Hope you like. I don't own the Ducks and reviews are lovely.

If any readers know anything about American driving tests, such as, how old you are when you go for the test and how long after the test till you get your license. I think it's different in America then Australia.

The next day Adam woke to find Esmeralda had vacated his arms. A few people were already awake and obviously Esmeralda was among them. As he got up, he felt a kink in his neck from the way he had been sleeping. He tried to massage it out as he walked into the kitchen. When he entered the room, he found Phoebe, Esmeralda, Charlie, Jesse and Averman making breakfast.

"Hey," Phoebe said cheerfully, spotting her brother in the doorway.

Adam returned the greeting before looking at Esmeralda. She was drinking a glass of orange juice but seemed to feel his eyes on her for she looked up as she sipped the beverage. She looked into Adam's eyes and read the words: it meant nothing.

None of the others seemed to notice because they started rudely requesting them to start helping. They of course, did, whilst trying to keep their distance from each other. Adam couldn't make eye contact with Esmeralda again. He couldn't bear to see it was nothing because he thought otherwise. It felt like some animal was claying the inside of his stomach, causing him to bleed internally. He knew that there wasn't really an animal in his stomach and he wasn't really bleeding, but it still hurt. It was like she rejected him then gave him a hug, saying they'd still be friends.

Matters were made worse by the fact that Esmeralda didn't seem to be paying attention to her surroundings, therefore didn't notice Averman when he fell back, knocking Esmeralda and causing her to be launched forward. Acting on instinked, Adam turned and caught her. She looked up at him in utter shock before leaping out of his arms and leaving the room hastily.

Adam dropped his head and went back to cooking eggs. He ignored the confused looks he was getting from the other people in the room and just focused on what he was doing. He tried not to think about Esmeralda's reacting. Do I disgust her? She honestly can't be repulsed by me, she kissed me back.

When the breakfast was done, Phoebe went to tell Esmeralda as Charlie went to wake everyone up and Adam, Averman and Jesse dished out the food onto plates. Adam sat down at the dining table as everyone else came in to get their food but found he couldn't eat. He wasn't hungry and he felt rather sick. Instead, he just played with his food and hoped no-one would notice and that Esmeralda would just remain quiet during breakfast.

"Essi said she's not hungry," Phoebe said, coming into the room. "She's just going to finish packing the last of her stuff."

As Adam pretended to eat, he noticed Phoebe and Charlie shooting him questioning looks. Deciding not to put up with it, he excused himself from the table and put his plate in the sink. He figured he'd check if he had everything packed, seeing as he knew they'd be heading off soon. They were going to stay in the dorms tonight after all so he wanted to make sure everything was ready. Also, it gave him something to preoccupy his mind and get him away from everyone. Mainly a brunette girl.

Esmeralda woke up slowly. The haziness that covered her mind didn't seem to want to go away. As she started to clear her mind, she became aware to the fact that there was an arm around her waist and another resting on her leg. Opening her eyes warily, she found her head was on a muscular chest. A chest that belonged to her friend's older brother, the boy she had stayed up late kissing.

He was leaning against the lounge with his head at an angle that didn't look all that comfortable. If he was snoring, Esmeralda couldn't hear it over Dean who was sleeping loudly on the lounge. The movie didn't help with the sound either, it was still playing at the noise level it had been last night, seeing as neither her nor Adam had turned it off the night before.

Esmeralda shook her head at Kristy and Maria who were sitting oddly, propped up against an armchair with Kristy's head in the croak of Maria's neck. Jesse and Phoebe were no better, all though they didn't look as though they were almost falling sideways like Kristy and Maria. They were laying down facing each other with their hands almost brushing and their body's close, but not touching. So cute.

Moving carefully, Esmeralda slipped out of Adam's arms and went into the kitchen to get a drink. When she entered, she found Averman and Charlie already poring themselves orange juice.

"Can I have a glass?" Esmeralda asked with a dry throat.

Averman kindly poured her a drink before Charlie asked about breakfast.

"Don't look at me, I'm not cooking. Lets go wake Phoebe up, she can help us." Putting her glass down, Esmeralda re-entered the living room, this time turning off the movie, and walked over to her friend. Kneeling down beside her, Esmeralda started poking Phoebe, trying to wake her. When that didn't work, Esmeralda stole the pillow she and Jesse were using, effectively waking the both of them.

"Whaz goin on?" the boy asked groggily.

"Sorry, Jesse, we wanted Phoebe to help make breakfast but the lazy wouldn't wake up so I stole her pillow… which was also yours."

"Thanks a lot," Phoebe murmured sarcastically.

"You're welcome, now get up," Esmeralda ordered, whacking Phoebe with the pillow before taking it into the kitchen with her.

"Evil women," Phoebe muttered, causing Jesse to chuckle.

Esmeralda was fine until Adam woke up. He walked in and looked at her with eyes that said: it meant nothing, before helping with breakfast. She didn't pay much attention, seeing as she was busy trying not to show any emotions towards the incident. This caused her to be knocked by someone, straight into Adam. He caught her and when she looked at him, her heart gave a frightening and painful thump. She didn't even make excuses, she just ran from the room and up to the guest room she was staying in.

She couldn't handle it, why did she kiss him… or did he kiss her? She couldn't tell, it was like they both kissed each other. But why? She knew why she did it, she couldn't help herself but why did he kiss her back? He clearly didn't like her. It was plain by the way he acted. Maybe she was just practice, not wanting to be rusty when he got a girlfriend he figured he'd kiss her to make sure he was still a great kisser… which he was!

She heard Phoebe coming down the hall and started busying herself with 'packing' even though she had finished packing. When Phoebe came in, she quickly told her she wasn't hungry and she was going to pack. Esmeralda didn't even give the blonde a chance to question her about her behavior. She just kept packing.

She only stopped busying herself with the room when she felt Adam's presence at the door. Turning, she went to ask the boy why he was there but…

Adam was pacing his room like a lion caged and extremely furious. He wasn't furious exactly, more confused and annoyed. He couldn't work it out. Why had Esmeralda kissed him last night if she didn't have any feelings for him? Or did he kiss her? He didn't know. One thing he did know was that he had to find out if she was truly disgusted in him.

His mind set, Adam left his room and walked the short distance to Esmeralda's. She was fixing her room so it was neat, and tidy, thankfully already changed into an outfit other then her pajama's, but she quickly stopped and turned. When she saw Adam in the door, she went to say something but Adam cut her off by stepping forward and placing his hand on the back of her neck before kissing her.

Adam crushed his lips to hers, shocking her for a moment. She tried weakly to break away, not wanting to be used by him, but she found she couldn't. Not because he was using his strength to stop her, but because she was just too weak to want to push him away.

She returned the kiss and it looked to be a repeat of the night before, kissing for an hour, until a thought popped into Esmeralda's head.

He's using you. He will probably kiss the twins when you're not around.

Believing this thought, Esmeralda stiffened, and accidentally bit Adam's lower lip, drawing blood. The boy leaped away with a yelp. He brought his fingers to the inside of his lip and saw the blood. He then looked at Esmeralda with more anger then she had ever seen in his eyes before.

"I repulse you that much?! Why the hell did you kiss me in the first place if you find me so revolting?" Adam yelled at her, thankfully not loud enough for it to travel.

Esmeralda was too shocked to reply and she let him storm out of the room. When she had finally recovered, she closed the door forcefully and lent against it before sliding to the floor. She sat there, trying to choke back tears.

She didn't know how long she sat there crying, but she stopped when Phoebe knocked on the door she lent against. Esmeralda jumped up and ran to the bathroom as Phoebe entered the room. She splashed water on her face to wash away the tears.

"Essi, what's wrong?" Phoebe asked, walking into the on-suite and noticing the redness to her friend's eyes.

"Nothing."

"Essi…"

"Can we go? Phoebe, can we please go?" Esmeralda begged her friend, fresh tears going down her face.

"Okay, where?" Phoebe agreed.

"School, we'll leave early. I don't care if I have to take a bus instead of Kristy driving us."

"I think Kristy will go early with us. Maria was planning to help us anyway so I don't see why she wouldn't agree to go," Phoebe assured her friend, putting a calming hand on her shoulder. Esmeralda just nodded mutely before washing her face again. Phoebe didn't comment she simply left to talk to Kristy and Maria.

They had everything in the car in twenty minutes tops. After they had everything away in the car, Phoebe, Esmeralda – who didn't look as though she had been crying -, Kristy and Maria, who was spending the day with Kristy, went back inside to say goodbye.

"Why are you leaving so early?" Julie asked, hugging Phoebe.

"We want to get a head start on unpacking. No big-e," Kristy lied. She knew that Esmeralda was upset but she didn't know why and didn't want to tell anyone encase Esmeralda didn't want them to know.

"Ohh, but you lot are fun!" Goldberg whined, hugging Esmeralda.

The Maria, Phoebe and Esmeralda hugged all the Ducks as Kristy just said goodbye (seeing as she had just met them) but both Phoebe and Charlie - who had been watching Esmeralda and Adam closely since the breakfast scene - noticed that Esmeralda didn't hug Adam and Adam didn't hug Esmeralda. They simply avoided each other.

They both pushed it to the back of their minds for now as they continued with the goodbyes. Phoebe instead tried not to blush as Jesse drew her into his arms in a hug. Although Jesse was Adams friend it wouldn't stop him from turning into the over-protective brother. She pulled back and gave Jesse a shy smile and a soft goodbye before turning. When she turned, she saw Esmeralda trying, and failing, to hide an amused smile.

"Ready?" Phoebe asked, glaring at her friend to make her stop smiling.

The three other girls agreed and said one last quick goodbye before walking out to the car. Phoebe's attempt to distract the girls from what they saw by making them think about leaving didn't work. The moment they were out of the Banks driveway, the girls started on her.

"You should have seen your face." Maria laughed from the front seat.

"Shut up," Phoebe snapped.

"More like you should have seen Jesse's face," Esmeralda corrected Maria cheerfully. All three girls laughed again.

"Well at least you're feeling better," Phoebe stated, trying to draw the attention away from herself.

"Yeah," Esmeralda muttered, looking out the window at the passing scenery. "Can you turn up the music?"

"What did my brother do?" Phoebe asked quietly. Although she had asked it quietly and although Kristy had turned up the music like Esmeralda asked, the girls in the front seats still heard the question and were waiting for the answer.

"Nothing, just, never mind, Phoeb's," Esmeralda mumbled, dropping her eyes.

Phoebe didn't push it. She knew Esmeralda would tell her when they got to the dormitory and she asked again. Esmeralda tended to tell her everything and she knew it was the presents of Kristy and Maria that was keeping her tight lipped.

"Banks, what's up?"

"Nothing!"

"Bullshit, Cake-eater."

It was mid-afternoon and the Ducks were back at Eden Hall. Portman and Fultan, ever being the procrastinators, had decided to help Charlie annoy answers out of Adam instead of unpack. Charlie had told them what he had noticed and they had been all for finding out what happened.

"Adam, tell us what's wrong. We know there's a reason why the girls left so early and we know it involves you and Essi," Charlie pressured Adam kindly, as he put clothes away.

"Just drop it!" Adam snapped as he glumly put away his own clothes.

"See, your attitude makes us have to know," Portman told him lazily from were he was spread out on Adam's bed with his hands behind his head. "Come on, Banks, you never snap at us."

"Well you lot are annoying, it's about time I snapped at you," Adam retorted calmly with a bitter edge to his words.

"Adam, tell us! Now!" Fulton demanded in a final tone.

Adam sighed and dropped the t-shirt he was holding into the draw. "It's complicated." Adam dropped his head and focused on keeping his voice steady.

"Well we're not idiots, try us," Fulton told him in the same final tone.

Adam didn't lift his eyes and instead placed his hands on the dresser, the muscles in his back tightening in anger. "God, she fucking pisses me off!" His friends were shocked at his use of language but didn't interrupt. They knew who he was talking about. "She's just… complicated."

"Complicated, how?" Portman asked, sitting up.

Adam closed his eyes and shook his head, trying to gather his thoughts. "One minute she's acting like she likes me and next, she's acting like she doesn't."

"Did you two get into another fight?" Charlie questioned his friend.

A hollow laugh left the blonds' mouth. "I wish! The fights I'm used to. We used to fight all the time. No, this knew McGill, just gets to me."

The boys didn't question him more. Whilst they didn't know what happened between the two, they didn't need to know, all they knew was that what ever happened hurt Adam badly.

The room was silent beside the soft sound of the two girls unpacking. Phoebe hadn't questioned Esmeralda yet. Instead, she had been mulling things over in her mind. Both her best friend and her brother were hurt by something. She had spent years with the two of them fighting, laughing and always having a secret understanding about one enough. She knew there was an odd relationship between them.

"Esmeralda, do you… care about my brother?" Phoebe asked tentatively, not looking at her friend.

"No," Esmeralda growled, throwing a t-shirt into the draw haphazardly. Her breathing became slightly erratic and she refused to look at her friend.

Phoebe knew her well enough to know she was fighting tears. Next second, her friend turned and dropped to the floor. She drew her knees up to her chest, leaning against her bed and Phoebe say the silent tears making their way down her friends face.

"Liar!" Phoebe said softly, getting a weak, wet smile off her friend. She went over and sat next to Esmeralda, putting her arm around her. "What's the matter?"

"Last night, Adam and I were the only ones still up and we were talking and then we were kissing," Esmeralda confessed. Phoebe made no comment. "The next day, I looked at him and I knew he just didn't care. I was practice for him. Didn't want to be rusty when he got his next girlfriend." Esmeralda had to stop talking as her throat closed up with tears.

"No, Essi, no." Phoebe held onto Esmeralda's shoulders and made her look at her. "Adam would never do that to you, and practice? For what? Adam has never had a girlfriend! You know my brother; he wouldn't do that to you."

Esmeralda shook her head. "Yes he would. After breakfast, he came into my room and kissed me again. A voice said he was just using me and I freaked and accidently bit him and he got so angry and yelled at me. I don't get it! I don't get him! What does he want from me?"

Phoebe knew the answer to that. What Adam wanted from Esmeralda was her! That was it, plain and simple, but Phoebe couldn't tell her that. Adam had too. Thankfully, it was a rhetorical question. "Anyway,' Esmeralda went on, wiping the tears away and smiling at her friend. "Are you going to make a move on Jesse?"

Phoebe went red and ducked her head before mumbling, "Maybe." Her face growing hotter when Esmeralda laughed.

Hope you liked it and didn't have to wait too long.