Morning Valentines: Evan tag Brittany

[Evan Hughes]

Pulling up into the school parking lot, Evan was too distracted and gleefully excited to indulge in his usual morning ritual, well, usual for the past week, which was precisely how long he had his new car. Or, to be technically correct, his old car. It was a dark blue 2000 Nissan Maxima, and admittedly, just a little bit of a bomb, but it was all his. Each morning now he stopped to admire it before he went into the school. A lot of hard work went into saving for his baby, and it was worth every penny. Even if it meant he had to skimp on DVDs for a while now. Mr Blue, as he had dubbed his pride and joy, (or MD for short) made things a lot easier. After all, was kind of hard picking Brittany up on dates, or swinging by Patch’s to talk him into doing stupid stuff, on his bike.

Grabbing all his stuff from the back seat, he slammed the car door behind him before quickly locking it and racing into the school. He had gotten there just a little bit earlier, wanted to surprise Brit for V-Day. They had only been dating for a month or so, but he figured he was still meant to do something, and it was only small anyway. Besides, it was fun, any opportunity to be cheesy was one Evan took.

He was even dressed nicely today. Well, a little nicely. Well, he was wearing old jeans, an old The Ramones shirt and an even older pair of sneakers. But he had tucked a pretty little pink flower behind his ear, that had to count for something. Reaching his girlfriend’s locker, having bypassed his own, Evan opened it up (locker security really wasn’t an issue at Gould, it seemed) and shoved in one of those slightly comical looking heart shaped boxes stuffed with chocolates. On top of that he added a heart shaped card, signed Your Secret Admirer (with his name in brackets besides it).

Closing the door, he added the finishing touch, one long stemmed red rose, which he held between his teeth. Leaning against the lockers as he waited for Brittany turn up, he barely noticed the odd glances he got from nearly every passerby. He was used to them.

[Brittany Barnes]

Brittany skated to school as usual. Technically she could get rides from her step-sister, but she hated her far too much to have any desire to actually ask for the said ride. She liked going on her skateboard anyway. She didn't always have time to skate just for fun with the band and hanging out with Evan and all the other important stuff she had to do, so using it for transportation was always nice.

Plus...today she had to make some stops on her way...stops that Alyson would have never agreed to make with her. It was Valentine's Day and the first time she'd ever had a boyfriend for it. She wasn't completely sure what she was supposed to do so she'd gotten a card and picked up some flowers and a big cheesy balloon just in case. Sure, flowers were usually for the girl, but that's why Brittany chose them...she thought it would be different...and the balloon, well that had just been an impulse buy cause she thought it was funny.

Once in school, Brittany skated down the hall way. It pissed people off and she'd gotten in trouble for it before, but it was fun so she did it anyway. She decided to bypass her locker and head to Evan's first, but as she skated by her locker on her way to Evan's, she saw him standing there. She smiled and waved as she went by, stopping a moment later and backtracking to her locker, where he stood.

"Hey," she said with a big grin, carrying flowers in one hang and with her balloon tied to her wrist. "What'cha doing? I was heading to your locker," she explained, leaning in to give him a quick kiss. The whole public displays of the affection thing was something Brit was still getting used to but she was starting to warm to it.

[Evan Hughes]

Seeing his girlfriend skate past, Evan held back a laugh, returning her wave as he waited for her to come back around. It was funny, watching people get out of her way, especially when they were over-exaggerating and nowhere near her in the first place, with the glares they threw her afterwards even more hilarious. When she came back, he kissed her back as best he could, having no qualms with PDA’s himself. The flowers and balloon was interesting though, his first thought being that someone had gotten them for her, and even he couldn’t help but feel a little jealous, wondering who was after his girl.

“Wath watin fo...” Evan tried to speak with the rose still clenched between his teeth, but failing, pulled it out of his mouth, grinning broadly at Brittany. “Was waiting for this cute girl, but...” he said, glancing down both ends of the hallway before turning back to look at her, “She’s nowhere in sight, so, guess you could keep me company for now.” he teased gently. He still really liked how he didn’t have to watch every single little thing he said to her, that he could just joke around, and she would play along.

He held out the rose, giving her a very low bow as he did, only straightening once she took it from his hand. “For you, m’lady.” he offered, pressing another, though this time not so quick kiss to her lips as he stood again. “Happy V-Day beautiful.” He pulled away from her locker, letting Brit get to it. He was just itching to ask about what she carried, but held off, not wanting to sound like a weird jealous creep, especially when they hadn’t been dating long.

[Brittany Barnes]

Brittany giggled as she watched Evan try to talk with the rose in his mouth. "Oh really," she said when he finally made his excuse, not missing a beat, "cause I was looking for this cute guy but when I couldn't find him, I figured I'd settled for you," she countered, playfully sticking out her tongue at him.

After he kissed her, Brittany smiled, taking the rose, "Why thank you," she said, "and these are for you," she told him, handing over the flowers. "And this," she said, moving her wrist around so the balloon bounced around in the air, "but I think I need help getting it off my wrist," she giggled, holding it out to him. She'd had the guy at the store tie in on there like they did with little kids because Brit didn't trust herself to skateboard and not lose it.

She then moved to open up her locker, smiling when she saw there was more. Turning to him, she gave him a hug. "Thanks! You totally didn't have to...but thanks...is that chocolate?" she asked, raising her eyebrows, her eyes were wide and childlike with excitement. Usually she only got Valentine's Day chocolates from her mom. "Please say they're the kind with peanut butter inside!" she said, although of course there were few candies that Brit would turn down, anything with peanut butter was always her favorite.

[Evan Hughes]

“Oh, I consider myself real lucky and blessed then. I can only hope that this other guy doesn’t show up and steal your company.” Evan grinned, shooting her a wink, as he playfully looked around, as though on the lookout for the ‘cute guy.’

A little caught off guard when Brittany pressed the flowers into his hand, he quickly recovered, eyeing them in interest. That was different, the guy getting flowers, but he liked it all the same. And the balloon was just the perfect touch for him. “Sure thing. I am the helpful sort.” he grinned, gently taking her wrist and trying to untie the string attached. He quickly realised, he had no chance. “Damn, this is tied on good.” He laughed, unsuccessfully trying to tug it off. Eventually, he pulled her wrist to his moth, and settled for ripping it off with this teeth. “Now, will you look at that.” he smiled, studying the balloon and flowers. “Thanks babe.”

“Course it’s chocolate. And of course there’s peanut butter. It’s all peanut butter.” he laughed. He had noticed her slight...obsession with peanut butter choccie, so when he check the box earlier, and noticed most of it was the stuff people usually avoided, like the hard caramels and all that, he threw out the chocolate, kept the box and stuffed it full of stuff she would like, not to mention stuff his own face in the process. And any little holes left in the mountain of stuff he managed to get into the box, he filled with Reese’s Peanut Butter Pieces.

“So, with those bribes in place, you got any plans for tonight?” he asked, holding the flowers in one hand and the balloon in his other as he leant against the locker next to hers. “Cause Mum is working late tonight, figured you could come over, we’ll watch some real corny movies or something. You can even pick a chick flick if you like.” he teased. “And I can cook us up some dinner.”

[Brittany Barnes]

Brittany giggled when he pretended to search for the cute guy and laughed even harder when he untied the balloon string with his teeth. Wiping the spit on her wrist off with the bottom of her T-shirt, she smiled. "Glad you like them," she said. "I figured you probably never got flowers before, being a guy and all so I thought why not," she told him with a shrug of her shoulders. "The balloon...well that was more of just an impulse thing at the flower shop...but come on...that thing is just cool," she said looking up at the giant red heart shaped balloon with the words 'Happy Valentine's Day' scrolled across it in pink.

"All Peanut Butter?" she said, her eyes were wide. "You're my hero!" she said enthusiastically as she reached into her locker and opened up the box. Her eyes lit up as she looked over the contents of the box. "Whoa...you really went on out," she grinned, holding out the box to him, "come on take one...you know you want a morning sugar rush," she laughed as she grabbed a candy and tossed it into her mouth. "Yum"

Brittany smiled when he invited her over for that evening. It would certainly be nice...especially if his mom wasn't around. Brittany didn't mind his mom or anything, but it was always nice when parents weren't around cause you never knew when they'd barge in to 'check up' on you or something like that. Brittany was still a virgin so it wasn't like she had to worry about parents walking in on anything too bad but still, it was more just the point of it.

"Yeah sure," she said. "Maybe we could have like a marathon of all the worst movies we can think of," she suggested. After all, really bad movies could be funny to watch sometimes. "And dinner...you really are going all fancy on me, aren't ya?" she teased. "I'd offer to cook for you but the only thing I know how to make is grilled cheese and maybe scrambled eggs," she laughed, excited about the date already.

[Evan Hughes]

The balloon was pretty cool, Evan had to agree completely with Brittany about that. “I am so going to carry this around with me all day now.” he told her. “The flowers too. Gonna make all the other guys jealous of me.” His eyes on the inflatable heart above them both, he tugged slightly on its string, making it move. “Wait till Patch sees this, he’s going to be real...jealous too.” Laughing, his girlfriend knew by now his best friend’s take on relationships, and Evan could pretty much guess his thoughts on Valentine’s Day. “Going to track him down later, see if he wants to play another trick on Nicky.” Evan didn’t mind his friend’s twin brother so much, though he seemed a bit nerdy, but it was fun to go along with Patch and play tricks on his sibling. “I’ll show off my goodies to him then.”

Since it was offered, Evan grabbed a couple of the chocolate coated goodies, stuffing it into his mouth. He had to give it to her, Brit knew her chocolate. He was being addicted to anything peanut butter related himself. And he still had a whole heaped stashed in his room. Would come in handy if they felt like dessert during the movies that night. “Mmm, dat’s good.” he commented, grinning wildly with a mouthful of chocolate.

“Worst movies? Sounds good to me. You’ll have to bring some over from your own collection though, I only own the very best in movie entertainment.” he teased, nudging her gently. “Oh, we’ve gotta watch the Lion King too! Come on, you know you want to! You love that movie as much as I do. Admit it already.”

Laughing at her comment at going all fancy, Evan had half a mind to do just that, put on a way over the top dinner. It sounded right up his alley, and would be pretty funny. “Hey, no knocking grilled cheese! That stuff is just awesome.” Grinning, he owned up to something she didn’t know yet, though, she would find out that night. “I’m not too bad in the ‘ol kitchen. I’ve cooked a lot, when Mum’s working night shift and stuff. I’ll impress you with my culinary skills.”

Adjusting the balloon string and flowers to hold in the one hand, he waited until Brittany finished with her locker, before slipping an arm around her waist, starting to walk idly down the school corridor. “So, how bout I swing past your house tonight and pick you up? It’ll give me time to prepare our feast, and you time to swipe some bad movies from your step-sissy.”

[Brittany Barnes]

"Oh yeah--they totally will be," Brittany teased, "especially Patch, since he's such a ladies man," she laughed. Brittany actually kind of understood Patch's aversion to relationships--or at least she thought she did. She figured he was probably just like she used to be...shut off to relationships because people didn't see her that way. Since she never really had thought anyone would like her that way, she'd been the single girl for years, appearing to be uninterested in being more than friends with boys. The notion that Patch was actually genuinely uninterested in girls, didn't really cross her mind because she thought that everyone was interested in someone whether they acted on it or not.

She laughed when he mentioned pulling something over on Patch's brother. "Sounds like fun, I'm in," she teased, although she figured if they did pull a prank on him it would probably just be the boys. Brittany didn't really mind when Evan went and hung out with just Patch because she liked to just hang out with the band sometimes too, although now that she was with Evan she did hang out with them outside of practices less than she used to. Plus, she did know how Patch felt about relationships and so far they were cool with one another, but she didn't want to end up being a rift in their friendship or anything, so letting them do their own thing from time to time was something she didn't mind.

She laughed when he started talking about movies. "Yeah I do love the Lion Kind but that doesn't exactly fit into the worst movies ever marathon--I was thinking more along the lines of those really badly dubbed kung foo movies or something," she said with a laugh.

"I'm not knocking it--just saying that that is the height of my culinary expertise," she grinned. "Cooked a lot...really?" she said, smiling. She supposed it made sense because she did know that his mom tended to work late, but she had never really thought about it before. "Yeah, well, since my mom's a teacher she was always home in time to make dinner," Brit said. "So, like I said, grilled cheese and scrambled eggs---oh and peanut butter toast sandwiches, but I suppose that's assumed," she said.

Letting him lead her down the hall, she smiled as they walked arm and arm. "Sounds like a plan," she said. "Oh--my step-sister's movies, so you want like romantic comedy bad...you know I haven't seen like half of them, but I'm sure she's got some real terrible ones and with any luck she'll have a date tonight so won't be around---I know, crazy that people would actually want to date Cruelle Deville, but I guess she's really good a brainwashing or something cause she gets asked out all the time. She won't brainwash me though because I've got Jimmy to protect me," she said, referring to her rather larger dog whom her step-sister hated almost as much as she hated Britney.

[Evan Hughes]

“Oh he is, he’s gotta keep them away with a stick. It’s sad, how the girls love him. I’m just glad I got to you first.” he teased. “If Patch saw you first, I never would have stood a chance. He’s slick, that’s for sure.” He had given up trying to talk Patch into going on a date with a girl, just to see if he could change his mind about it. But Patch had no interest in girls, none whatsoever, no matter what Evan said, and he had gotten used to it now. And, it just meant that the time spent with him was focussed completely on doing stupid things and going off on tangents. Which was completely fine in his books.

Peanut butter toast sandwiches, now, that was something Evan hadn’t eaten in a little while. “Of course it’s assumed. So, you really didn’t need to mention it. That you did is kind of...lame.” Laughing loudly, he pulled her just a little closer to him. “But since you’re cute and all, I’ll let it slide, just this once.”

Feigning a look of complete and utter disbelief, he stared at Brittany, his mouth open slightly. “Wait, there’s guys, and more than one, who not only would go out with her, but want to? Seriously? They that desperate?” He had only met her step-sister a couple of times, but she hadn’t taken a liking to him. He figured that was because of who he was dating, and it didn’t bother him in the slightest.

“Yeah, Jimmy!” Evan loved that dog, his substitute dog he dubbed him, he was just awesome. And Jimmy Hendrix Barnes was just a mad name for a dog. But, bringing up pets made him remember something he’d been meaning to tell her. “Oh yeah Brit, almost forgot! Been banging on to Mum about it, and she has finally caved it. We’re getting snakes! You have to come shopping with me, get your own. Besides, even though it’s for snakes, it’s still shopping so....” he shuddered teasingly at this train of thought.

[Brittany Barnes]

Brittany laughed. Yeah, she didn't get Patch either, but then again she supposed that she usually didn't voluntarily hang out with other girls because Brit thought most of them were lame, so she supposed it made sense that boys wouldn't want to hang out with lame girls either. "And I think Patch did see me first," she laughed. "I tripped over him....remember," she pointed out. Okay, well maybe she'd had classes with Evan first but she'd never really spoken to him until the day that she'd tripped over Patch on the bleachers the day of the football game.

"Oh thanks for letting that one slide," she joked, rolling her eyes at him. "Just don't think the jelly is assumed too because that's just gross." Okay, maybe it was weird that Brit had an aversion to jelly but it wasn't just that...she didn't like jello either or anything that seemed to have they jellyish texture. Plus, peanut butter was so good on its own it didn't need grape or strawberry stuff ruining its flavor.

"Yeah, I know, hard to believe, right," she said. Brittany honestly didn't understand why anyone would want to spend any time with Alyson. The girl was a bitch, plain and simple. And she was friends with Sarah Brody who was Brit's sworn enemy. If Alyson transferring to Gould had turned her into an outcast of something, Brittany might have liked her more but it seemed that she'd jumped right into the Gould elite as if she'd always been there so, Brittany couldn't see any reason to like the evil bitch monster.

"Yep, Jimmy," Brit said, smiling at the thought of her dog. A much better thought that the evil step-sister. "Snakes!" Brit jumped up and down and then on to Evan in a hug. "That's so totally wicked!" she exclaimed. "Of course I'm going with you! But pet shopping totally doesn't count as real shopping because I don't really do real shopping unless I have to," she explained. "When do you wanna go to the pet store?" she asked.