quick A/N: Sorry for the confusing change of tenses that have been showing up since chapter one...also for the change of aesthetic. I've been having a hard time deciding on the form that these chapters will take; any thoughts would be appreciated :).

previously:

...He reluctantly got dressed, and realized that his parents weren't home. Again. "Vicky isn't going to come today, either," he thought out loud, and Cosmo appeared in front of him. "Yeah, she's gonna be with Mr. Greased-Lighting today, getting her fancy -" contemptuous look, "'college opportunity'."

"Cosmo!" scolded Wanda, also poofing out. She covered her eyes at the sight of half-naked Timmy, who sighed. "No, it's true," he said. Cosmo frowned. "Sorry," he said, and poofed away. "Timmy, don't worry about him, I'm sure that Vicky'll come over today," reassured Wanda. Timmy knew this wasn't true, but he appreciated Wanda's lying to him. He kindly ignored both of his godparents as he left his bedroom.

-Thursday- (continued)

"Timmy!"

As soon as the bus dropped him off, Timmy glanced down the sidewalk to see who else but Trixie running toward him, her crisp, pleated knee-length skirt flying around her slender legs. She was wearing Mary-Jane like shoes, not a single scuff on their dark brown surface. A girlish, innocent chest was hidden further by a beautiful handmade knit sweater, glittering somewhat, in Trixie's favorite shade of pink. Her hair was pulled from her face with barrettes, and her makeup was immaculate, each eyelash lengthened and curled so that they gracefully reached out to him from her half-moon shaped eyes. Trixie was dressed up.

Timmy stood still, and he heard Cosmo and Wanda whispering to each other on the cover of the notebook he held in his hand (Transformers; Wanda was a bright pink sportscar robot and Cosmo was a kid with green hair driving it). "OW!" they yelled unanimously when he slapped them with the flat of his palm.

Trixie, trying to disguise her panting, asked "What's wrong?" and delicately wiped a little sweat off her tanned brow. It caused her foundation makeup to streak noticeably. Timmy found he just wanted to walk away.

"Nothing's wrong, what do you want?" he snapped brusquely, trying to scare her away.

"Timmy, I just wanted to ask you...well..."

Luckily Chester's dad pulled up across the street, nearly hitting a mailbox. Trixie watched horrified as Chester exited the car, wearing flamingly gay attire. She looked behind her at her Crowd, watching her talk to Timmy. She looked at Timmy, desperate, and then at Chester, scared, and then at her people, smirking, and she walked away without a word.

Chester watched her walk away and slapped Timmy on the shoulder. "Jeez, what'd you say? Just walks away like that," he laughed, and pulled Timmy along with him to the door. Timmy noticed that, aside from the clothes, Chester hadn't really changed much after the outing thing. Unlike AJ, who was walking toward them in the distance.

Chester and AJ glared at each other. Timmy stood outside the door as Chester entered. "Timmy, come on," he begged from inside the building. "Ignore him. Please," Chester sighed, but Timmy held his ground. He refused to pick one gay friend over the other, especially because when he did play favorites, it usually ended up in one of them not only being angry at the other but also angry at HIM, and Timmy didn't enjoy being sucked into their little squabbles.

-

So, after lunch, Timmy got involved with one of Chester and AJ's little squabbles.

He was playing the middleman of notepassing, a very juvenile behavior, but when AJ and Chester were pushed to a certain point in their arguments, it was necessary. They refused to talk to each other, usually speaking through Timmy. Even Cosmo and Wanda had input;

"Wow, I wonder what happened. Don't they usually only pass notes through you when it's past the point of no return?"

"I'm not judgmental, but Timmy, this is really gay."

"Cosmo!!"

"No, it's alright Wanda...he's pretty much hit the nail on the head..."

Except then Timmy had to stop talking to them because people tend to stare at people who talk to their Transformers notebooks.

"Give this to AJ," whispered Chester, about five minutes after everyone finished staring at Timmy. It was math class. And it was boring. So Timmy sighed and humored his best friend, passing the note to Trixie and mouthing 'AJ'. She flirtatiously touched his fingers as she took the note, shamelessly allowing them to linger before she pulled her hand away. "Oooh," Cosmo giggled, and Timmy smashed his fist down on his notebook over his face.

This did not escape notice of the teacher, who was no Crocker, but rather strict in his own right. "You seem to be rather interested in your notebook today," he said, holding up Timmy's notebook with Cosmo's bruised face for all to see. "Maybe you should spend some extra time with it in the office." He tossed the notebook back on the desk and indicated the door. Timmy got out of his desk, wearing his dad's boots, and clomped out.

-

The hallway was lonely. Especially since after every class it was packed with stinky, greasy teenagers, and the smell of french fries and A&F perfume lingered ghostlike in the hallways after they went to class. Timmy wafted through the clouds of this scent, getting fainter as he neared the office. A clop of shoes followed him...he turned, and experienced immediate deja vu. Trixie was running toward him. She slowed to a walk when he met her eyes.

He waited for her to call out to him, but she was quiet. They walked soundlessly to the office together...outside the door, Timmy finally asked, "Why are you going with me?"

"I 'smart-mouthed' at Mr. after he sent you out. This is our last class together; I wouldn't have a chance to talk to you any other way," she explained. Timmy sighed, appreciatively, and decided that this time he wouldn't scare her away. He opened the door, and held it for her, the office lady giving them a look and motioning with her finger for them to sit down.

The office ladies were notoriously slack when it came to in-office class detentions. Being sent down to the office usually just meant that you missed a mind-numbingly boring class (such as geometry) and got to hang out in the office. The ladies even ignored texting and videogames while students sat in the office.

"Timmy," began Trixie, sitting beside him in a cushy turquoise chair. "I wanted to ask you...well, you know what I want to ask. Why I'm all dressed up." He stared at her. The office lady was glancing over with interest while talking on the phone. Timmy chose to feign naivete. "Trixie, I have no idea what you want to say," he said, and knew that it was a bad act because she shot him a look with an artfully plucked eyebrow raised. "Okay," he said, admittedly. "I know. But Trixie, don't you think..."

"Timmy," she cut him off, "there are two rumors going around that I know are not true."

There was a pause in which Timmy was supposed to go, 'What?', but he didn't. So she inhaled and continued. "One is that, since you hang around Chester and AJ, you are a homosexual. I know this isn't true," she assured Timmy when he started to laugh, "but it's what people are saying, and my image is completely built on what people say. The strange thing is, though, that there is another rumor going around..."

Again there was a pause when Trixie waited for Timmy to show interest. He didn't, because he could already guess what this second rumor was. So again Trixie was forced to hold herself up.

"...and this one is about your old babysitter, Vicky." (Timmy managed to convince most of the school's population that Vicky was no longer babysitting him, because fifteen year olds generally resent being treated as babies. Besides, if people heard about Timmy being babysat, they would assume things about his rather dysfunctional family life; '"I wonder what his parents are like?"' '"Do you think they beat him?"', etc..). "People say that you're in love with her. This rumor, I'm honestly not that sure about," she admitted.

Timmy didn't answer her, not wanting to lie to Trixie. After all, she'd gone to all this effort to look nice for him so that she could "ask him out" or whatever she was planning to do, and Vicky wasn't nearly as beautiful as Trixie, even Timmy saw this...

But Trixie just didn't understand the mechanics of love. She was emotionally sheltered and empty, knowing only happy, sad, infatuated, and angry...and visibly letting them show. Vicky was deeper. She let nothing of her soul out to Timmy, keeping it inside. 'Maybe,' Timmy liked to imagine, 'maybe she even hides her real self from that rich boyfriend of hers.' Vicky had substance. Vicky was intelligent. Timmy was nearly certain that Trixie was neither, "nice" as she was. All that she had was her beautiful face and the smell of money that came with mention of the Tang family, and some nice legs.

This wouldn't do for Timmy. He was aware that most unrequited love was ugly people falling in love with beautiful people, or dumb people falling in love with smart people, or emotionally barren people falling in love with perceptively philosophical people, or, in other words, useless people falling in love with the supposedly useful people. But Timmy didn't consider himself smart, and Trixie wasn't smart either. He didn't associate himself with the awkward, shy nerds who fawned over her, and he didn't associate himself with the stone-dumb jocks who asked Trixie to do their homework. He was confused as to why Trixie liked him now.

Then, Timmy realized...When he was infatuated with Trixie, he was even lower than her on the emotion-registering level. He had the mind of a rat and the body of one as well. She was so above him...and then he fell in love, in true love, REAL love that develops over time and patience, with Vicky. While wrapped in this love, he forgot all about Trixie for a long time. He discovered a deep and introspective side of himself that he'd never would of known was there if not for his "cruel" babysitter.

While infatuation and unrequited love usually involves two somewhat opposite persons, Love, Real Love, requires two of a like mind, even a like soul if you want to get spiritual. It was why Chester and AJ wouldn't work. It was why Mr. Crocker and Principal Waxelplax would never work. It was, inevitably, why he and Trixie would never work. They just couldn't register on the same level.

"Timmy?" Trixie said. "Timmy? You haven't answered me."

"You never asked a question."

"Don't be a smart-ass. I implied one."

"Ask me straight up, then."

"Straight up?" she was suddenly angry at him. "Fine. Are you in love with Vicky?"

Yes, Timmy nearly answered. "She's going to New York, nobody's going to see her again, and she hasn't babysat me for years." Every part of that sentence was true on some level...Vicky wasn't a babysitter in the true sense of the word. This seemed to satisfy Trixie, who was visibly pleased.

By now the office lady was staring intently at them and listening in rapture to their conversation. "Timmy, I would now like to ask you; do you want to pick me up tomorrow night and take me to a movie?" Trixie rested her chin daintily in her palm. She was so delicate and small. Timmy stopped himself from answering right away, and instead made himself look like he was having a hard time deciding what to say.

"Trixie, sorry, but..." he could see tears forming in her eyes. 'Quick, stupid,' he commanded himself, 'rescue your ass! Now! Think...a-ha! Sappy movie lines!' "...but it's too late to make a relationship together," he murmured in a husky voice, taking the hand holding her chin, "it's just too late. We come from completely different backgrounds, our families would clash and inevitably separate us."

"Oh, Timmy!" cried Trixie, to the delight of the office lady who was nearly in tears at this point, "We can make it work! And if not, we could elope! Run far away together, travel distant and sensational lands where no one will ever think to find us or judge us!" "That's the catch," continued Timmy, in a brilliant act of unmovable sobriety, "we shall–" mentally he scolded himself for using that word, but Trixie ate it up, "–never escape the judgement of the people who's eyes rest upon us. They will always question our...our love. We will never be at peace, no matter what brilliant and glorious lands we find ourselves in."

Her eyes brimmed and overflowed with melodramatic tears. She was sad. She was taking it seriously...just as Timmy planned. He hated to manipulate people, but he found that this was a necessary action. "Oh, Timmy," Trixie sobbed. The office lady cried gently with her, offering invisible support of the teenage heroine of this dramatic happening.

The bell wrang. Trixie and Timmy parted ways, her sobbing and rubbing her streaked eyes with her beautiful hand-knit sweater, and him smiling in glee. He'd escaped. He was free to live on. But, as he passed a final note between Chester and AJ before getting on his bus, Timmy wondered if he would regret his decision.