Together, Nina and Fabian made their way through town.
Nina was surprised that Patricia left her alone with Fabian, but she knew that they were just friends and Patricia must be showing her that she trusted Nina. That- or she was testing Nina. With Patricia, Nina could never be sure.
So, Nina kept that in mind as she strolled arm in arm with Fabian.
They stopped at a bakery and watched the baker cook bread from outside the window. Nina and Fabian gaily waved at the man when he turned to face them after he had tossed another loaf into the brick oven.
They tried on sunglasses. They listened to a street guitarist. And, they got free samples of fudge.
They talked the entire time. If her friends were to ever tell her that Fabian was shy, she would never believe them.
"So what'd you do on weekends in America? Did you go to town?" Fabian asked curious.
She laughed, "I never really went to 'town'- that's too quaint for where I come from. But actually, I lived in the suburbs, so not really."
"Then what?" he asked stopping to look at some sheet music that was for sale on a miscellaneous vendor's cart.
"Hang out with my friends. Go to the mall. Go to sporting events. Hang out at the pool in the summer," she listed, "What about you Fabian? Is this how you guys all hang out normally?"
Fabian wanted to impress her by saying that he did some pretty wicked stuff on the weekends, but he couldn't on principle. He had always been a guy of honesty, and wouldn't change now.
"Yah," he admitted, "We don't leave the school much, so going to town is a pretty big treat" he said stressing the word 'school' as 'skol' in cute British accent.
"It so exciting being here though, I love boarding school," she said enthusiastically.
"Hey look!" Fabian said suddenly pointing to a pet shop.
Instead of walking towards it, they took off running through the streets towards the shop. Fabian got there first and opened the door for Nina.
The pet shop man was really nice. After Nina and Fabian 'ooh' and 'ahh-ed' over the bunnies and hamsters, he offered to let her hold a kitten.
"Actually, I'm allergic to cats," she said regrettably. She suddenly looked up at Fabian remembering the first morning when he found her crying in the hallway and she used 'allergies to cats' as an excuse for her tears. She could feel her cheeks growing warm in embarrassment at the memory.
The man handed her a puppy to hold instead. It was so tiny and energetic she could hardly hold it in her hands. She held the little white, snowball-resembling puppy up to Fabian and it licked his nose. Nina could feel her heart pounding- it was the cutest thing she had ever seen.
She nearly slapped herself for thinking that. Nina, you idiot, she said to herself. Stop falling for him. He's cute. Get over it. She severely reprimanded herself.
She snapped out of it when she spotted Patricia and Jerome coming from across the street. Nina inconspicuously took a step away from Fabian.
Patricia and Jerome were still arguing when they walked through the door.
"Jerome! We are not arguing about this!" said Patricia.
"Oh yes we are! I'm not a sucker- you're going to give me the RIGHT answer. Soon!" he replied.
"What are you two going on about?" asked Fabian.
"Nothing," said Patricia, "Let's eat. We can meet Alfie and Amber at the café across from the shoe store."
They all met up in the café. Amber had actually made reservations there so they were able to sit right down.
"So Nina," said Jerome with a wicked gleam in his eyes, "What have you and Fabian been talking about?" he asked.
But before she could even respond he continued talking to Nina while looking straight at Fabian, "Do you have a boyfriend now?" he asked. Fabian slapped his forehead- Jerome had expected him to ask Nina out when they were alone, but he was having too much fun that he hadn't even thought about it!
Jerome was severely embarrassing Fabian, while inflicting pure confusion upon Nina. Nina assumed that this sudden interest in her love life was linked to last night's game of truth or dare with the girls.
"No, Patrick is in America so will you all please lay off now?" she said exasperated.
"Patrick?" Fabian asked horrified. He had waited too long to ask her out! She liked someone else now!
"Some guy Nina liked," explained Amber.
"Liked?" Fabian said hopefully.
"Can we not talk about this?" Nina requested.
"So Fabian, how's the guitar playing going?" asked Amber in one of her more tactful attempts to move the conversation back to Fabian to draw Nina's interest to him.
"Good," Fabian said distractedly thinking about Nina and Patrick. The girls spend the rest of the lunch trying to make Fabian look impressive to Nina. They bragged about him and fawned over him. But by the end of the lunch, they feared Nina to be severely indifferent.
When they got home, Trudy met them at the door.
"Oh Fabian!" she said immediately when she saw him, "I am so sorry- but I fear we have had a bit of a problem."
"Problem?" he asked.
"It was the oddest thing, but when you were gone, your dresser caught fire. The investigator we had here said that it must have been a problem with the old electrical systems in the walls. In any case- all of your clothes are destroyed! Well, oddly- except for your uniforms. I am so sorry dear!"
Fabian's eyes widened. Mick called him to their room, "I'm sorry mate- you can have my extra clothes."
Fabian walked dumbly to his room and could distinctly smell the smoke from within his room.
"Uh, I got some extra clothes that my dad sent me. I put them in the new dresser that Victor moved here,"
Fabian found the drawers to be stocked with some exceptionally nice clothes. He audibly gasped.
"Your dad sent you these?" he asked.
"Yah- he buys me too much- I'd rather you have them," Mick said.
"But we're not the same size," said Fabian practically.
Mick's eyes widened, "Uh. Righttttt…my dad ordered all of this in the wrong size- so I couldn't wear them anyway."
Fabian trusted Mick. He suspected nothing, "Oh. Ok. Thanks man, this is really generous."
"Don't mention it," replied Mick who rushed out of the room as Fabian examined his new clothes.
Mick met the guys in the common room. Alfie rushed in and informed them all that the girls wanted to talk to them in private- in Mara and Patricia's room
Soon everyone in the House, excepting the adults, Nina and Fabian were assembled in the girl's room. The girls and Alfie sat on the beds while Jerome leaned against a wall and Mick sat by Mara's desk.
"Ok- we have a situation and we have deemed it necessary to involve the guys at this point," said Mara formally.
"What situation?" asked Alfie.
"The Nina and Fabian situation," replied Amber.
"Oh Yah. Fab is just so slow. We were just talking to him about asking her out last night," said Jerome.
Patricia gave him one of her rare smiles of approval, "Good, and he said…? "
"He said he'd do it. But after today's Patrick thing- I think he's lost his nerve," replied Jerome rolling his eyes, "Pathetic."
Patricia slapped his arm, "Hey! This is Fabian we are talking about!"
"Yah- but he is just too shy!" said Jerome defensively, "If he wants a girl he needs to have confidence."
"He thinks that they are just friends, he doesn't know what to do," Justified Mick.
"Now what?" asked Mara.
"I'm going to go talk to Fabian about this myself after dinner," decided Patricia.
"You're going to tell him what we're doing?" asked Mara shaking her head.
"No stupid. I'm going to inform him that Nina doesn't like Patrick and I'll tell him that Nina likes him," she said.
"But we're not sure about that!" said Mara.
"So? It'll boost his confidence when asking her out," said Jerome shrugging.
"You know what I think?" Said Amber, "I think we need to set up a really romantic moment for them and then just leave them alone,"
"Good idea," said Alfie. (He always liked Amber's ideas)
After they decided on setting up a romantic moment for later that night, they left to change for dinner.
That night at dinner, Nina couldn't help but do a double take at Fabian in his new clothes.
"Woah," she said trying not to look at him too much, "Nice clothes."
"Thanks Nina," said Fabian smiling in embarrassment.
"And I thought Trudy said they all burned in the fire," she said.
"Mick gave me some," he explained nodding to Mick from across the table. Mick nodded back.
"So, I was thinking with the guys," said Mick, "that we should do an ultimate scavenger hunt tonight,"
Everyone chimed in agreement, "We'll draw names for teams and then go around the House and Campus in the search," he whispered to everyone's excitement.
He pulled out a bunch of strips of paper from his pocket and Jerome began picking. (In reality, the strips of paper were blank so he just made the teams as he went.)
"Amber and Alfie," said Jerome.
"Why am I not surprised?" said Amber rolling her eyes.
"Mara and Jer-" but Mara interrupted him.
"Mick! It says Mick!" she cried.
"Fine," said Jerome glaring at her.
"Ok then, "Jerome and Patricia. And then Nina and Fabian."
After dinner when Nina went to Fabian's room to get him before the game started, the door partly creaked open. (The house was creepy like that.) She heard Patricia and Fabian talking from within. They were alone. She heard the word "love" come from Fabians mouth and Nina's response was instantaneous. She walked quickly away from the door and tried very hard not to get jealous.
She realized that she liked Fabian more than was healthy if she wanted to remain friends with Patricia. So she decided that it may be best if she didn't let herself get too close to him.
She walked up to Jerome, Amber, and Alfie and asked them quietly.
"Is it possible I could trade partners?"
She wondered why they all gave her such surprised and sad looks.
She had no way of knowing that they were all thinking the same thing: "We've got our work cut out for us."
A/N: It is an honor to know that someone out there is reading my little story fantasies. Thanks for reviewing. Next chapter will come up in the next two to three days (quicker if at all possible.)