckie was still the cautious one, Angelica was still mean to everyone, he and Lil were still just as close as before and Dil was still annoying. All in all, still the same group of mismatched friends they were back when they had exciting adventures in diapers.

It was then that Phil was brought out of his reverie by the cold sensation of muddy water soaking into his clothes. He was, after all, sat in a puddle of water, that went part way up his back and down his thighs, and he was leaning on his totally submerged hands.

He started to get up, twisting as he did, so he was, once again, facing the old school building he was supposed to be in over an hour ago. He picked up his shoe in his assent but didn't bother to put it on, his sock was already dirty and he would only risk losing it again. He picked up his backpack which, fortunately, had landed just past the puddle, and was still moderately dry considering the pouring rain.

He looked up at the sky one last time, letting the rain wash over his mud-splattered face, before continuing his slow trudge toward the school.

By the time he got there, the clock in the school hall told him that he was over an hour and a half late. He considered skipping the rest of his class to change and get clean and dry. Until he realized, today was not gym day, so he had nothing to change into. Deciding that a warm classroom would be better than the freezing, damp, slightly sweat-smelling corridors of the school, he headed toward his lesson, hoping that he would be too late to take part in whatever activities they might be doing.

As he arrived at the door to his chemistry class, he could see the warm glow of the classroom penetrating the darkness of the corridor, reaching for the handle, he tried to slip in silently whilst everyone inside bustled about packing equipment away. He assumed they had just finished doing a practical, which didn't help his mood because that was the only part of chemistry he really liked and they didn't do it often.

People started to sit down in their respective seats. He could see his seat from the door and figured he could get there before everyone finished sitting down. As he opened the door it creaked louder than a falling tree in a silent forest.

Damn it! He mentally cursed as everyone turned to look at him coming in. He forced a sheepish smile as at least 20 pairs of eyes watched the mud-covered boy make his way to his seat. As he neared his seat his eyes met their exact duplicates in the form of his twin sister Lil. But whereas his contained some slight embarrassment, hers contained a form of concern and worry, mixed with a smidgen of relief.

Phil quickly sat down in an attempt to escape the stares of his classmates. A booming voice suddenly sounded above the silence.

"Alright students, get that equipment packed away quickly or you can all be late to break!" The teacher shouted, once he too had stopped staring at Phil.

The teacher made his way over to Phil's desk. Upon arriving, he leant on it with one hand. It creaked slightly under his weight.

"Honestly Mr DeVille, I really don't understand why you bothered turning up to my lesson at all, and especially looking like that!" He commented in a slightly caring way, masked by his tough teacher façade.

"Sorry sir." Phil whispered, barely audible.

The teacher just shook his head and made his way back to the board at the front.

Lil was sat next to her brother and leant over to talk to him, before she was interrupted by the teacher's bellowing once again.

"Take your seats students, your homework will be to write up your results from today's experiment. Miss DeVille, please bring Philip up to speed with our investigation."

"Yes sir." Lil replied.

Phil hated it when anyone other than Lil or his mom called him Philip… Well, actually, he hated it when his mom did it as well, because it usually meant he was in trouble. But he was in no mood to argue, plus the whole teacher student formality crap would mean he would be fighting a losing battle.

"Then you are all dismissed!" The teacher shouted.

As each and every student began to gather his or her belongings and head out the door, Phil stood up, but Lil grabbed his arm and Tommy came up in front of him.

"What happened dude?" He asked.

"Oh, nothin, I just got up late and had to cut across the soccer field."

Big mistake!

"No you didn't," Lil's voice interrupted from behind him, "you left just before me, but went down Oak Avenue instead of our normal route!"

Uh oh… the only downside to having a twin… or at least the only one Phil could think of.

"Uh… yeah… I got up late-er than I was meant to, I wanted to take a leisurely morning stroll." Phil lied through gritted teeth.

He was desperately hoping they would buy his bull, but he doubted it, neither of them were thick.

They both looked at one another skeptically, but just decided to drop it for now. Phil knew they would both be trying to find out what really happened, using separate and joined attempts to work it into conversation.

At least he knew they were both such good friends of his that they cared enough to not listen to him when he was talking out his ass…

…but he also wasn't about to give up a secret that easily…

A/N: Ooh, suspense what could it be? Who knows? But the brother/sister fluff will start shortly… cause that's just the kind of loving caring twins they are :)

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