Thank you for all of your amazing reviews!!! I was going to cut this chapter in half, but for some reason I just couldn't. So I hope you like it!!!

-

Chapter 4 : Are you afraid of the dark?

Booth scanned the list that was posted on the main bulletin board and crossed his fingers. He wasn't quite sure what he was hoping for. If he made the chorus he had to be in the school play, embarrassing but he would get to hang out with Bones; if he was cut he wouldn't have to be humiliated by being in the play but he also wouldn't have the excuse to see Bones all the time.

He sighed when he realized his name was at the very bottom of the list, with a star next to it indicating the director wanted to speak with him. Grabbing his bag, Booth walked down the hall and opened the door to the drama room.

"Ahh, Mr. Booth. Thank you for stopping by." The director indicated to a desk and Booth sat down. "Now, as a personal rule, I don't cut anyone from our schools productions. So you have a part in the chorus if you want it, however I was wondering if by any chance you might want to volunteer your services to the school play in any other way?"

"I don't understand, sir?" Booth just looked confused.

"You could partake in helping make costumes, or join the stage crew. I know as captain of the football team you wouldn't have much time for practice anyway. And the stage crew only is required to work with the cast starting the week before the production."

With how fast everything had happened with the bet, Booth hadn't even thought about how any of this would conflict with football.

Unaware of Booth's thoughts, the director continued. "The stage crew this year decided to meet during lunch and last period since it is a study for most students. And I know painting might not be your thing, but we do need some props to be built and we'll need strong hands when it comes to moving things during the play…"

"Alright, I'll do stage crew!" Booth lit up at the idea of getting out of the play and being able to spend time with Bones.

"Thank you Mr. Booth, you don't know how much I appreciate it. Really appreciate it."

-

Brennan walked through the door of her chemistry class and sat down in the same seat she had two days before. It's a shame that I don't have this every day, she thought. This new school was on some weird six day schedule that meant every few days she didn't get to have chem., which had been yesterday.

Taking out her books she began to look over her homework just to check that she hadn't missed anything, only looking up when the boy next to her sat down.

"Hi Hodgins." She smiled.

"Morning, Brennan. Did you see the stuff in the reading last night, or really the lack of stuff. I think they left out some of the most important parts of the definitions!"

Brennan just shrugged at Hodgins, not really paying attention to him because at this point the classroom was beginning to fill. She knew that class would be starting soon and she didn't want to miss anything.

But not noticing this, Hodgins continued. "I have this theory. See, they're slowly putting less and less information into the textbooks they give us, until soon there's not really going to be anything thing left. The administration just wants to turn us into mindless zombies so they can use us how they want, seeing as how we won't be able to do anything else because we'll be uneducated morons!"

Shaking her head at Hodgins, Brennan turned her attention to the front of the classroom where Mr. Laint was starting to talk.

"Morning all. I hope you had a nice break from chemistry and I trust that you all remembered to do you homework." Brennan noticed more than a few panicked faces when he said this. "Which is why I'm going to give you until the end of class to turn it in. Just in case some of you choose to 'review' your homework during class today instead of paying attention. Now if you would all—"

The door swung open, as an out of breath Booth ran into the classroom.

"Thank you for joining us Seeley. If you would please take a seat and like I was saying, open you textbooks to page 97."

Booth walked through the rows of lab tables heading towards his normal seat. But was stopped when he got there due to a very oblivious Brennan sitting in his chair. Realization slammed into to Booth that he had missed chem. on her first day, leaving his seat open for her to claim as her own. He reluctantly turned around and scanned the room for another empty seat.

Forty minutes later class let out and Booth wandered over to Brennan's seat while she finished her conversation with Mr. Laint. As Brennan made her way back to her stuff, Booth picked up her books.

"Ready to go Bones?" He asked with a smile.

"Don't call me that." She tried to grab her books from Booth as he walked away from the desk to the door. "And why are you carrying my books?"

Booth stopped in front of the door and sighed. "Because Bones," He smiled at the face she made. "I want to and it's a nice thing to do for a girl. Now come on or we are going to be late."

Brennan growled in frustration, but had to run out the door because Booth had already left. Mr. Laint just stood in the front of the classroom shaking his head. Those two, he smiled, maybe I should have made them keep their detentions. It would have been interesting to have them stuck here together all Saturday.

Brennan caught up to Booth fairly quickly and made another grab for her books. But Booth just turned slightly, causing her to grab him instead of her books. Quickly removing her hand, Brennan sighed.

"Booth, this is ridiculous. We're going to two different places so it doesn't make sense for you to carry my books. And besides, I am perfectly capable of carrying them myself."

"I know you are, Bones, but I just want to because you deserve someone to do something nice for you." Brennan stopped and Booth turned to face her. "And anyway, we are going to the same place. Now come on, I don't want to be late; otherwise we'll get stuck with some crappy job, like painting a tree or something."

Just as he finished, the bell indicating the start of the next period rang.

Brennan shrugged. "Fine let's go." Booth grinned victoriously. "But only because we're late and I don't have time to prove you're wrong."

Looking at her as they walked into the theater, Booth smiled. "I'll take what I can get."

Brennan just rolled her eyes and made her way over to Angela who was standing in the middle of the stage directing some people on what to do. As they made their way up the stairs, Angela sent the other kids off and turned to her friend.

"Sweetie, just because I am stage manager doesn't mean I can cut you extra slack."

"The only reason I'm late Ange is because Booth wouldn't give me back my books."

A guilty Booth smiled up from where he was putting down their stuff.

"Oh well that's fine then." Angela beamed at her friend. "So he's carrying your books! You have to admit that is so sweet of him."

"No, it's actually quite annoying because apparently I am incapable of carrying them myself!"

Angela just shook her head at them and then got a genius idea. "Whatever you say, but since you two were late I'm going to have to send you guys down into the basement to get some plywood so we can build this platform thing."

"Alright, where in the basement is it?" Booth asked, appearing next to Brennan.

"It should be by that old storage closet where they keep some of the gardening stuff."

"Right, let's go Bones." Booth grabbed Brennan's arm and tugged her towards the backstage exit, before she could even say anything.

-

As they reached the bottom of the stairs and looked down the long dark tunnel, Booth turned his head and looked at Brennan.

"You're not afraid of the dark are you? Because if you are, you can hold on to me. If it would make you feel any better."

Brennan was going to make some snide remark back, but she realized that he wasn't giving her his usual flirty charm smile. He was actually looking concerned for her.

So she just shook her head. "No, there's not much that scares me."

He smiled at her before starting down the hallway mumbling. "Should have figured."

Brennan followed Booth down the hall until they reached a closet, that she assumed to be the gardening closet.

"Alright Bones, start looking for plywood. It should be around here somewhere."

Lifting boxes and peaking around old filing cabinets, they looked everywhere for the plywood.

"Booth, are you sure this is where she said it would be?" Brennan said with her hands on her hips.

"Yes, that's the gardening closet so it should be around here somewhere. Maybe it's in the closet?"

Booth opened the door and they both walked in. Brennan pulled the string to turn on the light and started to look around.

"I don't see it anywhere." She kept looking around. "Booth, stop that!"

"Stop what?"

"Stop brushing up against my leg like that."

She turned to smack him away, but realized that he was still by the door looking at the shelves there. Brennan looked down to her feet to see a snake slithering around her leg. Trying to kick it off, she ran over to Booth.

A slightly confused, but happy Booth (since she had run into his arms) ushered Brennan out of the closet. She still held on to him as he closed the door.

"Bones, are you okay? Did the snake bite you?" Booth looked at Brennan, who just shrugged in his arms. "Let me look at your leg."

Booth started to bend down to look for a snake bite, but was unable to.

"Uh…Bones, you're going to have to let go so I can see if you're hurt."

Brennan blushed and mumbled, as she let go of Booth. "Right, sorry."

Booth smiled to himself as he began to look over her leg. However, his smile quickly vanished when he saw two bite marks on her calf.

"We need to get you to the nurse's office." He said as he stood up. "Do you think you can walk?"

"I'll be fine." She said as she began to limp down the hallway.

Worried that she might hurt herself, Booth grabbed her hand and put it around his neck and placed his arm around her waist.

"I said I was fine Booth."

"Just amuse me Bones."

-

Brennan sat on one of the tables in the office waiting for the nurse to return with a bandage. Booth sat across from her looking at her smugly.

After unsuccessfully ignoring him for five minutes Brennan looked at him. "What?!?"

"Nothing," Booth shrugged. "I just thought you weren't afraid of anything."

"No I said not many things scare me. Actually, I think snakes are pretty much it."

The door opened and the nurse walked back in with some bandages in hand. As she began to cover the bite mark, Booth turned to the nurse.

"Now you're sure she will be fine?"

The nurse rolled her eyes. "As I told you before, multiple times, it was non-venomous so I simply had to clean it to prevent any possible infections. Her leg might be sore to walk on for a little bit, but she will be fine."

Standing up the nurse turned to Brennan. "No strenuous activity. Keep it clean and you should be fine."

Walking over to her desk the nurse wrote out two notes on a sheet of paper and handed them the notes. "Those are notes for your teachers for being late to class. Hope you feel better."

Booth and Brennan walked out of the office and down the hall.

"We should probably head over to the theater to grab our books and then head to class." Brennan said.

"Hey Bones, you know she didn't actually put a time on these things. So technically we could just skip this period and show it to our teachers later." Booth smiled at Brennan as they entered the theater and walked down the aisle.

"You can do that Booth, but I don't want to miss any more of lit than I have to. And don't try to use that smile to convince me otherwise."

Picking up her books, Brennan made her way out into the hallway, only to have Booth take her books from her. "Hey!"

"The nurse said no strenuous activity, Bones."

Brennan just shook her head in annoyance, but decided not to fight it, knowing he would win either way. It didn't matter since her classroom was only about two doors away.

"Well I'll see you later." Brennan grabbed for her books, but Booth held them above her reach.

"That's all I get? After helping you and staying with you in the nurse's office." Booth tried to look offended, but he was enjoying the picture of Brennan trying to reach for her books; it was too adorable.

"Fine. Thank you for your assistance Booth. I don't know what I would have done without you." She threw up her hands in the air. "Oh wait, I know. I wouldn't have been late and Angela wouldn't have made me go into the basement. Which means I never would have gotten bitten in the first place!"

Booth drops his hands and gave Brennan her books. "You're right. Sorry Bones." And he walked down the hall towards his own class.

Sighing, Brennan looked after Booth. "Booth. Wait! I didn't mean it."

But her attempt was drowned out by the sound of the bell and classes letting out.

TBC...

-

So....whatcha think??? Any ideas on what Brennan should do to cheer up Booth? ;-) Please Review!