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

Author's Note: Well, Christine's considering what she sees in Drake. You'll find a little more out about that by this chapter's end, and a little about what Drake sees in Christine.

Chapter Three: Deja Vu

Christine stood at the door of the Parker-Nichols home with her mother.

"I'm sure it's made you happy to see Drake again," said her mother.

"Yeah," said Christine. She was happy to see him again. She probably had misinterpreted the conversation at lunch. She decided to leave it alone.

"I'm glad," said Mrs. Baylor. She rang the doorbell. Josh opened it.

"Hey, Mrs. Baylor, Christine," he said. "Come on in. Dinner will be ready in about half an hour."

"Thank you, uh..."

"Josh," he told Mrs. Baylor.

"Oh, Josh. You must be Audrey's step-son. I've heard a lot about you."

"Really?" said Josh. He glanced at Christine. "Mindy's in the living room or Drake's upstairs, avoiding her. Whoever you'd like to go see."

Christine giggled.

"Thanks Josh." She headed past him and up the stairs. She stood in the doorway of Drake's room as she'd done hundreds of times before, just six years ago. He was busy with his guitar. She wasn't one to disturb people, but she figured she'd make an exception. She quietly walked up behind him and covered his eyes.

"Hey!" Drake yelled.

"Guess who?" she said.

"Christine, what are you...?" his voice trailed off. They used to play this game all the time. Whenever one of them was over and the other didn't know, they'd do that. Those were the fun times Drake wanted to remember. He'd really missed her. He realized that after she left the lunch table. It was weird, they spent six years apart. Then she comes back, and he can't stand not seeing her for ten minutes. He stared at her for a few minutes. No, he told himself. She's your best friend. She's not just another girl.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Nothing," he replied. "So, what do you think of Belleview?"

"It'll take some getting used to I guess," she said.

"Yeah. I figured."

"I guess you are good at that guitar," she said, laughing.

"Yeah, no thanks to you bugging me when I was trying to learn," he responded.

"Oh, I was just playing with you. Besides, you do play very well now." She sat down next to him on the sofa. "So, Josh mentioned stopping by the Premiere after dinner?"

"Oh, yeah. If you want to that is."

"Sure," she replied. "I've got nothing better to do tonight." She was staring at him, hard. It frightened him for a moment.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

Christine sighed.

"I've really missed you," she replied.

"I've missed you too."

"I'm sorry we lost touch, I never thought..."

"Shh," Drake told her. "It doesn't matter now."

"You're right," she replied. She stopped when she noticed that he was looking into her eyes. She'd seen that look on his face once before. He leaned forward slightly. His lips were about to touch hers when Josh called.

"Drake! Christine! Dinner!"

They quickly came back to reality and laughed off their little "moment" before heading down to dinner.

"So," said Audrey. "Christine, have you thought about college yet?"

"Well, I'm not sure what I'm going to do now," Christine replied. "Things got a little crazy."

"That's understandable," Audrey replied, deciding to try to avoid any topics that would involve going into Christine's father. Her parents had not split on good terms. When Ruby, Christine's mother, called her and told her she was moving back to San Diego and why she was divorcing her husband, well, Audrey was shocked. She knew it was probably hard on the both of them. "Ruby, how is the office job you've taken going?"

"Quite well, actually," Ruby replied. She had been a teacher for a long time, but she couldn't get a job teaching in the middle of the semester, so she worked at an office. "I've been busy with..." Mrs. Baylor's voice trailed off. Drake wasn't focusing on the conversation. He was focusing on the "moment" he and Christine had in the bedroom. They'd only had one other "moment" like that once before, and it felt right both times.

She's your best friend, came the voice in his head again. You can't think that way. Forget it. She's not going to become one of the weekly girls you date and then toss to the side. Why do you do that anyway? What's the matter with you? Why was his mind having this argument now? His mind had never had this argument before, so why now?

"Drake," said Josh, poking his arm.

"What?" Drake asked, as he realized everyone was staring at him.

"I asked if you were ready to go to the Premiere."

"Oh," Drake replied. "Uh, yeah. I just gotta go get my jacket from upstairs."

Josh followed him up the stairs.

"Man, what is with you?"

"What do you mean what is with me?" Drake asked.

"You've been acting weird lately. Does this have anything to do with Christine?"

"No," said Drake, defensively. "Why would it?"

"I don't know. It just seemed like a logical connection to make."

"Well, it isn't. I'm fine. Come on, Christine and the Creature are waiting downstairs." He pushed past Josh and headed down the steps. Josh rolled his eyes at Drake's nickname for Mindy. It was getting easier to deal with now, but it was still annoying.

The four teens walked into the Premiere movie theater.

"I am so glad I didn't have to work tonight," Josh said.

"Josh!" called Helen. "Why aren't you working tonight?"

"Because I have tonight off," Josh replied, knowing that the excuse wouldn't be good enough for Helen.

"Really?" Helen replied. "Well...Hello Drake!" she said glancing in back of Josh. "How are you?"

"Fine Helen," Drake responded.

"Good." She looked past Drake at Christine. "And who's this?"

"This is Christine," Drake replied.

"Oh, good to meet you," said Helen. "Are you Drake's date this week?"

"Uh," said Drake, coming between Helen and Christine. "We're friends."

"Oh, you prefer to go out on Saturday anyway, don't you?" Helen said.

"Yeah," Drake replied. He still hadn't talked to Christine about his dating habits. What did he look like to her? Why did he care how he looked as a boyfriend to her? It wasn't like they were going to date. Then again, he didn't want her to see that side of him, and he didn't understand why.

"Hey," said Josh, noting that his brother looked uncomfortable with the situation. "Let's go get something to drink."

"Okay," said Mindy, noticing that Drake looked a little distraught as well. She couldn't stand him, but for some reason, she felt she had reason to be concerned about his odd responses to everything lately. Maybe because he was Josh's brother and she had to care about him somewhat, but she still couldn't stand him.

They were sitting at a table talking now. Mindy had convinced Christine to go to the mall with her on Sunday. They were having a good time, even though Drake and Mindy had started arguing twice already. Things were okay until Drake looked up and saw someone that made the color completely drain from his face.

"Drake?" said a female voice.

"Hey, Candice," Drake replied.

"What's going on?" Candice asked.

"Just here with Josh and my friend," Drake responded. She's going to say something, and Christine is going to hate me. Why do I care though? I shouldn't worry about it. It doesn't matter. Please don't say anything Candice...

"It looks like you're on a double date."

"How?"

"Well, you're here with your brother and his girlfriend and another girl..."

"Oh, well, Christine and me aren't dating," he replied.

"Drake, everyone knows you date a lot of people. No one cares. It's cool."

No one cares until now, Drake thought, glancing over at Christine. "Well, it's not, we're just hanging out." What was the matter with him?

"I've got to go anyway," Candice said. "See you tomorrow night Drake."

"Bye," said Drake. Candice walked away. Drake slid down in his seat. Things were bad enough when Christine had seen how bad he'd become with school. Now she knew what he was like with girls. He had no idea how she was reacting to this. He glanced over at her. She was talking to Mindy. Josh looked at Drake, a bit concerned. Great, now Josh thinks something's wrong again.

Drake walked up Christine's porch with her.

"Um, Christine, about Candice," he began.

"What about her?" Christine asked. "You're obviously seeing her."

"Well..." said Drake.

"What's the matter?"

"I just, I don't know. I'll see you later." He walked down the steps and back to the car. Man, this was difficult.

Christine turned back around and went inside. What did she think was supposed to happen? That she and Drake would click after six years? How could there be any attraction? Candice was prettier than she was. She was also popular. This, Christine knew from school that day. She couldn't help but think about the last time she saw Drake before she moved away. The moment was sad, but he had made her feel better. He had been sweet, even for a fifth-grader. He was her best friend. She guessed now they'd never be more than that.

A/N: I wasn't exactly thrilled with the way this chapter went, but the point of this one was to start to poke at a few things. Hope it turned out okay.