The week went by rather slow. Aidan was falling off to sleep during second period on Monday. I decided to have fun with him, so I took put a cup of water on the desk. His head was bobbing up and down. I inched the cup closer and ran back to my chair.

"You know he's going to be upset with you, right?" I turned to Four.

"That's what younger siblings do."

"Boy, do I know that," said Zeke. Just then Aidan's head fell onto the cup, knocking it over and into his lap. Eric and Zeke started laughing. Four got up the same time as Aidan.

"Your sister was just playing a practical joke on you, calm down," he said to Aidan.

"Fine, fine. Watch yourself Sis," Aidan said as he walked to get some paper towels to clean up the mess.

"Mr. Kent, why is it that it's always you that gets disruptive in my class," asked the teacher. Now that all attention was Aidan, everyone started to laugh. The cup couldn't have fell in a better spot, it looked as though Aidan peed in his pants.

That night, we ran through the routine for the Clash of the Classes Halloween dance off. I wanted to object, but eventually Mike, Rachel's ex, Bradley, Landon, Al, and Peter played the Backstreet boys. The other nine boys we found would be the backup dancers. Peter was going to be the guy who turned into a werewolf. Four and Zeke came by after football practice and got the lighting and effects down to the music. After we practiced the dance four times, we decided to start the backdrop and other decor. It was turning out awesome.

Rachel, Ashley, Tara, and Emily were some of the girls who were dancing, which I wanted to object to also. But as Grant pointed out to Shauna that this was a class event. They were still seniors.

On Tuesday, after classes, Lauren, Deena, and I got called into Tori's office.

"Wait, you're joking right?" I looked at Tori who just kept smiling. Lauren's jaw had dropped. Deena was just as speechless, too.

"No, the DU called me this morning and wants the three of you. He's coming to this week's game to see you folks. If you folks play hard, like I know you do, he's talking about possibly offering you scholarships."

Lauren, Deena, and I jumped up and started yelling. We hugged each other, hugged Tori, then came back to hug each other.

Lauren and I decided to find Sharon and Shauna and ask if we could get a break from cheer for this week, just to put in extra volleyball time. Sharon was more than happy to help us and Shauna screamed for the two of us. She was more excited than we were, I believe.

I wanted to go and find Aidan, which was perfect because Lauren wanted to find Peter. Once I found Aidan on the field, I ran up to him just as he grabbed a cup of water and poured it onto my head.

"Payback for yesterday," he said as I stood there a bit shocked. I started to laugh. "Not exactly how I thought you'd react."

"I'm just way too excited, you could do that again and I don't think I would have cared." Just then Uriah threw a cup of water at my back. I turned around to stare him down.

"What, you said do it again."

"Anyways," I said grabbing another cup and pretending like I was going to fly it at Uriah. He ended up running off with Justin, Trick, Four and Zeke teasing him. "The DU volleyball coach called Tori this morning. They might offer me a scholarship!"

"Alright!" Aidan scooped me up in a hug and twirled me around.

"Is that why Peter and Lauren are making out over there," asked Four.

"Lauren and Deena," I said emphasizing the last name at Trick, who looked shocked. "Are being looked at as well. They're coming to see the three of us."

"I'm so happy for you," said Aidan.

"Alright, does this call for another party," asked Zeke.

"Who said party," asked Uriah skipping back until I picked up a cup. He stopped where he was nodded.

"No. The last party we had didn't end well for me," said Aidan.

"It ended well for your sister though," teased Uriah from a distance. I looked away. How did I forget about that?

"That aside," said Aidan. "I got something to give you. Sort of a late birthday gift too."

"I'll meet you in your room after practice, then."

The guys congratulated me and I said bye. As I left I grabbed a cup and flew it at Uriah. It just caught his head. I wanted to laugh, but saw that he grabbed a cup too and got ready to chase me, so I sprinted into a run straight for the girl's locker room.

"So you're not going to cheer anymore," asked Eric when I told him the news. He was at their room, but Aidan had not come up yet. I was rather early, but I was just too excited.

"No. I'm still going to be part of the squad. It's just that with the DU coaches coming down, I need to focus more on just one thing. I never really wanted to cheer. If I could, I would stop it completely, but I made so much good friends there. And the biggest plus is that I get to cheer for Aidan and all of you folks."

"I know you're into sports, not to mention that your brother said you love sports too, but I just can't see you putting cheering or dancing on hold."

"What makes you say that?"

"I've watched you dance at the pep rallies and at the parties that we've had. You look so happy, passionate, so free," he said sounding so sincere. "Your eyes light up when you're dancing Alex. You just seem so alive." We continued to stare at each other.

"I never really thought anything about my dancing," I finally said quietly looking down.

"Well, you're a good dancer, Alex. You're really good at volleyball, too. After all you are a Kent. I've seen you folks play that first season opener against the #1 team in the state. You were awesome. You wouldn't be if the coaches weren't looking at you this early in the season. But why put dancing on hold?"

"There's no dancers in my family. So I wasn't really pushed to dance."

"But really, Alex, deep down inside is that something you'd want to do?" I looked up at him.

"I don't know. I always thought I would play sports. Believed that that's how I would get into college."

He smiled and looked away. "You're really smart and you're a very talented individual, Alex. I believe you're going to make it into college, without a sports scholarship."

"You really think that highly about me?"

"Of course." He stood up, walked over and gave me our signature 'no matter what' kiss. "Because only someone extraordinary and amazing as you, could get me to see the importance in myself."

"Of course, you're important," I replied kissing him on the cheek. "Thank you for thinking the same of me."

"Wait here," he said walking away from me and picking up something under his bed. He took out his football helmet and a couple stickers. "Remind me, because I forgot, what jersey are you using?"

"Why?"

"I'm going to put it on my helmet to remember that," he stepped forward to kiss my forehead. "You're there with me, even when you're playing volleyball. It'll also be my way of supporting you, when I'm not there to cheer for you."

"I'll give you one guess what number I am," I said smiling at him.

"You got the same number as your brother?" I shook my head that I wasn't. He seemed to think about it.

"I told you only one guess," I said teasingly. "If you can't figure it out, maybe I should just tell you."

Finally that smirk I love so much played across his handsome face. "You have my jersey number," he stated more like an answer than a question.

I stepped closer towards him.

"So I guess," I said kissing his cheek and then putting my pointer finger on his chest. "Whenever you look down here, I'll be right there," I finished by tapping his chest.

His smile slowly disappeared, and he took my hand and held it flat and tight against him.

"You're actually already in there," he said quietly. I looked quickly back up at him. What did he mean?

Eric was staring longingly into my eyes. "Alex, I think that I li..." he paused and closed his eyes.

I leaned up to kiss his cheek again. But this time I left my lips there as I said, "You can tell me anything."

He opened his eyes and I leaned away to look up at him. I never felt so scared in my life. Was he finally going to say it? Just as his mouth opened to say something, Aidan walked in breaking our moment. I wasn't exactly mad about this interruption. I was definitely more nervous. Was he going to tell me that he liked me?

"Alex, you're already here?" Here and apparently over there, I thought to myself as I looked at my hand that was still on Eric's chest.

"Yea," I answered pulling my hand free. "I was too excited to wait."

"What were you two doing?"

"I was giving Alex a gift," replied Eric who started to smile at me again. "Celebrating the whole college scouts coming down and everything."

Aidan just nodded and then gave me a medium sized box.

"Well, I have a gift for you as well. Don't ask how I got it," he said which made Eric laugh.

I took off the cover. There was another small box in there. I opened that box to see an even small box was contained in that one. I was going to get irritated if this box led to fourth one. Aidan started to chuckle, seeing my frustration.

However, when I opened the third box, I saw a oleander in the box.

"This only grows in Amity," I said taking it out. I realized that there was some sort of cold film over the flower.

"I remember you talking to me about it on the phone a couple times. You said it was your favorite thing about waking up in the morning. They grew right outside the window of your dorm. There's not too much color here, so I figure I'd give you something to make your darkest day bright again. It can help you to think happy thoughts before the game, so you can show the DU scouts what you're made of."

"Thanks Aidan. But, what's on it?" I asked trying to feel the layer.

"It's been frozen in a protective serum from Erudite." I turned to look at Aidan. He had Cara get this for me. "It's supposed to preserve the flower ten times as long or something like that. Also it keeps you safe from the poison."

"Poison," asked Eric.

"Yeah," I answered. "Despite it being beautiful, it's actually very dangerous."

"Sort of like you," joked Aidan.

"Ha ha, very funny," I said lightly pushing his shoulder. "Well, thank you very much, Aidan. I'm actually happy already knowing I'm going to wake up to some sort of color. This would look nice next to the roses."

"Right," Aidan said looking at Eric. I pulled Aidan into a hug, hoping to change the subject away from Eric and roses.

"Thanks again, I love it. I'll call Cara later and tell her thanks, too." Aidan pulled back and looked at me questioningly. Eric started to chuckle. "I know that's how you got it and if you ask me, I think she likes you too," I said examining the flower once more.

"That's what I told him," Eric said punching Aidan's shoulder.

"Honestly, Aidan, not just any friend would go through all this trouble to help him get presents for his sister, unless she really likes you."

"She calls a lot too," added Eric. "Why would she use up all those precious long-distance minutes unless she really enjoyed talking to you?"

Aidan seemed to mull this over for a while. Then suddenly a smile appeared on his face. It was a pretty evil one too, which made me nervous.

"Since we're sort of on the subject. Who does go through all that trouble of helping someone unless they liked them," he said smirking at Eric. "And who spends a lot of time speaking to or hanging out with someone unless they didn't enjoy that person's company," Aidan said turning to me. Great. The conversation just had to go back in that direction.

Nobody said anything for a while. I didn't even want to look at Eric. Although I swear I could feel him staring at me. Aidan finally cleared his throat and asked the question, I hoped he wouldn't.

"I need to know, once and for all, what's going on between you two?"

Sorry that this chapter is kind of short. But I thought I add in another teaser. This is an Eric POV

I breathed in the scent of her hair, remembering how comforting and relaxing everything was with her. I could feel her start to move as if she was waking up. I pulled Alex closer, not wanting this moment to end.

"Eric," I heard her whisper. I looked down to see her eyes were still closed.

"Go back to sleep," I whispered in her hair. She started to stir again.

"No, I think I should head back to my room." Her voice was still sleepy. I missed this so much.

"Please Alex, just stay a bit longer."

Alex's body rolled on top of mine and she rested her head to look up at me. Finally her eyes opened and a small smile danced onto her face.

"I guess for a little while," she replied.