ThunderAnn: great story!! i luv the 1/86 thing! They have a kinda love/hate relationship thing going on.
Steph: just so u no...THEY DO NOT LIKE EACH OTHER! THEy DO NOT!! I REPEAT!! THEY D-
Me: puts duct tape on her mouth SHUT UP!! This is MY review!! MY opinion! and my opinion is this story ROX! waves 1/86 flag around
Steph: thinks: ur obsessed
me: I HEARD THAT!!
steph: Oo
Priestess Aishisu: Yeah, I like 1/86 too. Love/hate is my favorite kind of relationship. I have to like 1/86, I'm using it!
Sammeh Teh CheeseCake: Aww, this is so cute. I love this fic!
Sammeh (Teh Biggest 1/86 Fan)
Priestess Aishisu: Thanks!
Jay Man1: Well, this story is developing very well and I am glad that I found it. Will the other KND start to play a role in this story soon or will it only center around Nigel and Fanny? I would give a longer review but there is not much more to say. Good work and good luck.
Priestess Aishisu: Well, it will center mostly around them, but I am having the Kids Next Door play a role starting this chapter.
Princess Rusty: So sweet! Aww, the teddy bear!
Keep goin'!So said the Princess Rusty, who is a hopeless romantic and laughed at her uncle's wedding.
Priestess Aishisu: Thanks.
Chacusha: I love the 1/86-ness! I think that the romance of this fic is done really well. It's so cute! To be really nitpicky, "Go strait to the nurse" should have been "Go straight to the nurse", but oh well. I really liked this chapter. Keep writing!
Priestess Aishisu: Yeah, that's really nitpicky. Especially since there isn't a difference between the two.
aahegla: I ABSOLUTELY love your fic! I was reading it for a while, a long while, but couldn't review (cuz of a virus, long story)... Awsome fic! I really love it! Numbuh 86 is an awsome kid to write about!
thats me
ahhelga
aka Pauline
Priestess Aishisu: Yeah, I have that virus problem too. Some of the best fanfictions I ever read I never managed to get around to reviewing.
Priestess Aishisu: Now, a while has gone by, and it is now summer break. And this is set in Issaquah, where I live, so that's why they're using the Issaquah Swimming Pool.
It was summer break, and Francine just had to wake up early. Her life sucked so much. It was barely light out, and Marigold would probably sleep late with a hangover. That's what I get for waking up every day at six fifteen. Well, she didn't like school anyway. Though she couldn't help but admit it had gotten better now that it was no longer a torture to sit next to Nigel...
Hmm...Since when had she and Nigel been friends? She had secretly had a crush on him since they were...hmm...(again)...she didn't remember, but she was fairly certain she had always treated him like she hated him. No, wait, something had happened when they were ten...But that thought vanished as quickly as it came. Somehow she felt that whatever it had been, it had just been remorse after some...ugh! Stupid memory lapses.
It would be a few hours before David's friends would arrive and she would be forced to baby-sit, and until then she had no way to keep herself from daydreaming about him...no. Just because she was in love (though she wasn't about to put it so candidly) didn't mean she would be a girl who became obsessed with a guy.
Bit late for that, isn't it? Her mind asked smugly, and she scowled.
I am not obsessed with Nigel Uno! She thought, glaring at the cerulean paint to keep her mind off the voice. Of course, this beautiful hue made her think of Nigel's eyes. They were calm and serious, intelligence gleaming in the azure depths, but at times they could shine with cheer. He was only human, after all.
It was a real shame that he tended to wear those shades all the time...Since when did she care about Nigel's eyes? The maliciously intelligent voice started jeering happily, practically singing. Her scowl deepened, and she turned over onto her belly. All right, so maybe I'm obsessed with him. But he doesn't know that!
Several months had passed since Marigold's birthday, and Francine still hadn't told Nigel how she felt. There had been a few more kisses, they had went out twice, and they even danced together once. The project had been a huge success, as they had written an essay on the effects of manic depression on a family and Francine had first-hand experience on this.
She didn't know where she stood with him. Friend didn't seem quite right, and anything else went too far or didn't reach far enough. She knew only one thing for sure—she would never again hit him with a box of cake.
"You have no reason to brag, Tommy!" Said Natasha's slender blonde younger sister Sonya. She was leader of the team Tommy and David was in, the other members being Mushi and Numbuh 30C's little brother Lee. "I don't care if you know Numbuhs 1–5! Besides having been decommissioned, I'm related to Numbuh 362!"
"Yeah, well...I know her, even if we aren't relatives! Besides, she was decommissioned too! And I know Numbuh Eighty-Six!"
David moaned. "This is so unfair. I don't even know what Numbuh Fanny was. Numbuh One's my next-door neighbor, but he and Fanny hate each other. All of you guys are on television! You've met her, and I don't even know what she looks like because I've never seen Operation: E.N.D or F.U.G.I.T.I.V.E! I mean, Fanny only had one line in that Operation R.E.P—"
Then he had to be quiet, because Francine herself entered the room. Everybody but David gaped wordlessly at her. She blinked. "What?" They kept staring. "What?" she cried irritably. "Can't a girl get a glass of water without being stared at like some kind of freak?"
Lee jumped to his feet and moved with a nearly inhuman swiftness. The next thing she knew, she was standing outside the kitchen with a glass of water in her hand.
As soon as Francine was gone, the other Kids Next Door whirled on David. "You never met her?" Tommy sounded rather angry. "That is her! And Grandma calls Hoagie a liar!"
"Um...actually, I don't think he lied, Tommy," said Sonya a bit timidly. Every head turned to her, and she flushed under the gazes. She could be strong and even fierce when she wanted to be, but usually she was sweet and very shy. "He said he didn't see Operations: E.N.D or F.U.G.I.T.I.V.E, and they never actually say her Numbuh in Operation: R.E.P.O.R.T."
"Hey, wait a minute," said David, who had been silent thus far as he tried to figure out what they were saying. "You're telling me that Fanny—my sister Fanny—is Numbuh Eighty-Six?"
"Yes!" the other four shrieked, and he passed out.
"Why are you doing this to me?" moaned Nigel.
"Aw, don't be so melodramatic, Nigel," snapped Abigail. "You hate the beach, so why not use the Issaquah Swimming Pool instead? Your friend finally learned to swim, not to mention free swim is only on Saturday. At least...uh..." She had forgotten again. Why did she keep having these memory lapses? "You won't get sand in your shorts?"
"Don't be ridiculous, I never got sand in my shorts before!" he replied indignantly. "I know it's a big deal that Wally finally learned to swim, but why do I have to be there?"
Abigail rolled her eyes and caught glimpse of something. "Well, your girlfriend's here."
Nigel scowled. "For the hundredth thousandth millionth time, Fanny is not—wait a minute, where?" Snickering to herself, Abigail pointed to the large pool. As she had said, Francine was there, backfloating with her eyes shut.
She had on a blue tropical-print swimsuit and sarong (to hide the 86 tattoo), and her red hair floated around her in her the water. She looked different when he wasn't wearing his sunglasses. (They were against pool policy.) Paler. When they were children, that milky skin had been sprinkled with freckles. Now it was pure white.
"Why don't you go say hi?" asked Hoagie with a smirk. Kuki and Wallabee were swimming together, so they didn't seem to notice what was happening around them.
Nigel's scowl deepened, but nevertheless he swam over to her. "Hello."
She jerked in surprise, but relaxed when she saw him and got to her feet (well, not exactly, since they were in the twelve-foot section) "Nigel? What are you doing here?"
He pointed to his friends. "It was here or the beach, and I hate the beach. You?"
Francine chuckled. She herself didn't like the beach much, mostly because it was a pain to get sand out of her hair and her sandals. And Marigold would make a huge scene if she came. "I teach swimming Monday through Friday, so I can go free from noon through five on Saturdays. I get paid at five. Not that I like it either, but why do you hate the beach so much?"
Nigel vaguely recalled something humiliating happening, but he couldn't remember it. "The beach is boring," he complained. "And so is the pool! There's nothing to do!"
Francine tilted her head and smiled suddenly. "Would a race count as something to do?"
He lifted an eyebrow and studied her face as if searching for something. His interest was obvious, especially with his sunglasses off. "What did you have in mind?"
"Crawl stroke around the pool, first one to make a full lap wins. If we tie, we keep swimming until one of us reaches that end faster. But I warn you, there's a reason my mom has a dolphin tattooed on her bicep and she can't swim."
"Look at them," remarked Abigail, shaking her head. "They've been at it for at least an hour." Indeed they were, but neither Nigel not Francine seemed the least bit tired. People had crowded around, and no one was swimming except them due to people betting. They didn't even seem to realize they were being referred to as 'bald kid' and 'redhead.'
"Just give up!" Nigel taunted when he turned sideways to breathe, speaking between sucking in puffs of air. "You know I'm going to beat you anyway!"
"Fat chance! I'm not about to lose to a boy!" sneered Francine, grinning widely. They were rivals, always had been, and they seemed to thrive on each others' competition.
"Well, I'm not about to lose to a girl!" he retorted, and they both went twice as fast. For about twenty more minutes they swam with incredible speed. Then names of teachers receiving their paychecks started being announced, and Francine's was one of them. She moaned and stopped swimming, and Nigel bulleted forward.
"Ha!" he cried triumphantly. "I win!"
Francine scowled. "That isn't fair!" She protested. "You cheated!" He stuck out his tongue and called her a sore loser. Her eyes flashed and she dunked his head under water.
When he resurfaced, coughing and spluttering, she was already walking away. "Hey!" he called after her with fake indignity. "You could have killed me!"
She threw back her head and laughed. "I should be so lucky!"
"We still have to finish that fairly," said Francine ten minutes later, causing Nigel to yelp in surprise and whirl around. She was smiling slightly, already dry, wearing a blue tank top with the sarong. "Will you be here next Saturday?"
"Yeah. How about one to five? That should be enough time, right?" Francine agreed and chuckled when kids started running to their parents and begging them to let them come next Saturday.
"You better be on time or you'll let all your fans down," he warned laughingly. "And me," she added as a less lighthearted afterthought. He smiled warmly.
"I wouldn't miss it for the world," Nigel promised, and watched her leave with an almost dreamy smile. To himself, he murmured, "Maybe the pool isn't so bad."