09: Fireplace/Candles: Anne Maria and Lightning

Once Anne Maria discovered Mike was not who she thought he was, the tiny crush she had on him evaporated. By the time she got home, she didn't even remember why she liked him in the first place. It helped that Lightning kept giving her reasons to forget about Mike.

Lightning was conceited, vain, and certainly not the brightest bulb in the box, but he liked Anne Maria the person, not what was on the surface. After "Total Drama", he called her up and invited her to his football game coming up that weekend. At first she was reluctant to go, because all the remembered about Lightning was how mean he could be. Then again, if she thought about it long enough, she had been pretty nasty on the show too. But it was a part of the game, so she could forgive him his cruelty. Besides, watching him do what he did best, win was entertaining. His little victory dance at the end had her in fits of laughter, and when he met her after the game, she hugged him in congratulations. His friends whistled and told them to get a room, but she didn't care. Lightning was fun, and it was about time she had some after the traumatizing endeavors they faced on "Total Drama".

At first, her friends didn't really get why they were dating. Yeah, they were both popular and it made sense they date on the social hierarchy of high school, but no one bothered to look deeper to see why they might actually make it outside of high school. That was the goal anyway, at least for her. She already had her career path picked out. All she needed was the right school. Lightning had earned himself two full rides to major universities, but they still had a full year before graduation, so options were still being lined up.

Anyhow, Anne didn't really care what others thought, not even her friends from "Total Drama". Outside of the show, the cast actually got along quite well to the point where Zoey, Dawn and Anne talked on the phone regularly. Even they questioned her sanity at some points though.

"Doesn't his huge ego bother you sometimes?"

To be honest, no it really didn't. After all, she could spend hours staring at her reflection in the mirror just as long as he could. They both were obsessed with their appearances yet they both insisted the other person was beautiful with or without all the work they put into their looks. They understood each other's need to look a certain way and accepted that without much question.

"Don't you get tired of how he talks in third person?"

Well, sometimes. But only because it usually happened when he wanted to say something sweet to Anne but he ended up rambling instead and she had to tell him to get to the point already. He meant well though.

She was sure his friends had a list a mile long wondering why he dated her, but their opinion really didn't matter. To Anne, they were meant for each other. And if her friends didn't completely agree, that was fine. She'd still love the guy as much as she did now even if they did like him.

When winter break set in, Anne invited Lightning up to her family's vacation home in the Rockies for the weekend. She usually stayed all break, but Lightning's family wanted her to come visit them over break, so she was splitting her time between the two. Currently, they were alone in the cabin while her parents were skiing. Anne would have been out there, but she twisted her ankle the day before and it was still killing her. Lightning set her up on the couch with a pillow for her head and ankle, then set out the make a fire.

"Baby, you don't have to do that. We have, like, five servants who can take care of it," she explained, trying not to giggle as he failed to light the kindle for the fifteenth time.

Lightning shook his head, rolling up she sleeves on the green and white striped Christmas sweater his nana made him last year. "Lightning's gonna take care of you, promise. Lighting a fire is no hard task for the lightning man!"

Anne rolled her eyes comically and settled on the couch with a sigh. "Whatever you say Sugar. Just hurry up, I'm freezin'!" She rubbed her arms that were covered in a snowflake sweater for emphasis.

She never thought she'd be so happy to see a spark. Finally, the fire was lit! Anne Maria clapped her hands. "Congrats honey bear, you did it!"

Lightning groaned as he turned around. "Baby, what did Lightning tell you about calling him honey bear?"

"Oh please, it's not like anyone's around to hear it! Now come here, I'm cold and my ankle's killing me," she pouted, opening her arms for him to come over.

The jock let out an exasperated sigh but did his girl's bidding and curled up on the couch with her, careful to avoid the throbbing ankle. "Want Lightning to fetch you some ice Babe?" he asked, wrapping his arms around her from behind.

Anne shook her head and placed her hands overtop his. "Nah, I'll be fine. Now don't move," she ordered.

"Wasn't planning on it," he replied, kissing the crown of her head.

See, this was why Anne dated Lightning. He might be conceited, vain, and a whole list of other things, but he was the only one who would attempt over twenty times to light a fire for her then spend the whole day trapped inside with her bum ankle. He was a good guy, and he was hers. Forever.