Chapter 3.

When I woke up, the first thing I saw was Eleanor. She was leaning over my bed, looking very worried. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I said groggily. Then the shooting pain came back into my arm. I looked at it, and saw that it had been stitched up, but I didn't remember going to the doctor.

"I know first aid," She told me.

I smiled, "Thanks, Elle."

She looked shocked. "You called me Elle."

"So?"

"Well, you never have. You call me Eleanor, like we're complete strangers."

"No, I didn't," I protested, "You didn't let me finish. Besides, we almost are complete strangers."

Elle sighed. She looked over at Rocky. "How about you? How's your leg?"

"It's okay. Nothing major" He replied. I could see that it had been wrapped up in one of Tum Tum's t-shirts.

She looked back at me. "Why are you so content on being such a moron to me?"

I winced at the pain in my arm, "I dunno. But I'm finding it harder and harder to keep pretending I hate you."

"Ha!" Rocky yelled from his bed, "I knew it!"

Oh, crud. I can't believe I actually said that out loud. "I didn't mean it like that, Rocky!"

"No, but I knew you didn't hate her."

Arrrggghhh! Rocky is just too damn smart.

"It's not like I'm in love with her or anything," I started.

I noticed Elle was staring at me weirdly. "You know, you remind me of someone," She said.

"Who?"

"Me."

"Ha!" Rocky said again.

"Rocky, would you shut up?" I yelled.

Rocky looked annoyed, "I'm going to sleep."

I looked at Tum Tum. He was fast asleep on the floor.

"You can have Tum's bed," I told Elle, trying to get under my covers using one arm. It was tough.

"What, you're just going to leave him there?"

"He'll live."

Elle crawled into the bed on the bottom of my bunk, and basically fell straight to sleep.

But I couldn't sleep. I couldn't figure out why. I kept tossing and turning. Finally, I stuck my head over the bed and looked at Elle.

She was lying there with her eyes open. She jumped when she saw me.

"What?" She asked.

Oookay. This was going to be hard. But if I wanted to get to sleep, I was going to have to do it.

"I'm sorry I've been such a jerk to you. You're obviously very good at your karate." Phew. That wasn't so bad.

Elle looked hesitant, "You really think I'm good?"

"Good? GOOD? You're amazing."

Elle smiled. It was a really nice smile. Hey, wait a minute, I've already said that.

"Do you mean amazing at my karate, or just amazing?" She asked mischievously.

I hesitated. How was I supposed to answer that? "Uhhh, uhmmm," I stammered.

Elle waited patiently. Then she sighed. "Don't worry, I was just teasing."

I decided to change the subject, "So, how long have you been doing karate?"

"Well, it depends on what you mean by start. There's a picture of me at nine months holding nun-chucks."

I was impressed, "How often do you do it?"

Elle thought for a moment, "What, karate?"

"Yeah," I laughed, "Why? What else do you do?"

"Well, Mondays I do Taeqwondo, Tuesdays and Wednesdays I dance Tae Bo, Thursdays and Fridays Karate-"

"Whoa!" I said. My head was spinning, "So the only days you rest are Saturday and Sunday?"

"No, on Sunday I've got ninja training."

"You're KIDDING!" I spluttered, "You're a ninja? So are we!"

"I know that!" Elle said, "You're THE three ninja's! Everyone know about you."

This confused me. I decided to ignore it, "So how do you find time for school?"

"School?" Elle looked confused, "What's school?"

Now this was getting really weird. A twelve year-old who didn't know about school? "You know, where you go to learn?"

"Oh, no, I've got a tutor."

"Well, where do you make friends?"

Elle suddenly looked sad. "Well, since all of my classes are private, and since I don't go to what you call, school, and since I don't have time to play with the kids in my neighbourhood…"

Suddenly, I didn't feel the need to pretend I didn't like Elle. The poor girl needed someone.

"That's why my mum said yes straight away when I asked if I could go for a sleepover."
Then she yawned. "Colt, I think I'm going to go to sleep now. I hope your arm gets better."

"Yeah," I said distantly. Then I remembered something. "Hey, you said that your friends call you Elle."

"They would," Elle said sleepily, "If I had any. Goodnight, Colt."

"Goodnight, Elle."

I lay there in silence for a few seconds. Then Elle spoke.

"Colt?"

"Yeah?"

She sounded a bit embarrassed, "Umm, I've just realised…"

"What?"

"I don't have a pillow."

I started laughing. Hard. Then Elle started laughing. It was one of those moments that you had to be there to find funny. And if you were there, you would have found it hilarious.

"Here," I said in between laughs, "You can have mine."

"Then you won't have one."

"I'll take Rocky's."

"Then he won't have one!"

"I'll give him Tum's."

"Colt, why don't you just grab one from another room?"

"Can't be bothered."

Elle sighed. She climbed up my ladder, and grabbed my pillow.

"Hey, now I don't have a pillow!" I exclaimed.

"You're an idiot." She said with a smile. Then she gave me a really big hug. It felt really good. Not at all romantically good, but just, really close friends good.

She climbed back down and basically fell asleep. And so did I, with a happy smile on my face, and no pillow.

So, Rocky was wrong. I didn't fall head-over heels in love with her. I told him so the next morning as we were eating breakfast.

"I didn't say it was going to be her!" Rocky replied when I was through, "You just assumed that the first girl you met would be the one that was it!"

"Well, didn't everybody?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, everybody that is reading this story probably automatically assumed that Elle was the one I would fall head-over-heels in love with."

Rocky was staring at me weird. Then he said, "Colt, go back to bed."

And so I went back up to my room. Tum Tum was up, playing his Nintendo, and Elle was still asleep.

"Oooo!" Tum Tum said, his eyes lighting up, "Did you see that move? I am the king of Killer Instinct!"

For those of you who are uneducated, Killer Instinct is a fighting game on Nintendo, much like Mortal Combat. It has a lot of different characters to choose from. My brother's favourite was Glacius.

My brother was pretty good at that game. But I was better.

"Hey, let me have a turn." I said.

Tum Tum hesitated, "Awww, okay. But just one turn."

I nodded. I chose Cinder, who is my favourite character. The computer chose to be Combo. A hard opponent, but I could match him.

I started off the game with a blaster combination move; a move with nine hits. I was already on a role, and I hadn't even started yet.

Combo tried to come back at me, but I did this backflip thingo, then sprayed my fire gun at Combo. I finished him off with a triple combination move.

"Yeah! Alright Colt!" My brother yelled very loudly.

Elle stirred. She opened her eyes, and woke up. "Oh, you're playing Killer Instinct?" She said, "I'm the master of that game."

"Yeah right." I said, "No-one can match me."

Elle laughed, "Okay, set it to two player battle."

So I did.

"Hey!" Tum Tum said, "You said one go!"

"Shutup, Tum." I said.

Elle smiled at Tum. "Tell you what, if Colt wins, I'll buy you an ice-cream. If I win, Colt will buy you an ice-cream. So, if you let us play, either way you're getting an ice-cream."

This seemed fair enough for Tum Tum. He agreed. It seemed fair enough to me too, as I was gonna win.

We chose our players; we were both Cinder.

God, she's like me.

The announcer counted us down. Then we started fighting. I started to hit her with a blaster combo, but she broke it with a combo breaker. That is, like, impossible to do. Then she turned invisible, which was really unfair. She hit me with an ultra combo, knocking all of the life out of me. As my Cinder was gasping for air, Elle looked at me.

"Watch this," she said.

She pressed a series of buttons, and my Cinder stood upright. "Humiliation!" The announcer said, and weird music came on. Suddenly, my Cinder was dancing across the screen, and Elle's points went off the board.

"Yeah!" She stood up and yelled, "Reigning master wins again!"

"Yeah!" Tum Tum stood up too. "I get an ice-cream!"

I was not happy, I had to waste two good dollars on an ice-cream for my dumb brother, who was not even worthy, as he hadn't just battled like I had.

"Tell you what," Elle said again. "We'll go half. Okay?"

Well, that was one thing we didn't have in common. I would not have been prepared to go half in an ice-cream if I'd won.

"In fact, we'll all go."

I looked at Elle. "It's 7 in the morning!"

"So? I'll call Rocky."

So we went and got Rocky, grabbed some coats, and went out. Elle, Tum Tum and I were still in our pyjamas, but who cares?

We were getting ice-cream!