Right, I'm continuing! Thank you for reviewing, Ali6132 (I totally agree about Courtney – someone chose that song for her in a TDI Character Theme Songs video on YouTube, which I did one of – only I used "White Horse" by Taylor Swift for Courtney...and on the subject of other characters, you'll just have to find out), Datgirl45, and the guest reviewer.

The next morning, Alejandro delivered my water quota – he usually was only on duty in the morning. He gave me a sympathetic smile as he locked the door again. "How are you?" he asked in his usual way.

"Not bad." I admitted. I hadn't truthfully been able to say that, but being out of the room for an hour had definitely made me feel better. As I spoke, I remembered something I'd heard yesterday.

"By the way," I said shyly, "Would you mind if you kept things a little more...platonic? Thing is, sometimes it almost feels like...flirting, and yesterday, everyone said that you have a girlfriend."

Alejandro looked hurt. "Flirting? I've only been trying to be courteous to you, Brooklyn. I was extending the same courtesy to you as I would to all women."

I felt incredibly guilty. "I'm sorry." I mumbled. "It's just...you seemed to find unecessary ways for us to touch. I would rather you didn't do that."

Alejandro still looked very hurt, like I'd maimed his pet kitten or something, but he nodded and said "As you wish. I apologize if I caused you discomfort. It's simply part of my culture, so it is a habit which is hard to break." Then he left, with me still feeling like I'd been the mean one.

Gwen came in to let me out for a while at the beginning of the morning. She gave a small smile as she opened the door. "You're allowed out." she said. "Not outside yet, but anywhere inside. Scott says he doesn't mind watching you again." She paused and then whispered "By the way, I've never seen Scott acting like this, but I think he likes you."

I jumped. "R-really? He actually does this because he likes me?"

"Well, I mean I've never seen him act the way he does around you." Gwen amended. "But when you're not around, he wanders around whistling and smiling all the time, and sometimes he seems to be daydreaming. The last time he did that, it was because he was developing a crush on Courtney. But that time, he was really shy and awkward about it. I think it's a good sign that he's more relaxed around you. I've never seen any guy offer so much innocent physical affection."

"So..." I whispered. "Why are you telling me? Is it really a good idea?"

"You deserve to know." Gwen replied, starting to lead me down the hallway. "I remember when I was about sixteen and nearly lost my shot at my first crush because I was too nervous. Scott has a lot of layers over his heart, but you'll gain my respect for ever if you can get to it."

Scott didn't act any different to me, but I still saw him in a new light. Him having a crush on me opened my eyes. Although he was the least attractive of the three guys, I couldn't help admiring his toned arms and the clearly defined muscle showing through his T-shirt. Every time we touched a little bit, I started to feel electricity. He did the stretching trick again today, but this time, he moved his arm a little further down, so that if he reached around, he'd touch somewhere I'd have to slap him for. I don't know if he was going to.

I looked at him when he did that, and he seemed to understand what I was thinking. "C'mon, chill, sweetheart." he said casually. "It's not like I'm groping you or anything."

Courtney glared over at us. "Scott, whatever you're doing, could you keep it outside of this room? I don't want to hear what you are or aren't doing to that ditz!"

I wasn't sure how to respond to that, but Scott spoke before I could. "First, if she was a ditz, I'd leave her to be one of Alejandro's conquests, and second, you're just jealous that she's prettier than you!"

Courtney gasped, and so did I. I looked up at the ginger boy. "Conquest?"

Scott pulled me closer protectively. He whispered the explanation to me. "You've probably noticed that Alejandro's been flirting with you. Yeah, he has a girlfriend, and it seems like he does love her, but that's never stopped him." I nodded. "Well, he likes to pick just anyone he can find and try to win them. Eventually, he'll either sweet-talk them into letting him, uh, 'conquer' them, or he'll go only so far that the girl is too far gone to even think of stopping him, and then he'll finish off with them. And that's it – usually the girl never sees him again. Courtney's just bitter because she was one of those girls. He tried it on with Gwen, too, but she told him straight that she wasn't interested and he decided she wasn't interesting or attractive enough to continue pursuing."

I narrowed my eyes. "So do you know everything about everyone here?"

"Yeah, I do." Scott grinned mischievously. "I've known 'em for a while – Gwen's the only one who graduated from high school before Duncan persuaded her to join up – and if I didn't make sure I knew their secrets as well as the obvious stuff, how else could I survive? And," he smirked, "It comes in useful if I want to annoy them. Like Duncan hates it if anyone points out his soft side, Alejandro can't stand being called Al, Courtney gets set off if people ignore her, and Gwen gets really miserable whenever our reputation is mentioned, since she considers herself the nice one. I mean", he added quickly, "Not like I want to annoy them all the time, but I can't help it sometimes."

I couldn't help sighing. I wish Gwen hadn't said anything about him having a crush on me. He could tell that I disliked what I was hearing, and that was why he'd said that. I had to be honest – I liked the way he looked, and it was nice that he'd told me about Alejandro...but after he'd said that, I knew I couldn't ever like him as a person. Who would like a manipulator? Sure, I wanted to annoy people...occasionally, but I'd never done it. And I'd never tried to find out anyone's secrets, either.

I didn't say much else for the rest of my time out of my room. Scott offered to take me back after a while, and so he did, but I didn't say a word to him as we went back. He seemed to take the hint and left me in there alone, leaving me to think.

I've just thought of a plot bunny! Okay, that's good. So the filler will be over for now! Let's see what happens. Please review!