Diclaimer—I don't own anything here.

Practice

Caleb paced back and forth down the alley with his hands behind his back. His mind was awhirl with conflicting emotions. Tonight was supposed to be his first date with Cornelia. Something along the lines of a movie or something. He wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do, all he understood was that somehow he had asked Cornelia out for the evening.

"Man," he groaned to himself, pausing midway down the alley. "What the heck am I supposed to do on this date thingy anyway?"

"Plunk knows." Blunk popped out of the trash can holding up a crumbled piece of paper covered in dirt.

"What?" asked Caleb warily as he eyed the disgusting creature in the trash can.

"You kiss."

"Kiss? With Cornelia? Are you crazy?"

Blunk shrugged as he popped the paper in his mouth. "Blunk just hear what Cornelia said. Blunk thinks she wants to kiss on date."

"Yeah well, she's gonna be disappointed. I can't kiss her. That'll make everything all weird."

"Just what Blunk hears. Blunk will kiss Cornelia for Caleb."

"Oh boy," came another, more feminine voice down the alley. "You do that and Cornelia will throw a fit."

Caleb and Blunk turned to see Will headed towards them. Caleb gulped. "Hey, Will, what's the deal with kissing on a date?"

Will chuckled. "You're really in for more than you can handle, aren't you?"

"I think so. We don't date back home. We don't do much of anything really."

"Great, Cornelia's in for one heck of a surprise then." Will shook her head as Caleb made another face at the thought. He could already hear Cornelia complaining about the date and the things he did wrong.

"So is kissing important on a date?" he asked with a sigh.

"Depends on the people. Not everyone kisses on the first date. Then again, you are taking Cornelia out. Maybe you better kiss her."

"Well, here's the thing," Caleb quickly looked around to make sure no one else was nearby before lowering his voice to confide in Will. "I've never kissed anyone before."

"You're kidding, right?" When Caleb shook his head, Will dissolved into laughter. "That's great!"

"It's not that funny, Will. Kissing isn't part of my culture until after two people are married."

"Wait till Cornelia hears this. She's gonna plan a wedding!"

"Will, you gotta help me," begged Caleb as Will tried to stifle her laughter in the sleeve of her coat.

"Help you? How? Do you want me to warn Cornelia that you have no experience in the kissing department? She'll be more than willing to fix that for you."

"No! You are gonna help me with that."

"Huh?" Will's laughter subsided as she eyed the dark haired teen standing before her. "That's crazy. You don't have to be an expert of kissing for the first time."

"Do you think Cornelia would let me live it down if I wasn't?" retorted Caleb.

Will was at a loss of words. Knowing Cornelia, that's what she would be hearing about for the rest of the week, how bad a kisser Caleb was. On the other hand…no, there was no other hand. Will was with Matt. Kissing Caleb, even if it was platonic, would be cheating.

"Well?" demanded Caleb. "You gonna help me?"

"Caleb, it would be wrong in so many ways!"

"Who's gonna know, huh? You don't tell, I won't tell. C'mon, Will, we're friends."

"Yeah, but friends don't go around kissing each other for practice. Besides, Blunk would know. And what makes you think he won't go around blabbing about it?"

Blunk spoke up in his own defense. "Blunk very good at keeping secrets. Blunk won't tell anyone. Blunk stay quiet about kissing."

"Great!" exclaimed Caleb patting Blunk on the head. "See, Will, nothing to worry about. This will just stay between you and me."

"Joy. Utter joy." Will frowned but couldn't think of any excuses to use against Caleb's so called bright idea. "If I agree to do this, no one ever finds out, right? I don't want Matt to dump me."

"I swear, no one will ever know. So, what do we do first?"

"It's not easy to explain, Caleb. It kinda just happens. Two peoples' lips meet at the same time. I don't know, it's not something you can turn into a war tactic to understand. It's one of those unexplained chemistry things. Has to do with how two people feel about each other…"

"Then just show me."

"I…uh…" Will frowned but quickly stood on tip toes and gave Caleb a quick peck on the lips.

"That's it?" he asked in confusion.

"Well, no, not really. That's just the general idea. You're supposed to expand on it, but really, I think a general idea's fine."

Caleb shook his head, before placing a hand under Will's chin to keep her face steady as he slowly lowered his lips to hers. Will closed her eyes and allowed herself to be taken away in the moment, ignoring the warning bells ringing in her head. Caleb felt Will respond softly, and he gently wrapped his arms around her waist as she locked her arms around his neck. Minutes went by before the two eventually broke away.

"Like that?" he asked breathlessly.

"Yeah, something like that," murmured Will trying to think straightly. "See, you'll be fine tonight."

"Right. Thanks for the…practice…" Caleb ended his line of speaking as his lips somehow found Will's once more. Chemistry. Magic. He understood everything now.

A/N—Alrighty, I couldn't help myself. This idea has been bugging me for a while, so I decided to write it out. Hope it's good.