Thank you for the reviews! They were wonderful! Guess what my English teacher decided to tell us, we're starting our junior paper! Which means I may not get to update very often for a while, but I will try. I'll keep writing but I may not get the chance to post any new stuff. I hope you all understand.


Chapter 3

Jean stood at the podium waiting for Scott to give her a job to do. He was already speaking to three other people at the same time, sending them off one by one. He erased a few things on the clipboard lying in front of him then turned to Jean.

"I really hate this job sometimes, I can't wait till I go away to college and work somewhere else."

Jean smirked at him, her eyes shinning behind her glasses. Her braid swung as she shook her head. "Well, thanks for getting me a job. I need the money."

"No problem… Now where to put you…" He started flipping through the pages on his clipboard then suddenly he reached into his pocket.

"I thought we weren't allowed to have cell phones in here?" Jean asked with a smile.

"We're not." Scott said as he read the message on the screen of his flip-phone. "Taryn won't stop bothering me."

"What are you doing?" Jean asked as Scott raised the phone to his ear.

"Telling her to stop bothering me. Taryn, hey. You can't keep calling me I'm working. No, you can't come by, no. Taryn, no. No, Taryn, will you listen to me for once. Taryn, no, no, Taryn." Scott was cut short then shut his phone and cursed at it. "I hate her, she never listens to me."

"What did she say?"

"She's coming by to visit. She never listens to me. Never."

"Does she work here, just wondering?"

"No way. Taryn's from one of those rich families. Her parents give her whatever she wants, so she thinks she can get whatever she wants and can do whatever she wants. She doesn't need a job. But she never listens to me… Never…"

That had been her only conversation with Scott that week; and ever since she'd moved to the institute four months ago they had a conversation together everyday. He considered her his best friend; he confided in her things he swore he could never tell anyone else, not even his brother. She didn't talk to him again until the following week at school, and lucky her got to hear every word of the blowout between him and Taryn.

"We tried that last year, Scott, and it didn't work, why do you want to try again?" Taryn shouted at him.

"Because we can do this."

"No, you want to do this for your own satisfaction. What about me?"

"What about me, Taryn? I've done everything for you! Why can't you do this one thing for me?"

"I can't sing and I can't dance, Scott! I don't care if you can. That's not fair to me. And if you can't see that then… then we're through!"

"Fine! I'll find someone else to do it with me!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

Scott stormed off in Jean's direction as she disappeared behind her locker door. He walked past her without even noticing her and kept walking. He slammed the door open and stormed outside. Jean grabbed a few things from her locker that she would need that night then shut and locked it and ran after him. She burst through the door and chased after him as fast as she could. He walked fast when he was angry.

"Scott! Scott, wait up!"

He turned to see who was calling his name and smiled broadly when he saw it was Jean. "Hey, it's my favorite girl!" he called back. He stopped where he was and waited for her then wrapped his arm around her shoulder, in a friendly way, and walked her to his car that way.

"I'm sorry about you and Taryn."

"Oh, don't be. I'm glad its over. Hey, do you like to sing and dance?" Scott asked as he opened the passenger side door for her then shut it.

"Maybe, why?"

Scott got in beside her and started his car. "I was thinking would you like to be in the talent show with me?"

Jean looked sideways at him from behind her glasses as he drove out of the parking lot. She sat in silence for a full two minutes until they hit traffic. Scott punched the wheel in anger he hated traffic. "Well?" he asked.

"What would we do?"

"Well, the officiates of the competition get a new list of things every year, and the competitors choose which they're going to do. There are about forty to forty-five acts in all. Then at the end of the competition, the judges call off the top five. Fifth place is fifty dollars, fourth is one hundred, third place is three hundred, second place is five hundred, and first is a thousand. The top three places also get trophies."

"You still haven't answered my question. What would we be doing?"

"Well, I already signed up for a female-male act. Dancing to the overture music of The Phantom of the Opera. The judging is a little weird. They do this competition weird. Two groups perform the same act separately then after all the acts everyone comes back out on the stage, and the acts that didn't do so great, to put it nicely, are eliminated, and then the judges call off the top five out of whose left. Every couple gets a prize, but the top five are the only ones to get money."

" But you're kidding, right? We have to dance to that?" The traffic started to move after Jean asked her question, but Scott didn't answer it until they arrived back at the institute. "Well, I'll do it, but after the description of the dancing we're going to have to do, we're going to need a lot of practice."

"Yeah, I tried to do it with Taryn last year, and she freaked out, she couldn't do the steps. So I asked her to try singing a song with me, and she said 'NO!'." Scott mimicked the look on Taryn's face perfectly to how it had looked the previous year. It was a cross between shock and disbelief. Jean laughed out loud. Scott loved how Jean looked when she laughed, or smiled; her whole face just lit up. "Why don't you smile more often, you're so pretty when you do."

"Thanks." Jean pushed a loose strand behind her ear and sat up straighter in her seat.

"Do you mind me saying that?"

"No, I don't, but you just broke up with Taryn, I don't think you should be passing compliments like that, but what do I know? I'm just a girl." Jean stood to get out of the car, Scott followed.

"An amazing girl." He called after her as she walked up to the stairs of the institute and inside.

"You're amazing, too." She called back. "And now I'm not so sure I want to do this." She said to herself as she walked inside. The door closed behind her and clicked.


A/N: REVIEWPLEASE! I'll update as often as i can, but like i said at the top of this chapter, i have my junior paper hanging over me now. I'll do the best that i can, but i can't promise i'll update every week. BUT I WILL TRY!