A little humor/romance. I don't know where I'm going with it. Basically, Liberty and Toby get together to make JT and Kendra jealous. I dunno who's gonna get together.

(all those who have me on their authors alert list should recognize that this is the same as "the sweethearts". My name was being evil.)

((Here we go!!))

Oh, she was beautiful. Short, choppy black hair in a cute pixie cut, pouty lips that drove him insane, eyes darker than night... Toby was in love. He was walking on air every time he thought of her, which was often. When she smiled, he smiled wider. When she laughed, he treasured it. He loved her, he knew he did.

"Uh... Toby?" Kendra asked him, looking at him strangely.

"Yes, my love?" He asked her sweetly. He loved being sweet with her.

"Toby, are you listening to me?" She asked.

"I can hear you perfectly, my darling. Your voice is like music to my ears, and-"

"Ugh, Toby, THIS is what I'm talking about!" Kendra nearly shouted.

"Huh?" Toby was confused. Why was his angel so angry? What had he done to make her mad? He hoped it was a misunderstanding. He loved her so much, he never wanted to see her mad. His beautiful Kendra, even pretty when angry, was too important to him to lose.

"That! That whole lovey-dovey mushy stuff! I hear enough of that around Spinner and Paige! Those two, all cutsey-cutsey all over the place so much I wanna throw them out the window!" She sighed, and took a deep breath. Then she said the words Toby feared most.

"Toby, I don't think we should see each other anymore."

And that was it. She walked away, leaving him with nothing but the pieces of his broken heart.

(())

She was intrigued by him. Him and his light brown unruly hair, his eyes that always held laughter, his jokes and schemes and just... everything. He seemed so sweet when he wanted to be, and he could switch to cool, calm, suave at a moments notice. He was smart, even when he didn't want to be. She was in love. Most definitely in love.

Now all she had to do was steal his attention away from...

"Manny! Hey, Manny, wait up!" JT called, running across the schoolyard to catch up with Manny Santos, his crush since eighth grade. Liberty sighed. She watched him run, feeling so helpless she could cry. She felt like screaming, crying, and running away forever when she saw those two together. And it was breaking her heart more than ever now that JT had finally gotten up the nerve to ask her out. She said yes, but Liberty knew the real reason.

Craig.

Manny was trying to make Craig jealous.

Liberty was certain JT knew.

But it broke her heart all the same.

Turning away before she could see them being lovey-dovey, Liberty turned to the other side of the schoolyard. There was Toby, her lab-partner, sitting hunched over on a bench like his entire world just fell apart. Curious, Liberty made her way toward him.

"Hey, Toby, you ok?" she asked, resting a hand on his shoulder.

"Leave me alone." he sniffed. Is he crying? Liberty thought to herself.

She took one of Toby's arms and moved it, revealing a tear-streaked face.

"Tell me what's wrong." Liberty pressed, surprised to see the tears.

Toby wiped his eyes and looked away. "Kendra and I broke up." he mumbled.

"What?!" Liberty was shocked. "But I thought you loved Kendra!"

Toby turned to Liberty, eyes hot with anger and pain. "Of course I love her! I've loved her since the day we met!!" then, he sighed. "Let me rephrase. She broke up with me." Liberty sat down next to him, patting his shoulder sympathetically.

"Well, I guess we should both take better care of our hearts, huh? Instead of letting just anyone trample them, right?" Liberty sighed as she looked back across the field at JT, who was laughing with Manny, and holding her uncomfortably close. Manny only laughed with him when Craig walked by. Which was often.

Toby looked up at Liberty, and followed her stare. He saw whom she was staring at and laughed.

"Ah, JT. You simple little fool. Your girlfriend is staring at another guy. You've got no chance. You're gonna get burned." Toby laughed. He stopped as he noticed Liberty wasn't laughing. She was watching JT kiss Manny, and Manny kiss back, as Craig walked by.

"What?" Toby asked. Then he saw it.

That look on her face. The pain in her eyes.

And he recognized it.

"Liberty?" He questioned, but was surprised when she didn't seem to hear him.

"Liberty? Liberty, look t me." Slowly, Liberty's head turned in his direction. They looked into each other's eyes and it hit. It dropped on them like a bomb from the sky.

They were both in love. And they were both in pain.

Toby moved to put an arm around her, and wiped away a tear he saw rolling down her cheek. It didn't matter that they were at school, surrounded by their peers, and that people were probably going to say something about this. They were two people. In pain, but not physically. In love, but not with each other. In need of something, but they couldn't grasp what. All they could do was comfort one another.

Liberty smiled. "Like I said, we need to guard our hearts a little better, huh?"

Toby laughed. "I guess so." He held her closer.

Then, they felt two pairs of eyes burning into their backs. They looked at each other and turned around just enough to see who was staring. Kendra was sitting halfway across the field with her friends, glaring at the scene. JT had stopped kissing Manny long enough to glare at Toby. Both of them looked angry enough to kill.

Toby and Liberty looked at each other.

They smiled, and an unspoken agreement was formed.

"Hey, Toby, you wanna come over after school?" Liberty asked, making sure both Kendra and JT heard. Toby took the hint.

"Of course, my darling." Toby answered, again just loud enough for Kendra and JT to hear. "I would be delighted."

They both got up and walked into school, passing both JT and Kendra, hand in hand.

Oh yes. They were both in love. And both in pain.

And they were going to do something about it.