AN-This is a sequel to chapter 291, where it was pretty much iOMG, but with Emma and Quincy.

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Window

"I'm bored," Tyler announced, coming downstairs and sitting himself down on the couch between his two parents.

"Well maybe that's because you're supposed to be in bed," Sam told him.

"Yeah, Ty, it's after midnight," Freddie said, looking at his watch.

"I'm not tired," Tyler said. "It's not fair. Jason's at college and Emma and Ashton get to sleep at their school. I want to go somewhere!"

"Tyler, come on, you get to go places," Sam said, rustling her hair.

"No I don't! Being the youngest sucks," he pouted.

Freddie sighed. "Alright, how about this? If you go to sleep right now, tomorrow morning you and I will get up early and I'll drive you down to that young fans training camp at the Cobra's stadium."

"Alright!" Tyler exclaimed happily, quickly getting to his feet and running upstairs.

"You're gonna sit through six hours of football stuff with him?" Sam asked.

"No," Freddie said. "There's no rule that says I have to play football. I'm bringing my laptop, sitting in the stands, and watching the entire Galaxy Wars trilogy. You know I can't throw a ball or catch a ball or tackle people before they get a ball."

"I know that baby," Sam smirked.

"Anyway," Freddie sighed, getting up. "I should go to sleep; got to be up at six now…"

"Yeah, I'll come with you," Sam yawned. "Since now this means that I have to wake up early to pick up the twins and Clarissa in the morning."

The couple started up the steps when they suddenly heard a loud thump.

"Tyler's probably tearing apart his bedroom right now trying to find his Cobra's jersey," Freddie sighed.

They headed towards their youngest son's bedroom, only to find him fast asleep in his bed.

"Huh, that's weird," Freddie frowned. "I wonder what that noise was."

"Eh, probably just the wind," Sam shrugged. "Now come on, let's get to-"

But just then they heard another thump.

"Sounds like it came from the twins room," Freddie commented.

"They probably left their T.V. on," Sam said. "I'll go turn it off."

"So can you give me a little quick tutorial on this whole football thing," Freddie said as they headed towards the twins room. "You know, so I don't look like a total idiot in front-Emma?"

The couple had just opened the girls room, which they had expected to be empty, only to find Emma in it, closing her bedroom window.

"Oh, um…hey," Emma said awkwardly.

"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at the lock-in!" Sam exclaimed.

"Yeah…I wasn't really feeling that," Emma said lamely. "So I sort of came home."

"Okay, please tell me that you didn't walk all the way here from the school in the middle of the night," Freddie said.

"No, I called a cab," Emma said, rolling her eyes. "And then I climbed up that tree by my window to get in here."

"Well why didn't you just call one of us to pick you up?" Sam asked.

"Because I knew you'd make me stay!"

"You bet we would've," Freddie said, crossing his arms. "Emma, this is getting ridiculous. You need to start taking your schoolwork more seriously; this is your end-of-semester project! You can't just leave it all for Ashton and Clarissa to do again!"

"She worked with Quincy and some kid from the pottery club," Sam told her husband.

"Oh…well you can't just make Quincy and his friend do all the work either!" Freddie said.

"I didn't!" Emma retorted. "I did my part of the stupid project before I left."

"But why did you leave?" Sam asked. "If you finished your stuff than you could've slept! Or ate!"

"I just wanted to come home, okay?" Emma snapped. "God, why do I have to get the third-degree for every little thing that I do?"

"Whoa, what up with the 'tude?" Sam asked, frowning.

"Yeah, what is going on here?" Freddie asked. "Something's got to be up."

"Fine," Emma mumbled, her voice less harsh. "But can I…Can I just talk to mom about it? Please?"

"Oh, um, okay," Sam nodded, giving Freddie a look that told him that she would handle this.

"Alright," Freddie said, heading out of the room, leaving his wife and daughter.

"Okay Em," Sam sighed, sitting down on the edge of her bed. "What's up? Why'd you leave the lock-in?"

"Because," Emma said, flinging herself down onto her bed, burying her head in one of her pillows as she mumbled something incoherent.

"Um…what's that?" Sam asked.

Emma mumbled something again that something couldn't hear.

"Look, I'm sure your pillow can hear you just fine," Sam said. "But I can't. So honey, why don't you sit up and-"

"I kissed Quincy!" Emma said loudly.

Sam blinked. "You-You mean Quincy Gibson?"

"Yes," Emma mumbled, slowly sitting up against her headboard.

"Oh…" Sam said, a bit unsure of how to react. "Well, um…w-why?"

"I don't know," Emma said miserably. "I was outside being all mad at Clarissa and Ashton because they tried to hook me up with Quincy's friend, Andrew, who they thought I liked because I was apparently being a lot nicer than I usually am lately, and then Quincy came out, and he said some things and then I-I kissed him!"

"Well, okay, Emma, do-do you like Quincy then?"

"I don't know," Emma said again, sighing. "Maybe? No! I don't! I hate him. He's weird and dorky and has stupid hobbies…but I can't help it! He-He doesn't seem so bad lately, and whenever I hang out with him, I start to feel…weird."

Sam gave her a small smile. "Emma, listen, I know Quincy's really…odd. But I mean, that's not all his fault; look at who his dad is! Anyway, I know he's not exactly a normal guy, and I know that the idea of liking him is probably freaking you out a lot right now, but there was obviously a part of you that wanted to kiss him, and probably a part of you that enjoyed it."

Emma didn't reply.

"And, let me guess, you ran back here before you could even give him a chance to respond," Sam said knowingly.

Emma nodded. "How am I ever supposed to look at him again after this? He's never going to stop holding this over me! I can't believe I did that…"

"First of all, I've known Quincy his whole life, and he's a nice guy," Sam told her. "He wouldn't hold this over you. Second, have you ever thought that maybe…maybe he liked the kiss too?"

"No…" Emma said softly.

"Well, then you should talk to him tomorrow, and-"

"No," Emma said firmly. "Uh-uh, nope. Not gonna happen; I-I'm going to pretend that this whole thing never happened. I know, I'll tell him that there was barbecue sauce or something on the corned of his mouth, and I was really hungry, so I-I tried to get it."

"Emma," Sam said gently. "When I was your age…someone told me that I couldn't keep doing exactly what you're doing now; that I had to stop being so scared to put my feelings out there, because you know what? If you don't you're going to miss so much."

Emma was silent.

"Hey," Sam said, smiling. "It's not as bad as you think…the whole 'talking it out' thing. Yeah, I like to avoid it when I can, but it has some pretty nice results."

"So you think him and I could be, you know, a-a couple?" Emma asked softly, staring down at her lap.

"Well Emma, I'm not the one who gets to decide that," Sam said. "That's between you two. But if you don't even try, you'll spend the rest of your life wondering what could've happened."

Emma nodded. "Okay…maybe-maybe I won't try and pretend that it didn't happen."

Sam patted her shoulder. "There you go, kid." She got to her feet. "Well, I'm gonna get to bed. I'll leave you alone, you know, to figure out what you'll say."

"Thanks," Emma said, smiling at her. "Oh, and mom? If I'm gonna do this, take Ashton to Canada for the day, will you? Otherwise she'll probably try to be right at my side during the whole thing."

Sam chuckled. "Yeah, I'll keep her out of your hair for you."