When the math textbook hits me in the head once, twice, and then a third time, probably hard enough to give a squirrel a concussion, I cannot stop myself from grinning. It is so worth it just to see those fiery sparks in Kira's green eyes.

Delia says those eyes are not green; they're breen, a perfect blend of brown and green, and they only appear to be green when Kicks is angry. I guess she's always angry with me because I've never seen them the colour my sister made up. To me, they've always been green.

"You are, without a doubt, the most infuriating human being on this planet, Ethan Fletcher!" Kira growls at me. She doesn't care that she's being loud now; we've already been given detention slips, and I'm not sure, but I think she might be mad at me about that.

Fair enough, it is my fault, after all.

"Just this planet? You sure, Kicks?"

"Ugh!" she huffs, dumping everything from her desk into her schoolbag before she hoists it onto her shoulder and takes off, storming out of the classroom, her ponytail swinging angrily behind her head.

Delia is also aiming for the door, joining the other students on their way out. She gives me a look, shaking her head, but I can see that she did, as usual, enjoy our squabble. She keeps on telling me that though she finds my way very entertaining, I need to find a better way to win Kira's heart, but she never tells me what that way is supposed to be.

I thought having your twin sister be the best friend of the girl of your dreams was supposed to be an advantage. Not really helping much so far.

"Man, that girl hates you," Barn Doraliyagoda rubs salt into my wounds, putting one big hand between my shoulder blades in an attempt at sympathy.

"She doesn't hate me; this is what we do. I irritate and annoy her; she gets mad and beats me up, and that way, we know that all is well with the world," I explain patiently, gathering my books as well. "Didn't you hear me get upgraded to "human being" just now? Yesterday she called me the back end of a horse's arse... Things are definitely looking up."

Barn laughs his rumbling laugh and pulls his bag onto his shoulder.

He's right; Kira hates me. She's hated me since the day she met me almost 12 years ago. Delia and I had been visiting our grandparents in Hummelton for the holidays and only got back the evening before school started.

It was our first day in the big school; our careers at nursery school were over. I was kinda nervous and excited. It was the first time I had to wear a school uniform and carry around a bag filled with crayons and crap. I wasn't sure whether I was going to like it much. I'm still not sure that I do... and this is my last year of school.

Deli was in heaven; she was born to be a student. I just wanted to go play in the pool at the waterfall, skip stones at the lagoon or try my new kiddie surfboard at the beach. It was bigger than my old one, making me feel all grown up, even though I was only six years old.

There was this new girl in class I'd never seen in town before, and when the teacher made us all introduce ourselves as if most of us hadn't known each other all our lives, this strange girl with her super long brown braids recited her address, and it was the house right next to ours!

I was a little pissed off because my friend Ted used to live there, but his parents got a divorce, and they moved away during the holiday. I was sad about that and hoped to get a new friend, not a skinny little girl who looked like she missed the bus to the baby school and ended up in our class by accident. She was only five years old! I was even more annoyed when Deli started bouncing on her chair next to mine, giggling happily when she heard the address, thrilled that our new neighbour was a girl.

I didn't like that. I didn't want some strange girl to take Ted's place, and I definitely didn't want her to barge into our lives and steal my sister from me.

Break time, I shoved her in a spurt of frustration (not my proudest moment), and she landed in a muddy puddle. Honestly, I didn't know that she was that weak and that she would fall. Deli usually just shoved me right back. Besides, she's a girl; I didn't shove her as hard as I could. Still, I felt really bad straight away. I've never been a bully, and she was kinda small.

She sat in that puddle, glaring at me with those green eyes and yelled: "I hate you, Ethan Fletcher!" Her eyes and her face and those words made my head and my heart feel all funny, and then Deli charged past me and helped her to her feet, frowning at me, clearly disapproving of my actions, which made me mad again. The girl was already coming between us, and I did not like that... so I announced to the world that Kira shat her pants.

Delia took her to get cleaned up and swapped seats in class to sit next to Kira, leaving me all alone.

Well, not exactly. There were many kids still sitting around me, and James Hessian, now affectionately known as Burlap, was the guy she swapped with. That was a seriously lucky break for me, though I didn't know it then. I messed with him a lot at first because I was mad at him for swapping with my sister, and, well, that's how I bond with people.

Didn't take long for me to realise that he is actually really cool and we became best friends. I guess his awesome collection of DC and Marvel comics convinced me. At first, I just wanted to spite Deli and show her that if she was going to have a best friend who wasn't me, I could do it too.

I was already friends with Lurch, Barn and Jet (known as Brian, Morgan and Leopold back then) since we were in the same pre-school, but Delia was my best friend. I did not want to give her up! Especially not to a wispy little sprite - that fell over when I barely touched her - with huge eyes and hair down to her bum.

Man, I loved that hair! It fascinated me and gave me hours of fun. It also had the added perk of being a great instrument with which to annoy Kira.

Barn, Burlap and I are the last to leave the classroom now and in the distance, I can see that Deli has caught up with Kira. I sigh, watching them turn the corner.

"If she hates you, she hates you, Bro," Barn says wisely, his white teeth sitting in his big smile, forming a bright contrast with his dark face.

"Yeah," I groan.

Jet Tremain and Lurch Dobson join us from a side corridor, ready to create chaos en route to our next class. I dodge out of Jet's stranglehold and push him off the raised path into a flower bed filled with large-leaf plants, leaving him to Lurch and Barn to save. That never works out well because he tends to drag them down with him, and I can hear them behind me, wrestling among the shrubs now.

"She doesn't hate you, you know?" Burlap says, putting a hand on my shoulder. As usual, he is calmly walking along, never ending up on his backside in a flower bed or with his shirt pulled over his head or bruised and battered, swearing revenge, curled up on the side of the walkway. I really don't know why he hangs out with us. We've asked him many times, and he always answers with something like, "I feel classy in contrast."

"She doesn't?" She literally told me that she does, in those exact words... multiple times... just today.

"No," Burlap says, and there is no doubt in his voice or on his face at all. His brown eyes are earnestly looking into mine. He is clearly not messing with me. The sun is hitting his head from behind, igniting his red hair in an orange glow that gives him an angelic appearance, as if he has a halo. Saint Burlap... or is it Saint James?

"She hates Cole," he says.

Hell, I hate Cole Sadler. Last year, the bastard broke Kira's heart and humiliated her, calling her a prude and frigid in front of the entire class. Fortunately for him (probably for me too), I wasn't in class at the time and only heard about the incident afterwards, and he was going around telling rude stories about her. All that just because she didn't enjoy him turning into a friggin' octopus on their very first date.

I wasn't sure what had happened at the time; I just got a call from Deli that Saturday night while I was hanging out with my friends, telling me to find Kira in the street outside the cinema. I took care of her, tried to cheer her up and gave her a lift home on my bike, and she was crying against my back the whole time. I was so angry; I wanted to kill the bastard... any bastard... I didn't know which bastard or what for until that Monday when he insulted her in front of everybody, and I finally heard the whole story.

I gave him a very convincing lecture on how to treat girls and how not to treat them, using his skateboard as a show-and-tell tool... I showed it to him... multiple times... all over his body, and told him that next time, I was going to feed it to him. Since then, he has avoided me (and Kira) like the plague.

"Obviously," I say, not sure what Burlap's point is, wishing he didn't say the guy's name; I still get mad when I hear that name.

"She doesn't treat you the way she treats him," Burlap explains. "Have you seen the way she treats him?"

"No," I frown, unable to recall even one interaction between them since the incident to compare with how she treats me.

"Exactly," Burlap grins. "He doesn't exist for her anymore. She never beats him up with textbooks or calls him a moron or an idiot, and she sure as hell never makes the guy any fudge. Trust me, Dude; she doesn't hate you."

I'm smiling now; the word "fudge" has that effect on me, but I'm also smiling because I'm feeling the first stirrings of real hope.

♂♀