Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize.

***

A/N: I'm going to introduce some OCs (Bree's sisters) in this chapter, so I hope you won't be too overwhelmed and confused.

***

I like Conner Bailey.

Bree Campbell laid face down in her bed, her comfortable sheets and blanket doing little to soothe her mind.

Bree had finally come to terms with her crush on Conner.

At least Conner was a decent guy, and she wasn't genetically programmed to like jerks, which seemed to be the case for her sisters. They kept on obsessing over "bad boys". Bree had no idea why people would want an overly possessive, manipulative and generally super unhealthy significant other.

Maybe it was because Bree herself was a "bad girl" more than a "good girl". Bree was an adrenaline junkie and she loved doing risky things. She would probably be attracted to a "good boy" for balance and stability.

Except Conner Bailey didn't seem like the typical "good boy". His grades were fluctuating (yes, Bree noticed that), he was very clumsy, and he wasn't a "conventional hot boy" (his best friend, Fred, was one though). Yet, Bree could see that Conner truly had a good heart, which efficiently differentiated him from the jerks. Half of the boys at her school seemed to be jerks and womanizers.

Great, a few days upon discovering her feelings, Bree was already comparing Conner (her crush!) to other boys, and already somehow wondering about their compatibility.

Bree rolled over and her eyes wandered idly over the numerous books on her wooden shelves.

I don't need a boyfriend at this age, Bree thought. My grades and my personal development are the most important things to me at this stage.

Yes, Bree was a sensible girl. Even if with her independence and her advocate for gender equality, she wasn't all "this girl doesn't need a man!". Bree, being a sensible person, did realize that a significant other could help her grow as a person. Bree was all about balance, so if her potential significant other's personality had distinct differences from her's, it would be good for both of them-

Bree slapped her hand over her forehead. Great. Bree, the new Romantic Idealist. She was comforted that even when approaching topics such as romance, she did so in a somewhat logical way. It proved she hadn't completely changed.

"Hey! Bree!" somebody rapped the door. "Evie and Amy just baked some cookies, you want some?"

Bree opened the door. Her middle sister Genevieve "Gen" stood there with crossed arms and sharp blue eyes. She blew out a pink bubblegum bubble then she popped it. "Sounds nice," Bree said, and the two sisters went downstairs to the kitchen together.

Bree had always thought that she and her three younger sisters were some sort of joke. All of them were blonde and had nicknames for their longer, official names. Bree's real name was Breanne, but everybody called her Bree until Bree almost thought Bree was her real name. Evelyn "Evie" was a year younger than Bree, with wavy blonde hair that she put in a little ponytail, and a heart of gold. Evie was one of the most popular girls in her year due to her friendly nature. Bree thought Evie was a born leader, a rare one that didn't boss others around.

Genevieve was a year younger than Evie, and the family rebel. Her hair was in a short bob with purple streaks, and she loved bubblegum. Gen had a thing for photography, and her room was filled with photos of various places.

Amelia "Amy" was the youngest sister, and a year younger than Gen. Bree could often see Amy's enthusiasm in her big, baby blue eyes. Amy's passion was in conserving the environment, and she owned a hamster.

The Campbell sisters were like a staircase, each one a year younger than the previous sister. Bree privately thought her parents must have had some great family planning. She entered the brightly lit, clean kitchen. Evie was busily washing cooking utensils, a few dollops of soap on her plaid red apron. Chocolate chip cookies were laid on two baking trays. Amy peered at then eagerly, her eyes alight.

"Wow, they look good," Bree complimented. "Why the sudden baking spree?"

"The boy that Amy's crushing on likes cookies," Evie explained, her back facing her three sisters. "So we decided to bake some and save some for him."

"Ooh!" Gen grinned, her blue eyes lighting up. "Aww, Amy, that's so cute!"

"Aren't you a bit too young for that?" Bree directed her question to Amy.

Amy blushed and twisted a strand of hair. "Well, you can't exactly control who you like and when you start to like them. That's the way fate works."

Bree sighed. She was the only sister who didn't have a great interest in romance, and it could get a bit unbearable in a household full of romantics. Although now, even if Bree decided to ignore her crush, she still thought it would be healthy for her to know more about romance. After all, there was no harm in being curious about a perfectly normal thing.

"Hey! Bree? Back to earth!"

Bree blinked as Gen snapped her fingers in front of her face. "Ah, I'm alive," she said drily.

Gen made a face and stared hard at Bree. "Did you just space out?" She said the last two words as if Bree had suddenly sprouted two heads.

"Are you ill?" Evie immediately asked, concern written on her face.

"No! I'm fine. I was just thinking," Bree assured them. Sure, they were sisters by blood and bond, but she didn't want to share her crush with them. One, Bree, despite being good with people, actually kept her feelings under lock and key. Two, knowing her sappy sisters, they would probably offer tons of impractical advice and say "oooh" a lot. Bree didn't want that.

(Besides, Bree was the eldest sister, she should be the one to offer advice.)

"Thinking about what?" Amy asked, eyes big and focused on Bree.

"Is it a boy?" Evie remarked teasingly, the corners of her lips quirking up.

Bree sighed. "No! I was just going through one of the Agatha Christie mysteries in my head! They're really thought provoking. You guys should really read Murder on the Orient Express instead of those unhealthy online bad boy stories."

All three of them gasped as if Bree had deeply wounded them.

"Bad boys are cool!" Gen exclaimed.

"And hot!" Evie added.

"And they're just poor, misunderstood souls!" Amy finished.

Bree made a mock gagging face. "Bad boys are manipulative and they can get you pregnant. Pregnant! An instant no-no. But yeah, I respect your wrong opinion."

Evie grabbed a towel and threw it at Bree. Bree stepped aside and the towel hit a wall instead.

"Girls! What's up with that noise!" a new voice called, and a new woman entered the kitchen. She was Jennifer "Jenny" Campbell, mother of four, and altogether a very practical and organized suburban mom.

Bree wondered if the trend of "long names short nicknames" started with her mom.

Evie gave her a hundred watt smile. "Hey Mom! Do you want a cookie!"

Jennifer had a cookie and instantly smiled. "Sweetie, this is really good. Did you use my recipe? The exclusive one I use for PTA baking sales?"

"Yeah."

Jennifer leaned against the kitchen counter. "Well, don't reveal this recipe to anyone outside this family. It's been in my family for generations."

Evie rolled her eyes. "Alrighty," she drawled.

Amy took a few cookies and delicately slipped them into a plastic bag. Then she ran up the stairs to change and went back. Bree noticed the clothes she wore were her favourite ones. "I'm going out!" Amy cried.

"To give the cookies to him?" Gen and Evie chorused with identical smirks, deliberately drawing out the "him".

Pink dots appeared on Amy's cheeks. "Y-yeah, so what?"

"I'll accompany you, Amy," Bree said and swiped a cookie. She crunched that sugary goodness in her mouth. Mmm, they taste out of this world. "It's dangerous for you to be alone. Wait for me while I change."

(Actually, Bree just wanted to see if that boy was worthy of her sister. Bree vaguely recalled seeing him, a skinny boy with a generic Bible name (Joseph? John?) around, but she never knew much first hand information about him. She didn't trust what Amy thought of him; she probably idolized him.)

As Bree dug through her wardrobe, she frowned when she discovered something was missing.

Bree dashed to her door and flung it open. "Genevieve! Did you steal my leather jacket?" she yelled down the hallway.

Gen's voice rang the corridor. "I would prefer the word 'borrow'!"

Bree grunted then immediately strode towards Gen's room. One of the many downsides of having three sisters was the constant "borrowing" of clothing (another one was the overly emotional mess that would happen during "shark week"). She opened the door with more force than necessary and snatched her jacket from Gen's wardrobe.

"Seriously, Bree, are you okay?" Gen called from downstairs. "You usually have some sort of weird "jacket radar" and sense that someone has borrowed your jacket, but it's been two days since I took it! I wore it on Friday and now it's Sunday."

That was because I spent the last two days agonizing over my stupid feelings, Bree thought, but she didn't say it. She put on her jacket in one fluid motion, and tapped Amy on the shoulder. Amy was staring at her reflection in a glossy table. "Amy, let's go."

"Do I look okay?" Amy peeped nervously.

"Yeah, you look fine," Bree replied, brushing stray strands of golden hair from Amy's round face. "I hope this crush of yours doesn't measure you using appearances."

"Oh, no!" Amy's face lit up the way one would do when talking about their crush. "He's not shallow at all, you know, the other day he said..."

Bree resigned herself to ten minutes of lovesick gibberish from her sister. She securely screwed her signature purple beanie on her head, grabbed Amy's arm, and began to drag her out of the house. "See you later," she said to Gen and Evie.

"Tell me if something interesting happens with him!" Evie waved and winked.

"I will!" Amy cried, while Bree did an internal facepalm. Not everything is about boys and romance....

***

"Conner, don't do that."

Conner looked back at his sister with a playful smirk, then back at the pile of autumn leaves on the ground.

Alex stared at him, and said slowly, "Conner, you are not a kid. You have better things to do."

"Too late!" Conner gave a gleeful shout and jumped into the pile of leaves, red and brown flying everywhere. His cacophonous laugh rang throughout the place.

"Dude!" Fred exclaimed, a rake in his hand. He used the butt of the rake to poke Conner. "This is my house and I can technically kick you off my lawn if you cause more trouble."

Conner rolled his eyes. "Aww come on, that was my pile of leaves." He gestured to two other leaf piles. "I didn't touch yours."

The trio were raking leaves at Fred's house. Fred, who was from a upper middle class family, was more well-off than the twins even before their father died. Fred's mother and Charlotte had always been good friends, and when Fred's family offered to give them financial aid after John Bailey's death, Charlotte had refused. Still, the Hayfords were of great emotional support to the Baileys, and they were forever grateful for them.

After the twins and Charlotte moved into a small rental house, Alex and Conner would go to Fred's place to hang out. After playing several rounds of Mario Kart (almost ending the decade long friendship between the trio), Fred was ordered to rake the leaves in the yawn. Seeing that they had nothing to do, Conner and Alex joined in.

Conner grabbed his rake and studied it. "You know what this reminds me of? Swords. Let's sword fight!"

Alex was dutifully sweeping the leaves. "Conner, you've had your share of being a kid today. Now get back to business."

Unfortunately for Alex, her words only seemed to have spiked something in Conner, and his eyes shone with unsuppressed excitement.

"Let's get down to business!" the boy belted out, referencing the iconic song from Disney's Mulan, "To rake," Conner tried to spin his rake, "the LEAVES!"

Fred and Alex stared at their friend with identical expressions that was mixed with shock, amusement, and exasperation.

"Dear God," Fred whispered.

"This is what I have to put up with every day," Alex mumbled under her breath.

Conner continued to leap around, leaves flying up when he stepped on them. He tried to imitate the song's music video by waving the rake, and the rake nearly smacked him in the face. "Did they send me leaves, when I asked for..." There was a pause as he thought. "No leaves!"

"Man, he's bad at lyrics," Fred said out loud.

"You're the saddest bunch I ever met," Conner sang to the leaves in a pseudo deep voice, practically dancing around them. "But you can bet, before we're through,"

"Mister I'll..." Conner trailed for effect. The boy dramatically pointed at the leaves he had just jumped into. "Make a leaf pile outta YOU!"

"Oh, wow. That was amazing," Fred said sarcastically. But Conner wasn't finished.

"Be a man! We must be swift as a coursing river!" Conner chanted, leaping over invisible obstacles. "Be a man! With all the force of a great typhoo- OW!" Conner managed to hit himself with his rake. "Erm anyways, next line... Be a man! With all the strength of a raging fire..."

Conner spread his arms out as if he was declaring to the heavens. He took a deep breath, then bellowed, "MYSTERIOUS AS THE DARK SIDE OF THE-"

He suddenly caught sight of a familiar blonde walking on the pavement. A way too familiar blonde.

Conner stared at Bree.

Bree stared at Conner.

Somewhere on a tree, a crow cawed.

"-moon." Conner peeped, finishing the song.

There was a pregnant pause.

No one knew how to react.

Conner realized Bree wasn't alone. A younger girl was with her, and he assumed they were sisters.

"Hey hey hello," Fred bounded over and practically shoved Conner to the side. "Bree Campbell!" The boy leaned against his rake in an attempt to look suave. "What brings you here?"

Bree gave him a funny look. "Oh, I was just, uh, accompanying my sister." She kept shooting stares at Conner, who was frozen with mortification.

Alex had chosen to hide behind the conveniently thick trunk of a nearby tree. I am not associated with these idiots. I am not associated with these idiots.

"I'll be... going," Bree said cautiously. Giving Conner one last look, she took Amy's hand and they walked away.

Conner's head was a whirlwind of ohmygodIscrewedupcrapcrapCRAPshehatesmeshehatesmesomuch. Did he just completely embarrass himself by loudly singing a (confessedly catchy) Disney song? The boy fell to the ground and wringed his hair, then let out a strangled cry.

"Ha, ha," Alex muttered. "See, Conner, this is why you don't spontaneously sing I'll Make a Man Out Of You in public."

***

"That guy was super weird," Amy remarked after the duo was a fair distance away from the Hayford residence.

Bree shrugged, trying to hide her pounding heart. "We actually share English classes," she stated in a way she hoped was casual.

"Really?" Amy exclaimed, and looked up at her sister. "Must be bad for you."

"He's usually not so... loud." Bree didn't know why she was defending Conner. Scratch that, Bree was at a complete loss when it came to the matter of Conner Bailey.

Firstly, there was the Bailey Twins Mystery, which was one of the most challenging things Bree had come upon.

And then, her stupid, unexplainable feelings for Conner. He kept on making a fool out of himself, was clumsy, impulsive, and painfully blunt. Why, of all people, did she have to fall for him, the class clown, the complete weirdo?

But she was reminded that he was also righteous, funny, and kind. Did that make up for his super weird actions? Probably not.

That scene she had just witnessed was so bad it was funny. Conner was a born performer even if he was doing silly singing. He was actually immensely entertaining to watch, but like most people, Bree had been shocked by him. But there was a certain charm to his childish ways.

Bree began to secretly list Conner Bailey's traits in her head.

1. His expressions are priceless.

2. He isn't a bad singer (yes, Bree was surprised to know that).

3. He makes me want to laugh for some reason.

Bree self consciously adjusted her beanie. She didn't understand why she liked... silly dorks like Conner. Maybe instead of being genetically programmed to like bad boys, she was genetically programmed to like silly dorks. At least the former sounded worse than the latter.

Well, what was done was done. She had a crush on Conner and she had no idea how to get rid of it. Might as well get used to being affected by every single thing Conner did.

What do normal people do when they get crushes? Do they gush over them 24/7? Do they send out secret love letters? Do they ask their friends to set them up?

Bree did not want a boyfriend! One might say they wanted a normal life, but Bree's wish, was quite frankly, the opposite.

Bree wanted a life of adventure and thrill.

And Conner was probably the most exciting thing that had happened to Bree.

So she had to put up with her teeny tiny crush to quench her thirst for excitement.

"Bree? Bree! Your face is red!"

Amy's voice brought Bree back to the land of living. "Really?" Bree patted her cheeks, but they always seemed warm to her, so she couldn't tell the difference.

Amy's face was full of concern. "Maybe you've caught the cold? We should go back as quick as possible."

"Nah, I'm fine," Bree gave a dismissive wave. I just caught the disease known as romantic attraction, she added internally.

"We're here!" Amy announced cheerfully. Bree stared at modern, sleek house.

"He's rich," were the first two words Bree blurted out. Bree knew Amy wasn't that shallow to like someone because of their wealth, but still.

Amy rang the doorbell and stood stiffly, shifting on her legs. A few moments later, a boy around Amy's age opened the door. "Hi, Amy," he said, and gave a polite nod towards Bree. She nodded in return.

Bree side eyed her sister, whose face had gone pink. Blushing is a common symptom of crushing, she thought.

"Honey, who is it?" a voice called from indoors. Bree assumed it was that boy's mother.

"It's my friend!" he yelled back, then quickly turned back. "Oh, umm, yeah, why are you here?"

Bree saw a weird big grin on Amy's face. "Uh, umm, I m-made some cookies but I made too much of them, and I heard that you like cookies, so I thought 'hey, you might want some' so I, umm, took some cookies for you," Amy finished breathlessly. She handed the plastic bag filled with cookies to the boy. "I, uh, hope you like chocolate chip."

Bree could sense many lies in Amy's speech. Firstly, Amy had baked the cookies for him, so him getting cookies wasn't because she had baked too much. Secondly, Amy probably knew the boy liked chocolate chip because his eyes immediately widened.

"Thanks," he said quickly and grabbed the bag. He peered at the cookies with utmost excitement. Amy giggled at his expression and Bree shot her a look.

"Y'know, you can have a taste now." Amy's smile was practically frozen in place with delight.

"Oh, okay." The two sisters watched as he put one cookie in his mouth and ate a little chunk of it.

Note to self: the boy did not eat the entire cookie in one go. Let's assume he has good eating manners.

While Bree was analyzing the boy's actions, happiness bubbled inside Amy when she saw her crush's obvious enjoyment. He finished the cookie, swallowed, then said, "This is good. Really good. You're a great baker, Amy."

Amy fidgeted with her skirt, her cheeks almost glowing at the praise. Bree was glad to see her sister so happy. "I'm not that good," she replied modestly. "I used my mom's recipe."

"Kudos to your mom," the boy replied, looking at his cookies as if they were the greatest treasure ever. It was almost amusing for Bree to watch. His eyes shone, and he said, "Is there any chance I can get the recipe?"

"Sorry, it's a family secret."

A witty comment popped up in Bree's mind. "Well, I suppose you marry into the family, you can also get the recipe," Bree remarked nonchalantly.

Upon hearing Bree, a brilliant flush spread around Amy's cheeks, and the young girl felt like she was on fire. "Umm..."

The boy seemed as oblivious as ever. Or maybe he was just a master at hiding his feelings. Bree didn't know.

There was silence.

"Uh I gotta go!" Amy squeaked. "Bye, see you at school!"

The boy blinked. "Alright, see you on Monday."

Once the door closed, Amy hissed loudly, "Why did you say that, Bree?!"

"I was trying to play wingman," Bree shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe he'll marry you because of cookies."

Amy exhaled, puffing at her blonde hair on her forehead. "But I don't want him to like cookies more than he likes me..."

***

"Wow, Conner's such an idiot."

"I agree," Alex sighed, swinging her legs from a bench. "But you weren't much better than him. Did you just flirt with his crush? That's low."

"I was just trying to to take the attention away from Conner," Fred defended himself. He was next to Alex on the bench. "I panicked."

"Soo," Alex gave him a piercing stare. "Your natural instinct is to flirt?

Fred laughed weirdly, feeling a bit intimidated by Alex. "Yeaaaaah... I guess..."

The duo had finished sweeping most of the leaves in piles. Conner was so embarrassed, he ducked into the house and would probably stay there until Bree was away from the neighbourhood, or the invasion of aliens, whichever happened first.

"Freddie, I can tell you a lot of girls don't like boys that flirt with everyone, so if you're trying to get a girlfriend, keep this in mind," Alex reminded him in her characteristic sensible way. She moved closer to Fred. "Do you have anyone you like, anyway?"

"No," Fred replied quickly, perhaps too quickly. But Alex didn't dwell on that. She hoped Freddie would find a suitable partner. She had known Fred almost as long she had known Conner, so he was kind of like her other annoying brother. "How about you, Alex?"

"No, I'm not focusing on that right now," Alex replied, her eyes following a leaf that fluttered through the air. Fred watched Alex with a small grin on his face, then spun back to the front.

"Hey, Alex, if someone breaks your heart, I got your back, yeah? Me and Conner."

"Well, that's reassuring. I'll call you if something happens," Alex joked lightly.

Unknownst to them, Bree and Amy walked past again and saw Fred and Alex talking.

Bree privately thought it was an interesting combination. If it wasn't for Conner, she wondered if the two would get along well. Fred was an infamous flirt with an enthusiasm for basketball, while Alex was a quiet bookworm.

It would be funny if they got together. Bree was sure Conner would throw a fit. His two best friends getting married to each other.

What was she even thinking? Why was she wondering about other people's compatibility with each other when she barely knew them?

This romance thing was destroying her mind.

Bree should learn to have better control of her emotions.

***

When Bree went back to school, she had a tiny (okay, maybe not so tiny) list of what she called "crush symptoms". She had gathered her list from observation, research, and (ugh) personal experience.

1. Blushing

Blushing was an incredibly common symptom. Amy did it. Bree did it too, but she was training herself to hide it.

2. Rambling

People tended to get nervous around their crushes, and when they tried to talk, their sentences usually came out in choppy and incomprehensible phrases.

3. Weird chuckling/ giggling/ any form of laughter

Bree remembered when she had laughed because of something ridiculous Conner did. She also recalled Amy's funny laugh when she talked to her crush.

4. Spacing off

Spacing off was exactly how her family noticed Bree was behaving strangely. Bree hated this. Usually, she was a great at multitasking and could think and be alert at the same time, but when it came to her sappy romance stuff, it was as if she had been disconnected from real life.

Bree was still trying to list out the symptoms when she caught sight of Conner, which immediately distracted her. Conner was staring at a fixed point while Fred was talking.

"Dude? Dude! Are you listening?" Fred lightly hit Conner on the head. He had a frown on his face.

"Yeah of course I am!" Conner replied quickly, but his mind seemed to be elsewhere.

Fred sighed and patted Conner on the shoulder. "Don't get too worked up about that incident yesterday."

Conner flushed at the mention of it. "Dude, I just can't get it out of my mind."

Bree couldn't hear much of their conversation, but when she walked past them, she could hear Conner say, "... i-it's not like I can forget about it, because I can't forget about it and neither can you because that was, uh, pretty stupid, and..."

Bree raised an eyebrow. Conner, despite being fluent and talented in writing, was pretty bad at verbal communication. He kept on repeating and used a lot of words like "uh" and "and". And did he just stutter?

Despite that, he's still kind of cute.

Bree's mind had just comprehended what Conner had done when Danielle approached her with an extra bounce in her step. "Hey Bree! They're recruiting for the school musical now! You wanna join?"

Bree smiled at Danielle's excitement. She knew Danielle liked to sing and dance, so a musical would be great for her.

"I'm not good at singing, but you are, so feel free to join."

"But..." Danielle's brown eyes was filled with worry. "This is our first year here and I don't have a lot of experience..."

"Oh, come on!" Bree said, spinning around to look at Danielle in the eye. "That's why you have to join to get experience, so you can get a bigger part in later years! Go for it, Dani!"

Danielle broke into a smile. "Thanks for being the reasonable voice. I'm glad you're always here to soothe my nerves."

"No problem," Bree replied automatically. She wasn't really aware that her "unaffected" attitude could help the often over excited Danielle. Bree went to her Social Studies classroom saw Alex was standing besides the door, evidently waiting for someone. When she saw Bree, Alex approached her and said, "I'm sorry for what my brother did yesterday. He was too embarrassed to talk to you, so he asked me to be the messenger owl."

To Alex's surprise, Bree let out a light laugh. "Oh, it's alright. It was even kind of funny, not in a bad way of course."

Unknownst to Bree, Alex was secretly observing Bree to see what kind of person she was. "Hey, Bree, I heard from other classes that we have a two member project for Social Studies, soooo do you want to work with me?"

Saying that was a huge leap for Alex. She never had many friends, and she avoided talking to most people. But from what she'd seen of Bree, she seemed like a nice intellectual. Besides, Alex knew Bree was good at Social Studies. And Alex didn't want to be paired up with a random person.

(Secretly, Alex also wanted to see who Bree was for herself. Maybe she could somehow introduce him to her brother and make them friends.)

"I'll be more than happy," Bree agreed readily.

Alex grinned, and Bree idly thought that her smile and Conner's were a bit similar. "Great!"

A few periods later, Bree went to her English class early. Bree sat down, put her earplugs in, and revised the materials while students filed in the classroom.

Bree suddenly felt something buzzing on her right side, almost like the way her hair reacted to static. Bree gave the door a side eye and unsurprisingly, Conner was there. Bree was a little smug of the fact that she could sense Conner and his aura, even if it was just a few seconds before everyone saw him.

Conner looked up and the two made eye contact. Suddenly, Bree liked it when Conner had messier hair. It seemed more, well, Conner. His imperfections were part of his charm too. Bree could feel his bright blue eyes staring into her soul, and she self consciously turned away. Her heart was thumping and there was that annoying fluttery feeling inside her again.

Calm down, Bree, the girl ordered. Bree went back to her books, but this time, she didn't wear her earplugs (yeah, she wanted to eavesdrop on whatever conversation Conner would have. It wasn't really eavesdropping if he was talking in the middle of the classroom, but just saying).

Some other boys were talking about soccer and sports. Conner joined in by adding his comments on some soccer team Bree didn't recognize.

Conner's loud laughter sounded out of nowhere, and Bree wrinkled her nose. His laughter didn't seem genuine. It was that kind of fake laughter you made when you wanted to appease someone. Who was he trying to appease, she didn't know.

A few moments later, class started. Bree forced herself to focus instead of thinking about Conner. Ms. York announced that they had a sudden oral exam, and they would have to come up with a two minute speech within five minutes. Everybody groaned, and Bree was thankful for her quick brain. She silently wondered how the stammering and stuttering Conner would fare. She knew they had an oral report at the beginning of the year, but Bree hadn't been really paying attention to Conner back then.

To Bree's pleasant surprise, Conner was actually doing good. He could entice the audience easily and like Bree had thought, he really was a natural performer. Bree found herself being drawn deeper and deeper, like a moth attracted to a flame. Except this time, it wasn't because of the Bailey Twins Mystery, it was because of Conner and who he was.

To maintain eye contact (and to prevent the deduction of points), Conner regularly looked at the class and his teacher. And one point, his eyes swept over Bree's, and Bree felt a delicious little jolt of electricity. And Bree swore that Conner's face was a bit redder than it was when he began his speech.

The class politely clapped after Conner had finished. Bree turned back to minding her business, but a realization struck Bree like a lightning bolt. The puzzle pieces began to connect and Bree felt that wondrous thrill again, the one she felt when she was reading mystery novels, the one that made her blood go alive.

Conner hadn't been listening to Fred earlier because he was spacing off.

Conner had been rambling when he talked to Fred.

When he and the boys were discussing sports, Connee had laughed weirdly.

And finally, just now, he had blushed.

Conner had displayed all four of the "crush symptoms" Bree had listed out.

In a single second, the shining conclusion dawned on Bree.

Conner had a crush on someone.

And Bree didn't know how to feel about that.

***

A/N: I created some OC profiles for Fred and Danielle! You can see them at the beginning of this book. I'm kind of proud of them, so please check them out! XD

This story is quickly spiraling in the "crack" direction. And everyone is observing each other. Bree, Alex and Fred observing Conner, Alex observing Bree, Bree observing Amy's crush, Conner unknowingly observing Bree. Maybe I should rename this "False Observations Turned Real" lol. Also, the line "his imperfections were part of his charm to" was totally stolen from Assassination Classroom. Yuuup.

Thanks for your support! I love you all! :)

(Also the Fredlex undertones are strong here lol.)

A little feedback would be nice~~ but thanks for reading anyways!

(Okay I don't usually insert bolded lines into story text but I'm kinda out of options there so please bear with me, I don't do that often.)

One last note: I'll be away for a week, so I won't be able to reply to your comments (if any) soon.

12/8/2018