"For the last time, I'm not going to school. We're doing nothing in any class, and I have good enough grades to where I don't have to take Semester Tests, so what exactly is the point? Oh right, there is none!" Young Bryn snaps at 6 AM in the morning when LB tries to wake her up and get her to school.

"You are going to school today and that is that. You are a child, and children go to school." LB snaps right back, while trying to pull the covers off Bryn.

"Not on the last day of school until Christmas Break they don't. They especially don't if they're allergic to ruining their reputation by having to perform in pageants, and I know that if I go today, Mrs. Drisco will insist that I do perform. I'm sure she has some lovely position that I just have to perform in. It's much safer if I just stay at home." LB just rolls her eyes at this.

"You are going to school so get out of the bed right now." LB snaps back, letting her Australian accent go through, which only happens when she gets very irritated.

"I honestly don't think that this is a good idea. You see, I have to perform in this pageant, then you are going to have to come and watch me. I mean, that's what a good grandmother would do. Then, I'm going to have to invite Froghorn and Sky, because they're my aunt and uncle so they also have to come. I'll also have to tell Aunty SJ, and she will gladly come and video it so Mom, Dad, and Uncle Blacker can see it. Oh, I'll also have to tell Aunty Harper, and she'll probably insist that Hank comes along. You do know that those two are dating right? Oh my, Grandmother and Grandfather (Ruby's parents) would have to come, they'll probably bring Great-Grandmother too. And you know that they'll want to talk to you after the show; about how mother, father, yourself, and I are doing. Aunt Minny, Lulu, Amy, Nancy, and Olive will come too, since I'm their favorite and only niece. Do you really want to cause this chain reaction?" Bryn questions, not even bothering to hear LB's response before waving her off.

"Come on Bryn, you're getting up and ready for school now. You don't want to be late do you?" LB asks before opening up the blinds, turning on the lights, and grabbing the pillow off from Bryn's head when Bryn responds that she won't be going to school and that's the end of the story.

After 7 minutes, a very pitiful looking Bryn came down the stairs, and LB nearly burst out laughing. It wasn't what she was wearing, or the look on her face either, no it the fact that she had a hairbrush stuck in her hair.

"Do you need any help with that rat's nest that you call hair?" LB asks, trying her hardest to keep all composure, and when she receives the most scathing glare, she fails.

"Oh yes, just burst out laughing because I'm completely helpless." Bryn replies frustratedly, with an even more scathing glare.

"Okay, let me help." LB says, still chuckling as she moves behind Bryn and gently taking the hair brush. She doesn't yank at it as most would do, but instead gently starts making strokes from within the knot, and soon enough, the knot is out and the brush is sliding through the hair with ease. A smile twitches on her face as she counties to brush her namesake's long hair.

"You have such beautiful long curls; why don't you try to look nicer?" LB asks after the hair problem is taken care of.

" 'Cause it's awful. Dressing up is the worst. Dresses are horrid, necklaces are okayish as long as they're not too tight, bracelets and annoying, earrings hurt my ears unless they're 14 karat gold so those are out, and anything that's supposed to go in your hair is annoying and should be burned immediately. I mean, nothing is wrong with what I'm wearing is there?" Bryn states the first part with much venom, and the last part with an innocent look on her face that she must have gotten from her mother.

"Where to begin with?" LB mutters looking at what Bryn is dressed in. She has a black, long sleeve shirt that says It's okay if you disagree with me. I can't force you to be right. Black sweatpants, light blue shoes, with black socks, and a charcoal gray overcoat to put on once they go outside. "Though, the things that you named aren't the only things that you can use to dress up."

"You mean nail polish? No thanks, it affects my grip on the ball." Bryn replies.

"What about toenail polish. When dressing up you usually wear shoes that show your feet so that could work. It wouldn't affect your grip either." LB suggests.

"Might as well try it so that I can say no next time. Bryn drawls out, quite amused.

After LB grabs some of her red toenail toenail and puts it on Bryn's nails, Bryn asks a very nosy question. "This feels fine I guess. How did you figure this out?"

Flashback

"Why in the world do you make me put nail polish on you? You just pick it off after it dries anyway. Why Birdie, just why?" Bradley asks in mock humor, after he sees the nails that he spent 30 minutes decorating with only a handful of flacks of color.

"They interfere with my grip so I have to pick them off, Wonder Boy." LB explains.

"And why exactly do you make me do it if you know that you're just going to be picking it off?" He asks, shaking his head as if he'll never understand females.

"Because I like to feel pretty for the amount of time that I have them one. And I like it when you paint them since that means that you're forced to get close to me and always end up kissing my hand. And I can't paint them myself since the right hand will be incredibly sloppy." LB explains, as if she is talking to a 5-year-old since she knows that it annoys him when she does that.

"And you don't pay to have it done because..."

"It's a waste of money." LB replies back smugly.

"Come one Birdie, I, being the amazing agent and having the flawless problem-solving skills that I do, have come up with a solution." Bradley says, with his eyes twinkling out of humor.

"Sure you have Wonder Boy. I'm sure I can find some flaws in your 'flawless' plan." LB replies back, getting ready for a verbal sparring session.

"As much as I would love to do this, we're due for a meeting in 30 minutes, and I'm not sure how long I can get Hitch to stall for us." Bradley replies before hurrying off to his office forcing LB to jog to keep up with him.

"Go in and sit down on the couch now. Take your shoes and socks off too." Bradley orders when they get there, while he goes and rummages through his locked drawer of personal belongings looking for just the right thing.

"Got it!" He exclaims when he finds it and walks over to LB smiling all the way.

"What in the world are you doing Bradley! You're not going to... you are! You're actually going to do this!" LB exclaims in shock.

"Yes I am. And if you don't stop moving, you're going to kick me." Bradley replies while grabbing LB's left foot and starts to apply the nail polish.

"This is your foolproof plan. I can't wait to hate the nail polish and bash it to pieces. Also, why did you choose the color red?"

"I choose red because it stands for passion. It stands for violence, it's a bright color so it means that that person is dangerous, it's the color for warning, it mean that you have excitement, energy, desire, speed, enough strength to survive anything, it's the color for aggression and power, it also means all things intense and sincerity, happiness, and most importantly, it symbolizes love. A person wearing red indicates that the person has passion, life, and love. You have all these; it's the perfect color for you Birdie." Bradley says, while still applying the nail polish, not even noticing LB blushing when he starts talking about love. "Besides, this way I'll be kissing you cheek instead of your hand so I thought you might like this better." He flirts.

"Well if it means that I get an extra kiss everyday then I might be able to tolerate it."

"That's my girl. Now, you won't be able to wear shoes now since it's not dry yet." Bradley says doing that deep laugh of his.

"Lovely. I think that it's just an excuse to make me have to walk around barefoot and complain to you. Then you'll pick me up and carry me to try to embarrass me." LB says, slightly joking, but unfortunately she uncovered a part of Bradley's plot.

"Quite you're complaining and hurry up. We're going to be late, and some people might get suspicious of what we've been doing." Bradley states causing LB to chuckle.

"You mean all the people who have bets on when we're going to be boyfriend and girlfriend, but are too blind to see that we already are?"

"LB, what have I told you about making jokes about people who aren't as good as noticing things as us?" Bradley fakes scolds.

"Something about not being supposed to maybe. I'm always tuning out when you start on that rant thinking about all the different ways to pull you out of it, and most of them involve kissing you." LB flirts back, making Bradley go completely red.

"Aww, someone's upset. Too bad you won't get a chance to get a retort since we're due at a meeting in exactly 45 seconds so I think we should get running." LB states, before sprinting out of Bradley's office, leaving him slightly speechless, before hurrying to catch LB. Though, he figured out that when LB had her shoes off, he couldn't catch her since she could somehow run faster with them off, which may or may not have influenced her decision to walk around barefoot.

Flashback's Over

"I just picked it up along the way I guess. Let's get you to school. Wouldn't want to be late now would we?" LB replies, completely changing the subject and causing her namesake to give her a killing glare.

A long and awkward car ride to Twinford junior high, since LB lives on the outskirts of town and won't let Bryn walk to school, Bryn is still very vexed about having to go, and makes this fact very clear.

(While at school, Bryn will be called LB. With people at Spectrum, she'll be called Bryn or kiddo.)

"What'cha doin' here LB? I thought you were supposed to be at home, and not participating in the pageant." Heather, Mouse and Matthew (Someone Mouse met in law school. He was studying to be a lawyer, and took the side against her most of the time so it was enemies to lovers.) daughter, one of LB's best friends, asks when she sees LB glumly trugging into Mrs. Drisco's classroom.

"No talking students." Mrs. Drisco calls out looking directly at LB and Heather.

"But school hasn't started yet, so why can't we talk?" LB asks, knowing that if she can't win this battle herself with the arguing skills her mom taught her, that Heather will with the ones that her mom taught her.

"I'm in no interest to go into this argument with you. Just keep in quite as to not disturb other students who are trying to do something productive." Mrs. Drisco replies knowing both of these facts, and also knowing that she doesn't need to start this day off on a losing streak.

"So what were you gals talkin' about?" Dirk, the son of Beetle and Vanpona, who had a major crush on Bryn, asked, entering the class with his signature smirk.

"Nothing of your interest Dirk." LB replies cooly, and rolls her eyes. Dirk inherited a lot of his father's traits, and nearly just as many as his mother's.

"Well, now that you're here it is in my interest LB. You know, Mrs. Drisco is going to make you take the lead role right?"

"Of course I know this. She hates me, so she's going to make that have to be there by giving me the most important role. What I want to know is how exactly this pertains to you?" LB drawls out, giving Dirk her signature tell-me-what-I-want-to-know-ASAP-or-face-the-consequences glare.

"Well, guess who your male lead is going to be." He says with a huge smirk, greatly enjoying the idea of LB being forced to spend time with him.

LB, on the other hand started to profoundly curse in Latin and Yiddish, ironically the two languages that her parents don't know. "zey makhn mir zeyn mit dem khazer-khedad idyot, aun forsing meyn meynung tsu forn aoyf vi gezunt er tut arum mir ?! emetser bite teytn mir itst vayl meyn ergst neytmer kumt ams. zeyn shtolts vet zeyn der toyt fun mir, oder zeyn flirting vet zeyn der toyt fun im aun shteln mir in turme!"

(They're making me be with that pig-headed idiot, and forcing my grade to ride on how well he does around me?! Someone please kill me now, because my worst nightmare is coming true. His pride will be the death of me, or his flirting will be the death of him and put me in prison!)

"If you're going to use that language in the classroom and make a scene, then you might as well do it in front of an audience that came to see you perform instead of to learn. Here's your script, and I expect to see you at the auditorium at 8 AM sharp everyday starting tomorrow." Mrs. Drisco orders upon hearing LB exclaim these things.

"But Mrs. Drisco you don't know what I said, so this isn't fair." Bryn points out.

"Miss Crew, let me make this clear. You will be in the pageant this year, and you will take the role that I've given you, and you will get up in front of everyone who comes to see the play, and you will perform, and you will perform well. The only reason that you should miss this is if you get the flu. Oh, and if I don't have a not from the doctor saying that you were sick, you'll be getting a zero on this assignment, and be forced to participate in the Spring concert. " Mrs. Drisco stares glaring at LB.

LB sighs, knowing that this is one battle she's going to lose. She opens to see what role she has to do, and surprise surprise, it's the lead role.

LB somehow survives the boring day filled with doing nothing in each class, though when people ask her what she's doing on break, they do notice some slightly morbid answers such as "We'll see. I may be committing a murder, or I may be falling in love."

She also made a completely foolproof speech for LB when LB came to pick her up, but LB predicted this and assigned Froghorn to pick her up.

Once LB trudges into his car and immediately scowls at him, Froghorn asks Bryn what's going on. "You owe me a cat." She replies, leaving him very confused.

"Why do I owe you a cat?"

"You bet me that if LB made me be in the Christmas pageant you would give me a cat." Bryn responds, and Froghorn immediately pales, since he was quite certain that LB would make her stay home if Bryn explained it. When he discovered that she wouldn't he hoped that Bryn had forgotten, since if she hadn't he was in deep trouble. The reason he was in such deep trouble; Ruby has repeatedly told him that he was to never get her daughter a cat, no matter how much she begged, pleaded, or how much the odds were in his favor on whatever bet she was trying to get him to agree to.

"LB made you come to school even though you told her what would happen! This is great, just great." Froghorn grumbles under his breath, trying to think of ways to back out of this.

"Well, you see kiddo, I really meant that-" Froghorn starts before getting cut off by Bryn.

"But you promised Uncle Miles. So I need to tell Aunty Sky that you're trying to back out on one of your deals with me?" Bryn questions, letting the vague threat hang in the air, knowing that she's won this battle.

"Fine. I'll see when I can come and pick you up from LB."

"You know, you could always convince her that I don't need to be in the pageant. I could develop a very sudden case of pink eye."

"We both know that the chances of that are slim kiddo. Guess we'll both just have to tough it out. You with the pageant, and me with your mother's rath."

So, I have a question. I've been thinking about making a small group of Oneshots about how each of the characters would react to 2020. If I do this, I wouldn't be able to work on this until it was done, and it would probably be 5-7 chapters long. Or, I found continue and finish this, then do the 2020 idea. Which would y'all prefer?