1Author's Note: Thanks to all of my reviewers. I'm very glad that you enjoyed the last chapter. I hope you enjoy this one just as much. I'm falling back into the groove of this story so hopefully I can keep the updates happening quickly. Let me know what you think. Thanks :)

Chapter Seven: What Was That All About?

Lunchtime rolled around and Kelly was joined by Cecile as she walked into the cafeteria. Cecile could tell right off the bat the Kelly wasn't handling the whole Sunshine/Christi situation very well.

"How you holdin' up, Tiger?" she asked.

The nickname earned her a chuckle from Kelly, even though she didn't appear to be in a laughing mood whatsoever.

"Did you see them together? In the hall?" Kelly asked.

Cecile sighed and nodded. "They didn't really look like they were together. Not really."

"They went to the hill, Cecile. Sunshine went to the hill with Christi Sutton. Are you really gonna tell me that you believe nothing happened between them?" Kelly said.

Cecile let her head drop into her hands. She knew that the odds were against Sunshine turning Christi down. She didn't want to say it though. She didn't want to tell her friend that the guy she liked was just like every other guy in the world and would probably give in to damn near any female that offered it to him. She wanted to tell her best friend that this guy was different, that he was her knight in shining armor come to sweep her away on his white steed.

It was about that moment that someone slid into the seat next to Cecile. It was Ray.

"Hey, Cecile. Can I talk to Kelly for a minute?" he asked.

Cecile nodded and then stood and wandered over to another table to talk to some people. Ray smiled at Kelly, and she tried her best to smile back, but came out as more of an awkward grimace. Ray had been hanging around her a lot lately and Kelly was worried that he was taking her friendship and turning it into something that it wasn't. She didn't want to mislead him and she was worried that he was misinterpreting everything that went on between them.

"Hey, Kelly." he said, "I'm sure you figured out by now that I...well, I..."

"Kelly?" a voice cut in.

Kelly looked up, thankful for the interruption, but a little tense when she looked up into the clear blue eyes of none other than Sunshine. "Hey." she said.

"Can we talk?" Sunshine asked.

"Actually," Ray said, "Me and Kelly were in the middle of something."

Sunshine glared at Ray. It took everything in him not to just reach over and strangle the boy. "It's important."

"All right." Kelly said.

"Kelly?" Ray exclaimed.

"Ray," Kelly cut him off, "I need to talk to Sunshine for a minute. I will find you later."

"Fine." Ray said, jerking to his feet. He shoved a shoulder into Sunshine as he passed and continued to glare at him until he exited through the cafeteria doors.

Sunshine sat down across from Kelly and she smiled and said, "What's up, Sunshine?"

"Are you mad at me?" he blurted.

The question caught Kelly off guard. "Why would I be mad at you?"

"I don't know. I just got this feeling that you've been avoiding me for most of the day."

Kelly grinned. He was right. But she wasn't about to admit to him that she was jealous of Christi Sutton. "I have not been avoiding you."

"I saw you leave the game with Ray on Friday." Sunshine said, he couldn't help it.

Kelly fought off the urge to smile. Was he jealous? "So?" she said, crossing her arms.

"What was that all about?" he asked.

"What does it matter?" Kelly demanded.

"It doesn't! I just..." he had to chose his words very carefully at that moment. He was treading on very dangerous ground and he knew it, "I don't think that Gerry would take too kindly with your seeing a football player."

It was truth. Well. Half truth.

Kelly felt her gut twist with disappointment. "Oh." she said, "Well, Ray just gave me a ride home so Gerry has nothing to be concerned about."

"Nothing?" Sunshine questioned.

"Nothing." Kelly repeated, "So. How was your weekend? How's Christi?"

Sunshine chuckled, "She is...she's a trip."

"Yeah, I'll bet." Kelly mumbled.

"What?"

"Nothing. Did she take you to the hill and make a man out of you?" she said, trying her best not to sound too bitchy.

"What? God, no. I don't do that on the first date. I'm a gentleman." he said, a playful smile tugging on his lips, "It has to be at least the third."

"Of course!" Kelly laughed, smiling in spite of herself. She couldn't be mad at Sunshine. He was Sunshine. But, it was a relief to know that nothing had happened between him and Christi. Not yet, anyway.

"Hey, Kel?" Sunshine said, suddenly serious again, "Are we good?"

"Yeah, Sunshine, we're good." Kelly responded. And she meant it. No matter what happened between them, or didn't happen, she needed to be his friend.

"Good." he said, "Well, I'll see you later, then."

With that, Sunshine vacated his seat across from Kelly and left. He had to get away from her. If he had sat there any longer, he would have made a move. She was leaving herself wide open for it and he couldn't have stared at that opening for much longer without taking advantage of it. With the way the team was acting on the field here lately, the last thing they needed was the captain getting pissed off about his little sister. She needed to stay away from Ray especially. Sunshine did not like the way he had seen Ray looking at her. There was something predatory about it and he knew that Kelly was too damn nice for her own good.

Sunshine hadn't been gone a full minute when Ray had slid back into the seat across from Kelly. He smiled warmly at her and went to begin speaking. However, just we had opened his mouth, another voice rang out.

"Kelly?" Cecile called, "Kelly, I need you."

Kelly apologized to Ray before she stood and ran over to where Cecile was waving to her.

That night, the football team met up in the gymnasium for a meeting, which almost broke up when the players learned that the meeting had been called not by Coach Boone, but by Blue. Gerry and Julius had guarded the doors and not let anyone leave. After a fairly uplifting speech by Blue and an impromptu performance by Lewie and Rev, it wasn't long before the entire team was jumping and cheering.

Somewhere in the midst of it all, Gerry's eyes searched out Sunshine and he couldn't control the scowl that came over his face. Sunshine was just standing there, laughing and clapping along with the rest of his teammates, but there was something about it that was pissing Gerry off. It was more than likely the fact that he knew that Kelly was still infatuated with him, no matter how bad she tried to hide it.

Gerry was frustrated with himself. He should be happy with the fact that they had finally found a way to bring the team back together, not fixating on personal problem he had with the backup QB. Julius slapped him on the shoulder and brought him back into reality. He rejoined his teammates in their celebration of rediscovered comradery. He wouldn't tell Kelly about it. He would let her be surprised just like everybody else at school would be. She was gonna flip when she saw what they had come up with that night.