By the time the bus had stopped at our stop, the rain was coming down in white sheets. Ashton, Gallipoli and I filed out of our seat, followed by Riley and Joe. It figures; whenever Kevin isn't here, Joe usually goes to Riley's. It was nice and all, but why did he always have to hang out at my neighbor's house?

"Gallipoli," Riley called just as his Vans hit the damp sidewalk. Gall rolled her eyes opened her umbrella.

"Yes, Johnson?" she replied as Ash and myself ducked under the fluorescent pink cover.

"Uh, can we—" Riley's question was cut short by the bus; the yellow limo, as we like to call it, pulled forward, sending a wave of muddy water on the backs of Riley and Joe.

I laughed. What can I say; when two soaking wet boys get splashed by gutter water, I find it funny.

"Do you guys want to come over?" Gall asked, nodding in the direction of our house. I snorted; they were only going to the house next-door, why would they want to stop one house before their destination?

Riley read my mind; "I only live next door," he said, taking the umbrella out of Gall's hand. Ash flipped her hood up and Gall lifted her backpack to protect herself from the rain. I personally didn't care.

"Yeah, but you'll get even more wet if you walk the extra ten feet," she retorted, as if it were obvious. "Besides, we were going to watch the storm from our window. And we know how much you like storm watching,"

Riley smiled. Since we were kids we've always loved sitting on our porches and watching the thunderstorms, given that they weren't anywhere close to us. Then we got smart and started watching from the bay window in our bedroom; with the lights off and the doors shut, it looks really cool.

"I'm up, then."

Gallipoli looked over at Joe, "You too Jonas, or are you just going to sit alone in the Johnson residence?" she smirked.

Joe shook his head, "I'll come," he agreed.

I rolled my eyes. Great.

Our corner house was just in sight when a giant Cadillac came speeding down the street, tossing more gutter water onto our already-soaked heads.

"Oh my God!" I shouted, shaking the water droplets off my head. "Slow down, speed demon!" I shouted. Gallipoli frowned. Ashton stomped all the way up our front porch. And now it was Riley's turn to laugh.

I just rolled my eyes at him and stuck out my tongue. We've lived next to the Johnson's since before Ashton was born, so Riley knew how much of a temper us Riley-Adams's come with. He's seen my good side, my bad side, and even the back side of my hand. Especially when he calls us the "Me-Adams."

When we stepped through the front door, I couldn't find Ashton.

"Towels, towels, come get your towels! I've got fluffy towels, beach towels, bath towels, and holy towels! Take your pick while supplies last!"

I looked up from where the four of us stood in the linoleum corner in front of our door to see Ashton coming out of our laundry room carrying a stack of towels.

"Barbie for Gall," she tossed an old, fading, thin towel to Gallipoli. "Pixie Hallow for me," she dropped a large beach towel at her feet; "Sharks for Mercy Dazey," I caught me shark clad towel that I got from Target. When I was little I had a thing for sharks, then I became very afraid of them. So now as a joke, my mom gets me a shark themed present every time she goes somewhere for work or for a holiday. I find it funny.

"And these for you two," Ash handed Joe and Riley two of our mint green bath towels.

Immediately everyone began drying their hair, except for Ashton, who still had to undo her French braids.

"Gall!" she cried, struggling to take out the clingy hair braids. Gallipoli snorted and tied her hair up in a towel wrap.

"Hold still." She grunted, separating each section from the braids. I walked into the kitchen and opened multiple cupboard doors in search of our popcorn tins and a bowl.

"So, I take you guys are hectic when it rains?"

I turned around to see Joe leaning on our kitchen island, smiling. I shrugged as an answer. "Only if we have hair emergencies," I replied. I didn't know how to talk to someone when my clothes were sticking to my soaking wet body. So I did the next best thing:

"Catch," I tossed the popcorn tin at Joe. He was so surprised that when he went to catch it he fumbled and it landed on the island with a loud clang. My jaw dropped and I couldn't help but laugh. Joe blinked at me then joined in on my laughing, which made me laugh harder.

"C'mon, our room is upstairs," I shook my head and grabbed a bowl. Joe, cheeks red with embarrassment, picked up the tin and followed me up the stairs.

Our room is fairly big with a bay window covering almost the entire part of one of our walls. Gallipoli's bed was under the window, Ashton's bed was facing the door, and my bed faced the window. Gall, Ashton, and Riley were already situated on the bed facing the window, curtains drawn and lights off.

"Shpooks," I commented, dropping the bowl in front of Ashton. I took the popcorn tin from Joe and filled up the plastic dish with cheddar, buttered, and caramel popcorn. Joe stood awkwardly behind me when I sat between Riley and Ashton on the bed.

"Sit. We don't bite." I patted the back corner of Gall's bed and heard someone cough "Much" under their breath.

"That was once and you provoked me," I flicked behind his ear with me index finger. Riley flinched and laughed, then tugged on my hair. I swatted his hand away and rolled my eyes just as I felt the bed behind me cave in.

"No flirting," Joe said as he reached between the two of us for a handful of popcorn. Gall laughed and Ashton giggled. I wasn't flirting I was just being me.

Which, actually, happened to be very, very flirty.

I turned around and stuck my tongue out at him, only to find that his face was not that far from mine, and my tongue accidentally licked the tip of his nose.

I immediately retracted it.

Joe, blushing, chuckled stiffly and wiped his nose with his thumb. "Smooth," he said.

I swallowed. Oops. I was going to get an earful of this tonight.

"Shush back there, it's starting," Gall tapped my knee and pointed to the flash of white light off in the distance. It was only there for a brief second and then, like nothing at all, just vanished.


The storm lasted an hour.

And it was a good hour too.

Every once is a good while, the thunder would get so loud that I actually jumped and grabbed hold of the nearest thing; Ashton's head, Gall's bed spread, Joe's arm when it reached for the popcorn. And I'm sorry to say that my nails did leave an indentation from how hard I squeezed it.

If you haven't noticed, I'm a bit jumpy when it comes to thunder storms.

Anyway, we were standing on our porch, talking to Joe and Riley, when I felt someone put something in my hand. I looked down to see that there was a neatly folded paper football smack in the center.

"Iay owknay igpay atinlay." Joe whispered in my ear. My face turned deep read; he read out note! That totally violated the deal we made!

"Hey, you—"

"And I wasn't writing our initials down together, I was writing down odd initials in the class. Some spell things, some are the same, and some have two for their last name," he winked at me and patted my shoulder, and then followed Riley off the porch and into the Johnson's two-story house.

Once the two of them were gone, I was ganged up on.

"Oh my God, you were totally flirting!" Ashton shouted. My eyes bugged and I tackled her and covered her mouth.

"Shaaah!" I hissed. Ashton blinked and moved my hand away.

"So you really were flirting?"

"No, but if they hear you they might get the wrong idea."

"What's wrong with flirting? I flirt with Nick all the—oops." Ash slapped both of her hands over her mouth and blushed.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Nick Jonas? Joe's little brother? Oh, he gave me this to give to you," I reached into the back pocket of my Levi jeans and took out Nick's phone number. But because they were the same jeans that I wore walking home, the numbers were smudged and the paper was torn.

"Oh, sorry, Ash. He gave me his number for—"

"He gave you his number? When?" Ash grabbed my shoulders and shook me. Hard.

"After English by my locker now STOP SHAKING ME." I grabbed her upper arms to stop her and thankfully, she did stop, but she looked completely defeated.

"Now what am I going to do? I need that number!" she leaned against the wet porch railing and hung her head low.

"I have an idea." Gall smirked.

I hate it when she has ideas.


Her idea was for me to ask Joe for his phone number when he got picked up. Unfortunately for me, I didn't know that Kevin Jonas –yes, the Kevin Jonas- was the one picking him up.

I hate my sister.

"Joe!" I shouted just as his feet the sidewalk. His looked left, then in the direction of me. I waved as I just about shook on my way towards him.

"Yes Mercy?" he questioned.

I bit my lip. I hate talking to guys that I don't know. Hate, hate, and hate it! So I just swallowed up my nervousness and flat out asked him.

"CanIhaveyourphonenumber?" I rushed, not wanting to stand there and look like a goof. Riley was on his porch giving me curious looks but I just ignored them.

"Did you just ask for my number?"

"Yes."

He blinked at me again and I could feel the embarrassment heat rushing to my cheeks. Man do I hate talking to guys. But he just shrugged and got out a pen.

"Why do you want it?" he asked, taking my hand and scribbling the numbers on it.

I shrugged. "Nick gave me it to give to Ashton and it kind of got ruined in the rain.

He nodded, understanding. Then it got more awkward as we just stood there like idiots.

"I guess I should be—"

"Yeah. See you tomorrow." I waved and went back to my porch, this time making sure no water got on my hand. When I looked up, I noticed that during the time we were home, none of us bothered to get the mail.

"Guys, we've got mail!" I shouted when I went back inside. Little did I know that it would be the same mail that I got the first letter in.


A/N: I want to thank the TWO people who reviewed this chapter. Nothing much happened in this chapter, but it was fairly longer than the last one. R&R!