Atticus Rosenbloom had three friends on the planet: His brother, Jake, his best friend, Dan and Dan's sister, Amy who was part friend, part sister, part mentor and, part crush. 13-year-old Atticus' had recently started at Harvard along with his brother and Amy. Atticus and Amy were both freshmen, though Amy was 18 and a traditional student, where as he was a child-prodigy and a bonified genius with a 200 IQ. Atticus, Jake, Dan and Amy had spent the better part of the last two years together and he often thought of the four of them as siblings, though, for Amy and Jake, that analogy wasn't exactly right since they were dating. Att didn't care, it felt wonderful to have all of his friends surrounding him all the time. He had never felt more wanted and cared for in his life. They actually liked him and never treated him like some freak of nature like most of the kids his own age.

Amy had enrolled in Intro to Latin and needed a study partner. Jake had suggested Atticus take on the job since he was a Latin scholar in his own right. So, every Tuesday evening, Amy ordered pizza and she and Atticus holed up in the library at Attleboro and he helped her study. Atticus would rather have died than admit that Tuesday evenings were his favorite night in the whole world. How many 13-year-old boys had the chance to spend two hours with an 18-year-old girl every single week? Amy had told him he was funny, and smart and once, she had even called him wise. He could see why Jake had fallen, hard, for her. She was easy to like and she was super smart. Atticus had also spent the better part of that summer in the pool with her and the others before semester started and he liked watching her in her bikini; yet another thing he would rather die than admit to Jake.

The doorbell rang and Att could hear Amy padding down the marble steps toward the front door. He raced after her. They had a standard pizza order Tuesday night; pepperoni and pineapple.

"Did you get it? Our specialty?" Att asked as he ran.

"Yes, and meat lovers for the boys." Amy said, paying the driver.

"woohoo!" Att said taking the pineapple pizza from her. "Meet you in the library!" He said taking off back up the staircase.

Amy delivered the pizza to the kitchen where Jake was reading.

"I'm off to study," she said, giving his cheek a quick kiss.

"Don't let him get too cozy with you," Jake said absently as he read his book.

Amy stopped, "what?" she said.

Jake looked up. "I said 'don't let him get too cozy with you.'"

"I heard you, I just don't understand you." Amy said.

"Ames, Att has a little crush on you. I was teasing you." Jake said, returning to his book.

"He does?" Amy asked incredulously. How had she missed this?

"You haven't noticed?" Jake asked, looking up again. "He follows you around and if you're at the pool, he's out there in a flash. Didn't you ever stop to wonder why a kid who is half African-American wants to work on his tan so much?"

Amy blushed, "I did think that was strange, but I guess I thought he just liked the sun." she finished lamely.

Jake chuckled lightly, "He likes looking at the sun-on your skin in that bikini you wear. Of course, so do I."

"Oh great, now I have both Rosenbloom brothers falling for me!" Amy felt her face going red.

Jake put down his book and looked at her, "Amy, you have to let him have this crush on you. It's harmless and it's good for him. Better to have a crush on you; someone safe and comfortable, than say, on some crazy celebrity who's unapproachable. Think of it as…research. He's researching the female species, through you."

Amy laughed, "Leave it to a scientist to remove all sentiment from a boy's first crush."

Jake laughed too, "Think about it Ames, you're 18, beautiful, and you think he's pretty awesome. Any 13-year-old boy would be crushing on a girl that cared about him that much!"

Amy thought about that, "Ok, yeah, you're right. I'm flattered." Amy said, smiling at Jake.

She gave him a light peck on the lips before turning to go upstairs. Jake smiled as he watched her go.

Atticus was finishing up his second slice of pizza when Amy entered. She watched him closely as she took a seat opposite the table from him and picked up her own slice of pizza. A smile crept up on her lips as she remembered Jake's words: you have to let him have this crush on you. It's harmless and good for him. Think of it as research. He's researching the female species through you.

"Ok, tonight we get into first and second declension adjectives and if we're lucky, then we'll get into prepositions before moving on to verbs next Tuesday." Atticus said opening her text books and spinning them around to face her.

Amy sighed, "Thanks again, Atticus, languages aren't easy for me. I appreciate your help."

Atticus blushed under his brown skin, "you're welcome. I like helping you. It makes me feel important somehow."

They settled down to work and work they did. An hour and a half later, Amy had decided declensions were much harder than she first thought and she was ready for a break from them.

"Amy, I promise when you go to learn any of the romantic languages these will show back up in the forms of the verbs and it'll make much more sense then." Atticus said, leaning back to stretch in his chair.

"If you say so." Amy said, shutting her books and rubbing her eyes. When she opened them, Atticus was smiling at her.

Amy made to pick up the empty pizza box but Att beat her to it. "I'll get this. I can make sure it gets in the trash."

"Thanks, Att, and thanks for helping me study." She said, turning to go back toward her bedroom.

"Any time," Att said, standing and watching her go.