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A/N: Things are about to start picking up for Will and Oliver. Yay!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Alright class, you're first oral assignment is a role play," Madame Batonvert, the French teacher, announced to her group of students. It was last period Friday, so no-one was paying all that much attention to her.

"It is in pairs and it has to be about your childhood. I want you to use all the different past tenses we've learnt," Madame Batonvert continued, writing instructions on the board. "Just because it's the first assignment, this does not mean I want mediocre performances. I want creativity, not only in what you write but in the performance as well," she warned, a stern look fixed on her face as she looked at the eight students in front of her. The students nodded slowly to show they understood before splitting off into pairs.

Oliver looked next to him where Will was sat, drawing random shapes in the margin of his page. Oliver cleared his throat to get the other boy's attention before asking to pair up. Will slowly looked up from his page to Oliver, looking a bit spaced out. Will felt a bit embarrassed since he was still hung up on the interaction they'd had at the party the week before. It was irritating Will that he was still focussed on it but he couldn't let it go for some reason. Why was Stacey hanging off Oliver bugging him so much? Will knew it wasn't a crush. Sure, it had been a fair while since he'd last had one, but from what he could remember, a crush didn't feel like this. Will mentally sighed, aware that he was totally overthinking this. And he shouldn't feel embarrassed either, it's not like Oliver could read his thoughts.

"Ahh, yeah sure, I guess," Will finally replied before clearing his throat awkwardly.

"Do you have any ideas?" Oliver asked, deciding to get this brainstorming rolling.

The two boys tossed ideas back and forth for the rest of the lesson, trying to think of something impressive and creative. Sadly, nothing they came up with were either of those things.

"Little kids playing and we talk about what we like?" "Nope."

"Telling a therapist about our childhood?" "No."

"Granddad telling his grandkid about his childhood?" "Nah."

Both groaned in frustration as the bell rang. They had spent 45 minutes and hadn't come up with a single idea they could use. "Well, a draft isn't due for a week so we have some time," Oliver sighed as they began to pack up.

"Yeah, we can brainstorm more ideas over the weekend and we can decide on one on Monday, yeah?" Will suggested, standing awkwardly behind his desk. They had both finished packing but neither one of them made a move to leave.

"Ahh yeah, sounds good, man," Oliver smiled awkwardly, scratching behind his ear. Will wasn't sure why it was awkward today. Most days, they were relaxed, as if they'd been friends for ages, but now it felt like they were two kids being forced to play with each other by their mums.

Will decided it was probably best to make a move to leave. "Have a good weekend," he said, giving Oliver a quick, small wave goodbye before walking quickly out of the classroom.

Will raced to his locker and quickly shoved his books into his bag. Will thought that all the awkward tension he was feeling would leave once he was in Emmie's car. That wasn't really the case though as he took a deep breath in the front passenger seat. 

Why can't I shake this? Will thought. His annoyance was steadily growing, so Will let out a growl to vent some of his frustrations.

"What's the matter with you?" Emmie asked from the driver's seat, confused by her friend's behaviour next to her. Will glanced at her and shook his head, signalling that she should just drop it. So that's what she did, turning on the radio to fill the silence in the car as they waited for the others. Emmie began to hum along and Will started to loosen back up, not as tense or frustrated anymore.

Will and Emmie were singing along loudly to the radio when Cash and Kimi joined them in the car. "What's going on here?" Cash asked with a raised eyebrow.

"We're having fun," Will sang in reply in tune with the song.

"Yeah, it's Friday!" Emmie whooped. Cash and Kimi shook their head at their friends' craziness before joining in as well. Students walking past the car looked at them as if they were crazy. They should've felt embarrassed, but they didn't care.

Liv jumped in the car around ten minutes later, completely unfazed by her friends' antics and joining in herself. As the song came to a close, Emmie turned the volume down. "What took you so long?" Em asked Liv, as everyone shifted their attention to their tardy friend.

Liv blushed slightly. "Tyler and I were just finishing up the details of our date for Sunday," she said shyly. This was something Will had never really seen from his friend. It was kind of weirding him out. "Plus, people kept talking to me because I'm just so fabulous," she added, diva mode in action with a hair flip and an eye roll.

"Oh my, how blessed we must be to be allowed to bask in your marvelous presence!" Will played along melodramatically. Kimi and Cash pretended to be awestruck by Liv. Emmie laughed from the driver's seat.

"How am I friends with you idiots?" Will heard her mutter jokingly.

Liv gasped dramatically. "Did you just call me, Ms Fabulosia, an idiot?!" she exclaimed in faux-indignation. They all laughed and Liv dropped the diva act, shaking her head at how stupid she was being.

"Ms Fabulosia?" Will asked once they had all calmed down.

"Well, the first names I could think of were Ms Fabulosia and Diva von Fabulous, but I thought Ms Fabulosia was better, so I stuck with it," Liv shrugged.

"I would've gone with Diva von Fabulous," Emmie piped in before asking where she was driving to for tonight. Kimi volunteered her house for the night. Apparently her parents had flown to Vietnam that morning so there would be no-one home.

Everyone stayed quiet after that, listening to the songs quietly playing from the radio as they drove to Kimi's house for another Friday night sleepover.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Several hours later, the group was sprawled out on Kimi's lounge room floor, watching Mean Girls and eating pizza. Emmie was in the kitchen trying to wash out the spice from the jalapeño pizza Kimi and Will had dared her to eat. Emmie had absolutely no tolerance for spicy food, so why she thought the jalapeños would be alright was beyond Will. Emmie came back into the lounge room with a glass of water. "I'm never listening to you two ever again," she told the two as she sat on the couch. Kimi looked up at Emmie from her spot on the beanbag, half-eaten slice of pizza in her hand.

"It's not our fault! It's not like we forced the pizza slice down your throat," Kimi replied, rolling her eyes before returning her attention back to the movie and taking another bite of her pizza slice.

"Boo, you whore," Liv quoted randomly in the ensuing silence. Everyone looked at her.

"We're not at the part yet, Liv. It's still Halloween, that's not for like another 20 minutes," Cash said, looking at Liv as if she was crazy.

"I know, it's just my favourite line and I felt like saying it," Liv shrugged. She opened her mouth to continue talking, but was cut off by Will's phone, vibrating loudly on the coffee table. Cash quickly paused the movie as Will picked up his mobile and looked at the Caller ID. Just a random number. Will frowned at his phone, confused why a random number was calling him but pressed answer button anyway.

"Hi, is this Will?" a random guy asked once Will had put the phone up to his ear. It was a voice that was familiar but one Will didn't really recognise. The girls were mouthing at him, asking who it was, but Will could only shrug in return.

"Uhh, yeah, it is Will. Who is this?" Will asked.

"Oh, yeah, sorry, duh. This is Oliver, probably should've started with that, shouldn't I? I got your number off of Liv earlier," he answered.

"Oh hey, Oliver, could you give me a second?" Will replied, covering the bottom of my phone so that the other boy wouldn't hear what was going to happen next. Liv's eyes widened at the mention of Oliver's name. "Why did you give Oliver my number?" Will asked in a forcedly normal tone.

Liv put her hands up. "He asked for it, it's not like I went up to him and was like 'Oh hey, Oliver, here's Will's number.' He said something about a French assignment or something. I don't know. I was in a hurry so I just gave him the number and left. He'll probably tell you what he wanted the number for, seeing as he's on the phone now," she stated, motioning at the mobile in his hand.

Will scrutinised her for a little bit before relenting. If it were a normal day, he wouldn't have found this an issue but given how weird he had felt earlier, he was still a bit on edge. Will sighed before putting the phone back up to his ear.

"Hey, I'm back. What did you want to talk about?" he asked, hoping Oliver was still on the other end of the line.

"I was thinking about that French role play we have to do and I'm kinda freaked out by it 'cause we don't really have ideas and I'm coming up blank. So, I was wondering if you could come over to my place so we could work on it tomorrow. I know it's really short notice but it would mean a lot if we could get this all sorted. Please?" Oliver asked, almost begging.

Will milled it over before deciding to just get it over with, ignoring the odd knot he felt in his stomach. "Umm, yeah sure, that will work for me, I guess," he replied reluctantly.

"OK, cool. I was thinking around lunchtime?" Oliver asked. Will agreed, but only if he organised something to eat for lunch. "Yeah, I can do that. I'll text you the address. Thanks so much, Will, I'll see you tomorrow!" Oliver finished.

"No problems, I'll see you tomorrow," Will replied and hung up, the girls' expressions changing from puzzled to shocked.

"You're seeing him tomorrow?!" Cash asked, surprised. "And for lunch?!" Will nodded, confused as to why they were acting like this. "Dude, every girl in our year would kill to hang out with him and you get to spend tomorrow afternoon with him!" she exclaimed.

"Calm down, Cash, we're just doing an assignment," Will said, putting his phone back on the coffee table and taking a slice of pizza out of one of the boxes.

"This is so cliché," Kimi piped in. Will look at her questioningly. "Seriously, you'll start working on the assignment and then something happens and then there's sexual tension. After that, you kiss and by the end of the afternoon, you've got a boyfriend. Such a cliché," Kimi stated as if it were so obvious.

"You really need to stop with all the romance novels, Kimi," Will replied, shaking his head at her. Kimi pulled a face at Will in return. "Seriously guys, I have no interest in this guy, stop fixating on it." The girls all gave him a sure, sure look but Cash resumed the movie, ending the conversation.

But is Kimi right, though?

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