A/N: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far!

This chapter was a bit of a challenge, since it's Simon's perspective, and I've never written in his POV before. I hope I didn't screw him up too badly.

As a flurry of cars and trees passed by outside the window that he was looking out of, Simon Seville tapped his foot nervously. It was a bad habit that he had picked up. Whenever he was nervous or anxious about something, it was extremely hard for him to stay still.

It wasn't that he was nervous because he'd be gone for a week on a silly camping trip and that meant that he had to put his latest science experiment on hold. He wasn't nervous because being away for a week meant that he wouldn't be able to get a head start on the extra school assignments that he had asked for. And yes, he did enjoy doing extra assignments even whenever school was out, thank you very much. He thought of it as exercise for his brain.

In fact, going camping didn't really bother him at all. He'd surprisingly been looking forward to the idea ever since Dave had brought it up. He was eager to get away from things for a little while and spend time with his friends... namely the friend sitting next to him, the friend that was the exact reason he was feeling so annoyingly nervous.

He stole a glance at Jeanette, who had taken out a book to read during the drive. He watched as her eyes carefully scanned over the words, sometimes going back to read over things in case she had missed any details. Every now and then she'd reach up to push a lose strand of hair out of her face that had fallen out of her already messy bun. He'd always been good at noticing all of the little things that Jeanette did that most people looked past.

He'd had a crush on his best friend ever since he had been eight years old. Whenever he was little, it had been an easier thing to ignore because he didn't completely understand the feelings that he had for Jeanette. He'd just known that he loved spending time with her and he loved every single thing about her personality, even her flaws that most people looked down on her for, like her messy hair or baggy clothes or even her clumsiness.

As he'd grown older, his feelings for her had grown with him, and he understood that he was hopelessly in love with Jeanette Miller. The only problem was that he had no idea how to express that or if he should even tell her that. Every time he tried to tell her how he really felt, a little voice inside of his head would tell him to shut up.

Simon couldn't be sure whether telling her how he felt would end in a good or bad way, and that was what scared him. Of course, there was always the chance that he spent his time worrying over nothing and she did return his feelings, but the risk of her not returning them was too much for him.

He'd rather she never know his true feelings than risk losing his friendship with her if she didn't feel the same for him.

He knew that was silly, especially since he knew Jeanette better than anyone and she would never stop being friends with him over something like that.

He also knew that he was a rather big hypocrite since he'd spent so many times telling Theodore whenever he had a crush on someone that if he didn't take a chance at telling the girl he liked how he felt for her that he'd never know what could have been, and the worst thing that she could do was say no.

It was one of those things that was typically much easier said than done.

Still, though, it was a very frustrating matter. Simon had tried a number of times to attempt at forcing himself to tell Jeanette how he felt, but each time always resulted in failure. He detested failure.

There had been a time when they'd been studying together and he'd decided he would just blurt it out. But when he'd tried to tell her, it felt like he had swallowed his tongue, and he'd just quickly changed the subject. That was how it almost always went. Sometimes it felt like it was just downright impossible for him to admit to Jeanette how he truly felt.

That being said, Simon didn't usually feel so nervous around her. Even though he had been holding in his secret affections for her for an extremely long time, he'd always felt very comfortable around Jeanette.

The only reason he felt so nervous now was because he'd decided that before their camping trip was over, he was going to tell Jeanette how he felt. Somehow, someway, it was going to happen. He was sure of it.

"S-Simon?" a timid voice piped up, bursting him out of his thoughts.

He looked over at Jeanette, his cheeks warming. "Yes?"

"I was just wondering if you had something that I could use to... to keep my spot in my book?" Jeanette asked shyly.

"By that you mean a bookmark?"

"W-well, yes, a bookmark... I thought I'd brought some of mine with me, but I don't have any."

Simon leaned down to dig through his bag and find something that she could use. He slipped one of his own bookmarks out of a book that he'd brought along with him and handed it over to her.

"Oh, you didn't have to do that." Jeanette muttered, beginning to chew on her lower lip.

"It's alright," Simon shrugged, shooting a smile in her direction, which only caused her to blush and sink lower in her seat. "I've read that book a thousand times, I don't mind losing my place."

She finally returned his smile, slipping the bookmark into her thick paperback novel.

As Simon stared at her, he knew that this was the perfect moment to tell her. He'd confess his feelings and if she didn't feel the same, so be it. He couldn't go on just hiding how he felt for her out of fear any longer.

"Um... Jeanette?"

"Yes, Simon?"

He braced himself. Now was his chance, he was going to do it.

"Well, Jeanette, it's just that... I have something that I'd like to talk to you about."

His counterpart shifted in her seat nervously. She pushed her pink framed glasses up the bridge of her nose and began to chew on her lip again. "W-what is it?"

"Well, I just wanted to tell you tha—"

Before Simon could finish, someone had started to call his name.

"Hey, Simon!"

Simon did his best to ignore it, especially since he didn't feel like dealing with the owner of the particular voice at such a moment like this one. He needed to just get it over with and tell Jeanette.

"Simon!"

He grit his teeth, refusing to look away from Jeanette. "Listen, Jeanette, I just—"

"SIMON!"

"I think Alvin wants you." Jeanette quietly pointed out with a grimace.

Simon let out a very loud and annoyed sigh, turning around in his seat so that he could glare at his older brother. He always did a great job at getting on his nerves and bothering him. He shouldn't have even been surprised that Alvin had managed to ruin his chance at telling Jeanette how he felt.

"What, Alvin?" he snapped.

"Could you pass me that?" Alvin pointed at the portable cassette player that was sitting near him.

The bespectacled chipmunk could have sworn he felt his left eye twitch. "That's what you wanted?"

"Yeah. I didn't think I'd need it yet, but clearly I do since someone can't shut up for five minutes." Alvin shot an annoyed look in Brittany's direction.

"I wasn't even talking to you!" the snooty Chipette yelled, sitting up straighter in her seat so that she could return his glare.

"That doesn't mean I can't hear you," he shot back.

"Well, deal with it!"

"You deal with it!"

"Deal with what? I'm not the one complaining, you are!"

Theodore leaned forward with an outstretched hand in Simon and Jeanette's direction. "Please, just give it to me so they can stop!" he pleaded, his green eyes wide.

Simon sighed and handed the cassette player to Jeanette, who handed it to Theodore, who handed it to Brittany, who threw it at Alvin's head.

"HEY!"

Brittany merely smirked and turned away from him, continuing the conversation she'd been having with Theodore and Eleanor.

Once he was sure that everyone had managed to calm down, Simon looked back over at Jeanette. "Listen, about what I wanted to tell you..." he said, allowing his voice to trail off as he tried to think of how to word what he wanted to say.

Jeanette slowly nodded, waiting for him to continue.

"I know this might sou—"

He'd tried to just get it out right then and there, but he was interrupted yet again, this time by Dave.

The van came to a stop as Dave announced, "We're here!"

Nearly everyone shot out of their seats, eager to get out of the crowded van.

"Come on Jeanette, you can help me get all of my things together." Brittany said, staring at her sister expectantly.

Jeanette shot Simon an apologetic smile. "M-maybe you can tell me about whatever it is that you need to talk about later?" she offered politely.

He nodded, slumping down in his seat as he watched her stand to walk off with Brittany.

This was going to be much harder than he'd thought.

Poor Simon. :(

I'd love to know what you guys are thinking of this story so far... so please review! Reviews make me super duper happy.