Disclaimer: All Drake & Josh characters copyright their proper owners. I just wrote this.

Author's Note: I promised a longer chapter, and here it is. I'm worried things go a little too quickly in the story, but I didn't know how else to do it, so let me know if they do. This is not just a romance story. I didn't even put romance in the genre. This is more of a story of growing up and changing ways, thus the "Drama/Angst" genres. Actually, this was originally going to be a romance, but I went in a different direction, and well, here it is. Most of you know I love two things in my stories even when they're drama...humor and song lyrics. So, there will be light-hearted moments and song lyrics thrown in somewhere. As I said, this is a part of a trilogy. This will probably end up being the shortest story in the trilogy. As it stands now it consists of 12 chapters (13 if you count the prologue). That may change if you guys leave reviews and I think something needs to be changed or if I think something seriously needs to be added.Anyhoo, here's the first chapter...and we fast forward six years to a typical Drake moment.

Chapter One - Remember Me?

"No, Drake. It doesn't work that way," Josh said, walking into the house after school.

"Well, why not?" Drake asked Josh.

"Because...look, it just doesn't okay?"

"But, I told her I was..."

"Drake! It doesn't matter whether or not you were sorry. You do not EVER confuse two twins. There's never a good excuse for it!"

"Whatever. At least their brother didn't attack me like he said he would. And I got to kiss both of them," Drake smirked.

"You're terrible, you know that?" Josh asked his step-brother.

Drake didn't hear this though. He had headed into the kitchen for a snack right away. Josh shook his head and headed up the stairs to change for work. He headed out the door a few minutes later.

Drake had grabbed a bag of chips and a Mocha Cola and headed into the living room to watch television. He paused at the sight of a girl sitting on the couch. Drake looked a bit confused, but that soon subsided. He decided to turn on the Drake Parker charm.

"I guess I'm in the wrong house because nobody as attractive as you lives here...except me," he said.

"Well, you've become quite the charmer, haven't you?" said the girl, laughing.

"What?" asked Drake.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten about me," the girl replied, looking slightly hurt.

"Uh..." said Drake. He glanced at the girl. He hadn't really taken in her features, but now he looked and saw her eyes were a pretty green, and her hair was red. Not too red but brighter than his auburn hair.

"Come on, Drake. I figured you'd remember me for sure," the girl continued.

Drake finally placed her. To him, there was no mistaking those green eyes.

"Christine?"

"Took you long enough," she laughed. She stood up and gave him a hug. Drake embraced her tightly. He hadn't seen this girl in six years. His best friend had finally come back.

"Sorry, it's just been so long. I didn't expect to see you sitting in my parents' living room," he said when they broke their hug. It was true. The last time he saw her, they were only in fifth grade. Then she moved away. Then they'd basically lost touch. "Honestly, I could never forget you."

Christine blushed.

"Why are you back in San Diego?" he asked.

"I moved back here with my mom," she replied, looking at the floor.

"Oh," he said. She hadn't mentioned her dad. The way she glanced at the floor, though, he decided to find out about that later. "Do you want something to drink?" he asked her.

"Sure," she replied. "Some water?"

"No problem," Drake replied.

Drake got up to head back to the kitchen. He turned around.

"Hey, if you need anything else, just say so," he said.

"Thanks," she replied.

Drake walked into the kitchen. His mom came in a few seconds later.

"You found Christine, I guess?" Audrey asked.

"Yeah," Drake replied.

"Maybe you can give her a hand, Drake. Her parents divorced, and now she came back here with her mom."

The word "divorce" rang in Drake's ears. He bit his lip. He recalled when his mom and dad divorced. He'd hated it. Nobody had understood then. At the time Christine, the girl now sitting on the sofa, had tried to be there for him, but she just didn't understand and could only be his friend as she had always been. Drake hadn't cared. When he played with her, he felt like a normal kid again and also that the problems at home didn't exist. Until he went back to them anyway. Then his parents finally split. In a way, it was a blessing. There was no more fighting, no more yelling. Then again, he lost part of him. His dad moved, correction, ran out to New York, and Drake hadn't seen him in years. It was depressing, and then to top off everything, Christine moved away. He lost his dad and his best friend all in less than a year. He tried to keep in touch with both of them at first, but it didn't work. He and Christine were young, and his dad just didn't appear to want to make an effort anymore.

"Yeah, mom," he said. "I'll try."

Drake handed Christine a bottle of water as he headed back into the living room. She had been looking at a few pictures.

"Your mom got married again," she said.

"Yeah," Drake replied.

"And you got a new brother," she commented, staring at a picture of Josh.

"Yep," said Drake.

"Is he nice?" she asked.

"Josh? Oh, yeah. Kinda geeky, but he's a great guy."

"I see," she said.

"Drake, Christine," called Audrey, "I'm going to the store. I have to get a few things for dinner tomorrow night. I'll be back later."

"Okay, Mom," Drake called back. He glanced back at Christine.

"Your mom invited me and my mom over to dinner tomorrow night."

"Oh," he replied.

"So," she said, "anything else new?"

"You know," said Drake. "You grow up..."

"Uh-huh," she replied. "I've been doing a lot of that lately, but that's not why I'm here. I'm here to catch up with you."

"Why don't we head up to my room then? I've still gotta put my stuff up there."

"Okay," she replied, following him up the stairs. "Wow," she said. "This looks different."

"Well, Josh's stuff is here now," he responded.

"Yeah, I guess so." She glanced across the room. "I see you haven't lost interest in the guitar."

"No way," Drake responded.

"So all that frustrating practice paid off?"

"Yeah," Drake replied.

"I remember how bad you were at first," she said, laughing.

"Oh, really?" he said. "I'm awesome now. I have a band."

"That means nothing," she said. "Prove it." She sat down, crossing her arms and smiling.

"Fine," he said. She'd always been like this. A bit competitive and, at times, a little feisty, at least around him. He was glad to see that it hadn't changed. Around other people she was shy and kept to herself. He'd always hoped she'd grow out of that. "Prepare to be amazed..."

Drake went to the Premiere after Christine left. He walked up to the snack counter where Josh was working like he normally did.

"Hey," said Josh. "Mom told me about your friend Christine when I called her when I was on break."

"Oh," said Drake. He was a bit phased and out of it since Christine left. His mom bringing up divorce had given his system a jolt, mostly because he hated to think about it and always tried to avoid it. It was silly to be bothered by it. It happened six years ago. Nothing was going to change it, so why worry about it? He hadn't worried about it when he was spending time with Christine though. It hit him again when she left. The words just echoed through his head. He couldn't understand why.

"What's the story with you two? Was she like your first girlfriend or something?" asked Josh, with a smirk on his face.

"No," said Drake, annoyed by the question. He had never tried any kind of relationship like that with Christine. Then again, there was their...well, that didn't matter now. But Drake often wondered if they'd gotten to middle school together, would things have turned out differently? "She was my best friend for years until fifth grade. Then she moved away not too long after my parents divorced and my dad left."

"Oh," said Josh. Drake never talked about what happened to his parents. Josh didn't blame him. It was probably terrible to have to come home from school each day to parents who argued and blamed one another for the family's problems. Josh hadn't had to live through fighting like that. His mom died. He had grieved, and although he still missed her, he knew she was still there, just not physically. Everything was okay, and Audrey understood how Josh felt about his mother. Things were okay. It probably really hurt Drake to know that his father was alive but never made an effort to see him. Audrey had told Josh one day that Drake had tried, but he gave up when his dad quit responding. Drake never talked about it, so Josh didn't know much beyond that. Josh decided to stray away from that topic so Drake didn't flip out in front of everyone. "So, you were best friends? How did you meet her?"

"Oh, you know," Drake said, "preschool...monkey bars. Then again, at that time, I thought she had cooties. For whatever reason she always wanted to play with me. Mom finally explained one day that girls don't have cooties. Then I let her hang out with me. I guess after that, we were inseparable. Until her parents moved."

"Wow," said Josh. "You thought girls had cooties?"

"Shh. Would you keep it down?" Drake asked. "You're going to ruin me."

"Yeah, sure," Josh responded. "Well, cool that you get to see her again. Aren't you excited?"

"Yeah," said Drake. "I guess." He wasn't exactly keen on Christine seeing how he'd changed over the years. He wasn't the little boy she used to know. He wondered how much she'd changed as well. Was she the same girl he once knew? If her parents' divorce bothered her the way his parents' had, then she had probably changed. Then again, she was six years older than he had been when he went through this. Maybe she hadn't been hurt as much. And, then again, he had no idea on what terms her parents had divorced, and if Christine's mom had picked her up and moved her back to San Diego...well, he'd wait until she wanted to tell him. If she wanted to tell him. They hadn't gotten too far into catching up when Christine was there. After Drake had showed her he could play the guitar a lot better than when he was first learning, they'd started talking about his music. She was going to school tomorrow. She'd see how much he'd changed then, and that scared him.

A/N: A lot of information there, but I wanted you to know why Drake sympathizes with Christine. This is also going to explain why Drake does some of the things he does later in the story. I just realized that the twin thing was a bit similar to the plane incident in "Drake & Josh Go Hollywood." I didn't mean for that to happen, but it is something Drake Parker would do.