Disclaimer: I own nothing. Enjoy

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Don't Forget About Me

Chapter Twelve: Monday

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I sighed nervously as I looked up to see the large school looming in the distance. Then I felt my hand being squeezed, and I looked up to see Dalby smiling gently down at me. I smiled broadly up at him as he wrapped an arm around me and pulled me close to him, kissing the top of my head.

"We're in this together, right?" I asked timidly, looking up to see him nod at me.

"I wouldn't have it any other way, Belle Taylor." He replied gently, as he stopped and pulled me into a hug. "And just to let you know, that's not a line I use to get girls in the sack." He said, as I laughed quietly.

"Good to know I'm not just one of your conquests." I smirked up at him.

"Oh no, they are just my side dishes, you're the main course." He said, grinning cheekily as I groaned and pulled away from him.

"I'm not walking anywhere with you if you're going to be corny," I said, walking ahead of him. "I don't want to be known as 'the girl who made Eric Dalby the huge softie', my reputation could not handle it." I said in mock seriousness.

"What reputation?" Dalby scoffed at me as he ran to catch up.

"Oh, now you've gone and done it." I laughed, shoving him away from me and running out of his reach. Only he was too fast for me, and ran around behind me, picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder.

"Eric Dalby" I squealed "Put me down this instant." I cried in between my laughs.

"Or what?" He replied nonchalantly, tickling my stomach.

"Or…" I said, thinking quickly so it wouldn't appear to be the empty threat that it had begun as. Suddenly, as if a bolt of lightning had hit me, I remembered something. And I grinned evilly, and stopped wriggling under Dalby's hold.

"Or I'll tell everyone which band you knew every single song to when you were 13." I said, grinning as I watched his jaw drop in horror. He set me down and pinned me against a tree.

"You'll do no such thing Belle Taylor," He said, moving his body against mine.

"And why not?" I said, sucking in my breath as his lips moved closer to mine.

"Because if not…" He said, as his lips connected with mine.

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She tasted of chocolate and toothpaste, which was always an interesting combination. But she smelt so damn good; I couldn't help but pull her against me, and wrap my arms around her, deepening the kiss. Her lips moved against mine, and her hands became tangled in my hair, pulling me, if possible, closer to her.

One of my hands moved up and down her back, then under her shirt, as my tongue moved into her mouth, beginning to dance with hers, causing Belle to let out a moan, and pull back from me quickly.

"Dalby, we're in a local park, two blocks away from the school." She began, trying to control her breathing.

I was so distracted by the feel of her smooth skin underneath her shirt, and her red, swollen kissed lips, that I only managed to mumble a "So?" which came out sounding worse than I wanted it to.
"So…" She said, pushing me on the chest and creating more space between us "If I'm going to get lucky… if you're going to get lucky," She said, poking me in the chest as I tried to gather her in my arms again "Its not going to be in a public arena." She said, shrugging off my advances and walking towards the school again.

I shook my head, which was still clouded by the lustful feelings I had towards this… girl… woman, before jogging to catch up with her, and draping an arm around her shoulder.

She smiled up at me as I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. Trying to keep my hands off her was driving me more insane every minute I spent with her. So, having spent nearly an entire weekend around her, taking her in, learning her quirks, getting to know her, all I really wanted to do was pull her into the first broom closet I could find in the school and kiss her senseless. Then, something she'd said finally registered.

"So, I'm going to get lucky, am I?" I asked, smirking at she turned to face me.

"Only if you're very well behaved, and don't cut class once this week." She said, pausing mid conversation to turn to face me. "Then maybe we can discuss second base." She said, smirking at what I could only imagine to be a crestfallen look.

"Of course, there's always the option of waiting for marriage…" She continued as she practically skipped towards the school.

"You'd wait till marriage?" I asked her quickly as I caught up with her.

She nodded her head as she continued walking. "Yeah, I'd consider it…" She said, "If I were getting married this weekend." She finished, poking her tongue out at me again.

"Oh you are so going down." I said, putting her over my shoulder and running around, until suddenly, she wasn't laughing any more.

"There it is." She said finally, as I put her down and stood up to see the school right in front of us.

She sucked in a deep breath, and I took her hand, trying to calm her nerves.

"Not in this alone." She muttered, as she squeezed my hand, and together we walked toward our meeting spot.

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I was standing against a tree when I saw Belle and Dalby come out of the shadows, holding hands tightly with one another, sharing curious looks. I let out a sigh; they looked so natural with one another. Well, at least I thought they did. But to every other school kid around they, they were looking them up and down, wondering if it was some lame attempt at an early April fools joke.

I shook my head, people were so conceited. And naïve. And they were so absorbed in their own little worlds of hair and make-up, of sport, of brains, of being the rebel, that they hadn't bothered to look around and see what we saw now.

Mentally I kicked myself. We hadn't seen it until Saturday either. And it'd taken us all day to get to where we had left off, then a whole other day to get to where we were now.

And where were we exactly? I wasn't entirely sure. But I knew that by the end of the day, we'd either be united against an angry student population, or broken apart, any chance of survival blown to smithereens.

Maybe I was being a bit of a drama queen here, but to have your best friend suddenly back in your life, after years of silence, that called for drama and tension and intrigue. And nerves, because I could not control the butterflies in my stomach right now.

"You too?" Belle asked nervously as she and Dalby reached me. He offered me a small smile, while Belle let go of his hand and pulled me into a tight hug.

"No matter what happens, you and me, we're mates for life after this." She said firmly, and when I pulled away, I saw that she also had tears in her eyes.

"And why would anything happen today?" A voice said from behind me, and I turned around to see Maddie, Henry and Lucas standing together, watching Belle, Dalby and I.

"I don't know, you could turn back into the feared ice queen everyone loves to hate." Belle replied, a sarcastic smile playing on her face.

"You wish Belle Taylor!" She replied, the same smile on her own face. "You're just annoyed you can't be in the running for the most broody teenager in our year group any more." She quipped, smirking at Belle, who smirked back at Maddie.

And Henry, well, he was simply there, smiling that smile at me again. Watching me again. Waiting to make his move.

And then suddenly, the butterflies disappeared and I knew whatever happened, we'd all be okay.

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Cassie looked so damned nervous, I couldn't help but smile. She was so cute when she got nervous, she hugged her arms into her and bit her lip, tending to look more shy and nervous, but it all gave off the same feeling. And it made me want to hug her to me, and walk into that school with my arm around her, claiming such an amazing creature as my own.

And for the first time since Saturday morning, I felt that I could do something of the sort. I grinned goofily as I walked in front of them all, grabbing their attention.

"The time has come," I said dramatically, as Maddie giggled next to Luke, and Belle and Cassie rolled their eyes. It was nice to know that some things never changed.

"Ah, the infamous dance dates." Dalby said, smirking at me as I smirked back at him.

"You made a bet, and I won. Fairs fair that I'm allowed to follow through." I replied all knowingly.

"Yeah," Cassie said from directly in front of me, a fiery look in her eyes "But what happens if we protest to these pairings?" She asked, taking a step forward, challenging me to take the bait. She bit her lip and looked up into my eyes, and I couldn't help what happened next.

"Oh, I'm fairly sure the only one that will feel put out is Maddie, and like she actually has a choice in the matter." I said, staring down at Cassie, who appeared to be vulnerable again.

"Hey" Maddie said from behind us, breaking the moment, at least for now "That's not fair."

"And the Ice Queen returns" Belle muttered under her breath, as Maddie broke out into a grin.

"Got ya." She said, smiling, as she pulled Lucas by the wrist.

"Come on nerd boy, I do believe we've got biology first, and I'm going to need some major tutorage if I even begin to hope to get into University."

"Bye guys" Luke said, waving at us.

"See you at lunch" Maddie yelled over the chatter as she and Luke disappeared into the crowd.

"And then there were four." Belle said. "Okay Dalby, lets make a half decent man out of you."

"Aww do we really have to?" He replied, as Belle rolled her eyes at Cassie and gave us a short wave.

"Then two." Cassie sighed, a little sadly.

"Chin up girl." I said, taking her hand and interlocking out fingers "At least you got stuck with the hottest guy in school, who is, by the way, taking you to the dance." I said shortly, leaning down to kiss her before she could protest.

"Well… if there is kisses involved" She said, smiling after I'd pulled away, "I guess I could handle it." She finished, nestling herself into my body.

"Wouldn't have it any other way." I said, walking into school, ignoring any strange looks I was receiving. Nothing could bring me down from this high.

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"School was never that much fun." Maddie squealed as we walked out of biology together. "Now I actually have a reason to go to biology instead of skipping class to shop." She continued excitedly as we reached her locker.

"Yeah, but I don't think I've ever gotten into that much trouble in a class either." I replied, leaning against the locked and smiling down at her, watching her animated face smile back at me.

"Being bad feels pretty good, doesn't it?" She smirked up at me as she shut her locker door gently and leant against it.

"Did you just quote the movie?" I asked, and groaned as she nodded.

"Hey, in my defense, you knew it was from the movie." She said, poking me as I began tickling her.

"Matilda." I heard someone squeal in a high pitched voice, and we both spun around to see three girls staring at us. Beside me, Maddie's face fell, and I could only imagine how painful this was about to be for her.

"We need to talk." The dark haired one said, walking over towards Maddie and pulling her roughly away.

"What are you doing with him?" She said, in a not so hushed tone. "Do you have any idea what hanging out with Lucas Holden will do for your creed in this school? You were a shoe in for Prom Queen and everything…" She said, letting out an exasperated breath. "You're not ill, are you?" She said, putting her hand to Maddie's forehead as Maddie simply rolled her eyes.

"Well something must be wrong, you'd never be caught dead with people like him." She continued, glaring at me.

"You know what?" Maddie finally sighed, "I don't want to deal with this. Seriously, grow up, will you?" Maddie snapped at her "Like it really honestly matters about my 'creed' in the school! I don't give a damn, why should you?" She said, smirking at her friends shocked expressions. "Now I'm going back over there, so Luke and I can hang out. I really don't want to see you ever again, so do us all a favour and go away." Maddie said, walking away from her now former friends.

"No one will ever want to hang out with you again Matilda Hunter." The brunette screamed across the hallway, having obviously recovered from the shock of Maddie's revelation.

"Oh no, how ever shall I go on?" Maddie replied mockingly as she joined me again, rolling her eyes and smiling brightly up at me. I'd never met someone brave enough to do that. To me, this girl was one of a kind, and I needed to let her know that.

"You're amazing, you know that, right?" I said, looking down at her.

"Yep. And I'm pretty damn gorgeous too." She smirked.

"You've been hanging around with Belle too much. Enough of the smirking." I said, as Maddie laughed. I looked over to see her former friends still glaring at us.

"Wanna give them a show?" I said, leaning down, whispering in her ear. She nodded up at her, her eyes becoming wide. "But how exactly."

She knew though, as our eyes locked. And she knew.

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I swallowed as I watched Luke lean down, his eyes locked on my lips. My heart beat harder in my chest, and my stomach was in knots. His hands reached around my waist, pulling me towards him slowly. My body fit into his perfectly, and as our lips gently touched, I threaded my hands around his neck and into his hair, my tongue ran across his lips, before I leant up into him, kissing him deeper, his body moving against mine, pushing my back into the lockers.

His arms pinned me against the lockers as his hand ran up and down one side of my body, causing me to moan into his mouth, as Luke pulled away from me slightly, resting his forehead against my own. We were both breathing so heavily, neither of us bothered to notice the hoards of school kids that had gathered to view our spectacle. Neither of us noticed the evil figure standing in the shadows.

"Nerds shouldn't kiss like that." I said, trying to calm my breathing as Luke smiled down at me again. "You should know by now I'm not your average nerd." He smirked, as I sucked in a breath, preparing myself for a second life altering kiss.

"Matilda Hunter and Lucas Holden." Hyde screamed from behind us. Luke jumped away from me and tried to look innocent, but failed miserably.

"Yes, Hyde?" I replied, pulling off the innocent act far more convincingly that Luke.

"Public displays of affection in the hallway are in no way tolerated in this school." He said calmly, stepping forward through the crowd. "It appears that detention this weekend taught you nothing. So I'll see you here next weekend, where we shall continue with your education." He snapped, stalking away through the crowd.

When he was safely gone, Luke looked over and caught my eyes, and we both burst into laughter, just as the bell for lunch rang.

"Lunch?" I said happily, taking his hand and threading my fingers through his.

"Sounds good to me." He said, pulling me close and kissing the top of my head.

"Guess who's joining you for detention?" I said happily to Dalby as I sat down next to him.

"The Grinch?" He said, smirking at me.

"Well yes, Hyde will be there, but so will Luke and I." I replied, tucking into my sushi.

"Oh yes." Cassie said from next to Henry "I heard a rumour about Matilda Hunter making out in the hallway with none other than Lucas Holden. So what they say is true."

Luke blushed, but I nodded happily.

"So I guess that makes the pairings for the dance pretty concrete?" Belle asked, as she looked at me in mild disgust, still not too sure about the whole sushi thing.

"What are you talking about?" Henry said, "I was going to take you." Henry said to Belle, smirking at Cassie hit him on the arm.

"I was kidding." He said, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her against him.

"Ohh" I said "I see someone else is playing happy families for now."

"Nice observation Maddie."

"This is kinda freaky." I said, a few moments later. "Us, all ending up like this."

"Maybe," Cassie replied, shrugging, "But maybe this was meant to be."

"You mean, like, we were destined to be friends?" I asked her.

"How else do you explain everything that's happened?" She replied.

" I don't know…" I replied, wondering how I really would explain what happened.

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That's our story. Of finding one another, of fate, of destiny. That's our story of how we walked into the library as enemies, and walked out as friends, bound forever by our experiences, our feelings, our lives.

And all you really needed to know about everything that had happened is that we found one another when we needed them the most.

The rest, as they say, is history.

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AN:…. And then there was one more to go. Click that button, you know you want to.