None Other Than You Page 2

  She looks at me, still pouting and says, "How do you know?"

  "You know when we went to the Oakridge Plaza? It was just you, me, Ryan, and Sean and we got dinner at The Italian Place, and then we decided to run through the fountain, even though it was November last year, and neither of us had jackets."

  Emma smiles. "Yeah, I remember. We got completely soaked and then we had that guy take a picture for us."

  "Yeah. Ryan has that picture framed on his nightstand. Do you remember who he was standing next to in the picture?" I ask. I see her face blush for a moment before it fades away.

  "He had his arm around my waist." She says in a whisper.

  I nod, knowing I've gotten her hopes up again. I can't tell her outright that I know he'd ask her out in a heartbeat if he wasn't so shy himself. I've had all night talks with my brother before, and he's told me a lot of stuff that's good to know, (he hasn't done drugs, doesn't drink, etc.) and some stuff I didn't want to know. (That I will not inform you of for your own good.)

  "You just keep flirting with him. Who knows, maybe this year he'll ask you to Winters."

  "God I hope so." Emma says, giggling. "I've been hoping that for three and a half years!" She stops and looks at me. "You'll give him a little boost won't you?" I smile and nod.

  "Of course."

  She squeals and hugs me until I can barely breathe. "Love you too Em." I cough out as she releases me.

  "Well now that I've possibly secured a date this year, we need to worry about you."

  "Oh, no you don't. I'm going away to college and I don't want to get caught up in anything."

  "Sure you do." Emma says, grinning evilly.

  "Emma." I say warningly.

  "How about Darren? I think he likes you." She says, looking at the back of my head. "Aw. It's a love bump."

  "Shut up." I say, pushing her to the side lightly. She giggles and I notice that we're almost back to my house.

  On the opposite side of the street.

  "Hey look, it's your future husband!" Emma says, laughing harder.

  "Shut up, Em!" I say, laughing myself.

  "He—" I cover Emma's mouth before she can actually catch their attention, but Lark seems to do the job for her. She grabs the leash in her mouth and yanks it out of my hand before I can have a chance to react.

  "Lark!" I yell, knowing she's going for the ball. Sure enough she bolts straight for the ball in Teigan's hand and hits it with her nose before he can do anything, making a basket. That's Ryan, Sean, and Daniel's dog for you there. My brothers know how to train a dog.

  "Holy shit." I hear Jake's voice say as we run up to their driveway.

  "Sorry, sorry." I say, taking Lark's leash back into my hand. She wags her tail as I wrap the leash around my hand again. "Nice shot ya little show off." I whisper to her.

  "Sorry? That was awesome!" Jake says again. He sticks out his hand. "Jake Zidichowski." He says. I shake his hand to humor him.

  "I know who you are." I say.

  "How--?"

  "She goes to our school dimwit." Teigan says, picking up a slobbery ball from the ground. "I didn't know you lived around here, Duke."

  "Since when are you on a first name basis?" Emma says, looking pleased. Teigan's forehead wrinkles in confusion.

  "That's her first name?" He asks.

  "It's a nickname, but yeah, it is." I say, annoyed that after three days in half of his classes he didn't notice the teachers calling on me regularly in class as 'Ms. Knight.'

  "Well then, what's your actual first name?" He asks, stepping closer. I can see his stunning blue eyes from the light hanging on the garage and I don't respond for a moment as I stare back at him.

  "I'd rather not say. I don't particularly like my first name." He smirks slightly and I wonder why.

  "Your name isn't that bad. I think it's pretty." Emma says. "Her name's—" I cover her mouth once again.

  "Well I'm expected back home in a minute and so is Emma here so we'll be seeing you both tomorrow in school." I say, walking with one arm around Emma, still covering her mouth, and my other making sure Lark doesn't get loose again.

  "See you tomorrow Duke." I hear Teigan say as we walk across the street. I can still feel him watching me as I walk all three of us into my house.

  "Emma, have I ever told you that I very much dislike the fact that you enjoy telling people every aspect of my life?"

  "Every day." She says, winking at me. "See you tomorrow."

  "Get outta here." I say, swatting at her with Lark's now loose leash. She laughs and walks out the door, running across the lawn to her own yard.

  "Loose leash." I say out loud. "That's a tongue-twister. Loose leash, loose leash, loose leash…"

  * * *

  "Hey Duke, you awake?" I roll over and groan, looking up at Ryan sitting on the edge of my bed. I can tell he hasn't gotten much sleep from his unruffled dark brown hair and the fact that the veins around his dark blue eyes are a darker red than normal.

  "Yeah, sure. What's up?" I ask, sitting up myself. I rub my eyes to make myself more awake.

  "Are you sure Emma likes me?"

  Ah. Isn't life wonderful when you're the middleman?

  "Trust me Ryan, she likes you, a lot." He pulls his legs up onto the bed and I know we're about to have a long talk. He opens his mouth to say something but I hold up a hand.

  "Food first." I say. He smiles and we walk downstairs together.

  "Cocoa puffs?" He asks, pulling out a large bag of cereal from the cupboard.

  "Definitely. Get the marshmallows too." I say, grabbing a large bowl from underneath the counter. I set it on the table as Ryan pours both foods into the bowl, mixing them together.

  "Vanilla or sherbert?" I ask, rummaging through the freezer for the ice cream.

  "I'd say vanilla tonight." Ryan says, opening the garage door. He pokes his head back in. We've got enough Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, or Minute Maid."

  "What about the Ginger ale?" Ryan shakes his head.

  "Mom drank the rest of it earlier tonight."

  "All of it?" He nods again.

  "Alright then… the Dr. Pepper." I say, scooping vanilla ice cream into two tall cups. (Green and Blue plastic with our names on them.) He brings in four cans of Dr. Pepper and slowly pours them on top of the ice cream.

  "Do we have any oreos?"

  "To the left under the pasta bag." Ryan says. I hear him swear as the fizz over flows on his cup. He grabs a rag and cleans it up as I grab the bowl of cocoa puffs and marshmallows with the oreos under my arm.

  "Can you grab both drinks?"

  "Yup."

  "We're gunna get fat." I say as we walk back up the stairs.

  "We're still young with good metabolisms."

  "Cheers to that." I say, tiptoeing past Sarah and Brent's room. The triplets are all asleep in there with them, and when they wake up, the entire house is awake for the rest of the night.

  Not that Ryan and I probably won't be anyway.

  "We can't stay awake without our midnight snack anyway." Ryan says, settling down on the floor in the middle of my room. I join him and glance at the clock.

  "More like three a.m. big bro." I mutter. "You have the worst timing for these talks. I'm gunna be so tired tomorrow."

  "Too bad." He says, grabbing a handful from the bowl and stuffing it into his mouth. I laugh and we sit there, munching silently before he says anything. "Do you think she'd say yes if I asked her to Winters?"

  I fight the urge to laugh. "I think she'd die of happiness."

  He smirks and takes a sip of his float. "How do you think I should do it? I wanna ask her in a way that she'll remember."

  "Just save the really good ideas for prom." I say.

  "Who says I'll be taking her to prom too?" I raise my eyebrows and simply look at him. "Alright, we'll save the good ones for prom."

  "You could always ask her at the pep rally. Make a really cute poster and have it up on the wall when she walks in."

  "Or something
with balloons?"

  "What is it with you and balloons?" I ask.

  He shrugs. "They're fun. And colorful."

  "They're colorful huh?"

  "Yes." We laugh and he grabs another handful of our mix.

  "How about a poster and balloons." I say after a moment.

  "Sounds perfect." He says, smiling. "Now what should we do about you?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "I mean I can't have a date with your best friend and leave you to go stag."

  "Sure you can." He shakes his head. "Why not?"

  "Because you're my baby sister and I've got to take care of you."

  "And that involves getting me a date for the Winters dance?"

  "Yes." I roll my eyes and throw a cocoa puff at him.

  "Oh it's on." He says.

  "Wha--?" He throws a cocoa puff at me and it goes straight into my mouth. I laugh and throw one back at him, and then he takes a handful and chucks it at me. I feel a marshmallow stick in my messy ponytail.

  "Oh it's on now big bro." I say, taking a handful back at him.

  "Hey! No cocoa puffs down the pants he says one comes dangerously close to going down his boxers. He throws a handful at me and it goes all over my bed.

  "You are so helping me clean this up tomorrow!" I say, still trying to keep my voice down.

  "Oh? Who says?" He laughs and ducks behind my desk chair to avoid my handful.

  "You butt!"

  He laughs and ducks again, and throws another handful back at me.

  "Move the drinks, move the drinks!" He says, clutching his side as he laughs while watching me trip on my rug after moving the drinks.

  "I hate you." I say, attempting to tackle him to the ground.

  Instead he starts tickling me. My one weakness and of course my older brother knows it.

  "Say uncle!" He says, still digging his fingers into my sides.

  "Never." I choke out, laughing hysterically.

  "Shh." He says, laughing. "You'll wake up the triplets." Immediately we both stop, still giggling slightly.

  "We'd better get some sleep. I've got a test on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night tomorrow."

  "Shit. That's tomorrow?" Ryan says, staring at me in disbelief. I nod. "Crap." He says, holding the bridge of his nose.

  "C'mon, I'll help you study for it." I say, reaching for my bag and trying to avoid crunching any cocoa puffs or squishing any marshmallows into my carpet.

  "I love you little sis." He says, putting on his cheesiest grin.

  "Shut up and sit down." He does just that.

  "Okay, the play was written in…"

  Chapter Three: Alone Time Together

  The common sitting area at our school is on the main steps leading upstairs. They're in the middle of a large, high-ceilinged middle hall, and they're wide enough to fit ten kids going up or down. Next to the stairs on the left are windows looking out over the courtyard, and to the left is a carpeted platform made to sit on and simply talk to friends, etc.

  That's where I was sitting on Friday, peacefully doing my homework, when Teigan walked right up to me and sat down.

  "Can I help you?" I ask hesitantly, looking up from the work on my lap.

  He leans back on his hands and looks up at the ceiling. "Nope."

  "Umm. Okay." I revert to my previous occupation in an attempt to ignore Teigan: finishing my homework for fourth block. Math is my next block, and my worst subject. In any other subject I'm a really good student. Give me AP English, History and Biology classes and I can get A's in all three. Math however is not my strongpoint. In fact it's the furthest point from my strongpoint. I almost failed last year, but ended up finishing the year on a B after much persuasion and a special test.

  Sometimes it pays to be a bit of a teacher's pet.

  Now if I could just figure out what this last question is on the math homework then I could hurry off to class and get a good seat near the back, maybe fourth row…

  "Forty-five." Teigan's voice startles me and I turn to look at him, still lounging carelessly next to me and looking at my paper.

  "Come again?"

  "The answer's forty-five." His eyes lock onto mine. I realize his eyes aren't only dark blue but they have flecks of gold in them with a ring of light green around the pupil…

  A shout across the hall tears our eyes apart, his returning to the ceiling and mine to a particularly interesting spot on my shoe. Glancing back at him after a moment, I find him looking at me.

  I have to do it I decide. If I don't figure out how to do the problem I fail the pop quiz Paxton hinted at last class. "How did you get forty-five?" He looks stunned. "What? Hurry. I need to get to class."

  Taking the pencil from my hands, he circles a couple of numbers lightly. "You just carry the two and take the square of this number," His hand brushes against my arm, sending chills down my spine. "Then all you've gotta do is divide." He turns to look at me again and we're closer than I'd thought. His face is only a few inches from mine. Another chill runs through my nerves all the way to my toes and then disappears. Staring at the paper, I try to ignore the feeling.

  Obviously Teigan felt something too because he jumps up and backs into the hall. "Hope it helped." He flashes a quick, smirk in my direction before darting down the hall.

  I finish the problem as quickly as possible, trying to ignore Teigan's lack of arrogance in the past two minutes, and race to Paxton's room. He's the kind of teacher who makes you sit outside the room for the entire period if you're late, and if I miss even one class I'll get even more lost than I am while listening intently the entire time.

  Luckily I walk in the door just as the bell rings, out of breath and panting. Sighing I take the last seat near the door and, unluckily, close to the front.

  "Nice timing Knight." Anthony Thompson whispers from the seat next to me. I roll my eyes, ignoring him. Anthony Thompson has been in at least one of my classes every year since I started going here. Meaning he got held back because he was a grade above me until junior year. He's not the brightest kid, especially when it comes to my problem with him.

  Every year before every dance, he tries to get me to go with him.

  There's nothing wrong with Anthony Thompson, it's just, he's a brainless jock who has no plans for his future, and he only wants to go out with me because he thinks I'll be a good lay.

  No I'm not just assuming this. He's told me these facts straight out.

  Another reason to stay far, far away…

  For the rest of the class I ignore him making kissy faces next to me, the spit balls slowly littering the area around my desk, and the four love notes he passes to me in the hour and a half period. By the end of the class it looks like it snowed all around my desk, I have four pages of notes, and absolutely no idea what any of it means.

  Jumping up from my desk as soon as the bell rings, I vow to myself to search for a tutor. There are a lot of tutoring options available at the school of course, but I don't want just anyone to tutor me, I need somebody smart. I need somebody who really knows what they're doing in math and who will be devoted to helping me…

  Glancing to my side I see that Anthony has caught up with me and is staring at me intently with his puppy-dog brown eyes.

  "What do you need Anthony?" I ask, craning my neck to look him right in the eye. The boy's six feet five for God's sake. I'm only five five!

  "Well I was wondering if—"

  "Nope. Sorry. I've got to run." I blurt out, knowing he was about to ask me to Winters. "I'm sure Jenny Kaphrey would love to go to the dance with you." I say, walking as fast as I can and dodging through the crowded halls to get away from him. I named the first girl I saw next to him and she stopped, smiled a wide, metal-mouthed smile, snorted and ran away from him.

  So Anthony's pretty good looking with his spiky black hair, brown eyes, quirky smile, chiseled jaw, and of course a well-defined six pack; I won't deny him that. It's the whole pea-brained thing keeping me from ever saying yes to any of his offers.
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  "Where are you off to in such a hurry Delaney?" Stopping dead in my tracks I watch as Teigan passes me, the corner of his mouth pulled up in an arrogant smirk. How the hell did he figure out my name? I whip my head around just in time to see him turn the corner with Jacob Zidichowski. I consider going after him but what would be the point? Demand to know how he found out?

  Scowling, I walk down the stairs to meet Emma to go home for tonight.

  "What's wrong Duke?" She asks.

  "Teigan figured out my name." I pout.

  "What?"

  "I know! I have no idea how he found out but he did." I know I shouldn't be so pissed off but I really don't know how he found out! And the fact that after he hit me in the head with the volleyball on Monday, on Wednesday he slammed the ball into my stomach and just today he pelted me again in the head; three different times.

  He's got it out for me I swear. Why shouldn't I despise him for figuring out the name that only faculty, family, and close friends know?

  "I'm sorry Duke, really." Emma and I walk out the school doors to the parking lot as she turns to me suddenly, "Maybe Jessa told him to get brownie points."

  I pause and consider it for a second. "That's possible."

  Jessa had been a friend of mine even before Emma moved here. We were friends in kindergarten all the way until we hit sixth grade. She abruptly decided that we weren't 'cool' and went to play tag-a-long with Allison Hawley. Allison has always been popular, and Jessa decided she wanted to be too I guess. That's how I know she's an amazing violinist, because I was there when she first pulled the strings across the instrument and made the most horrible sound I've ever heard. I was also at her first concert, her second, and her first performance at Jeremy Hall.

  I doubt Allison or any of her friends even know Jessa plays the violin.

  I don't even know if she still plays.

  "Hey guys!" Ryan says as he walks up behind us, pulling me out of my thoughts as the three of us walk towards Ryan's beat up Honda.

  "Hey." Emma says shyly. Crawling into our respective seats, Ryan turns on the car and turns down the music, an unusual task.

  He pulls out of the school parking lot before asking, "So how were your guys' days?"