Beginning Again

I DO NOT OWN THE BOY/GIRL BATTLE SERIES, JUST MY OWN FANFICTIONS. I ALSO OWN SCOTT HATFORD, MARY AND RUTH MALLOY, AND BEN AND BELINDA and her little sister Lin **

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Shout out to Bri (Sillyface13), my #1 fan! Love ya!

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Enjoy the chapter! :D

CHAPTER 17: Blushing

Normal POV

Weeks went by, and soon, it was October.

Eddie and Jake were estatic because the high school just announced that in the coming spring, an official high school baseball team was going to start. Eddie insisted to start practicing early to prepare for the tryouts. Jake agreed, and three times a week, they went over to the park to practice their pitching and batting. Steve Benson hasn't talked to Jake since he found out that Eddie and Jake began to date. He still spoke to Eddie though, and after several punches from Eddie, he reluctantly agreed to just remain friends.

Josh decided to enter an art contest. He decided to enter a drawing of Beth into the show, without her knowing, planning to surprise her. Beth entered a reading contest, and is in the lead so far. Josh doesn't know it, but the prize is a brand new tablet, which Beth plans to give to Josh. They have had continuous dates to the library, where Beth reads and Josh sketches or checks out art books. Beth has kept an eye on Belinda, and so far Belinda just glares at her and Josh.

Caroline had all of her lines for Glenda the Good Witch memorized. She almost had her costume finished. The Carnival play of "The Wizard of Oz" was only a week away, and she and Mary were preparing. Wally decided to join a Student Aid program, where a student is a teacher's assistant. Wally was given an English teacher, and he couldn't be any happier. He and Peter accompany Caroline and Mary to their rehersals, where they watch from the sidelines of the stage.

Mary too had her lines memorized for Dorothy, and she too almost had her costume finished. With the play a week away, she grew more nervous, especially because Belinda kept trying to give her a hard time during rehersals. But she was determined to remain in the play no matter what, and she practiced her singing often. Peter decided to learn to cook. Beth helps him at times, but it's mostly Mary who's teaching him. Mary and Peter are the best of friends. Mary enjoys having his company, but she's developing a crush on Peter. What she doesn't know, is that Peter likes her back. Unfortunately, the both of them are too shy to admit it.

Ruth, being the fashonista, was making the costumes for Caroline and Mary, and she was having the time of her life. When she wasn't working on the costumes, she would accompany Scott to the park, where he would take pictures. When he was done, he would play soccer with Ruth. Like Peter and Mary, they've become best friends, and kept their true feelings hidden, in fear of ruining their friendship. They both plan on joining the soccer teams, and they practice everyday, since the tryouts are coming up.

Everything was peaceful for the Hatfords and Malloys.

Peter's POV

I clapped as Mary sang the last note of her song. She blushed a bit, and grinned.

She has such a beautiful voice, it amazes me how well she sings. At the moment, we were waiting for some cookies to finish baking, and to pass the time, I convinced her to practice her solo from the play. (To be honest, I'm not really sure what the song is about, something about going over some rainbow.) I suddenly made a desicion. I want to show Mary how I feel, how important she is to me.

The timer beeped, snapping me out of my thoughts. I realized that she was looking at me. Blushing, I got up and took the cookies out of the oven. As we waited for the cookies to cool off, I remembered something I had heard Jake say to Eddie...

*flashback*

"Hey Eddie?" Jake asked.

"Yeah?" she replied, not looking up from her notebook.

"Did it hurt?" Jake asked.

Eddie stopped writing. "Did what hurt?"

"Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?" Jake asked, looking into her eyes.

Eddie gave him a blank stare. "No, but I did scrape my knees pretty bad when I crawled up from Hell."

Jake blinked, and then smirked. "Well, no wonder you're so hot!"

Eddie rolled her eyes and punched him.

*end of flashback*

I believe what Jake was doing was called "flirting". I've heard the other 6th graders talk about it at school.

I turned to Mary. "Hey, Mary?"

"Yes?" she asked, looking up at me.

"Um...are you...hurt?" I asked.

"Hurt? No, why? Are you? Did you burn yourself?" Mary asked.

"No...I mean, um, did it hurt when you fell?" I stammered.

"Fell? Oh! Did you see me fall the other day? I'm pretty clumsy. But it didn't hurt." she smiled.

"No, no." I shook my head. "I meant...did it hurt when you fell from hell?"

Mary stared at me.

Oh no.

"Heaven! I meant heaven...oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" I felt my face grow hot and I covered my face.

Mary burst into giggles. "Was that supposed to be a pick up line?"

"No! I mean...I don't know! I just heard Jake say something like that to Eddie and I wanted to try it on you, even if I don't know what it means, and I'm so sorry, I don't think you come from hell!" I wailed.

Mary kept giggling. "It's supposed to say, "Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?" because it's calling the other person an angel."

"Oh...I feel so stupid!" I covered my face with my hands. Mary gently took my hands in hers and held them.

"Peter? Why did you want to try it on me?" she asked.

"I...I just wanted to show you how important you are to me." I blushed even more.

"Oh Peter! You show me that everyday, with your friendship and support!" Mary said, smiling.

I looked at her. "I do?"

Mary giggled again. "Yes, you do. And you've become important to me too."

I pulled her into a hug. Startled, she was tense at first, but then she relaxed and hugged me back.

"Hey Mary, are you and...oh!" Beth and Josh appeared in the doorway, Jake and Eddie behind them.

I blushed again, and Mary quickly pulled away, blushing as well.

"What's going on in here?" Jake asked, grinning.

"Nothing!" I said.

"You two were pretty close" Eddie observed.

"It was just a hug!" Mary replied.

"Then why are you two blushing like crazy?" Beth asked.

"We are not!" Mary and I both said.

"If you say so," Josh said, and casually reached for a cookie.

I glared at him, and slapped his hand away. "Paws off! They're still cooling off!"

Later that day, I joined my brothers in cleaning up the kitchen after dinner.

"Hey guys...can I ask you something?" I said, handing the dirty dishes to Josh.

They all nodded and said "Sure."

"How do you flirt with a girl?" I asked.

Jake and Josh dropped their dishes in the sink, Wally dropped the fork he was drying, and Scott dropped the cup he was putting away, which lucky for him was plastic.

"You...want to learn how to...flirt?" Wally asked.

"Well...yeah...you guys all have girlfriends, except for Scott...and well...I tried to do it earlier today, but instead of asking her "Did it hurt when you fell from heaven" I ended up asking her "Did it hurt when you fell from hell," I said, blushing.

Honestly, I've blushed so many times today, it's ridiculous.

Jake suddenly grabbed me. He put his arm around my neck and began rubbing the top of my head. "Aw, Peter's growing up! He's got a crush!"

"I bet it's on Mary," Josh said, grinning.

"It's totally on Mary," Wally said, snickering.

Scott laughed, and picked up the cup he dropped.

I pulled myself out of Jake's grasp. "Okay! Fine! It's on Mary! But you guys better keep silent!"

"Or what?" Wally asked sarcastically.

"Or...or I'll never bake anything for you guys again!" I declared.

They looked at each other. According to them, I baked better than our mom. My cooking lessons are paying off.

"Alright, fine. We're going to keep it to ourselves." Jake said. He returned to washing the dishes.

"But why do you want to flirt?" Josh asked, rinsing a dish.

Wally picked up the fork he dropped and finished drying it, then gave it to Scott. "Well, he obviously wants to impress her."

Scott put away the fork. "While we're at it, I want to learn too. How did you guys end up with girlfriends anyway?"

This time, it was me who laughed. "We were at war with those girls, and now you guys are dating them. How did you charm them?"

Wally sighed. "Well...I don't know about the twins, but I was just myself. I've always acted like myself around Caroline."

"Actually, so did we," Josh said.

Jake shrugged. "I always showed my true colors to Eddie. And she's the only girl I've actually dated."

"So...just be ourselves?" I asked, looking at Scott.

Scott shrugged. "I've been doing that, and it's not working."

This time we looked at HIM.

"Ruth?" Josh asked.

Scott nodded. "Yeah."

"Alright." Jake said.

"This is crazy...we've ALL fallen for the Malloys." Wally said.

I sighed. "So, if being myself isn't working...then what do I do?"

Jake finished washing the dishes and turned to me. "It looks like you have to do the thing that worked for all of us."

"And that is?" I asked.

"It's the one other thing we did to be with them." Josh said.

Wally sighed. "You guys have to do something crazy."

Thank you all for your wonderful patience, love, and support. I love you all so much!

I've been doing better lately. I've recently gotten another blood test, but no results have come in yet.

I was able to write lately, because I sprained my ankle and I can't dance for a week, even though we have competitions coming up :/

But hey, I'll manage :D

Anyways, I have a random question for you guys: How many boy readers do I have? And how many girl readers do I have? Just curious.

Anyways,

I hope you enjoyed it!

I'm so sorry I don't write as often, but I'm sick. Like, really sick. Also, I'm so sorry about any spelling or grammer mistakes, I just suck at spelling and I don't have the correcting grammer thing on my computer :/

Please review!

Love you all my Jolly Ranchers!

~Lia