Disclaimer: Still don't own them…

Author's Note: I tried to update whenever possible which wasn't often enough for my liking. Hopefully, I'm going to update most of my stories this week. Look out for Confidential III and another installation of Kismet coming sometime this week.

Rating: PG

Summary: How do you tell someone you like them?

Tutor Girl

In between the dozens of alien sightings and endless attempts at time travel, the weirdest thing to happen to me wasn't as unusual as my mind blowing discovery of life on Neptune. Tommy says it happens to everyone. It certainly happened to him and it even happened to Angelica. When it happened to me, I was failing Math and Tommy begged his best friend who happens to be a math genius to tutor me. I passed my math final and fell in love at the same time. Fated, if you believe in that type of thing.

I was laying on my front lawn stargazing and thinking about these things, one of my lesser extremes, when the twins pulled into their driveway. My brother was sprawled in the back of their white Maxima and I could hear them singing along to some ancient song that is engrained in their friendship.

As they got out of the car, I could see that even though they were laughing, they were slightly reluctant to leave each other. Eventually, they paused long enough for my brother to announce that he'd join them within the next hour.

"I have to take out the garbage, feed Dil and shower."

"Better make that 7:45." Phil joked. My brother has a not-so-great ability to get anywhere late. I checked my watch.

5:45pm

Lil must have checked her time too because I heard her laugh. I'd know her laugh from anywhere. Girlish giggles unlike Kimi's roaring laugh, Angelica's practiced femme fatale laugh or even Susie's deep and peaceful chuckle. I'm appreciative of all of my female friends. As we all hit puberty, the crushes that ran between us threatened to ruin our friendships and it was not impossible to understand why.

We are surrounded by four beautiful women with four different personalities, four different body types and four distinct looks. Technically, its three because each boy in our group is related to one of these four in some way.

They are laughing over something else now not ever having moved from the car. Lil was perched atop now and I could see her clearly now. I had a crush on Kimi last summer but what I feel for her is entirely different. she tutored me this spring in a brave attempt to keep me out of summer school and ever since then…

I'm hopeless.

They lingered on for a few more moments perhaps savoring one more afternoon gone as time battled against them. One more month until Phil was headed off to Rutgers, Tommy was going down south to Duke and the rest would follow Lil and Kimi off to NYU, All really good colleges especially with Chuckie and Susie at Princeton while Angelica drifting the farthest to head back for her third year at UCLA. However, the prospect of separation overshadowed the pride they should have in each other and themselves.

Lil finally put a stop to the conversation by playfully shoving my dark-haired brother to our side of the yard. "And don't take too long!" she yelled after him as he leaped over the ledge. She caught me watching him and called after him again. "Bring Dil. He can eat some of that gross duck combination that you and my twin love so much."

Tommy laughed. In several strides, he is beside me and pulling me to my feet. "Phil and I have no problems eating that by ourselves! We don't need Dil." He says this with a teasing tone. Tommy would bring me anywhere.

"And besides," Phil added, his laughter mixing with my brother's. he must have realized that I was there because he lifted his hand in a half lazy, Phil-like gesture something like a wave. "that duck platter is not gross. Right, Dil?"

I had to laugh at the way he could imitate his sister's intonations. At this point, Tommy's arm was around my shoulders and he was guiding me into the house. "Exactly!" I called back to the twins. "Besides, there's more for us!"

"That's the spirit!" Phil and Tommy cried out at the same time. Lil only shook her head and jumped off the car.

"Okay children." She smiled at me. "Hey Dil, you're in charge of your brain-dead brother. Make sure he doesn't get caught up by this image in the mirror. He grooms more than his cousin sometimes."

Tommy faked a hurt look and placed his hands over his heart. "Ouch."

She laughed. "Later boys."

Tommy tossed his arm around me again. I had to call my best friend and cancel on him. My older brother smiled. "Come on. You can call Matt and tell him something better came up while I take a shower."

7:14pm

Phil was recounting their mishaps down at the courts for a saddened Chuckie, who had a wisdom tooth pulled earlier in the day and Kimi who never offered an explanation for why she didn't join them at the courts. Susie hadn't arrived yet. Kimi's hearty laugh engulfed the entire sound of the room as Phil acted out a scene between Lil, Angie, Tommy and two tennis balls. Two bruises were visible on his tanned legs.

"Yes, well..." Angelica was saying with a smile. "Someone needed to be taught a lesson."

"I was only teasing." Tommy moaned like a child. Lil came out of the kitchen holding two make shift ice packs.

"And you said we have no aim."

"You two did not need to aim at me to prove your point."

Lil let Tommy hold his own ice packs and settled on the floor. "You should join us next time, Kimi. Maybe you could teach your boyfriend here a thing or two."

Tommy looked up from his purple bruises to meet the brown eyes of his long time girlfriend. "She's right, Kim. We're going again on Friday."

The smile on Kimi's face waned a little. Lil noticed it too for she fixed a questioning look on her long time friend but Kimi only laughed.

"Sure. I'd love to watch my boyfriend get beat up."

Susie's arrival broke the sudden silence. "So what did I miss?"

Phil and Angelica's relationship caught everyone off guard. His announcement that he would join her at UCLA was second on that long list of things I didn't see coming. First would have to be what I'm witnessing at this exact moment. Susie is perched on the counter hugging my brother and it doesn't look like the hug I gave her when she first walked in.

"They've liked each other since Tommy took that college tour." Lil blocked the swinging doors of her kitchen by standing in front of it. She grabs my hands. "Let's go outside."

I'm not sure what to say when she takes my hand so I follow her lead. Phil and Angelica are continuing their tennis tales to an amused Chuckie and Kimi. They barely look our way. Outside, the breeze is cool but welcomed.

"I never thanked you for keeping me out of summer school."

She waved me off. "I enjoyed it and I did it for you anyway."

"What is going on in there?"

"Your brother hates change. He doesn't want to hurt Kimi by breaking up with her for Susie. "

"Kimi is not stupid."

Lil chuckled. "Chuckie told me that she thinks Tommy and I are dating."

"He needs to fix this."

She shrugged. "Do you not know your brother? He will wait until things get worse before he decides to make them better."

This was true. "Who else knows?"

"Just me and I only know because I was with him on that college trip." She paused. "Forget them for a moment, what about you?"

"Me?"

"Yes. We leave soon and we all have separation anxiety. You will be left here alone so you must feel it too. Are you okay?"

I was lying on the grass thinking of this. Tommy has always been around and by extension the rest of the gang. They are all I know. "You guys are all I know."

"We, especially your brother, are but a phone call away."

"I know but it's not the same."

She doesn't deny this. Instead, she heads back toward the door. Her face falls. "Come. I think we're needed."

"Lil? Thanks."

"For?"

"Everything."

"I guess I'm more than Tutor Girl." She said in response to the nickname I stuck to her this spring. She laughed. "We can finish talking whenever you like."

She is leaving me now and I feel like I'm watching a chance slip away from me. feeling bold. I call after her again. "How about tomorrow? We can talk over pizza."

"Are you asking me out on a date?"

"It's only a date if you want it to be."

She laughed at my vague answer. "I'll let you know tomorrow."