First

The first time they met. Their first date. Their first kiss. Dedicated to the beginning. Duncan/Courtney. A b-day present for my dear friend. Happy Birthday, TellMeSomethinIDontKnow! :D

A/N: OK, so this a two-shot in three parts (huh? You'll get it later) dedicated to my good friend, TellMeSomethinIDontKnow! If you wanna read her stories, or shoot her up a message on her birthday, she's in my favorite authors list. Also: Today is not her b-day, but I wanted to get it finished by her b-day, and since it's a two shot… yeah, you get it. Her birthday is September 13th! :D YAY!

Also, TellMeSomethin'IDontKnow… I know you haven't been on recently. If you don't get to read this on your b-day, I'm sorry! I just want you to know that it's cool. :D

So on with the story:

F I R S T

~P a r t O n e: The First Time I Met You~

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. –Unknown

Courtney was a bittersweet kinda thing. Duncan took notice to that first. He saw her, watched how she worked for a moment, and when the words came to his mind… well nothing really did. Except for the feeling that she was like a sweet and sour thing, a good yet evil, a bittersweet type.

Now I know it sounds weird to call a girl bittersweet. Usually, when guys see a girl that interest them, they say words like 'hot' and 'baby' and 'nice tits'. But that wasn't Courtney. No, no, I don't mean that she wasn't all these things- she was hot, he could see himself calling her baby, and she did have some pretty nice tits. But when you say that TO Courtney… it just didn't seem to fit. You might feel like you needed a better or smarter word to say.

Bittersweet was as smart as Duncan was willing to go. He wasn't one to be very generous on his vocabulary- "I don't read the dictionary. I read tag signs." English was most definitely NOT his favorite class. In his mind, bittersweet was all that explained her. So that was all he thought about her.

Bitter. Yeah, she was bitter alright. Duncan had not yet talked to her, but due to the way she acted in school and the small snippets he had caught between her and other people… yes, she was kind of bitter. She was like coffee in the early morning. Black coffee. AKA: Very, very, bitter.

She was sweet, however. Maybe it was just him, but there was something about her that pulled you in, like a whirlpool, a simply tug that could suck you in instantly. He was amazed at how she played people into thinking she wasn't bitter, how she manipulated other students and teachers into thinking she was a total nice girl at heart. But all lies are based on a bit of truth, so Duncan understood that the only way Courtney could fake being kind was that she sometimes truly was.

So there you go. Bitter. Sweet. Conjunct together to make her definition.

Or so he let himself believe. Someone like him wouldn't dare go near someone like her- it was not as though they hated one another (though there was no doubt in his mind that their personalities would clash), they just never saw it important to speak to each other. Duncan had hooted the first time he saw her, and he was sure that was the most contact they had ever made. Her eyes had slid to his, and he saw something playfully mean in her eyes, as if she was resisting the urge to stick out her tongue.

She was beautiful, Duncan had to admit it. She had a very nice figure, a nice ass, and her face. Oh, her face. Some people might say that boob's and such were all that mattered, but a face is just as important, or so it was to Duncan. It was the most important part.

Well, her face was absolutely graceful. He couldn't lie. Her soft pink lips were always in a part that made them look like an open purse, no glittery lip gloss so he was sure they would feel great against his own. Her nose, a tiny little nose splashed with dark freckles, one that he could see himself brushing his fingers across lightly, and her eyes. Her eyes were very pretty. They were so brown they almost looked black, and it was the one thing that made you want to look away. They were hard, hard eyes. They were full of a story, and some people couldn't handle that.

Duncan liked it, because he had no doubt that he could handle that. He was sure that he could break her if he wanted to and it wouldn't even take more than a snap of his fingers. So hard, was she, so strong? He didn't think so. She was just a girl, just another person.

He had never had a reason to talk to her. He was sure that he never would. But Duncan, honestly, doesn't understand the way the world works.

Hell, most of us don't, but those of us have had one of those 'oh-crap-we-had-sex-i-thought-you-used-a-condom-i-don't-really-like-you-i-don't-want-your-baby' pregnancy scares, who have been ditched at the mall by your so-called-best-friends who told you those Prada shoes looked so good and then you figured out they were actually from three seasons ago, for those of us who have been screwed in life, you know what I'm talking about when I say that most of the time 'sure' doesn't mean shit.

A picture is the expression of an impression. If the beautiful were not in us, how would we ever recognize it?
-Ernst Haas

As student body president and school yearbook organizer, Courtney knew everything that went on at her school. She knew everybody. She knew it all. She knew who the new kids would be, who was leaving, who got kicked out. And she knew their records.

Yes. Courtney took a peek at school records from time to time. But why not? She was the principles daughter, and, well, no one really suspected her. She was a good girl, she was a sweet, nice, i-love-everyone-I-meet kinda girl. Yeah. Right.

Courtney knew her true self. She HATED most of the people she talked to. Damn, she hated most of the people in the school. And why wouldn't she? They were all ignorant, stupid. For some reason, they all thought she was an angel. But of course they did! Why, she was the best girl around, always willing to help out a friend, to give a tour to new kids around school, to volunteer to be an after school therapist who, after each session, said, "You'd probably be much better if you read my book, Total Triumph for Teens!" She would thrust the book at the kid, and leave them thinking, Wow, she's really kind.

And Courtney would pat herself on the back at another fool well-played. It was great. Even the punk kids looked at her as though they hated her for being so sweet. Oh, if they only knew! She'd had the whole town wrapped around her finger for so long, she felt as though everyone else automatically would. There were the few people who thought they could see through her, but Courtney was good. Really good. They usually backed down easily. Except for that guy.

Ever since freshman year, that guy had been getting on her nerves. She was sure she had never spoken a word to him; sure they had never, not once said a syllable to one another. Wait-wait. She remembered once, he hooted at her. The first time she noticed him, and it was oh-so typical. He had winked at her from across the campus. Bridgette had giggled- "He's hollering at you! Get your move on girl!"- YEAH sure. No way was she gonna 'make her move' on that stupid excuse for a human being.

Obviously, he had been one of those people who thought he saw through her, and who thought he could break her. She could see it in his eyes, each and every time he looked at her, a dark threat in his eyes. It scared Courtney because it just couldn't be true. His look said, you're no better than me.

What? What? How could he even imply that? But wait, he hadn't been talking. Maybe Courtney was just paranoid, maybe she'd just been working too hard. But it hadn't stopped. His eyes held the same thought each time they happened to find each other's eyes- You aren't that good. You aren't worth any more than I am.

She was worth more though, everyone knew it! She was worth more than some green Mohawk, than someone who had been to juvie twice (she had seen his record- not pretty, not pretty at all), than someone who never tried at anything.

But that was just it. Courtney tried so hard, to make people like her for something she wasn't, to make people want her for something she wasn't, she tried so. Damn. Hard. And he wasn't trying at all, and he still had the nerve to say that he was just as good as her.

And what scared her was that somewhere, deep inside her, she believed it.

~P a r t T w o: The First Date We Had~

And I Promise You Kid That I'll Give So Much More Than I Get
I Just Haven't Met You Yet

-Michael Buble 'I Just Haven't Met You Yet'

Duncan pulled at his collar. He asked his Dad a question: could he borrow the good deodorant? Even when his Dad said no, he still used it. Because today, OH today, it was the big day.

He was finally gonna go on a date with her.

Finally.

For the first time Duncan felt the pressure of not knowing what to wear and not understanding what was going on inside his stomach- he felt like he would throw up and yet he was smiling like Christmas was coming. He had always had good control on himself, but now he didn't know what was happening. It was weird, it was scary, it was… bizarre.

He shook it off and smoothed back his Mohawk. He was hot. He was Duncan. He was…

So nervous he thought he might throw up.

He stared at himself in the mirror and started to notice the little things that he hated: The way that his hairline was a little too close to his eyebrows, the way that his ears were too small for his head, the way that he had a few pimples in the crease of his nose, the way-

"Duncan?" Said a voice outside the bathroom door. "You OK in there?"

He told himself he looked fine, told him that it didn't matter if his ears were small, no one cared. He was going out with her. "Yeah, ma," He said, smiling at himself. "I'm fine."

He then heard the doorbell ring and ran out to the hall. He looked around and decided that it was now or never. Just as he heard his Dad yell, "Duncan, where's my deodorant?" He strolled out of the house and bumped into her.

"God, I mean, you're supposed to take me on a date, not kill me!"

He smiled lustfully at her, and she frowned deeply at him. "Nice to see you too, Heather."

True love never dies for it is lust that fades away.

-Alicia Barnhart

A/N: I bet you didn't see that coming! Aha! You'll just have to wait for the next chapter, which comes out tomorrow, to see how Duncan gets with Courtney, which will be the rest of part two and the complete end of part three, so it's all good! :D I really enjoyed writing this.

For readers: Thank you so much for reading! It makes me happy. C: You all rule! Thank you for supporting this story!

For reviewers: Thank you so much for reading and reviewing! I myself try to review as much as I can and every single time I get a review, I swear to you my heart skips a beat. It means a lot for someone to read your writing, but it's a whole other thing to have someone to talk to about it.

For people who favorite this/ favorite author me: Thank you so much for reading and favoriting! You rock! It means a lot to pretty much have someone say "Hey, this story/author rocks!" I'm fond of favorites. If you favorite me… well, just know I'm blushing. :D

For TellMeSomethinIDontKnow: You rock! Your DxC stories make me laugh, cry, and make me want to rip the computer out so I can hug you! Talking to you is a pleasure; you know how to make someone feel better while also making them laugh. I'm so glad I've got to chat with you- you're just great. You are not only one of my favorite authors, but a very favorite online friend. (I sound like such a boon)

You really know how to relate to people which is why people love your stories so much. Nothing about you seems fake or unreal, and you just seem like you could be every bodies friend. You can really write- you're a great author and I enjoy each and every one of your stories. They amaze me and I really do wish that I could write with that much strength.

You always know how to make me smile and that means a lot coming from a computer screen. I feel like if I knew you outside of cyber world we would be best friends and I am just so glad that I got to talk to you. I got to experience talking to such a great writer, great friend, and over-all an awesome person, and that person is you.

You'll never understand how popular you actually are and the fact that you are so humble about it ceases to amaze me! You are just GREAT! Really and truly. You need to understand that so many people LOVE LOVE LOVE your stories!

One last thing:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOU CRAZY AWESOME GIRL, YOU! :D

P.S.- Skoogies!