She peeked into her brother's room in the morning and smiled. "Oh, good! You're awake, Craig!"

He was sitting up in bed, eyes half-closed, mumbling something about football practice being too freakin' early in the morning. She didn't seem to notice and went to his side, giving him a hug.

"Be sure you dress nice before Peter comes over. You've already made a bad impression–I don't want you making it worse by wearing your boxers around the house again."

He nodded a little and mumbled something along the lines of, "Alright, Coach." And she took that to mean he understood.

As she dashed out the door, he shuffled up and began his morning walk to the kitchen, hitting the wall three times on his way out the bedroom door.

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Jessica frowned and pointed at her with the pencil she was biting on. "So you made up and everything, I hope. Your brother knows you don't hate him, right?"

Cassie nodded and pulled down on her skirt, stomping her feet a little. She shivered lightly. "The weatherman said it would be warm enough today. I can't believe it."

Jessica just rolled her eyes. "You were never one to be observant, Cas. He said tomorrow would be warm enough to wear shorts. The freak heat wave doesn't hit until tomorrow at noon, so I wouldn't get your hopes up tomorrow, either…"

"Well, whatever. I just hope Peter gets his ass over here so I can go home and put on some nice wool socks…"

The door burst open behind them and a girl with sandy blonde hair traipsed down the school steps followed by a group of giggling girls. Jessica jumped up, sighing lightly. "Well, that's my cue. See you later, Cas. Hope everything works out today."

Peter walked out the front door of the school, flipping through some papers in his hand. Cassie stood up and looked at him, smiling. The papers looked relatively important, but she could have cared less.

"Peter…"

He nearly jumped and the papers came falling from his hand, scattering all over the ground. The wind picked up and he let out a yelp. Cassie gasped and crouched down with him, helping him pick them up. One paper started blowing off and he reached for it, but his arm was too short.

His heart sank as he realized it would blow away, until the blonde beside him bounced a little, falling over and grabbing it just in time. She winced a little and handed him the paper, gritting her teeth. He looked her over, noticing she scraped her knee.

"Cassandra, your knee…"

She grinned a little and stood up. "It's okay! I've gotten worse injuries than this!"

He stood up and smiled a little. "Oh, okay. That's good…but you should still wash the wound and put a band-aid on it when you get home. It could get infected."

She laughed. "I know, I know. Now, come on! Let's go. You got all your papers?" He nodded and she grabbed his hand quickly, before she could chicken out of it, and stormed off, ignoring the butterflies in her stomach.

–––––––––––––––––

She opened the front door, her smile widening. "Okay, Peter, you can put your bag down by the wall over there. Do you want anything to drink? We also have chocolate pudding snacks…"

He glanced up at her, nodding a little. "Yes, please." He put his bag down and opened it up, slipping the papers inside. He wouldn't even need his textbook. She had hers and he practically knew the poem by heart.

She turned the corner to what appeared to be the kitchen and he followed her. Before he could even walk through the door frame she screamed. "Craig!! Peter's over here and– Augh!! Go upstairs and put some clothes on!"

Peter blinked and stared at the shirtless boy sitting at the table, eating quite a few pudding snacks. Cassie glared and opened the fridge. Another scream erupted from her throat, and she slammed the door. "Craig!! You ate all the pudding snacks, you pig! I was hoping we could have a snack after school and you went and spoiled that, too!"

He blinked, his face all too innocent to be sincere. "Did I really? Ah, geez, sis…I didn't know… I'm so sorry…"

She glared and hit her forehead, turning to Peter. "I'm so sorry about this…" He was about to tell her there was no need to apologize, but she turned back around to her brother. "And I suppose you drank all the milk, too!?"

He smiled a little, holding his hands up casually. "Guilty as charged."

She gave an aggravated scream and he stood up, showing off his silk boxers with rubber ducks on them. Peter blinked, staring at them. He looked away quickly and Craig snapped his attention back onto him with a thundering shout.

"Hey, batboy! Never seen a guy's body before or are you just gay?" The little Goth narrowed his eyes indignantly and Craig turned around, smacking his left ass cheek with his hand and winking. "Take a picture, kid. It'll last longer and keep you company on lonely dark nights."

Cassie gasped. "Craig! How dare you talk to him like that! Be more considerate, damn it!"

Peter just smiled and shrugged his shoulder indifferently, glancing out the window. "Sorry. I couldn't sell pictures of your flabby ass to even the horniest of girls, so there's really no need to do that…"

Craig glared, taking a step forward. "What did you say about my ass, you little fu–"

Cassie pushed Peter out the door. "Come on, Peter! We should really get to work now!" As he was stumbling up the stairs, she turned around and flipped her brother off. He just grinned and shrugged his shoulders, as if to say, "It's in my nature. I can't help it;" although she knew he definitely could if he wanted to.

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Cassie sighed and sat down on her bed, rubbing her temples to stop the onset of a head-ache. Peter just looked around the room, trying to see something that would leave clues at how she was underneath that happy exterior. There had to be something…

Her room was decorated with fairies and unicorns, castles and dragons and heroic knights on horseback. There were numerous posters on the wall, most of which looked promising: The Last Unicorn; Stardust; Enchanted (though it was a Disney movie) Jim Henson's Labyrinth; Troll; Pan's Labyrinth; and The Fountain.

She also liked Disney… Nicholas would laugh at him for that one. He smiled a little at the old collectibles she had on her shelf, though–an old VHS of The Last Unicorn, and really old VHS tapes, with titles like The Secret of NIMH and the cartoon versions of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit.

He scanned her bookcase and his heart nearly stopped–Vertigo comics by Neil Gaiman. Henrietta and Thorne collected those like crazy; Thorne especially. Maybe he'd have a chance with her. He might just have a chance with her…

"Do you like comic books?"

He turned his head and blinked, forgetting to speak. She smiled, repeated her question.

"I said…'Do you like comic books?'"

He cleared his throat and shook his head. "N-No…I'm not too big on popular culture…but I was just noticing how you collect comics written by Neil Gaiman…"

She laughed. "Duh. He's a fantasy genius, especially his novels. He wrote Stardust… That's my favorite…"

"He's also the greatest Gothic comic writer of all time…"

She shrugged. "That's a matter of opinion, though, isn't it? Can you really say something is Gothic? I mean, I'm sure you can label something as Gothic, but even then lots of people's opinions differ on what is 'Goth', right? All I know is I like a good fairytale. I don't bother caring whether or not something is a certain label or not…"

Peter looked at her quizzically. "You say you don't care if something is 'Gothic' or not, but you know so much about Goth subculture…"

Cassie laughed. "Hardly! I only know what Jessie tells me."

Peter thought it over. Jessica was probably one of the giggliest of all the girls in their classes. She practically oozed 'preppy'. How could she possibly know anything about Goth subculture?

He stared at the comics numbly, unsure of what to say. Cassie cleared her throat. "Were you expecting me to be some major closet Goth with skulls and black littering my floor and dripping from the walls?"

Peter thought about it for a while. Did he? He knew he suspected her of being unconventional, but a closet Goth? That was highly unlikely… So why was he so interested in her? If he were interested in anyone, it should be Jessica after what Cassie just said…

"No… I'm not…"

Cassie stared at him for a while. "You're not what?"

His cheeks flushed pink and he looked up at her quickly before looking away. "I'm not interested in…"

The silence was thick after he trailed off until a loud knock on the door made both of them nearly jump out of their skin. Craig's voice came hollering from the other side.

"Ah, Cas! You have to come see this! I just dropped a huge load and I swear it looks just like General Bison's face!"

Peter's eye twitched and his eyebrows raised, completely unaware of what the hell was so great about it or who the hell this Bison guy was… Did he chew off someone's ear or something? How was a piece of shit that looked like him important at all?

"Shut the hell up, Craig! Peter's not even bothered by you, so you can cut the act and leave us alone!"

Craig groaned on the other side of the door and walked away.

Cassie sighed, giving the door the finger, and looked over at Peter. "I'm sorry, I completely forgot what we were talking about…"

Peter looked away. "Um… It's…It's really not important…"

"Okay, but you seemed pretty unnerved by it… Cheer up, okay?"

He looked up suddenly, completely caught off guard by those words. She was smiling warmly and he felt warmth spreading through his chest, making him feel like smiling, too. So he did.

Her eyebrows rose and her smile widened. "Wow, Peter, you should smile more often!" She laughed and his cheeks turned red and he curled up a little, his smile widening. He couldn't help it. He was having such an off day today. He was spacey, he was smiling, he was just…happy.

Sure he was happy with his friends, but he'd never felt this happy before in his life.

His friends…

His smile faded and his mouth blurted out the first words that popped into his head.

"Would you like to meet my friends tomorrow? We could hang out with them… It would be fun…"

Cassie blinked. "R-Really?" She sat up, grinning widely. "Sure! That sounds great."

Peter paused, putting a hand over his heart. His head was swimming, and he felt so confused. Weren't they supposed to be studying? He needed to be more focused… He needed to be…

He needed to be…

What did he need to be doing?? He couldn't think properly anymore!

1) Craig's Boxers
I had a friend in high school that wore these. It was hilarious; we'd hang out after I got out of dance class and he got out of gym; we'd sit outside the locker rooms and just goof off until the bell rang. I can still remember the time that he mentioned he had silk boxers on. I glanced at him and laughed, saying, "What are you talking about?" And he said, "They have rubber duckies on them." And then he asked me if I wanted to SEE them. Being the moron I was, I said yes. He stood up and pulled on the waistband of his boxers, so they were hanging out of his jeans practically. (He didn't remove his pants, and he didn't take them OFF, seeing as he wasn't that talented; he just pulled them up above the waistband on his jeans, which wasn't too difficult since he wore the atypical your-mama-switched-your-jeans-out-with-your-dad's-pair look.) I stared at them for a really long time, because they were the most AMAZING pair of boxers I'd ever seen. I mean, I still can't imagine that people actually MAKE boxers with really childish things on them. Well, since I was still staring, he snorted and said, "Take a picture and it'll keep you company at night." Which is why Craig also says what he says.

2) Movie Posters
Some of them aren't what you'd consider to be "Goth", like The Last Unicorn, Stardust, Labyrinth (Can you say David Bowie?), etc. However, the movies Pan's Labyrinth, Troll, and The Fountain have dark themes, or themes that would be considered a bit "Gothic". In the movie Troll (here's a fun fact), the lead character is a girl who gets possessed by a troll, and it begins to take over the apartment complex and make it into a fairy tale dimension and shit. Get this -- her brother's name is Harry Potter. (Ha ha. You only get one fun fact per chapter, if at all.) In The Fountain, it tells the story of a man who is immortal and he goes through the ages chasing after his wife in all of her different reincarnations so they can still be together. Now, the message is a bit different from what one would consider "Gothic", but the whole theme of immortality and reincarnation and shit like that is an element that could make the movie "Gothic".

3) VHS Tapes
Okay, I'm well aware of the fact that The Last Unicorn and The Secret of NIMH came out after the others, so don't go telling me my mistake. I think the reason I bring these up is for the fact that I fell in love with these movies when I was a kid. (Minus The Last Unicorn; I never watched it back then.) The Secret of NIMH definitely has some dark themes in it, and the atmosphere beneath the rose bush and in the Great Owl's tree is very dark, which, while you couldn't consider it "Gothic", you could certainly have it grouped in the same sort of realm, I guess you could say. The other thing about it is the fact that it was broken off of Disney, which was a good thing. Oh, damn. I forgot to put Watership Down in there. That was another good one. Anyway, about The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy -- These were my first exposure to J.R.R. Tolkien. And to be honest, the goblins and orcs in this movie scared the willies out of me as a child. They were still awesome, so there.

4) Neil Gaiman
Go look him up. I'm too tired to mention all of the things he's done. He does write children's books and fantasy novels, but it's the comics that would be considered Gothic. With characters like Death, an entity that maintains exactly what her name suggests and also has a look echoing Siouxsie, from Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Creatures, it's pretty obvious his comics have Gothic themes. So...yeah. That's pretty much it. If you want to learn more about him (which I doubt any of you do), just look him up on the Encyclopedia Gothica. While you're at it, look him up on Wikipedia. That gives a much better overview of EVERYTHING he does, not just the Gothic crap.

5) General Bison
Craig is a Street Fighter fan. That's really all I can say. (Check out the Street Fighter movie. Raúl Juliá plays Bison.) And, for your information, Craig was lying about the shit that looked like Bison's face. He was being an asshole. And I am not implying that Raúl Juliá looks like shit. When I made Craig say that, I meant General Bison in the GAME, not the MOVIE. But still, Juliá does an excellent job in that movie and you should go watch it.

6) Bison? Ear? What the Hell?
Bison. Tyson. Mike Tyson. I made a joke. Laugh, damn it.

6) Cassie's name
I think this chapter would be the best place to mention her name. Well, if you consider the fact that Peter calls her Cassandra, and the fact that in Cassie's daydream she tells him it doesn't stand for anything, that it's just Cassie, that means that's just how it is. Peter calls her Cassandra because he feels that Cassie sounds too "familiar" and he's shy. Since that IS her full name, the meaning of it is also ironic. (Especially for the last part of this chapter.) Cassie is a Greek name. (Think Cassiopeia, which is often shortened to Cas, Cassie's nickname in this story.) It literally means "She who entangles men". Basically: "She who confuses men". And, in Peter's case, she really does confuse him.