So I kind of realized last night as I was doing a brief proofread of this that Facebook wouldn't have existed at this point in time (I'm assuming the writers believe Morgan to be around the same age as Elisabeth Harnois, which would mean that she would be a teenager around the mid 90s), but I've just left it in there because it's such a brief reference and I don't even know if people could chat on MySpace/MSN/etc. :) Enjoy and thank you for reading!

VI

For the past two weeks, I had been wandering down to one of the many science classrooms once the bell for lunch rang and spending the whole hour and ten minutes with Ethan and a couple of his other friends. It was actually quite lovely, and it got less and less awkward with every minute. I let myself be a bit weirder than I usually am at school, and despite the fear of judgment it caused me for a few minutes afterwards, it almost felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Once the warning bell rang for third block, my confidence usually slipped away, but it was nice to have a bit of a break in the middle of the day. Ethan's friends were all extremely awesome, as was he of course, and I got along with each one of them.

"So, Morgan, how did you get invited to eat lunch with us? We are kind of a big deal, you know. Kids who eat lunch in the science room are basically celebrities around here," Jeanette, one of my favourite members of this new group, asked me. Jeanette was a junior, and she had an aptitude for being able to come up with a snappy remark for absolutely anything. It was slightly intimidating, as I was always used to being the most sarcastic around my friends, but Jeanette had definitely cemented herself in that role.

"We're in the same English class, and Ms. Delancey just rearranged her seating plan on Monday. He was definitely a step up from the loser I had been sitting beside for almost a month," I laughed, and Jeanette joined in.

"I know how you feel. That woman had it out for me, I swear. I was always stuck with the absolute stupidest people at this school in my freshman year. Maybe that's why I'm so bitter now," Jeanette said with a smirk. I laughed again without even thinking about it, which was a major change from even last week. I usually had to force myself to laugh to not come across as rude, because I was too wrapped up in how to act to actually live in the moment and appreciate the humour in something.

We continued along on our conversation, which wasn't just the awkward small talk that I'm usually privy to with people that I'm not totally familiar with. Each person in that room was, for some reason, not nearly as intimidating as everyone else at the school, and some of them were even seniors. The whole atmosphere was way more relaxed; probably because nobody cared what people thought of them, which was refreshing. Of course, I still cared what people thought of me, but maybe my worries would be reduced after spending more time with people who didn't.

Besides seeing him during lunch, I also got to see Ethan every day in English, and that always made my day just a little bit brighter. He was such a genuinely kind person, and I felt like I liked him a little more each time I saw him. I would, of course, never admit to anyone that I believed I was developing mildly strong feelings for him, or as strong as a fifteen year old girl's feelings about another fifteen year old could be. Often, the thought of whether or not he felt the same way danced into my mind, but the possibility of that made me lose all ability of focusing on the real world, so I tried to avoid thinking about it.

After staying up rather late one night talking to Ethan on Facebook, which was becoming a bit of a bad habit for both of us, I had neglected to finish the last paragraph for an assignment's rough draft in English. I, of course, didn't remember until I first stepped foot in the classroom, so I rushed to my seat and frantically pulled the slightly crumpled piece of paper out of my bag to finish it.

"You didn't finish your homework, Morg? That's not exactly your typical overachiever style," Ethan said jokingly, and I gave him a half-glare, half-grin. One of his favourite things was to tease me about my above average grades in the class, and I pretended it annoyed me, but we both knew I didn't mind in the least. Another thing I most definitely didn't mind was the nickname he had taken to calling me. I found it incredibly sweet that someone actually liked me enough to call me a cute little version of my name. Sure, my dad had his lame interpretation of a nickname for me, but this was Ethan.

"It's your fault, actually, because you distracted me, so I forgot!" I exclaimed back at him with a laugh. He laughed as well, and we both knew full well that I was not complaining about the distraction.

"Well, whether it was my fault or not, which it definitely was not, if Ms. Delancey catches you, you're dead. Trust me, I know," he said. I looked back at him curiously.

"How do you know? You always have your stuff ready on time, and I thought you didn't have her last year," I asked, puzzled.

"I was in her class last year. It's a little known secret, but this is my second time in English 10," he said, a little quieter than the rest of our conversation had been. I raised one eyebrow, a talent I had perfected at a young age after seeing some television character or something utilizing the technique.

"Oh yeah?" I said, not sure of what else to say, as I wasn't totally sure if he would want to elaborate. If I ever had to take a class twice, I would be completely mortified.

"Yeah, I'm actually a junior. I'm just posing as a sophomore, because last year was kind of rough academically for me. Once I met Jeanette and the rest of them, I kind of forgot about school and devoted most of my time to hanging out with them, even when I was supposed to be here," Ethan explained to me. I was honestly a little shocked; not only was Ethan not the perfect poster child for everything like I thought he was, but he was a year older than me. The latter kind of made me like him a little more.

"That surprises me, I think. I never thought of Jeanette as a bad kid," I replied, deflecting responsibility of Ethan failing a course to Jeanette, because I believed that was a way of making sure he still knew that I liked him the best.

"Well, don't go around telling everyone this, but we briefly dated last year, and that's what was so much of a distraction for me." I smiled a little at this.

"Oh, really? That must have been a bit of a shock to the system when she explained why she was breaking up with you, then," I said jokingly and we both laughed. Jeanette was very open about the fact that she was a lesbian; it was one of the first things she had told me when I met her. It was nice to be friends with someone who truly didn't give a damn about what anyone thought, and didn't act like her being attracted to the same gender was ground-breaking material.

"Just a little, I was a little heartbroken for a while; she was my first girlfriend and all," Ethan replied, still a bit of humour in his tone. As he said that, my pencil flew out of my hand from my frantic writing, something that happened frequently, and it landed on the ground in between our seats. We both leaned down to get it, and he reached it just before me. My hand brushed by his, and a small little burst of electricity ran through my body.

"Thanks," I said, my voice all of a sudden dropping in volume. There was a bit of a pause, and it was undecided whether it was an awkward pause or not. Maybe it could be classified as somewhere in between normal and nearing uncomfortable.

"You know, I've been thinking lately that you would be the best choice for my second girlfriend," Ethan said sincerely, with the direct eye contact that bothered me with everyone else but him. However, this time, I was completely unsure of how to proceed, so I felt a little overly self-aware.

"…I think that's a very good idea."

"So, you're saying yes to my proposal?"

"Yes."

"Yes?"

"Yes!" I repeated, while I tried to hide the extremely large grin that was creeping across my face.

"Oh, cool. No big deal, right? That was just a casual question of course," he said, breaking my nerves and making me feel totally comfortable again.

"Of course. Guys ask me out all the time, obviously, so it's definitely just a regular old question for me," I chirped back, totally forgetting about my English homework for the more important situation that was going down. It was basically done, and it's not like I really cared at this point in time.

"Well, I can see why, you are kind of the most gorgeous girl at this school," Ethan said smoothly as the bell rang and Ms. Delancey started talking.

"Very smooth," I whispered under my breath.

"I've been wanting to say it for a while."

I really hope that dialogue wasn't too cheesy for anyone's liking... my best friend acts as my editor and she said it was cute, but I'm still a bit wary of it. Haha. Hope you enjoyed, please write a review if you so desire, they make me smile. :)