A/N I know this chapter isn't as long as some of the others, but I thought they deserved a bit of happiness before any more drama :L

Jasmine's P.O.V

"Come on Jas, get up!" I woke up with a jolt as Riley burst into my room, opening the curtains to let the harsh sunlight into my room. I shielded my eyes - it was far too bright, and it reminded me of the outside world - something I'd been planning on completly ignoring for the day.

"Get up!" He repeated, I sat up in bed slowly, rubbing my eyes.

"What time is it?"

"Eight thirty", he informed me. Eight thirty, seriously? On a Saturday morning? No chance. I snuggled back down in bed and closed my eyes.

"Don't even think about it", he laughed, peeling the covers away from me. I made a desperate grab for them but a sleepy teenage girl was no match for a young premiership league footballer who hated losing and whose specialities included being annoying as hell.

"Does Seth have to get up?"

"Yeah. He reacted pretty simularly to you".

"Well that's just proof of how unreasonable your being. I'm going back to sleep".

"The only place your going is downstairs for breakfast. Mitzeee's done a fry-up, and then we're going out".

I was suspicious of this. Saturday's usually meant Riley spending all day at training.

"Why? Don't you have football?"

"Yes. But I also have the first full day with my little sister in way too long. Practice can wait, we're having a family day".

"I'm sure the coach will be estatic".

"Screw him. Now get up!"

As much as my body was telling me to just defy him and return to my slumber, my head was telling me otherwise. Riley never passed up football. Never. The one positive I could say about my brother, and let's face it possibly the only one, was that he was no slacker. He gave absolutley everything his best shot. The fact that spending time as a family after my return meant more to him than getting a shouting at by the coach, who was practicly a God in Riley's eyes, meant a lot.

"I'll be down in a minute", I told him. "Now get out, I'm getting dressed".

He smiled and nodded as he left. I pulled on some clothes, not really bothered as to whether or not they matched, and ran down the stairs. Now I could smell the bacon cooking I was eager to get down and eat it as soon as possible. It was funny how you could be perfectly content, but as soon as you caught a whiff of delicious food-like scent, become instantly starving.

When I reached the dining room, Seth was already sat at the table, looking about as awake as I'd felt a few minutes ago. Mitzeee was serving up the food onto plates, already in heels and full make-up with hair done to perfection just to cook the breakfast, and Riley was sat reading a sports magazine. I smiled. It was such a breath of fresh air to wake up to find that no matter what, some things would never change.

"You got kicked out of bed too then?" Seth asked me, his words only just understandable through his yawning, as I sat down at the table.

"Quit moaning you two", Riley laughed. "Eat up".

Mitzeee handed us all plates and sat down with us. To an outsider, Mitz, or Anne as we'd all originally known our cousin as, probably looked incredibly high maintinence. However, unknown to most, she was great around the house. She happily did most of the housework and was an excellent cook who could probably put Tony Hutchinson, the village chef who liked every-one to know it, to shame if she wanted to.

"So where are we actually going today then?" I was curious where Riley thought we'd actually all enjoy. The four of us had quite a wide range of personalities.

"I thought we could go to Chester Zoo", he replied. Seth, Mitzeee and I all laughed.

"You do realize we're not five anymore?" I asked through my laughter.

"Well where do you suggest Jas? I know it's not ideal but Mitz likes the cute fluffy things, you like the boat cruises and stuff you get a zoo's and there's a resteraunt, so that's me and Seth sorted".

I shrugged. As crappy as the day ahead sounded, I supposed I couldn't think of anything better myself.

"You can take a friend each if you want", Mitzeee added. "Make it more enjoyable".

"Seth would have to find one first", I teased.

"Oh yeah? And how many friends do you have here again?" Annoyingly I had to admit he had a point. I got on well with Tilly, but I'd only seen her once in the past year and I could hardly count Sinead after the events of Friday night.

Besides, I was secretly looking forward to a day out with just Seth, Riley and Mitzeee. As dysfunctional as my family was, I wouldn't swap them for the world.

"Okay, well how about we just go as a family then? Save any arguments starting". Good old Mitzeee. She was constantly having to be the voice of reason. Wait. An idea struck me.

"Seth you can invite a friend, I don't mind".

"Are you sure? I don't want you to feel left out".

I smiled. We'd only just stopped fighting seconds ago but when it came to it he was still concerned for my feelings.

"I'll be fine", I re-assured him. "But could you not invite Jonno or Neil? They were my mates as Jason, and they're not the most sensitive - it would be weird".

Seth nodded.

"I'll ask Tilly".

"Please don't - she'll have heard about Sinead by now. She'll hate me".

"She won't hate you".

"It'll be awkward".

"Fine", he sighed. "Your not really leaving me with many people left to invite Jas".

I took this as my que.

"You could always invite Bart?" I heard my voice rise by a pitch or two as I asked this question, so it sounded really girly, the way it always seemed to when I was talking about Bart.

"Ah now I see where you've been going with this". He laughed slightly. "Nice try Jas".

"Please". I found myself pleading with him. I was having to beg my twin brother to help me with my love life. Pathetic, I knew, but it was better than not seeing him.

"Invite him yourself", he told me.

"That looks too obvious", I replied.

"No more obvious than getting me to do it for you". Annoyingly, he had a point.

"Do you mind if I invite him though?" Why was I asking him? What if he told me not to?

"Well it's either hanging out with you listening to you moan about Bart all day, or have to put up with the idiot himself and watch him trying to on with my sister. Neither of them are exactly great prospects".

"Just make your mind up Seth".

"Fine. Invite him".

I squealed and got out of my seat to hug him.

"Thank you!"

Now I had to find something slightly more decent to wear. I didn't know what had gotten into me - I'd acted like this as Jasmine before, but that had been just that - an act. Now I wasn't making a consious effort towards my behaviour. It seemed to come naturally.

I darted up the stairs and dialled Bart's number.

"Hello?" He sounded terrible.

"You okay?"

"Jas?" He sounded better at the sound of my voice.

"Yeah".

"I'm fine, just tired. I didn't exactly get much sleep last night".

"You're not the only one".

"I'm sorry about last night".

"Me too".

"Why are you sorry?"

I didn't want to talk about this just now.

"We can talk about that later. It's been ages - I want to spend some time with you".

"Me too. What did you have in mind?"

"Well sorry for the dissapointment but I was hoping you could save me from the family outing from hell". I decided not to mention how much I'd actually missed them. I was trying to keep the conversation light-hearted.

"Where to?"

"The zoo". I laughed again as the words left my mouth.

"Sounds fun". I could picture him at the other end of the line, grinning that cheeky grin of his, finding it thoroughly amusing.

"You can wipe that grin off your face", I told him.

"How do you-"

"I know you Bartholomew. Stop laughing at my family's deluded idea of entertainment".

"Was there really any need to use my full name?"

"No but I felt like it. Are you coming or not?"

"To the zoo?"

"Yes, to the zoo. Stop laughing".

"I'm not laughing".

"You're trying not to".

"Yeah, there's a distinct difference".

"Just please come. It'll be good to just forget about everything for a day and have some fun. Remind ourselves how everything started in the first place".

"You're right", he agreed. "I'll be there in ten".

The zoo was tiny, the cafe was closed all day and most of the animals were nocturnal which meant they were asleep for the duration of our visit. But the day was still great. Riley agreed to accompany Mitzee to the "small furry animals" section, only to trick her by leading her to the reptiles, resulting in a still shaken Mitzeee and a broken finger on my brother from the strength Mitzee had placed on his hand in her fright. Seth had tagged along with Bart and I, which I didn't really mind, and they'd actually appeared to get along moderatly alright so far. We were sat on a wobbly picnik bench, overlooking the sleeping lions.

"Lucky", Seth commented. "They don't get any-one waking them up at eight thirty". I laughed in agreement.

"Riley?" Bart queried.

"Yeah", I informed him. "So we could go on this fascinating trip".

"Hey, it hasn't been so bad", Bart smiled. "We get to spend some time together".

Seth coughed.

"Pass me the sick bag".

"Shut up Seth", I laughed.

"Have you seen Jonno or Neil or anyone yet?" I asked Bart. "Since yesterday. Since ... you know".

"No, there's been too much going on - you know what yesterday was like and all this morning until you called I've been getting yelled at by Carmel".

"What did you do?"

"Sinead".

"Oh".

The atmosphere was tense for a few moments before Seth broke the silence.

"It wasn't your fault. Either of you. You weren't driving the car".

I nodded, not really agreeing with what he was saying but not wanting to ruin the day.

"Come on", Bart said, putting his arm around me. "Let's go and find some animals that are actually awake".

We walked, Bart and I hand in hand, around the zoo in search of something vaguely interesting.

"God this place is dull", Bart stated. "It couldn't half do with some brightening up".

"What do you suggest?" I asked him, knowing exactly what he had in mind. Smiling, he took a few small cans of spray paint out of his coat pocket, passing one to me.

"I think I'm going to find Riley and Mitzeee", Seth told us, walking away. I was grateful for the time he was giving us.

We'd just finished what was in our eyes a work of art, but was clearly vandalism in the view of the very angry sounding site manager, so we were hiding from him, having ran to the nearest building and sneaking behind it. As Bart followed me to the back of the toilet block I was standing behind, laughing, he stood in front of me. I felt myself pushed back slightly so that my back was upright against the brick, Bart smiling down at me, both of us laughing as he leaned in to kiss me.

I was reminded of the 8th of August 2010, I still remembered the date, when I'd caught Bart tagging grafiti around the village. He'd thought I was going to grass him up but I'd instead taken the can from him and joined in. After telling him about the return of my cousin Mitzee to Hollyoaks that day, to make me feel better he'd sprayed Mitzee is fat on the wall in green lettering. We'd watched her reaction from the safety of the arch, peering over as she screeched "Where are ya?" at no-one. Laughing, we'd ducked down quickly before she'd had a chance to see us, laughing, Bart had put a finger to his mouth before kissing me. I hadn't wanted to, but due to my urge to be a boy, I'd known that pushing me away from me had been the best thing to do.

That had been before anything dramatic had happened between us - back when we were just young, together and crazy about each other. No drama, no heartache, no complications. I'd almost lost hope of it ever being like that again. Today, however, had reminded me of how easy it could be between Bart and I, how well we really got on with each other - that we were great friends aswell as being in love. The last time I'd been in this position, two summers ago, I'd pushed him away, started all the complications that eventually ruined our relationship when he'd found about about my dressing up as alter-ego Jason at nights.

Right now, I had something precious. I had a second chance. They didn't come around often and this time I was determined to do everything right. I leant in and kissed him back. The kiss was passionate, soft and gentle but also with a hint of lust. I never wanted it to end and when it did I felt all girly and light-headed.

"Bart", I whispered as we leant our foreheads against each other. "What are we?" We still hadn't made it clear what was going on between us, we'd both needed time to get our heads around the situation. But now I had, and I was more certain than ever what I wanted. Or should I say who.

"I love you Jasmine", he told me for the second time in the duration of my time back in Chester. I may have over-heard all the stuff he'd said about me to Sinead, but it meant more to hear him say those three little words to me directly.

"I love you too", I replied, saying the words aloud for the first time since the phonecall. The first time I'd told him that since that night in London when I'd gone with him as Jason to help him win back Sinead. "So, so much". I paused. As estatic as I was to have heard him tell me he loved me, I couldn't honestly think of a time I'd felt so happy, I knew from experience that those words didn't nessicarily mean we were together. "So what are we Bart?"

"I'm sorry to break it to you, Jas", he told me smiling. "But I think this means I'm your boyfriend, so like it or not your stuck with me". I felt myself smiling widely.

"You're very sure of yourself", I replied, laughing slightly.

"No. I'm just very sure about you", he told me. Before I knew it we were kissing again.