Chapter 2

I am sprinting around the house as usual trying to find everything that I need for school today. Margot is already pestering me about being more organising and having my life together. Urgh, like she can say anything, she barely remembers what day of the week it is during the exam period. She was in a much better mood last week when they had seniors week and they were able to get all dressed up and have their fun days. They even went to Disney World on the Friday but Margot didn't go as she wasn't interested. Once I'm pretty sure that I have all of my books in my bag for the day, I run down the stairs and am, of course, greeted by an exhausted Kitty.

'Kitty, are you having chocolate for breakfast?' I scowl her.

'Yep.' She admits freely.

I peek over to see if Margot is watching. 'Let me have one.' I insist, though before she can answer I have already grabbed one from in front of her. She whines but that doesn't matter. If I was Margot then I probably would have had to have given her a whole speech about how its bad to have chocolate for breakfast and it's unhealthy, damaging to the teeth and whatnot. But thankfully I am still the second oldest at home, so Margot using takes up that role.

'Seriously Lara Jean, chocolate? Do you know how bad that is for you?' Margot gives me a disappointed look as she looks at my chocolate. I have to resist smiling because this was what I exactly predicted.

'Do you want me to take my time and go back and get something else for breakfast?' I offer sarcastically.

She rolls her eyes. 'Just come on. Josh is waiting.' She pulls me outside by my bag strap.

'Bye Kitty, Bye Daddy.' I manage to get out before I am yanked out of the door.

The door closes behind me and Margot continues dragging me outside. Josh is already in his car in the driver's seat. Margot is a very good driver, much better than I could ever be even though I'm still learning. She even has her own car which daddy managed to get off someone at work who was trying to give it away to someone because it was getting so old; however, this year she has decided that it is more eco-friendly to have Josh drive us on most days. I think she wants to spend some more time with Josh as well given that she is looking over in Europe for a place to go to college. Her car still gets used for my driving lessons or to do the grocery shopping and picking us up and all from our activities and friends houses, so it isn't collecting too much dust.

'Josh!' I call out to him with a wave.

'Lara Jean!' he calls back.

'Lara Jean is making us late again.' Margot frowns at me.

'Nah we still got time.' Josh says, putting his arm around Margot to hug her.

I quickly scamper around to the other side of the car so that I don't have to watch their PDA or make them feel awkward. I am definitely understand it because I have John and I get wanting to at least share a peck when you first see each other, but it still makes me feel a bit awkward to watch from afar. Josh and Margot soon follow getting in the front seats of his car.

They have the radio going and are talking about the van. I take a moment to stare out the window. It is going to be next year by the time John gets his car and then I am excited for when he can take me school. Not that I want him to be my chauffeur or uber or whatever, but rather because you can have so many other moments in the car together. Instead of first hearing about the other person is going when in a crowd of people at school or trying to sneak in conversations when the teacher's back is turned, there is the time in the morning to be able to talk with no one else around and no other distractions. His dad is getting a new car next year because of the company that he is with at work, which means that John will be able to have his old car. He still gets to use it on Saturday nights and late nights sometimes, but it will be so much better when he can have one to leave at school. At the moment he takes the bus as he leaves in a neighbourhood on the other side of the city, so even he is very eager for the car as well.

I zone back in to the conversation between Josh and Margot. They have been together since Margot's junior year, just before John and I. When Josh first moved here, he was really good friends with me and we would hardly hang out with Margot at all, except when he stayed for dinner. I tried to get him amongst the group of people who I hung around with, like Peter, John, Gen and I. He seemed to enjoy it for a while and would meet us up in our tree house a lot. There was even a night when he hosted us all at his house knowing that I would be able to come since my mum and dad would be right next door. He was a bit of a nerd though. He would always be coming over with comic books or video games to play. He and my dad got along quite well, but my mum always seemed to have a soft spot for Peter's charm. I am almost certain that it was Peter who got on his nerves and was the reason he didn't hang out with us much. Peter was very vain, even from a young age, he enjoyed charming girls and being the Rockstar of everything. We all knew that you just had to step back and let Peter enjoy the spotlight, but Josh had a harder time accepting that. He and Peter knocked heads a bit when Peter would try to take charge but Josh would insist that he is older and didn't want some kind punk bossing him around. Me and Josh still hung out when we could, but never with my group of friends. We were closer in 8th grade once Peter and Gen didn't hang out with us anymore. Sometimes I look back on it and I think that maybe if Josh wasn't there, then I might have started dating John earlier. It was usually the three of us hanging around and I enjoyed being the only girl as we would race around on our bikes. I remember all the people in the neighbourhood smiling and commenting on how I had two boys chasing after me. I always laughed and denied it, but I enjoyed the attention. Then one day, Josh came to me wanting advice about how to ask out the girl that he liked. My heart skipped a beat as I thought that maybe it was me, but then he revealed that it was Margot. I was happy for him and for Margot, even though I had never really pictured them together. It wasn't hard to help him as I knew Margot really well and eventually found out that she has a crush on him as well. About 3 months in that school year, he manages to have his first kiss with her and then they started dating. He has been hanging around for a while now and we have all gotten used to him. Kitty definitely has a crush on Josh. She even has some crazy ideas about getting a dog and naming him Josh, after her boy crush. Josh always takes time to hang out with her and even sometimes does things with her alone. When him and Margot were dating, it then turned into unintentional double dates with those two and me and John, even though John and I weren't dating. Once we were a couple then, the double dates almost became a tradition and we do them about every once a month. It's really nice just having something that my sister and I are going through the same time. Sometime we'll stay up talking about the sweet things our boyfriends do for us, or we'll start screaming about how idiotic they can be sometimes. We try to include Kitty in it as well so she can learn about what to look for in a boyfriend, something that our Mum wasn't around to teach her like she was us.

We pull up into the parking lot and I see John pacing around outside of the school. He looks worried as he keeps tucking his hands into his pockets. This should be good. I am excited to hear about his excuse this time and how he is going to apologise to me for Saturday. I wave goodbye to Margot and Josh as I walk across the parking lot to where John is. He watches me the whole time as I walk towards him.

'Hi.' I say.

He lets out a deep breath. 'Lara Jean, I'm so sorry. I should have watched my drinks more. I'm sorry.'

'And?' I prompt him.

'And…..' he pauses thinking. 'I'm sorry that I didn't give you a lift home or pay more attention to your curfew.'

'John, what happened? Like if you knew you were going to have a big night, why did you drive then? Why didn't you let me know?' I am questioning him, because I don't want to just let him get away with it and then he does it again, but I need to understand why this happened in the first place.

'I've just been stressed about a lot of things and I think the peer-pressure just got to me. You know how much I like fitting in with those people and I was trying to keep up with their drinks but just ended up losing count. Can we talk more about this later? I'll come over after school. ' his eyes are big and pleading.

'Fine.' I accept.

'Look I'll make it up to you. I'll even come to your scrapbooking class at Belleview on Friday afternoon.'

'Really?' My face lights up. Even though he own grandmother, Stormy is in the nursing home, he barely comes to any of the classes that I run. Margot works there part time and a few afternoons a week so she was able to organise this class for me to run to help get me some employment credit. Usually it's only the oldies and me, so it would wonderful to have John there.

'Yep, I promise I'll be there.'

'Ok, but we are still talking about this later.' I point at him, letting him know to prepare.

'Of course.' He gives me his perfect smile and then swings his arm over my shoulder.

I am hopeful about our conversation we are going to have after school as I am also thinking that I might be able to bring up some of the things that Peter and I talked about. Not that I would ever consider mentioning that had gotten advice from Peter, John would be furious if he found out that I disclosed some private details of our relationship to him, but maybe I just credit some magazine or something since he would never bother investigating that.

John keeps his arm around me until I get to my locker so I can unpack my bag and get my books for the first class. We don't have any classes together today, but like the very loyal boyfriend he is, he still holds my hand and walks me to my classroom. He used to even do this when we were friends in eighth grade, I was just so ignorant and had no idea it was also his way of showing interest in me. We wave goodbye to each other. Some of the couples around us who's boyfriends are doing the same, they kiss or even make out a little before entering the classroom, but my hatred and discomfort for PDA would never allow me to be ok doing such a thing. I walk into Chemistry, trying to avoid looking at those couples and also avoid looking awkward around them.

'Hey Covey.' I hear a voice say. I look up and see Peter smiling at me with his eyebrows raised.

'Oh I'm touched. You actually acknowledged me.' I tease him, holding my hand to my heart.

He sits on the other side of the room from me at the edge of the table. So I just catch him poke his tongue out at me as I walk past him to my seat. I can feel a few eye on me and hear some whispers behind me from Gen's minions as they talk about what just happened. I have to roll my eyes at them. Seriously, he just said two words to me, it's nothing to get so worked up about. Man, it's just so petty and so high school. It's times like this I can't believe I actually put up with this stuff every day.

The school day goes slowly but in no time, John and I are sitting on the couch, eating some of the snickerdoodles I made and doing our homework. Margot is still at school working in the library and Josh is at an Anime club meeting. John and I took the bus to my house together. Almost every stop the bus stopped at, John would look over at me and promise 'just a few more months', honestly this car couldn't come quicker.

'So can we talk now?' I ask him. He is trying to look busy with his homework and has been bringing up all sorts of small talk this afternoon. He was trying to talk about the weather, then even tried sports, fully aware that I have no interest for or knowledge of them. He had then been trying to fill every moment of silence we had studying with questions which I knew he knew the answers to. He and I were in all AP classes.

He sighs and places his pen down. 'Ok.' He admits, he takes a snickerdoodle off the plate and starts to eat it.

'Why did you feel peer-pressured? I was there, and I wasn't drinking.' I cut straight to the chase. I don't want him to dilly-dally any longer on this.

'But you are you. You don't feel the need to drink to enjoy being around other people or anything.'

'Who says that I don't?' I huff.

'You never have had a desire to drink at those parties. I just sometimes like to do it for fun, but you are right, I shouldn't have felt peer-pressured by the other people and I need to learn to better stand up for myself.'

'That's true.'

'But maybe you should try drinking at one of the parties.' He cautiously suggests.

'Why?' I am confused how he is flipping this on me.

'Because you might have a lot of fun and see why I enjoy doing it, instead of being critical of me.'

I am about to give him a look of disbelief and comment on how I can have more fun without alcohol, but then I remember what Peter mentioned about my judgey eyes and being too judgemental so I hold back.

'Ok yeah. I think it would be good to try, but I don't want you drinking at the same time. I'll need someone to take care of me and insure I don't make a fool out of myself.'

He nods. 'Always.' He then gives me his perfect smile. He keeps looking at me and I at him, so I decide that I need to broach the subject in particular that I was actually wanting to talk about.

I scoot over to him and wiggles my way around until I am sitting on his lap. A look of surprise registers on his face. I don't often sit on his lap, only if there isn't any other chairs available or if someone makes a joke about it. I put my hands on either side of his face, his sunny yellow hair almost reaching my fingertips. I lean down and kiss him. He jerks in surprise but realises what is happening and starts kissing me back. His hands don't move from where they are on the ground next to him. I open my mouth and so does he. When he finally comprehends that this isn't just a peck, he puts his hands on my waist. He never moves them from there even when we are kissing. I tilt my head to the side, deepening the kiss further, something that I rarely do. I can tell that he is trying to process what is happening by the shakiness of his hands He is probably very confused how I have gone from being mad at him and confronting him about his drinking at the party, to now be making out with him on his lap. Our making out is usually limited to when something special or particularly exciting happens, and never usually just in the living room of one of our houses. I slide my hands from the side his face and down his neck, where I caress the skin just before it is covered by his shirt. His hands are still frozen on my waist. I try to use my tongue to give him some more encouragement, but he doesn't react the way I want him to. Eventually I pull away, we are both breathless.

'What was that?' he asks me, a smile on his lips but a very confused expression around his eyes.

'John, you know we can go further if you want. Like you don't need to be afraid of doing more.'

He looks a little scared now. 'What do you mean doing more?'

I look down at him. Has he not been having the same thoughts and reservations as me? 'I don't know, like more! Like you can let your hands roam more, kiss my neck, feel me up…' I trail off, hoping he can catch the gist.

He shifts on his legs. 'Are you sure?' he asks looking up at me. His eyes are searching mine trying to find a telling sign of what I am saying.

'Yes! John, we have been together for almost 2 years. It is definitely time that we spice it up a little bit.' He blushes when I say this, but I power on. 'Like obviously we're not going to start having sex any time soon, but I just want to let you know that it's ok to be more physical and intimate with me. Wait, no, I want you to do more of that.' I tell him.

An embarrassed smile comes to his face. His cheeks are still red. 'I just didn't want to pressure you into anything or push you to do something that you didn't want me to do.'

'Well, trust me, I do want to it and I know you want it too.'

'Ok, thanks for letting me know. I'll try explore a bit more.' He almost cringes as he admits this. I give him a smile and a peck on the cheek, before I move back to my spot on the couch.

'Maybe we should try studying in your room.' He suggests.

I look at him confused. There isn't much space in my room to study and the natural light that comes into it really isn't that great. It's also a mess right now which he definitely knows and so we would probably trip over something walking in.

'I thought you liked studying here.'

'Well maybe we could do something more than studying in your room.' He hints with a wink.

Now I am the one blushing. I quickly turn and run upstairs hearing his footsteps behind me. I can't believe that I didn't give him a chance and try to take about this sooner.

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Friday afternoon finally comes and I am crazy excited for the scrapbooking class that I am having. We are currently working on scrapbooks to pass down to the grandchildren or other children who are close to the residents at Belleview. I managed to get donations from the visitors so that we could have an abundance of supplies for this project. It has been so amazing and heartwarming to see the photographs from some of their families and hear about their favourite stories that they share. I have always been someone who has loved making scrapbooks as a gift for the people around me, so it has been great to be able to share this love.

I am giggling away with Stormy as she embarrasses John as she shows me a whole bunch of photos of him when he was a little kid with glasses.

'Oh your cheeks are turning red!' I tease him.

'Look at how adorable he looks here, this was his first game when he was on the tee ball team. Your mum was so proud of you that day.' Stormy enlightens me.

I have to laugh again. 'I know, his mum always tells me those stories about him being on the tee ball team. My favourite one is when he accidentally threw the bat into the umpire's face when he missed the ball.'

Stormy starts laughing as well remembering that story. 'Yes that was so hilarious. I also love when he forgot where the third base was and so he kept running until he almost reached the next field.'

They both burst out laughing again, just watching John get more and more annoyed at them. 'Ok, ok I get it. It's a good thing my tee ball career didn't continue, now what are we doing for the scrapbook?'

Stormy swats his arm. 'You can't be here to see it, it's a surprise!'

He shrugs and kisses my cheek before leaving to help someone else with theirs.

'That boy is crazy about you.' Stormy announces. 'I keep telling him to get you a piece of jewellery because that way you'll truly be his.'

My heart has palpitations as I hear her say this, remembering back to just a few day ago when I was on the brink of breaking up with him. What would have happened to Stormy and I then? Would we have never been able to see each other? Would she have hated me for breaking her grandson's heart?

'I don't know if I want to belong to anyone.' I answer cautiously. I would rather belong with someone instead of belonging to them.

'Why, of course you do. That means that they have to stand up with you through everything and need to heed your every command.'

'Sounds like you had a few back in the day doing that for you.'

She winks at me. 'I might have had 30 or 40.'

I gasp at her. 'Stormy, you minx.'

'What can I say? I didn't want to settle.'

'Do you think Margot and I are settling?' I ask curiously, after a beat of thinking about her answer of how she used to live her life.

'You, no. Margot, absolutely. I swear that girl is such a goody-two shoes. She spends nothing with her time back hanging out with that dull boy and studying in her room. You tend to get out more, going to parties, having dates and exploring. Coming here once a week is definitely much better than every single day.'

A wave of guilt washes over me as she insults Margot, I try to stand up for her. 'Josh isn't that dull and Margot loves him very much. She is also in her senior year and is trying to up her GPA, so the studying is understandable.'

Stormy huffs at her. 'Back in my day, there were no such words as GPA, SAT or whatnot. Girls and boys could just have fun without a worry.'

'The employment rate was much higher back then.' I tell her.

'What was that? I didn't catch that.' I roll my eyes. She is predicting to not hear me, even though I know she has a thing she likes to term "selective hearing" where she only hears the things she wants to and blocks out the things she doesn't.

'Don't worry about it.' I surrender.

'See at least my Johnny is much more exciting than Margot's boy. Margot's boy hardly talks to me and seems to struggle with socialising.'

'Come on he isn't that bad.' I have to release a small giggle at how well Stormy describes Josh's antisocial behaviour.

'No I tried to talk to him once and he looked as though he would have preferred a truck to hit him than to be with me in a conversation. You know as well as I do, that I am one of the best people you can talk to.' Stormy boasts.

I just nod along. 'John has his flaws too though, so no one can be perfect.'

'Which is exactly why you must never settle. Not unless he is perfect to you.'

It is at this point of the conversation that I have to break myself away from her. Any more words from Stormy and I would be even more confused than I was before. I go over to start cutting more shapes from the paper for people to use.

I am tracing around the heart stencils before cutting out when John comes and sits next to me.

'Need a hand?' he offers.

'Sure, can you starting cutting these after I trace them out?' I hand him a pink sheet of paper already covered in the drawn heart shapes and a pair of scissors.

'Definitely.'

He starts cutting very carefully around each of the shapes, making sure to not make the lines too jagged, just as I taught him.

'Stormy didn't tell you anymore embarrassing stories about me, did she?' he asks nervously.

'As if she has any more she could tell.' I tease him.

He gives a chuckle. 'Just wait till our next double date, I'll be milking all the details from Margot.'

'Margot would never do that.'

'You're right, I better go for Kitty then.'

'Oh yeah and how will you do that?' I have a challenge in my eyes.

'Bribe her with chocolate, lollies, money, whatever usually gets her to do my dirty work.'

I gasp at him. 'Just because you don't have any younger sibling doesn't mean you can manipulate mine.'

'I wouldn't if it wasn't so easy!'

'I know, Kitty is just such a mastermind. She's probably going to be buying her first house as soon as she graduates high school at the rate she is making money off of you.'

'Kitty being in high school sounds so weird. It seems like it is aeons away.'

'That's what we thought about us as well and look where we are now.'

He smiles sweetly at me. 'It's hard to believe that we were first best friends and here we are dating in high school. It's nice to look back on.'

I smile back at him. 'Yeah it is. I mean I made it through all those horrible haircuts, I'm not sure what challenges we could have that could be worse.' I tease him.

'What about me? I made it through the twilight obsession period. Now that one was difficult to get through.'

'Are you kidding? You're glad I gave you an excuse to watch such an incredible love story with extremely hot men in it.'

'I'm hearing what you are saying, but it doesn't make any sense. We all know that was the worst love story of all time.'

'I'm still floored by the fact that I managed to convince you to read the books.'

He grumbles at this memory. 'You told me they were supposed to be better than the movies.'

'They were!'

'But they still weren't good.'

I have to laugh at him. 'Oh the things you do for me!' I peck a kiss on his cheek.

'Don't I know it.' He flashes a smirk at me which sends shivers down my spines.

After a few more moments of teasing as we cut out more shapes, it is almost time for the end of the scrapbooking class and dinnertime for Belleview.

'What to do something after this?' he asks me.

'I can't. I'm timekeeping at Kitty's swim meet tonight.' I tell him with a sigh. The last thing I want to be doing is dealing with kids bickering about who swam faster and constantly forgetting their times and needing me to repeat them.

'Do you want me to come?'

'Nah, remember the last time you tried and they had to remove you from the swimming pool for "disrupting the process", let's not have a repeat.'

He laughs at the memory. 'Fair enough.'

We have packed up everything into Margot's car as she finishes the last of her shift helping out in the kitchen and with the nurses.

'Call you later?' John asks me, wrapping one arm around my waist.

'Yes please.' I answer. He leans forward and gives me a kiss. It's a short kiss, but the way his thumb presses into my back and strokes tells me that he is remembering our conversation from earlier.

'I love you.' He says before walking to his car.

'I love you too.' I softly reply.

Then get into the passenger seat as Margot comes down the steps finally unlocking the car.

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Margot is going out with Josh tonight and Daddy is still at work which is why I am taking up the Covey family duty of timekeeping. We have some time to shower and get dressed before Margot drops Kitty and I off at the pool. As soon as we arrive, Kitty goes running off towards her friends who are already sitting in the stands with their towels around their shoulders. I walk over to the tent where the timekeeping is done. I am not going to be timekeeping as such, the swimming committee would never let a sophomore have such a responsibility of recording the times of the precious youngsters. I am the one who gets all the times from each of them after the race has been finished. The times then go to who knows who and processed to name the best swimmer of the meet. I get to the tent and take a seat at the table where I'll be filling in all the times. I am borderline horrified when I see a chair set up next to mine. I do not want to the spend the next few hours having someone's mother lean right over my fill in the times and go on and on about how much her daughter is training and how amazing she is doing. Don't get me wrong, sometimes I love that and I get equally excited with them, but I have just had an afternoon socialising and being extra nice at Belleview so I am really not in the mood right now. I also don't think it is necessary to have two people to be filling in times when the job is quite self-explanatory. I am settling into the desk and starting to look through the names of the people racing tonight and the strokes they are doing.

'Covey!' Peter excitedly calls out to me.

'Hi Peter.' I respond. I'm quite confused at why he is excited to see me at a swim meet when I see him here quite a bit as Owen swims at most of the meets.

'You got roped into doing the timekeeping duty as well?' he asks, plopping himself on the chair next to me.

'Yeah, you did to?'

'That's the main explanation for why I'm sitting here right.' Peter teases me. He has a smile on his face as he tries to point out the obvious.

'And here I thought you were sitting down because you actually enjoyed talking to me so much.' I repeat back the words that he told me the other night when he walked me home.

Now he lets out a heaty laugh. 'Look who is the cocky one now.'

'Watch out, Kavinsky, I'll be on your level before you know it.'

'Now we both know that's not going to happen.'

I tilt my head to the side and narrow my eyes at him. 'Yeah you're right. No one could be as vain as you.' I have an incredibly proud and satisfied smile on my face as I just throw his words back into him. I even let out a giggle.

He chuckles as well. 'You're really proud of that one, aren't you?'

'Yep!' I declare, I'm still smiley by the time the first race starts.

The first race happens and we record all the times. Peter gets them from the kids and I record them down, seeing as Peter couldn't remember them when I was telling him. I have to smile at how friendly Peter is to all the kids. He gets all excited with them when they reveal to him that they just got a personal best or when they won his race.

'I got a 3 minutes and 45 seconds.' One kid runs over and announces.

'You did! Oh that's so good! Here give me a high five!' Peter says all excited for the kid in front of him who slams his hand against his for a high five. 'Did you hear that, Covey? This kid got a 3 minute and 45 second time!' his voice sounds so full of disbelief which makes the grin on the kid's face in front of us just grow even wider.

'Thanks Peter! Wow that's a really great time!' I add in. The kid goes running off all excited to tell his parents. Peter and I share a smile.

'Who's next?' Peter looks around.

'Me! I got 4 minutes on the dot.' Another kid from the race announces.

'4 minutes on the dot! That's so impressive, do you know how hard it is to get it right on the dot?' Peter asks.

'No?' the girl asks, clearly trying to get a compliment from him.

'It's really hard and I don't think anyone has gotten that time for the whole night. Great job!' She goes skipping off as well.

There is no one else in front of us who has another time, which is usually the only moment that Peter and I actually get to talk.

'You know you don't have to act that excited every time a kid tells you their time.' I say to him. I'm getting a little tired and exhausted from his unflattering happy and upbeat attitude.

'Nah I like it. They get so happy afterward.' He remarks.

'How do you stay so happy and upbeat with them? They are giving me a headache.'

'Awwww, Covey, do you need someone to tell you how great your swimming time is?' he teases.

'No, I'm not even swimming.'

He nudges my shoulder with his shoulder, causing me to sway slightly. 'Well if you were, you're your time would have been great. No not great, amazing, incredible, fantastic, do I need to say more?'

My cheeks start to feel a bit red and even I can't admit that it doesn't feel good to have him compliment me in that way. 'Ok ok ok, I get it.'

'Are you sure? Because I think you would have improved so much, like you could be the next swimming champion.'

'Peter!'

'Now tell me you don't feel another 10 feet taller.'

'Fine, it feels nice.' I admit to him as much as I hate it.

'Told you.' His satisfying smirk is so irritating.

I then notice that Kitty is standing behind one of the blocks about to race. 'Oh Kitty is about to go.' I quickly run out from my chair to go watch her race and Peter is right next to me.

'Take your marks.' The announcers says. 'Go!'

The buzzer goes off and I watch as Kitty launches herself off the block. I am going wild jumping up and down cheering for her. Peter is joining in as well though he is way too cool to jump up and down, so just cheers her name. Kitty comes first and I keep jumping up and down tapping Peter on the arm asking him if he saw it, he keeps nodding and repeating yes with an amused smile on his face.

Kitty runs up to me and gives me an excited hug. I whine as her wet body squelches against mine.

'Did you see me, Lara Jean?' Kitty exclaims excitedly.

'Yeah I did. You were so amazing Kitty! You looked like a dolphin the way you beat all of those other kids.' I encourage her with words similar to those that Peter said to me.

I walk back to the table where Peter is already sitting. He is encouraging and talking up all of the kids. I go and sit back down with him and start recording all of the times.

Kitty then runs over after hugging a few of her friends. Peter gives her a big smile. 'You're Kitty, aren't you?'

Kitty gets all shy around him. She is probably looking her thoughts because of Peter's dazzling smile. She nods with her head down.

'I think that was one of the best races I've ever seen, Kitty.' Peter looks intently at her.

She blushes as I pipe up. 'Yeah Kitty, what was your time? It must have been a personal best time for you.'

'It was a 3 minute 30 second.' She announces proudly.

Peter hoots for her as I write it down. 'That is an absolutely incredible time, Kitty.' He says to her.

'Do you really think so?' she asks, her eyes wide.

'I know so. I would almost pay to see someone race as good as you.' Peter replies.

She blushes and has a big smile on her face. It warms my heart to see her so happy and relishing in someone else's compliments. I take note of the way she bounces when she walks off feeling incredibly happy about it all. Our mum and I used to always come and watch her swim every single meet. Daddy would come whenever he could and it was such a great occasion as a family to watch Kitty swim and she always held her head so high in the car as we would all compliment her and cheer her on after. After our mother died, she wanted to quit swimming altogether but we managed to convince her to keep going; however, I've never seen her hold her head as high as she used to. Well at least not until tonight that was. Tonight I can finally see the proud and confident girl who I used to see before and her head isn't as high as it was before, but it now seems to be getting a little closer.

'Thanks for that.' I say turning to Peter.

'For what?' he asks, confused.

'For being so nice and supportive of her.'

'I'm been that way to everyone tonight.'

'I know, but it's nice especially for her because of everything…' my voice trails off at the end.

'I think everyone has things going on at home, which is why it's nice when they can just have a moment where someone really believes in them.' he means it really sincerely.

I have to look away and a lump forms in my throat. I never really thought of it like this. Peter was being that excited for everyone not just for Kitty but because I am her sister, I know how much it means to her and how important it is. I look up and see all the kids who have just raced before who are still grinning from ear to ear probably still relishing from Peter compliments and cheers for them.

'How the hell do you know this?' I am actually beyond shocked that someone such as Peter could be capable of having such sincere feelings. I mean honestly I want to say I was shocked that Peter actually had a heart.

He reaches for the pen in front of me and then starts flicking it around between his fingers. 'I don't know it's just something that I do.'

From the expression on his face which is deep in thought but also very much closed off. I want to ask him more questions and drive deeper into his head and emotions, but I know that from the look on his face, that I shouldn't ask anything more.

'Ok, if you say so.' I say in sing-song voice to him which tells him that I don't buy it for a minute.

We watch a few more races and this time, I get fully involved with talking the kids up. Even though I complained about not being in the mood to cheer, as soon as I start I feel myself chirp up a bit more. Seeing how excited everyone is and how much my words means to them just warms my heart. Peter and I even get into a competition to see who can some up with the best ways to boost them and who can think of the best praising words, but once we started stringing together over ten words at a time, we had to call it a truce.

Suddenly Peter sits up straighter. 'Owen is racing.' He informs me, getting out of his seat. I follow behind him.

There he is. A lanky kid with brown hair spilling out from his swimming cap. He looks incredibly built for someone finishing middle school, but I am sure having Peter as an older brother means that they do a lot of sport. He is doing all sorts of high fives and handshakes with his friends as he climbs onto the block.

'Watch he's gonna win this.' Peter says to me.

The announcers starts. 'Take your marks…. Go!'

They all take off. Owen's long arms swing out in front of him and he gets the lead.

'Come on Owen!' Peter bellows out.

I throw in a few cheers here and there but no one is louder than Peter is. He even starts getting all excited and jumping up and down like I was before. Instead of acting too cool like him, I join in straight away. He ends up coming third and when he does, Peter leans over to me and reminds me how this actually isn't his best stroke, despite boasting about him before. I just smile and let him have it.

I sit back down to get all the times while Peter goes to Owen. They do some weird handshake and then Peter grabs him in the headlock and violently ruffles his hair. I am almost concerned as Owen's face goes red and he looks to be in a little pain, but then Peter lets him go and Owen turns around, shoving him back as he does. A smile is plastered over Owen's face even though Peter is punching his shoulder and lightly slapping his face. They finally make their way back over to the table which is now free as all the other boys have already given her their times.

'Congratulations Owen! You really have an amazing dive!' I comment.

'That's cause he got these noodle arms.' Peter teases him.

'Oh like yours are any better.' I retort back at Peter.

Owen laughs out loud, pointing at Peter. Peter glares at her before he flexes one of his biceps. 'What these things? They aren't noodles.' The lines of definition are actually quite marvelling and my eyes focus on them a little too long.

'You wait till I'm your age Peter, I'm gonna have triple the muscles you have.' Owen boasts, puffing his chest out.

Now I can definitely see the resemblance not just in their appearance but in their egos and attitudes.

'Ok Arnold Schwarzenegger. Give Covey your time and then message mum, she'll want to know how you went.' Peter advises him.

'Oh you're a Covey? You're Lara Jean, right?' Owen asks me.

'Yeah I am. I don't think we have met before.' I'm wondering how he knows who I am. While I knew about him a bit, we've never actually met in person.

'Well I'm Owen, yeah I just know about you because of Kitty and…uhhh…' He pauses to think for a moment. I don't have to be a genius to realise exactly what he is thinking about. 'Uhhh…Peter.' He finishes. He then gives me his time before swaggering off to where all of his friends are. He is in the oldest age group of the meet, so they are sitting up the top of the hill watching over the pool.

There is silence between Peter and I. I think he realises exactly what Owen was about to say as well. It isn't much of a surprise. I think most people are aware of who I am, one of the girls involved in the tragedy which was losing our mother.

'How come your mum couldn't come?' I reflect the conversation onto him.

'She has to do some accounting stuff for the shop. An inventory and stuff like that. She is trying to determine how much she can discount for sales before Christmas.' Peter explains.

I nod. 'Yeah I always really liked her shop. I'll probably even go there before Christmas so hopefully there are quite a few sales.'

Peter nods.

There is a break for the relays when the organisers of the meet are trying to herd the children into their teams and clarify what everyone is doing. It is about a half hour intermission of the meet. I am feeling a little hungry and so is Peter so we go to the canteen to get a few snacks. I get a packet of skittles while he gets a chocolate bar and a burger. I eye him for the unhealthy choice but he ignores me. We go back and sit at our chairs.

'So Covey, give me an update.' He says before tearing into his burger.

'An update on what?' I reply opening up my packet of twizzlers.

'An update on my advice. Did it work?' Peter inquires further between bites.

I can't resist smiling as he asks that. Yes. Yes, it did work and now it feels better than ever to know that John is understanding this and that we are taking the next stage. 'Yeah it actually did.' Is all I tell him.

Peter nods, then gestures for me to continues. I shake my heda at him which makes his shoulders slump.

'Come on, you gotta give me more juicy details than that.' He pleads.

'What? Why?'

'Well if you want advice on it again, I need to be able to consider what happened this time and adjust accordingly.' He smiles at me.

I have to take a moment to think about this. Do I really want to get more advice from Peter? If it wasn't for tonight, I was feel weird seeing him around school knowing we had given advice to each other but then that was the end. I take those thoughts away. If it wasn't for the perspective that Peter had given me, I don't really think that I would have had this conversation with John and I would probably still be on the brink of breaking up with him.

'I just told him that we could get more physical and he said that he didn't think I was ready and didn't want t push boundaries, but if that's what I wanted then he could oblige.' I leave out the more steamy details as I am sure Peter doesn't want to hear those and also I do not want to tell him. He nods in response which I take as an indication I don't need to say more.

'See I told you! I really do speak guy very well.' Peter boasts.

I roll my eyes. 'Sure. How did you go with Gen?'

Peter does almost the exact same thing that I did and a smile spread across his face, despite the way that he noticeably tries to hid it and resist. My heart warms a bit seeing him get that happy and assuming that the advice worked for him and Gen.

'You did good on that. I started writing her notes and as tedious as it is, I think I have realised how important the little things are. She get's so happy about me doing the simplest thing of writing some words on a piece of paper. We also just had a chance to talk and like really talk, you know?' he trails off a bit.

I nod encouragingly to urge him to keep going. It's funny how he is just blurting everything out at once. I realises though that he only has Owen and his mum, then hangs a lot around with jocks, unlike me who has my sisters and Chris. He probably doesn't really have many other people to tell who would understand and not just slap him on the back and laugh at him.

'We didn't get too deep or anything, which I kind of expected from our first real talk, but like I just held her and neither one of us was jumping the other which I will deny if you ever tell anyone I said this, but it was really nice.' Peter's eyes have a happy glow to them as he thinks back to what happened, I have to smile back seeing him this happy.

'I am glad that it worked out for both of us.' I tell him, nudging his shoulder just like he did to me earlier.

'Yeah I might need to hire you as my on-call therapist or something.' He jokes, nudging me back.

My face adopts a horrified expression. 'No way, I can't deal with all your issues about how "your hair isn't being styled properly" or how "you are not allowed to walk shirtless around the school", no thank you.' I imitate his voice as I mock the excuses and problems he would probably have.

He tries to scowl at me, but a laugh escapes his lips and then he gives up. 'And here I thought that you thought of me better than just another high school jock.' He shakes his head at me.

'Oh well glad I cleared that up then.' I tease.

He laughs again. 'Alright, nerd.'

'Seriously, is that all you got? Here I am delivering all of these zingers and the best you can come up with is "alright, nerd".' I have to smile at the opportunity that has just been given to me to quote my favourite musical, Hamilton. '"Such a blunder, sometimes it makes me wonder, why I even bring the thunder."' I rap to him.

Peter laughs again, so hard this time that he has to put his burger down on the table. 'Where did you even get that? I want to use that!'

'It's a secret. If you aren't educated enough to know it, then you are not worthy enough to use it!' I declare on him.

'Whatever you say, Covey.' He is still laughing. I can't help but laugh with him.

That night Kitty is as happy as a pig in mud. She falls asleep in the middle of trying to give Daddy a run by run of everything that just happened at the swim meet. I call John, shower and get ready for bed. I see Daddy carrying Kitty up the stairs to put her into bed. He gives me a goodnight hug before going downstairs.

As I lie in my bed, I can't help but feel a little giddy. It's nice to have Peter Kavinsky back in my life. I didn't know how much I missed him as a friend. It feels nice to have someone to laugh with all carefree and not worry about. I'm starting to realise that maybe I don't ask for him for relationship advice because he knows the other perspective, but maybe because he is one of the first people who gives me advice based solely on me and how I'm feeling instead of any other factor.

A/N: Thanks so much for everyone who reviewed! The reaction to this story is awesome and I appreciate it so much! Can anyone guess which song is heavily referenced in this chapter? I love how on board everyone is with the friendship between LJ and PK. There is a lot still to be revealed with this story and I'm excited when we will reach those points, but please keep having theories and telling me what you think! I love hearing it from you! I know we have had a lot of boy time in the first two chapters, but don't worry we are going to get a few more perspectives in the next chapter and find a little bit more about LJ and JAM. Please review, favourite or follow this story if you are a fan and liking where it is going! It means so much to me to get your feedback and know you are loving this story as much as I am! xxx