Sorry this chapter took so long…I was not only home for the weekend, but also torn as to which direction to go with this…but it's all figured out now. No worries!

Shoutouts

Alexandria Duncan – He likes him? Really? You don't say…

Eagle Higgins-Conlon – Ack. I'm updating at warp speed, dude! Glad you like it!

Written Sparks – Figures that Cooper Science would turn on me, basement planetarium and all. I'm scared of their teacher too, btw! Looking forward to that e-mail!

Saturday – AW! You're makin' me blush here! Here's that update you wanted!

Rumor – SEEMINGLY unrequited love, anyway. I guess we'll see about that. And yeah, I hate myself for making poor Pie an architecture major. Pie/Itey? Hmm…maybe just your imagination…maybe not…guess you'll have to keep reading and find out. And yeah, their classmates are pretty amused by all this.

Erin Go Bragh – Yeah, Ball State isn't very well known outside of the Midwest. And post game highs rock!

Uninvisible – Hey, I don't mind redundancy if reviews are involved! And the squealing is fine. Snitch has been doing enough of it in my head. And hey, I started out like you, not really sure about Snitch…but he grew on me. And now I find him utterly adorable.

Oxymoronic Alliteration – The goddess of the week? Wow…I'm honored! Thanks!

Bobcat:slashgoil – Danke! Ich liebe du, madchen! Well…I know that's wrong…but I'm a Chinese student, not German! Two years of German in high school really doesn't do much…

"Snitch…what happened?"

I looked up as Blink set down his tray at my table, and then I looked back down at my untouched food, poking the mashed potatoes with my fork. "Nothin' happened."

"Like I'm gonna believe that…it has somethin' to do with Mr. Prodigy, doesn't it?"

I sighed. "He's in my English class."

He looked confused. "But…isn't that a good thing?"

"Yeah, it is, but it's not!" I snapped, dropping my fork as Mush sat down next to Blink.

"Why would it be a bad thing?" Blink asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because I made a total fool of myself in front of him," I said angrily.

Mush rolled his eyes. "Come on, calm down. What happened?"

Well, I had to tell someone eventually…may as well be two of my best friends. "Well…we kinda talked for a minute, then the teacher came and we played this stupid name game, and then I was just staring at him and everybody started laughin' at me…"

Okay, so I tend to ramble when I'm upset.

Blink and Mush looked at each other helplessly, and then Mush took over. "Well…what did he do?"

"Uh…well, he was kinda staring too…"

"He was? Snitchy, that's usually a sign that he's slightly smitten too."

I thought about that for a moment. He had been staring right back, but was it that kind of stare? Was it the 'Oh God, he's so beautiful that I can hardly breathe' stare, or the 'Why is this freaky weirdo staring at me' stare? Needless to say, it was the former with me.

"But what if he was just starin' cause he thought that I was weird or something?" I blurted out, and Blink laughed.

"One way to find out. Ask him to help you with that Astronomy assignment."

"Do what?"

Mush nodded. "Call him up. Ask for help with the assignment. A study session."

I shook my head. "No, I couldn't do that…"

Blink smirked, grabbed my cell phone, and flipped it open. "What's the number?"

"I'm not calling him!"

"Yes, you are, or we're never giving you back your backpack."

Oh, yeah. They still had that. "That's not fair," I said, pouting.

"Life's not fair. Get over it. What's the number?"

I mumbled out the number and he punched it into the phone, and then handed it to me. I briefly considered just pressing the 'end' button before Skitts picked up, but then I would lose my backpack to the abyss that is Mush's and Blink's room. I couldn't afford that, not with all the stuff in it.

So, I put the phone to my ear and waited.

I was about to give up, but on the fifth ring I heard a click, and then a 'thud', and then that voice say, "Hello?"

I opened my mouth, closed it, and then opened it again. "Uh…hey Skittery. It's, uh…it's me. Snitch."

I sent Blink and Mush a glare as they stifled laughter, and then suffered through the momentary silence on the other end.

"Oh…hey. What's up?" He finally said.

"Um…nothin', really. I was just…well…" I almost lost my nerve at that point, until Blink raised an eyebrow in warning. "I'm having trouble with the assignment in Astronomy. I was wonderin' if you could help."

"Tonight?"

"Well, it doesn't have to be tonight. I mean, I'm free tonight, if that's okay with you, but I'm free other nights too, so if you can't do it tonight, that's cool. But I can, if you can, but if you can't…"

Shut up, Snitch. Shut up right now.

"…Tonight is fine. But I have class till eight. Eight thirty work for you?"

"Eight thirty is fine. Eight thirty is great."

It could've been my imagination, but I thought I heard him chuckle on the other end. Or maybe he was just clearing his throat. "You want me to come over to your place, or what?"

Oh, yeah. We had to decide where. "Um…actually, my place wouldn't be good. See, my roommate, he's an architecture major, and tonight he doesn't have class or work, so he'll probably want to sleep…"

"Ah, poor kid. No problem…uh, you can come over here. Honor's dorms, 208."

I grabbed Blink's pen out of his shirt pocket and quickly wrote down the room number, even though I had it written down in my room too. I just wanted to make sure. "Got it. I'll be there."

"Alright. Uh…well, see ya."

"Bye."

I hung up the phone, positively beaming. Maybe he wasn't mad at me, after all.

"Now see? Was that so hard?" Blink asked, taking his pen back.

"Yes. You guys are morons."

They both grinned. "We know it," Blink said, and Mush punched him playfully on the arm.

I went through German class in a daze, barely remembering how to tell her what my name was when she called on me. And as soon as the clock struck seven thirty, I started getting ready for the study session. Which, of course, involved a shower, a change of clothes, styling of the hair…what can I say? I was smitten.

I tugged at my wavy brown locks in vain, wishing that my hair wasn't so darn out of control. I mean, Skittery's hair was a bit wild, but it suited him. I wouldn't have his hair any other way, really. It was adorable. But my hair? It just looks messy like that.

I spent at least a half hour in front of the mirror, trying to get my hair to look just right, but it just wasn't working.

"You're such a girl."

I snorted at Pie, keeping my gaze locked on the mirror. "Go back to sleep."

He jumped down from his bunk, and then began sifting around in his drawer until he pulled out a jar of hair gel. He unscrewed the lid, dipped his fingers into it, and promptly went to work on my hair.

"Hey! What are you doing!"

"I'm keeping you from torturing yourself for the next five hours."

"I couldn't do that. I have to be there in a half hour."

He worked for about ten more seconds, and then stepped back and motioned for me to look in the mirror.

"You probably killed it, didn't you? It's probably gonna be all dead and…wow."

I did a double take at my reflection, and then looked at Pie in shock. "But you…and…how?!"

He shrugged. "I grew up with four sisters, dude."

"No wonder you're gay."

"You're tellin' me."

I looked back at my reflection nervously, and then turned to him. "Do I look okay?"

"You look fine. You'd better go if you're walking. You'll never get there on time," he said. "In fact, why don't I give you a ride?"

My eyes widened considerably. "I've seen the way you drive that thing! You expect me to let you drive me?"

He shrugged again with a small smirk. He knew about his reputation on campus with his wild stunts on his motorcycle. "Suit yourself. Have fun running."

I groaned and rolled my eyes. "Fine. But take it easy, okay?"

About three minutes later, I was sitting on the back of Pie's black Suzuki, hanging onto him for dear life as he cut across parking lots and weaved around cars and construction barrels alike. That kid had an addiction to adrenaline or something, because the way he drove would give you a rush any kind of skydiving couldn't come close to. Kind of like skydiving without a parachute.

But he got me there on time, and that was all I really cared about at the time.

He was off again before I could even say thank you, and I pulled my backpack over my shoulders and walked up the winding path to the honor dorms. This was where the college housed the best of the best, the kids who applied with straight A's, numerous clubs and academic teams, recommendation letters, and SAT scores above 1300. Needless to say, most of us 'normal' kids didn't go in there unless we absolutely had to.

I nodded to the lady at the desk, and then I leaned up against the wall and called up to Skittery's room. He answered the phone, and then said he'd be down to let me in.

Really…I hated those security systems. Even if you didn't have a card, you could always wait for someone with a card to come along, and the students were stupid enough to let you in without question. So, really, there was no security about it, except for after midnight. After midnight, you had to show your ID in order to get in, and the desk personnel were allowed to give you a breathalyzer if you were underage and they thought you might have been drinking.

All in all, it was annoying and only slightly necessary.

I grinned like an idiot when Skittery opened the door for me, a shy smile on his face that made my insides melt. I followed him up to the second floor, and he led me to room 208.

"Sorry if it's kinda messy," he said quietly, opening the door. I walked in and raised an eyebrow; what room was he talking about? This one was impeccable. Everything was in its place, organized and filed…the only disorganized thing I could see was that the bed wasn't made.

I dropped my backpack by one of the two chairs at the desk, casually observing the room. There weren't very many personal items in the room. In fact, it looked more like an office than a dorm room. Except for one thing: there was a bright purple fish in a small goldfish bowl on the upper shelf of the desk.

"Snitch?"

I turned around and realized that I'd been zoning out once again, and I smiled apologetically. "Sorry. Uh…let's do this."

We both sat down and I pulled out my astronomy folder, pulling out the assignment that I haven't even started. I was glad I'd asked him for help; upon looking at the assignment, I'd realized that it was probably impossible to do it when I hadn't paid attention to the teacher at all and hadn't taken any notes.

We were only about five minutes into him explaining Newton's first law when the door opened and a very tall girl entered, her hair dyed a brownish red color and red glasses sitting low on her nose. She bounded over to Skittery, planting a kiss on his cheek.

I swear, I just about had a seizure.

"Isaac! How are you, kid? Who's your friend?" She asked while I was still trying to silently resuscitate myself.

Skittery blushed, and then pushed his chair back from the desk. "Alexy, how'd you get in here?"

"Through the door."

"How?"

"One of your friends let me in," she said, ruffling his hair. "Now, who's your friend?"

He sighed. "Alexy, this is Snitch. He's a friend of mine from class. Snitch, this is Alexy. My sister."

Oh. Oh.

My heart promptly started beating again, and I smiled. "Nice to meet you," I said, holding out my hand to her for a handshake. She grinned and shook her head, and then pulled me into a hug.

"In this family we hug, kiddo," she said, gripping my shoulders tightly as she stepped back. She studied me for a moment, and then whined, "Isaac, why do all the cute ones end up in your room and not mine?"

I raised an eyebrow inquisitively as Skittery blushed bright red. "We were studying, sis, if you don't mind-"

"Dad asked me to bring you this," she interrupted, holding out a paper sack with a couple of books in it. He reluctantly took the bag and looked at the contents.

"The prof said we didn't need these books till second year. I told him that," Skittery said, looking confused. Alexy just shrugged.

"He said there's no harm in getting a head start. Don't ask me."

Skittery sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Alright. Tell him I'll get right on it. And tell him I said thanks."

Alexy smiled brightly, and then hugged him again. "Wish I could stay, but I've gotta go. You know, that charity banquet. You really upset dad by telling him you couldn't go."

"I've got to study, he-"

"I know, don't tell me that. I know. Just get some sleep, okay? You look like you got hit by a dump truck full of insomnia."

He smiled weakly. "Will do."

Alexy's gaze then turned to me. "Keep him in line, will you?"

I smiled. "Sure thing."

She winked at me, and then said her goodbyes and was out the door as fast as she came.

"I'm sorry about that. I didn't know she was coming," Skittery said softly.

"It's okay. She's nice," I said, sitting back down. "Are you really gonna try and study those books on top of all the first year books?"

"May as well."

"But…you don't have time for that."

He raised an eyebrow. "And how would you know that?"

I shrugged, blushing. "Uh…you're right. I wouldn't. I'm sorry. I just…it sounds like you're busy enough as it is."

He turned back to the astronomy assignment without another word, starting in again on Newton's concepts. Meanwhile, I'd somehow managed to get lost in thought again, staring at him, studying his every feature.

Sure, his sister was right. He did look tired. But he was beautiful, just the same. His eyes were intense, focused, always lit up with a fire that told me he was more than just a family-driven bookworm.

"Snitch, are you…what are you looking at?"

I suddenly realized that those eyes were focused on me, but for some reason, that didn't deter me this time.

"Nothin'."

He looked confused now. "Listen, if you're tired-"

He didn't get a chance to finish- mainly because my lips were pressed against his, my hand sliding around his neck, gently tugging him closer to me. I don't know what came over me; something just told me I had to kiss him, and I had to do it at that moment. Probably just hormones or something.

I could feel him stiffen at first, but then…he started kissing me back.

It was like those few moments were only a dream, a fantasy that left my entire body tingling from head to toe, my hair standing on end…it was me, kissing him. And he was kissing me back. His soft lips moved against mine, and I was in paradise.

However, he broke off the kiss the moment I tried to add some tongue action into the equation. I sat back, breathing in short, shallow breaths, my lips practically numb.

"Oh my God…Oh my God," I heard him saying as he stood up. I was still sitting there in a daze, not sure if I could move or speak at all. Then, his voice finally broke through the haze.

"You have to…you have to leave. I just…" he said, his hands shaking as he shoved my backpack into my lap. I stood up, unwilling to just walk out after that.

"Skitts, listen…I'm sorry, but-"

"Snitch, just go, okay! Just leave!"

"But-"

"Go!"

I stared him down for a moment, breathing hard, and then I angrily shoved my astronomy folder into my backpack and zipped it up. I knew I'd taken it too far, I'd let my hormones take control of my actions, and this was what I got for it. I deserved this and I knew it. It wasn't his fault this had happened.

I walked to the door, but once I got there I turned around.

He was sitting on his bed, his knees pulled up to his chest and his gaze fixed on the wall. I hesitated, and then I said, "You kissed me back, you know."

Having said that, I walked out the door and slammed it behind me.

Wow. That went in a completely different direction than I thought it would. But hey, every chapter does that! R R!