"You're kidding right?" I questioned hopefully as I eyed the hollow log that was placed above a calm river. A calm river that could easily eat me alive.

"No. You're going to need balance if you wanna win this thing." Neil rolled his eyes, as if I was just being a baby. A baby! Pfft if anyone is a baby it's Neil!

How?

...

I'll get back to you on that.

"But I don't actually want to win this thing! I don't care for it!" I complained, throwing my hands in the air, then letting myself fall onto the ground backwards. Which was a terrible idea, for one thing, I've got a bunch of dirt and sticks on the back of my white blouse, and I've got a rock underneath me trying to snap my spine.

"But Dunhill does and you're supposed to be helping the town. This is helping the town." Neil rolled his eyes and grabbed my wrist, attempting to pull me up. By attempting, I mean actually being able to do it but I really wanted to pretend that I was stronger at that point.

"I thought you were on my side." I said angrily and sent him some of my worst glares.

"I'm never on your side."

"That's a lie!"

"No it's not.."

"You were on my side when Felicity and Tina had a fight!"

"You had a side?"

"No."

"Then how the hell was I on your side?"

"You were on the 'I'm not apart of this' side just like me."

"And everyone else in town."

"You were still on my side!"

"And you're still an idiot."

"Fine whatever, let's just not do this." I said looking at the log, the log that looked half rotten on the outside, and probably even more so rotten on the inside."You have to, I'm your trainer. Unless you have a good reason." Neil exclaimed rolling his eyes once more. He seems to do that a lot around me, and everyone else. But at least he talks to me. He never talks to some other people.

"I've plenty." I stated proudly "For one, I'm not wearing a bathing suit, what if I fall in?"

"It's not that deep, only up to our knees, so we'll be fine even if we fall in." He explained, looking over at the river. Dang it, that was my one good excuse that I'm fine with sharing. My other excuses were pretty messed up to be honest. One was 'what if there is an alien lurking in the waters and waiting for us to walk on a log so he can kidnap up!'. I'm tempted to use that excuse though, because I REALLY don't want to do this...for personal reasons.

"Oh, and there are no aliens in it." Neil rolled his eyes and I gawked at him. What the...he...he read my mind? THE ALIENS MUST HAVE ALREADY GOTTEN TO HIM!

"No, you tend to say things out loud."

"Oh.."

Maybe I should stop that then, no wonder so many people thought I was crazy back in the city. My own best friend looked at me strangely sometimes and I could never figure out why. Now I know.

"Now can we just get this over with?" Neil asked impatiently, I sighed in defeat. It's not deep, we won't fall in. Besides..I'm good with balance...right?

I walked over to the log, ready to just do this, when I felt his hand placed firmly around my wrist to stop me. I looked back curiously to see that Neil was taking off his jacket, the jacket that he never took off. Then, next came his shirt and I felt my face turning red at seeing his chest. It's not that I've never seen a boy's chest before...or their six pack...but I've never actually seen Neil's. Heck, I've never seen his arms.

"What are you doing.." I asked wearily and noticed that he neatly put his shirt on top of his jacket on a log post so they wouldn't get dirty. Neil looked at me strangely, as if what he was about to say was obvious "I'm going to keep you steady for the first few times before you do this on your own."

"But why..uh..why are you.." I started, my eyes falling down to his chest, and he seemed to notice that too. "Just in case we do fall in. I don't want my shirt and jacket to get all wet." he said, and by the tone of his voice, I could tell that he wanted to add a 'duh' there.

I looked down at my own clothes, nothing that I could take off except for my hat and boots. I wasn't taking off my boots though, that log looked like it could be filled with insects. So I took off my hat and placed it beside Neil's clothes. I took a shaky breath before placing one foot on the log. I glanced back at Neil who looked at me reassuringly, he didn't smile reassuringly, he just gave me 'the look'. Most of the times his 'look' was supposed to be a cheerful thing, but you definitely wouldn't know this by looking at him.

I took another deep breath then placed my other foot on top of the log, I held my arms out to balance myself as I started to walk. While I walked on the log, I felt a pair of strong arms holding my waist to keep me balanced. I tensed a little at the suddenness of his touch but relaxed after we walked a bit more. I felt the damp log underneath my feet that sneaked into my boots somehow. We walked slowly at first, I kept my arms out and my eyes straight ahead, not wanting to look down. The next thing that happened, it happened so quickly that I barely had time to comprehend what happened. One second I was on the log, the other second I was falling through it.

I gasped for breath, my whole body at least two feet underwater, but only water answered my question. I flailed my arms around, panic rising in my throat, until I was able to reach the surface. I kicked my feet like I've seen in movies, but it did nothing, and I only found myself underwater. I opened my eyes underneath, and glanced around, I saw that Neil was close by. Really close by. I flailed my arms as I did before, just barely reaching the top, but it was enough time. Once I reached the air, I grabbed onto Neil's body and held on.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked as I wrapped my arms around my stomach, desperate to keep afloat. He grabbed at my hands and tried to tear me off, but I kept a firm grip around him. "I can't swim.." I whispered into his back, scared to let go, my hydrophobia fear was getting worst. I expected some dumb comment from Neil, some insult, and for him to just leave me there, but instead I got something else.

"Hold on.." he whispered back to me and grabbed my arms, raising them higher, and wrapping them around his neck. Then he grabbed my legs and placed them at his side, like a piggyback ride. I felt my face fluster from embarrassment as he started to swim back to shore with only his legs. I felt useless, completely useless. And if there's one feeling that I hate the most, it's got to be that one. I let out a small sight and rested my head on his upper back, I felt him tense up for a second but it passed quickly.

When we got back to the shore, I scrambled off of Neil's back and sat on the ground, breathing sighs of relief. The sighs soon ended when the cold hit me like a smack to the face.

"That...was not up to our knees." I spit out in between shivers, huddling close to myself to provide warmth. No warmth came, only the cold water that dripped off my soaking wet clothes. Neil sat beside me, putting his shirt back on, but leaving his jacket on the ground for now.

"Yeah I only said that so you would walk across it." Neil admitted, while I sent him quite a few glares, keeping the subject of what I told him off the table. Which I was grateful for, I was very grateful. I mean, a farmer that can't swim? That's just pathetic isn't it? Not even that, she's SCARED to try it. Yeah, I'm the most pathetic farmer there is, aren't I?

I released my knees that I held so closely to my chest, letting my legs fall to the ground. I relaxed a bit under the warmth of the sunlight, but my teeth still chattered like crazy.

"Uh..Rio..uh.." Neil stuttered, looking away with a blush on his face "Your...uh..your shirt..is.." I looked down at my shirt, that being one of the only few words he said, and feeling a slight blush form on myself. So, good news and bad news. The good news is that I remembered to wear a bra today. The bad news is that it was clearly visible. Because that's what happens when a white blouse gets wet, it becomes see through.

"Here..take my jacket." Neil said, handing me his jacket without looking at me. I widened my eyes at the sight of it, never have I ever seen Neil offer his jacket to someone, heck this is the first time I've seen him without it. "Just take it." He demanded, still looking away, when he realized that the jacket was still in his hand.

"I'll just get it wet though.." I stated, taking the jacket out of the hands and eyeing it cautiously.

"Then take your shirt off first." Neil suggested, turning around completely as I did so. I placed the wet shirt to my side and put on his jacket, after I zipped it up, I motioned to him that it was okay to look.

"Next time, just do the push ups." Neil sighed and I laughed a bit, a laugh that turned into a bundle of shivers. "That water was pretty cold, let's go get something warm from Clement's place." Neil offered and stood up. I did the same, our pants were both soaking wet and his shirt was a bit damp also, but we were able to run down the mountain to the restaurant. Except we both lost our breaths doing it.

"Oh my.." Felicity exclaimed, looking over at the two of us who were stumbling to a table. I suppose we would look pretty weird with me huddling up to Neil's jacket, our lower halves were soaked, we were both gasping for breath, AND I was holding a soaking wet blouse in my hand. "You two sit down, I'll grab you something warm." Felicity said, most likely noticing my chattering teeth, and pulled out a chair for me to sit in, which I happily did, then rushed off to Clement. She returned a few seconds later with a hot chocolate for me and a hot grey earl tea for Neil. I didn't miss a second beat before chugging the drink down, scorching my tongue, before sending a few more glares to Neil.

"What?" he questioned, noticing my glares, then took a sip of his drink.

"Why aren't you cold?" I asked. He hasn't shivered once since all of this happened.

"I am." He shrugged after taking another sip.

"Then show it you jerk!"

"I don't understand how that qualifies me for being a jerk."

"It just does so deal with it." I exclaimed glaring at him even harder, but he only shrugged.

"So, what happened?" Felicity asked walking over to us after she dealt with another customer. I glanced over at Neil who stayed quiet, finishing off the rest of his drink. I sighed, so I guess it's my turn to talk huh? "We walked across a log that was hovering over a river and it broke, bringing us two down with it." I explained relaxing in my, now wet, chair after my nerves finally died down. Thank goodness for hot chocolate. Hot chocolate is a life saver. Hot chocolate should be it's own religion it's so special. Hot choco-

"Why in the world would you do that?" Felicity gave us both a weird look, pulling up a chair from another table and sitting down beside us. I could see Neil's discomfort in his face, but he didn't say anything and just pretended to drink his tea. Jerk..making me do all the talking..

"Well I was training for the Farmer's Olympics thingy and Neil told me it was only up to my knees." I glared at him again, but once again, he just shrugged. "Don't you fish there? You should know how deep it is." he said with an eye roll, earning more glares from me. Man, I'm glaring a lot today! I should be like..the glare queen! Yes, all shall bow down to me or receive punishment! Which are glares! MWA HA HA HA HA HA!

"The hell?" Neil questioned looking at me. Crap I did it again...

"Oh, well you guys should probably head home soon and change.." Felicity started, ignoring what I said before, her eyes wandering down to my soaking shirt and then to the jacket I was wearing, an evil glint formed in them. Haha...fun...

I'm sure she's going to tell Tina about this, since Tina's her best friend, and then poof the whole town will know. It's a small town, things get around quickly. Especially with Tina as the main gossiper. I glanced over at Neil and could tell by the look in his eyes he was thinking the same thing, and he was feeling the same way about it.

"Yeah, we should. Sorry for getting your seats wet." Neil said, getting up quickly and placing money down on the table. It was soaking wet, but it was money. There was enough money for a hot chocolate and tea though..

"It was my fault we fell in." Neil explained after noticing my confused face. I nodded quietly as we both head out the door, the evil glint in Felicity's face not dying down in the slightest.