POV: Bart

I could not turn away from Evans brown eyes. It seemed liked the whole room just stopped for a second and no one was even breathing. Just like that though, the world started to move again and Bob looked between the two of us with a confused look on his face.

"I'm sorry but do you two know each other by chance?" He asked. I blinked a couple of times and realized that he was talking to both me and Evans. I cleared my throat and looked down at the table not knowing what to say.

'Damn! If I say I know him, Bob will want to know from where and if he knows from where then he will start to figure out some of my secrets.' I thought to myself.

"We know each other from his dad," Evans told Bob in an even voice. I looked at him and saw that he was giving Bob a charming smile that could rival his. He looked back over to me, with a raised eyebrow. "Isn't that right Bart?"

"Yeah…yeah man! That's where I know him from. Yeah, he and dad used to have a beer drinking contests and burping contests too!" I laughed nervously. Bob gave me an even more confused look and Evans slapped his forehead.

"Okay? Well, let me get you a glass of water, what was it…Evans? Then you can get back to work," Bob told him, pushing him over to the kitchen. I looked back down to the table and sighed, not sure what to do, because I was pretty sure that Bob saw right through Evans lie, thanks to me.

I heard Bob tell Evans goodbye and close the door softly behind him, his huge clown feet shuffled against the carpeted floor as he made his way back to the table. He sat back down and didn't say anything. I might not be the smartest kid out of the bunch but I knew when someone was staring me down.

I glanced up at him and saw that in deed he was. I cleared my throat awkwardly, sat up and looked him the eye.

'If people can say anything about Bart Simpson it's that I never back down from a stare contest.' I thought to myself. After about a minute without either of us blinking Bob gave a smile, I could not place what kind it was but it was defiantly close to a pissed one. I had to look away from his intense glare.

"Bart, I know that you and that gardener are lying to me. But the thing I find most confusing is why?" Bob asked me. I didn't look up at him this time, I just sat there hoping that somehow I would disappear into the floor boards and never come out again.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about," I whispered. Bob let out an angry growl and got up from the table without a word. He stomped up the stairs like a little kid and slammed his bedroom door. I sighed and got up, heading towards my room.

I paced around, thinking about if Evans being here could make my secrets come out.

'What if Evans says something to Bob on accident? Or what if Bob threatens Evans to tell him what he is hiding?' I thought as I pulled at my hair. I sat down on my bed and closed my eyes trying to get a hold of myself. I looked around the room, trying to find anything that could calm me down, my eyes landed on the picture of Maggie and me, resting on the nightstand.

I reached over and smiled down at the picture I held in my hands. I could almost hear Maggie's voice telling me that I shouldn't be acting like this and I should just suck it up and try to go talk to Evans. Placing the picture back where it was, I put on some shoes and headed down stairs.

As I opened the front door I shouted up to Bob that I was going out. I waited for him to shout some kind of insult or him running down the stairs telling me that I could not go outside without him being there. But there was nothing. Nothing but silence and that made me feel a bit lonely.

I closed the door behind me and walked around back to see if I could find Evans. The lawn mower was not on anymore so that meant that he must be doing something else. As I turned the corner of the big house, I heard a little meow in one of the bushes. I looked down and saw the biggest blues eyes staring up at me.

"What are you doing here little girl?" I asked as I picked her up. She gave me a soft meow, as if she was telling me why she was there; I softly laughed at her and held her tightly against my chest. The little black and white kitten settled against me and lied down in my arms. As I walked around looking for Evans, I kept talking to the little kitten. The more I talked to her the more she would meow at me, it was like she was actually listening and talking back.

"You know little girl you are a real sweetheart," I told her with a soft smile. It wasn't until I looked up, that I saw that I was in the part of the yard that was nothing but trees and shrubbery. I didn't have to look that far into the trees until I heard what sounded like giant scissors cutting through thick sheets of paper. I walked around a few more trees when I saw Evans reaching up with his sheers to cut off a branch.

It didn't take him long to realize that he had company. He turned around and gave me a small smile and went back to what he was doing. The little kitten jumped out of my arms and ran towards him like he was covered in milk or something. She rubbed against his leg and meowed up at him. Evans looked down at her and smiled. He put down his sheers and picked her up.

"Where have you been Boots?" He asked the kitten in a soft voice.

"Is she yours?" I asked him. Evans sat under a shade tree and placed 'Boots' on his lap.

"Yes, HE is mine," Evans chuckled. He looked up at me with that same smile from long ago and patted the space beside him. I smirked at him and sat down beside him. After a few minutes of neither of us saying anything I remembered what I came out here to talk about.

"What are you doing here Evans?" I asked him. I didn't mean to sound mean but I didn't know how else to ask.

"After I left Tornstone I was hired by Krusty to work on his lawn work, that's what I'm doing here," he told me with a smirk that I have never seen before but it had been a few years since I saw him last. I could see him getting another job for gardening but it still didn't make sense.

"I didn't mean that Evans, it's just why are you here right NOW?" I asked him. "Because Krusty told everyone to stay away from here while me and Bob are here didn't he?" His face took on a more guarded expression and he shook his head, like he was trying hard to keep a secret from me.

"Well Bart…you see…" he mumbled. He looked up at me with what looked like a sad expression. Evans cleared his throat about to say something but he was interrupted.

"Hello fellows," Bob called to Evans and me, I turned around and shot him a glare, telling him to go way but he just gave us a quick fake smile and reached down grabbing me by my upper arm and pulled me roughly to my feet.

"Well Evans you have done a great job at tending the lawn and you are welcome to stay a few nights but I don't think that you should be around the boy," Bob told him with his kindest, yet most intimating voice, I've ever heard. Evans dropped his head like he didn't know what else to do and nodded once. I looked up and saw that Bob was smirking. I could almost hear what he was thinking.

'I can still scare people shitless.' That's what his face said. I tried to jerk my arm out of his hand but that only got him angrier it seemed because he just gripped tighter and pulled me off my feet more than once on our way back to the house. When he finally had me inside he threw me inside and crossed his arms.

"What the hell Bob!" I yelled. I was pissed, I didn't want to be stuck inside the house with him I wanted to be outside helping Evans. Bob just shot me a glare and didn't move from in front of the door.

"You are not to talk to that man again," he told me an even voice. He didn't sound angry, in fact he sounded calm almost, and it was weird. In all the years I've known Bob he never sounded this calm with me. I took a step towards the front door and Bob took a step forward and blocked my way.

"I'm going back outside," I told him, looking up at him. I was not going to lose this stare off.

"And I told you not to talk to that man again," he told me a stubborn voice. I could feel myself getting angrier but I tried to stay calm like Bob was doing.

"And who said that I was going to talk to him because I didn't," I said. Bob just smirked and laughed at me.

"Do you honestly think I'm that stupid?" He asked me, with a smirk still present on his face. I didn't know what to say to that so I just stayed quiet, keeping my eyes on his. Bob took a step closer to me and leaned down so that he was looming over me.

"I know Bart Simpson that somehow you and this gardener are connected in some way, and God knows it's not because he and your father are friends, I can't even fathom that thought. No... what I think is, is that you know Evans from a different place, someplace that you loathed and still do…he is a part of your past that I need to figure out…isn't he Bart?" He asked me in a dark voice. I felt my face lose its color. It was the first time in a long time that I was scared out of my mind.

Without really thinking, I pushed Bob away from me and ran through the front door. I didn't hear him call my name if he did, my ears were turned off to everything, my whole body was on autopilot, the only thing I knew was that I was running and only one thing kept going through my mind.

'He can't find out what happened!'

POV: Bob

The boy looked up at me, with a scared expression that I had never seen before and that is saying something considering I tried to kill him several times. The color in his face was completely gone and he looked like he just saw a ghost. He pushed me out of the way and ran out the front door.

'Okay, I was not expecting that,' I thought to myself. I watched him run to the side of the house and out of my sight. I was right behind, I could not afford him getting hurt, and after all I would be the prime suspect. I shook my head at that thought and rounded the house but he was out of sight.

"Damn! Why does Krusty have to have such a large yard," I mumbled to myself. I ran over to where the gardener and Bart were earlier, only to find that neither of them was there. I sighed and ran around the hedges hoping to find one of them. As I rounded a corner I ran straight into a person and we both hit the ground.

I rubbed my head and looked up to see I had run into the gardener, cradling a scared looking kitten against his chest.

"Hello sir," he told me in a hushed and pissed off tone. I got up and held out a hand to help him up but he just pushed it aside.

"I am sorry good man," I told him while dusting off some dirt. He just gave a look and rolled his eyes.

"Yeah…well where were you going in such a rush?" He asked in a monotone voice. That's when I remembered who I was looking for.

"Well actually I was looking for you, hoping that Simpson was with you," I watched him carefully for his response. It seemed to catch his attention because his head snapped up and glared at me.

' Just what I was hoping for,' I thought to myself.

"What are you talking about?" He asked me with venom in his voice.

POV: Bart

My lungs were on fire and my breathing was gasps, and I was confused out of my mind but for some reason I didn't want to stop running. I had run to a part of the yard I had never been before and got myself stuck inside a maze. I kept running into walls of hedges, not sure where I should go next, I finally came to another dead end and that's where the tears came flooding out, bitter, angry tears.

It seemed like my autopilot shut itself off and my body collapsed on the ground of the maze. I don't know why I started crying it's not like that wasn't the first dead end I encountered in the maze but for some reason I got pissed off at myself. I felt like I was screw up, I couldn't do anything right.

POV: Bob

The gardener punched me across the face after I told him what had happened. I held my face in surprise and looked back at him. Not ever in my life had I ever faced someone that fierce looking and it even frightened me a little bit, not that I would ever admit that to anyone.

"You asshole! Do you have any idea what you have done?" He shouted. He was no longer cradling the kitten; he actually dropped it when he punched me. The gardener was pacing back and forth not sure what to do.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked him in the same tone he gave me. He shot me a look and stopped pacing.

"You don't have a clue do you?" He asked me. I just shrugged at him. He rolled his eyes at me and shook his head. "You just opened up a wound that should not have been opened." He didn't say anything else after that, he just ran off to look for Simpson. I sighed and pulled at my hair.

"My plan did not go as well I planned at all," I mumbled to myself. That's when I heard a little meow beside my foot. I looked down and saw that kitten looking up at me with what looked like a smug look.

"Everybody's a critic," I huffed and followed after the gardener.