AN: For the purpose of this story, Seth, Brady and Collin are all the same age. Thanks to Jacobslover2014 and Spacecake23 for the feedback. Knowing that people are actually reading my story definitely motivates me to write more! Here's the next chapter for you.

Chapter three - Enter tweedle dum and tweedle dee

"'This debate isn't over yet, Sylvia'" Cat scoffed between bites of an apple, her eyebrow raised. She smirked a little bit as she nodded towards the steroid table. "He's totally creeping on you."

I whipped my head around to see Seth looking at me. When he noticed me staring he looked like a child who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, but smiled brightly none the less before turning his attention back to his friends. "This is all your fault dude!" I whispered when I turned back to Cat, who seemed very smug with herself despite the fact that I'd told her about Seth's confirmation regarding Paul being whipped. The look on her face when I'd told her was one of pure fury and jealously but she soon dropped it to interrogate me about Seth. However, I was suspicious that it wasn't all over just yet. Cat was never quick to drop things.

For instance, she seemed to think my little conversation with Seth was a big deal. And she wasn't letting it go.

Cat shrugged casually. "He's pretty hot. Not Paul hot, but still hot. I'd jump him any day of the week."

My eye instinctively twitched, and I felt a surge of jealousy flash through me but quickly forced it away. "Seth's not your type." I quickly said causing Cat to smirk wickedly.

"Is that because he's your type?" She cackled to herself as I pouted indignantly, but then suddenly stopped laughing and smiled brightly behind me. "Oh, hey Seth,"

I rolled my eyes and took a bite of my sandwich. "Very funny, bitch."

"Oh, are we telling jokes? Cause I have a really great one," A deep voice joked from behind me causing me to almost choke on a piece of sandwich. My splutter soon turned into a full blown cough and I could feel my face heating up both from the effort to cough and the surprise that Seth was, in fact, standing behind me.

I felt warmth all around me all of the sudden, and realized that Seth had pulled me into his arms at lightning speed and was patting my back softly. Of course, this only made me cough more as I tried to indignantly pull away from him. "What-" cough "Are you-" cough cough "doing?!"

"Sylvia, are you okay? I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you." He continued patting my back while Cat sat there with a curious look on her face.

Finally, after what seemed like a long time, a piece of my sandwich shot out of my mouth and landed upon the table - slow motion style. Cat seemed to find this hilarious because she threw her head back and burst out with laughter. Meanwhile, I jumped out of Seth's arms and sat back down in my seat, completely mortified. "Uh, hey Seth," I managed to squeak out, my eyes wide.

Seth placed a hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eyes, his expression one of relief. "Are you Okay? I-"

"I'm fine." I answered bluntly, ignoring the stares from other tables as I subtly shrugged my shoulder away from his warm hand. Seth adopted a brief expression of hurt. "Why did you come over here?" I asked a little bit softer.

He ran a hand through his short, dark hair and offered me a nervous grin. "I just wanted to know if you want me to walk you to your next class? I mean, Brady and Collin mentioned you're all in Math together, and I'm only in the class next door so I thought we may as well walk together." He ran his hand through his hair again when he was met with a confused silence from both Cat and I. "I mean, only if you want to. I'm sure you already have your own walking routine-"

"Dude, I'll walk with you." I butted in, trying to save Seth from losing his voice with all the talking he was doing. I was met with a toothy smile and brightened eyes as I collected my things and turned to Cat, who looked positively amused. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Nope, I'm calling you tonight." She smirked, her eyes dangerously bright.

I was about to start walking with Seth, but he held out his hands expectantly. I just stared at him in confusion until he nodded towards my books. "What kind of gentleman would I be if I didn't carry your books?"

"Uh, I'm okay." I jostled my books around in my hands. "Been carrying my books since the start of middle school, I'm sure one more day can't hurt."

Seth proceeded to stun me with what could only be described as an adorable pout. Seriously, even the iciest of hearts would have melted. He seemed to have planned this distraction because he sneakily grabbed my books and started walking away, whistling in an attempt to be inconspicuous.

"Seth Clearwater, unhand those books," I yelled as I chased him out of the food hall, Cat's shrill laughter ringing in my ears.

"You sure you're okay?" Seth asked once again, my books firmly against his chest.

I rolled my eyes. "Seth, it was only a piece of food. Happens to everyone."

"Yeah but I wouldn't like to see you get hurt." I felt a blush coming on, the feeling only intensifying due to the occasional girl glaring towards me for some reason, but Seth changed the subject. "What's your favourite colour?"

"My favourite colour?" I scoffed with a smirk. "Really? I didn't peg you as the predictable type, Clearwater."

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow as he playfully nudged into me. "Well, what kind of type did you peg me as?"

I nudged him back, smirk still attached to my face. "Give me a chance to get to know you man."

"So you do want to get to know me?" He grinned widely, eyes sparkling happily.

I shrugged, fighting back a smile. "We'll see."

Math was supposed to be uneventful. Since speaking to Seth this morning I had been looking forward to focusing on algebraic equations.

Of course, the powers to be decided to make today even more eventful for me. Its weapons of choice to make me go completely insane were Brady Fuller and Collin Littlesea, who had decided it would be a superb idea to sit either side of me. With giant ass amused smirks.

I forced myself to pay attention while our Math teacher explained a formula, hoping that they'd soon lose interest, but then Collin began to chuck rolled up pieces of paper at me to amuse Brady. So, as soon as Mr Daniels instructed us to chat through the formula with our neighbours, I picked up a piece of the rolled up paper and pointedly glared at the two of them.

"Okay, tweedledum and tweedledee, what's the big idea?"

"Tweedledum and Tweedledee!" Brady pouted, looking extremely affronted. "Aren't they the fat characters from Ally in Wonderland?"

"Alice." I interjected.

"Potato, potatah sweetheart." Collin stated with a roll of the eye. "Point is, I'm far from fat." He began to flex his muscles as he winked at me playfully. "All muscle baby."

If I had a sick bag, I would have thrown up copious amounts of my lunch. Instead, I resorted to doing the adult thing in this situation - turning my attention back to the Math equation at hand.

Another piece of paper came flying at me, hitting the side of my head. I took a deep breath to calm myself. "I swear to God, you'll both die a slow and painful death if one more of those goddamned things come flying at me."

"Miss Bell!" My head shot up to see Mr Daniels glaring at me from the front of the classroom. From both sides of me, Brady and Collin snickered under their breaths. "Language!"

"Sorry Sir." I muttered with gritted teeth, a light blush peppering my face. As soon as he turned to walk towards a group at the front, I gave the chuckle brothers the deadliest glare I could possibly muster, smirking to myself when they seemed to pale before happily turning back to my work.

"Seth's gonna have his hands full with that one."

My head snapped up and I turned to Collin, who was whistling innocently. "What was that?" My voice came out in a low and annoyed growl.

Collin paled again. "Nothing."

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

"We're only joking around with you sweetheart." Brady grinned in amusement, his eyebrow raised, before clearing his throat professionally. "Now, you're probably wondering why we've decided to sit beside you on this fair day."

"Go on..."

Colin interjected at this point, after sharing a nod with Brady. "We need a Math tutor."

I shot him a confused look. "But why me?" There were loads of kids in our class who were good at Math, and although I had spoken to Collin and Brady once or twice before they didn't exactly know me.

Collin and Brady exchanged a brief look before Brady turned back to me with a shrug. "Just because." Before I could open my mouth again, he continued. "It'd only be once or twice a week after school. If we don't pass this year then we'll get a bollocking from our parents."

They both pouted pleadingly. "Please?"

I sighed a little as I thought it over. I didn't exactly want them to fail Math class, and teaching the class material would help me develop my math skills further. But was I willing to risk my sanity by spending more time with the chuckle brothers?

"Okay," I shrugged, deciding that I would indeed risk my sanity. "But only if you stop throwing paper at me." Brady went to open his mouth but I held up my hand to silence him. "Or any other kind of inanimate object."

They glanced at each other before smiling brightly. "Deal."

"Good. Now let me get back to the equation."

Looking back on the day, although feeling slightly out of my comfort zone with the new found attention from members of the steroid gang, I had to admit to myself that I enjoyed speaking with new people. So much so that I actually found myself to be humming a catchy tune under my breath as I walked back into my house. Not even a potential run in with my mother would hinder my mood too badly.

But when I found my father sitting in his arm chair in the lounge, a day earlier than he was supposed to be back, my body immediately felt cold and the hum withered at the back of my throat. In any normal circumstance, I would have launched myself into his arms with happiness, but the man sat in the arm chair looked like an empty shell of what my father normally was. My father had dark bags under his eyes, which were sunken in his face. His face was gaunt - as was the rest of his body - and attached to him was an IV. His normally full head of brownish-grey hair had thinned so that I could see his scalp. He was smoking a cigar, inhaling the fumes into his body.

I stood glued at the doorway of the lounge, shock overriding the masses of concern I felt for my father. As he exhaled, he raised his eyes towards the doorway and smiled softly at me. "It's nice to see you darling."

My mouth dry, I couldn't seem to get any words out.

Dad seemed to sense my fear and concern because he motioned towards the sofa and sighed sadly. "I think we need to have a catch up."

Dun dun duuuuun. This is where the story gets slightly dramatic folks. Hope you enjoyed my portrayal of Brady and Collin! I'd love to read what you guys think!