In school the next day Lily was hit on the head by a piece of scrunched up paper in Calculus. It bounced off the top of her head and landed on her open textbook. She looked up, checking that her Math teacher was still reading the local sports page on his laptop. She silently unfolded the note,

Hey Lily,

Do you want to go out for coffee later?

J.S.

She scrawled a reply.

Sorry, can't, making up for lost time with REJ.

Scrunching the paper up again, Lily realised that Jacob didn't understand REJ. She opened it up again and explained.

She threw it back to him. Unsurprisingly, her bad aim caused the note to hit Jacob's neighbour in the head. She cringed, flushed scarlet and gave him an apologetic smile. Jacob had been watching Lily and voiced her apology quietly.

As he read her note Jacob visibly deflated.

It's a shame really, but they seem like nice guys, have a great time. Maybe some time next week?

J.S.

Sure

Lily wrote back. This time she fully concentrated on getting the note to hit Jacob's head. She aimed perfectly and the paper connected with the tip of his nose. Jacob jumped back in surprise, causing his chair to scrape back loudly against the floor, catching the attention of the teacher and the class.

"Jacob? Is there anything wrong?" A scarlet flush spread to Jacob's cheeks as the whole class' concentration switched from 'concentrating' on work to concentrating on Jacob's situation. He stammered out a response,

"Um... No, sir, I just... Um... Needed to get comfortable?" Lily tried to stifle a laugh but failed. She then decided to disguise it as a cough, but failed again. Jacob's head snapped round and he glared directly at Lily, "What's so funny?"

"Well, you just seemed very unsure of yourself. That's it," Lily said confidently and without hesitation.

"Well, class if you'll just pack up. I'll let you go early seeing as class is almost over. No homework." The class beamed collectively.

Lily shoved all her books into her bag hastily and made her way out desperate not to be late for her next class. Jacob tried to run after her but she'd already disappeared into the corridor crowds. A hand landed on his shoulder,

"Tough break, man. She was hot. How come I'd never noticed her before?"

"Thanks Josh," Jacob said to the boy at his shoulder.

--/|\--

"Movies plus friends minus family equals life!" Jazz yelled as soon as they got through her front door. She lived much closer to the City than the rest of them so any loud noises made by her family didn't disturb their neighbours as much. Which was useful because Jazz's sixteen year old brother liked to listen to hard-core heavy metal as loud as he could.

Eleanor's long blond hair whipped Lily right in the eye as she softly closed the door behind them. "Only two movies though. Remember, it's Senior Year, we want to get into good colleges right?"

"I suppose," the other three grumbled, "Trust Eleanor to be the only one with any sense. The rest of us are car-raze-ee!" Jazz yelled to her empty house again.

"So I brought Thor."

"I brought Thor Two! Twinsies!" Lily and Richard high-fived. The sound echoed through every empty room in the house.

"You guys are on a major sugar high. I'm not sure I trust you..."

"Relax Eleanor, we're totally sane."

"Dancing Unicorns!"

"Evil Rainbows!"

"Murderous Girl Scouts!"

"That got dark quicker than usual." They all looked at Jazz incredulously.

---/|\---

Halfway through the first Thor movie, Lily's mind started to wander. She was soon thinking about Dylan's appearance at the park the previous night. No sooner than she had thought that thought, Richard cooed,

"Lily's thinking about Dylan!"

"I am not!"

"Oh, you so are! I can tell. Its the same look you used to get when you thought about Xander."

"You guys remember Xander? We went out for, like, three weeks before I found out that he smoked... Stuff..."

The group turned awkwardly silent and switched their attention back to the movie. Dylan never made it back into Lily's mind; she was too caught up in Thor's ordeal (and his dreaminess).

Finally, after (at least) four hours of popcorn, pizza and time wasted, Lily knew she should go back home.

"Need a lift?" Richard asked, even though both Eleanor and Lily's houses were far out of his way.

"Nah."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Thanks anyway Richard. Bye Jazz."

"Do you want to borrow my car?"

"Nah. I've got my bike back at school anyway. See you on Monday guys." Lily waved at the three of them in the kitchen and, grabbing her bag and keys from the hallway, made her way out of the door.

---/|\---

"Nathan!" Lily yelled as she walked through her door.

"What?" He yelled back agitatedly.

"Just thought you might want a reminder that it's my birthday tomorrow."

"Oh shi-oot."

"Really? I'm seventeen, not twelve."

"You'll always be seven to me," Nate said, grudgingly walking down the stairs.

"Must you be shirtless?" She said, covering her eyes, embarrassed at her brother's half nakedness, "And when you were twelve you didn't know any swear words."

"Yes. Yes, I must. And no. No, I didn't."

Lily covered her eyes jokingly and expertly manoeuvred her way into the kitchen. She grabbed an apple and some bottled water from the fridge before heading upstairs, somehow thinking about how Dylan would look shirtless. She flashed back to her Freshman year.

Desperately shaking her head of those thoughts Lily entered her room and grabbed her headphones and iPod shuffle. Nate's head poked around her door,

"Mom and Dad are out. Do you need food?"

"No thanks."

"Ok." He retracted his head and walked down the stairs, "If you need anything," he paused and Lily knew exactly what he was about to say.

"Get it yourself," she chorused with him as she followed him down the stairs. She put her headphones on and picked up a picnic blanket so she could lie on the grass and look up at the stars.

---/|\---

Nathan settled down beside her, a chilled can of beer in hand.

"You know, yesterday, you never got to answer my question."

"Huh? What question?"

"How is your social life?" Lily nudged her brother and slid the headphones off her ears with one hand.

"I was thinking about going to ComiCon this year, but I couldn't think of anyone to go with."

"What about... Jason?"

"Ew. No. Have you seen him lately?"

"Cal?"

"He's probably busy with his girlfriend."

"And are there any prospects for you in that area?"

"I'd like to think so, but I doubt it. If only 'cause she's out of my league," he sighed, "She's amazing; she's pretty, she's smart, she's funny."

"Everything you're not. No wonder she's not interested!" Lily joked and Nate whacked her on the arm.

"It's not that she's not interested... It's more that I'm scared to ask in case she isn't."

Lily turned over on her side and propped herself up with her elbow, examining her brother's face.

"Do you really like this girl?"

"Yeah. I can't stop thinking about her, and I want to just stop at where she works everyday."

"Nate, you're going to have to tell her how you feel- Nate! If she feels the same way you can do something about it, and if she doesn't you can start to move past this. You're a good guy and anyone would think you're a little crazy at first but they'd start to realise that you're only an ass to your little sister." Nate whacked her again, "This is what I mean! You're abusive," she said, laughing. Nate chuckled.

"So... What do I do if she doesn't feel the same way?"

"Honestly? Nothing really. I mean, you literally just have to start to forget, stop visiting her, distract yourself with something else whenever you think about her. Otherwise you'll never get over her and your heart will just end up breaking over and over again if you ever see her with some other guy." Nate sighed and Lily continued, "I never want to see you like that again. Not after what happened with Kay. Alright?"

He nodded and sighed an extra large sigh before saying,

"It's getting late Lil, why don't you go to bed and you can be up early tomorrow."