I whirled around to identify the speaker of that soft, husky voice. Imagine my surprise, when I saw-

'Whoa! Tad, what the hell are you doing here?' I gasped.

He grinned in wonder. 'Calm down, Suze. I'm here with my girlfriend.'

'Oh, that's nice,' I smiled. Of course he has a girlfriend, Suze. Don't be so disappointed. Of course he wouldn't be wallowing in despair since he broke up with you.

'I've been meaning to call you, to- you know, catch up,' he continued, leaning casually against a pole in front of the Computer Components shop. I nodded.

'Right,' I said, 'Well, it was nice-'

'Hey, you should know, I'm breaking up with my girlfriend tomorrow,' he said.

Whoa! I blinked in shock. 'Okay, and why the hell should I know that?!'

He grinned again. 'Well, I wanted to ask you out. My dad's gotten out of hospital, and he's, like, way better now. We owe you a lot, you know Susan.'

Okay, that was REALLY pissing me off now.

'Tad, it's Susannah,' I snapped. 'S-U-S-A-N-N-A-H.'

His grin faltered slightly, but he was cool. 'Okay. Well, will you go out with me again? I'm sorry about last time, with my uncle, and all. I just-'

'Tad,' I butted in awkwardly, 'Uh-'

'Oh.' His face fell. 'You're going out with someone else.'

'No, not exactly,' I said. 'But I like someone else, I guess.' Then, a thought occurred to me. This could be a very good way to give Paul a hint, you know.

'Okay, I'll go out with you,' I smiled at him dazzlingly. His grin returned. It was a genuine one, this time. Then, his face fell.

'Tad, can we go already?' asked a high, Kelly-Prescott-like voice.

I turned around. There stood a girl with curly dark red hair. It was obviously dyed, but it was gorgeous! Oh, what I wouldn't give for hair like that. she looked like one of the chics from the Pantene ads. But her eyes had this annoying, sharp look about them.

'Uh, Suze, this is Amber,' Tad rolled his eyes. I nodded.

'Hi,' I said, holding out my hand for her to shake. She stared at it much in the same way that Kelly Prescott stares at Adam. I withdrew it, raising an eyebrow.

'Your hospitality is astounding,' I tell her. Tad snorted.

She looked at me, shocked that I'd just dissed her. She didn't look much like an Amber, if you know what I mean. I always picture 'Amber's to be blond and, well, nice.

This one had to be the Kelly Prescott of RLS.

'Hey, Suze, you need a ride somewhere?' asked Tad, and Amber glared at him. Wanting to annoy this bitch, I said, 'That'd be great.'

'I'm not giving you a ride anywhere,' sneered Amber, crossing her arms in front of her chest huffily. I shrug.

'I know. Tad is,' I said lightly. 'I mean, it's his car, right?'

'Tad, how do you even know her?' demanded Amber, glowering at her soon-to- be ex.

'Old girlfriend,' he explained. 'Now we're just friends. Haven't seen her for ages.' I thought that was exceedingly sweet of him. I smiled at Amber.

Tap, tap.

Huh?

I turned around, saying, 'I'm kind of busy, wait-'

But it was Bessie.

Crap! If I talked to her, Amber and Tad would think I was a nut. But if I ignored Bessie, I might not be able to find out whom she wanted me to deliver a message to. Seeing as though my life was more important, I ignored her.

'I just need to be dropped off home. I'm kind of stranded,' I tell Tad.

'YOU HORRIBLE MEDIATOR! I COME TO YOU FOR HELP AND YOU PAY NO ATTENTION TO ME!' she yelled in my ear, jerking me backwards.

'Whoa!' I shouted, landing painfully on the concrete. Tad rushed over to help me, but Bessie was pissed. She shoved him sideways, so he bashed his head against the brick wall, and dragged me up, tears in her eyes. Let me tell you, Amber wasn't getting the best view of things. She'd just seen a girl trip back for no reason, and a guy get flung a meter to the left by some unseen force. And now, said girl had been hauled upwards by thin air! Her face molded into a warped, horrified expression, and she ran, saying, 'Tad Beaumont, your ex-girlfriend is a freak!'

And I didn't blame her, because she was right.

Tad, I saw, had been knocked out. Oh, fabulous.

I rounded on Bessie. 'Why the hell did you do that?!' I hissed at her so quietly, yet so dangerously. She lost her confidence, and began to cry.

'I'm sorry,' she blubbered, tears dampening her midnight black hair, 'I've just been waiting for you to tell him-'

'Wait,' I said. 'Who's "him" for a start?'

She blinked at me. 'My love,' she said. 'The boy in the photograph I slipped in your brother's book.'

'First of all, it's step-brother,' I retort, 'And second . . . that was you who did that?'

'Certainly,' she said, and dematerialized.

'Hey! Get back here!' I shout, but she didn't. I couldn't believe it! She'd rocked up again, and STILL didn't give me any names. What was it she wanted me to tell this dude anyway? Oh yeah, that the letter he found was bogus, and that she wasn't having an affair. Great, that was messy.

'Uh, Suze? Could you give us a hand?' asked Tad, his eyes blinking several times in succession.

~*~

'So, it's been a while,' he said conversationally, as he pulled up into my driveway.

'I guess.'

'Suze?'

'What?'

'Uh . . . Why is your top unbuttoned?' he asked suddenly, with wide eyes.

'Huh? Oh, crap!' I said, and went to button it, but Paul had done a very good job, and had actually pulled them right off! So now, here I was, with a bit of my bra visible to my ex-boyfriend.

How graceful of me.

'Uh, I was over my friend's house, and her, um, dog kind of bit my other one. So she gave me this, but didn't realize, that, ah, the buttons were missing,' I babbled. What a lie. But Tad didn't seem to mind. He wasn't even listening anymore. He was staring at my unbuttoned top, in fact. Then again, more at the bit of visible bra, rather than my actual top, if you know what I mean. I turned brusquely towards the window, folding half my top over the other, covering myself, and turned back to see him looking very embarrassed.

'Sorry,' he said, 'Wasn't sure if you'd, like, lied about not seeing anyone.'

I laughed hollowly. 'Trust me, I'm not going out with anyone,' I said, surprised at the bitterness in my voice.

He edged closer to me in his seat. 'Remember last time I dropped you off here?' he asked with a sly smile. I nodded idly.

That was when he repeated his past actions occurring in his luscious car, but this time, taking full advantage of my ripped top. He was kissing me and everything, with way more passion than my first kiss from him, which, ironically, had been my first kiss ever, when I saw something strange.

'Tad,' I said.

'What is it, Suze?' he asked, kind of annoyed that I wasn't responding much to him.

'Uh, I have to get out now. It has nothing to do with this,' I assured him, 'but, kind of sisterly duty.'

He frowned at me, and then leaned back over to his side of the car. 'Oh, right,' he said disappointedly.

I was out of that car fast, let me say. Not because I didn't like Tad, but because I think I'd just found out the reason why Doc had been late to dinner all those nights ago.

Marching into the house, I bolted up to Doc's room. His door was locked. Obviously . . .

'DAVID!' I yelled, breaking open his door. It was worse than I had imagined.

'SUZE!' he yelled, and I heard a scream. He was lying in his bed, with his sheets kind of all over him, when I heard a thus as someone toppled off the bed.

And it wasn't Doc.

'Suze, shut the door!' shouted Doc in fury, turning red with embarrassment.

'I can't,' I stated, 'I broke it. Now, I'm going to hold it closed to give your friend time to slip into something more, ah, well, slip into something. And David, you two have a lot of explaining to do.'

I pulled the door shut.

Oh my God.

OH MY GOD.

I had just walked in on my TWELVE-YEAR-OLD NERD TO THE CORE BROTHER and his GIRLFRIEND doing . . . you know!!!

EEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was taking it kind of hard, you know. It was way worse than I expected. I mean, he'd got past third base before me! I mean, that's just wrong!

'I'm coming back,' I said, and let the door fall open again. There, on Doc's hurriedly made bed, sat the nerd himself, beet red and fully dressed, and a pretty brunette girl who was adjusting her glasses.

Nerds in love.

'David!' I said, my voice squeaking. 'Please tell me that, five minutes ago, I was seeing things.'

'Uh, you were seeing things?' he said obligingly. I rolled my eyes.

'I take it you are Shannon,' I asked the brunette. She nodded, mortified, plaiting her hair back into a pair of braids. I was really appalled.

'David, how old are you exactly?' I asked him accusingly.

'You mean, physically, mentally, or emotionally?' he questioned.

'YOU'RE A BLOODY TWELVE YEAR OLD!' I roared back at him, and Shannon flinched, dropping her second plait, having to start it again.

'How long has this, ah, been going on?' I asked him.

He looked at the floor.

'Don't tell dad,' he said in a very small voice.

'I won't,' I said, and he relaxed greatly. 'Shannon, can you go?' She walked towards the door. 'No, love, through the window,' I said. Her eyes widened.

'Uh, Doc's sister, I'm not very good at anything physical,' she said referring to climbing down the wall.

'You didn't seem to have a big problem five minutes ago,' I drawled.

She began to shake, knowing that she was mega busted. I felt sorry for her. I mean, these two were young, and they knew they were screwed. I decided to go easy on her. Doc was a different story.

'Hey, Shannon, it's okay, I won't tell anyone,' I soothed, as she began to hiccup in her crying. I laid a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up at me with glass-framed, magnified hazel eyes.

'Thank you,' she whispered, hiccuping again, and climbed out the window carefully. Doc and I both waved as she ran. But she didn't' wave back.

I advanced on Doc. 'Please, tell me you didn't go too far with her,' I said dangerously. 'On second thought, I don't really want to know.' I heaved a great sigh. Why were all these problems being thrown at me? I mean, as if mediation wasn't enough, (yes, I will keep referring to my job as mediation, regardless of bad ass Paul Slater's insisting that I'm a shifter,) I had all this other shit going on!

Why me?

Doc just stared at the floor nervously, his sticky-out ears redder than my Scarlet Dream nail polish.

'David, uh, I didn't know you had a girlfriend,' I said. I'm so lame.

'Suze I'm sorry! You can't tell Dad, though, he'll kill me! It's just that I really like Shannon, and just because everyone thinks I'm a nerd, that doesn't disable me to do anything differently to what other males my age do.'

I blinked.

'Uh, Doc, it's all right, I'm just a little freaked out, you know,' I said. But I wasn't. I was WAAAAY freaked out.

He finally lifted his gaze, hope dawning on him. 'You're not going to tell?'

'No way,' I replied.

His nerdy eyes filled with tears of gratification, and he launched himself at me, hugging me tightly.

'You're the best step-sister ever,' he said, his voice kind of muffled. If I was freaked out before, that was nothing compared to now.

'Doc, take a freaking shower!' I snapped. He let go, grinning with discomfiture, and nodded.

Geez, this has to have been the WEIRDEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!