"So, you're actually worried and partly hurt, Princess, that one stupid goth kid said we weren't supposed to be together? You know, Izzy was in the running for idiot of the year, but I think you might have just topped her," Duncan laughs, walking into school with me. Not that I wanted to, but Duncan turned up and I couldn't really say no.
"Gwen's one of my friends," I say, defensively.
"Well, get better friends," he suggests, shrugging. He fastens his pace, and there's an awkward silence for a moment or two.
"Do you do gymnastics?" I splutter, regretting it in an instant.
"Gymnastics? What? No. Of course I don't, Princess, why on earth would I do gymnastics?" he says, rather annoyed.
"I was just asking in case you'd turn out be a female Russian Olympic gymnast, that's all," I say, and again, instantly regretting it.
"What? Are you okay?" he says, raising an eyebrow. "A female Russian Olympic gymnast?"
"Well, yeah…it's just I know this girl who's dating one-" I start.
"A girl is dating a female Russian Olympic gymnast? When McLame mentioned dating our 'opposites' I didn't think someone was going to go as far as that."
"You seemed really annoyed when I mentioned doing gymnastics," I say and then pause.
"Shut up," he shouts angrily. It takes me a moment to realise it, but then I get it. Duncan's went to gymnastics.
"You've done gymnastics!" I say, laughing. "Big bad boy has done gymnastics!"
"Ugh," he says, cursing under his breath. "When I was six my aunt thought I was a girl and took me to gymnastics, okay?"
"You were a female gymnast!" I say, practically erupting into laughter.
"You aren't allowed to tell anyone at all. Not even Geoff. He'd never let me live it down. And Heath would spread it around publicly in two seconds straight," he mutters.
"Whatever. You gotta stop calling her Heath though. She really hates it."
"You really think I care?" he says as we turn round the corner and shift into the gates of the school. He sees Geoff and DJ almost immediately; Geoff slumped against the school wall and DJ in front of him. "See ya around, Princess. We are walking home after school, right?"
I snicker, "You wish, female gymnast." He growls, and walks away.
I try my best to avoid Gwen throughout school. This turns out to be more difficult than generally expected, because we share four periods, Bridgette usually makes me, Geoff, Gwen, Trent and Duncan all sit at one table now and Duncan isn't very good at hiding things. No – that's an under-exaggeration. He's absolutely terrible at hiding things. You can't even guess the number of times I had to tell him to shut up, mainly because that number doesn't even exist. He only eventually stopped because I threatened him that I'd tell Geoff about his 'gymnastics' problem.
Sometimes I think it'd be better to have Svetlana than him. I somehow quickly pick-up a conversation with Bridge at lunch, just before Gwen tries to talk to me.
"Hey Bridge," I start eagerly as I see Gwen pass by. The thing about my eager is that it's…a bit too eager.
"Are you okay?" she says, laughing.
"Uh, yeah. Well, I've got something to ask you, you see, for uh, part of my studies, I gotta found out whether cardboard boxes can die or not," I continue.
"And that has something to do with becoming a lawyer," she says, raising an eyebrow at me.
"Yeah. It's a case where – uh – Mrs Cardboard Boxe accused Mr Cardboard Boxe of murdering their child, Master Cardboard Boxe," I finish, just rambling random words that I can think of.
"Can't you just send them all to Cardboard Prison?" Bridge says, looking at me as if I'm insane.
"Sadly, there's only one cell left," I reply, quickly trying to escape this.
"Put them in together. And why are you asking me? Wouldn't Duncan be better at this?"
I hear the bell ring, signalling the end of the bell. Saved by the bell.
I walk to class, and then re-consider everything me and Duncan have ever been through, wondering if Gwen is right. Our love's weird, yeah. I got kidnapped, and he came back for me. That takes some guts, I guess. And I'd do the same for him, if it ever happened again. I hope it never does – but if it does, I would.
I love Duncan. And that does freak me out quite a lot. I love the green-haired punk. I always will.
It's hard to believe just a few months I bumped into Duncan at the back of the school building and we were shouting at each other angrily, and now we're dating. Yeah, we've come a long way. And we've got a long way to go.
After school, I walk home with Duncan to my house. Our parents still visit each other nearly daily, which has started to annoy me and Duncan a bit. He shuffles about as we leave the school, and I instantly know something's wrong.
"Are you okay?" I ask, looking at him up and down.
"Well, yeah. I was just wondering if you'd like to go out tonight. I haven't done it in a while," Duncan admits. While normal people would think that they guy's asking them out for dinner, I know Duncan's asking me out to commit a crime.
"Have you done it since…?" I start nervously. He shakes his head. "Sure. We might as well."
He seems rather shocked by my quick agreement. "Okay. I'll see you tonight," he grins, and he starts running to the house. "COME ON, PRINCESS!" he screams.
"DUNCAN!"
A/N – Just a quick chapter. It's another lead-up, believe it or not. I only really noticed that Courtney wasn't going to get over the whole kidnapping thing so early recently, so there's gonna be a bit more crime in this book, and a bit of suspense from the last novel…
Okay, if I'm not writing in this book, I'm writing one-shots, so check them out.