Just So Y'Know…
by POTR

a/n: After receiving nine reviews almost back to back from an anonymous reviewer, I got some inspiration. :)

Dedication: To Ashley, who actually joined FF after leaving me nine reviews. Just got the tenth as I added to this author's note. Your reviews made me smile and although this may not be a Nacy, I still hope you enjoy it. :)

-

Kevin was probably having the most horrendous day he had ever had the misfortune to experience. What's that you say? Nick's back-to-back bad days can't possibly be beaten? Ha! Ha, ha, HA! Don't make him laugh.

For firsties, he awoke to find that Mr. Bumble had fallen out of bed. This should have been a sign, for the bear was normally clutched safely to Kevin's chest when he woke up, with the bear's little right paw tucked under and his little left paw flopping loose. Also, the bear's sleep mask was nowhere to be found, no matter how frantically Kevin searched for it. And he did search frantically, mind you. So frantically that he woke up his brothers in his panic. Of course, they didn't see what made this so important. Neither of them would ever understand the necessity for proper bedtime eyewear. But Kevin did, and so did Mr. Bumble. And it truly was a trajedy that his sleep mask was missing, because Kevin wasn't sure he could get Stella to sew another one.

Secondly—hum? What's that? Why didn't he just crawl back into bed after finding Mr. Bumble face down on the floor? Well, you and I know well that this was a terrible, terrible omen for the worst day ever to exist, but Kevin was an optimist. Now stop asking silly questions!

Anyhow, the second horrible thing to happen that day was that Kevin's bootlaces refused to tie. They were special new boots that Stella had picked out especially for him to make up for a fight with Joe that had destroyed Kevin's birdhouse-in-progress and he was very eager to show them off at school. Not that, you know, he was hoping that a certain person would notice them and ask questions about them in that certain way that he found particularly adorable, especially when her voice got all dreamy and breathy and—ahem. Anyway.

Now, you and I know that he should have just hidden in his bunk until the sun had set on this wretched, wretched day, but Kevin did not, because he was blissfully and Kevinly unaware of omens and bad luck and the banana peel that Joe had left lying on the floor. Of course, the last caused a rather amusing and painful pratfall that he still refuses to admit wasn't on purpose. And it also led to a very wet, very cold, and surprisingly sticky bowl of cornflakes landing on his chest. And so he wore his second-favorite shirt to school that day.

Also, he noticed as he was about to walk out the door that his pants had produced a fantastic tear on the inseam very close to his zipper when he fell. He began to get the feeling that this day may not be one of his best when he realized that he would have to take off his took-fifteen-and-three-quarter-minutes-to-lace boots in order to replace the pants with non-ripped ones.

-

Biology was an absolute nightmare, for he had scattered his notes all over the firehouse floor and collected them in a frenzy without bothering to check the order and could not make heads nor tails of them when he walked into the room. He got a C-minus on his open-note test when he said that a mitochondria was a red blood cell and a chromosome had eight legs and a swollen phlorex. He only hoped to all heavens that no one had bothered to copy his paper, although he knew that Joe had been giving his answers the eye.

English was even worse, for he suddenly remembered that he had used his textbook to help Frankie reach the money jar on top of the cabinet so that they could go to the zoo and get lemon pops while they watched the penguins waddle around. That would have been fine, mind you, but the book was still sitting on top of the cabinet where he had haphazardly placed it after getting the proper amount of money for Frankie's penguin plush toy. Needless to say, the teacher called on him to read from the book and then chewed him out in front of the whole class for not having it.

He tripped in the hall between Calculus and History and went sprawling into his French teacher, Madame LeRouc. That would have been fine as well (not that he enjoyed knocking down one of his favorite teachers), but Macy happened to walk by at that moment and found Kevin laying on top of his teacher, looking very red and very scared. She, of course, took off in the opposite direction, leaving Kevin to mumble apologies in broken French and hope that the incident would not affect his grade.

Finally came lunch, what he hoped would be the one quiet time in his tiring, miserable day. But, on a day like that, what on EARTH could possibly go right?

Remembering that his lunch was still sitting patiently on the counter at home, Kevin quickly moved to join the ever-growing line of students in the cafeteria, his stomach groaning at the prospect of the school's rubbery macaroni and cheese. But what would a bad day be without terrible, horrible, icky school food?

"Kevin?" Needless to say, he was a little shocked to hear a voice interrupting his mental berating of the cafeteria's lackluster menu. He turned to find that a certain pair of sparkling brown eyes was staring up at him. "What are you doing in the lunch line?"

He smiled down at the little brunette. "I left my lunch at home, so I'm going to have to settle for caf-pizza. At least it's not as bad as Piccarillo's!" This was followed by a hollow laugh. "What about you, Macy?"

She stared up at him for a moment and, completely ignoring his question, asked, "Are you okay, Kevin?"

And this presented a problem. He was certainly not okay, for his day had started him on a steep southward slope and he was sure he would continue to slide down, down, down until he was where the wild penguins were and he was fairly sure they wouldn't be nearly as friendly as the ones at the zoo, no matter if he offered them the larger half of his lemon pop. But he also didn't want to upset Macy and she surely would get upset and possibly fawn and coo and tell him that everything would be okay; and while that would have been nice, he would rather have her fawn and coo because she felt like it and not because she felt sorry for him.

He realized when someone complained loudly behind Macy (and shortly got an elbow to the abdomen that left him gasping) that he had been holding up the lunch line for a full three minutes and hastily selected a plate of green glop, brown glop, and orange glop to set on his tray. Although his stomach rebelled at the thought of eating it, he hurried along, grabbing a package of cookies that looked mostly fresh and an apple that was only bruised on the one side. He picked up a juice box that promised a cranberry flavor but would probably end up tasting like that really sour medicine his mother gave him when he had a sinus infection and remembered that Macy was waiting for him to answer a question.

"I'm fine," he replied hastily, getting out his wallet to pay for his lunch. Or, he tried. But no matter how many times he ran his finger through his right back pocket, his wallet was not there. He realized with a jerk and a pained look that it was sitting next to his brown bag at home. Wonderful. He looked imploringly at the woman manning the register. "Do you think I could pay you tomorrow? I left my wallet at home."

She gave him a disdainful sniff and was clearly about to give him what-for… except a small, tanned hand passed her the necessary cash to pay for his lunch. Kevin stared down at the girl, quite shocked at this act of kindness. Before he could even thank her, however, she gave him a smile and dashed off without a word.

Hum.

Well, his lunch certainly went better than he had expected it to and he was able to joke heartily about the three different kinds of glop that oozed around his plate. (What's that? What's in the glop? I don't think the cafeteria workers know. And what did I say about silly questions?!)

-

While his day did not get any worse than it had, it was still pretty terrible. So terrible, in fact, that Kevin almost ripped his locker door off its hinges. Because, as anyone who knows Kevin Lucas can tell you, he rarely gets angry. Yet, when he does, several hearts will tremble with fear. He had had ENOUGH of this horrible, awful, frightful day. And so he yanked his locker door open.

And all the scraps of paper fluttered to the floor.

"What the…?" he mumbled, bending down to pick one up. It was about as long as his palm and folded in half. When he opened it, a familiar loopy script met his eyes.

Just so y'know… I think you have the most fantastic eyes.

A blush crossed his cheeks when he saw that the i's were dotted with little softballs. He looked down at the pile at his feet and picked up another.

Just so y'know… my favorite JONAS song is 'Scandinavia.'

It was the same handwriting, with softballs dotting the i's. Were they all like that? He started picking them up at random, finding that each one had something different written inside.

Just so y'know… I was insanely jealous of Maria when I found out you made her Crunchy Cats.

Just so y'know… I love penguins. They're my favorite animal of all-time and I wish I had one to play me a lullaby on the piano every night.

Just so y'know… I think your sideburns are the coolest thing since sliced bread.

And then, at the bottom of the seemingly endless pile, there was a little pink slip of paper. Heart pounding, he opened it and read the message. A goofy grin took over his face.

After a moment of searching his bag, he came up with a rubber band that he used to carfully bind all of the notes together—there must have been dozens. The last slip of paper he put in his breast pocket, still smiling warmly. As he walked out of school, he pressed a hand over his heart.

Just so y'know… you've always been, and always will be, my favorite.

-

a/n2: Hee. I just wanted to convey the warm feeling that I got when I got all of those wonderful reviews. Thanks SO much, Ashley! You rock!

a/n3: I apologize for any sloppiness. This was written over a course of three hours just because. I'm still not sure it's my best work, but I wanted to post something nice and cute. :)

Love!
Beth