“Crap,” Joan exclaimed as she flipped through her notebook during lunch. “Lieshak is collecting notes tomorrow and missing quite a lot.”

“Chill, Girardi,” Grace told her, pushing her own notebook towards her. “I got all of them in there.”

“You took notes?” Joan asked, disbelief coloring her tone.

“No,” Grace said, sly smile on her face. “I copied your brother’s.”

“Hmm, what do you know, there ARE advantages to dating a geek brain,” Joan commented with a laugh, finishing off her fries.

Grace just shrugged, a hint of a smile on her face.

“You don’t mind if I borrow this until tomorrow?” Joan asked, wanting to make sure she would have enough time to copy.

“Yeah,” Grace said dismissively. “What am I going to need it for?”

“Cool,” Joan answered, relieved. “And I dunno, my brother could be rubbing off on you. Next thing you know, you’ll be drooling over Heisen-bum-somebody’s something Theory.”

“Heisenburg’s Uncertainty Principle,” Grace corrected without thinking Joan arched an eyebrow at her friend and Grace groaned.

“Just kill me now.”

<><><>

Joan breathed a sigh of relief when she finally copied down he last of the notes. She had thought that she was either going to die of boredom from having to read scientific theories and whatnot or have her hand fall off because all of the writing. She started flipping through the notes to make sure she really was done. She paused mid page turn, when a page that was clearly not Physics notes caught her eyes. Realization that she was looking at one of Grace’s poems hit her. She had almost forgotten about Grace’s hidden writing talent. Feeling a little guilty about trespassing Grace’s personal thoughts, she read it through. The meaning of the poem hit her immediately and her eyes widened.

“Oh boy,” she whispered to herself. When she had found out about Grace’s relationship with her brother, she had pretty much passed it off as temporary insanity on both sides. She had pretty much expected them to eventually come to their senses, see how wrong for each other they were, and break up. She had kind of hoped for it to happen quickly, because it kind of freaked her out. But now, she sat here with a testimony of Grace’s feelings. It had never really occurred to her that maybe they really did care about each other.

Closing the notebook, Joan rested her chin in her hand and contemplated what she should do.

<><><>

“Dude, do you have my notebook?” Grace asked Joan the next morning when her and Luke met up with Grace in the hallway.

“Uh, yeah,” Joan said, handing over the notebook while closely examining her friend. Grace just gave her a weird look and took the notebook from her.

“Can I talk to you?” Joan asked Grace. Her eyes darted over to her brother for a second before returning to Grace. “Alone?”

Grace looked at Luke questioningly, hoping he would know what was up with his sister. He only shrugged, looking as confused as she. Joan impatiently dragged Grace into an empty classroom nearby.

“Okay, Girardi. You’re acting weirder than usual. What’s up? Grace demanded after Joan shut the door behind them.

“Grace,” Joan started, but then trailed off. The last thing she wanted to do was piss Grace off, so she would have to choose her words carefully. “I totally wasn’t snooping or anything, but I kind of… well, I read your poem.”

“What?” Grace asked, flipping through the notebook until she found the poem in question. She groaned.

“This poem? You read this one?”

“Yeah,” Joan answered quietly, inspecting Grace carefully again. “You know, every since I found out about you two, I thought you and my brother were a real freak show.”

Grace raised her eyebrows at Joan, looking a tad bit insulted.

“Until I read that,” Joan finished, hoping that she sounded as sincere as she felt.

“You don’t need to make a big deal out of it,” Grace said, shutting the notebook aggressively. “Really.”

“I think you should show it to him,” Joan suggested bravely. She pretty much already knew what Grace’s reaction to that would be.

“Show it to him?” Grace’s voice raised a notch. “Are you insane?”

“It would make him happy,” Joan pressed, certain that this was true. When Grace’s expression softened at this, Joan knew she had it a weak spot in Grace’s armor. “He’s crazy about you.”

“You think?” Grace asked quietly, clearly not to sure about it herself.

“I know,” Joan insisted. “He’s probably already calculated the whole genetic thing to figure out what your kids might look like.”

Grace laughed a little, but seemed a little embarrassed by this.

“There wouldn’t be a reason for him to do that, right?” Joan asked suddenly. “Please preserve my sanity and tell me you are not having sex with my little brother.”

“What?” Grace exclaimed, clearly taken aback at this. “No!”

“Thank God!” Joan said, placing a hand on her chest in relief. Grace just shook her head in amazement at Joan’s ability to jump to conclusions. With a silent agreement, that was the end of that conversation, and they both walked out of the classroom.

<><><>

Grace sat in her study hall classroom and stared at her poem that Joan had stumbled upon. She had randomly written it one day a couple weeks back. She’d had all these feelings floating around and it was her attempt to try to make sense of them. Mad at herself for even considering letting him read it, she ripped the page out of the notebook and crumpled it into a ball. She got up out of her seat and headed over to the trashcan to get rid of the revealing poem.

Just as she was about to carelessly drop the piece of paper that held her true feelings towards Luke, the memories of all the sweet, thoughtful gifts he had given HER hit her full force. Would letting him in on the knowledge of how she felt really be a big deal after all he had done for her? He had given her a geode, a sunflower, a perfectly timed meteor shower, and bud passes. All of them so simple, yet rife with implications and meanings that touched her heart. Hand poised above the garbage, Grace stood conflicted on what she should do.

<><><>

Luke walked to his locker after staying after school to help one of his teachers out. He opened his locker and right away noticed the plain white envelope lying in the midst of his books. It had his name written on the front in beautiful, flowing calligraphy. Curiously he opened the envelope to find a single sheet of paper. It was a creamy off-white color with similar calligraphy written out across it.

Luke just gaped at the paper in his hands, not believing what he was reading. After the fourth time of reading through it, he broke into a wide smile.

She loved him.

Grace Polk loved him, Luke Girardi.

With a loud whoop, he hurried to the library, where Joan was waiting to give him a ride home. He soon reached her table, smiling wide.

“I’m ready to go now,” he announced cheerfully.

“Oh no,” Joan groaned. “Have you been drinking coffee again?”

“No,” Luke answered, shaking his head. “Can’t a guy just be happy?”

Joan eyes him and in the process caught sight of the paper in his hand. Without warning, she snatched it from him, only to be greeted with a familiar poem.

“She gave it to you?” Joan asked, grinning at her brother. “And she even wrote it all pretty. Aww.”

“You knew about this?” Luke asked, puzzled.

“Yeah,” Joan said dismissively. “I bet you wanna go thank her, huh lover boy?”

“I want to go home and put this in a safe place first,” Luke told her, gingerly taking the paper back from her.

“Okay geek boy, I know you’re eager to go see your honey, so lets get going.”

Luke didn’t argue, instead he hurried hr along even faster.

<><><>

Grace answered the door to find a smiley Luke on her doorstep. She joined outside, shutting the door behind her. She awkwardly stuffed her hands in her pockets.

“So, you got it, huh?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

“Yeah, I…” Luke said, overcome with emotion and unsure of what to say. There was a long pause as he grappled for something. “Thank you.”

“After everything you’ve done for me?” Grace pointed out, shrugging modestly. “It was nothing.”

“It meant a lot to me,” Luke told her sincerely, looking her in the eye. A smile played on her lips even as she tried to prevent it.

“That’s good to know.”

Hesitantly, not sure how she’d react, Luke moved in closer. He placed a hand at her waist and pulled her in. His other hand came up to cup her cheek as he softly kissed her. Grace kissed him back, bringing her own hand up to hold his to her cheek. As their kiss deepened, Graces other hand clutched at the front of his shirt.

“Grace,” Luke said huskily as he pulled back, knowing there was something he was supposed to remember. She shushed him and pulled him back to her again. He soon got wrapped up in her again and forgot all about what he was going to warn her about.

Suddenly a car horn honked not five yards away from them. Both turned to look at the station wagon sitting in the driveway. Joan was sitting in the driver’s seat making faces at them.

“…Joan’s waiting in the car for me,” Luke told Grace, a little bit too late. Joan rolled down her window and stuck her head out the window.

“C’mon rocket boy! We have to go home. Grace can come with if you guys want to finish your grope fest,” Joan shouted out to them. When they just stared at her dumbly she rolled her eyes. “Either way you have to let my brother go, Grace.”

Grace dropped her hand from where it still lay on Luke’s chest, and gave him a little smile before heading for the car. When Luke didn’t move right away, she looked over her shoulder at him.

“I don’t know about you, but I want to make-out some more.”

Luke was finally shaken out of his trance and gave her a cute little smirk before following her to the car.

The End