ºDeceiving Fateº

CHAPTER III:

            Lizz suddenly fell face first onto something hard. Opening her eyes was painful, but she was by now used to pain. Slowly, her eyes came into focus. What she saw scared her so much that she fell off her branch. "AH!" She'd landed in a tree. "Ow…" Hand on her head, she looked up at the tree she'd fallen from and mentally cursed it. Just as she was about to pick herself up, someone offered her his hand.

            "Hi. Are you ok?" Lizz looked up, and before her stood all her fantasies and dreams come true; Duo Maxwell. She was speechless. "Here, let me help you up." She took his hand, and he almost lifted her off the ground.

            "Thanks," was all she could manage to say. Her eyes were always on him. She had totally forgotten about Courtney-wherever she was.

            "The name's Duo Maxwell. What's yours?"

            "Lizz Wright." Three other guys ran up to Duo.

            "So, Duo, who's this?" Quatre asked. Wufei, of course, took one look at her and turned away.

            "A woman." Duo ignored the remark.

            "Guys, this is Lizz. Lizz, meet Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei. Feel free to call him Wu-man. It's his nick."

            "IT IS NOT, MAXWELL!" Suddenly, there was a rustle in the leaves, and everyone looked up.

            "Lizz? Are you ok?" Courtney was attempting to climb down from the tree.

            "Yeah, I'm ok," Lizz called back.

            "You sure?"

            "Yeah."

            "Ok." Courtney swung from one branch to another until she was finally visible.

            "Oh, who's this?" Quatre inquired.

            "My friend, Courtney Richards. Hey, Court, meet Quatre, Duo, Trowa, and Wufei."

            "Hi!" Courtney waved, glancing over the group. Her heart skipped a beat when her eyes landed on Quatre. Oh my gosh… she thought to herself. In her trance, Court stepped on an unstable branch and ("WHOA!") landed in the arms of an un-expectant Wufei, knocking him over.

            "Baka!" he yelled.

            "Oops, sorry." Courtney winced.

            "JUST GET OFF OF ME!"

            "Oh, right! Sorry, so sorry, are you ok?" Courtney scrambled to get off the infuriated young man. "I'm not too good with trees yet." Wufei muttered something softly, still glaring at Courtney. Duo laughed.

            "You two get along like WE do," he said, still grinning. Quatre shook his head.

            "Wufei, you're much too pushy." Again, Wufei muttered something; this time it soundly awfully like "I'll show you pushy…" Quatre sighed. "Are you two ok?"

            "Yeah, we're fine," Lizz smiled. Finally, the silent Trowa became not so silent.

            "What were you doing in a tree, anyway?" At this, both girls were at a loss for words.

            "Umm…"

            "We, uh, like the view!" Courtney finally said.

            "Yeah, and, the uh, exercise!" Lizz pitched in. Trowa nodded as if he understood.

            "Well, uh, oh, look at the time!" Courtney glanced at her watch. "Time to go! C'mon Lizz." She grabbed her friend by the arm and was about to escort her away when she bumped into someone.

            "Heero, man! Glad you could make it!" Duo exclaimed.

            "Hm." Heero obviously wasn't too thrilled at being there. "Who's this?" He asked.

            "This is Courtney and Lizz. They fell outta the tree," Duo explained. Heero raised an eyebrow.

            "We, uh, like the exercise," Lizz said. Heero's face went expressionless once more. He obviously didn't trust them.

            "Look, um, we uh, gotta go," Court told him.

            "Yeah." Lizz turned around, and her eyes fell on Duo. "I hope we'll see you again sometime." Quatre nodded, and Duo shrugged.

            "It's a small colony," he said. With that answer, Lizz walked off, half-dragging Courtney away.