I do not own the Ducks, thank you for reviews and I love them. The ending… sorry if I didn't do it justice but I'm not used to writing those kinds of scenes. Hope you enjoy.

There was only two weeks of holidays left and Phoebe, Esmeralda, Julie and Connie had been dragged shopping by Aimee and Jamie. The twins weren't to happy when they walked into the house to find Esmeralda and Adam sitting close together on the couch, laughing. They had only met Phoebe and Esmeralda freshman year and therefore didn't even know that Esmeralda and Adam had been friends.

"Essie, this will look great on you," Phoebe said, holding up a pleated, dark blue, mini-skirt and a denim, corset like top with sequence, white ribbon as straps and tying up the back. There was a zipper on the side which allowed the person to get into it and there was sequence, white flowers on it along with beads. The skirt was plain and cute but it suited the top perfectly, even though it wasn't a set.

Esmeralda chuckled and shook her head. "I'd look like an idiot."

"No, you wouldn't," Phoebe disagreed. "I think you'd look hot and I bet my brother would agree."

Esmeralda rolled her eyes and blushed softly as Julie and Connie chuckled and Aimee made a grab for the clothes.

"Let me try those on," Aimee demanded.

"Sorry, Aimee, I don't think there's any in your size. Plus, Essie has the perfect legs for the skirt and you can't have to big a chest for the top and yours is too big." She turned to Esmeralda. "Come on; try it on before I drag you into the changing room."

"Fine," Esmeralda relented, grabbing the coat-hangers out of Phoebe's hand and stomping off to the changing room.

After a few minutes of waiting for Esmeralda to emerge from the changing room, Phoebe decided to call through the curtain to see what was taking so long. "Essie, are you alright? Do you need a different size?"

"No," Esmeralda said back. "It fits."

"Well show us!" Julie demanded.

Esmeralda grumbled but didn't pull open the hangers.

Phoebe rolled her eyes at her friend's insecurity and pulled open the curtain. Esmeralda stood there in the outfit. Phoebe was right! Esmeralda looked stunning.

"PHOEBE!!!!" Esmeralda yelled, trying to cover her self with her arms. She was dressed but she wasn't used to wearing clothes that showed off her form so well. She could wear short-shorts to rival Daisy Dukes with tank-tops but they weren't eye-catching in design.

"Essie, you look hot!" Connie told her.

Esmeralda blushed and looked very uncomfortable. "No I don't! I look like an idiot."

"Esmeralda McGill, no you do not!" Phoebe told her in a strong voice. "You look amazing and you are going to buy those clothes and wear them home."

Esmeralda and Phoebe must have gotten into the same argument every time they went shopping cause Esmeralda rolled her eyes and agreed, knowing it was a lost cause.

The girls spent the next three hours going from shop to shop. They found outfits for each of them to wear home and they tried on funny sunglasses in one shop.

"Check out these ones," Esmeralda said, turning around with a pair of love heart shaped ones.

"Aww," Phoebe cooed, "You should look at Adam with those on."

Esmeralda shoved Phoebe playfully as Aimee and Jamie glared at Esmeralda. Esmeralda looked at Phoebe over the glasses and smiled the smile Maria named her 'Devils innocence' smile. Meaning it was innocent looking but seductive at the same time. "Only if they were X-ray glasses." She then pushed the glasses back up with her index finger and started looking at hats.

"Adam doesn't like Jamie or Aimee so Essie and I have decided to make it sound like she and Adam are a couple,' Phoebe explained quietly to Connie and Julie.

The two girls just giggled and looked at the glasses.

"Oh my god, Connie, those glasses suit you," Jamie exclaimed, looking at the girl.

The brunette hockey player had just put on glasses with a dark blue, glittering frame. The lance was a lighter shade of blue.

Not long after that, the girls took their shopping and headed home, done for the day.

"He's so unreasonable. Why does he bother asking me things when there is not proper answer? …"

Adam followed the voice of Fulton, drifting out from his room. He wondered what had gotten into the Bash Brother. Turning into his room, he found Fulton standing, leaning against his desk, reading from a little, leather-bound, black book. Portman laid casually on Adam's bed and Terry sat on the floor, leaning back, against the bed.

"Guys, what are you doing?" Adam asked in confusion.

"Reading," Fulton asked, looking up from the book.

"Obviously," Adam agreed.

"Well, Terry here was bored, waiting for you to finish up helping Malinka and he felt like reading, so we went to look at the bookcase in the guest room to shut him up," Portman explained.

"But that's not one of our books," Adam told them, pointing at said book.

"We know," Fulton confessed, "But we want to know about the red marks on this page."

"Where did you find that?" Adam asked. "Is that McGill's?"

"Shut it, Banks," Portman demanded.

Fulton cleared his throat jokingly. "He always asks if I want to be punished. There's no way out of it. If I say yes, he'll beat me, it I say no; he'll beat me! Even know my blood still pours from my bleeding cheek, staining these very pages. I wonder if it's to scar, I hope it won't…"

"Stop!" Adam growled. "Whatever that is, stop reading it!"

"We're pretty sure it's a story that Essie's writing, it's believable," Terry tried to reassure him.

"Hey, guys, you should check out what we've got Julie and Connie wea…" Esmeralda stopped talking as she walking into Adams room. The shopping bags in her hands fell as she saw the book open in Fulton's hands. She shakily raised a hand to her mouth before the shock and fear on her face was replaced by another emotion.

The moment Adam looked over to Esmeralda, he had been speechless. Her new outfit had caused his mouth to go dry. "McGill, you look," his gaze wondered upwards and landed on her face, "Pissed."

Esmeralda stalked over to Fulton. "What the fuck do you think you're doing? Give that back." She snatched the book out of the frightened boy's hands and turned, her messy ponytail whipping around, and stomped out of the room, leaving her bags on the floor. Right before walking passed Adam though, she glared at him. "You're an asshole!"

Adam started running after her and flinched when he heard the front door slam shut. He wrenched open the door and followed the girl as she stormed down the street. "McGill, wait!"

Esmeralda ignored him and kept walking at a fast pace. She was fuming.

"Please," Adam begged, running up and grabbing Esmeralda's arm.

She just wrenched it out of his grip and kept walking. "No, I'm angry with you."

"Why?"

"Because I'm allowed to be!" Esmeralda growled.

"I didn't do anything, I swear."

"You just don't get it, do you?" Esmeralda spun around, startling the boy. "You don't get it!" she stated again, looking sad and lost.

"Well explain it to me!" Adam demanded, getting frustrated.

"This," Esmeralda held up the black book, "Is my diary! It has everything in it! Everything!" A look of absolute sorrow fell on Esmeralda's face. "It has all my secrets in it, things I wouldn't even told Phoebe. I tell her everything… but not! I… there are things I can't tell anyone. Because I was taught if you tell anyone your secrets, they'll use it against me. My dad and brother taught me that by the way they treat me and although I know Phoebe wouldn't do that, I still can't seem to trust her or anyone."

"But my diary?" Esmeralda kept going, her voice softer now, almost defeated. "Banks, how could you? Not only is it my secrets, it's humiliating. You and your friends were reading my diary like it was funny. What? Do you get a kick out of my suffering?"

"McGill, I swear, I didn't know. I walked in on them and they were reading, when I found out, I told them to stop. Please believe me!" Adam begged, his hands on Esmeralda's shoulders.

Esmeralda's resolve visibly dissolved but she still said, "No."

"Why not?" Adam asked.

"Because I'm still mad at you!" Esmeralda pointed at him and screwed up her face.

"You're mad at me?"

"I'm allowed!"

"And you swore earlier?"

"Yes!"

"And you're wearing a very sexy outfit?"

"Ye… I am?"

"Yes!"

"Okay! So?"

"You're so different!"

"Excuse me?"

"You're so different! You've grown and you are more… confident and outspoken. Not to mention you look hot as hell in that outfit!"

Esmeralda blushed profusely. She could be so insecure sometimes. "What's your point?" Adam was looking at her with the weirdest look in her eyes.

The truthful answer was "I've never wanted you more" but Adam just shrugged and said, "Just, you're different."

"Is that a bad thing?" Esmeralda asked, unsure.

"No!"

"Okay," she said slowly, nodding her head. "I'm still mad at you."

"Of course," Adam agreed, rolling his eyes.

Esmeralda turned around and stalked back to the Banks house, more like manor, looking similar to a puffed up bird. When she, and Adam who had followed close behind, got back, they went to Adam's room. Esmeralda found all three boys looking guilt for angering her. She went up to Fulton and slapped his, hard.

"I deserved that," he said, putting a hand on his red cheek.

"Yep," Esmeralda agreed, going up to the other two boys. Both of them didn't stop her from slapping them too. Then she grabbed her bags and walked towards the door. "I'm still mad at you!" she said to Adam as she walked out and went to the guest room.

Adam nodded in agreement.

"You two look like Barbie dolls." Charlie laughed, looking at the two female ducks wearing flowery sundresses they had bought on their shopping day with Phoebe and Esmeralda. Admittedly all the guys thought they looked stunning but they couldn't help tearing them a new one.

"Shut up! They look beautiful," Phoebe defended her two new friends. She was dressed in her new white, strapless sundress.

No one noticed that Jesse's eyes had widened in shock. "Wow!"

"What?!" Phoebe asked, fearing there was something wrong with her appearance.

"You look great," Jesse confessed.

"Thank you," Phoebe said with a smile. "So what are you lot up to?"

"Well, since we only have two more days till school and tomorrow we'll mainly be unpacking our stuff into the dorms, we're having a movie night," Adam told his sister.

Phoebe nodded her head before looking up at her brother. "You do realize there's a group of girls upstairs in my room that would happily crash the party."

Adam sighed and walked past his now grinning sister. He walked up stairs and into Phoebe's room. There were only three girls in the room. Maria, who was sitting on the bed, up near the headboard, Esmeralda who was lying on her stomach on the bed and a dark skinned girl Adam knew to be Kristy who was sitting on the edge of the bed on the opposite side to Maria. All three girls were giggling at something and in their pajamas.

"You three girls want to watch some movies with the Ducks instead of crashing it later?" he asked.

The three girls looked up and agreed.

"So what are we watching?" Kristy asked after being introduced.

"Chicago, Interview with a Vampire and then When a Stranger Calls," Ken answered, "The girls chose Chicago."

"Good choice. Beautiful girls, locked up together and wearing skimpy outfits," Maria agreed.

After that, they all changed into their pajamas and started picking their spots to sit. Kristy and Maria made themselves comfortable under a blanket, Jesse shyly sat next to Phoebe, Fulton and Tammy cuddled up on an armchair and Adam found himself being kicked off the lounge by two boys nicknames 'the Bash Brothers' (Portman and Kenny) and sitting next to Esmeralda, who thankfully had short shorts on with her pajama top.

The boys found they actually liked Chicago but only a few, (meaning Adam, Jesse and Fulton) agreed after being coerced but the girls closest to them.

The next one was interesting but slightly scary, proven by Esmeralda's actions. Esmeralda turned her head into Adam's chest as the 'should been slain' vampire, played by Tom Cruise, appeared in the doorway. Adam's arm had already found its way around Esmeralda's waist, so all he could think to do was take her hand and stroke the back of it with his thumb.

"Oh, no, no, no," Esmeralda whispered. When Adam looked down at her strangely, she explained, "He's going to go after the little girl. She's so cute, evil but cute, she can't die."

Adam just chuckled and they continued to watch the movie. All the way through it, Esmeralda was playing with Adam's fingers absentmindedly. There was something very intermit about the way she intertwined their fingers before running hers down his palm and doing it all again. It sent shivers through Adam's hand, spreading all through his body. Using the thumb on his hand around her waist, Adam drew circles on the skin of her back, her shirt having been ruffled by her moving closer to Adam. Adam could feel Esmeralda's skin quivering under his touch.

The last one was the scariest of them all. Phoebe and Connie actually screamed at one point and Maria and Kristy were huddled together, peaking over the top of their blankets. This one wasn't as scary for Esmeralda seeing as she wasn't afraid of a little girl getting hurt, but she was cuddled into Adam.

As the movie drew on, Esmeralda and Adam noticed that the others had fallen asleep. The two couldn't help but chuckle as they noticed Tammy and Fulton, and Phoebe and Jesse sitting snuggly with each other, respectfully. The humor died, however, when Adam removed his hand from Esmeralda's and started to stroke the scar on her wrist still visible in the extremely low light.

"Stop that," Esmeralda begged in a whisper, looking as Adam's nimble fingers traced the scar.

"Why?"

"Be…because, please."

"No, why did you do it?" Adam clarified, looking at what his fingers were doing like Esmeralda was.

"Because," Esmeralda sighed, "I couldn't handle it. My brother and father would soon have no reason to hold back on their beatings. They knew Phoebe wasn't brave enough to stop them. And I didn't see anyone needing me around, so…"

Adam finally stopped and looked at her. He found her looking back, their noses almost brushing. "Not true, I need you around, I've always needed you around," Adam confessed.

"Then why was it so easy for you to leave? Why didn't you find a way of staying?" Esmeralda's face was full of the pain she normally hid so well.

"I knew that you'd be worse off if I stayed." Adam cupped her cheek and moved closer. His words were no more then breaths. "I couldn't stand the thought of you hurt because of me."

"It would have been worth it," whispered Esmeralda before her mouth was covered by Adam's.

Adam pulled Esmeralda closer as Esmeralda slid her hands up his chest, stopping to cup Adam's neck. The kisses started out small and sweet like the ones they shared at the hospital years ago, but then Esmeralda sucked Adam's bottom lip between hers and gave it a nibble before letting go. Adam responded by running his tongue along her bottom lip. Esmeralda trembled in delight as Adam's tongue massaged hers and explored her mouth. For over an hour the two sat, trying to convey their thoughts and feelings without actually admitting them with irreversible words. Adam's hand had left Esmeralda's face and was placed on Esmeralda's side. If he moved his hand up, then both of them would stop and know they had gone to far, but as long as the hand stayed on an innocent placing, neither of them comprehended what could possible be wrong with sitting in a crowded room, full of their sleeping friends, making out.

The movie had long ended and had restarted since they hadn't bothered to turn it off.

I don't think Esmeralda's mad anymore! Hope you liked it and I'd love a review.

…o0Black-Sand0o…