"Girl, you should have seen the look on her face when Emily told her that!"

My sister Cathy said as she talked on her phone.

I had agreed to let her study in my room because the AC in her room wasn't working. Which I kind of regretted that decision because the girl had been gossiping on her phone for about 15 minutes non-stop about who did what.

She sat cross-legged on my bed with several different untouched books and her phone in her hand while I sat on my desk that faced the window. I took my purple beanie off and ran my hands through my hair. I couldn't focus at all. I finally turned to face my loud annyoying little twelve-year-old sister.

"Cathy," I said, gritting my teeth.

She glanced at me, "Hold on one sec, Emma," she said to her phone then looked back at me. "Yes?" She asked looking irritated as if I was the annoying intruder. My sister Cathy was one year younger than me. She had long wavy brown hair, green eyes and a very freckly face.

"I can't study. Lower your volume, please. " I said, smiling in a rude kind of way.

She rolled her eyes. "Fine," she said and continued talking in the same tone. I fought the urge to throw my book at her. I exhaled sharply through my mouth causing my pink high-lighted bangs to fly a little. Ugh. Sisters.

Reluctantly, I turned around to continue trying to read my lesson. Which I failed at doing so due to disturbing external factors. I sighed. There was no convincing Cathy to shut up. I decided to put on my earbuds and try to ignore her. Music always helped me concentrate. I put my favourite playlist on shuffle and started solving my Geometry homework.

The angleic voice of Billie Eillish filled my ears:

I've been watching you
for some time
can't stop staring
at those ocean eyes....

Before I knew it, a virtual image of a certain person with certain ocean eyes popped in my head. I was looking through the window in front of me, but it took me a moment to realize that I wasn't looking at anything in particular. My mind was buzy with that picture that had suddenly invaded my brain.

Ocean eyes. Sly smile. Left dimple.

I shook my head. What was I thinking? I was absolutely not thinking about some random boy while staring out the window!

I had heard that song a million times. Now however, it felt like I was listening to it for the first time....

I changed the song. I needed to focus. No more distractions. Surely there aren't any other songs about blue eyes, right?

Taylor Swift came on. Oh, I loved Taylor. I started humming to the song as I tried to find the answer to the missing angle in the issoceles triangle in fornt of me.

Ocean blue eyes,
looking in mine
I feel like I might
Sink and drown and die

I jolted and sat upright in my chair. What? Again? Really? This was stupid. It's like my phone knew I was trying not to think about a specific boy with blue eyes. Not that I was thinking about him or anything! It's just... ugh whatever!

I changed the song for the second time. Selena Gomez came on. Perfect. I sighed with relief. I don't think Selena has any songs about blue eyes-

In your eyes, there's a heavy blue,
One to love, and one to lose.

Frustrated, I took my earbuds out of my hear and shut my book closed. This was beyond ridiculous! Why did every song remind of him all of a sudden? It's not like he's the only person in the world with blue eyes! Then why did his picture keep popping up in my head? Gosh, I barely even knew him!

"Bree?"

I turned around. Great, Cathy had suddenly decided to hang up and notice my awkward behaviour.

"What?" I asked impatiently.

"Are... you alright?" She asked with a raised eye brow.

"And why wouldn't I be, Catherine?" I asked as I blew my bangs out of my face.

"Well, you kinda look out of order," she said scratching her forhead.

I sighed and turned my back to her again. "Nothing. It's just Math..."

"But you love Math..."

When did my sister decide to be smart? I thought she wouldn't pick up on my lie. And I knew she wasn't gonna wave it off. She'll keep pressing me till I tell her what's going on.

I exhaled. And turned to face her again. "Fine," I finally said. "It's not Math that's bugging me..."

"Is it a boy??" My sister asked a bit too enthusiastically. A big smile on her face.

Her question took me off guard. I looked shocked for a milli second but I instantly tried to cover it up with a poker face.

To my terrible luck, Cathy noticed. Aw man. I wanted to face-palm myself.

"Ooooh," my sister teased. "Bree thinking about a boy? What has gotten into the world?!" She laughed.

"It's not what you think!" I quickly said. "It's just that...." I muttered.
"I... I don't know what it is." I sighed in defeat.

And I was being honest. I had no idea why he was stuck in my head. We hadn't even interacted that much. Only twice. Yet there he was, those annoying beautiful blue eyes of his kept appearing in my mind. I hated that.

Thankfully, Cathy didn't mock me. She knew it wasn't a funny matter to me.

"What happened?" She asked gently, looking genuinely concerned.

You see, my sister could be a pain in the butt sometimes, but other times she was understating and supportive. That's probably why I have been tolerating her for twelve years I guess.

"I saw him twice. But I can't shake him off for some reason that I can't quite process or figure out," I said looking at the ground.

"And it's driving me insane!" I continued, balling my fists in frustration. "Why and how would you think about someone without knowing the reason?" I asked.

Cathy smiled. "That's beacause you can't know it. You feel it." She said.

I gave her a silly look. Seriously? What in the world was that supposed to mean?

I must have looked very confused because she rolled her eyes.

"That's your problem, Bree!" She said pointing at me. "You like to solve every problem with your mind. The world is not Math, jeez!"

That caught my attention. I raised an eyebrow. "Meaning?"

"I'm saying," she said as she opened a bag of chips. "That you like him."

The world seemed to pause.

I stared at nothing as what Cathy just said started to sink in. Millions of questions floated in my brain.

Like him? Like, romantically? Or just in a friendly way? Could it be possible I had a romantic interest in a boy I'd just met? Is that even possible? If so, why? And how??

"Bree? Bree!" Cathy said as she snapped her fingers in front of me. "You there?" She asked, her mouth full of chips.

"Why?" I asked.

"Why what?"

"Why would I like him?"

She chuckled. "Well, I don't know, Bree. Maybe you should ask yourself that."

She's right. Stupid question. I didn't have the answer to it though. It was like a math equation with an error. You can't solve it, no matter how many algorithms you tried.

"Well, you're wrong then," I finally told her. "If I don't know why I like him, then that means that I simply don't like him." I stated nodding to myself. Yeah that was definitely not the case. My sister just likes gossip too much she probably made it up to go tell her friends, Bree finally likes someone!

"You sure?" Cathy asked, wiping her mouth from chips' crumbs.

"Absolutely," I said confidently standing up. "I had just met him. There is no possible way I have insterest in him. It doesn't make any sense." I said heading for the door. I had to go grab something to eat. All this drama has tired my brain out.

Cathy shrugged. "Whatever you say, sis," she said brushing her wavy brown hair out of her face. "Sooner or later, we'd be sitting together in the same room again and discussing your first date with him." She winked at me.

I rolled my eyes and exited my room.

Hah. Like him.

How pathetic of an idea is that?

I literally know nothing about him except for his name. I definitely didn't like Conner Bailey. At least not in the meantime.

Why do you keep thinking about him then? A voice in my head said.

That was the one stupid question I couldn't answer....

~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~

A week had passed since school started. I had seen glimpses of the suspect known as Conner Bailey, but never properly interacted with him ever since our last time. You can say that I had kind of intentionally avoided him. All that stuff my sister had said made me so confused and created different possibilities and outcomes in my head. You can also say I was a little scared to interact with him again, for the fear that Cathy's theory might be true. The idea of liking a boy in my class was horrifying for me. Not that I'm against love or anything, it's just that, love is a very complicated thing. And I wasn't sure I was ready to deal with something like it just yet. Love can be distracting. It can be misleading. It can be harmful. It can be- well, you get the point.

I was heading for the girls bathroom on a normal Monday during lunch break. As I got closer, I heard two voices: one belonged to a female, the other to a male.

Now that was wierd. Boys don't hang out that close to the girls restroom. The boy and the girl seemed to be in an argument.

Hmm...

The bathroom was on the right hallway. So, not able to help my curiosity-and I'm not proud of it- I peeked a little on the right, to at least get a glimpse of what was going on. Hey, I was headed for the bathroom anyway, so that doesn't really count as eavesdropping...right?

To my surprise, it was him. It was Conner Bailey. He was sitting on a bench in the hallway that was opposite from the girls bathroom. And he had his arm around...

A girl.

I'm not sure how I reacted, but I think a frown formed on my face. You're asking, why? No idea.

I didn't know Conner had a girlfriend. That was definitely a surprise. Or maybe she wasn't his girlfriend? Stop jumping into conclusions, Bree. My inner self scolded me.

And so what if she was? It's not like I care.

I tried to look closely. The girl put her face in her hands. She looked like she was crying.

And Conner was trying to comfort her.

Again: I don't care.

I hadn't noticed how similar the girl's hair color was to Conner's though. Strawberry blonde...

"Aw come on, Alex! It's just a B plus for God's sake! Wanna take a look at my grades?" Conner said to the girl impatiently.

The girl finally lifted her head up and I took a look at her face. Something in her face instantly struck me.

Ocean blue eyes...

Identically similar to Conner's...

"Y-You don't understand, Conner!" She said wiping her tears. "I had spent three whole days studying for that test! I had short hours for sleep! I should have got an A plus! This isn't fair!" She cried.

Conner sighed. He looked like he tried to take the girl seriously but failed. "Alex,", he said. "I totally don't blame you for crying like that. Last time I got a B plus, I cried too."

The girl-who was called Alex- looked surprised. "Form sadness?" She asked.

"From happiness." Conner replied with a smirk. The girl slowly smiled too.

"That's not funny, Conner," she said. "B plus isn't a very good grade."

"You know what's funny then?" He asked. A very big sly grin on his face.

There it comes, I thought.

"What?" Alex asked.

"I once got an F in an Algebra exam. The teacher asked us to make our parents sign the exam papers and then return them back. You know what I did?" He asked, still grinning.

Hesitated, the girl asked, "What?"

"I returned my paper back to him with Mom's signature and all." He said calmly. "But I also added three more letters next to "F" before I gave back it to him,"

I bit my tongue to keep myself from laughing.

The girl put her hand over her mouth. "Conner! You did not!" She said, looking horrified.

Conner put his hands up defensively. "Woah, don't worry, it wasn't anything dirty!" He said, which definitely meant that it was dirty. I shook my head. Oh Conner.

The girl put her hand down and slowly asked, "Was that why you got detention for three days?"

Conner, smiling again -as if he was proud or something- nodded, "Yup."

Alex harmlessly punched his arm. "Conner that's horrible! How can you ever do anything like that?" She reproached him. The way they both talked to each other. It was like they knew each other for very long.

Conner rubbed his arm where she had punched him. He was trying so hard not to laugh. "Admit it though," he winked. "It was smart," he said.

"It's not!" She said, still looking shocked. "Why did you do it?"

"Well, that guy," -I guessed he was referring to the teacher- "he always said I was good at nothing and will never succeed in anything in my life. All because I wasn't good at stupid equations." He snorted. "Like, seriously, Do they ever stop you on the road and ask you to find x in a math equation along with showing your license?" He asked sarcastically. "He humiliated me and you wanted me to shut up?" He asked her, still smirking.

"But still," Alex said, not looking convinced yet. "There are other ways better than...that,"

Conner smiled again, his dimple showing, "No there aren't,"

"I still can't believe you did this..." Alex said this time forcing a smile back, which eventually turned into a grin that eventually expanded into laughter.

"There it is!" Conner said and put his arm around her again. "It takes forever to make you laugh!" He said, laughing too himself.

"I'm not an easy one," she said smugly. Conner rolled his eyes. "Yeah yeah sure, sis" He replied sarcastically.

Hold on...sis?

How could I have been so stupid? The way they both talked to each other, the way they reprimanded each other and the way they both resembled each other. Of course they were siblings! I was embarrassed. Even though there was nobody to be embarrassed in front of. I actually kind of felt relieved at the fact that they were siblings. So they weren't in a relationship or anything. Why that made me relieved? Still, no idea.

Alex stopped laughing after a short while and stared blankly in front of her. That caught her brother's attention. "What's wrong?" He asked.

She inhaled slowly. "I know you think I become a little...overreacting when it comes to grades..." Alex said, her tone so low and hurt. "It's just that... well, you know I don't have that many friends here. So I-I've got nothing really to look forward to or be excited about when I go to school except for studying," she hesitated. "Getting good grades makes feel a little bit good about myself. It's the only proof for me that I'm not a failure at everything... because I'm definitely a failure at...socialising." Her voice broke and her eyes started tearing up again. I started to feel like an intruder. I shouldn't be listening to this conversation. I was about to turn and leave, but Conner's response to his sister stopped me.

He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly. Gently stroking her hair. "Never say that about yourself, Alex," he said gently. "You're smart, funny and very admirable." It was surprising how his tone changed too. Conner, the guy who was being all silly and sarcastic just a moment ago, was suddenly gentle and reassuring. His voice sounded deeper when he talked like that.

"And I'm your biggest admirer, Alex." he kissed the top of her head. "You're just in the wrong environment." Conner said.

Alex smiled through her tears and hugged her brother back. "I love you so much, Conner," she said.

"And I love you too, Alex,"

That was enough. I had already invaded too much of their privacy. I immediately turned and left. I had even forgot that I needed to use the bathroom.

On my way to the school cafeteria, I couldn't stop thinking about what I saw. That scene was like a fantasy. It was a rare scene to watch. Definitely wasn't something I saw everyday...

I'm your biggest admirer, Conner had said.

He treated his sister like a princess. No, a queen. He cared so much for her. He tried his best to make her laugh. He tried his best to make her feel better. He... he did everything he could for her. Even though I'd only seen them together once, but I could already tell how much Conner loved his sister. The idea that a brother could care so much about his sister made me wish I had a brother myself. But I doubted he would be like Conner.

Conner knew when and how to crack a joke. He knew when and how to comfort. He knew when and how to wipe people's tears. He knew everything.

He was funny. He was bold. He was understating. He was gentle. He was caring.

He was perfect.

Conner Bailey kept surprising me with something new each time I saw him. Something that I liked. Something that made me keen on seeing more.

I spotted him again in the cafeteria. Casually laughing with his friends and making dramatic gestures with his hands and almost spilling his drink all over the floor. He laughed about it along with his friends then he suddenly stopped.

We made eye contact.

His face flushed, embarrassed about his clumsy manner, then shyly turned his gaze away from me.

Despite how funny and loud he was, he also somehow managed to be shy.

He was a perfect combination of everything.

Watching him smile and tell jokes and blush every time he glanced at me, I realised that I was secretly Conner Bailey's biggest admirer.

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A/n: Helloooo friends! This was definitely a fun chapter to write! What do you think of the idea that it was actually Bree who started crushing on Conner first? Please don't forget to vote and comment if you liked this chapter!!!

Also the songs mentioned in this chapter are: Ocean Eyes by Billie Eillish
Gorgeous by Taylor Swift
Wolves by Selena Gomez
..........
And if you're wondering, then yeah, Conner added the letters that would make the F word on his exam paper. Sorry, plz don't hate me! but I felt like it was something Conner would do lol.

Hope you enjoy!

Love y'all!💕