"Can we stop now? We've been reading this for five. Hours."

"Clyde, we have got one of the most important exams of the year tomorrow and I am not failing."

Clyde's head slumped into his Modern History book.

"Why did I choose this subject?" he groaned into the mocking pages.

"Because I told you to and you agreed," Rani said. "I suppose we could use a break, though."

Clyde looked up. Rani had put aside her book and was sitting cross-legged, crossing off a few things in her school diary. He sat up from his position lying on his stomach on the floor of his room and leant against his bed.

"Cup of tea?" he asked.

"Thanks."

"Black, one sugar?"

"Same as you," she said.

He smiled, and left the room.

Rani put down her writing-thick diary and looked around his room. How was it so neat? Clyde's locker at school was full of rubbish from eighth grade. Maybe his mum Carla had cleaned it out.

Rani crawled over to his desk, too tired to walk. On the floor, beside his desk, was a stack of sketch books. Clyde had obviously been drawing for a while. The books, similar to his room, were surprisingly organised. Each had a word written on the spine, and there were about three or four books for every category.

CARTOONS

ALIENS

FAMILY

OBJECTS

PLACES

CHARACTERS

And then, at the very bottom of the pile, was a smaller sketch book. Rani slipped it out, trying not to knock over any of the others. Nothing on the covers gave away what the book contained, so she flipped open the first page.

There was a very detailed sketch there. Rani frowned. She closed her eyes to clear her mind, took a deep breath and looked at the picture again. It was a mirror image of her. Rani turned to the next page; another portrait of her, but this one a profile. The next sketch was an embellished drawing of her eyes. The subsequent was a picture of her laughing. Most pages had little sketches in the corner of parts of her face, like he was trying to get it perfect.

It wasn't that Clyde had drawn pictures of her that was unusual; there were heaps of drawings of her and Luke in his other sketchbooks.

There was something about the pictures. They were so much more real. And he'd obviously spent a lot of time drawing them. She felt as if they weren't just pictures of her. The Rani in the drawings was her. That was how she was to Clyde. Was that really how he saw her?

Rani closed the book and put it back onto the pile. She sat still for a moment to clear her thoughts, and then gathered her schoolwork up.

Rani ran downstairs.

"Oi," said Clyde from the kitchen. "Where are you going? I just spent five minutes making this tea and I didn't explode anything!"

"Um, gotta go," said Rani. "Sorry – just remembered my… mum's sister's coming round for dinner. Bye!"

Rani swung herself outside and off towards her house.

Clyde frowned.

He went back upstairs and looked around his room. His Modern books were still lying dismally on the floor taunting him. His bed, made for once, had a depression from where Rani's bag had been. His desk had his pens and papers sitting orderly, awaiting his return to his sketchpads. His sketchpads…

Clyde saw the small book lying on top of the pile.

"Right," he said.

*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*

The idea for this came from Small Truth by Walking Through the Rain. You should go read her stories. They're much higher in quality than mine. She's pretty awesome.

Please review – I'm an egotistical kind of person and reviews make me happy :)