"Isn't he so cool?" she cooed almost without realizing it as the boy she not-so-secretly admired cleared a jump shot and scored another two-pointer for the school team. Truthfully, her coos of affection have become a knee-jerk reaction weeks ago. It's a reflex that annoyed her newfound friends to no end.

One of these friends, a petite, dark-haired girl, rolled her eyes towards her. "You do know he's gay, right?" she said from her left.

"Shut up, no he isn't," she decried, her long blonde hair swishing one way as she turned her head to stare at the nay-sayer. Her blue eyes narrowed slightly. "He couldn't be." She huffed and turned back towards the game. She was able to spot him easily from her seat at the very top of the bleachers. "He's too... too..." She made little floundering motions with her hands as she searched for a suitable word. He grabbed the rebound and was dribbling it down the court. "You know," she ended lamely.

At this, the brunette's eyes rolled again. "Right, whatever you say," she muttered, her voice spiked with disinterest.

"Whatever," the blonde repeated, her affectionate mood broken. The visiting school scored two points, causing their teammates to clap and cheer in the midst of boos all around.

"But," another said from her right, her red curls framing her hesitant face, "it's true, Relena. I saw them."

"What?" Relena cried as the crowd cheered the three-pointer and brought the score to a tie for perhaps the sixth time that half.

"Told you," said the brunette.

"Yesterday, behind the pool, where all the trees are?" the redhead said softly, her face turning red. "I saw him and his friend and... well."

"Well what?" Relena half-screamed, unnoticed by the crowd. "What were they doing?"

"He was.." The redhead coughed, her face turning redder by the second. She tried to show instead by making a fist and jerking it in the air, but she could barely make it through that.

"God," the brunette griped, irritated and short on patience. "Cathy, just spit it out!"

"I can't!" Catherine protested. "It's too..." If she was any redder, she could pass for a stop sign.

"Can you at least say with who?" Relena said, a bit irritated as well with Catherine's coy uselessness.

"Him," Catherine said, a covert finger pointing to one of the basketball players as her blush receeded slighty. Relena knew him. The ubiquious best friend. The one that never leaves her boy's side. They slapped each other's hands as the last two points scored were put on the board and the ball changed hands. Even from this distance, even with the distortion of a good game, even though they were a part of a team, they seemed very involved with each other.

When one moved, the other followed. When one shot, the other covered. They played perfectly together. Almost as if it was just them against everyone else, even the crowd and the teammates that cheered when they did their amazing thing. Even Relena, in her slight swooning state saw that they were... if-y.

She wasn't ready to declare defeat, however. She was a little too headstrong to let herself be beaten that quickly. As the buzzer came on, marking the end of the game, the crowd jumped to their feet, cheering a heart-racing win.

Relena jumped to her feet as well, a determined set to her jaw, as she pushed and shoved her way down to the floor. She had to reach him. She had to know. Almost falling on the floor at one point, she made it in one piece only to race across the court towards him.

"Duo!" she called out, desperately hoping that he could hear her above the din and roar.

He turned, a surprised expression on his face that quickly melted away at the sight of her slidding to a stop in front of him. "Hey Relena," he greeted, his sparkling grin shining for her to see. "Enjoyed the game?"

She tried desperately to restrain her urge to swoon at his feet from just the sight of his smile. She barely succeeded. "Oh yes," she said breathlessly. "It was so exciting. You're a great player."

"Why, thank you," he replied, making her heart beat faster with the knowledge she made him happy.

Somewhere from up on the bleachers, her friends were shaking their heads.

From out of her peripheral vision appeared Duo's alleged boyfriend, scarying a lot of Relena's urge to swoon right out of her. Not because he was unattractive, for he was fairly good-looking - even if it's in a overly intense way. He really did come out of nowhere.

"Hi, Heero," she said, her puppy-love smile shifting to something akin to friendly.

"Relena," he basically grunted in greeting before turning his attention to Duo. "You coming?" Was that jealousy she heard?

"Yeah," Duo said, but there was something about the way he said it that Relena couldn't quite pin, and it annoyed her.

"Wait," she said, grabbing Duo's forearm as he turned towards the locker room. Her hand dropped just as quickly when she noticed the glare Heero was giving her. "I need to ask you something."

Duo gave Heero an apologetic glance which Heero brushed off with a cross shrug before walking ahead. Duo turned back to her with a friendly, if closed, smile. "What is it, Relena?"

"Want to see a movie with me tomorrow?" she blurted out, unable to keep it in any longer. "There's a great movie coming out that I've been dying to see for a while now."

"What, like on a date?" Duo asked, his large eyes growing a bit wide. He chanced a glance towards the locker room door, where Heero, arms crossed, was watching them with narrowed eyes.

"Yeah, it'll be great?" she insisted, trying to ignore the significant glance to Heero. "My treat," she added as an incentive, but even she knew it wasn't going to grab him today.

"I'm sorry, Relena," he began to apologize, his large eyes shining with genuine, if muted, sincerity, "but I can't." He place his hand on her shoulder for a moment before dropping it to his side. He turned his heels towards the locker room and made his way to where Heero was waiting.

"Relena," said the brunette as she and Catherine stood behind her. Relena didn't know how long they were there, but she was certain they knew what just happened.

"Don't even say it, Hilde," she clipped as a coldness filled her veins. Heero was saying something to Duo, his face and lips making some expression that Relena could only read as anger, jealousy. There was little evidence to the contrary.

Duo reached out and cupped Heero's cheek, his lips forming no-doubt soothing sweet things to calm his friend down. Heero slapped the hand away, his body ready to storm away, but Duo was a little to fast for him.

He grabbed Heero's arm before he even got far enough for that to be a struggle. Duo spinned his friend so quickly and pressed his lips so strongly against his, Heero was stuck there, shocked, before succumbing so easily and so publicly that she didn't even need to hear the rest of Catherine's story.

"Let's go get a slice of something," Catherine suggested, leading Relena towards the double doors out to the parking lot with a steady hand on her shoulder. "There's a really nice guy working at Lil' Paulie's that could give us discounts."

Hilde scoffed as she searched for her car keys in her purse. "You mean that prick, Chang?" They slowly make their way to the car, their banter trying to draw Relena away from the terrible realization she just lived through. "You're so obvious, Cathy."

"I'm not obvious," Catherine protested meekly, her face turning red once more.

None of this chatter was reaching Relena, however. She was still mentally there on the court, slowly trying to make sense of what she had just seen, or trying to forget it all.

All she wanted was to still swoon over Duo Maxwell and feel that they may have a chance together someday...

~~~end

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