Now... things get interesting...

Chapter 9

Rachel's POV

So here I was on my couch in my house after Patton once again blew me off. But it was important. If anyone can handle the cadets, it's Patton.

I was flicking through his sketchpad and was quite impressed with what I saw. He had a sketch of his mum and a few other people I didn't know which I guessed were relatives.

"Whatcha lookin' at?" The pesky brother of mine asked as he poked his head over my shoulder.

"Go away." I snapped. I pushed his head away and turned back to the sketchpad but he wouldn't give up and sat next to me leaning over.

"That's a good picture." He commented in awe, looking at the one of me.

"I know." I replied with a smile.

"Who drew it?"

"No one!" I closed the pad abruptly.

"You're boyfriend?" He said mockingly, raising his eyebrows. He's the only one in my family that knows about Patton and I want to keep it that way.

"Michael!" I hissed. "You know you're not supposed to say anything!"

"Don't worry I haven't said anything." He said. I was convinced. "But you should."

"Are you kidding?" I said over-dramatically. "Mum and dad will kill me!"

"But Patton's a good guy."

"I know…"

He put his hand on my shoulder and I think that this is the first time in ages we had a brother/sister moment.

"Well gotta go." He said getting up. "Kids Next Door aint gonna rule itself."

"You go make your big sister proud Numbuh 363." I chirped as I ran a hand through his brown hair. He tried to push my arm away.

"Yeah, yeah okay!" He laughed. "See ya… Numbuh 362-T."

I gave him a wink and watched him leave until he was out of sight. I gave a sigh and returned to Patton's sketchpad. I flicked through and my eye caught the one of Fanny. I eyed it suspiciously. It was a good drawing, yet somehow Fanny looked sexier. Her eyes looked seductive and her hair covered one of them in a teasing fashion. All of a sudden I felt anger boil in my stomach and suspicion once again rose.

I gave an annoyed sigh and turned back to the drawing of me. Looking at it calmed me down but the picture of Fanny stuck in my mind and I couldn't get rid of it.

I looked at the clock. My parents wouldn't be back for a while so I decided to check on Patton at the arctic base.

Once I reached there, everything seemed to be taken care of… sort of. Cadets were wearing blankets instead of clothes. They all came to greet me and then started complaining about a boy taking their clothes. I asked them where Patton was and they pointed to a tunnel. I made my way through the tunnel when all of a sudden I heard groaning coming from the other side of a door. It sounded a lot like Fanny so I obliviously opened the door and stiffened at what I saw. Fanny was in Patton's jacket and trousers and Patton was sitting with a blanket draped over his shoulders, wearing nothing but a tank top and boxers.

"Uh… what is going on here?" I managed to get out. "Why are you wearing Patton's clothes?"

"Your boyfriend here offered them to me. He just won't take no for an answer." Fanny replied.

Patton chuckled sheepishly. I stiffened once again. I remember reading something in a magazine about this. One sign of a boy's affection would be to give the girl his jacket on a cold day.

"Rachel, are you okay?" He asked coming over to me.

"F-fine." I replied a little too quickly. "Did you manage to catch the rogue cadet?"

Fanny sighed. "Patton let him get away with nearly every ones clothes."

"I regret training him in thieving." Patton muttered. He turned to me. "What are you doing here anyway?"

I took that offensively. "I wanted to check up on you. Is that such a crime?"

He flinched. "No, it's just when I asked you to come you said you couldn't."

I looked back at Fanny who seemed amused at out little lovers spat.

"Whatever." I whispered as I turned around. I left the room and walked down the hallway. I could hear feet hitting the floor behind me and I knew it was Patton.

But I didn't turn around. I continued to walk.