A/N: Thank you for the reviews and thank you to the ones following this story! I hope you continue to enjoy this story, even though the chapters keep getting longer. :)

"I can't go! I won't go!" Cece bellowed as she dug her feet into the pavement once again.

"Cece, what is your problem?" Rocky growled at her as she tried to push her into the building where they taped Shake It Up, Chicago.

It was the day after…the kiss. Cece still wasn't entirely sure what to think of that event, so she had made sure to avoid both Gunther and Jaden the next day at school. However, after school was a different matter, she had recitals at Shake It Up, Chicago, and she'd have to see Gunther.

It wouldn't be so bad, but every time she heard his name, happened to see him, or was reminded of him, she blushed and became incredibly flustered.

"Rocky," Cece stopped resisting Rocky's pushing and turned to face her. "I just can't do this."

"And why not?" Rocky put her hands on her hips and arched an eyebrow.

"Because…..well….you see," Cece took a deep breath. "This week is a couple's section with Gunther and …and I have a fever."

Rocky watched as Cece's face turned as red as a traffic light. "Oh my gosh, Cece, do you really have a fever? You're all flushed." She reached out a hand and put it on Cece's forehead.

"See, can't do it, let's go home," Cece walked away from the building.

"Cece, this is stupid," Rocky sighed. "You've been fine all day and you look fine again now."

"That's because I'm going home, going home makes me feel better," Cece said.

"Cece, that doesn't make any sense, you know," Rocky reached out and grabbed Cece's hand. "Come on."

Feeling that Rocky was for once going to be more persistent than she was, Cece allowed herself to follow Rocky in.

Cece's Thoughts

Since the kiss, or roughly 30 minutes after the kiss, Cece had been spinning the event around in her mind. She went through turns of comparing it to every romance movie kiss, she'd even seen and thinking it was so much better, and then to horror that this might get in the way of her friendship with Gunther, which had taken such a long time to build.

End of Cece's Thoughts

At the sight of Gunther though, she turned around red-faced and tried to walk away.

"Cece!" Rocky held her still.

Gary came sweeping over in his usual flamboyant way. "Gunther, Cece, you ready…What on earth? Cece, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Cece muttered. "Just a slight case of time lapse fever."

"I'm not entirely sure that you just used time lapse correctly, but let's overlook your grammar for now and skip to the dancing," Rocky said.

Cece would have much preferred focusing on grammar. Instead, she made her way over to Gunther and cautiously glanced up at him. To her amazement, Gunther was grinning his big stupid grin that he usually grinned. How redundant was that thought? Cece sighed inwardly. But wait, why wasn't he affected by this? Did that whole incident yesterday mean nothing to him?

"So, are you ready to dance? Or shall I dress you up as a red tulip to match your red face and your red hair and choreograph a dance routine about flowers around you?" Gunther continued with his annoying grin.

"Gunther," Cece could feel the blush leaving her face. "Do you always feel the need to say the wrong things at the wrong time?" How could he do this after ruining her chances with Jaden yesterday? You'd think it had meant something to him.

"I'm afraid my wit is too witty for you," Gunther teased.

"I'm afraid you don't have any wit," Cece snapped back.

Just then, Gary started up the music and Cece was forced to start working on their dance. That didn't stop her from stepping on Gunther's toes as often as possible. She said "Oops, sorry!" in a startled voice every time she did it. She could tell he was getting upset. She was a good enough dancer to never do that on accident.

After the show, Gunther grabbed her arm. "Look, Cece…"

"Not now," Cece shoved by him and headed straight for home. She couldn't believe that earlier today, she had been worried about what he felt about her and what this would do to their friendship. He obviously didn't care how she felt.

The next day at school, Cece forgot to keep her guard up and was confronted by Jaden.

"Cece," Jaden was standing behind her as she was tidying up her locker.

"Yes?" She turned around slowly.

"You could have just told me that you and Hessenheffer had something going on, I would never have bothered trying to go out with you," Jaden gave her a sad look.

"I'm sorry, Jaden, but honestly, I didn't even know that was coming. Until the day before yesterday, I didn't think something like that could even happen," Cece apologized.

"Do you like him?" Jaden asked. "I mean that was some kiss."

"Jaden, I'm very confused about what I'm feeling right now," Cece felt like she was about to cry. "I don't think he feels anything like that toward me anyway. I think he did that just to humiliate me."

"Cece, if you don't like someone, say it right away, don't lead them on for month after month," Jaden continued his tirade, as Cece felt herself falter a little. She leaned against her locker in misery. Jaden looked so heartbroken and accusing.

Cece wanted to comfort him or tell him it wasn't her fault, but she felt like it was her fault in a way. Besides, she had never wanted to hurt someone in that way.

"Jaden….." Cece tried to think of something to say.

"It's all right," Jaden shoved his hands in his pockets and turned away. "I'm just going to go. Have a nice life."

Have a nice life? Cece thought to herself. She supposed this meant that their 'together' history sessions were over. She was going to have to find another way to memorize those dates.

"Cece, how nice to see you," Candy Cho was standing in front of her.

"Candy?" Cece tried to hide how depressed she was feeling from the cheerleader.

"Is it true what I heard? That you dumped smart, cute Jaden for sparkly, weirdo Gunther?" Candy laughed. "I can't believe those rumors could be true though. Why would someone like you dump someone so out of your league?"

"Candy, I don't think you can possibly understand what's going on, seeing as you have no feelings of your own," Cece snapped. She really didn't want to deal with this now.

"I bet you just couldn't keep Jaden. You were too much of a wannabe," Candy sighed. "Oh, are you going to cry?"

Cece felt tears welling up in her eyes. First Gunther's nonchalant attitude, then Jaden's disappointment, and now Candy's criticism, she didn't know how much more she could take.

Just then, someone stepped in between Cece and Candy. One glance at the sparkly back of a shirt and she knew who it was. "Back off, Candy" his voice said.

Candy actually backed up a few steps. "Oooooo, you coming to the defense of your girlfriend?"

"You wish you were someone's girlfriend," Gunther smirked.

"Like I'd date someone like you," Candy sneered. With that, she strode away with a haughty gait.

Cece looked up at Gunther, genuinely confused again. She was still a little mad at him though, "Gunther, you have no reason to go off on her like that. You are worse than she is."

"Cece, whatever I did to make you angry, I'm sorry," Gunther reached forward and brushed away one of the tears that had managed to escape from her eyes. "I know I tend to tease you from time to time and I apologize if you don't like it. It actually gets you to look at me though," Gunther smiled in a sort of embarrassed way. "You are the best friend I've ever had, next to Tinka. I was really glad when we got past that whole frenemy stage. If you ever want something from me, you just have to ask."

"Gunther, I do have to ask you something," Cece was beginning to melt under his gaze. She really needed to know why he kissed her. Maybe she had just read him wrong; maybe she was the one who wasn't paying attention to all the details. It felt so weird to realize that you didn't hate someone, even weirder to realize that you liked them, but now she was feeling the weirdest feeling of them all, the feeling that she might love the person she once hated. Or had she ever hated him?

"Cece, can it wait?" Gunther's stomach growled loudly. "Tinka forgot lunch and I need to run or I won't get anything to eat before our appointment."

Cece watched him run off down the hall and shook her head, a small smile on her face. Typical Gunther. She wondered what kind of appointment they had. Knowing them, she probably didn't want to know. At any rate, she'd have to ask him at another time.

A/N: Just in case anyone cares, the timeline for this story at the moment is somewhere in early to mid March. I wanted to do a year of Cece's life from after her 17th birthday until her 18th. So, Rocky and Cece are 17 and in their junior year in high school. I'm not positive when Cece's birthday is, so this is just a round figure. The Shake It Up wiki listed her birthday as June 16th and Bella's birthday is October 8th, which is awesome, because that's the day before my birthday. Go Libras! :) However, in Apply It Up, Cece said she's a Pisces, which means that her birthday is between February 19th and March 20th. So, because that was what was stated in the show, that's the time frame I'm going with.

On another note, Mondays are really busy for me, but I also have a lot of transit time in the car with a laptop. This will mean, I might not be able to post a chapter tomorrow, but I should get a lot of writing done.

-CoS