"Accepting Irony."

Disclaimer: I don't own The Year of Secret Assignments, although it IS a freckin' amazing book and this site should definitely have a category for it.

Author of this book: Jaclyn Moriarty

A/N: Wow. I've never written in a misc. section before. hopefully someone would have heard of this book. If not, you can pick it up at your local chapters. And please do. Its amazing.

This is a random idea I had while lying one a beach towel and reading this book for the tenth time, and working on my surprisingly non-existent tan. I ALWAYS tan. I guess this year just hasn't been a good year for tanning. Oh well.

Hehe! Give me feedback.

The rain continued to tap against the window. Cassie Aganovic leaned her elbow against her kitchen window, using her skin to wipe of the perspiration and peer out at her backyard. She'd always hated the rain, no matter how pretty and symbolic her parents had always taught her it could be. It made everything wet, and almost always ruined your day by stopping you from doing things you'd wanted to do. Like going to the beach. Or winning a high-jump competition.

She sighed, turning around and resting her elbows against the window sill. Almost instantly she forgot her depression, a smile gracing her pretty features at the sight before her. Her kitchen, not to mention the rest of her house, was in an absolute mess.

Her mother had gone on a –have-to-be-by-myself-and-get-a-tan vacation in some far off island for a few days, leaving Cass with the house to herself. Immediately, because she hated being in the house alone since her father's death, and also because this was an opportunity for her to get drunk out of her mind (Charlie insisted she was an alcoholic by simply thinking this) she'd called her friends over.

It might have been a mistake, but one of those mistakes you laugh about after you clean it up. Or your friends laugh about it while you clean it up. Emily Thompson, one of her two long time best friends and Charlie Taylor, Emily's boyfriend (who'd also become quite close to her since he'd started hanging around Emily's friends) had gone into some drunken cooking competition. Lydia Jaackson-Oberman, her other lifetime best friend, and her boyfriend Seb Mantegna, had been trying to remodel her smoke detector. This had gone on until Cassie had been sure they'd alert the firefighters, and Charlie had discovered the Kareoke machine.

Cassie giggled quietly to herself as she wet a paper towel and began to swipe it along the counter. Her 'get-togethers' with Lydia and Emily had always been amusing. But Charlie and Seb, who'd come into their lives through a school pen-pal system, had grown to be as fond to Cassie as Emily and Lydia were. (Still, the two boys knew that she'd kill them in an instant if they even considered hurting her best friends.)

Even cleaning, her mood about the rain and being alone in her house once more had completely been forgotten as she thought about her friends. Emily's slight air-headedness; fitting so well with Charlie's tendency to get annoyed with things that were incorrect. Lydia's hobby of messing with people's heads along with Seb being so easily confused and then frustrated when he realized she was only messing with him. She'd never seen such contradicting couples who went so well together.

But you're alone.

She sighed, dumping a few empty bottles into the recycling bin. Alone for a week, alone in her house, alone in her heart. Boys had always been too scared of her after her father had died. The only one who spoke to her openly had been Matthew Dunlop, and he'd been fake and had hated her the whole time anyway.(and Charlie, who along with thinking her an alcoholic, figured she was sexually repressed, and couldn't understand why she wouldn't want a boyfriend; Emily defended her by insisting she wasn't repressed, simply asexual).

She shrugged her shoulders to herself. It didn't really matter. Boys just had never really interested her. She'd had more important things to think about.

The doorbell gave a sharp pang, snapping her out of her thoughts and making her jump and stumble over her kitchen stool. Wincing and grumbling at the stupid stool (Who needs a stool in a kitchen anyway?) she made her way down the hall and to the door. Who would be here this late, and in a rainstorm no less? Her friends were too drunk to remember that they forgot something. Was it her mother? Than why had she wrung the doorbell?

Her heart thumping with sudden fear, she pulled the door open cautiously, tensing her muscles to react however she needed to.

She almost screamed. A hooded figure stood in the doorway, hands stuffed in pockets and head tilted down. This person wasn't well dressed for the rain, soaking and practically gushing water.

"Y-yes?" She all but squeaked.

The figure didn't reply for a long while, and she was almost prepared to slam and lock the door when he reached a hand up, pulling his hood from his head in a flourish. Cass' face paled as her eyes focused on his features.

"I'm sorry." He muttered. "I didn't have anywhere else to go."

She tried to speak but couldn't. His head bent after awhile, bright eyes lowering to the ground and shoulders slumping as he turned away. She could just let him go, but something triggered at the sight of him, the memory of being curled out in the rain, torn pieces of paper scattered around her. She gasped.

"Paul?"

Heh. This is just the start, and I sort of reckon no one will read this. BUT I shall continue to write it for my own benefit, since I really like the idea of this story.

Yes, my friends, this WILL be a Cass/Paul. Which is sort of a repulsive idea, like..Lydia and Emily ended up with their guys, so Cass HAS to end up with Paul. But fear not, because this will really be a build-up story. Because Cass and Paul will DEFINITELY not "Fall in Love" right away. No WAY would that happen. EVER. Okay? Okay.

Please Review! (assuming you're reading this!)