This is another side story. It takes place a bit before the series begins to about halfway through part two.

Can't Help Falling In Love: A Fairest of Them All Side Story

When I was ten my mother died. I can remember how despondent and lifeless my father had looked. At that moment I decided I never wanted to fall in love. Not if it caused people that much pain, when they lost that special someone.

A year past. It was strange living in Lee Brock, the small town my mother had grown up in, especially since I had lived most of my life in big cities like Toronto or Vancouver. What made it all worst, was that it was even harder then usual to make friends at my new school. No one understands how to act around the kid with a dead mother. But I took everything in stride and pretended to be a carefree fun loving guy that most would like and feeling easy around. Because of that I managed to make some friends by the end of grade five.

On the surface I was okay, but inside I still thought about Mother a lot, plus I had been having this dream lately that was making me uneasy.

On the first day of grade six, I walked over to Lee Brock Middle School by myself. Lee Brock has two elementary schools, but only one middle school and one high school. My father was away on a photo shoot so he wasn't there to wish me good luck with my first day of middle school. My mother had always taken me to school on the very first day each year, even that last year when she was really sick. I had hated at the time and been so embarrassed, but now I would've given anything to get it back.

As I was feeling royally sorry for myself, that's when I saw it. A flash bright red, which reminded of the hair of the girl in my dream. I looked to see what was causing it.

In front of me, under a tree, stood two girls about me age. I only really saw one of them though. She had bright red hair, and was quite short. She was laughing about something that her friend had said. But unlike most people she laughed with her entire body. It looked so genuine and like exactly what she was feeling that, it stunned me. I had the feeling that this girl always show and excessed her emotions no matter what. I admired that as someone who pretended to be happy , but wasn't.

The girl turned around and seeing me smiled walking over to me.

"Hello. My name's Honey Fox. What's yours? Is it your first day here too?"

I was so startled that she was suddenly addressing me that I said the first thing that came to mind.

"You know, if you stand around laughing in public, people are going to think you're weird."

Why did I just say that? She's going to think I'm total dick.

She was shocked . She got over though and her face quickly contorted in anger.

"You.." She spluttered.

I laughed inspite of myself . She felt expressed her anger completely to.

"What are you laughing at? Answer me."

I ignored her and started to walk away. I turned around once and said. "Hey Fox. Just so you know my name is Chris Blevins."

"What do you mean by Fox?"

I just waved. "See ya."

"Stupid jerk!"

Days, months, weeks and years passed by. The only way I could communicate with Honey Fox was by teasing her and I could only call her by her last name. I don't why, but whenever I saw her I got nervous. Over time I resigned myself to this. Besides it was tease her . One of the few genuine pleasures I got everyday was watching her expression change from surprise, to anger and sometimes even to happiness.

She was far from perfect. She got angry quickly, was fast to judge and could be one of the densest people in existence when it came to somethings. The anger amused me, it was always so fun to see her flustered. The judgmental part made me sad, because it made her hate me based on our first encounter (not that I had exactly remedy the situation). But the denseness was the most annoying. That innocence of her's was going to get her in trouble one day. Especially since many boys in our grade seemed to notice her. Particularly Aiden Argall. Not that I was worried or jealous. I was interested in her as a person. Because I was never going fall in love. With anyone.

We entered grade nine and about month in she started to act strange. Well stranger then usual. First she went to a school dance which she had never done before, then she started hanging around with Eleanor Sauber, Esmeralda Fairfax, and Talia Alloway. Esmeralda was her lifelong enemy, and Talia and Eleanor were in a grade ahead of us. The whole thing was made weirder, by the attacks that were happening across Lee Brock and the strange girl who was saving people, who reminded of Honey and of someone else too that I couldn't remember.

That winter something else happened. Her friend Milly had started a fight with in her in the cafeteria.

"Either you take her side or mine." Milly said to the other two girls at the table.

"It's alright guys, I'll leave." Honey said smiling slightly. But as she turned away to leave I saw an expression on Fox's face that I had never seen before. Sadness.

I thought about the rest of day. I couldn't get her face out of mind. So after school I tried to forget about it by taking a long walk in the park. Halfway into park, who should I see, but her sitting on a bench looking despondent.

"Are you alright Fox?" I asked.

She looked up surprised.

"Can I sit here?" I continued.

She hesitated for a moment before saying. "Sure."

There was silence for a few minutes, before I worked up the nerve to say, "You were fighting with, Milly at lunch today."

She looked surprised again, but said, "Yeah."

"Why?"

I thought she would tell me to buzz off, or get mad like usual. But instead, she paused, her face crumbled and then she burst out. "Because, I don't hang out with her as much anymore and she thinks I'm sucking up to Eleanor. She doesn't want to be friends anymore. I understand why. Also, I blamed it all, on a person who just wants me to be the best I can be. I' m a horrible person."

I was surprised that she would tell all this to me, who she professed to hate. Her face was buried in her arms now. Looking at her I knew I had to say something to try and comfort her.

"You're not horrible. You're just human. We all make mistakes and hurt others from time to time. They'll forgive you." My dad had told me the same thing, when I felt bad about yelling at a friend of mine because I just found my Mother only had three more months to live. It had comforted me and it fit with this circumstance.

"Really?" She looked up at me for conformation.

"Yep. Milly will get over it. And if you apologize to this other person I'm sure they'll forgive you."

"Do you think?"

"Yeah. Also just try to make more of an effort to see Milly. At least then she'll know you're trying."

"That will work!" She said excitedly clapping her hands before turning back to me. "Um Chris?"

"What is it?"

"Thanks." She smiled, and I felt my heart skip a beat. What the hell was that?

"Um. You're welcome."I said blushing.

She smiled then looked down at her wrist surprised.

"Oh my! Look at the time. I have to go babysit, my brother! See you tomorrow." With that she got off the bench and started to run away.

"Um bye." I called after her. That had been happening a lot lately.

After that, even though our relationship, though outwardly the same, changed. She didn't seem to hate me quite as much as she used to, and for my part I watched after her a little more carefully. After seeing her sad face once I never wanted to see it again. For some reason, I couldn't explain I wanted Honey to always be happy.

Grade nine ended. I got a job at the smilies mart with my friend Alyssa, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that she was working there too.

Halfway through July I used my day off to go visit my mother's grave which was a weekly tradition. I read the words on the tombstone, Katheryn Virginia Blevins-Smith 1971-2003 "The Brightest Light". I wondered if those words really could sum up what she had been to my father and I. In thinking that I realized with a shot of guilt that I didn't think about my mother as often as I used. Four years ago I had thought about her almost constantly. Now it was only every so often when I saw something that reminded me of her. What had replaced in my thoughts? I stood up to go and I saw someone standing brushing off their shorts . It was Honey.

We stared at each other saying nothing.

"Who?" She asked gently.

"My mother." I said. "You?"

She looked surprised, but said. "My grandmother. When?"

"When I was ten. She had been sick for a couple of a years so we were expecting. It still sucked though. We used to live here, and Mom..Mom loved it here so Dad decided to move back here and have her buried here."

She didn't look at me with pity, which I would've hated. But with sad kind of understanding. She knelt down again and so did I.

"My grandmother died when I was eleven. She died in her sleep. I'm glad she didn't have to suffer, but it was such a surprise for us."

Her grandmother must have been an important person to her. I thought.

"I try to visit her whenever I can." She added a few minutes later.

"I visit my Mom once a week. So does my dad."

"Do you ever go together?"

"Sometimes, but you know most of the time we want to be alone when we grieve." My father had tried to be strong after my mother died and thus didn't want me to see him sad. Plus we both needed to say things to her that we couldn't say when the other was present.

"Yeah, I understand." She said giving me a sad smile.

Seeing that smile made me realized what had replaced my mother in my thoughts. Also, that I had broken the promise I had made to myself on my mother's funeral. I had fallen in love with the girl sitting across from me, against all my reason and sense.

Now, I thought returning her smile slightly. What am I going to do?

A/n: I always wanted to write about how Honey and Chris first met. Please review!