Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. I do own the idea and my OC(s).

***

She wasn’t looking at him like a boy she thought had a crush on her anymore, but rather the way she looked at her novels: He was the mystery she was invested in now.

~ A Grimm Warning, Chapter Three

***

"New school year, new beginnings," Alex Bailey hummed happily to herself as she skipped along the road.

"Only you can be chirpy in the morning," her twin brother Conner grumbled, looking like he was about to fall asleep while walking. "And it's a school day! I haven't woken up this early for the whole summer holiday!" His face was puffy and his eyes were half-closed. He dragged his feet slowly along the pavement like a zombie.

"We're in seventh grade now," Alex said excitedly, turning to her brother. "Isn't it nice?"

"If it involves school, it's never nice," Conner muttered. He couldn't get why Alex loved school so much.

Almost everyone in the twins' old elementary school went to their junior high. Other than that, there were also people from other elementary schools. But the thing that really ticked Conner off was that Mrs. Peters, his sixth grade teacher, was becoming his current school's principal. He knew Mrs. Peters was a good teacher, but she was so stern and for most of the time Conner was in her bad books, so she was especially strict with him. Just as Conner wanted to take a break from the "dragon lady", she had to be teaching him again.

"Just saying, did you really finish your holiday homework?" Alex gave Conner a stern yet amused glare that reminded him of his mother.

"Of course I did!" Conner said defensively. "Don't you remember how much I had slaved for it last night?" He sighed and massaged his forehead. Charlotte had lectured her son about not finishing his homework earlier, and only stopped to let him do it.

The two continued their path to school, Alex grinning giddily and Conner yawning every minute or so. Once, Conner nearly got hit by a car, as he wasn't paying to where he was walking, but fortunately Alex yanked her brother back. Conner blinked; he was too tired to be alert. The horn blared loudly as the driver glared at Conner, eyebrows knitted together in an unattractive expression.

"Sorry!" Alex cried, grinning sheepishly. Then she whipped her heads towards her brother, demeanor changing from sunny to stormy in less than a second.

"You could have died!" Alex scolded Conner, bright blue eyes filled with anger and worry. "Please be alert!"

"Well, it's been a long time since I had a near death experience," Conner mumbled half to himself, half to Alex.

There was silence as the two walked on, that single sentence triggering thoughts inside their heads. Alex knew Conner was referring to their adventures in the Land of Stories. It had been almost a year since their memorable experience in a world which they previously thought was fictional.

They both missed it very much, like a piece of them was left in the Land of Stories. Alex knew there was some truth to this. She and Conner were actually the grandchildren of the famous Fairy Godmother. Unfortunately, they hadn't seen her ever since they left the Land of Stories.

But sometimes Alex thought that Conner didn't miss the fairy tale world as much as she did. She felt like she should be back in the Fairy Palace, learning magic from her grandma. Alex might be exaggerating, but she thought being a fairy was her destiny. Conner, on the other hand, too missed the characters they encountered, but quickly adapted to the Otherworld.

"I miss cheeseburgers," Conner had said when they came back. He had then proceeded to go to the nearest McDonald's to buy a ton of fast food. Conner's love for modern appliances (such as air conditioning, WiFi and television) had made him easily go from the Land of Stories to the Otherworld.

"I miss them," Conner said quietly. "Froggy, Goldilocks, Jack, Red, Grandma. Heck, I think I might be even missing Trollbella- nope, I would never miss her. The Evil Queen looks like a tame bunny compared to her."

"No. I think the Evil Queen is more frightening." Alex disagreed with her brother. "Remember how terrifying she looked when you broke that vial of fairy tears?"

"You weren't the one who got forced to kiss Trollbella!" Conner argued, defending his honour. "It was disgusting! Maybe I'll get a fear of kisses! Besides," he jabbed a finger in his sister's direction. "You were the one who pushed me!"

"Okay, okay!" Alex raised her hands in an "I surrender" way. "I know you don't want to do it, but it was our only way out!"

"Don't want?" Conner questioned incredulously. "I'll rather serve a month of detention! With Mrs. Peters!" He stopped, looking horrified. "Wait, did I just say that?"

"I thought you hated detentions," Alex commented.

Conner shrugged. "I guess I've been too used to detentions, it's just as normal as sleeping in lessons."

"Conner!" Alex gasped indignantly. "That is so disrespectful! And here I thought you changed after our adventures!"

"Chill, chill." Conner chuckled. "I was only kidding. I haven't slept in lessons for months, but now considering my extremely tired state I might just fall asleep today." He yawned, covering his mouth with his hand. He was suddenly yanked to his right, and he stumbled over his feet. Conner turned to Alex for an explanation, seeing she held his arm in a tight grip. Alex was using so much force her knuckles had turned white.

"You nearly hit a trash can," Alex said in reply. "You don't want to go to school covered in rotten vegetables and banana peel, do you?

***

Actually, going back to school wasn't a really big event.

"Yes, Mom," Bree said for what felt like the hundredth time. She was standing right on the doorstep, hands stuck in pockets nonchalantly, waiting for her mother to stop fussing over her.

"Have a good time sweetie!" Mrs. Campbell said brightly, after reminding her daughter about the things she had to bring ("Did you bring a hole puncher?" "Mom, why do I need a hole puncher on the first day of school?"). She squealed suddenly, surprising her daughter.

"My little daughter has grown up..." the mother tackled Bree into a hug. Bree hugged her back, looking slightly uncomfortable but appreciated her mother's adoration.

"Mom, I'll be fine," Bree stressed on the word "fine". She smiled slightly. "No worries."

"Have a good day!" Mrs. Campbell said again, finally releasing Bree. The girl stepped out and onto the pavement, then turned back and waved, "Bye Mom!"

"Bye sweetheart!" Mrs. Campbell waved back enthusiastically.

When the house was out of sight, Bree sighed and readjusted her signature beanie. It had gotten a bit lopsided when her mom hugged her. It wasn't like she didn't like her mother, but sometimes she could be a bit too excited.

Bree, on the other hand, wasn't particularly interested or excited at the prospect of going back to school. It was just doing the same things over and over again. In fact, she rarely showed much enthusiasm in anything. She was quieter than her peers, but had a quick and witty tongue, which could be deadly at times.

As she trudged along the road, Bree thought this year would be just an average, normal year. She'll meet new people, make new friends, and survive through the midst of exams, tests and piles of homework.

Just your normal junior high school life.

***

"Conner!"

"Freddie!"

The twins had just stepped in the school campus when Conner was ambushed by his best friend, Fred Hayford. He was tall boy with slightly spiky blond hair. Conner had known him since kindergarten, and they were always by each other's side. Fred flung an arm across Conner's shoulder, welcoming him heartily. "Dude, I haven't seen you for a month!" Fred yelled in Conner's ear, steel grey eyes alight with excitement.

"Yeah, and now let's welcome ourselves back into this infernal prison," Conner gestured to the school. "We're back to the never-ending cycle of homework."

"I know!" Freddie whined, but almost immediately, several guys bounded over to them. Conner was very popular, had lots of friends, and knew a lot of people. Even at a new school, Conner had a lot of acquaintances.

Alex stared wistfully at them, wishing she had friends too. In her old school, her only friend was Conner. It wasn't like people hated her, they just talked to her when they needed to. Mostly, her classmates just asked her about homework and questions like "how do you do this sum".

The boys let out a boisterous laugh, and started clapping Conner on the back. He grinned at them; apparently he had made a joke which the boys could relate to. Then he scratched his head sheepishly. Alex, figuring out that she was very out of place among the rowdy boys, quietly left the scene.

***

When Bree was younger, she had an infinite amount of trivia that she would spew at random times. Her classmates used to love that trait of hers, so she had a lot of friends, but as they grew up, they found her random information less interesting. Bree gradually became quieter, but her curiosity remained. The girl was observant for her age, and a few years ago, she had began to read detective stories. Bree found them intriguing, but unfortunately, none of the people she knew were as passionate about mysteries as she was.

Even though Bree called them "friends", no one was her true friend. She just hung out with them, stuck with them for group projects, and walked behind them when the pavement wasn't wide enough for all of them. Some of those "friends" went to the same school as Bree did now. Naturally, being about the only people she knew, she stood with them.

She listened quietly to their conversations, hardly joining in. She was fine with being generally left out, it wasn't like she treasured them as her best buds anyway.

"Oh no!" a girl cried from Bree's right. "I've forgotten to do a few problems on my Maths homework! Can someone let me copy their work?"

Without uttering a word, Bree reached in her bag and handed the girl her homework. It was a fairly common occurrence in the group. Bree was willing to give them her homework because if she didn't, they would nag her continuously about it (and she hated clingy people).

"Thank you!" the girl gushed.

"You're welcome," Bree replied with a small smile.

Sometimes, Bree thought she was pretty satisfied with her life, but every now and then, she thought something was missing.

***

On the first few days of school, there was a typical what-did-you-do-in-the-holidays presentation. Its goal was to break the ice among the students, who had been shuffling around nervously, trying to get used to their new surroundings.

Conner's English class was unfortunately not with Fred or Alex, but since he knew a lot of people, he didn't mind very much. Even if he didn't know anyone, Conner, the social butterfly would just make friends easily.

Conner had procrastinated on his presentation script (again), but gave up halfway and decided just to think of something during the presentation (yet again). Alex had just glared at him while she worked on her own script.

So Conner improvised, but by his natural ability to charm people the class seemed to enjoy his presentation. In the middle of laughter, Conner returned to his seat sheepishly and heaved a sigh of relief.

Oh good. I survived this. Now I can slack off during the rest of this lesson. He thought. They were assigned to give their presentations according to alphabetical order, so Conner was one of the first people.

"Next up, Miss Campbell."

Conner decided to daydream about the Land of Stories for the rest of the period. It was a bit rude for him to ignore everyone else's presentation, but Conner was sleepy and it wasn't like anyone would care. The teacher would be too focused on the presenter and the presenter would be too focused on not messing up.

Bree walked to the front of the classroom, script in hand. She looked at the faces she didn't recognized, with half of them staring at her with interest, the other half looking asleep.

Conner decided to look at the presenter for a second because he didn't want to give of the impression of not listening (he was planning to try out this mystical thing Alex called "multitasking"). And he instantly regretted it.

Why?

Because for some reason, his eyes immediately darted away and his face felt like it was scorched. He let his eyes wander for a while on the wall (it was so interesting) before daring to return to the girl.

Conner had seen a lot of pretty girls. One was his sister (he told her that not to offend her), some others include Red and Goldilocks. But none of them had made him felt like a warm river had just coursed through him.

Yes, Conner acknowledged that the girl was pretty, but why did his heart skip a bit? Why did it feel like something was twisting on his stomach? This girl had blonde hair tied in a ponytail, and wore a purple beanie. From what he could see the girl wore some beaded bracelets around her wrist. She wasn't wearing something extravagant, or something that made her stand out, then why did he feel so attracted to her?

Bree brushed away a strand of hair in front of her face and tucked it behind her ear, and somehow that action made Conner's brain go short circuit. Mouth parting slightly, Conner just stared blindly.

As Bree began to speak, Conner spaced out, not hearing a single word. He had no idea on why his mind went blank, and why everything seemed to speeding past him. His breathing quickened every time he thought of the girl.

Bree just read what she wrote on her piece of paper. It was mainly about going to an amusement park with her sisters and parents. It was a basic presentation, so Bree didn't put a lot of effort in it. She just wanted to get it done with.

At the end of Bree's short speech, Conner regretted having not listened to it. If he did he might have known more about her, her interests, her family... wait, why was he suddenly so curious about a girl?

***

A week or so had passed since the beginning of the new school year. Alex and Conner gradually adapted to the school's pace. Conner fell back into the daily routine of doing homework at the last moment and Alex busied herself with assignments and essays. The twins' thirteenth birthday was nearing, and Charlotte frantically brainstormed up ideas to celebrate.

But nearly being thirteen didn't mean Conner acted like a thirteen-year-old. He somehow slept through his alarm clock and shut off the snooze button, so when he finally woke up, Alex was already eating breakfast.

"Shoot!" Conner exclaimed when he realized he only had five minutes to get ready. He dashed to the bathroom, footsteps pounding loudly in the small rental house.

"No swearing!" Charlotte called, as Alex ate her breakfast calmly, reading the nutrition labels on a cereal box.

"That wasn't a swear word!" Conner yelled back, voice slightly muffled.

It was a terrible day for Conner. After waking up late, in his clumsiness he spilled milk on his shirt and had to go to change again. He was running late, extremely late. Alex had left already, giving Conner a sympathetic smile.

Conner dashed to the school, his hair a wild mess, his clothes slightly rumpled. Charlotte had stuffed a piece of toast into his mouth before he left, insisting that he should have some food. Conner chewed furiously, narrowly missing a car as he sprinted across the road. He nearly slipped over a puddle, and after maneuvering around the roads, he finally reached his school.

Conner panted, his tongue out as if he was a dog. "I made it," he muttered, chugging down some water dizzily. "Running around in the Land of Stories has its benefits." He staggered to the door, but then remembering sometimes the teacher came early, he jogged down the corridor.

Unfortunately, someone else was rounding the same corner from the other side. Unable to stop himself, Conner and the girl crashed into each other.

(Yes, it was a girl.)

SMACK!

"Ow!" Conner rubbed his forehead as he stumbled back, before landing flat on his bottom. He felt pain spark in his spine. Next to him, Alex looked with slight amusement at the idiot that was her brother. The girl sighed and adjusted her headband.

(No, it wasn't who you thought it was.)

"I was going to check on you. But it seemed like you made it." Alex sighed as she stretched out a palm to Conner.

Conner put his weight on Alex's hand and was about to haul himself up, but he saw that some students had crowded around and were staring at him. One of them was the pretty blonde girl, standing by her friends and looking at him. When her brown eyes made contact with his blue ones, Conner suddenly lost focus and sat back down, blinking.

Bree was surprised at this kid's clumsiness. He looked like he was running late, his hair resembled a bird's nest, and he couldn't even get up. It seemed like he didn't know how to manage himself well, and Bree typically didn't like that type of people.

Alex sighed again. "Still asleep, I see." She then somehow dragged Conner up and pushed him to his first class, as she saw her brother was still oblivious to the world around them.

"I heard about him," a girl next to Bree said. "Conner Bailey. He's popular and funny, but for some reason he also tends to trip over things."

"He's kind of cute, don't you think?" Another girl commented.

Bree snorted and didn't reply. I forgot this the age when we'll all become hopeless romantics. Bree was more of a practical person than a romantic person though, so she knew it would be a bit annoying to deal with all the love dramas and unrequited crushes flying all over the school.

Conner was suddenly alert when he heard someone say he was "cute". Jerking his head backwards, he saw that the comment about him was directed to the blonde girl. Conner was suddenly very interested in hearing her reply.

"Conner!" Alex said loudly when she saw that the boy was distracted.

"Yeah!" Conner replied, snapping back to attention.

"Get a grip on yourself," the sister hissed to her brother.

"Mmhmm," he grunted in reply, tearing his eyes away from the girls.

Conner was dragged to his English class by his sister and he sat down in his usual seat. He buried his face in his arms, trying to sleep, and to wash away the embarrassing memory of him bumping into Alex.

"Wake up, dude!"

Conner jolted up, staring around him in shock. Fred's face loomed in front of him eerily. Conner rolled his eyes and backed away. "Aren't you supposed to be in some other class?" he asked.

"Well yeah," Fred said. "But since you're even later than usual, I wondered what might have happened to you."

Conner would have said something in return, but then he saw the girl entering the room with a couple of her friends.

The girl.

Conner's face started to heat up and his mind went blank. He bit his lip and looked elsewhere.

"Dude!" Fred exclaimed. "What's up with you? Cat got your tongue?"

Conner tried to come up with some smart reply, but then the girl looked over briefly, and then quickly turned back to somewhere else. And then he lost any thought he had.

Fred stared weirdly at Conner, who was staring at a fixed spot on the wall, eyes never blinking. A bell rang shrilly, bringing both of them back to the land of living.

"Crap, I'm going to be late!" Fred yelled to no one in particular as he jolted up. "See ya later!" he yelled at Conner, who was still looking rather stupefied.

As Fred ran out of the classroom, giving a strange look at Conner, Conner suddenly realized that the girl was sitting in his row, with only with three people sitting between them. As she sat down in her seat, Conner felt a sudden impulse to cover his face with a textbook or something. He felt like he couldn't face her, even though the girl he had bumped into was his sister, not her.

Which was absolutely weird, as he'd done even more embarrassing things before (like accidentally wetting his bed on his first sleepover, Fred was present and he still teased Conner about it, but he didn't care much). Conner was suddenly glad for the three people sitting between them.

Naturally, Conner tried to ignore his strange feelings, but he couldn't help but think about it. Which caused him to space out during the lesson. Which in turn, caused the teacher to ask him a question because he wasn't listening.

"Mr. Bailey, since you are not focusing on the lesson, I assume you understand everything," the teacher's sarcastic voice said. Conner immediately tensed. "Stand up. What is the answer for question 8?"

What question 8? Conner screamed in his mind, as he slowly pushed his chair back and stood up. He had zero idea of what was going on in the class. He probably looked dramatically horrified as his classmates started giggling. He looked at them for help, but nobody gave him any sign of the answer. His palms started to get sweaty and he gripped the table, frantically searching his mind for a response.

"Uh, I dunno?" he answered hesitatingly after a few seconds, a "well-I'm-so-screwed" expression on his face. The class laughed harder when they saw the teacher's disapproving glare. Conner's cheeks burned from humiliation.

"Sit down," the teacher said curtly. Conner quickly obeyed. "If you don't know the answer, I suggest you to pay more attention to the lesson."

"Mmkay," Conner muttered, sinking lower and lower in his chair, resembling a melting ice cream. He propped his textbook up and hid his face in it. Conner squinted at the words on the book, but gave up when he couldn't understand a word of English grammar.

The class was quiet, with a few smothered giggles here and there. They usually loved what they called a "Conner scene" (aka. Conner VS Teachers) but today he didn't come up with a sassy response. The usually cheeky boy sat slumped in his chair, red-faced and glaring at the textbook. If looks could kill, the book would be nothing but a pile of ash.

And that was what Bree Campbell saw when she recognized the boy. Her eyes flitted to him curiously, then focused back on her textbook, casually twirling her pencil.

Out of the corner of his eye, Conner saw the girl peering at him. He turned redder, if that was even possible, and let out a small grunt of annoyance.

Why did she had to notice him every time he messed things up? She was so calm and cool, which was the total opposite of him. He felt so lame compared to her. Wait, why was he even having these thoughts?

"Mr. Bailey?" the teacher drawled loudly, seeing that Conner had been motionless for the past minute. Conner jumped, his book nearly clattering to the ground.

"Yeah, I'm totally concentrating on the lesson now!" he yelled hastily, not wanting to be embarrassed again.

"Good," the teacher replied, then resumed teaching. Conner let out a sigh of relief, and tried to study the book. He couldn't let himself be distracted again.

Which was easier said than done.

By the end of the lesson, Conner managed to look like he was paying attention, but in reality, he was only noticing things related to the girl.

Like he discovered that her name was Bree Campbell. And every time he chanted her name in his head, he would feel really warm.

Note to self: never compare her name to that horse from Narnia. She didn't like it. Conner didn't even know about the horse from Narnia, but he didn't want to offend her. He should ask Alex, someone who had probably read all books in existence, about it.

He also discovered that had blue and pink streaks in her hair.

It was ridiculous how all of his senses immediately heightened whenever she was mentioned. Conner had never been so focused on something in school before.

Which was a bad thing as it was messing up his mind and caused him to space out at random moments. But he also felt oddly content whenever he thought about Bree. A smile would automatically form on his face.

At the end of the English lesson, Conner found himself actually looking forward to the next one, something which had definitely never happened. The sheer prospect of it spooked Conner. It probably had something to do with seeing the girl again, because English class was about the only chance he would be able to see her, unless Conner went into full stalking mode.

Okay, now he sounded like a creep. He probably was one too.

And suddenly school seemed so much more interesting if Bree was there. For some reason, he wanted to spend more time with her.

And Conner knew something was terribly wrong with him if he thought school was interesting. His mind was very much jumbled up and confused. It was almost like he was slowly losing control over his mind and body, which was being taken over by an alien feeling.

The worst thing was, he had no idea how to turn himself back to normal.

***

A/N: This is AN quite long, but please bear with me.

Firstly, thank you so much for clicking on this and reading it. It means a lot to me :D

Secondly, I'm proud to introduce you to my brainchild FALSE OBSESSION TURNED REAL! It's something I've been dreaming up since the release of TLOS 5, so I put a lot of effort into this. Since this is the most elaborate thing I've ever thought of, I'm really scared that I'll lose motivation halfway, so please review! I love reviews, and I'll love to see what you think!

Thirdly, this is set in an American high school. Since I'm not from USA, there might be some inaccuracies. I know a lot of you guys are from the States, so please correct me if I did something wrong.

Fourthly, to avoid confusion, I'll state that this chapter is set between TLOS 1 and 2. I know Bree doesn't appear until TLOS 3, but I suppose the twins will still know her prior to her book appearance. A handy little timeline for you:

~

TLOS 1

Seventh grade starts, this story begins

TLOS 2

Alex moves to the Land of Stories

Eighth grade starts

TLOS 3

Conner moves to the Land of Stories

TLOS 4 starts

Ninth grade starts (aka. Freshman year)

TLOS 4 ends

TLOS 5

TLOS 6

Conner returns to school

~

Fifthly, to those who guessed "obsession" in the last chapter, you are correct! The first letter of each sentence spells out "obsession".

Sixthly, this is canon to my other works Resist, The 5 Times Bree Caught Conner Looking At Her and I'm A Writer. About everything except 7 Days.

I think that's it! Please vote and review!! Thanks! :D

8/10/2017