Sorry for the late update :)

And…bad news: this story will probably only last until chapter fifteen. It's ending :(

.:You Shine Brighter Than Anyone Does:.

Massie Block (Harrington) laughed at the joke Landon Crane just told her.

They were in the kitchen of the Block Estate guesthouse, where Massie and Derrick Harrington were staying. Landon has been visiting them every day now, making Massie laugh. He was a good friend. He was kind, he was funny, and he was respectful. He was fun to be with.

"I have an idea," Landon said when their laughter ceased.

"What?"

"We should revisit our childhood today. You know, do the things we did when we were kids," Landon said, looking at Massie hopefully.

Massie pretended to consider for a moment.

"What do we do first?"

-o-

"Wait! We forgot the moat!" Massie said, remembering a very crucial part of their sandcastle. "A sandcastle is not complete without a moat!"

She grabbed the little plastic shovel she used, and started digging a moat around the sandcastle. Landon suggested that they make a sandcastle first, and she remembered the small little sandbox she used to play in when she was a child. They were so big now, they couldn't even fit inside the sandbox. They were both sitting down on the ground. "Are you going to help me or not?" Massie asked, stopping long enough for Landon to grab the other shovel and help her.

"What are you guys doing?" Derrick Harrington said, walking over to them. He just came from Cam's house, and didn't know anything about Massie and Landon being five-year-olds again.

"Revisiting our childhood," Massie said, echoing Landon's earlier words.

"What?"

"You know, doing the things we used to love doing when we were kids," Landon answered, not bothering to lift up his head to look at Derrick.

"Why?"

"Just because," Massie answered, smoothing the sides of her side of the moat.

Derrick stood there, watching them(Massie) with an unreadable expression on his face. When they finally finished five minutes later, he was still watching. Massie stood up and looked at him weirdly. "What's with the face?" Massie asked.

Derrick was brought out of his reverie by her voice. "Nothing. Just spacing out."

"Okaaay."

"So, what are you guys doing next?"

-o-

"Where's the red crayon?" Landon asked, searching their table for the crayon.

"Here," Massie said, handing it to him and grabbing the blue crayon. Massie suggested that they color some old coloring books that Kendra kept.

"Mine's going to be awesome," Landon said.

"Oh, no way. I'm a coloring pro," Massie countered.

"No. I was awesome. Ask Derrick. When he would color, he would always go past the lines. I never did. Right, Derrick?" Landon asked, turning to the blonde sitting down on the kitchen counter, spacing out…again.

"Derrick?"

"What?"

"What is wrong with you today?" Massie asked, her eyebrows crinkling together.

"Nothing." Derrick shook his head. "What was your question?" he asked, turning to his cousin.

-o-

"Derrick's acting weird," Massie said as her and Landon sat beside their sandcastle. It was seven p.m., and they were tired of their reminiscing. Now, they were both admiring their work.

"I noticed."

"What do you think is wrong?"

"You can never really tell with Derrick. He's kind of…ambiguous. You'd need a mind-reader or a psychic to fully know what he's thinking about without asking him, and there's no use asking him because he won't answer properly anyway," Landon said, grabbing a handful of sand and letting it fall through his fingers.

"I never want to be a psychic, or a mind-reader," Massie said, absentmindedly pulling grass from the ground.

"Why not?"

"If I were a psychic, life would be boring. I'd know everything that would happen, and it would take out the surprise and the thrill of life. If I were a mind-reader, I'd know everything that people are thinking, and about half of those thoughts are things I would never, ever, want to think about. And, I'd know exactly what people think about me, which I don't think would be good. Also, mind-reading takes away the fun of being with a person, of hanging-out with them. And conversations would be weird and uncomfortable," Massie said, then she looked up at Landon, who was regarding her thoughtfully. "Would you want to be a mind-reader? Or a psychic? Maybe you'd want to be immortal, too."

"Psh, no. I'm too cool to be a Twilight vampire. Why would I want to be immortal? If you were immortal, you'd have to watch everyone you love die and leave you, and in the end, you'd be pretty lonely. And, you'd probably get tired of living."

"I agree. Time-traveling would be cool, too. I mean, you know, the one wherein you can't change the future. Like, you're only watching your past and what happened. Like the invention of Lewis from Meet the Robinsons, except I don't want to just watch it from a screen. I want to be there, but no one knows I'm there," Massie said.

"Like Harry Potter?"

"Exactly!" Massie said, giggling. "Yeah! I want a Pensieve!"

"What are you guys talking about?" Asked Derrick's voice from behind them.

"The past," Landon said vaguely.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Okay," Derrick said, feeling indignant, unwanted and out-of-place. Not his favorite feelings, and he doesn't know why, but he blames Landon for these feelings. Maybe they're justified, maybe they're not, he doesn't care.

"Hey, Derrick, I need you to do something," Landon said. Then he whispered conspiratorially to his cousin, while Massie narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

The next thing she knew, Derrick had his arms around her and was holding her up against her will. She tried getting away, but it was no use; he was stronger than her. Landon immediately grabbed her shoes and ran away, and Derrick released her. She ran after Landon, calling out his name and shouting at him to "give me my shoe back!" while Derrick watched, laughing at Massie's face.

But then he stopped abruptly.

And he stood there, watching Massie chase Landon across the garden, feeling significantly…

…insignificant.

Yes, yes, yes, Massie is now close to Landon.

Gosh, this is such a lousy chapter. I'm sorry, but I fell into a terrible bout of writer's block. Seriously. No inspiration at all. But then, I forbade myself from using the internet until I have finished at least one chapter from one of my stories.

Fact: I'm working on a new chapter for each of my main stories, but every single one of those chapters are only halfway through. Like this was. It was sitting there, half-done for a long time.

Oh, well, we are going to reach our climax soon. You want to know one thing? Sometimes, I wish I could just write the climax of the story. Seriously, skip everything then go straight to the climax. And, then, don't bother to write the start and middle of a story. Is that weird?