Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize.

***

"I think Conner has a crush on someone."

Fred choked on thin air, but calmed down pretty quickly. He knew it would be fun to tease Conner about it, but it was almost too good to be true. "Evidence?" he placed his hands on his hips.

"I put a lot of Conner's actions into the search bar, and the results were generally the same: he likes someone," Alex replied promptly. "If you don't believe me, go and search."

"Oooh," Fred wolf-whistled, instantly looking awake even in the morning. Then he leaned close to Alex, smirked, and whispered, "Who?"

Alex gave Fred a side-glare, feeling amused yet exasperated by Fred's curiosity. Wow, people do love rumours and gossip a lot, she thought. How easily entertained are they. "No, I do not know," she pronounced each word loudly and clearly, to prevent Fred from trying to squeeze additional information out of her. Information that she didn't have.

"Huh," Fred cocked an eyebrow, grey eyes alight. "Are you hiding it?' he mused out loud.

Alex sighed, knowing this question would come sooner or later. "Noooo Freddie, I'm not hiding anything," she told him plainly as if he was a kid. In fact, it was the same tone she had spoken to him when they were younger and Alex was considered the most mature of the trio. "Besides, you're Conner's best friend, you should know who he likes before I do."

"But you're his twin sister," Fred argued. "Doesn't he share everything with you?"

"I thought you guys talk about girls all the time. Girls complain about your flirtatious attitude." It was Alex's turn to raise her eyebrows. I feel that strong aura radiating off her, Fred sweatdropped. Alex was usually shy and quiet, but she could exercise a certain amount of sass around those close to her. She probably got it from Conner.

"Well, not all the time," Fred defended himself. "And Conner's a pure soul. He probably doesn't even know he has a crush."

"That's possible," Alex, knowing her brother, wouldn't be surprised if he was blindingly oblivious to his own crush.

"Now our next step is to find out who he likes!" Fred declared.

"Uhh yeah," Alex mumbled half-heartedly. "You know I don't get into these gossipy topics."

"But we're just trying to help Conner," Fred tried to sway Alex. "I promise, I won't spread it to the others."

"I don't think that kid needs a girlfriend at this age," Alex muttered. "None of us are mature enough."

"Aww, come on!" Fred clapped Alex on the shoulder. "It's just a weensy crush. It won't do much harm," he tried to persuade her.

"No," Alex waved a hand, her decision final. "If you want to find out who he likes, do it yourself. I respect his privacy."

"Alright," Fred replied easily and dug his hands in his pockets. "I won't be bothering you." He strode off, an impassive mask on his face, but underneath that, he was internally cackling at the tidbit of interesting information he had just gotten.

Oooh, I'm definitely going to find out who Conner likes. It's his first crush... ha!

***

Bree didn't like it.

She normally enjoyed a good puzzle, but this had put her to the test.

And the entire thing was Conner Bailey's fault.

She didn't like how the mystery of him and his sister made her rack her brains until all logical possibilities had all but vanished. She didn't like how that, after all her time spent thinking and analyzing, she couldn't come to a conclusion. She especially disliked how Conner Bailey in particular made her feel really weird. She didn't even know what she thought of him anymore.

Maybe Bree should just give up.

But the mystery was so tantalizing and attracted Bree like a moth to a flame. It was so much more appealing and mesmerizing than any detective story, any mystery novel. It felt like she should be the one to unwind the story behind the Bailey twins, carefully picking at hints and clues, and finding the answer between them.

Her intuition told her she should continue to investigate them.

But the girl had no leads at all (silly and unpractical suggestions didn't count). So, Bree thought, the only thing she could do at the moment was to observe more without seeming creepy at the same time.

If there was another thing Bree disliked other than frustrating riddles, it was boredom. School would be boring to a max if a certain boy hadn't ensnared her attention.

In Bree's eyes, Conner Bailey was an interesting person. He was eye-catching in a crowd, and Bree felt like he was in control of the atmosphere in the classroom. Like whenever he said something funny, laughter would ripple through the classroom and everyone instantly became less tense.

There was the added fact that he kept on stumbling over his words, and that resulted in a (hilarious) mix up of sentences.

Bree wondered if Conner knew she knew something was up with him and his sister, because he seemed to be a clumsy, nervous mess around her. He always had this ridiculous smile on whenever she caught his eye, and it made Bree's stomach a bit queasy, but not exactly in a bad way.

Anyways, with all that time she spent observing him, school wasn't as boring as she would've thought.

Although Bree did think she was a bit creepy, because she noted every little thing that Conner said or did. Including his house address which he had casually mentioned to someone, his mother's job, and even his mother's work address. She saved every piece of information about him in her mind.

Plus there was this piece of interesting trivia, that Conner had said that he had somehow visited a fairy tale. Bree had seen him say that for at least three times, and that was just in English lesson. He had always blundered and tried to cover it up, but by then Bree had already noticed his slip ups.

The girl could feel that there was more to Conner (and Alex) Bailey that it seemed, but other than her and the eccentric four girls, nobody had noticed.

(As of late, Bree found that whenever she thought about the twins, Conner would automatically come to her mind first. She had no idea why.)

As Ms. York droned on and on, Bree twirled a strand of hair by her ear as she stared at the blackboard, not really listening to her English teacher. Similarly, Conner was looking at Bree from his spot a few seats away, admiring her.

She must be really smart and attentive, because she's looking at the front with such focus, Conner thought dreamily, catching the steady yet determined look in her brown eyes.

Meanwhile, Bree was trying to recall Conner's physical appearance, like the way his hair flopped about or the freckles that dotted his face (which still had baby fat), so she could easily recognize him even in a crowd. She was certainly not thinking about the lesson materials, contrary to what Conner had presumed.

Bree was becoming rather proud of her skill of noticing Conner even there were a lot of people around him. It should be hard to distinguish a single voice in the midst of the noisy cafeteria with shouting kids, but somehow, Bree's ears could tune out every other sound and only focus on Conner's voice. And his strawberry-blond hair stood out to her among all the other colours.

But, whenever she saw Conner, an unfamiliar feeling would blossom in her chest. It wasn't a decidedly bad feeling, but just strange and confusing.

I'm just observing, Bree told herself. And that's the end of it.

Conner watched Bree twirl her hair, and had the sudden, immature impulse to touch her hair. Would it be smooth and silky?

Conner flushed bright red, embarrassed at his weird thoughts. He jerked his head away from Bree and tried valiantly to focus on the lesson (he failed). He could feel the heat emanating from his cheeks and he bit his lip, hoping he wouldn't be noticed.

Aww, my hair's greasy, Bree mused, rubbing her fingers over her hair. I hadn't washed it yesterday... She had no idea that Conner already had a perfect image of her, putting her on a pedestal.

And so the lesson continued, neither of them focusing on the teaching materials, but rather, (unknowingly) on each other.

***

After the morning lessons, Conner stumbled out to the cafeteria, where he met up with his friends. Fred greeted the boy politely enough, but in fact his sharps eyes were watching Conner's every move, somewhat desperate to see who he liked. They lined up to get their lunches, chatting idly.

"The school lunch is terrible," Fred complained loudly, and a lunch lady who had heard glared at him.

"Shh," Conner nudged Fred. "What if she puts poison in your food?"

"Where would she get the poison from?" Fred asked jokingly, deciding to play the game with Conner.

"It's because..." Conner lowered his voice, sending shifty looks at the lunch lady. "She's actually a witch, in disguise of a harmless lunch lady! She wants to kill our entire school one day!"

"Oh, wow," Fred chuckled, ever-so-amused at Conner's imaginative mind. "Dude, if you always think like that, you should write a book or something."

"That sounds cool," Conner replied absentmindedly. Actually, he had been writing some stories about his and his sister's adventures in the Land of Stories. The characters' identities had been disguised, but he was sure Alex could see through them all. It was a way to pass time, and a way to record their memories of the Land of Stories before they vanished. Conner found himself missing his friends as he wrote, hoping he was able to immortalize their features, their personalities and their traits through ink and paper.

The scowling lunch lady dumped a pile of goop on the boys' tray. She knew they had been talking about her. Conner sent her an apologetic smile and they went away.

"Hey Conner, do you like someone?" Fred's question popped out of the blue.

"Huh? No," Conner replied, and Fred observed his face closely. No blushing, no stuttering, nothing weird. He trusted Alex's judgement, so perhaps she was right. Conner didn't know he had a crush.

Conner's reply was rather ironic, because at that moment, Bree and her friends appeared in the cafeteria, that purple beanie and blonde ponytail catching Conner's attention immediately. He even stopped walking to stare.

Fred, noticing that, was about to say "duuuude" but then, he saw Conner looking at a bunch of girls. Fred squinted, and he could make out Danielle (aka. the girl who liked him, according to the rumours) and a couple other girls, whom he recognized by face but not by name. Fred rolled his eyes and tugged Conner's sleeve with more strength than usual.

"If you like a girl, you should ask me for advice," Fred winked, seeing Conner's dazed expression. Upon hearing Fred's words, the other boy came back to life.

"Ew no, the girls all run away from you anyway," he chortled.

They laughed and made their way to the benches. Bree and the girls happened to cross paths with them.

Conner was again mesmerized by Bree's swaying ponytail. It caught the light and he blinked, temporarily blinded by her golden hair. Conner tried to move to keep up with Fred, but his clumsy legs weren't listening. Instead, to his horror, he tripped over himself, mouth wide open in shock. To make matters worse, he had embarrassed himself in front of Bree again.

But that wasn't the worst thing.

The worst thing was that Conner had been holding his tray of food (if it could be called food) and when he fell, the slop landed right on Bree's clothes.

Conner splattered to the ground right before Bree, the tray clattering besides him. His face crashed on the cool tiles of the floor. Highly mortified, he peered up at her, who was reaching out a hand to him, saying, "Are you okay?"

All the blood rushed to Conner's head, making him feel woozy. "Uh, umm, I'm fine," he managed to get out, and the boy stumbled to his feet, too embarrassed to take Bree's hand. He eyed the warm brown mash on Bree's pants, and he winced.

I had dirtied her clothes, and the first thing she cares about is me? Is she an angel sent from heaven?

"I'm really sorry, I should have been more careful," he stuttered out in one go, his face as red as a ripe tomato.

Bree's friends were talking rapidly like a bunch of squawking birds. Surprisingly enough, Bree was the calmest one among them, despite that she was the one who had been hurt.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'll just wash the stains away," Bree told a girl who was frantically trying to wipe the food away using a tissue. The girls glared at him, blaming him for ruining Bree's clothes, then ushered her away. Guilt squeezed Conner's chest, and he shamefully lowered his eyes.

"Conner!" a yell came from among the people. The boy looked up and saw Fred, who was glaring at him. "You got yourself into trouble again!"

"I guess?" Conner half-heartedly picked up the dirty tray from the floor. Fred shoved a mop at his hands, and Conner began to mop the floor, trying valiantly to ignore the watchful people that passed by.

Fred had seen how Conner had looked at Bree. He snorted, amused by Conner's wild reaction towards the girl with the purple hat. Huh, so maybe his best friend had a crush on that unknown girl? It was a shame that Fred didn't know much about her. Maybe they shared a class or two together, but that was it. He hadn't heard any bad rumours about the girl, so she was probably a decent person.

Fred had met Conner long enough to know that despite his sunny personality, he had built up a wall around his emotions, protecting them from outsiders. Even Fred, Conner's best friend, wasn't allowed to see past his barrier everytime. He clenched his fists, suddenly feeling an unusual rage of protectiveness for his friend. If any girl dared to break his heart-

Conner's fingers fumbled with the mop, recalling the mortifying incident. Bree would hate him forever! He hadn't just embarrassed himself, he had somehow dragged her into the mess.

That was how they were. She was a goddess; he was a lowly peasant. Being close to her would just taint her and destroy her perfectness. She was totally out of his league.

He couldn't even muster the courage to properly approach and talk to her. So all he could do was to gaze at her from a distance, admiring her, but he knew he could never get too close.

***

"How dare he!" a girl muttered angrily, as Bree washed her pants in the washroom. She had to take them off, but thankfully she had a jacket, and she tied that around her waist. Her friends were clustered tightly around her, still talking about the incident.

"Relax, it's an accident," Bree tried to soothe them.

"It's not an accident!" Danielle chimed in. "I saw him looking at you and became distracted, then he tripped. He's a real weirdo!"

All the girls spun to stare at Danielle. Even Bree, the ever observant one, hadn't noticed that. Maybe she was too occupied with that funny feeling in her stomach when she saw Conner?

"Wait, so that boy likes Bree?" another girl shrieked, and like the bunch of middle school girls they were, they oohed loudly.

Bree felt like she was dreaming. Her mind had left her body for some reason, and the girl found herself saying, "Come on, he doesn't like me."

They all gave Bree shifty looks. "Huh, how interesting..." they drawled.

Bree briefly entertained the idea of Conner crushing on her. Being in middle school, Bree had her fair knowledge of silly crushes and fragile "romances", but she had never crushed on someone yet. But she thought Conner was probably too childish to have a proper crush on someone. The girl rolled her eyes. "Just because he trips in front of me doesn't mean he likes me."

"Yeah, but you're missing the point," Danielle insisted. Bree thought it was pretty ironic, because when people gossiped about her relationship with Fred, she hated it, but she sure did like asking Bree about her non-existent love life. "He tripped because he was staring at you. That's something else."

"Maybe I had something on my face or he just thought I looked weird," Bree focused on washing her clothes. Thankfully it wasn't her favourite or her newest piece of clothing.

"Uh-huh," the girls said in disbelief.

Danielle leaned closer to Bree and whispered in her ear, "I share English with you, you know. And I see Conner Bailey looking at you during class time too..."

Bree raised an eyebrow. Danielle wasn't a liar (unless it came to who she had a crush on), but perhaps she had gotten the facts wrong. It was her who had been observing Conner, not the other way round. However, Bree always felt she made eye contact with Conner too easily. Maybe they were both observing the other.

But then, why would Conner look at her? Bree searched her mind and came back to her starting point; she had started to observe Conner because he was weird. Maybe Conner had observed her because he thought she was weird too.

Bree's head began to hurt from thinking too much. The entire "mutual observation" thing was a little too much for her.

Or, theory two: Conner had realized she knew something about his funny aura, and was trying to see how much she knew in order to protect his secret.

"I know what you're thinking," Danielle patted Bree's head, to the latter's chagrin. "You think there's a mystery. You think he's hiding a secret. But actually, the only secret he has is that he likes you- but that's not even a secret now."

Bree was a bit embarrassed to see how much Danielle knew about her. But Dani was probably wrong; she hadn't felt that aura. Bree had.

"You read too much," Danielle continued. "Murder mysteries don't happen in this town every day. Maybe you're complicating simple things."

"Maybe that's the case..." Bree murmured absentmindedly, but she wasn't really listening.

"If you have such an overactive imagination, you should write a book," Danielle offered.

"Hmm..." That wasn't a half bad idea in itself. Firstly, Bree did love murder mystery novels, so writing one would be a nice project. Secondly, Bree had always had decent grades in English. Thirdly, Bree thought her life was a bit boring; she didn't have much to do other than watching Conner and brainstorming theories. Injecting a bit of drama and mystery would probably make her middle school years more interesting. It was a pity that Bree didn't have much writing experience. On the other hand, her English class had just finished a unit on creative writing, so Bree had learnt some writing skills.

Bree's stomach rumbled. Even though the idea of writing a book was very intriguing, she had to have lunch first. After all, she needed energy to work.

***

Next day, at English, Danielle frowned when Conner entered the classroom, stumbling. She had a feeling that his clumsiness had something to do with Bree. But no matter what she said, Bree wouldn't listen to her.

Ms. York walked in the classroom, a stack of papers in her hands. Conner deduced that she was going to give out the short story assignment they had did a while ago.

Conner usually didn't have much expectations when it came to homework, but for this assignment, he hoped he had a good grade. He had put in a lot of effort in writing that story, and he had based it on his experiences in the Land of Stories.

But still, the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment. Conner tried his best to stop his excitement from showing, but he really wanted to see what he had gotten for his story. Conner realized that writing stories was actually really fun and a good way to spend his time.

First, Ms. York explained the common mistakes the class had made. The more she droned on, the more impatient Conner became. He rocked on his chair, so fidgety that he didn't even bother to look at Bree.

When she finally finished speaking, Conner was sure the entire class had fallen asleep, except for him. He was reaching peak anxiety, fingers drumming quietly on the desk.

"But before I give out your assignments, I have something to say," Ms. York said, to Conner's dismay. The boy let out an audible sigh, but immediately regretted it, hoping the teacher hadn't heard. He didn't want to worsen his already bad impression Ms. York had on him.

"I would like to talk about Conner Bailey's work." Ms. York clicked her mouse and a digital scan of Conner's messy handwritten story appeared on the screen. "His story was the most creative one I had seen for years. He used a variety of techniques like irony and metaphors. Vivid vocabulary was used to describe the characters, making them seem like they were real (at this, Conner snorted, because the "characters" were so very real). I recommend reading his story, it is a witty work with Mr. Bailey's signature humour."

Bree was surprised that Conner was good at writing stories. She suddenly had an urge to read his work and see what kind of writing style he had. As someone who was interested in writing, she wanted to learn about what people her age wrote.

Conner was pleased and blushed at his teacher's comment, while the class looked at him. He was so glad that he had somehow managed to get into Ms. York's good books. When he received his marked story, he was bursting with pride, his face glowing.

Bree was glad that she had received a pretty high score too. It was probably nowhere on par with Conner's, but she was still happy.

After the lesson had ended, a bunch of people crowded around Conner, dying to see what he had written to catch Ms. York's attention. Conner's paper was passed from student to student. Bree had wanted to take a look too, but she could see Danielle standing to the side. She didn't want to do anything that might arouse Dani's suspicion.

Bree flipped through her papers and decided to go to Ms. York's desk and ask her teacher a question. Ms. York was genuinely happy to see a student so invested into their work. After their conversation, most of the other classmates had already left the room.

"Thanks for your advice," Bree said politely.

"Are you interested in writing too?" Ms. York asked.

"Yeah, a little," Bree admitted. She said goodbye and packed her stuff, and saw a few pieces of paper laying on a desk, its owner clearly gone. The girl strode towards the desk and picked the papers up. It was Conner's story. Some kid had probably left it behind without giving it to Conner.

Hmm, so that's his story. She curiously read a few lines, and immediately found herself hooked. Bree slowly walked out, totally immersed in Conner's story. She peered at the numerous kids in the corridor, but she couldn't see Conner. Nonplussed, Bree thought, "I'll just give it to him next time."

Bree looked down at Conner's story, a smile on her face. His story was really cute and it reminded her of a fairy tale. She wondered where he had gotten his idea.

Little did she know it came from an actual land of fairy tales.

***

A/N: I'm really sorry for the two month long absence! Writer's block and school got me. Aaaand I have a bunch of homework to do for spring break.

Thanks for all the reviews! I really love reading them! And thanks for 600+ views!

Also, just in case it's a bit confusing:

1. Conner doesn't know he has a crush on Bree

2. Bree doesn't know Conner has a crush on her

3. Bree isn't entirely sure about her "feelings" for Conner but she doesn't think she has a crush on him

4. Fred has a vague idea that Conner likes Bree, but he doesn't know who Bree is

5. Danielle is just guessing, but she wants to believe Conner is crushing on Bree

With that said, the next chapter will contain a certain realization... I'll leave that to your imagination ;)

Don't forget to vote! Thanks! :D

(PS: This story reached 25k words!)

5/4/2018