"Do you wanna go out with me?"

She stared at him. Why was he still trying so hard? And why did she suddenly feel like just saying 'yes' and let it happen; let her fall for him? But she was afraid. She knew that he would only break her heart if she opened it up and let him in. She didn't like the thought of sharing her heart. It was hers, she wanted to have full control of it. But – did she even have full control anymore?

He glanced at her expectantly, waiting for an answer. It didn't seem like he was impatient or dragging her into it, he was just... hoping. And she hated that he was so nice, because it made it more and more difficult for her to hate him.

"I don't know," she eventually said. Not daring to look him in the eye, she stared in another direction, her face keeping the typical defiant expression the whole time.

He knitted his brows. "You don't know?"

She glanced at him quickly, noticing the confusion in his face. She sighed. "I just don't. This is too fast and... I need time to think, okay? I don't even know what is going on right now!"

She nervously thrummed her fingers on the wooden ground, still avoiding eye contact.

"Well... OK," he said and sounded a little relieved. At least this wasn't a rejection, was it? She could have said no, but she didn't! This was more like a maybe, right? But if he told her this, she would probably change her mind like nobody's business, so he tried his best to hide his joy. He weighed his words before he went on talking because he didn't want to mess it up now. "We don't have to hurry, I guess. How about we go out this Saturday? That gives you five days to think about it and if you wanna cancel the date – you'll have enough opportunities to do so at school." He smiled at her, hopefully.

Finally she turned to look at him, slightly shaking her head doubtfully. "Why are you making such an effort for me?"

"Because," he said, his expression firm but soft at the same time. "I like you."

Her ice-blue eyes widened at his words. And as hard as she was trying, she just couldn't get herself to think he was lying. She wished he was. It would make things so much easier, so much less complicated. But he had managed to convince her of his words, though every piece of her was struggling against it. "Why?" was all she managed to say, and it sounded weaker than she had intended.

"You're special," he told her and he could have sworn that her mouth had twitched a little at his words. "So... sounds like a plan?" he smiled.

She eyed him suspiciously for a moment. "Don't you dare tell anyone about this!" she warned in her usual bossy Jade-tone.

He grinned. "So we have a date?"

She stared back at him, pursing her lips a little in her typical truculence, yet a light red was flushing her face. "Let me out of this," she commanded while eventually breaking the eye contact and pushing him impatiently to distract him from the fact she was blushing. Jade West didn't blush. Only stupid brats like Vega did.

He sighed and climbed out of the ship, closely followed by Jade. Without giving him another glance, she stomped to the exit of the playground, murmuring to herself. He shook his head in disbelief for her behavior, yet still smiling.

"So I'll pick you up at 8 on Saturday, if I don't hear from you till then!" he shouted after her. And he really hoped he wouldn't hear from her.

I know, I know. I haven't updated in like forever. And yes, this is short. But here's the explanation for both: Last time I updated I really was in kind of a "writing flow". So right after posting chapter 8, I wrote the bit above, planning on updating soon again. But then I got only a small number of reviews on the last chapter, even though I thought it was kind of eventful and also really long. I didn't even get half as many reviews as on previous chapters, which was, you know, kind of depressing. I don't wanna whine about not getting enough reviews (still, it's exactly what I'm doing right now, I know, but you'll get my point if you read on) because this is more about what did I do "wrong"? I mean, personally, I feel like the story is getting better as it carries on but the number of reviews gets smaller by every chapter I post. I'm just wondering why. Is it getting boring? What do you guys want to read/be included/think needs to change? Just tell me and I'll try. Today I decided to just post the bit I had already written and see if people are still interested. And to show I'm not dead... yeah.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading :)