Er... this chapter is mosty about Nuo's slight 'crush' on Ray... Thanks for reviewing, I really appreciate it. always makes me log in each time when I press 'Log In' even when I've signed in before for three days... it's really bugging me...

Oh yeah, while you're reading this chapter, I have a small 'joke' for all of you, my sister's friend told this and now I want to share it with you! I'm not sure if you're heard it, but... just for the sake!

Okay, make a silly 'sentence' with the words green, pink and yellow in that order. My sentence will be at the end of this chapter!

Chapter 14

Recruitment

"Ray!" I screamed joyfully at the top of my lungs, once I recognised the messy black hair of his amongst the crowd of other people in the basketball court. With several school days and lunches without the presence of him; I finally realised that I was lonely as ever without me even knowing despite Tala and all my other friend's company.

He winced at the sound of my voice and noticed me running up to him. He smiled. "Nuo!"

I jumped up and down on my spot, giggling non-stop, all bouncy and wacky. "How'd your game go?" I asked, sort of squirming around; my hand latched onto my forearm behind my back, a really, really, really bad habit when I get extra nervous and tense.

"It was okay, we won!" He exclaimed cheerfully, showing his pearly white toothy smiles. I gasped. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Me? I-I-I'm okay." I stuttered, scratching the back of my head as Ray packed his bags and took a long gulp of water from his bottle. They had just had a refreshing game of basketball during lunch. I could see the sweat on Ray's exposed and slight muscular arms glistening in the hot sun like before. I stared, hard.

"I heard you auditioned for the drama Club, how did that go?"

I was brought back to reality and I turned to him. "Eh? Oh, that…. Er…. I didn't get the part of Juliet as I hoped, but I got the part of the guy who sells Romeo the poison he uses to kill himself!" I said cheerfully.

Ray blinked. "I see. Isn't that better? You don't have to memorise too many lines."

I blinked too. "You're absolutely right, Ray, everything you say is absolutely positively righty-o. You know, that's what I was also thinking about, wah! We have so much in common – we're meant for each other – I mean we're… uh…. We.. uh… have so much in common! Er… black hair…" I pointed to my hair and his, and smiled, but I dropped it. Who am I trying to kid? "…. And stuff?" I blurted nervously, eyes glued onto the floor; teeth clattering, you know, all those horrible symptoms of when you were in 'love, fortunately these did not include having 'googly' eyes.

I pouted as we sat beside each other on the bench. Ray 's totally oblivious to me – what? What in the world am I thinking? Baka baka Nuo! I don't want our friendship to end either! I don't want it to be ruined! I don't really know him; I just know that I can talk to him unlike how I am towards Kai. He's attentive and generous, what else could I possibly want? Such a good friend should be cherished! Get those thoughts out of your mind, Nuo, and think of him as a good friend from now on!

"Oh, I just remembered." Ray said suddenly, smiling again. "I want to show you something, come with me." He got up from the bench and walked, then stopped, and turned to me. "Aren't you coming, Nuo?"

Hunh? He was talking to me? I got up and brushed myself, before following him meekly.

"Come on, we haven't got the whole of lunch!" He grabbed my arm gently (squeals with delight – he's holding my hand! Wow!) and led me down from the hillside outside the court and behind the theatre building. The grass seemed cleaner here than back at the court which was packed with students, whereas here, it was peaceful and quiet. The wind blew past and the dandelions and daisies waved and danced along in the breeze. It also smelt a lot fresher.

"Why are we here?" I asked, as Ray sat down. He motioned to me to sit beside him. I sat down and stared at the blue sky.

"It's peaceful here, we can have long talks like this whenever we like." He said as he lay down with his arms behind his head.

And then I remembered Kai. That very awkward conversation I had with him several weeks ago right when I arrived here. I hadn't seen him much these days, I sort of wanted to see him…. Again. I shook my head. Nyah! Don't think about that jerk! I just sat still there.

"Does the gates still open after school?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah."

"What about the rest of the buildings?"

"Oh, the doors get locked after six o'clock."

I was staring at the fence just down at the end of the hill; it leaded back to the neighbourhood behind the school. I got up and walked over eagerly; Ray opened an eye and looked at me, but I was too curious to notice and I stared at the small gap between the fence and the buses, and the somehow conveniently ripped part of fence leading down to the shops near the neighbourhood. I smiled.

"Ray…. You've just solved my dilemma."

"Huh? What dilemma? You didn't ask me anything I couldn't answer." He replied as he sat back up.

I rejoined and smirked to myself. He noticed and a flick of worry wandered over his features. "Nuo?"

I grinned at him. "I'm okay, really. In fact, I'm really, really, really glad you took me here, Ray. Thanks."

He went a bit red. "Uh… no problem. I don't think anyone else comes here during lunchtime, we could just keep this area to ourselves." He finished quietly, looking away from me.

"I like that." I replied back with a small smile in the soft tone as he looked back at me. "I like that a lot."

In that case; he turned even redder and sort of tapped his finger on his forehead, chuckling awkwardly.

"What?" I asked anxiously, arms flailing. I just realised how uncomfortable he seemed to look. "Was it something I said? I'm so sorry, Ray!"

"No, it's not that." He said cheerfully. "It's just… I er…. I feel a bit…. " He turned back into his weird self again.

"Uncomfortable?" I suggested.

"No, of course not…" He muttered.

"Nervous?"

"Sort of." He replied.

"Tense?"

"A bit?" He added.

"Squirmy?"

"What does that mean?"

"Er…. You feel shaky, then?" I asked.

"Not really…. It's a pleasant and warm feeling…. I don't know how to describe it…. But…."

I stared at him right in the eye. "(serious tone) Look into my eyes, Ray…. and tell me, (childish tone) I'm your friend, you can tell me everything!" I said happily.

"Just…. A friend?" he uttered.

In this case, I looked at him. He looked serious again. I gulped and also shrank back slightly. "Er… I didn't quite hear that, sorry…" I said quickly.

Ray looked away once more. "Never mind." He sounded…. disappointed, and I cocked my head in confusion.

Back at home….

The Kai Voodoo doll lay abandoned. I didn't even know where it went – only that it had become easy prey to the boy brats as I would've hoped – I gasped in horror as I saw the Kai Voodoo doll riding on the back of Laney's toy novelty rocking horse. I let her play with it for a while longer and then snatched it off her when she went down from her room to get cookies in the kitchen. Only three more weeks left of practice for the play and I haven't had much progress with the Revenge-On-Daneira plan. So far the junk just lay unused under a pile of old magazines in the corner of my room, I only knew that I would be using the fence and small gap to hide my stuff as I carry out my plan. I hadn't even thought about telling my friends either – which I should…

"Okay, now tell me, what exactly is this plan?" Nana asked as she sat down beside me on the sofa.

"Alright, but you got to promise, you won't tell a soul."

"Why? You're going to do something bad, aren't you? Wait until your parent's hear about this, young lady!" Nana said angrily with her hands on her hips.

I got up from the sofa. "Fine, I won't tell you then."

Nana blinked. "Wait! Maybe we can negotiate, then?" She smiled nervously at me.

"You just can't help yourself, can you, Nana?" I said slyly.

She flushed a bit. "Fine, I won't tell your parents at all."

"It's not that, I'm only going to get my revenge on Daneira." I replied as I sat back down.

Nana snorted with laughter. "Revenge? You? At this age? Aren't you over-reacting?" She slapped me lightly on the back.

"Hmmm, let me think." I said sarcastically and I pretended to be lost in thoughts. "No," I replied flatly. "Daneira's had her revenge on me loads of times, it's not fair."

"Can't you both just talk instead?" She suggested. "I remember back at my school days, there was a girl whom I couldn't get on with well at all, but then we just talked and everything came okay between us, it was just a misunderstanding."

Now it was my turn to laugh, and then I turned stern. "Serious, Nana, are you on a different planet or something? Like as if Daneira would ever use some of her precious time to speak to someone in the status like me. Daneira is the most popular girl in school, despised, but popular, no-one dares to 'defy' her, but I will! And she ain't those kinds to listen to people either."

"But it doesn't have to turn out this way!" Nana called as I got up and ran back up to my room. "You'll regret it!"

"Yeah right!" I yelled down the stairs. "I will get my revenge!"

One week later (that's three more weeks to the actual play)…

"Er… guys?" I said nervously, walking up to them at the bench. They all stopped chatting and made room for me to sit.

"Hey Nuo, still feeling down in the dumps?" Tala patted my arm reassuringly and I bit my lip.

"Don't worry, there's always next year." Hilary said.

Max smiled. "Yeah, that's right."

"No, it's not that." I moaned. "I… Promise you won't tell anyone?"

Tyson and Kenny looked at each other, Ray blinked and Pyrrha stopped slurping her ice cream.

"Is this involving the play?" She asked.

"Sort of. Now promise?" I said quietly, my left eye twitching and shifting again.

Tala rolled his eyes. "What is it?"

"I'm going to get my revenge."

Their eyes widened and I braced myself. Immediately there was a hubbub of voices amongst the bench.

"Wow! Can I help you?"

"Revenge on who?"

"Who cares? This'll be fun!"

"I'm going to get revenge on Daneira, she's made me like a total clown that I want to make her look like a total clown during the play."

They all laughed. "Daneira, huh?"

I nodded.

"Sure, we're in."

"You promise not to tell anyone?"

"Promise."

I smiled. "You guys are such good friends. You can be my back up crew, what we need is a plan on how to get Daneira all alone during the play, and I think I've already got that sussed out….."

We moved to an empty classroom to discuss our plans and we sat all in a circle after moving some of the desks. Tyson was giggling when he heard what my plan was going to be; Tala and Ray looked impressed and Hilary and Kenny looked slightly thoughtful.

The door opened and Miriam stepped in. "Hey guys, what are you doing huddling up against the corner like that, I – oomph!" we grabbed Miriam before she could say a word and we ushered her. Max looked around and then shut the door, before sitting back down beside Miriam.

"What's happening?" She gasped as we all crowded round, looking at one another, then at me. I nodded.

"Okay Miriam, promise you won't tell anyone?"

"Er… Yeah? Just tell me what you're doing." She said, brushing Max off her who just smiled apologetically at her (yet we all stared at them with interest).

"Okay, Kenny," I said clapping my hands together. "Fill her in. We'll need another member in our plan."

--0--

Alright, here's my sentence...

"Green, green green, you hear the phone, pink it upand say 'Yellow!' (Ring, ring, ring, you hear the phone, pick it upand say 'Hello!')

Okay that was pointless, lol... Please review...