Chapter 12: Things are Getting Tough

Authors note: This ones going to be written in three sections, one for each of the three relationships. This is the only one I did not write linearly, I wrote the first section, then the third and finally the second.

Sorry this took so long, was planning other things ^^.

[T]

Tommy took a deep breath and knocked a few times on Lil's door. There was no answer so he pushed it open slightly and peeped his head round. Lil's room was clean, spotless in fact, and she was sitting with her back to him on the computer. Tommy had already forgotten the words of warning Betty had told him. He walked in, through the room and leaned over to touch her on the shoulder.

The second he had, Lil's head turned and she grabbed it, throwing him to the floor. Tommy, who was taken off guard, hit the ground with force. "Crap!" Lil gasped, getting off her chair. "Sorry Tommy, you made me jump!"

Tommy got up and rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed (he had just been floored by a cheerleader!), "Wow, Lil," he said, after a second, smirking and raising his eyebrow. "You're no pushover."

"Well, with Phil ambushing me constantly when we were younger and my mom insisting I learn judo," she shrugged. "You pick things like that up. Are you alright?"

"Yes," Tommy said, brushing himself off. "Don't worry about me," he said. "I'm a guy, I'm supposed to be able to take things like this."

"Uh huh," she mocked. There was a seat beside Lil that had already been set up. "Come here then."

Tommy looked around the room. He was surprised to see that it was divided up into two sections. On the right were her clothes, cheerleading, ice skating and everything like that, though on the right were piles and piles of books and notepads, which looked full due to the writing that was visible on the side of the pages. "You've got a lot of books, Lil," Tommy commented. For fucks sake, he thought, really Tommy, going with that one, commenting on books…However, to his surprise, Lil laughed.

"I suppose," she said. "My mom buys them for me."

Tommy settled into the chair next to Lil. The minutes went by as they went through countless formulae. Tommy sighed. "It's times like this that I wish I had a car," he mumbled to himself.

"Why?" Lil asked.

"I just want to drive to one of those drive in movies," he said, throwing his pen up in the air and catching it in between his fingers. "I've always wanted to."

"Brad took me to one of those," Lil told him. Tommy's face sunk slightly, but he turned away to hide it. "Hey, wanna see something cool?" he asked. Tommy turned back and raised his eyebrow. Lil laughed and threw the pencil up the air and caught it, sideways on, in her mouth.

"Nice," Tommy said, nodding. Lil winked. "You're like one of those trained seals at the circus!"

"Shut up," she joked, pushing him.

Not again… Tommy thought. There was a song spinning its way around his head. See, he had been watching Shrek 2 before he came here (and he didn't know why, it sucked), but the song at the beginning were stuck in his head; accidentally in love. He supposed that it was relevant to the way things were going, but it was still annoying.

[P]

God damn it, Phil thought, I'm so bored! Phil was outside with Nat and all of her friends. Nat had brought her skateboard with her, and the people around her were doing various tricks whilst he was lying on his back on a bench nearby. It wouldn't be a problem if he could do it, but he'd never wanted to.

He looked over to the group in their cliché clothing. His eyes met Nat as he scanned the crowd. Maybe this was a good idea; he had decided that Kimi must be well out of his league as, well, they had known each other for a long time and nothing had happened, so it must be for the best that he ended up with Nat, who was more his level (maybe that sounded a little shallow because it definitely did in his head).

Nat walked over to him and he sat up. "Hey," she said, leaning over and kissing him. That was one advantage of Nat, they had only been together for three days and they were already kissing often. That's not to say she was a slut, maybe she was, but she was quick to things without any embarrassment. "Were you sleeping?" she asked.

"Maybe a little," he laughed, stretching his arms out over his head. "I didn't get much sleep last night," he lied. Probably not a good idea to tell the truth at this point in the relationship, he thought.

He still missed Kimi, he still wanted to be with her and he was still pissed off with Edward and himself for being so painfully inadequate. Phil leaned up and looked at Nat, well this is pretty cool, he thought. Phil didn't know whether or not he hated Kimi's relationship with Edward was because he was better than him, or if it was Kimi herself and he would be like this with anyone.

"Why don't you learn how to board, Phil?" Nat asked.

Phil smiled. "Too scared," he joked. "Too much work, too. No thanks, I'd like to keep my feet on the ground!"

"Fair enough," she shrugged. "But you're missing out."

Phil raised his eyebrow as she left back to the group. Something was eating at Phil's brain at the moment. So, in response, he picked up his phone and texted the one person who he really wanted to see.

[K]

Kimi pushed open the door to the music room and saw Edward sitting at the grand piano in the middle room. "What is it, Edward?" she asked. Edward had texted her to rush down to the music room and she had been as quick as she could. It was after school and she was still here to finish some homework, Edward had said that he would wait for her.

"I wanted to try something," he said, looking through the open lid. "Come here," he smiled, gesturing over to the long seat.

Kimi walked over and sat beside him. "I don't play piano," Kimi lied.

"Yeah," Edward joked. "I've run the marathon five times." After a few seconds pause, he continued. "Play something for me."

"But I don't play!"

"Then maybe it will just come to you," Edward told her, sure of himself. Edward watched her intently as she sat and rested her hands on the piano. "Yep, you play…" he smiled.

"How do you know?" Kimi asked. "Or, how did you know?"

"Saw you tapping on your leg," he explained. He looked at her face, she was raising her eyebrow. "Anyway," he said. "Play something."

Kimi sat and played through some things she had written, Edward pressed a key, high up. "What's the progression?" he asked.

"Eight bars per," she explained. Her face was lighting up as she sat doing what she loved. "In the key of 'A sharp', then G, then F, the d sharp and finally back to A."

"Ok," Edward said, and started playing along. "You're good," he told her. "Actually, you're better than that."

"Thanks," Kimi said. "You're going back to X in four days."

"I know," he said.

"What was you're school like?" Kimi asked.

"Well, if you like violence, drugs and kids who have been in juvenile hall since they were born, then great," Edward explained.

"Seriously?" Kimi gasped.

"Yeah," Edward said. "The only interesting thing, really, in my life back there is the safety patrol."

Kimi smirked. "Are you a hall monitor, Edward?" Kimi asked, sticking her tongue out. "Down to D now," she told him.

"Ok," Edward said, moving his hands slightly down the piano. "And no," Edward told her. "Fillmore, Ingrid and I are about the only ones who aren't though."

"What do you do?"

"Well, Fillmore and Ingrid are detectives," he explained, "and I am aware of how juvenile are ridiculous that sound but they have put a few people in prison, or at least got the evidence to do so. I was almost killed once."

"No you weren't!" Kimi gasped.

"Seriously," he said, nodding. "I was involved in a gang, and they beat the crap out of me when they realized that I was a spy."

"So what do you then?" Kimi asked after a second thinking about Edward's school. "Are you an undercover… person?" Kimi was reluctant to say agent, or spy, because it felt condescending and didn't want to offend.

"Not exactly," Edward said. "As your brother has probably told you, I'm a hacker. I hack into people's computers at school and steal their information, and I was the youngest legal private investigator for a while."

"Wow," Kimi marveled. "What was it like? Getting to know all the information about so many people?"

"Pretty fun," Edward laughed. "I hacked into your brother's computer a few times. See, he and I were talking on various image boards and IRCs before I came here. His nickname was TheMightyChuck, which I thought was pretty ridiculous at the time."

"TheMightyChuck?" Kimi repeated, giggling. "I'm never going to let that go when I get home!" Kimi paused. "What was your nickname, or did you have many?"

"Well, on my website I was always Edward Johnson, and my computer was completely protected so if someone tried to find out where I live it would be in, well, south China at the moment," he explained. "However, when I posted on other sites I was always Xavier."

"Why Xavier?"

"When I was undercover, the name I was given was Xavier," he shrugged. "I guess I liked it so I stuck with it."

"It seems like a fun life you lead," Kimi smiled.

Edward hummed. "Why didn't you tell me straight away that you played the piano?" he asked. "I mean, if you had just started and didn't want to make a fool of yourself then I could understand, but you are quite obviously good."

"I just don't want people to think I am rubbish," she sighed.

Edward raised his eyebrow. "Under confidence," he said, as if he was mulling it over. "Interesting." Kimi smiled. She felt her phone buzz in her pocket and frowned, she wasn't expecting any messages from people. "Phone?" Edward asked.

"Yep," Kimi said, taking it out of her pocket and reading it.

It read: "Hi Kimi. Sorry u had to stay at school for work :(, what are you up to now? Want to meet up later?" and was from Phil.

"Who's it from?" Edward asked.

Kimi looked up. "You know who it's from," she told him.

"Yeah," he replied, rubbing the back of his head. "What does Phil want?"

Kimi frowned, not replying for a second. Then, without replying, she slipped the phone back into her pocket. "Nothing important," she said, and started playing piano again.

End of Chapter 12

The PhilxNat and TommyxLil sections were too short, I know, but I ran out of ideas. The main part of this chapter was supposed to be the KimixEdward section and Phil's reaction. I hope you enjoyed it, though, and don't forget to review!

P.s: this will be the last chapter for a while.