4. GOSSIP

"Have you heard that Bruce is dating Gabrielle?"

"Yeh, I know. Gross!"

"Literally, that's wrong."

"Anyway, who does James like?"

"Kerry, he's had the hot for her since basic training."

"Think I have a chance?"

"Yeah defiantly, James is the kind of guy who can be easily sidetracked."

"Then can you find out if he likes me?"

Jack walked over and turned the light back on. Tiger Lilly was lying on her back, looking up at the ceiling.

"Sure I can ask him, but I'm not getting meddled up in your affairs. It's your business to get the relationship off the ground. And I have to warn you, he likes getting straight into kissing, he's obsessed."

"You know what?"

"What?"

"To kiss James."

"Haven't you kissed anyone before?"

"Yes, but I was drunk it was before I was recruited to cherub…But James would be cool. What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Who was your first kiss?"

"Um, kind of a secret."

"Come on, please, pretty please with a cherry on top."

"Fine….Okay I'll tell, it was…."

"Come on, spit it out now!"

"K……Kyle." Jack said quietly.

"Hahahahahaha! You kissed Kyle."

"Shut it!"

"When?"

"Just before you came, at a party, in a game of spin-the-bottle."

Jack turned away.

"So….who's in your group for the Key Training tomorrow?"

"Dana, Kyle, Gabrielle and I."

"I've got; James, Kerry, Bruce and I."

"Sounds cool."

"We are so gonna thrash you!"

"No, unfortunately you were misguided; MY TEAM is going to win!"

"Yeh right."

Jack glanced at her watch, it was 9:30.

"Hey, I'll leave now and go speak to James."

"Bye."

Jack walked out of the room, she walked down the corridor to James room and knocked on the door. James opened the door. He was dressed in a baggy Arsenal T-shirt with Bart Simpson boxers. He looked like he'd just been sleeping.

"James, do you like Tiger Lilly?"
"What are you on about".

"Just answer the question".

"She's okay, but I don't really want to go out with her."

"Why not?"

"Because, she's like a copy of me, which is good in some ways."

"What's so bad about dating some-one like you?"
"It's just, I am not really that interested in her. Come on she can be a bit annoying I mean she's a bit of dumb blond sometimes."

"That's not nice, fine bye then."

Jack was surprised about how seriously James took the subject, almost like he'd been listening to their whole conversation…