A/N: Sorry about the delay. Here's chapter three.

Disclaimer: Wayside copyright Louis Sachar, Nelvana, Nickelodeon, and Viacom. I don't own it.

Courtship is the past tense of caught-Unknown

Todd walked off the Wayside bus the following morning, whistling a happy tune. His mood was only slightly diminished when he noticed Maurecia wave to him with a smitten look on her face. Giving a somewhat resigned look, he walked over to his temporary girlfriend.

"Hey, Todd," she swooned before giving him the mandatory punch to the arm.

The carrot top responded by rubbing his arm, but still gleefully but sarcastically responding, "Hello, Maurecia."

"You sound happy, Todd," she noted. Then, a hopeful look crossed her features. "Are you finally starting to enjoy being my boyfriend?"

"No," he replied, with a bit of a smug tone. "I'm smiling because after yesterday I realize something. Thanks to Fluffy's jealousy, either you or me will be sent home early every day this week."

Now it was Maurecia's turn to smile. "Sorry, but that won't work. I've left Fluffy at home, he can't bother us anymore."

Rather than be disappointed, Todd just shrugged. "Whatever. Mrs. Jewels still sends me home every day that it's relevant to what's going on. I'll be out of here by noon."

"Then I'll just have to make the best of the time we have," the roller blading girl answered, completely unfazed by her temporary boyfriend's logic. She simply grabbed his arm and began a repeat of the previous day's climb to the thirtieth floor.

Todd was starting to doubt his arm would survive the week, even if each day ended at noon. The constant pulling, punching, and pricking from the previous day had already made his arm sore, now it felt numb, and he was sure it was going to fall off. He had to get one of them sent home.

Finally getting his arm free from Maurecia's vice grip, he began racking his brain for a solution. Fortunately, at that point he noticed some art supplies waiting outside Mrs. Jewels' room, obviously delivered by Louis earlier that day.

"Hey Maurecia," he said, "go on in without me. I just…have to use the bathroom."

"Sure thing, Todd," she said obliviously, skating into the classroom. When she was gone, her crush gave an evil grin, rubbing his hands together. He walked over to the art supplies and quickly pulled out a series of tools: a crayon, a pen, a marker, and paint.

"Now, let's paint a masterpiece," he grinned, and began scribbling on the wall with everything he had.

After a good five minutes, Mrs. Jewels finally came up the stairs. Instantly she dropped her lesson plan and gazed shocked at Todd's vandalism.

The walls were decked with scribbles and crude drawings made with nearly every medium imaginable. And in front of it was the boy she had realized as being a rule breaker.

"Todd, did you do this?" she demanded.

"Yep," he answered proudly, folding his arms in front of his chest and nodding. "What do you say to that?"

"It's…wonderful!" she exclaimed, putting on an excited grin and brightening her expression.

Instantly the boy's pupils shrunk to the size of pencil points, his arms dropped to his sides, and his mouth went agape. "Say wha?"

"You've taken out boring walls and made them colorful and artistic! It's so lovely!" she gushed, admiring the marks on the wall. "And you did it all without being asked!"

"But…but…" Todd stammered, not knowing what to say. To complicate things, Maurecia wheeled out of the classroom at that point. "Hey Todd, what's taking so long…oh my gosh!" she gasped covering her mouth. "Todd, did you do this?"

"You bet he did, Maurecia," Mrs. Jewels said.

Maurecia blinked. Then, she squealed, skating over and pulling Todd into a bone crushing hug. "Oh, Todd! You painted a whole mural just for me! I love you more than ever now!"

Even if Todd's brain had been working well enough to respond, he wouldn't have, because his temporary girlfriend was making it hard to breathe.

"Why Todd, that makes it even more wonderful!" Mrs. Jewels exclaimed, her happiness growing. "As your reward, I won't send you home early for the rest of the week!"

Any progress Todd had made at unfreezing his brain disappeared with that statement. "What? But…how…why?" he tried to form a sentence, his voice trembling.

"Oh, Todd," the purple haired girl gushed, finally releasing her unwilling boyfriend. Then, she gave him an affectionate punch, sending him into the lockers across the hall.

He didn't feel any pain, but it did seem to get his brain working again, as he managed to stand up and dust himself off. Instantly, Maurecia grabbed him again, pulling him into the classroom, while he tried to figure out how his gambit backfired so spectacularly.

Todd had been stumped by the lack of logic that Wayside possessed before, but now it was reaching a new height. As he sat next to Maurecia in their modified double desk he scratched his head, wondering how to undo his problem. Why is it every time he wanted to avoid getting in trouble it honed in on him, but whenever he wanted to go home it was nowhere to be found.

Then it came to him. The last time they were seated like this, he got sent home for accidentally pulling Maurecia's ponytail. He looked at the girl that was holding him hostage. She had once again let her hair down, allowing it to flow freely. For a moment, he gazed at the girl, somewhat enraptured by her new look. After snapping out of it, he gave a grin. All he had to do was give her hair a few tugs and he'd be sent home. He reached for the purple locks.

He paused. Why was he hesitating? It was his ticket home. All he had to do was pull her hair.

He knew the answer. He sighed as he lowered his arm. He didn't have it in him to intentionally hurt anyone, even Maurecia.

Especially Maurecia…

He mentally kicked himself. Where did that come from? Maurecia was his friend, but only a friend, no matter how much she wanted it different. He was no different than Dana, or Myron, or Jenny or Stephen…right?

"Hey, Todd?" the tomboy next to him asked, snapping him out of his thoughts. "What're you thinking about?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing," he lied, hoping she wouldn't see the blush on his cheeks. The last thing he wanted to admit under the current situation was that he had been thinking about her.

Unfortunately, she seemed to guess that it had something to do with her, because she took the boy's hand in her own with aggressive force, squeezing it tight. "Oh Todd, just wait till lunchtime, I asked Miss Mush to fix us a romantic meal."

Now in addition to feeling his hand being crushed, Todd felt his stomach turn. He couldn't imagine anything by Miss Mush not having some terrible consequence.

The school day passed even slower than usual. Being stuck in Maurecia's grip all day had turned Todd's hand a peculiar shade of purple, and the boy was hoping that blood flow would return to normal soon. Still, a more immediate concern was the fact that his faux girlfriend was pulling his arm once again, this time down to the fifteenth floor for the cafeteria.

"Come on, Todd, we have to hurry," she yelled, practically dragging the boy down the stairs. Much to Todd's relief, they reached the cafeteria soon after, though barely had a chance to comprehend this before she pulled him through the door.

Since Maurecia had been in a hurry to get to the cafeteria, there was hardly anyone there. In fact, there was no line. Then again, considering how legendary Miss Mush's cooking was, this wasn't surprising.

"Well, we might as well get our food," Todd sighed. "Where's this romantic meal you mentioned?"

"It's in the kitchen," Maurecia explained as she pulled her captive into said area. "I asked Miss Mush to let us have a private table."

The carrot top rolled his eyes, but decide not to fight what she wanted. When he entered the kitchen, he saw that a simple table had been set up. A two person table with a red-and-white checkered tablecloth, nothing more. However, it had been decorated with lit candelabra, which caused Todd to roll his eyes at how cliché it was. The meal set before them, however, was definitely pleasing.

"Pizza? All right, Maurecia!" he said, now eager to get to the table and actually get a decent meal from the Wayside café.

"Yeah, I had Miss Mush order it for us," she explained, gesturing toward the steaming pepperoni pie on the table. Without another word the two kids sat down, each grabbing a slice and devouring it.

As they reached for their second slices, Maurecia spoke. "Oh Todd, isn't this romantic?" she said, fluttering her eyes.

After a pause, Todd set down his slice, sighing. "Maurecia, I've got to know, why do you like me so much? Is it just because you think I'm cute?"

At this, the skating girl blushed a little. "Well, it started that way," she admitted, looking away shyly, "but now, you…you're always trying to help people and make things better. No matter what, your goal is to make people happy." She looked back at him. "Remember when Kidswatter took over our student TV station and you used it to sell your inventions? He was making all the money, buy you never cared if you saw a dime. All you cared about is that you were helping people. I thought that was…really great of you."

Todd blinked. He definitely hadn't been expecting that answer. "Oh. Wow…"

"So, why do you not like me?" Maurecia asked, looking at him intently. "I mean, why won't you be my permanent boyfriend?"

He sighed. "Well, it's not so much you…well, the punching is a definite turn-off, but that's not the main reason. You see…well, I don't like to talk about it, but I had some…bad experiences at my old school. That incident with the kindergartners was just the final straw that got me to transfer."

For once, Maurecia was speechless. "What? What happened?"

"I'd…really rather not talk about it," the carrot top answered, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.

His ersatz girlfriend, never one to back down easy, tried pressing the matter. "But Todd…"

"Maurecia please," he said more forcefully than usual, holding up his hand. "Can we not talk about this? Please?"

The girl stopped. Whatever her crush was hiding was clearly troubling him. After a moment, she decided to grant his wishes. "Alright…but, if you ever want to talk about it…I'd be willing to listen."

Then, she did something she rarely did. She touched Todd gently, by putting her hand on his shoulder, adding to it a warm smile.

Todd returned it, fully enjoying a rare moment of peace around Maurecia.

Unfortunately he didn't see her arm pull back until it was too late. In an instant he was across the room, crashing into the counters with a throbbing pain in his arm.

Todd rubbed his arm. Suddenly everything was back to normal.

This week wasn't getting any easier.