I do not own the Ducks, thank you for reviews!

"Have I ever told you that you are an idiot?"

"Phoebe!"

"No, Adam, seriously, you are. You clearly like Esmeralda but you insult her?" Phoebe stood before the Ducks who were sitting on the grass. Her hands were on her hips and her shadow was cased over the group in an intimidating manner.

"I didn't insult her!" I didn't care that Kevin was her son," Adam told his little sister quickly before she could cut in.

"What?!"

"Didn't McGill tell you the whole story?" Adam snapped.

"The whole story? She's pissed, all I could get out of her was 'Banks', Clover told me that Essi felt you insulted her by saying she was Kevin's mom and I fully understand why." Phoebe flailed her arms around in exasperation.

"I don't know why she feels insulted. I said I thought she would be a great mother no matter her age," Adam admitted with an indifference shrug.

"Adam, you are so stupid! Honestly, you're the only one that doesn't see it!" Phoebe cried. "Hell, Aimee and Jamie see it."

"See what?" Adam yelled.

"My point proven!" Phoebe exclaimed. "Here's a little bit of advice: if you were telling the truth when you told me you wanted to only be friends with Esmeralda then act like one. Do not, under any circumstance, treat her like a girlfriend." Phoebe seemed to loss some of her fire as she looked at her brother. "Adam, friends hug, they laugh when people say they would make a good couple and they help each other when they have relationships tank. They do not wish to date their friends, they do not get jealous of their boyfriends and they do not kiss each other unless it's a peck on the cheek."

Adam looked at his little sister in complete shock. He knew what she said had merit; he just couldn't work out why Phoebe found it necessary to tell him. "Phoebe…"

"No, don't Phoebe me! I get that you and Essi are meant to be in each others lives. I know that cause Essi doesn't get hurt around you and she's had the same preppy upbringing as us so she understands you when others don't. but maybe you're only supposed to be friends and if you aren't supposed to be just friends, then suck it up and tell her before she takes Ace up on his offer to go out some time." Phoebe sighed and looked at her watch. "I have to go and get ready for the concert. Maria, Justin and Kelly are all coming to watch."

After that, Phoebe turned and walked off, leaving the Ducks in stunned silence. Adam sighed and threw himself back on the crisp grass, covering his eyes with the palms of his hands.

"She's right, you know?" Averman said to break the silence. "You two go back and forth between being friends and fighting."

"We always have," Adam assured him, his eyes still covered.

"Yes, but did you always feel this crap when you fought?" Guy questioned. "Hell, me and Connie fought because our relationship just wasn't working out."

"Guy's right. Our relationship caused our fight. We broke up, and we stopped." Connie put a comforting hand on Adam's shoulder. "But yours and Esmeralda's relationship with each other works until you reach a certain point and all the anger you secretly hold for each other is released."

Adam finally uncovered his eyes and looked at Connie in anger and pain. "I'm not angry at McGill and why does she get so mad at me?"

"Banks, can you honestly tell us that you're not mad at her for not asking you out?" Julie asked, sitting sympathetically at Adam's side with Connie on the opposite side.

Adam just groaned and covered his eyes, not being able to deny it.

"Pile on Adam!"

He knew that voice! Adam threw his eyes open to see someone land on him. With an undignified 'oof' Adam looked down at his big brother.

"Get off of me, you big brat," Adam growled, pushing his heavy brother off of him. He wasn't kidding when he said big. His brother was always fit, even after he stopped playing hockey all the time and he had the Banks height.

At the moment, he wore a smart pair of dark wash jeans and a pastel stripped, button-up shirt. His blond hair wasn't much longer then Adam's and his light green eyes were shining. He and Kelly were the only ones to inherit their mother's eyes.

As Jason pulled Adam to his feet, he saw Kelly laughing with Maria and Kristy. Kelly had light green eyes like Jason but her blonde hair wasn't bleach blonde like Maria and Phoebe's but more honey blonde like Adam's.

"Hey'a, little brother," she said, stepping forward to hug him. She was wearing a demine skirt that stopped a few inches above her knee, a pale blue tank-top and a pale pink top over it that looked as though the front had been stretched down for everyone to see the top underneath. Her skin was tan from the San Francisco sun, where she went to collage.

"Hey, Kelly," Adam greeted back.

"Sorry we didn't see your match," Jason said, smiling apologetically. "We couldn't get down here in time."

"It's alright, we won, so you know." Adam shrugged and smiled humbly.

"Well, duh!" Kelly exclaimed.

The Ducks had already met Jason and Kelly so it wasn't hard for them to slip into an easy conversation with them but unfortunately, not long after, there was an announcement over the speakers saying that the concert was going to begin in twenty minutes. Since they all wanted good seats, they headed up straight away. Waling into the hall where the concert was being held, they found row upon row of chairs for them to sit in. the first row was reserved for people that were in the concert so they could watch the parts they weren't in and there was a large amount of students already in the second and third rows so the Ducks chose the fourth. They sat their bags on their chairs before Portman, Fulton, Jesse, Terry, Kristy and the Banks; grew bored and decided to walk around the hall, and look for Phoebe and Leo who they knew were in the concert.

However, it wasn't Phoebe or Leo they found – or more, it wasn't Phoebe or Leo who found them. Instead it was…

"Jason, Kelly!"

The group turned around in time to see someone rush at Jason and wrap their arms around his neck. When they drew back and gave Kelly a hug, the group saw it was Esmeralda, except she looked different then when they saw her only a few hours ago. Her hair was in a bun except for one lock of hair that few over her eye gracefully. She had a light layer of make-up on: foundation, mascara, eyeliner, light pink lipstick and a mixture of red, brown and grey for eye shadow. She was wearing a dance out-fit not unlike that of a leotard. It was a dark red with black swirls through it, with glitter over the black. Her legs were covered by thin, black tights and on her feet were in red, satin ballet shoes with the red ribbon crisscrossing up her shin till halfway.

As she smiled at the two older Banks', the small group couldn't help but notice that Esmeralda was blatantly not looking at Adam.

"Well look at you!" Jason exclaimed, his hands on Esmeralda's shoulders as he held her at arms length. "I swear you've grown since the last time I saw you, and that was only a few month back. Gorgeous as ever though."

Esmeralda just giggled and rolled her eyes at Jason's flattery as Kelly replied, "She's still not taller then you though. Taller then me, but I'm the shortest Banks!"

Without saying a word, Esmeralda slowly raised herself up onto her flat toes. In doing so, she effectively made herself a few centimeters taller then Jason. All of Esmeralda's knew friends looked at her with their jaws on the ground whilst Jason pushed on Esmeralda's shoulders, trying to make her get off of her toes.

"Miss McGill," a shrill voice rang through the hall, drawing their attention. They saw a stern, high-matinants teacher making her way over to them. "Get behind stage, no one is meant to see a performer in their costume!"

"Yes, Miss Tillent," Esmeralda muttered, holding back an eye roll. "Bye, guys."

After that, the group went back to their seats, seeing as the hall was quickly filling up. The concert was spectacular. Esmeralda's solo was a ballet to the song 'Kissing You' from Romeo and Juliet, her couple dance was done with a strong, solidly built black boy with many lifts in it with the song 'Your Call' by Secondhand Serenade and the dance with Phoebe was a song none of them could identify, but the girls were dressed up like dolls and they used that as their stimulus for the dance. The group one, that was to show Esmeralda's skill in making up a dance consisting of more then one or two people was amazing. It was a hip-hop to the song 'Step Up' and had around ten or more people in it in simple baggy pants and tank-tops or baggy tops. The dancers moved impeccably fast and the group barely saw how Esmeralda quickly took off her baggy top so she could dance in a tank-top.

The dance that the dance class had to do for a passing grade was easily the most boring dance in the whole concert. Its moves were moves that had been in so many dances, it was actually quiet sad to see them in another.

Leo's band – that went on right after the dance class – made up for it by being incredibly entertaining. The concert on a whole was, except for that one performance.

When it ended, the Eden Hall students only had fifteen minutes before their bus left and they all had to be on it even if they weren't staying in the dorms during the weekend. Adam didn't mind though, he had to get his car to get to his parents house. Jason and Kelly had said they were heading off and they would meet everyone at the house and Adam was surprised that Maria didn't get a ride with them. Instead, she stayed behind and looked fidgety. When there was five minutes before Adam left, Maria's resolve crumbled.

"Adam, can I talk to you in private?"

Adam nodded mutely and followed his sister away from their friends. When they were out of earshot, Maria turned to Adam and looked nervous.

"Maria, what is it? You know you can tell me anything," Adam assured his older sister.

Maria played with her cuticles – which she did when she was nervous – and looked at her brother. "Do you remember when we were younger and you used to say that you'd love me no matter what, even if I hated hockey?"

"Yes," Adam said in bewilderment. "Are you telling me you hate hockey?"

Maria gave him a weak smile before it quickly slipped from her face. "No, Adam, I'm not… I'm trying to tell you… I'm trying to tell you…"

"Maria, you can say it," Adam told her in a calm voice, putting his hands on his sister's shoulders.

"I'm dating Kristy!" Maria blurted out, not looking at Adam. "I'm gay."

"I know!"

"You know?" Maria asked in astonishment.

"I know," Adam repeated. "Hell, I knew before you did."

"How?"

"Well, whenever Jason said a girl was hot, you'd agree but whenever Kelly said a guy was, you'd say 'yeah, whatever', like Justin and I," Adam explained.

"Oh, well, at least you know I won't go for Essi, I have a girlfriend," Maria joked.

"But McGill's…"

"Straight," Maria finished for her brother. "But I also think she's head-over-heels for this guy."

"Oh." Adam's face fell.

"God, Little Brother, you're so thick!" Maria exclaimed in exasperation. "Think! I could be giving you hope… or I could be crushing your dreams," she said mysteriously.

"Or you could be confusing me," Adam retorted.

"That too!" Maria smiled. "Suck it up, Princess! That's my advise, it's your job to interpret it." With that she walked off to meet up with Kristy and say goodbye to the Ducks.

Adam shook his head before following. He was really getting sick of his sisters' cryptic clues.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He walked down the hall with his head buzzing with thoughts. He had made up his mind of what to do, he just didn't know when he would get a chance. When she would let him! He finally reached the door he knew was his sisters. Phoebe had asked him to pick her up to take her to their parents, so here he was, knocking on the door. Unfortunately, it wasn't Phoebe who answered, it was Esmeralda.

She scoffed at the sight of him before 'politely' telling him that Phoebe would be ready in ten minutes and that he would have to wait in the hall. Instead, he asked, or more, begged her to go for a walk with him so they could talk. She grudgingly agreed to go but kept up her cold attitude.

"I'm sorry for earlier today, I really didn't mean anything by it. I never even thought about it," Adam confessed as they walked out onto the grounds. It was late so there was a dark hue over the campus.

"It's alright, I guess, I just can't believe you would think I would have sex at such a young age," Esmeralda muttered. "I've only ever kissed you."

"I guess I didn't think," Adam said, before noticing the brunette rub her cold arms. "Here," her said, shrugging off his jacket and handing it to the girl.

"Thanks."

"I really should have known, I know practically everything about you." Adam looked at the ground in shame as he realized he really should have known.

"You don't know practically everything about me!" Esmeralda told him with a light, humorous tone.

"Yes I do!"

"Fine," Esmeralda said, turning her back on him. "What colour are my eyes? You should know that if you know so much about me!"

"It's hard to answer that question." She heard Adam say. Esmeralda was about to turn around and sadly claim victory, but Adam kept talking. "Most of the time they're brown. They have no emotion behind them. For ages I thought that was just your eye colour, but then… I saw you dancing. That time Jason took us camping. You were dancing to the sounds of nature. You looked amazing. Your eyes looked like honey and chocolate swirled together."

"I couldn't understand it." Adam seemed lost in his own thoughts, down memory lane. "They were so full of happiness and innocents. But that's not my favourite colour. My favourite colour is the first time you looked me in the eyes. They were molten gold. They showed shyness but also something else."

Adam shook his head to try and clear his thoughts. "I don't know what that something else was… is but I see it whenever you argue bout something you're passionate about. I can say that with confidence because you tend to argue with me."

"That was the first time I noticed something, the time you looked at me." Adam stepped towards Esmeralda and grabbed her shoulder and turned her around. He cupped her face and stroked her cheek with his thumb. "Your eyes aren't brown! Your eyes have many layers to them, just like you yourself. Someone made them brown. I don't know why they would ever want to, but they did. I couldn't look at you properly for ages when I worked that out. It hurt me to much. Why would someone want to take the emotion out of your eyes?"

Adam raked his fingers through Esmeralda's hair before grasping the locks gently, putting his hand against her cheek again, this time covered in her hair and continuing, "I couldn't understand it, I didn't want to understand it. When I worked out they turned gold when you argued, I started arguments with you all the time. I loved making them shine. It was like you came back, like you were never hurt. I would take a tongue lashing from you any day if I could see my favourite colour in your eyes."

There was that colour again. Esmeralda leaned into Adam's hand and closed her eyes. She hid that colour as tears fell from her closed eyes.

"Essi, please, don't!" Adam pleaded, his heart breaking.

"Adam." Esmeralda threw her arms around Adam's neck.

Adam was engulfed by her tantalizing smell. He looked down at the girl that was now looking up at him. She was obviously standing on her tippy-toes because there was only a small gap between his face and hers. He only had to move his head down slightly and their lips would touch. He was so tempted, but he couldn't. He had to do something else. "Essi, I have to tell you this! I love you. I have for years. I've loved you so long that not loving you is unthinkable. The Ducks have tried to set me up with girls but I don't want them, I want you. I don't know if I fell for you when I first looked you in the eyes or back when I saw you dancing, but for so long I refused to recognise the feeling and when I did, it was too late, I was in the hospital, and you were gone."

As Adam had spoken, Esmeralda had stepped back. Adam was still cupping her cheek but the girl wasn't leaning into his touch anymore. When he looked at her, he dropped his hand. Her mouth was slacked slightly and her eyes were wide with fright, even in the low light, Adam couldn't fool himself into thinking she was just shocked. "Esmeralda..."

"No!" She shook her head, moving further away from him, her voice soaked with fresh, unshed tears. "Banks, don't! I c... can't." She looked him in the eyes before whispering, "I'm sorry." She turned and ran, dropping Adam's jacket and running straight passed Phoebe, who picked up Adam's jacket with a confused look on her face.

"What happened?" Phoebe asked, handing Adam his jacket.

The boy took his jacket numbly as he looked at where Esmeralda had disappeared. "I told her I loved her and she said 'no, she couldn't'," Adam said in a dumbfounded voice.

"Oh, Adam, I'm so sorry," Phoebe exclaimed, hugging her brother.

Adam just shook his head and made Phoebe let go before walking off to his car, Phoebe following behind.

HE ADMITS IT!!!!! But why-oh-why did Esmeralda run away??? Who knows? Only the crazy lady writing this humorous, depressive, romance. God, there must be something seriously wrong with her head. Don't worry, I have a great reason behind Esmeralda's behavior but you won't find out just yet!!!! Remember, reviews are always welcome.

…o0Black-Sand0o…